stash

Sneak Peek

Posted on by alexand knits

I got a new project on the needles about a week or so ago, and I’m liking how it’s turning out so far. The pattern is Easy Goes It, a free shawl pattern by Finicky Creations that came out last month. Lately, I’ve been working on matching up stash yarns with patterns and building up my queue. That way, when I feel like starting a new project, I already have pre-planned choices to pick from. So, when I found this pattern, I went through my stash to find an appropriate yarn. It just so happened that the yarn I picked was sitting within arm’s reach, so I decided to just cast on.

I’m using Phydeaux Designs Beurre: Superwash Merino Fingering Wool. I got this yarn from a rather fortuitous Goodwill score (that’s a story for another post).

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It’s a light fingering weight, 100% merino yarn that’s plied a little on the loose side. Despite the name, which means “butter” in French, the yarn is a little on the crunchy side. It’s still plenty soft for a neck garment. Its texture is pretty close to Koigu KPM but it has a touch less loft. The colorway is OOAK (one of a kind) Pumpkin. It’s got different shades of a lovely yellowy pumpkin orange mingled with brown and bronze. I thought it would work well with the garter stitch and mesh lace panels of the shawl, and so far it looks like I wasn’t wrong!

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I’ve been working a lot of night shifts lately, which mostly sucks. One benefit, though, is it’s usually pretty quiet and I’ve been able to get some good knitting time in. Above pic courtesy of my work desk and fluorescent lights.

The pattern is, as the name suggests, very easy. It’s not without nice details, though. The edge treatment is simple but effective:

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I have a little more yarn than the pattern calls for, so I’ll just go until I run out. My only worry is that the yarn came to me wound into a pretty tight ball. If I were being more conscientious, I would have re-skeined it, washed it and let it air dry. Over-stretched yarn can do some wacky things when knitted up and blocked. However, it’s not a project where fit and gauge are crucial, so I decided to just wing it. The rest of the yarn from that Goodwill batch is mostly also balled up pretty tightly, so I may have to address that with future projects.

In other news, I will be traveling to Rhinebeck again this year! Feel free to say hi–I love meeting other knitters. I’ll wear an easily identifiable shawl, provided it’s cool enough!

Happy knitting!

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So Behind! And an FO Spotlight!

Posted on by alexand knits

Oh blog, I’ve missed you! It’s been a busy couple of weeks and I’ve been stretched a little thin. I went back to work (after nearly a year on leave) and whew! It’s been challenging, and it hasn’t left me with a lot of free emotional energy for blogging. I am hoping that as I adjust to being back, things will settle and I’ll get into more of a routine, and that there will be space in that routine for regular blogging again.

As you might expect, my knitting time has been affected as well. I have been able to get some things done, though! I ended up with two projects entered into the Ravellenic Games, one WIP and one baby blanket (which I finished with mere minutes to spare). I have yet to get prettified photos of either, so I will wait to share them for a bit.

Earlier this month, Ambah O’Brien posted a testing call for a new cowl pattern.
You might remember I tested her Merinda Shawl pattern a while back:

Well, I love that shawl. It was a lovely pattern and a joy to knit, and I admire many of her other patterns (someday I’ll make a Lilli Pilli). She’s posted a number of testing calls since then, but they’ve mostly been shawls and I just haven’t had the time to squeeze any in. Since this one was a cowl, I just couldn’t resist. I ended up racing a little to get it done, but I did it! It was blocked, dried and photographed by the due date. So, I give you my Mendia Cowl!

The rundown

Pattern: Mendia Cowl by Ambah O’Brien. Not published yet.

Yarn: 308 yards of Noro Silk Garden Lite. I had this in my stash. I have no memory of where it came from!

Size made: One. Finished dimensions are about 29″ in circumference by 13″ tall.

Needles: US6s.

Techniques used: Longtail cast on and a modified stretchy cast off that Ambah developed.

Modifications: None.

Difficulty: I think this pattern is intermediate. The stitch pattern is a little complicated at first blush, but it makes sense once you get into it. The tricky part is making sure you can read your knitting very well as fixing mistakes is challenging.

Ravelled: here.

The Pretty

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I ran into a few knots in the yarn (as seems to happen a lot with Noro). I chose to just carry on with whatever color was there and not worry about keeping the color sequence uninterrupted. I like the slightly more random outcome that gave me. As I was knitting, I kept thinking the colors looked like a southwestern sunset.

Since the yarn I chose is a loosely spun single with some variability in its thickness, the stitch definition isn’t very high. So, the chevron pattern doesn’t pop as much as it could. Other than that, I really like this yarn for the pattern. I like the color gradations, the drape and the texture. Here are some closer pics:

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It ended up with an unexpected rainbow pattern! That’s fine, though–I can rock some rainbows:

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Enjoy this rare sighting of me.

I couldn’t get any better pics because, even in the air conditioning, I couldn’t stand to have it on more than a few seconds! It has been very hot here this month. I am looking forward to fall, and to bringing out my wraps and shawls again!

In all, this ended up being a quick knit, even with lots of twisted stitches and a somewhat fiddly stitch pattern. I think it would look great in a variety of different yarns. In a high-twist merino semisolid, it would have great depth of color and a lot more drape. In this more rustic single, it has a lot of structure which helps it sit well. I’m very happy with it! I have almost two skeins of yarn left, so I might make a hat or mitts to match. I foresee this getting a lot of use this winter!

Happy knitting!

The 30 Day Knitting Challenge: Day 14

Posted on by alexand knits

Day 14: What’s the worst yarn/fiber that you’ve worked with and why?

Hoo boy, that’s a tough one to answer. I’m pretty sure there are plenty of awful yarn experiences I’ve had that I’ve blocked out of my memory. For what it’s worth, even decent yarn experiences apparently slip my memory: My mom told me on one of her recent visits that I knit her a hat while we were at a knitting retreat years ago. Once she said it, it sounded vaguely familiar, but I essentially have no memory of it. I wonder how many other Alex Originals are floating around out there that I’ve completely forgotten!

Right, worst yarn ever. You probably know by now that you’re not going to get just one answer. Let’s start with a recent experience:

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This is some random grey acrylic that was lurking in my stash. I have no idea where it came from, but it most likely was in a batch of yarn from Goodwill or the like. Now, I don’t hate acrylic yarn. I have some yarn elitism, to be sure, but there’s something to be said for having the right yarn for the job, and sometimes that’s acrylic. There are plenty of non-scratchy acrylics out there and I use them when appropriate:

But this particular grey acrylic was just nasty. Part of the problem was that I sort of just assumed it was worsted/aran weight, so I used it as such when making a Car Blanket for my fil. The other three yarns I used were all Caron Simply Soft. Throughout most of the project, I just knew that I hated working with it: It hurt my hands, it was stiff and scratchy, and the fabric it created was unpleasant. I forged ahead, though. It wasn’t until I was almost done with the blanket that I realized that I was knitting it at too tight of a gauge and that it was probably closer to bulky weight. I don’t think knitting it on larger needles would have sparked a love affair with it, but it might have been a little less intolerable than it was. In any case, the blanket turned out well and no one but me seemed to think the grey panels were sub par.

Another unsatisfactory yarn experience involved Berroco Linet:

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I have twelve skeins of this stuff. Twelve. 1320 yards. It came from the Goodwill windfall. It’s cool enough yarn, but I just tried to use it for the wrong project. Mind you, I have no idea what the right project would be, but this definitely wasn’t it. I started to make a Lacy Loo with it, but it just was not working:

The chainette construction of the yarn gives it a sort of angular quality, which made it odd to work with. It wasn’t physically unpleasant like the grey acrylic, it was just not satisfying. I ended up making the Lacy Loo out of a purple merino (Jil Eaton Minnow Merino) instead:

Last up is this sort of greenish-brown acrylic boucle stuff:

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It even kind of looks like a turd, doesn’t it? I lost the ball band for it a long time ago and have no memory of what it is. I tried starting something with it years ago, but it just pulls in that weird boucle way. It also has a very thin core of just a thread or two surrounded by a lot of fuzz so it was very hard to work with. I find that I tend to not care for most boucle yarns in general. I haven’t worked with a really nice one yet, though, so they may actually be lovely and I just don’t know it yet!

What’s the worst yarn you’ve worked with?

The 30 Day Knitting Challenge is the creation of Meggiewes who blogs at Knitting in Wonderland.

The 30 Day Knitting Challenge – Day 12

Posted on by alexand knits

Day 12: Where do you keep your stash? Post pictures!

Well. You’re not going to get stash storage pictures, but don’t be too disappointed–while most of my stash is fairly well organized, the way it’s stored is not pretty. I have it sorted by yarn weight and stored in large plastic tubs, which are split between our walk-in closet, our “craft room”* and a storage room at my mil’s house.

I had it handily under control, stored neatly in our basement, and then two things happened. First, we decided to clear out our basement so that we could rent it out (hasn’t happened yet, but it’s coming). Second, I started getting carloads of yarn from my freecycle benefactor. So, it all had to come out of the basement and it expanded in volume all at once. I gave tons and tons of it away, but there’s still a lot left that I haven’t been able to organize properly yet. I have plans, though, don’t you worry!

Here are some projects I’ve been working on with the freecycle yarn so far:

I think that’s pretty good progress!

I have a small bin that I keep in our family room that has yarn in it that I’m reasonably sure I’m going to use soon. Plus, I have a few (ahem) project bags here and there with WIPs, yarns for upcoming projects and notions.

And that’s pretty much the long and short of it. Do you have a stash? How do you organize it? Where do you store it?

*Said craft room is not quite a reality yet. It’s sort of a jumble of a lot of stuff that needs to be organized and put away…somewhere.

The 30 Day Knitting Challenge is the creation of Meggiewes who blogs at Knitting in Wonderland.

FO Spotlight: Boot Cuffs for V Day

Posted on by alexand knits

Okay, folks, I’m not big on Valentine’s Day. I’m not trying to be a scrooge or to rain on anyone’s love parade or anything. I’m pro-love and pro-expression-of-said-love. I’m just not on board with a more or less commercially born holiday that dictates when I must do this. However, I do live in this world and I am married to someone more fond of Valentine’s Day than I am*. So, since I love the wifey, I mustered up a little participation this year. She asked for some boot cuffs so I found a couple of patterns I thought looked good, matched up some yarn possibilities, and put my test knitting on a brief hold and made the woman some boot cuffs.

The rundown

Pattern: UGG HUG Boot Toppers by Alexandra Davidoff

Yarn: Just under one skein of Cascade 220. This particular color reeeeeally looks like Quatro, but isn’t. The label doesn’t say one thing about Quatro, just 220. I half wonder if it predates Quatro as the label looks like one of the old ones. The yarn came to me as part of my recent freecycle haul.

Size made: One (adult)

Needles: US8s for the body and 11s for the bind off

Techniques used: Longtail cast on, standard cast off, cabling

Modifications: Omitted one row in the initial ribbing (by mistake on the first one, noticed it on the second) and omitted one row in the final ribbing (on purpose to come in under 220 yards).

Ravelled: here

The Pretty

The close up pic shows the colors more accurately. I do like how these turned out, however they are a little on the loose side. I didn’t check gauge as I figured there’d be enough stretch to the pattern that it wouldn’t matter a ton if it wasn’t exactly right. There is stretch to it, but not a ton of recoil. The ribbing/cable pattern is 4×4 so there’s not as much recoil as there would be with a 1×1 or 2×2 rib and I didn’t take that into account. I will try to block them again and see if I can scrunch the ends up a bit and convince them to be a little stretchier.

Otherwise, I really like how the yarn and the pattern work together. It’s one of those situations where you don’t know how it’s going to turn out until you try it. The cables look much more complicated than they are. This would be a great first cable project! If I used this pattern again, I would probably omit one of the cable repeats for a slightly snugger fit.

When I asked the wifey what color she wanted, she gave me two answers. So, I decided that meant two pairs of boot cuffs. I was hoping to have the second pair done sometime on the 14th but I didn’t quite make it (haha…get it? Didn’t quite make it?). I did, however, manage to get one cast off so maybe tomorrow (technically today as it’s past midnight here) sometime I’ll get the second one done. Here’s Sammy helping to display the first one:

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This one is a heavily modified version of Helmikuu Boot Toppers. I’m not as happy with this pattern but I’m happy with what I came up with. If I had looked ahead a little more thoroughly, I would have done some things differently from the start. The pattern produces a cuff that is about 5″ tall, which I don’t think is long enough to be able to fold over and have stay in place reliably. I’ll go into more detail on the changes I made when I get this pair finished.

Other updates: I gave Betsey to my MIL. I think she liked it, but it’s hard to tell. I’m still working on the current test knit (Lancashire Dream) but since I’m just knocking out what seems like miles of stockinette for the body, there’s not a ton to report there. What I was thinking when I signed up to knit a cardigan (read: lots more purling than I really want to do) out of fingering weight yarn on US2s, I will never really know. At least it’s cute. I ordered the one skein I could find of madelinetosh tosh merino light in Filigree so that I can finish up my Athena shawl. And, I may or may not have two incorrectly sized attempts at a hat for Z on the needles. In two different yarns. I can neither confirm nor deny.**

Happy knitting!

*For the record, she had some very nice things for me, too.

**Well, I could…but I won’t.

 

A Knitter With a Plan

Posted on by alexand knits

I’m organized! Totally together! I’m planning ahead, and starting earl(ier than I usually do)! I’m SUPER KNITTER!!!! Well, okay, I won’t go overboard. But, I did add all my test knits to my queue and matched almost all of them up with yarn. I dug the needles out for the first few and put them with the yarn. I’m going to knit like the wind, weave in my ends as I go, and block stuff as soon as it’s off the needles. I’m going to sew on buttons, dang it! I’m going to channel some of OrangeSmoothie’s speed knitting mojo and get the proverbial ‘er done!

Check out my queue. If you dare. No, don’t–I’m embarrassed. Okay, do it, but don’t look at any of the due dates.

I cast on for one yesterday. It’s the Lancashire Dream cardigan by Gabrielle Danskknit. Being a test, it’s not published yet, but I will share a teaser pic! I’m making the 4 yo size for the little. I decided to use the same yarns I used to make the wifey’s Quicksilver so that they can coordinate. It’s going to be really stinking cute. It’s going to have stripes in reverse stockinette on the top and non-reversed solid color stockinette on the bottom. It’s a top down raglan design.

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Click to see it on ravelry

 

You can tell I like that sort of color combination as it’s pretty similar to the mason jar cozy I made, also in the picture, at least 10+ years ago.

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Quicksilver

So far, I’m very happy with how the sweater is turning out.

In other news, I stumbled into quite the yarn haul a few days ago! I happened to see a freecycle email come through from a person who was giving away three garbage bags full of yarn. Well, if you know me at all, you know I can’t resist a bargain. What better bargain is there than free? So I sent her a response throwing my hat in the ring right away. We emailed back and forth for a bit and eventually agreed I could pick it up the next afternoon. The next afternoon, I already had plans to knit with a new friend I met on ravelry, so I took her along with me to pick up the yarn. We had a lovely conversation with the woman giving the yarn away–turns out she’s moving in a few months and is downsizing–and then took it all back to my friend’s house. We spread it all out on the floor and sorted through it. It was the most yarny fun I’ve had since the legendary Goodwill windfall of 2015! There was sock yarn, worsted yarn, bulky Lopi yarn, wool, alpaca, cotton, silk, blends…in short, a little bit of everything except straight up acrylic. It ran the gamut from very old stuff to new and nice stuff. I’ve started logging it in ravelry but it’s going to be a long job. Much of it is unlabeled so I need to make some guesses about what it might be, weight, yardage, etc. At least I don’t need to do any burn tests as the yarn giver (I think that should be her official title) didn’t include anything 100% acrylic.

It dawns on me now that I should have taken pictures of it spread out on the floor in all its glory, but I didn’t. You’ll have to make do with a smattering of stash pics! Here are some of the highlights so far:

And much, much, MUCH more! She also included several WIPs, many of which were socks. I ripped some of them out but saved a few. There’s a pair of sock toes started that I really like, so I’ll pick up the stitches on them and see if I can finish them up!

I think it’s safe to say that I have my work cut out for me. First, finish all these damn test knits! Second, find something to do with all this yarn! Happy knitting!

Testing All the Things

Posted on by alexand knits

One of my recent posts included some nonsense about not doing any more test knits for a while. My intentions were good. I keep finding myself up against knitting deadlines and I wanted to be a little more relaxed about it for a while. Also, the test knitting has limited my time to work on other projects. I had this whole plan. I haven’t even been looking at the Testing Pool forum (much).

However. Two of the designers I’ve worked with several times both earburned* me with some new patterns. I held out for a couple of days on the first one, and a couple of seconds on the next batch. I don’t even want to admit how many tests I’ve signed up to do between now and May because it’s a little more than was probably all that smart. They are all really cute designs, though! At least they’re all baby or kid sized, so they should work up pretty quickly.

In the meantime, my Merinda shawl just needs the ends woven in and blocking. My Athena shawl is waiting on more yarn (I decided to buy the skein available fsot on rav, but haven’t heard back from the seller yet). I cast off on Betsey last night, so that one just needs ends woven and blocking. The only thing actually on the needles right now is the Feathery Lace Stole. I am making progress on it…two rows at a time!

I got a massive haul of yarn yesterday (more on that later) so am trying to get all that organized. Once I get things sorted and stored I’ll be able to pull out some of the yarns I need for tests. Then, I will just knit like the wind! Good thing my kid likes the stuff I make for her!

 

*Ravelry’s equivalent of a page. Yes, it’s a verb now. Sort of.

Ten Mile Milestone

Posted on by alexand knits

The other day, my ravelry yardage knitted total surpassed ten miles. I wonder how many stitches it takes to knit ten miles of yarn? 17,600 yards. How big would that skein be? It’s pretty crazy to consider. It’s also crazy to consider that I’ve knit a lot more than that but didn’t record the yardage, even after I joined rav.

Where has ten miles of knitting gotten me? On one hand, I think I’m a pretty experienced knitter. I’ve made a ton of different kinds of projects (ie, I’m not a “niche” knitter), some on the complicated side. I’m not afraid of lace, seaming, socks, doing gauge swatches, picking up stitches, dpns, blocking, intarsia, etc. On the other hand, there’s a number of projects and techniques I’ve never done that I’d like to try, like Fair Isle, adult sized sweaters, double knitting, more complicated brioche, steeking and knitting on a border, to name just a few. And more socks!!

My flurry of test knits continues. I’ve really enjoyed doing them. For starters, test knitting pushes me to choose projects I might not otherwise have picked, just by virtue of what’s available. Also, it’s a really good outlet for the detail oriented side of me. I love editing and proofreading, and test knitting is like the yarn-based version of those. As my daughter would say, “win win window”!

The last test knit I completed was my Caput Snood (not available yet) by Gabrielle Danskknit. This is the third test I’ve done for her. The others were the Tunbridge Hat and Vik Beach Hat. I made the child size out of two colors of Lion Brand Wool-Ease Thick & Quick that I had on hand from a thrift store purchase. Total yardage for the snood was 99 with an additional 20 yards for a giant tassel. I added a button at the front of the neck to help keep it snug. It’s for my daughter’s bestie but I tried it on my daughter in order to get some pics.

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I also finished the other hat for the same recipient. At long last, the Pretty Crabby hat is done and gifted! Again, I had my daughter model it so I could get pics. I used aran weight stash acrylic, none of which had any ball bands. I used the Jumbo Crab Cap pattern from Baby Beasties: monster mittens, hats & other knits for babies and toddlers by Debby Ware but I modified it heavily. My notes on that are on my ravelry project page, linked above.

It was such a tedious knit that I wasn’t expecting to like the finished result much. However…how cute is that?? I think it’s awesome! I would not recommend the book the pattern came from, though. I didn’t find the patterns to be well written or the finished items pictured to look very, well, finished. I like my version much better!

I guess that’s where ten miles of knitting gets you: to the point where you can use past experience to improve current projects. My modifications to the crab hat relied heavily on the Earbud Pouch pattern as well as knitty.com’s Kureyon Kozy pattern.

Here’s to the next ten miles. Happy knitting!

Drachenfels and the Art of Thrifting Yarn

Posted on by alexand knits

Making good progress on my Drachenfels. I chose to make this a four color design instead of three, so mine is shaping up a little different (which I love). The original pattern starts with two colors and about halfway through, the first color is phased out and the third color is added. So, in the sample knitted by Melanie Berg, the shawl is chocolate and light pink on one and and red and light pink on the other. For mine, I chose to start with colors A and B and transition to C and D, so the two ends of my shawl will look very different from each other. I was not sure initially that that was the best choice, but I love it. I really do. I’ve just phased out the second original color so am working only with dark grey and light blue. So so cool. These pics help show the last color transition:

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And this helps show what the different parts of the shawl will look like together:

IMG_3849I’ve mapped out how much bigger I’ll make it. The pattern calls for continued increasing throughout the garter ridge stripes, then a solid color section, then the edging and I cord bind off. I’ve already knitted to the total number of stitches the pattern calls for but I’m going to keep going for a ways. I’m not a petite person and I want to really be able to wrap up in this. So, I’m going to do a 2 color stripe section for 42 rows, a solid color section for 42 rows, then the prescribed 30 rows of edging. At least. That will put me at around 114 rows and 72 stitches over the pattern. If the solid color section looks like it needs to be longer, I will just keep going. Lord knows I might as well use up some yarn!

Speaking of using yarn, I’m sad to report that I’m on something of a yarn diet. While my mom was in town, we got into a rhythm of checking out thrift stores and just poking around. Predictably, I always found the yarn section and my rate of acquisition increased (by a lot). I tried to limit my purchases to yarn with at least some cotton or wool content and with enough yardage to be useful. I think my best find was at our local Goodwill By The Pound, or GWBTP as we’ve dubbed it. The official name is the Goodwill Outlet, I think. We discovered this place about three years ago, shortly after we moved. Have others found similar places? It’s a Goodwill but instead of items being priced individually, everything is sold by weight. Clothes are a certain price per pound, housewares another, etc. etc. Shoes and furniture are sold individually at very low prices. For someone like me who loves to pick through stuff to find bargains, it’s pretty much akin to heaven. I do have to be in the right mood as it’s labor intensive and, frankly, pretty gross. But I’ve found some awesome stuff there for ridiculously low prices.

Anyway, a day or two before my mom left for home, we stopped by the GWBTP for a bit. I almost never find yarn there and, when I do, it’s usually in really poor condition. The wifey once found a ball of nice kitchen cotton there that became flower washcloths, but that’s it. Well, that day I found a bag of yarn with several unmarked balls along with three nearly full skeins of Rowan Kidsilk Haze. I would describe the color as electric purple. I love it. That yarn typically retails for around $15 a skein. I don’t know exactly how much that bag of yarn cost me, but it was well under a dollar. Just call me Charlie Sheen!

IMG_3843I also found a big batch of knitting and crochet needles in a fabric case. I sorted them all out the other night and added the hooks and dpns to my inventory. I haven’t gotten to the straight needles yet. Here’s a shot of the bunch:

IMG_3845That doesn’t include the case or the straight needle orphans. That’s 16 pairs of straights, one circ, five complete sets of dpns, three crochet hooks and two stitch holders. The handful of dpns in the upper right corner are orphans. I’ll keep them so I can supplement some of the four needle sets I have. The bag was $7. Some of the things are really interesting. For instance, the set of 5 tiny dpns half wedged under the packet of red needles is a very old set of sock or stocking needles. Those are gauge 0. I have another set just like them except 00. If I ever decide to knit stockings, I’ll be all set. Also, there’s a set of 10″ red aluminum dpns. I love longer dpns–they come in handy if I don’t have the right size circ and they’re easier for me because I have large hands. The two steel crochet hooks are a bit of a mystery to me. I tried doing some online research to determine what sizes they are but didn’t have much luck. I do know that one of them is the smallest crochet hook I’ve ever seen by far. I suppose I could use it to fix dropped stitches when I start knitting my cobweb-weight stockings with my 00 dpns (ha).

After my mom went home, the steady rhythm of thrift store shopping has slowed. That’s probably a good thing as I don’t really need yarn. I still keep an eye on sales online but am limiting myself to only really lovely yarn at equally lovely prices. What? I can’t just stop cold turkey! At least I have projects in mind for lots of it. I intend to keep it moving and, in my mind, that justifies my stash.

Right?

EDIT: I’m posting from a coffee shop with less-than-awesome wifi. The images in this post aren’t showing up when I try to view it. If that’s the case for anyone else, please leave a comment and I will try to fix it when I have a better connection.

Helix Mittens and One Teeny FO

Posted on by alexand knits

I knocked off one teeny tiny FO! Literally teeny: it’s a preemie hat. It’s not the most exciting project I’ve ever done, but it’s done and my WIPs are officially down to single digits. Unless you count the hibernators, which personally? I don’t.

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This is the second preemie hat I’ve made for my stashbusting initiative. I do realize that stashbusting by making preemie hats is something of a Sisyphean task, but it’s a start.

I’m doing a test knit but have run into a snag, so that’s on hold for a bit. I needed something else to work on, so I scouted around for a mitten pattern to match my Valentine Helix Hat. I didn’t find any helix mitten patterns, but I did find one that I could modify to work. I’m about 75% done the first one and so far I’m pleased with it.

IMG_3633I’m using the same Jil Eaton MinnowMerino and this Stay Put Mini Mitts pattern. Incorporating the helical knitting has been a little bit challenging, mostly in terms of maintaining consistent tension. One trick that I will use for the next one is to start each round on the last two or three stitches of the last dpn. That way there’s not a couple of rows hanging out loosening up. I’m going to do the second one with a red cuff. I wanted to do the whole set with pink as the main color but I didn’t have enough.

I’ve been working on organizing my stash somewhat. It’s slow going, mostly because I have a ton of skeins and partial skeins that don’t have labels. A few days ago I used this fiber burn chart that I got from Talya at Duck and Cover to identify some of these unknowns, but I have a lot more to go. I’ve decided to organize it by weight instead of fiber, which was my previous arrangement. It’s fun to go through everything and refresh my memory on what I have, but it’s frustrating, too. I keep wanting to stop organizing and start knitting instead! I start thinking about different projects I could do with the stuff I have, and it’s hard not to get too distracted.

I have a couple of Liebster re-nominations to get to…don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten!