January

Last day of the month today, so I thought I'd update.

First: yarn.

Added to the stash: 5 skeins of Rowan Tapestry I picked up half price in the last few days of the sales and 2 skeins of yarn from the 'Workshop' , a new little shop that sells material and some yarn and that also organises workshops. I got a voucher for Christmas and decided make the most of the last day of the 30% off sale :).





Out of the stash: the last of the Rowan Colourscape Chunky and a load of green yarn. 2-and-a-bit skeins of acrylic from Wibra, one of Katia Promo Fin and 3 different sized balls of unidentified yarn.

My stash now looks like this:







Next: projects.

The centre square of the green blanket is finished and has been blocked. It is now ready to have another band of squares sewn round it, but I'm not sure whether to add them straight away or to do a dark border first, then sew on the next band and then do the outside border in the same colour as the inside one. Actually, I think I'll probably do that. The blanket is a scrap blanket with lots of different colours, so it'll be good to have something that binds it together as a whole.

Inspired by Stichnerd's wave cowl I decided to use up the last skein of Colourscape to knit myself one of these. The pattern is really nice to knit and easy to memorise, but I'm not sure about the length of it. I like cowls to either be short enough to wear in one layer close to my skin or to be long enough to wrap around two (or three) times. This one is slightly to long to wear singly, but also slightly to short to have a nice drape when worn double... I just hope it'll give a little with some slight blocking...

The yarnbomb is growing some more flowers and is starting to look nicer, but there's still a way to go...



Mnz

The finishing touches

The slow start of the winter term has given me some time to put the finishing touches to a few projects that had reached the 90% mark.

The Annis shawlette has been blocked and the two ends have been woven in. I myself am not the shoulderette type - I prefer big shawls- but my mother is very happy with it.

This silver cardi has been on the 'to be finished'-stack for some time, but I had a hard time finding the right buttons for it. This was mainly due to the buttonholes being rather big in comparison with the lightness of the fabric. I have no idea what yarn it is because I picked it up from the pile of yarn my LYS gifted to the yarnbombing project. I initially planned to use it for my yarnbomb but never got round to it. After the do I decided that it would probably make a nice light cardigan for wear during spring and autumn. The pattern is 'Gilet court d'été' with buttons all the way down.

 

The colourscape cardi has also had it's buttons sewn on. As I've said before, I think this yarn is vastly overpriced,  but it has made an incredibly warm and soft jumper that I'm over the moon with. I always have trouble finding warm jumpers that could be worn with a skirt and because it's a cardigan model it doesn't look all that bad, I must say. The colours are just marvelous.

The next yarnbomb has also been started. I've got a place in mind for it, but I think I'll wait until the weather clear up to put it there. The basic structure is a boring-coloured granny stripe tube, but I want to cover it in crochet flowers in lots of nice colours. I've still got bits and bobs left from the patchwork bag, so I'll be able to put them to good use. Looking at the photos now it doesn't look like the most beautiful of yarnbombs, but that should change soon enough... I'd like to put it out in May, so it can be called 'May flowers' as in 'April showers bring May flowers' :)

As part of my new year's resolutions, I'm using up a variety of green yarns by crocheting another blanket. (I have absolutely no idea where it's going to go) The middle section is now sewn up, but there are a lot more squares to make and sew... But who cares? Aren't blankets supposed to be long term projects?

My last FO -as usual- is a pair of socks. These are the toe-ups I started in the Christmas holiday. Having worn them once I find that the short-row heel isn't as comfortable as the usual heel-flap-heel, but it's not that they're uncomfortable or anything. The long ribbed calf holds them up nicely, so at least they don't sag like other long socks tend to do.

I've got a few more WIP's on the needles (a cowl and some mittens) but so far I'm managing to keep to the 3-WIP-target I set myself. :)
Mnz

flash your stash

 The new year is the perfect time to flash my stash and by doing that confront myself with my yarn-hoarding habits. So here we go:


I seem to have rather a lot on the blue side of the spectrum that I don't have a project in mind for. Most of the rest of the yarn has a future project attached to it, with the exception of the 9.5 skeins of white cotton that I got given. They'll probably stay around for the next year, but you never know...

The thick black and grey yarn has been in my stash for some time, as has the one next to it, what I call fluffy yarn. I had never thought about combining them. I still have to try if out, but I think a combination of double-knitted fluf with the thick yarn worked open might give an interesting blanket combination.
The variety of green yarn will hopefully be transformed into a granny square blanket. I've only just finished the rainbow throw and I'm already brainstorming about two more.... I don't know if I'll ever find a place where they'll serve treir purpose?!

Apart from whole or near-whole skeins, I also have some little bits and bobs waiting for a new lease of life. After my first satisfactory encounter with patchwork knitting I think I might do some more of it (maybe make an extra closing panel for the bag? ) to put the scraps to good use. Some of them are only a few metres long, so they wont do for much else, really...

A final shown of knitted Christmas gifts:

A pair of warm bedsocks and a -yet unblocked- Annis shawlette. The original pattern is knitted om 5mm needles, so instead of knitting the shawlette version I made the original, but used 3mm needles to keep the size down. My first real lace pattern (you can hardly call the autumn shawl lace) and I must say I'm rather happy with it, and so is it's recipient.

The colourscape cardi is nearly finished, I just weaving in the ends. Photos of the finished product next time!
Mnz