Knitting Karma

This past weekend my parents had a massive garage sale and thankfully they let us put a ton of stuff in with theirs. I took this opportunity to sort through my stash and found two boxes of yarn that I would never use.

They were my husband's grandmother's stash and kept very nicely over the years. It was chunky acrylic yarn in colors that didn't fit my taste. Back in the 1970s this must have been her best stash. There were balls from Sweden - very cool but still too rough for my taste and I love acrylics. After 3 years of keeping it in this house I decided to part with it - which was hard but it felt good too.

My father set out the yarn for me and told me how it sold:

An elderly lady and a couple of her friends got out of the car early Friday morning and started looking around at the offerings. She came to the first box of yarn, "Excuse me, how much for this box of yarn?"

My father replied, "One dollar for the box."

"One dollar?" she asked.

"Yes, a dollar for the box."

"The entire box?" she asked again.

My father assured her that it was marked to sell at exactly that price. She quickly snatched up the box and dug through her purse for the dollar. Then she spotted the second box . . .

"Sir? How much for this box?"

He said one dollar again and she was just tickled pink with her find. She quickly paid him, beamed to her friends and just gushed about what a great deal it was. My Dad explained that his daughter was a knitter and that I was just clearing out my yarn. It was perfectly good yarn but just didn't fit with what I liked to make, I didn't have room for it anymore, etc. My Dad had a conversation on yarn with her. Love it!

When Dad told me this story it made my day and I completely felt the great karma from not just tossing the yarn into the trash. I hope she enjoys the yarn just as much as I enjoyed passing it along!

Weekend Knitting

This weekend I finished my first ball of yarn for the Cabled Baby Blanket that I'm making for friends that are expecting their first baby. I'm amazed at how quickly it's going but then again I'm comparing it to Dad's vest that has double the number of stitches in one row.


The color is a rich almond and should fit in nicely with their home decor. The pattern is one that they picked out from my Debbie Bliss Simply Baby book. At this rate I should finish it well before the baby shower. It's perfect knitting for when family is visiting or when we have a short road trip.

Stash Organization

The other night I had a dream about my acrylic yarn that I use for charity and I was trying to get Clara Parks to write reviews of the yarn available in big box stores, their pros can cons and the best uses for each.

Yes, I need to do something about the growing size of my acrylic yarn stash.

I ended up pulling all of my stored yarn out of bags and either putting it in my yarn cabinet or my drawers. I had yarn from my husbands grandmother that will be perfect for the HAP rectangles and I had yarn purchased a while back for a couple Project Linus blankets. I also had knitting bags all over my closet and office with no real organization.

I ended up cleaning out my entire office and it felt really good. I rearranged my furniture and completely cleaned out the closet with an emphasis on accessing the things I need easily. I've got a laundry basket of clothes to garage sale now and a good sense of the yarn I own. Needless to say I don't plan on making any purchases anytime soon :)



The first shelf is my nicest yarn including lace weights and festival purchases, second shelf is sock yarn and Project Linus blanket yarn, third shelf is charity yarn for Oddball blankets and the bottom shelf is my GAAA yarn and the yarn I have in my Ravelry trade/sell category for easy access.



My stash drawers include finished objects, tools and notions. I also have leftover balls of yarn for charity knitting, dishcloths and for teaching people how to knit when they ask. I feel much better about having everything organized and knowing exactly what I have. By no means is it excessive but by organizing a couple times a year I can keep it from getting out of control. I have some really nice stuff and can't wait to use it all. Now it's just a question of finding the time to knit . . .

Addiction

I have recently admitted to myself and to my family that I have an addiction. It's powerful and intoxicating. I'm addicted to knitting bags. Now that it's out in the open I'm hoping to shop more :)

Below is the Namaste Clutch that I won from Planet Purl.


I was so excited to get the charcoal version since out of all the colors that would have been the one I would pick for myself. Love. This. Bag.


Perfect Size for my lace scarf projects with spots for multiple needles.


Perfect sections for practical items needed that are non-knitting related.


Perfect price for my budget (ahem - FREE)


On Monday we took a lunch break with my parents and went to Cracker Barrel. Most of their items are over priced but I love to look. I found the cutest black bag with pick flower that was perfect for knitting (see - the addiction is always there) and at $15 I thought it was worth considering. By the end of the meal, I decided to save my money since we're in a recession and my husband just recently had to trade in for a new truck for safety issues. Next day it was waiting for me on my desk, thanks to my father who thought if I liked it that much I should have it.



So yes, not only is my husband the ever vigilant enabler - he's converted my father too. Do you think they have rehab for this?

Planet Purl Rocks!

I just got an email from Planet Purl stating that I won the Namaste Cali Clutch in their latest drawing! Holy crap! I thought it was spam at first and then I was just about in tears when I realized it was real. I never win anything - seriously - my father is the lucky one in the family.

I sent a reply with my address and my sincere thanks. I love that site and their travel guides save me a ton of time when I'm getting ready for my trips. I haven't explored the other areas of their site as much as I would like but just their yarn shop reviews are valuable to me.

This Cali Clutch is so cool! I can't wait to see which color I get and figure out which project to use it for next. I'm thinking a travel project would make sense based on the size and where I'm getting it from.

Update

I have been steadily knitting along on my projects and haven't felt a need to update my WIPs or FOs on this blog since the same information is captured on my Ravelry Projects page. No need to duplicate work. Instead I'd like to explore future projects and current knitting dilemmas.

Currently I'm working on a ginormous project. My father's vest is in XX-Large with 280 stitches so I'm able to get about 4 rows a night done in the main pattern.


I'd like to finish it up by his birthday in early June but it will take some dedication and serious monogamy. I can do both but I plan to work in a few small projects to break it up a bit.

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Awhile back I received a free bag of yarn, I organized it by weight & color, and then wound them into small yarn cakes for storage. I'd like to use these up and make more room in my yarn cabinet for nicer stash that I still have stored in a large bag. It's all charity yarn but I'd like to use up the older stuff first. My plan is to finish the skein of yarn I'm working periodically on for the soldiers rectangles and then color coordinate my old stash for a couple Project Linus blankets for my local chapter. It should make a great car/road trip project and won't take forever to do. I've got a couple stitch books with patterns I've been wanting to try so I'm hoping to find something that fits and works well with the sizes I need to make. The only problem I see with this is that I'm not very good at coordinating colors so I may have to take a pictures of the yarn available and get my sister-in-law to help with that part.

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Work has been crazy busy and my travel has increased. This means less blog posts but hopefully more money for me in the long run. I'm planning my summer/fall festival now so that the time is blocked out way in advance. I've decided against the Knitting & Crochet Show in Buffalo this August because we think we'll have a wedding to attend that same weekend. But I would LOVE to take that Russian Lace Knitting class that's all day on Friday. That would be worth the trip alone - but with traveling for work it's hard to take a full day away from my family right now.

So far my only definite festivals are the Finger Lakes Fiber Festival and the NYS Sheep & Wool festival in Rhinebeck. The first one can be a family day trip for us with about a hour each way in the car. Rhinebeck will most likely be just me going alone. I can't imagine my husband and son wanting to go to that.

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Very realistic goals for me now that it's April. I'm trying to work in 30 minutes on the treadmill every day and not purchase anymore yarn until the festivals. They're both a challenge for me but I can do it.

Finished Object - Pirate Hat

This was a crash course in Fair Isle. I had never learned this technique before but when my niece's birthday was coming up I felt the urge to knit something fun for her. After sending a few ideas to my sister-in-law the overwhelming response was the Pirate Hat from Hello Yarn. They are very much a Halloween family so it made perfect sense to me.

The problem was picking out the yarn for me. I wanted something light and soft so I didn't have to knit the cotton band but the white in the store didn't look good to me. I went with a blood red instead. Loved it.



She immediately put on the hat and didn't take it off the entire night. I think she liked it. Next time I will do a different ribbing though because without the cotton band lining it did curl more than I liked. Overall - great project.

Details
Pattern: We Call Them Pirates by Adrian Bizilia
Yarn: Bernat Satin Sport Solids, 1 ball each of black and red
Needles: US 2 & 3
Time frame: 3/15/09 to 3/28/09