The quiet after (and before) the storm...

I've been quiet this past week because... well, it's been busy around here last week. Boy #3 was christened, and in honor of the occasion the German and English parts of the family all turned out in (nearly) full force. The only person who couldn't be there was my dad's partner, something that was regretted by all. We had my dad, my step-sister and her partner staying with us, and D's mum was also putting up various people. Everything went well, the christening was fine, the party after was great fun (the family cherishes the few occasions we get to get together), including even a spontaneous jam session with D on his banjo, his brother on the guitar, and other family members joining in with spoons and drums. A few days after that it was boy #1's birthday so we had yet another party! We've had quite an exciting week!

It was nice having people stay over. Our guests made themselves at home, helped out, played with the boys, who were delighted that we had people staying over who were such fun (aren't kids always all about 'the more the merrier'?!). We had good food and good conversation, and I even got some knitting done (yes, I did! I just didn't get round to blogging about it!).

All that said, the night after we'd waved the last of our guests good bye, and after we'd brought the kids up to bed, D and I sat down on the sofa and stretched out legs. It was quiet in the house. I picked up the knitting and D picked up his banjo and we just sat, not talking, just reclaiming our home. It was lovely having guests, but it was also exhausting, and it's often only once they've left that you realise quite how exhausting it can be, even if those guests are the nicest of people, even if they help out and carry out the dishes, even if they play with the children, and even if they don't insist on partying well into the early hours every night. 

Well, after all that was done we had a few quiet days and then, yesterday, it was the start of the university term, so that's it with peace and quiet for the next 12 weeks!! I'm still knitting, and I will still blog, but it might not be quite as frequent as it often was over the summer. 

Anyway, I might as well show you what I have been up to:

Yes, this is indeed the Garter Yoke Cardi! We've reconnected, that cardi and I, and with all that sitting and chatting in the evening I'm managed to do a good deal of work on it. I'm past the decrease and the increase sections, so it's just plain old stockinette until I get to the right length now. I've quite enjoyed knitting it, although I had a couple of near-misses with those button holes. So many button holes! So two of them were 18 rather than 16 rows apart. I don't think it'll show in the end. 

I've also done a bit of work on the Lombard Street sock - not much, but whenever just a bit, here and there. I'm about 2 or 3 repeats of the pattern away from doing the heel. 

There is no rush with these socks. I'm enjoying them, but it's OK if they take a month longer, in particular as G, the lovely auntie who came all the way from Germany for boy#3s Christening and brought two pairs of socks for all three boys (she knitted 6 pairs of socks in about 4 weeks!!!) is determined to now knit for D and I. I gave her some of my huge stash of sock yarn to take back with her but she clearly thought my huge sock yarn mountain wasn't sufficient because I heard her muttering to herself that she might buy some more once she is back home to make sure that we definitely won't go without sufficient knitted socks this winter. I can't tell you how delighted I am about this development. The boys love their knitted socks and have been wearing them lots at the weekend (school days mean black socks I'm afraid...). 

In other news - do you see this:

Interesting, isn't it? In the throws of yet another bout of knitting insanity I decided to wind some cream coloured yarn I had from frogging a jumper up into a ball so I could use it to knit a pillow. i was envisioning a thick cable pattern...  Not possessing a nostepinne I decided to wind the whole thing around a pen so I could make it into a centre-pulling ball. It worked really well - until I decided to take the pen out. It won't come out. Believe me, I have tried. AND TRIED. It's stuck for good. Brilliant. Don't you just love a job well done? 

But anyway, that pillow. I had it all planned out. I know, I know, I really should focus on the 358 projects that I have already started and I haven't actually started it, but it would look so nice on the sofa... 

Shared with:

A Year of Projects

Yarn Along

Keep Calm Craft On

Spinning... and a super-quick FO

I went to my monthly spinning group, Beretun Spinners, yesterday. They meet up on the first Saturday of each month for a whole day of spinning and fiber goodness. I don't often get to go, what with the busy job and the even more busy family life, but when I do go it's always lovely. The spinners in the group are amazing - so many so very talented people, and they are always friendly and happy to share advice and help. 

Look at those gorgeous rolags - sadly they were not mine. 

I don't get to spin much these days. Boy #1 is OK with the wheel now, but both boy #2 and #3 would play with the wheel and the fiber endlessly if I left it out. The wheel is usually locked up in D's office and I'm just too plain lazy to drag it out in the evening only to lock it back up at the end of the night. So spinning tends to happen at the group only. That said, over the months I have made inroads into my huge (it's a theme with my hobbies...) fiber stash. My plan is to get rid of all the beautiful but often small amounts of dyed fiber in order to make room for one or two big fleeces with enough yarn to knit larger garments. 

Look what I finished this time:

This is merino/silk (the dark blue), plied with some merino (the light blue). It's only one skein, but it should be around 100g, so definitely enough for a hat.

The second skein is the last of a number of skeins I spun a few years back. I had some of the fiber left over and decided to spin it up quickly so I would have some more. I'm thinking of making Liesl with the yarn - if I skip the sleeves I may just have enough... 

Last time I was at the group I also finally spun up some delicious looking merino/silk mix I had lying around for years. The colours were so vibrant!

There were actually three skeins of this, but it only occurred to me to take a picture when I'd already used two of them! I spun this deliberately slubby, which was more of a challenge than I thought it would be. Sure it should be easy to spin up something really messily? Turns out that spinning neatly is much much easier!

This time I brought some big circular needles and cast on for Haley Waxberg's Bulky Mobius Cowl. 

Such a fun and quick project! I knitted for about an hour yesterday and then another hour today and tadaa, it's done! The yarn is so soft, so it won't be irritating on the skin to wear it. I think I'll get a lot of wear out of this.

  

This was such a fun little thing to knit, I don't think this is the only cowl project in my future...

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A Year of Projects

Autumn is in the air... Time to get my stash organised¬

This morning, on my drive to work, there was fog over the hills. This is the first time in months that this has happened. This morning I was also contemplating for the first time in months whether I should wear tights and boots.  It really looks as if the summer is over quite early this year.

One thing that this means is that I am contemplating cozy knitwear. With that in mind I thought I'd make  good on my plan of selling / swapping some of the yarn that I'm unlikely to use any time soon in order to enable more useful yarn purchases. I have pledged that this year I will knit from stash, but if I swap wool that's not strictly speaking a purchase, is it? I think I'm prepared to bend the rules a little for that one so I can make room for yarn I'm actually going to use.

The deal is that the yarn can either be bought or else swapped for yarn I may like. Currently I'm looking for:

1) yarn (non-acrylic) for a jumper / cardigan - ideally some fingering/4-ply for Hitofude. I'd like either a berry colour or alternatively dark brown or dark blue would work I think. The pattern asks for Tosh Merino Light by Madelinetosh and I'd need 2-3 skeins or 760 m/840 yards. Some other fingering weight yarn would work too of course, as long as it drapes well.

2) 100% cotton yarn for various crochet projects. I prefer solid colours and dk or aran weight.  

I'll post this in a number of Ravelry swap groups too, so it's first come first get, OK?

I'll accept money (paypal) or alternatively, for some of the yarns I'd be happy to swap. Postage is extra on top (I'll let you know once I've been to the post office).

So here we go:

1 skein of Noro (label lost). I'd like £5 for it or alternatively I'd swap. 

2 balls of Freedom Wool by Twilleys of Stamford. 100% wool, 50g balls with approx. 50 m per ball. This is bulky.  £4 for both, or swap. 

1 50g ball of Jaeger Baby Merino DK in light blue. 100% Merino wool. £1.50 or swap. 

3 balls of Jaeger Baby Merino 4-ply in a greenish blue (Sh 0118). 2 balls are complete, the third is without label and in two pieces (I had started knitting something with this that I've since ripped).  £5 for the lot, or swap.  RESERVED

1 100g ball of San Franccisco Wisom Yarns sock yarn. 75% wool, 25% polyamide. Approx 400 m / 437 Yards. Super Wash.  £2 or swap. 

9 balls of Rowan Cotton Glace. 50g balls, 100% cotton. approx 115 m (125 yards) per ball. This is lovely stuff, but it's pink and I'm just unlikely to EVER knit anything in that colour. :( . These retail at between £4-5.50 per ball. I'd like £35 for the lot.

1 skein of Fyberspates handpainted yarn, lace-weight. Comes with a pattern for a scarf using this skein. This is 100% silk, 45g and with approx. 405 m per skein. This is beautiful, shimmery and so so soft, but I'm not that crazy about variegated yarns anymore. While I love the look of it just on the skein, I just can't think of a project for it that would do it justice and that I'd actually wear. I think it needs to be appreciated by someone else. £6 or swap.  RESERVED

7 balls of Schachenmayr nomotta Two in One. Chunky, 50g and approx 80 m per ball. Colour 98. These look a bit tangled but it's all there and I've never knitted anything with it. It was a spontaneous purchase and I've never found the right project. £14 for all 7

5 balls of Rowan All Seasons Cotton in dark blue. This is aran weight and each 50g ball has approximately 90 m (98 yards) of yarn. 60% cotton, 40 % Acrylic. I'm looking for £17 for all 5.

4 balls of Bambu Novita bamboo yarn. 50 g balls = 135 m. 68% bamboo, 32% cotton. This is a Finnish yarn and to me looks not plied but made with a kind of corking process? £5 or swap.
SOLD

1 skein of Sari Silk. £3 or swap. 
SOLD

1 skein of Hipknits hand-dyed 100% super chunky woo.. Approx. 55 m to 100g. £3 or swap. 

4 skeins / balls of Cascade 220 in grey. 2 of the skeins were wound into balls for a project but were not used. Only one of the labels remains but it tells me that this is a 100% wool yarn. 100g per skein and approx. 220 yards. The colour is 8401. This retails for around £5 per skein. I'd like £12 for all 4, or swap.  SOLD

1 skein of Zitron Trekking wool sock yarn. Sock weight. 75% new wool, 25% nylon. 100g = 420 m. £2 or swap.   SOLD

There is probably more to come as I am slowly working my way through my stash...

Also posted to the UK Classifieds group and the Yarn Swap Sell and Trade Community on Ravelry.

Oh no...

... we're having a yarn problem.

I'm experiencing that slightly panicky feeling you get when you can't avoid admitting your yarn addiction any longer.

I didn't even know I had most of these. I was digging around for the right stash yarn for the Garter Yoke Cardigan, for which I've just started a KAL, and I 'found' this box under my desk and, well, this is what was in it. Needless to say that this is not all of my stash. This isn't even half of my stash. It's merely the bit I'd forgotten about.

Should I be worried?

And the worst thing is, I still can't quite determine which yarn to use. I had one in mind, but I think it's not quite the Aran weight that the pattern asks for - it seems thicker to me and the gauge, even with 4 mm rather than 4..5 mm needles isn't quite right.

Oh what to do, what to do...