Fun packages in the mail

I have been meaning to tell you about the fun little package I got in the mail last week from Lynne. I seems I won her random drawing on her blog. And this is what I got. 

 I have no clue what I will make with it, any suggestions.

Weekend Adventures

This past weekend there was food, fun, friends and knitting, lots of knitting. On Saturday, I had everyone over for my monthly club. This club use to be a stamping and scrapbooking club, but it got converted to knitting club as my friends converted from stamping to knitting along with me. We do still have stampers and scrapbookers who show up on occasion so I set up a table for them to work, but now we also have nice comfy seating in the basement it makes knitting even better. I finally took finished pictures of the basement so look for them later this week.

We had a small group on Saturday, but we still had a blast and we eat pretty well too. Here is what our lunch spread looked like.

Everything was quite yummy, and it gave us enough nourishment to knit all day. With all that knitting I finished another repeat on the Sweet Pea - Test KNIT (picture come soon), and a pair of fetchings to match the Cabled Soho Scarf, which still isn’t blocked. Ugh, I need a blocking board.

I was feeling really productive, so after club was over, I was rather motivated to post some of my stash on Ravelry, so I posted 8 full bins, and then I posted 4 more on Sunday. I still have a few more to go, but if I can dedicate sometime this week I should be able to get the rest of my stash posted by the end of the weekend. Although I do have a full, very large, bin of just sock yarn, so that will take a little more time then some of the other bins, and I haven’t decided if I will post all the leftovers. I would really like to know exactly how much yarn I really have, including all the leftover balls, because I do plan to use them someday. From what I have already posted on Ravelry there is way more yarn than I could have imagined and I am only half way through posting it. At this point I have over 33,000 yards. Yes, you read correctly 33,000 yards. I would have to knit like a maniac to use up this stash. As soon as I get everything logged into Ravelry I think I will create some sort of challenge for myself to motivate me to work through this stash and not buy any more yarn until it is gone. Will that be possible, for me I am really not sure, but I will certainly try.

Oh how I love hand knit socks

Oh how I love thee. Yes, I love hand knit socks, but I don’t seem to wear them as often as I would like. Primarily for the fact that I wear every pair I own, which currently amounts to seven pairs, in about a week’s time and then they sit on my dresser for what seems like weeks before I finally take the time to wash them. I know I am a major procrastinator when it comes to washing my hand knits, and my socks are no exception. I just always seems like I never have enough time to give them the proper washing so I let them sit until I have the time. Okay that is not total true, I also forget they are sitting there until I go to bed each night and in the morning I tell myself I will wash them when I get home from work, but then I forget again and it isn’t until bedtime when I remember once again.

I know non-knitters and even knitters who haven’t knit socks ask the question “why knit socks”. Well, I have to admit I was once in that group. When I first started knitting, the process of knitting socks seemed so overwhelming and I didn’t even want to attempt it in fear that I would totally botch the job. But with a little direction from a LYS and a fabulous book, Sensational Socks, I found my way to loving sock knitting, even on size zero needles.

The first pair of socks I knit, which were on size ones, went a lot quicker than I ever imagined; and I was ready to start a second pair as soon as the first pair was complete. Since then I have had at least one pair of socks on the needles at all times, because socks make for great travel projects.

I like to keep a simple pair of socks on the needles; one that doesn’t take a lot of brain power, so I can easily pick it up and knit a row or two without having to pay a lot of attention to a written pattern. This type of project is great for when you have to take your car in for service and wait for it, or when you are headed to the doctor’s office without a clue how long it will take for the doctor to see you. Doctors seem to have their own time continuum, and it never seems to coincide with the rest of the world. I use to take a book everywhere I went; now I take a pair of socks.

Anyway, a few of my knitting friends were comparing notes the other day about how much sock yarn we have, and I don’t think any of us was really willing to confess to exactly how much yarn was in our stash. In fact, I am going to bet that no one really knew exactly how much sock yarn they had. One lady mentioned that sock yarn does not count as stash, so you can have as much as you like and not feel guilty. As much as I wish this were true, I am finding it hard to convince myself that this is a true fact. The reason being, I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 pairs of unknit skeins of sock yarn. At least that was how much I had the last time I took it all out of the bin it is safely stored in to count it, and that was something like 8 months ago. Something tells me that a few more skeins of yarn have found their way into that bin since then. Sock yarn is so easy to buy because you only need 50 grams per sock or a total of 100 grams for a pair. That is 1 to 2 skeins depending on how large the skeins are. I actually think that sock yarn is trained to jump off the shelf and into your basket as you walk by and you don’t even realize it is there until you get to the register. At that point, you may feel embarrassed to say you didn’t really want that yarn and you buy it in lieu of asking the cashier to take it off your bill. Walla, more sock yarn.

Luckily sock yarn doesn’t take up that much space so my husband doesn’t seem to notice when it is multiplying. I just need to start knitting more quickly so I can have more pairs of hand knit socks to wear. Socks, socks, and more socks, I don’t think I will ever have enough.

To date, my favorite sock yarn is Sweet Feet by Hill Country Yarns. I used this yarn to enter a sock contest they were having and after wearing the socks just once, I fell in love with how they feel on my feet. The yarn is a super soft merino wool that seems to sort of felt together on the bottom of your foot as you wear them, making them smoother and smoother on your feet. I can’t wait to make more socks with this yarn. Right now Discount Yarn Sale is having a sale on all their in stock Hill Country Yarn. Go check it out, because for under eight dollars you can have a pair of socks, not including shipping of course.

My Stash

I have been on Ravelry since last June, and I have added all my projects and have been keeping track of all the new projects I have started, but I have yet to log any of my stash yarn. Every time I think of doing it, it just seems too overwhelming. I think to myself that I really should log it all so instead of having to open some 25 plastic bins to look at all the yarn I have, I can just login to Ravelry to see everything in one place. What a concept.

So my plan is, over the next few weeks (and it will probably take me that long to get through it all) I will log in my stash yarn and assigning it to projects if one has already been determined. Maybe all the documentation will keep me from buying any more yarn, at least until I use up some of what I already have. YEAH RIGHT!

I started today with some yarn that I purchased because the price was so unbelievable and too good to pass up. I marked most of it as trade or sell only because if someone really needs it for a project and I have yet to determine what I will make with it I would be willing to let it go to a good home.

Another project I hope to have fully updated is my list of knitting books on Ravelry, which brings me to another feature that I found recently, “You’ve used” and “Need for your Queue”, another great concept. So if my husband ever complains about all the knitting books I can show him that I am really using them and not just stockpiling unused books.

Happy Belated Birthday to ME

I know I don’t need any more yarn, and need wool even less, but I just had to get this yarn with the money I got for my birthday. Hey, it was on sale at a price that couldn’t be passed up, and as I was looking at the website it started talking to me and so many ideas popped into my head.

It is Cascade 220. This picture doesn’t really do the colors justice, but I plan to design a sweater with the purple/lavender and add some strips with the two greens and the white.  I will be starting a sweater designing class on June 9th so hopefully I will learn enough to be able to create this sweater. I can’t wait.

I also purchased some Tofutsies yarn in a coordinating color combination to make some socks to match the sweater. Again the picture doesn’t do it justice.

Happy Tuesday everyone.