Oh yarn! Come out, come out wherever you are!

Stash: noun
1. Hiding place
2. Something stored or hidden away
Courtesy of merriam-webster.com

One of my favorite threads over on Ravelry is the Flash Your Stash thread on the Main 6.  I am in awe over everyone's stashes - small and large, fancy and plain.  On my to-do list at the beginning of the year was to get out all my stash for a photo-shoot.  In December, I was very diligent about photographing the skeins and cataloguing them in my Rav-stash page.  However, I did not take a family portrait of my kiddies.  So, one Saturday while the husband was at work, I got it all out of its various hiding places... bins, bags, nooks & crannies.  And I came to one conclusion... I need a bigger bed:

This is only about 95% of the stash.  And in some places it is a few skeins deep.  Along the headboard and the right edge are my kits and yarn purchased in bulk.  Clockwise from top right corner: kitchen cotton, Palette fingering weight, sock yarn (lower right corner), worsted and DK (lower left corner), sport weight, back to worsted, and then in the top left corner is the acrylic.

I think I've come a far way from my baby stash of 5 years ago:

Where does this yarn live when it's not lounging on our bed?  Well, I store the acrylic, bulk yarns, and kits in the spare bedroom in a tall bookshelf I bought several months ago.  Originally it was for the entire stash.  However over the past few months I have added to the stash quite a bit and needed more space.  The husband agreed that I could put another shelf unit in the living room as long as it didn't overflow and look icky.  In this unit, I store my higher quality yarns and the yarns I am using nowadays - Cascade, sock yarn, Palette, Malabrigo, and Madelinetosh to name a few.

Living Room Stash.  Top shelf: Sock yarns in the side baskets; notions, needles & tools in sunflower box; Clockwise from top left corner: Palette; sock yarn; Madelinetosh (2); various worsted; Cascade 220 & Malabrigo; various worsted; Cascade 220 sport superwash.  The center block contains some of my favorite books.

[As an aside - that pink tool bag you see in the photo?  It was a Christmas gift from the husband.  I spotted it one day a few months back while we were walking through Sears.  C took note and surprised me with it under the tree on Christmas morning.  I should note that we usually both know what we're getting for Christmas because we shop together, so this really was a surprise that he remembered :-)]

I do not have a recent photo of the spare-room stash.  Mostly because that room is forever a WIP and has piles of clothes and such to be donated to Goodwill.  I'm also re-organizing all my scrapbooking supplies now that I have space on the tall bookshelf.

And with that, I would like to amend the dictionary definition of stash from something hidden away to: collection of beloved items to be treasured and given a proper home.

Happy Knitting everyone!

Of socks and other ramblings

There really isn't much in the way of knitting about which to update. Basically because I haven't done much knitting in the last few days (mostly because I need to get away from the computer). Well, I take that back. I have been working on more preemie hats and I did (finally) cast on my second May Day Sock for the Sockamania Club. I had cast on a few days ago, but had to frog about 1/2 way through the ribbed cuff because I somehow messed it up. Serves me right for trying to knit while on the phone and in poor lighting. Yesterday I made it through the cuff and started the first repeat and today I all but finished the first repeat -- I think I have 2 more rounds to go. This second sock is going much faster than the first. I've reached the point where I don't have to rely so much on the chart and don't have to be meticulous about marking the spot where I am. Anyway, one more repeat, turn the heel, 2.5 repeats on the foot and then onto the toe. Should have it finished by the time I receive my J.D. on Friday.

Yes, that's right. I graduate on Friday. That reminds me.... I have to change the header of the blog -- I am no longer a "3L", so this really isn't a "3L's Adventures in Knitting" anymore. And technically I am not a lawyer until I pass the bar in July. Hmmm... I'll have to think about that one...

Back to the knitting. Lately I have been fascinated with the idea of toe-up socks. Mostly due to my other fascination with knee socks. (I know, a little warm to wear knee socks in the summer, but at my pace, I should start them now and they'll be finished by the time cold weather arrives...) I'm a fairly short gal at 5'3" (give or take) and might be able to eke out a pair of knee socks out of 430 yards of yarn, don't ya think? I'm going to try to anyway. I have a decent number of skeins of Lorna's Laces in my stash, which would be perfect as they are already divided into 2 separate equally long skeins. If I start at the toe and just knit until I run out of yarn in one ball, I should get pretty close to a knee sock out of it.... I hope. Maybe?

The problem is that I have a lot of sock yarn despite the facts that 1. I only started knitting socks in February; and 2. I have finished only 1 pair of socks, even though I currently have 2 pairs OTN's right now and one pair recently frogged. So I weigh my desire to knit knee socks with my need to not buy any more yarn and I get the crazy plan to try and get a pair of knee socks from yarn that is sufficient to knit 1 pair of medium adult socks. Actually... Now that I think about it and as I browse through the pictures of my stash (stash is at home in CT -- far away where I cannot pet it and stare at it and play with it)... the Lorna's Laces Lilac complements the Iris Garden. I could do contrasting color toes, heels, and cuffs to make the yardage stretch a little more. Hmm... Now we're going somewhere:



And I was going somewhere with this, now that it has turned into a marathon post. But alas, it is late and I have lost my train of thought. Which is fine by me because I solved the conundrum I was having over this knee sock business.

One last thing before I sign off: I did a little spring cleaning of the sidebar. Moved some things around, deleted some things etc. I also updated my list of blogs I read and the podcasts to which I listen, as they both have grown in numbers since the last time I did a major update of the list awhile back.

Good night all!

Yarn Diet

Okay, I am jumping on the yarn diet bandwagon that I have been hearing so much about on the forums and podcasts. With exceptions for 2 projects that I already began planning, I will not be purchasing anymore yarn for the time being. On the side bar, I've even added a count "up" since I last purchased yarn. Yes folks, I bought more yarn yesterday... sad, but true. Well sad for my wallet. Happy for me. As a student, I keep to a pretty tight budget and I have yet to over-extend myself, but I feel that in the past couple months I've gone a little yarn-crazy and it's time to slow down a bit.

I think this realization especially hit today when I was updating my Excel sheet with my new purchases. Looking through it, I noticed yarn that I completely forgot I had. Most of my yarn is back at my parents' house, so it's literally "out of sight, out of mind."

In my WIP's news, I am 1/2 done with the second mitten of the pair for my cousin; I have less than 2 inches to go before shaping the toe of the second sock of my first pair; I am 4/5 done with the top-secret project; and I haven't picked up Carlos's lime green hat yet this weekend. I think that will be moving up in the rotation tomorrow.

Friday I started knitting a pair of Jaywalkers with the CTH I picked up from Windsor Button on Wednesday; however, after about an inch of the ribbed cuff I dropped a stitch and became very impatient trying to remedy the relatively simple mistake. Needless to say, I frogged it. Then when I tried to re-cast on I somehow miscounted or dropped a stitch again. Too frustrated to start for a third time, I rolled up the yarn, zipped up the ziploc bag it is in, and put it away until I finish one or more of the above projects. I think it was a sign from the knitting powers-that-be that I had too many OTN's and not enough FO's for the year (case in point, see the graphic to the right). And they are correct. I should have listened when I spent hours untangling the CTH after a debacle trying to wind it... But that is another story for another day.

So much for stash management...

So you know how Sunday I posted here about how I was trying very hard to keep my yarn buying to a minimum? Well that went through the window yesterday. *Sigh*

It started Tuesday night actually. I was browsing Lorna's Laces website and came across the new color: Flamingo Stripe. Not only is this a great multi-color yarn with bright and light pink shades, but they will donate 20% of the proceeds to breast cancer research. How great is that? Wait. It gets better. True to the economic theory of supply and demand, the lower the supply, the higher the demand will be. Well, this was especially true for me. As I browsed various online yarn shops, I soon realized that this particular colorway is very popular and sold out all over. While this realization might deter some folks, it did not stop me. Now it became a challenge. So I posted on Knitters Review Forum asking if anyone had bought the yarn and very quickly got a response that a store in Virginia just got some in! Score!! So the next afternoon I called a few local places to see if they had it (cut down on the wait time), and when they didn't, I called down to Ewe Knit Kits in Virginia Beach and ordered it. Success!

But it does not stop there. Yesterday morning I learned about Yarn4Sock's upcoming sock yarn club. As a new sock knitter, I missed the boat on the sock clubs for this year, so this was the perfect timing for me! Plus I like the fact that I can pay as I go. Every other month for the next year, I get a new pattern and new yarn -- how exciting!

And since I was already on a roll, why stop at a sock club and ordering yarn from Virginia? On my way to school yesterday I also stopped by Windsor Button and picked up some more Cherry Tree Hill and some small DPN's.

Carlos says I have a problem and he is going to stage an intervention similar to that in the A&E show of the same name.

Knitting Realization and Stash Management

Even though I had plenty of time this weekend, I have had a hard time finishing these projects. I think it may have something to do with the fact that until Easter, the only yarn I have with me here in Boston is the yarn for my blue socks, the gift, my cousin's mittens, and Carlos's lime green hat. As you can see from my new progress bars, I am not too far from completing each of these four projects. In reality, I am probably closer to finishing than I represented, but due to my dislike of weaving in the ends, sewing seams, and basically any tedious finishing technique, I have left a greater percentage toward those tasks. Anyway, once those few projects are finished, I have no other yarn here with me and will be greatly tempted to buy more. So if I drag out these projects, I can have something to knit for the next 17 days without spending more money on yarn.

It's taken a great deal of discipline, but I am trying really hard to keep my yarn-buying to a minimum. Every time I mention I want to buy something, Carlos asks me "Do you want it? Do you need it? Do you love it?" and if I can answer all three in the affirmative, then I should buy it. If even one answer is a "no", then I shouldn't buy it. When it comes to yarn, I can always answer the want it and love it with a resounding YES! But the need it question - that's a bit iffy, especially if I have comparable yarn already in my collection.

Particularly sock yarn. I have several sock patterns bookmarked, including the ever-popular Jaywalkers by Grumperina, these winding cable socks from Interweave Knits, and many others. I don't have the yarn here to do these projects. I do, however, have several skeins/hanks/balls of yarn for these projects at home in Connecticut and do not need to buy more.