Since last time

… there has been mainly gift and accessories knitting.

At KnitNation, I had purchased some mulberry silk from Juno Fibre Arts:

I managed to spin it very, very fine and got about 270m of 2-ply from just 50g of fibre.

 

I designed a simple triangular shawl for my mother with it:

There is no evidence of the finished piece, as I forgot to take a picture…

Furthermore, I span the “Selfish” colourway from a Spunky Fibre Club installement. It will be used for a shawl for my MIL.

The biggest (and cutest) project went to friends, who welcomed a baby girl at the end of decembre. I discovered Woolly Thoughts and their mathematical knitting some time ago, and fell for this wonderful baby blanket (the border is plum, not black):

It was very well received 🙂

A hat was born as well:

When blocking it, I discovered that my head has the same size as our salad bowl 😉

I span some BFL and Merino I got from stefknits for it and knit it directly from the bobbin. The design is The Purlaway Hat from Bluegirl Knits.

There was a break from my knitting from stash, as Christmas brought some yarn and fibre enhancement. Showing off will have to wait for the next blog post 😉

 

 

FO

I was able to transfer my first yarn to the used category on Ravelry. As this project was nearly finished when I took my decision to knit my stash up, this is a rather easy first victory.

It’s the Baktus scarf by Strikkelise (yarn: flydesigns Monarch, colourway MARA). A great knit for those hours when you’re waiting somewhere or you’re being the passenger in a car. I already cast on a second one! 🙂

(Socks That Rock in Flower Power)

 

199

That’s the number of references in my stash. I’m all done with photos and organizing. The adventure can begin!

Oups

Yesterday night my computer crashed. It lost one half of one of its two hard drives (no, this is not a math exercice), today the other half vanished into oblivion. I nevertheless had the time to make a decent backup, so all my fibre photos have been saved (chose your priorities 😉 ) My husband happened to be on mumble with a computer scientist, who rightly diagnosed the impending doom of my virtual world. As I wanted to put some order in my files anyway, I take this as “cleaning by vanishing”.

All this stash-organizing and making lists, combined with some crazy, fall-anouncing weather, has triggered the bi-annual “let’s-do-some-season-changing-induced-housework”. Up to now this mainly consisted of putting the summer clothing away and fetching the sweaters from the shelves, but this year I really would like to add something special. One idea is to make an autumn quilt for my children’s bed, before they’ll use the big, fluffy duvet in winter. Still cogitating…

Meanwhile: eye candy.

 

Say that you want to take photos

…and it will rain and be grey outside for at least two days. There was some blue sky at noon, and I managed finally to take photos of all the fibres. I’ll just have to put them up on Ravelry now. First victory! 🙂

Rainy days make for good knitting time, and so I finished the second clue on the second sock. It feels good to be ahead in time for once! 😉

It’s late

I’m not feeling well, time for some therapy knitting and then a good night’s sleep.

I’m starting to think about Christmas knitting and weaving. I’m planning socks, scarves and some fun shadow knitting. Tomorrow should be the last day of “photo shooting”, as I still haven’t done it for the spinning fibre. And then the Ravelry stash will be complete. 🙂

The first sock has its completed leg, second clue from the Mystery Sock:

As I prefer the leg part to be rather short, I omitted one repeat.

 

Keep going

I have been taking photos of all my yarn and my Ravelry stash is up to date. Now there is just the spinning fibre left, and I really can get into knit up mode. The Mystery Sock is going well, the second clue arrived today and I already finished half of it on the first sock.

 

Mystery sock

Knitting up has begun with my participation in the Mystery Sock KAL. Every week during october, Kirsten Kapur from Through The Loops publishes a part from a sock design. If you follow, you’ll have a pair of socks at the end of the month! I’m doing this for the first time, and I finished the two cuffs just in time before the release of the second clue.

Count up

As of today, I have 135 different yarns referenced in my Ravelry account, many of them with at least a sweater’s worth (or even up to 20 skeins) in quantity.  Over the years I already made some sorting out of all the “ugh-what-was-I-thinking” qualities, so I’m left with mainly natural fibres. I’m rediscovering all those natural silk yarns, in all their rather rough glory. Perfect for the mediterranean climat.

The Beginning

Since making the decision, I have asked myself quite often if it is useful, necessary, clever to go ahead with this task. Even more as in diving into my stash I get aware of HOW MUCH yarn there is.  There might be enough yarn to keep me occupied for two years…or more…

But, I’m really looking forward to it. It is a very big challenge, and the temptations will be frequent and hard to resist.  On the other hand, in some greater logic, this coincides with a renewed motivation to do something for me. More sports, less stress, letting go of the superficial and profiting from what I have, my family first of all. Not searching comfort in the new and promising, but the well-known and trust-worthy.