And That's Just the Sock Yarn!

So, I've finally sat down and explored Ravelry and started inputting stuff. There are now 51 yarns in my stash (Ravelry link), and -- with a couple exceptions -- they're all sock yarns or other yarns destined to become socks. Oh my word! I haven't even started on the stuff out in the garage (which is a perfectly acceptable place to store yarn when you live in a dry climate). Don't worry, it's all in plastic tubs.

Anyhoo, I got this email from Knit Picks and decided I had to have this cardigan. Okay, so maybe I'm totally acclimated to life in the Southwest, but it seems strange to me that they are touting this as a warmer weather sweater but the yarns they're recommending are all worsted-weight wool or wool blends. Doesn't that seem a wee bit warm, even for cool spring evenings? Or am I really a child of the desert now?

Well, there's no way I'm making it in wool for my life here. And M nixed the idea of buying any new yarn for it when she found this

in the stash. It's somewhere near about 8 pounds of light worsted cotton.

So I swatched

and it looks like the gauge should be about right. I'll probably cast on later today or tomorrow.

What about project monogamy? Well, the Kimono Jacket now looks like this:

No, it doesn't really spend its days hanging around in the shrubbery, but it felt like taking in a little sun. And that would be why this little beauty is going into hibernation (though it's called estivation when it happens in the summer) until fall. There's just no way I could finish it before the weather got just too darn warm to wear it.

And then I must do something with these:

Many, many, many moons ago, I made us a scarf using Eros and 24K. Recently M wore it work, and a friend fell in love. So, these two balls are destined to become one for her, in her colors (red and black). It'll be a nice, mindless task that.

First Monkeys

I know they're the first because I absolutely love the pattern.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A. from Knitty
Yarn: One of Gail's first attempts at striping sock yarn, gifted months ago (color fairly true in the photo above)
Needle: Inox 40" circular #1 (2.5mm), magic loop style
Mods: Didn't purl in the lace pattern (as a combination knitter, I can be averse to purling in the round); slip-stitch heel; and I'm sure there are other differences, because I admit to ignoring the pattern after I had memorized the lace pattern (after 2 repeats on the first sock). In the future, I would not do the twisted rib -- it's a little tight going over my foot. Maybe a regular 1x1 rib, or a 3x1 even. We'll see.

Like I said, I really love this pattern. Perhaps in future I will even make some with the intended purl stitches, but I do like the gentle texture obtained by leaving them out.
These socks are destined likely as a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law. A similar fate awaits most of the socks I will knit from our stash of wool sock yarns over the next few months. I suspect we will have little need for wool socks in Tucson, at least until we start realizing that it does get cold there in the winter (they tell us this usually takes 3 years).

Next up on the needles:

Red Sox! I've wanted to make myself a pair for a while, and I finally just bought the yarn. Trust me, the color in this photo is just all wrong. That really is red and white.

I'm kinda making the pattern up as I go along, but it's pretty basic. The yarn is Cascade Fixation; I cast on 60 stitches, knit 10 rows of corrugated ribbing (as my niece, I apparently love the Red Sox more than I hate corrugated ribbing), then a 4x2 rib for the leg and foot (Fixation and stockinette, not the best of friends); toe will be white, as will the afterthought heel. I have already done all of the corrugated ribbing and have the start of the second sock waiting on stitch holders -- it is a trick to keep the hatred of the ribbing from causing second sock syndrome.

And one more project that I hope to have done before we leave. I/we need to turn a whole lot of this:

"pies", each containing something a little less than a full ball of each of four different colors of Plymouth Encore -- into this:

usable balls of yarn.

What? Well, the pies are from back when WEBS used to sample yarns featured in their catalogs. This is one of the methods used to make than sampling a little easier. Why? M and I do a lot of charity knitting (what a former co-worker used to refer to in a tone usually reserved for those drowning kittens as "knitting things for poor children"). The separated colors are destined to be scarves, hats, mittens, etc. Okay, except perhaps for one of the greys, which is likely to become one of these.

Smooch Back At Ya

Well, I had a eureka moment over the first row of smooch (it's a six stitch repeat, not five stitches), though I still have no clue what the "one st on right needle" means. After that, I motored along on the back -- simple lace pattern, some waist shaping, and a lot of pink stockinette. At 17 sts and 24 rows to 4 inches, this thing isn't going to be a long project.

The front is done up to where it is split for the neck. Well, I had nearly finished the left side of the front neck and then had to frog the whole thing. I've decided this is one of the more poorly written patterns out there. I've figured out how I'm going to do the front neck, and it should at least look like the picture in the book.

I do have to admit I'm liking the fact that the neck and arm edges are left raw. The front neck is kept flatish with a slip stitch edging, and the arm holes are allowed to do that stockinette curl. No stitches to pick up!

When smooch is done, I get to start on this:M's school has a big fundraiser at the end of the month and part of the evening is an auction. This is our donation. We're hoping it is at least as popular as the hedgehog M made for last year's auction (it went for $100 -- yes $100 for a stuffed hedgehog!).

Then, I get to do something (guess what) with my Easter present:Yes, more Peaches & Creme in (left to right) 159, pink lilacs; 186 lemon-lime; 186 shades of green. We don't usually get each other big gifts for birthdays, holidays, etc, and this is just perfect (they're even Easter-ish colors). It will most likely, of course, all become dishcloths.

In Love

I am a bit enamored of this little number from the Spring Knitty. I think it would look fabulous on M. Problem is I don't believe there is anything in the stash that will ... oh wait, I bet there is.

Yep, cones of some no-longer-produced 6/2/2 in dark teal and fuchsia that I picked up for a song a while ago would probably do quite nicely. When I have a chance, I will have to swatch it and see.

Okay, one of the projects (on the long list of household projects to get done now that I'm not working) that needs attention is an inventory and organization of the stash. Wanna glimpse?
On the left there is about half of the stashed stash. The rest is on the other side of the room in similar tubs as well as overflow bags. The pic on the right shows the projects-in-waiting area. These are all yarns and patterns which have been matched and are in the queue. Remember, there are two fiber addicts in this house, so it's not quite as dreadful as all that.

And that doesn't include the sock yarn. Oh no, the sock yarn has its own home separate from the rest of the stash. Do I have a problem?

While I was upstairs flashing the stash, I couldn't help but flash this as well:This is the bed in the tiny bedroom at the top of the front stairs. Shortly after we moved in the cats claimed this room and this bed as their own. From the window behind the adorably sleeping K-man they can watch the world go by -- or at least pick up its mail. We live in one of those small, one-postal-employee towns without rural delivery. If you want mail in this here village, ya gotta git yerself to the post office (conveniently located one driveway over from ours). This window has a perfect view of the post office/town hall parking lot and the parking lot of the inn across the street. Oh, they can also see the small driveway island where we've placed the "cat TV" (otherwise known as a bird smorgasbord).

Flash: The temperature here in Western MA is supposed to reach the mid-60s today (back to freezing by the weekend), and I just looked up to find no fewer than 10 robins hopping around on the small bare patch of lawn at the library next door. Does anyone else remember learning the vocabulary sentence, "Robins are a harbinger of Spring."? I'm still not sure I know what harbinger really means, but I do remember that sentence all these years later. I've heard rumors that many robins didn't even leave this winter, but I'm still taking the flock next door as a positive sign that soon I may not be freezing by substantial buns off.

Okay, time for some math -- the kitties can look out their window to see the post office and town hall, and I can look out my office window at the library. Yes, that means we pretty much live dead-center in this little hamlet. Positive: It is very easy to give people directions to our house. Negative: We can't get away with nothin'.

Haulage and a New Project

Saturday I had to drop off Baby Surprises 5 & 6, and I got caught. There we are (M was with me -- the kiss of death), in a yarn store (okay, in what some term THE yarn store), and we just couldn't help ourselves. I want to send a special thanks to LA for pointing us to the new sock yarn in the warehouse.
Clockwise from upper left: Regia 4-ply Ringel Color #5047; Regia 4-ply Stretch Color #119; Regia 4-ply Mini Ringel Color #5219; Trekking XXL #90; RYC Classic Soft Lux #007 (enough for a jacket); Laines du Nord Dolly Baby #81 and 181 (for a hat); Regia 4-ply Mini Ringel Color #5220; Cascade Fixation #9843 and 6388 (I succumbed to my envy of M's pink socks); and Regia Stretch Crazy Color #115.

All except the Trekking and Fixation are closeouts, and as far as I can see, only the Soft Lux is on the website right now. They're a little backed up, so I would expect that the sock yarns will be up shortly, but if you're in the area and itching for sock yarn....

Since the Soft Lux and the Dolly Baby are for M and all the rest are sock yarns, I really don't feel too badly about breaking the "no new yarn" vow. Sock yarn doesn't count, right?

Of course, I also picked up this little beauty while I was there:
It's a tank in Nashua June, and it's a sample, which means store credit, which means money with which to buy more yarn (this will probably go to weaving projects, however). I cast on and have gotten this far:
The yarn is surprisingly soft and easy to work with. I was a little worried about the four thin plies in something without a lot of stretch or stickiness, but it really hasn't shown a tendency to split. The pattern is straightforward and easily memorized (the main lace panel has a 16-row repeat). I am a little worried about the amount of yarn it's going to take, however. The pattern calls for 6 balls for a medium. I'm about half an inch or less from finishing the first ball, and I have about 4 1/2" of the back done. I'm getting both stitch and row gauge (a miracle) in the textured rib, so I guess I'll have to trust that it'll work out. [Sorry about the washed-out color in the picture -- darn flash. It is a very soft sage green, but not quite that blah.]

We also made a little side trip to the library:
Clockwise from upper right: The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved by Sandor Ellix Katz (an exploration of our unhealthy relationship with food creation and the food economy); The Discomfort Zone by Jonathan Franzen (I like memoirs by people who know how to write and how not to take everything so seriously); Exit Strategy by Michelle Cromer and Remember Me by Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (both modern explorations of death and funeral customs and how they are changing -- no reason other than a fascination with ritual in general and M's professional interest in the funeral game); and Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman (a lay introduction to New Testament textual criticism).

That should all keep us busy for a bit, no?

Right now there is a man in my basement cleaning my furnace and vacuuming the heating vents. The thumping and bumping in the walls is a little wierd, but it'll be so nice to have the dust gone.