Thankful Thursday

A cold Corona, out on my deck in the evening, with my latest knitting....and no humidity. Priceless.

Dyeing is Fun!

Last night I dyed up the ugly shawl. It's actually the Milkweed Shawl knit in Sunkissed Sands BMFA Lightweight sock yarn. I loved the yarn in the skein but it was ugly knit up. So after months of procrastinating and obtaining supplies, I dyed up the shawl using an acid dye in the color chestnut. It turned out a lovely rich brown with red hues. The dye bath was not all used up when I pulled the shawl out so I threw in a skein of Knit Picks Bare worsted weight and I ended up with a beautiful muted pink. I love them both and now the shawl is no longer ugly and I have fresh new skein of yarn.


Dyeing was a lot of fun. I have dyed yarn before with the kids using Kool-Aid but the colors are pretty minimal and not really my style. The acid dyeing was easy and the colors so rich and beautiful. I could definitely enjoy experimenting with this and adding another hobby. At a minimum, I will no longer hide from an ugly yarn. If I don't like it, I'll change it.

Spreadsheet Fun

So just because I had nothing better to do while I was waiting for the painter to arrive, I decided to spreadsheet out my stash. Come to find out I am the proud owner of 37,800 yards of yarn. I wasn't sure how to feel about that number so I computed how many skeins of yarn I own. I have 200 skeins!

Now I have been actively trying to destash and I thought I was making some (not great) progress but didn't realize how much I was still sitting on. 200 seems high and so does 37,800. So I then calculated out how many yards I knit in 2009. That total came out to 13,000! So I essentially have about 3 years worth of knitting in my stash. Is that good or bad? Do I need 3 years worth? What if I only had one years worth? What if I want to buy more? Okay....now my head hurts. Conclusion: I basically need to keep destashing if I want more...I need to keep it under control. I'm sure that could be said for all aspects of life.

Well, I do have one FO for Friday. This was cute little knit and when I saw the sample at a LYS I thought I really had to make one. It was so soft and squishy. I was disappointed. It is soft and squishy but the yarn is extremely splitty (which I hate) and I did not have enough yarn in the skein to complete the pattern (pattern on skein wrap). I had to omit a row of bobbles and I ended up with only about 12 inches of yarn leftover. There was no gauge given for the pattern so I knit with the suggested needle size. I'm a tight knitter so I figured maybe the hat would be smaller but it wasn't. Finally, there was also a knot between every color change. Way too many issues for just one little skein of yarn.




Pattern: Sweetie Pie Hat
Yarn: Be Sweet Bambino Taffy
Needles: US 6
Size: 6-12 mo.

FO Friday

I just finished this adorable dress and I am hoping to give it to my cousin's new baby next month. I am hoping for a girl but we don't know yet. I am prepared with a back up blue baby vest if it's a boy. The pattern was a breeze and a fantastic use of all the sock yarn I have stashed. I may make another one in a solid color and then embellish it.


Pattern: Little Sister's Dress size 12mo.
Yarn: Madeline Tosh Sock colorway Vintage Apron
Started: May 6, 2010
Finished: May 26, 2010

These socks are great. I tried to use this yarn with the pattern provided in the Loopy Ewe kit but I hated the pooling that was happening. So I ripped out and found the Tidal Wave pattern. This pattern eliminated the pooling and created a great pair of socks.


Pattern: Tidal Wave Socks
Yarn: Fiesta Yarns Baby Boom colorway Spring Chill (Loopy Ewe Sock Club)
Started: March 22, 2010
Finished: May 14, 2010

Thankful Thursday

Today I'm thankful for National Public Radio. Not a day goes by that I don't learn something new while listening to NPR. My current favorites are The Story and Science Friday. The Story is a program about people and their lives. It always reminds me that my little world is not the only one out there and the person I'm standing behind in line at the grocery store could be amazing and have a great story to tell. You just never know...

Moved

I've moved to a new blog, which is why you are now here. Changed my Ravelry name as well to knitful. Sometimes you just need a change...at least I needed one.

I've been absent for a while due to lack of knitting, lack of blogging enthusiasm and problems with my own health. Evidently when you turn 40, your once very healthy body decides that's enough and turns on you. I have an ongoing back problem that seems to stump the doctors and last week I had 1/2 of my thyroid removed because I had two good sized nodules that came up suspicious when biopsied. However, after removal were found to be nothing.

Knitful = Thankful
Knitful = "full of knit"

When going through a bit of a medical scare, you tend to remind yourself of what are the important things in your life. What should you be thankful for? You also realize how sometimes you can wrap yourself up in things/thoughts for nothing. You can be full of **it. Thus the reason for the name change.

I hope to blog more with knitting goodness, Thankful Thursdays, and some cool photos as I learn to use my Nikon D3000.

Still Here

I'm still here.  Warming up to blogging again.  Be back soon....