Rules for Feeding the Stash

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

New Pattern: Brie


Named after one of my most fashionable friends, Brie is the perfect addition to your fall wardrobe.


Brie is a fun and cozy hat with tons of texture. Featuring shrinking horseshoe cables against a background of moss stitch, Brie is an interesting knit perfect for both variegated and solid color yarns.


Pattern includes both written and charted instructions.


Brie is 20% off on Ravelry through Monday, November 5th!


Monday, October 29, 2018

Slowly


It was a really hard weekend for me. The shooting at Tree of Life really affected me, and I'm struggling with a bunch of feelings and a general feeling of powerlessness. This week I'm donating all my pattern sales to HIAS in honor of Jerry Rabinowitz, David and Cecil Rosenthal, Rose Mallinger, Bernice and Sylvan Simon, Daniel Stein, Joyce Fienberg, Richard Gottfried, Melvin Wax, and Irving Younger. May their memory be a blessing.

I spent most of the weekend at home, knitting and reading. Yesterday I had auditions for the winter dinner theater. I've finished the first sleeve on my striped sweater, and I'm working on the back decreases on my Not-So-Lonely Unicorns. The second clue of the Currituck Sound NMKAL comes out today, but I still have a few more rows left on clue one. On top of all of this, I'm debating starting another sweater for NaKniSweMo. I mean, what's one more project? 

Friday, October 26, 2018

New Pattern: Aurelie


Aurelie is a pair of light lace legwarmers, perfect for layering over tight or leggings when temperatures start to dip. Knit in a bright color, Aurelie is the perfect accessory to cheer up the grey days of fall and winter.


Aurelie is worked in the round from the bottom up.

Lace pattern is both charted and written out.

Aurelie is 20% off on Ravelry through Monday, October 29th! 


Wednesday, October 24, 2018

A Break and a Trilobite


Oh man, it feels like it's been ages since I've visited with you all! I took a quick mini break over the weekend—I had appointments in the city on Thursday and Monday, so I took Friday off as well and made it a little vacation.

Things are going pretty well on the knitting front. Fullerton is finished, but for buttons, and I'm just a few rows away from binding off the body on my striped pullover. I cast on my Not-So-Lonely Unicorns for the Great Northern KAL, and I'm about halfway through the first clue on the Currituck Sound NMKAL.


I also FINALLY got pictures of my Trilobite hat, which is probably one of the most charming things I have ever knit. I love paleontology so much, and it was one of my first passions. I've wanted to knit this hat almost since I started knitting, and I'm so glad I finally got around to it.

The yarn is from my friend Annika; it's an old skein of Mal Rios, but the color tag is long gone, and I couldn't tell from looking on Ravelry which grey it is, but it was absolutely perfect for this hat.


Ravelry Page: Trilobite
Pattern: Trilobite by Hannah Mason

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

New Pattern: Sledge


Sledge is a cozy, double-layer cowl. One side is plain stockinette, but inside (or outside!) is clean ribbing in a contrasting color.


Sledge is knit in the round and seamed to finish and it requires 220yds/201m each of Main Color and Contrast Color.


Sledge is available on Ravelry now and is 20% off all week!


Monday, October 15, 2018

Making Progress


This was a pretty good weekend, knitting-wise. I'm almost finished with the waist decreases on my striped sweater, and I got the button band and first sleeve done on Fullerton. Considering I didn't get any knitting done on Saturday, I'm pretty darn pleased with how things are going. 

I had a couple of hours to kill on Saturday morning after dropping the dogs at the groomers and before meeting Matt for brunch, so I brought my laptop along and set up shop at one of my favorite coffee shops in the city. I had intended to just get the written instructions for the charts on two upcoming patterns done, but I ended up getting one whole pattern written (for a hat I haven't shown you yet). 

Yesterday I had hyperglycemia and was feeling quite ill, so just before noon I went to my mum's house and we watched the first season of Rosemary and Thyme. I ended up staying for dinner, and we roasted carrots and parsnips and asparagus, which were just what I needed after a long day of waiting for my blood sugar to come down! 

Linking up with Crafting On

Friday, October 12, 2018

Sweater Time


I've mentioned having a Fullerton Cardigan on the needles, but I haven't actually shared it here yet. This photo is from a couple of days ago, but it so perfectly encapsulates my happy place: in my armchair, legs crossed, with my knitting in my lap.

I started Fullerton right before NCFF last month so I'd have something mindless to work on while sitting at the information desk. I have the body finished now, and the button band is half picked up. I'm hoping to get that finished and get through a good chunk of the first sleeve over the weekend so I can start wearing this and be able to focus my knitting time on my KAL projects.

Does anybody have fun plans this weekend? I'm bringing the dogs up to the city for their grooming and meeting my friend Matt for brunch tomorrow.

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Weekending


I'm so glad I had a four-day weekend, because I really needed it. Saturday and Sunday were both crazy busy days, so I basically ended up spending half of Monday still in bed. My brother had the lead in the high school play, and he did a great job. The university homecoming parade was on Saturday morning, and it was a lot of fun, as usual (and I got to pet SO MANY DOGS!).

Despite feeling like I was constantly running around, I actually managed to get quite a bit done! I assembled my quilt top and got my quilt sandwich all layered and ready to go and then realized that the sheet I'd been planning on using as backing fabric is two inches too narrow! I'm going to go get a bigger sheet later this week to use instead; I'm not thrilled with the delay, but I'd rather have a quilt that I'm pleased with. Plus, I have a smaller vintage quilt top I got from the church bazaar a few years ago, and this sheet should be the perfect size to use as backing for that.

I also managed to finish my Finn! It's blocking now, and I'm hoping I'll be able to wear it yet this week. It's pretty chilly out now, so things are taking longer to dry after blocking, but another day or two should do it. I still don't have buttons for Finn yet, but that's never stopped me before. As you can see above, I made a lot of progress on this sweater sample. I'm starting two KALs this month (Great Northern starts today and Media Peruana starts on the 22nd), and I definitely want this pattern out by the end of the month, so I'm going to have to clock some major knitting hours!

Linking up with Crafting On

Friday, October 5, 2018

Long Weekends and New Things


If you think that looks an awful lot like a new sweater, you're right. No, Finn is not done yet (it is ALMOST done, it needs just TWO MORE INCHES of sleeve), and yes, I cast on something new anyway. This is a new sample that I already have the pattern written for, and I just need to power through and knit it. Hopefully it should be a quicker knit, but, of course, we never know what might happen.

I have a four-day weekend this week, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I'm dogsitting for one of my friends, which is always super fun, and it's homecoming on campus. Oh, and it's the high school play. Tomorrow after the homecoming parade I'm planning to hang out at the house with my mum and work on my new quilt. My plan is to get all the fabric blocks traced and cut out so I can spend the rest of  the weekend sewing. I don't know if I'll actually manage to finish it, but I definitely hope to get awful darn close. I've never made a quilt before, and I'm almost certainly biting off more than I can chew, trying to make one in four days, but I am nothing if not ambitious.

Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Old Sleeves and New Books


I've finally reached the halfway point on the second sleeve of Finn, and I'm hoping it's all smooth knitting from here on out. I have choir tonight and dance tomorrow, but I'm still hoping to have this off the needles by the weekend. This sweater has been dragging on for much longer than I intended, but I'm still looking forward to wearing it.

Yesterday I started panicking because I have my community book club this week (once a month my library and the public library team up, and everyone gets a few minutes to talk about whatever book they've been reading lately), and I haven't really read anything new. I'm still reading the nonfiction book I talked about last month, so I grabbed Frankenstein in Baghdad and checked it out. I'm really enjoying it so far—after my lunch break yesterday I'm already almost a quarter of the way through, so I should be able to finish by Friday afternoon without too much trouble.

Linking up with Yarn Along

Monday, October 1, 2018

Making a Trilobite


Well, a slow weekend was exactly what I needed. I went to the laundromat, baked bread, cleaned my apartment, and sat and did a lot of knitting and watched a lot of Netflix. I'm on a bit of a hat design kick right now, and in between sessions on Cormac and Finn I decided to cast on a non-design hat.

Trilobite was one of the first patterns I fell in love with way back when I first started knitting. Being a paleontologist was one of my earliest dreams, and I still love fossils and read paleontology journals today. Over the summer one of my friends sent me a bunch of yarn when she destashed, including this label-less skein of worsted weight (we think it is Mal Rios), and after finishing a hat sample at the end of last week, I decided to finally knit myself a trilobite hat.

I knit most of this while at the laundromat, and I got a few more rounds done before switching back to Finn yesterday. I'm torn- I want to finish this quickly so I can wear it everywhere, but I'm having so much fun knitting it that I never want it to end!

Linking up with Crafting On