Random bits about my yarn....

Right now I am more interested in yarn than in knitting.

It is a good thing I am on a stash diet right now, or else I would be in trouble. This is the kind of mood that leads a person to buying a bunch of single skeins of yarn that don't go together and have no immediate projects to pair with.

It is precisely this mood that got me with the stash I have now.

Ravelry shows me at 109 currently stashed yarns, but Ravelry doesn't know about the 6 unlisted yarns that are arrayed beside me. Nor the bags of unidentified yarns from other people destashing label-less fibers.

Since my roomie is an artist and I have taught him to knit, I think I shall eventually spread out those yarns (after locking up the cats for the duration) and play a game of Mix and Match the Yarn!(ntm) to see what we can come up with.

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I cast on for the Windmill Bag, as mentioned on my twitter feed, and am almost done. Mostly this has been an at work project.
New trick learned with this project: I-cord bind off
New lesson (re)learned with this project: Sometimes 20 stitches of one yarn is wider than 20 stitches of another yarn.

The good news is that this project totally counts as destashing! I am using up yarns that I have had lying around. They are mostly partial skeins and at one point I ran out of yarn for one panel, so I had to frog a finished knit to reclaim the yarn. It was painless since the finished item in question was a limited use single mitten to go over a wrist cast for my roomie. He certainly did not mind the deconstruction.

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I still have not quite decided what to make with my 100% Alpaca yarns. I bought the two skeins together, a perfect pairing of color and weight, and every time I think I know what to make with them I think of something else.
They are so soft and cuddly that I want to make a pillow from them, but then I think a cowl would be better since the weight is light enough, yet if I make gloves I will have them on my hands and rub them against my face anytime I want! Oh, the possibilities!
It can be hard to have such nice yarns, le sigh.

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The secret surprise knitted stuffed toy has stalled yet again. It has grown to an awkward and bulky size, and I really just need to admit to myself that it is not going to get less awkward and bulky as I reach the body area and then the legs. It will always be awkward to knit, but that is part of the challenge. I should embrace this fact and knit on. Really I should. But wouldn't it be easier just to knit some nice lightweight lace?
At this rate, my friend will be getting this gift in time for Christmas. Gah!

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A while ago I tried laying out my stash and sorting it by color. I then packed it pretty much away in the color groups. While I can appreciate art and make correct suggestions about colors, I do not yet grasp the color wheel theory. Re-organizing my stash was a step in this direction. Baby steps, Bob, baby steps.

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I am still trying to work out a way to store and display my yarn on my walls without having to make a bunch of holes. I am thinking of trying to find some of those coffee cup wall racks, replacing the posts with thinner and more fragrant woods so that I can ball yarn and stick them there.

I think it would work really well.
Where do you find those racks now-a-days?

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I actually have not gotten my spinning wheel out yet since MSW. I know, bad me. It is just that I have been so busy or cranky (and we know we shouldn't spin when cranky) or feeling too self conscious to spin in front of my roomie.

I will get the wheel out today. I promise. If only for a little bit. I was doing good last time and I intend to keep up that progress! I will not hold myself back any longer!
Just as soon as I finish this post.
And catch up on some blogs.
Oh, and there is an Indian Fest going on down the road....

Quick Knits for Cold Ankles

Well, due to a small misunderstanding with the save button versus the publish button, the last post was delayed coming out. Such errors will be avoided in the future. Thank you for your patience.

In my last post I promised, though vaguely, to discuss a recent project. I had cast on then finished this project without even getting anything updated online.
Which gives a clue to the alternate post title, "Projects that do as they are told."

My roommate is a tall and skinny guy. It is only with conscious effort that he is able to reach and maintain a healthy weight. If he slips, he will drop 20 pounds the way some people drop rumors.
If I am not careful, I will end up with 5 of those pounds becoming attached to me. So I tend to provide reminders and encouragement for him, mostly to prevent picking up lost weight.

Since I first picked up needles and made him a scarf, he has been asking for something for his ankles.

Tall, skinny people tend to have skinny, bony ankles. Which means he has no padding to protect and maintain warmth for the blood vessels that travel past the ankles.

The funny thing is, people lose heat through the bottom of their feet. Consider the soles of your feet as thermostats. If you doubt this, next time you are feeling like the room is too hot, take off both socks and shoes and you will find a near instant change.
So, if he wears socks to bed (and the apartment is warmer than England), he gets too overheated and can't sleep.

This request was years ago.

The other weekend, as the temperatures started dropping outside, I finally started making progress on this request.
Not much mind you, but some.


The fit was a bit off, and he wants a strap to go across the bottom of the foot to help hold them in place, but I made some beta ankle warmers.



It was a fairly simple 2x2 ribbing, with increases and decreases to provide a bit of space around the ankle. They were knit flat on too large needles and seamed up the sides to complete. There was not quite enough yarn left to do a simple garter stitch strapping at the bottom, but that will probably be in the next incarnation. For an 'off the top of my head' project, cast on with no real plans and no real measurements to work with, I think they turned out pretty well.

They were certainly fast to knit, despite the four year delay.

Perhaps since they were knit using alpaca, he is happy to wear them while he waits for new ones.

Finally, a bit about my trip to St. Paul

St. Paul was a lovely place. I hope to visit it again some day.
Our first full day was spent at the state fair. Shortly after the first bit of food and drink were consumed, I insisted on finding the livestock. Thus, I lead four poor bystanders on my quest for raw fibers.

The first thing we found was a booth, outside of a livestock building, proudly displaying the rewards of raising alpacas. They had quite a bit of yarn and many finished items for sale, but what got my attention was the raw fibers.

I picked up a hank of Hand Painted Alpaca Suri Roving (the silky blue fiber on the left), and an ounce of Alpaca batting (the bright pink on the right) for future spinning.
The blue roving feels even better than it looks, and this stuff is gorgeous. I will have to make my way through my first set of fibers I got with my drop spindle before I even think about touching the new fibers, but I think having it will provide much encouragement.

My guilt at having left my two cats at home, almost 1300 miles away, did lead to me buying a cute toy for them from the booth. It was a semi-felted ball of alpaca fibers. I figured Magik, my curious and playful kitten, would love it. When I presented them with it I was not disappointed. Instead, I was surprised at how strongly Hunter, the large and lazy, had decided to claim the new toy as his own. Now I can exercise him by throwing the toy and letting Magik chase it. He will get up and take it away from her then play with it a bit. It seems to have worked as a bribe.

The other four people with me quickly grew impatient as I sorted through all the different items available at the alpaca booth.

Two of the group, Bill and Piller, were my companions for the trip. Both are rather good at making the correct noises when presented with knitting and fiber related words or objects. I know they don't understand much unless it is a finished item they can wear or use, but they do well at knowing when to make positive sounds and when to express sympathy. This may be because of how often I quote lovely knitting phrases like, "Two eyes, two needles" and "Sharp pointy sticks can hurt you more than me". But, alas, even they were ready to move away from the alpaca fiber before I was.

So off we went, resuming our search for livestock. They were at least partially interested in seeing living creatures, but I think mostly they wanted it done with so they could move on to the rest of the fair.

The buildings holding livestock are kindly marked in big letters on the outside declaring what creatures you can expect to find inside.
So, imagine my surprise when we went into the sheep building and found goats. I did a lot of walking around before discovering that there were no sheep in the sheep building. I was informed that sheep had been moved to the swine building so that 4-H could have a goat day.
I at least would have been mollified had there been a single cashmere goat in the building, but there were none to be found. As we left the building I started naming tasty Indian recipes that can be made with goat, starting with a list of curries.

It was a bit more searching to find the swine building, but find it we did. Half of it had the correct swine, but the rest was sheep. Loud, lovely sheep with warm, mostly-white wool.


Some sheep were a bit on the naked side and one being stripped as we watched.
I did get to pick up a few bits abandoned, but most of the sheep there were not raised for their wool. The bright white one pictured just a bit above had the softest wool I had the honor of touching during our tour of the place.

I was informed that most of the sheep there were not raised for wool and, in fact, did not have the proper wool for weaving or spinning. With that bit of knowledge I was ready to leave the swine building and go back to the usual riding of rides, eating of food on a stick and drinking of Minnesota beer that was the original plan held by the majority of our party.

I had a blast at the fair. We wandered around the large grounds, saw many cool things and I picked up a cool gun that does an impressive job of filling the air with round light bubbles. I admit, I have a secret love for all things bubbles. Piller wasted no time explaining the rules, once I had acquired my new toy. No bubbles in the house, no bubbles in the car, no bubbles inside the elevator to and from our temporary residence while in St. Paul.
I nodded and smiled innocently while he recited these rules to me. As soon as I spotted a couple of kids nearby I immediately started firing bubbles into the air. It was not long before I had a happy group of giggling children chasing bubbles like fireflies.
Really, it was a great time.

But wait, there is more! The state fair visit was only Sunday, the first full day in Minnesota. I got two more great yarn related events in during our trip. I will share these stories, and the pics of my new stash additions, in a later post.
So stay tuned!