Starting to look a little neater

There are as many ways to manage a stash as there are knitters who have them. Mine used to be in many locations through the house (ok so it still is a bit but we will get to that) and not really visible to either my guests or unfortunately myself...well it wasn't. I have taken over a room in the basement and called it my own!

The plastic drawer unit to the left of the bookcase that you can barely see is exclusively lace weight yarns. With sock weight/fingering taking up that big tall one to the right of the bookcase and an entire Rubbermaid tub devoted to ColourMart purchases! I have baby yarns in their own unit and sport weight/DK stashed in the corner and a great big bag of worsted weight ready to be donated to someone who will use it. I am keeping some, but I ran out of drawer space!

Is this all there is? Well, no. I have not even started in on the garage stash or the living room stash or even the fiber for spinning.

But I had to help the kids do this :



Did I mention the basement was unfinished when we moved in and that we did that?

~M

Be Careful What You Ask For

Once Upon a Time there was a bank teller who argued with his boss about wearing a tie. Being a bit of a smartass said bank teller bemoaned the lot of modern ties with their geometric patterns or stripes and complained that they were difficult to tie correctly and only gave irate customers something to grab when they needed someone to get face-to-face with and argue about fees.

This Bank Teller was required each month to list all the things he had done well, and the areas he needed to work on and develop a monthly action plan around those things. Several months ago his action plan was about ties.


Not content to just write that he needed to improve his choices or how he tied them, this action plan included a history of the lowly tie and how it was first worn by Croatian mercenaries and delved into it's evolution into the long strip of fabric his boss was insisting he wear today.

This is where he made his mistake.

NEVER tell a knitter that you will wear a piece of lace around your neck unless you REALLY mean it!!






He was a good sport about it, too.

I cropped out his face because I forgot to ask if it was ok for him to live in tie infamy forever!

~M

How the stash does grow...

The yarn fairy dropped by my house this week. She brought with her these lovelies from Knit Picks. If I am ever going to catch up on my two pair per month dream for this year I needed some more solid color yarn. While I like striping and varigated yarns I really am in lace mode and the pattern shows up so much more with a simple yarn.

Then the yarn fairy dropped of this :

Off to the left hand side of the box of Lacey Lamb is some of the new Angel Wing that made it's debut at TNNA Winter. I knit with some of this in red for that show, now to use some for myself. :)

Not much that I can show you on the knitting front, there has been knitting, but...itsa secret.

~M

More of the spiders

My very first pair of toe up socks are done! And although I did modify the pattern a little bit, and they do have one not quite right, not sure what I did wrong, but no-one can see when they are on, heel, overall I am pretty pleased with them!
The Gardener by Leslie Comstock
Araucania Ranco Solid in greens, and not quite as solid as the name would imply!
Size 1 (US) needles, worked in the "leap frog manner" as described in a prior post.
Mods : Changed the lace bind off for a standard 1 by 1 twisted ribbing until I was tired of it!
Techniques used: A magic cast on and A surprising bind off.

I have one other thing that I can tell you, while I knit away on things I am not able to share just yet...my knitting is in a new book! Comfort Knitting and Crochet has a pattern that I sample knit the squares for..thank goodness I didn't have to attach them to each other as crochet is not one of my favorite things! Check out the book and look at the pattern Petal. :)

~M

Spiders!

In progress photo's of The Gardener, I think I got the hang of casting on for the toes using the magic cast on that Amanda suggested. The first yarn attempt did NOT work out too well for me, so now these socks are being knit in Araucania Ranco Solid in Lime green.

I have been "leap-frogging" these socks, having found that I seem to finish just a little faster (as in not get second sock syndrome) when I am working on a Mystery Sock. So..I knit two toes, on the second toe I moved onto the foot to where the gusset increases begin (did I mention these begin in the middle of the bottom of the foot? Cat Bordhi came up with it!!) then I switched socks and knit from the beginning of the increases to the end, switch again to get as far as the heel and so on and so forth until I got to where I am today.....two feet and one leg.

The vine lace pattern on the front of the leg is really easy to do, a couple of repeats and that chart got lost in the shuffle on my desk, but it is in my brain now so I don't need it!

One leg and some kind of cuff to go! :)

~M

Practically Identical

Stripey and loud was the order of the day for these socks! I think that they fit the bill perfectly and if you account for the fact that the man has one foot extended you will notice that I finally got it right and those socks are practically identical!

No real pattern on those bad boys, just knit 2 purl 2 ribbing that spirals around the leg and instep of the sock. Short row heels and rounded toes complete the "pattern". :)

Next up ?

The Gardener which will be a challenge if for no other reason than I have never knit toe up socks before!

~M

And that's all there was....

I finally finished my March Mystery Socks from SKA on Ravelry. If you like twisted stitches, delicate lace and micro cables this is the pattern for you! I do, so I think it is a fabulous pattern! I can just about guarantee this pattern will show up on the blog again, both myself and the Drama Queen think it rocks! The cat does too and refused to move out of the way while I was trying to take pictures.

Stats:

Currently un-named mystery sock pattern,
size 1 (US) needles, worked magic loop to make it portable
Land O Lace Steffi in Pennock, this is a Just Abouts colorway and let me tell you it is well worth your time to check this yarn out. Seriously decadent feeling, while still being easy care for the gal who isn't so hot at sorting laundry!
Made to fit my feet, but unfortunately that means they also fit The Drama Queen so they are apt to be missing from my sock drawer.

Being a fairly concentration intensive project I had to cast on something simple for movie watching!




Standard 72 stitch sock, in 2 by 2 ribbing that spirals (every 6 rows move the stitches one to the left) with a short row heel. Cascade Sassy Stripes and size 1 needles, knit this far while watching Monsters Vs Aliens and the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The baby blanket progresses but isn't really photo worthy!