Rules for Feeding the Stash

Friday, March 29, 2019

Weekend Planning


Who's ready for the weekend? I know I am, for sure. The baby sweater is progressing along nicely, and if I don't get it finished this weekend, it'll at least be pretty darn close. It took all of five minutes to finish that first front after I bound off for the sleeves, so I'm sure I can sneeze out the rest of the body tonight, no problem.

This weekend I'm hoping to get some cooking done—I've been meaning to make gluten free chicken nuggets to keep in my freezer for a while, and I'd really like to get that done. I'm also planning to go to Captain Marvel tomorrow, which I'm super excited for. My current sweater sample is perfect cinema knitting, so hopefully I'll get a nice chunk of that knit up, too.

What about you all? Any fun plans for the weekend?

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Knitting for a Sprout


I didn't really knit much during my conference or during the flights, which was very surprising. Now that I'm home, I'm feeling the crunch to get my cousin's baby sweater knit—I want it to arrive before the little sprout does, and I need to allow for a few days in the mail, so I've been hard at work the past couple days.

I went back and forth a few times trying to choose a pattern. I pulled these yarns from my stash a couple of months ago, and when I found Purl Soho's Little Baby Sweater before I left for my conference, I knew it'd be perfect. 

I'd really love to get this finished by the weekend, but I don't know if that's an unreasonable expectation. This is currently both my lunch knitting and my evening project, and that's making for some pretty decent progress on the body, so hopefully I'll have something vaguely sweater-shaped in the next few days.

Monday, March 25, 2019

Home Again, With Socks

Hello, friends! I am so glad to be back home, and I missed you all terribly while I was away. I had a great time at my library conference. I went to some great sessions and met some really cool people, and I really can't wait to go to another one.

I got back late Thursday night, and the past three days have been pretty much recovery-focused. I slept a lot, talked to my plants, went to visit my mom and snuggle the dogs, and knit. I admit, it feels a little weird to be jumping back into my regular routine, but I'm sure I'll settle in just fine.


I do have a bit of a backlog of finished knits that I need to share, but I'm a bit behind on photographing them. Now that the sun is staying out until later in the evening, I'm hoping I can catch up. But! I do have pictures of my Ex Nine socks that I knit for the Juntos KAL and finished just before I left for Florida.

I really love how these came out—I thought that this yarn would be perfect for this garter and slipped-stitch pattern, and I was right! I really enjoyed knitting these, and the finished socks are so squishy and cozy. I knit them as written, although the toe pocket is a bit long and narrow for my foot. If I knit these again, I'll almost certainly sub in my regular toe. I honestly don't know why I didn't do that this time, but for whatever reason I decided to actually follow the pattern. They're definitely still wearable, and I was definitely overdue for a new pair of socks for myself!


Ravelry Page: Ex Nine
Pattern: Ex Nine socks by Kristen Jancuk

Linking up with Crafting On

Friday, March 15, 2019

Travel Planning


I did manage to finish my Ex Nine socks last night, which I am incredibly thrilled about. I can't wait to get actual daylight pictures of them and tell you all about them, but I don't think that's going to happen until I'm back from my library conference. The blog's going dark next week (I mean, it'll still be here, and you can reread old favorites, if you have them, but I'm not going to be writing anything new) and I'm going to miss you all.

One of the things I was really worried about for this trip was my knitting. I needed something really simple, but that would last through the flights, the conference, and a six-hour layover on my way home. Fortunately, one of my planned sweater designs for this year fit the bill exactly. It's fingering weight, a buttload of garter stitch, and it's only just been cast on, and even I don't think I can knit an entire fingering-weight sweater in four days.

But, just in case, I'm bringing something for my cousin's impending baby, too. 

Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Pocketful of Posies

Hello, friends! I've had this shawl percolating in my head for over two years, and I'm so thrilled to finally be ready to put it out into the world.


Pocketful of Posies was directly inspired by The Dyeing Arts’ “Pansy Lane” colorway. I wanted a shawl that evoked woodland wanderings, flower-lined pathways, and small bunches of flowers stashed wherever you can fit them.


Pocketful of Posies is worked sideways on the bias. The generously-sized shawl features large lace sections and a picot bind off.


Lace pattern has both charted and written instructions.


Monday, March 11, 2019

Socks and Prep


Well, after a sprint this weekend, I'm sitting with one finished sock and have the cuff and the start of the leg on the second. I'm feeling pretty good about being able to finish these this week, and I'm looking forward to having a new pair of socks for myself.

I feel like this week is going to be a lot of catching up and trying to get ahead on things. Next week I'm going to Florida for a library conference, and there's some stuff I want to get done before that so I can enjoy the trip. I want to get knitting projects for the flight started before I leave, and my return trip has a six-hour layover, so I want to be sure I bring plenty of stuff to keep me occupied during that time! 

Friday, March 8, 2019

Socking Along


Why, hello, socks! It's been a hot minute since I last worked on these guys, and it's really nice to be back to knitting on them. I finished my shawl sample yesterday, and my main goal for the next week is to crank out my Ex Nine Socks for the Juntos KAL. I usually let socks languish for a while and take my time to knit them, but I'm pretty confident that I can power through these by the time the KAL ends.

It's finally starting to warm up a little bit, but snow has come along with the milder weather. We're supposed to get freezing rain tomorrow, so I'm not planning on leaving my apartment under any circumstances. I'd been planning on spending the weekend doing some pattern writing, but I managed to get all caught up last night, so now my plans are limited to coffee and sock knitting and not too much else.


Monday, March 4, 2019

On a Monday


I can't believe it's already Monday. I spent a large part of Saturday just recovering from driving three and a half hours on Friday night after working all day, but I now have an aquarium and I'll be able to start looking for something to put it on. I also spent a big chunk of Saturday baking a cake, as Anemone visited this weekend and we celebrated her birthday early. The cake was well-received, and I still have a couple of pieces for myself in my fridge.

I finished the lace section of this shawl sample, and I'm on the final stretch of stockinette before the picot bind-off. I'm hoping I can finish the shawl this week, which might be a bit of a stretch, but I'd love to get the pattern sent to my tech editor this weekend.

It's spring break at the university, so campus is dead quiet right now. It's still going to be a bit of a busy week for me, but I'm definitely going to try and enjoy the quiet while it lasts. I still have a stack of dance costume alterations to tackle, and I have a meeting for a potential new project tomorrow night, so I'm definitely not going to get bored while all the students are gone!

**Also, I'm having a sale on all my Malabrigo patterns this week for Malabrigo March 2019. Everything in this bundle is 20% off through Saturday with code MALMARCH19.**



Linking up with Crafting On and Yarn Along

Friday, March 1, 2019

A Growing Shawl


Well, it is Friday, again, and it's snowing. Hopefully the snow will stop by noon; I have to drive out into the country to pick up an aquarium tonight, and I'd love to not have to reschedule due to bad roads.

I've been working steadily on this shawl this week, and I'm past the halfway point now. It's already huge, and I think this is going to be a great, versatile shawl—light enough for a little something extra on my shoulders, but big enough to squish into a super warm layer under my coat. I kind of feel like I'm in a bit of a knitting black hole right now, but I know I'm adding repeats and using up yarn, so hopefully it'll all come together soon.

I have some pattern writing to work on this weekend. I want to type up the written instructions for this shawl and another shawl, and I have a couple of swatches that I need to measure and work out some math for so I can get my next sweater sample cast on this month.