New shawl started

Sunset

Purple Mystery

I need to get to posting pictures. I started another shawl three days ago and am already well underway with it. I had a full skein and about a quarter of Malabrigo Purple Mystery in worsted weight to use up. I couldn't pick a contrast, so I splurged and bought two skeins from River Colors in Sunset. I'm using another Stephen West pattern and making the Boneyard shawl, but instead of M1 for the increases, I've been using yarn overs, so the effect is lovely. I wanted something to contrast the purple, which I love, something really pops and punches, might even be garish, but will definitely achieve what I want. The owner of River Colors was so helpful  in her suggestions, too, and agreed that this should work out nicely. I arrived too early to go in, since the store opens at 11, so I went to the Blackbird Bakery and bought a baguette and some pastries and sat in the public park across the street under a tree and knit up furiously with the quarter-skein, getting quite far and it really gave me something to go with once I got there. A few minutes later and I had what I need and was on my way. Actual pictures of my progress to follow soon.

The shawl

I mentioned I'm working on the Daybreak pattern by Stephen West. I love it. I have fun doing it. I just realized, however, that I've been working on it since April.

In fact, I was looking through old posts on CKW, and found the start date: April 15. The post was pretty funny, really, because I could not get my head around the idea of rotating the piece 90 degrees. Two people and fifty explanations later (well, not really, but my skull is very thick sometimes), and I was underway...too bad I ended up ripping it all out and starting over at LEAST two time.

As of 1pm today, August 26, 2010, I was 14 rows of striping and 28 rows of finishing (so 32 rows total) away from binding off and being done! Then it's time to block that sucker and wear the living daylights out of it!

Yarn yearning

Stephen West makes my favorite shawls and knits. They're so pretty and I am incredibly jealous/in awe of his ability. I want to make fabulous things, too, damn it!

;-)

That said, I'm working through the Daybreak shawl, which would have taken me much less time if I had an attention span or endless time. Alas, I have neither, so I'm still working on the rows of stripes. I have four more stripes in each color (so that's 16 more rows) and then I get to do 4 rows 7 times (so another 28) and I can bind off and be finished. I am excited. It will be done in perfect timing with the weather change locally!

That said, I am going to work the Boneyard shawl next, but what I'm actually writing about today is not my man-crush on Stephen, but instead, my desire for more yarn.

As noted in a previous entry: private college + not full-time + undervalued employment = No money. No money + expensive yarn tastes = no yarn.

What makes this a problem? I am in short supply of things to do with the little yarn I have. Sure, it seems like a lot, and I could probably crank out soot sprite like they're going out of style, but I won't really be doing that any time soon, because they require stuffing, which I also don't have right now.

That aside, and for as much as I like knitting toys, I am on a big clothing kick. I really want to knit a sweater, but it would be for me and the amount of yarn required is prohibitively expensive for the things I want to make, so sweaters and cardigans have to wait.

Want. MALABRIGO!! 

The yarn

In the stash, I forgot to include the yarn:

Currently stored away, I have a variety of Malabrigo (a blonde, two solid brown, one Purple Mystery, two Lettuce, one mixed brown and blue, a lighter tan/brown, and about half a ball of...Vermilion), two skeins of Noro Kureyon (I forget the colorway, but it's got black, magenta, and green, I think), a locally made skein of light mixed colors (yellows, oranges, etc.), and...I think that's it. OH! No, two big bits of flax&wool yarn that I love the look of, but that is so delicate as to be nearly impossible to knit with. That stuff rips more than that tissue paper. In my big giant man-hands, especially!

Oh oh, and some mixed blues and pink yarns I got from back in my very early knitting days. I forget the brand, even, but I'm fairly certain they're still wool. Maybe Lion brand? Also two types of black yarn for knitting soot sprites (or if you want romanized Japanese: Susuwatari).

Lastly, Malabrigo sock yarn that I'm currently using for the on-going shawl! That's where the yarn stash stands at present!

The stash

Here's the scoop:

For those of you who don't know, I am incredibly underpaid and underutilized in my role as a cataloger/librarian at a small private college. It's not a bad job, per se, in fact, there are days where I really do enjoy it, but one of the biggest problems of no $$ is no spending ability and with no spending ability comes no yarn!

So, where I stand currently, I have to look for projects that either don't use up a whole skein, or projects that take only one or two skeins at best. I was lucky with my most recent scarf, because I had more than enough (thank goodness for large needles and chunky yarn!)

I also regularly depend on free patterns on Ravelry, Knitty, and wherever else I can get them, and also accept the kindness of strangers (or more often, friends), such as "A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns, by Barbara Walker", given so kindly to me by my friend Anne (as well as three magazines of Noro-specific patterns and most recently, Kaffe's Classics). I also have a few magazines donated by Annie in the CKW group, and I have sweaters lined up to knit from the Knitter's Vogue, with all sorts of menswear in it! LOVE!

My needles are almost all Brittany or ChiaoGoo and I noticed, as I lay them out, relatively few in terms of sizes. I have, in various lengths (and 2 sets of dpns), 5mm/US8, 5.5mm/US9, 6mm/US10, 8mm/US11, and 10mm/US15 needles. I also have an H/8-5mm crochet hook, though crochet continues to escape me. Too much one-handed-ness, and though I could make a pervy boy pun about one-handed activities (indeed there are many), I can safely say that sometimes, two hands are needed to get the job done right!

I also have my Lil' Guppie pocket utility man-objects (it's cute, though and looks like a fish...it has a bottle opener, wrench, knife, and 2 screwdrivers) The knife is the reason I use it. It comes in handy when I need to cut some yarn.

Pictures will follow eventually, though I recently had a massive hard drive death, so I lost a fair share of recent knit pics I'd taken. =_(

I also have Knitting with Balls, and two books from the Stitch'n'bitch series. Disconnected, I realize, but that's how I think. I switch topics like there's no tomorrow!

For the love of knitting!

After a long delay in getting around to this, I've finally started yet another blog to keep track of, but this time, instead of getting all my personal woes and tribulations, my "OMG" gossip, or the mushy stuff about my feelings, you'll get all my knitting tales, fiber fantasies, and progress reports.


This is inspired, in no small part, to my fondness for and my missing the Cleveland Knits West group. Meeting regularly on Thursday nights was not originally a problem for me, but life keeps throwing me curves and I keep missing those meet-ups. Hopefully this will be a way for us to keep in touch. =)

I'll post more as time permits and do a retroactive write-up for my finished projects, materials, etc. It will give me something fun to do with my time, that's for sure!