Rules for Feeding the Stash

Friday, April 28, 2017

Weekending


Yesterday I finished the final touches on Chaverim, and it's now blocking. As long as the weather cooperates, I'll get photos taken this weekend (fingers crossed!).

I also finished the second upper front on my Zinone and cast on for the neckline. I just have a few more rows before I can join the front and back, and then I should be able to zoom through the rest of the body. There's a week and a half left in the TTTKAL, and I'm confident that I'll be able to get this finished.

My weekend is gearing up to look pretty busy: it's the high school spring play, which my brother is in, so Anemone and our friend Matt will come down tomorrow, and Anemone will come down again on Sunday with her boyfriend. I'm planning at going to the performance tonight as well, and I also have my handbell choir concert Sunday morning. Of course, I can think of far more worse things to fill up a weekend than music and theater!

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Stripes and Shawls


During my last semester in college, I knit a striped shawl. I finished it two days before I graduated, and it was one of my favorite accomplishments from that year (yeah...I wrote and passsed my thesis, and I was still more proud of this shawl). By this point I had been knitting for two years, and I wanted to completely freehand something, and I've always been fond of the result.

Last year, I got to thinking that I'd like to use that shawl from senior year as a starting off point for a new design. I knit most of the striped body last fall, and then I decided to set it aside while I figured out what I wanted for the border. A couple days ago I finally figured out what I was hoping for and how to make it happen, and I dug this shawl out of hibernation.

It's still got a ways to go, but I'm super excited to be working on it again. Of course, now I'm definitely feeling the strain of juggling so much- I've got this, Zinone, my friend's wedding present, and some finishing touches on Chaverim all happening at once! 

Monday, April 24, 2017

Springing On


Spring appears to have truly come to the plains, so I spent the weekend getting my rose bushes ready for the warmer weather. I was pretty worried about them- when the frosts and snow came at the start of winter, they all still had green leaves on them, so I wasn't sure how well they were going to hibernate. Fortunately, they've all survived. The two yellow bushes did the best, and after some heavy pruning they're all green branches and new leaves. My one red bush, however, almost didn't make it at all. After I got in there with the pruning shears, I managed to find some green way down at the base, and I ended up having to cut the entire bush back to about 4 inches. What's left now is good growth though, and hopefully it'll grow enough over the summer to handle next winter better.

I've also been steady at work on my Zinone I finally came to terms with the fact that I don't have enough of the black yarn for Corrine- I'm more than halfway through the yarn already, and I haven't even reached the halfway point of the front piece. So that's going to get ripped out and I'll just have to wait until I find the right yarn for Corrine. I definitely want to knit up the black yarn this year, though. The current front-runner is Morning Mist, but I'm going to try and finish Zinone before I go crazy casting on anything new.

Linking up with Crafting On

Friday, April 21, 2017

Oops, I Cast On Again


My Corrine is moving along nicely, even though I managed to get...distracted. I've had a skein of SRK On Your Toes Bamboo in my stash for ages, and I've never been quite sure what to do with it. This week I had the thought that I just might be able to squeeze a crop top from one skein, and I promptly did some math to figure out knitting Zinone at a slightly larger gauge.

So now it would appear that I've saddled myself with two yarn chicken projects, because of course the On Your Toes is discontinued as well (I keep imagining that someday there won't be any discontinued yarns in my stash, but I know that is but a false hope).

I always get super into knitting warm-weather tops, so I'm sure I'll accidentally cast on quite a few more over the next few months. I have tons of patterns and yarns lined up for lighter knits, and I'd definitely love to make a dent in my stash and queue before the cold weather sets back in and it's all sweaters all the time for this girl.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

I'm Not Sure if it's Going to Be Enough


As I was trying to take today's picture, I realized that black is the absolute worst color for blog photographs. I apologize for this, but hopefully we shouldn't be stuck with black WIP photos for too long, because Corrine is really zooming along. I've finished the back piece, and the front shouldn't take more than a couple of days, and then I'll be at the fun lace side panels.

I am getting nervous about my yardage- the back ended up using just over two of my seven balls. I'm already planning on making my sleeves shorter than the sample's, but I'd still like for them to be around elbow-length. Of course I'm using discontinued yarn, and of course there's none listed on Ravelry as trade/sell, so I've got to work it out with what I've got.

I also started my best friend's wedding present over the weekend as well- the wedding is less than two months away now, but her thing is so pleasant that it's going quickly, despite the fact that I'm only actively knitting it sporadically. I plan to keep doing so throughout the TTTKAL, and then I'll devote myself to banging out the rest of the wedding present.

Monday, April 17, 2017

TTTKAL-ing


Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good Easter weekend- the state ended up giving us Friday off, which was just what I needed. We had a couple of good thunderstorms, including ten minutes of the biggest hail I've ever seen in this part of the country. We did some garden prep, watched movies, and I knit a lot, so it was pretty much a perfect weekend.

I finished my Drift Crop Top on Friday night, and I need to get pictures for you all, because it is exactly what I hoped for. I'm so pleased. My attention is now turned to Corrine, and I'm loving knitting this up. I wear a lot of black, but I haven't actually knit much (any?) black things, so when I found this bag of yarn at the thrift store I was thrilled. It's a bamboo-soy blend, and is about the slinkiest thing I've ever knit with.

I have just enough yarn, so I might end up shortening the sleeves a little bit- we'll have to see how the body goes. I have several more summer knits I want to do this year, so I definitely want to get this one finished during the KAL. I fell in love with this pattern as soon as the summer 2016 Holla Knits collection dropped, and I know I'm going to love wearing it!

Linking up with Crafting On

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

TTTKAL Time!


Just as I was starting to wonder when it was going to be time for the TTTKAL, Shannon announced the dates, and I'm so pumped! I did this KAL last year for the first time, and it really is a ton of fun. I love me some warm-weather knitted tops, and this KAL is the perfect excuse for me to take some time to pound some out as well as check out everyone else's projects and see some patterns that I may have missed before.

I'm entering with Drift, which is pretty close to being done- it just needs a few more inches on the body and whatever I decide to do for sleeves- and I've also cast on a Corrine (which might need to be restarted because I didn't swatch because the back piece starts out small enough to count as a swatch), and I have yarn ready for Route 1 if I have time. Last year I finished two tops for this KAL, while also working on my Nusa and Que Sera, so I think I might be able to get all these tops done. I'm also really looking forward to pounding out some stuff just for me once I'm finished with Chaverim.


Monday, April 10, 2017

Cropping Along


After some back and forth, I decided to just bring my Drift Crop Top along to this weekend's show choir competition, and I'm really glad I did. The plain stockinette ended up being just what I needed, especially once  the room got really crowded and loud. We ended up taking home the state championship for our division, which is super exciting and well-deserved. Our choir and band work really hard and put on a great show, so it's great to see that paying off for them.

My Chaverim sample is almost done- I have just the cuff of the second sleeve left, which should only take a couple of evenings to finish- and I have most of a first draft of the pattern written, so I'm really pleased with where that's sitting. I have a long weekend coming up, so hopefully I'll be able to get the sweater finished and the pattern ready for tech editing by next week!

Linking up with Crafting On

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Second Sleeving


The second sleeve of my Chaverim sample is coming along nicely, and I'm starting to think about some summer knits. The TTTKAL is coming up soon, and I definitely want to knit something for that, but I also have another big project looming as soon as Chaverim is off the needles.

My best best friend is getting married in just over two months, and I need to get started on her wedding present. Longtime readers know that I knit all my friends a white lace table runner for their weddings, and I feel like I'm starting to tempt fate by not having started this one yet. I do have all the yarn wound and the pattern picked out and printed, but I have not yet cast on, and I'd been planning on holding off on starting it until I was finished with Chaverim.

This weekend is the final Show Choir weekend, and this competition's six hours away, so I might pack the wedding gift for car knitting, but we'll have to see how I'm feeling about the state of the Chaverim sample. Since finishing that first cuff I'm even more in love with this sweater than I was before, and I can't wait to have everything finished so I can start wearing it everywhere!

Monday, April 3, 2017

And There's a Sleeve


This weekend was all about catching up on stuff, and while I'm not quite where I want to be, I'm definitely more caught up than I was last week. I got the first sleeve of Chaverim finished, and I am so pleased with it. This is really the most fun part of the sweater, and I'm just absolutely tickled with how it turned out. I wanted the cuff to look like a huge stack of friendship bracelets, and I think that's exactly what it looks like.

The second sleeve is moving along nicely- I picked up the stitches last night before bed and managed to knit an inch or so before I passed out. I'm hoping to get the sweater totally done this week, but we'll have to see how that works out. The cuffs are a bit fiddly and time consuming with the color changes, but it's so worth it, even if it makes the sweater not very portable for the final stages. I didn't manage to get a pattern draft written before my vacation the other week, so that's my goal for this weekend.

Linking up with Crafting On