De-blobbing the Yarn Stash

So, after quite a long time of thinking about it, I finally dragged all my yarn out of the closet and the lab and various other places I tend to keep it, photographed it all and organized it by color range. Here it is stacked in the library after being photographed:

Here it is repackaged by color range:

(Yes, that's Vera in the foreground, hiding in her case)

Okay, from the outside it doesn't look a lot different than it used to, but at least my photography skills have improved ;-)

Unfortunately, just when I thought I was done, I sat down at my desk only to find a box that had mysteriously been overlooked:

What's in the box, you ask?

Dang it.

Yarnblobs in Waiting and Updates

I realize it's been awhile since I posted; I've been working a lot of overtime lately and haven't had time to do much of anything fun, let alone post about it :-(

However, I did buy more yarn, just waiting to be turned into yarnblobs as soon as I have enough time off to get out the winder and swift:

I also found these cuties at my LYS, made by Serendipity Needles:

Yes, they're black sheep, and yes, they have little tails (tho, no legs: can't have 'em running off to school with Mary and that other lamb, you know). I probably won't actually use them since I knit almost exclusively with circulars, but they're just so cute staring at me from the pencil cup :-)

Meanwhile, my darling Hubby bought me the full set of Master Series paints from Reaper Minis, and more Warhammer 40K minis. Before the overtime started, I'd detached one of the sets so I could put it in a baggie for later assembly. In my efforts to show my brother-in-law what they looked like, I tried to hand him one of the spare heads, but I dropped it and it rolled out of sight and into oblivion. As they say, heads will roll. Counting on Murphy's Law to help me, I thought my cats would manage to find it. So far they've found screws, stitch markers and dust bunnies, but not the missing head. Good thing it was a spare.

Meanwhile, my Hubby also got me a new camera (Canon Powershot Sx130) and bag, and a portable studio thingy that folds up into itself so I can photograph minis and stuff. So, no more pictures on the game mat. I had to RTFM (read the friggin manual) to figure out how to shoot close up, and I also have a couple of tripods now so my shaky hands won't mess up the pictures. So far, this is as good as I've gotten, but I'm workin on it:

Brief Update

I haven't posted much lately because I'm working a lot of overtime. Despite that, I have finished a pair of baby booties to go with the pink and white blanket (that I forgot to take pics of after it was complete) and am one cuff away from another pair of adult socks being finished; I'll post pics of both soon. And not to worry, I also bought more sock yarns recently so I'm not likely to run out anytime soon, heh.

On the painting side, my hubby bought me a new paint set (the complete set of Reaper Master paints), and I'd tried to repaint that same darn gnome figure but I'm gonna have to scrub her down and start over yet again. Sigh.

Yarnblobs to Be

Or not to be, that is the question: whether 'tis blobbier in the mind to knit from the skein, or to wind the cake and.... Okay, I'm up wayyyy too early. However, I went to my LYS yesterday to donate some yarn and needles to someone teaching impoverished orphans how to knit so they can support themselves, and discovered my LYS was holding a sidewalk sale, so I got this pretty stuff at 75% off:

and yes, it's being guarded by my big sheep:

The sheep I got at the grocery store in an early Easter display. My Hubby has dubbed him Bruce Shee(p). The "p" is mostly silent. I should knit Bruce Shee(p) a little black belt and a gi or something.

PS Happy Ostara!

Posable Figure Repair: When Yarn, Hardware and Art Coalesce

While we were snow-watching this past Sunday, my older daughter told me that "Jesse," a posable art figure, might be done for. Apparently, his foot had come off several times, though until today, she had been able to repair him. For some reason, she just couldn't get him fixed this time, despite attempting to use yarn to pull him together. After she described the issue, I talked her into bringing him down so I could take a look:

Jesse, all in pieces

Turns out a couple of the screws were stripped. My MacGuyver Mom skills still reasonably sharp, I realized we would need both yarn and wood glue. I applied the wood glue to the screws while he was still in pieces so it wouldn't affect his ability to move:

This springy screw has to be pulled through leg pieces and onto the hip screw.

The hip screw: not easily reached.

Once the wood was dry, I cut a piece from my trusty ball of beige crochet thread, hooked it onto the spring attached to his foot, strung it through his leg pieces and pulled it onto the screw in his hip, all of which sounds painful enough to make me grateful I'm not a posable art figure:

Aunt Lydia's to the rescue

Pulling the yarn through the hip joint and up onto the hip screw; note the loose shoulder screw, lower left of photo

Noticing his shoulder screw was a little loose, I went ahead and dabbed a little wood glue on that and the remaining screws:

Wood glue drying

Here's our little superstar, all fixed up and ready to work:

Supah-Stah!

Yarnblob Fail

Fail part 1: I got up this morning intent on having a yarnblob post complete before noon. It's 1pm now. I got distracted by the gorgeous weather we're having:

Fail part 2:
I rummaged through my newer yarns and picked a beautiful twist of multi-colored shiny stuff with little flower-shaped sequins; something sure to produce a yarnblob. Fortunately for me, but unfortunately for my yarnblob post, it went off without a hitch (or, without a yarnblob, I should say):

Fail part 3:
I took several pictures of this yarn, intending to add it to my Ravelry stash, but got the "crappers" message indicating it just couldn't do it. Maybe later. Meanwhile, here's the yarn up close:

Oh well; time to do the laundry. Or maybe time to get distracted again by the weather....

Progress on Stash Control

Don't get happy - that doesn't mean I decided to buy less yarn ;-) I did, however, finally photograph and itemize the newest bag I purchased a couple of weeks ago. Some of my stash is visible over on Ravelry but most of it is visible via the "Yarn Booty" tag here on my blog. My hope is that once I get it all cataloged I can organize it by color in the actual bins and still have a visual record I can browse through without worrying that once out of sight they'll be out of mind.

For instance, this, I think, is a pretty colorway:

I currently have no idea what I'm going to do with it. Until I decide, I'd like to put it where it won't collect dust or cat hair, but I don't want to forget about it so long that it decomposes. Now it's in both yarn stash sites, so maybe there's hope after all.

Anti-Yarnblob Device

Sometimes, you get a slippery yarn that just won't stay on the spool, and winding it into a cake is right out. In those instances, I use a highly specialized anti-yarnblob device:

This high-tech gem is a resealable sandwich bag with one of the lower corners cut off. The yarn is fed through the hole, and the friction and small size of the bag keeps the yarn reasonably contained but able to spin enough to get the yarn off the core.

So Long, Metropolis

For those of you who recall my Scurvy Yarn Project, I posted the Lion Brand Metropolis yarn to my Ravelry page as yarn I'd sell/trade (there's not a spot for "yarn I'd rather send off the plank than ever knit with again"). At last, someone took me up on it, and I shipped all 8 skeins of it off yesterday. Yes, I realize it was a Sunday and today is a holiday so it actually won't go anywhere until tomorrow, but at least it's out of my Yarn Booty. Boo-yah.

After I sent it out, a variant on a song from The Wizard of Oz started going through my head: "Hey-ho the yarn is gone, the yarn is gone, the yarn is gone, hey-ho the scurvy yarn is gone....."

Pleased with my victory and humming my new theme song, I got home from the post office and immediately started moving the yarn from the Cauldron O'Yarn in my living room to the box that formerly contained the Metropolis yarn. Ironically, I found this in the cauldron waiting for me like Sheppard Book's hair:

Oh well; I should know better than to store scurvy yarn in a symbol of renewed life.

WIP Progress: Whole Lotta Froggin' Goin' On

I finished the main part of my best friend's short-fingered gloves about a week ago:

I've been working on them almost daily ever since and yet they look exactly the same as they did a week ago. That's because I keep having to frog out the convertible finger flap. So far, we're up to three attempts. Having discovered the yarn is a bit too dark to try to start this phase away from home, I started a "travel" project. I grabbed one of many skeins of sock yarn in my Yarn Booty and started knitting. So far, I'm up to my third attempt on this project as well, but have now gotten this far:

On my first attempt, I realized the size 00 needles were really too small for the yarn and the thing was going to be more like a cast than a sock. My second undo was when I realized I'd added too many stitches and needed to remove some so I wouldn't end up giving the socks to my Hubby. Now it's good and going along as it should, and I'm about an inch or so further than I'd gotten on my first try.

Sorting Hat says "Sheepfyndor"!

Here's a recently completed FO; a scarf knitted for a friend of my older daughter's:

Cocoa Bear was asleep since my youngest had gone to bed already when I took the photos. The sheep seemed a bit leery of the bright colors, but then he seemed to calm down a bit:

At the end, he seemed genuinely cozy:

Now both daughters and another friend of my older daughter's want scarves for "Sheepyrin." (Okay, they said Slytherin, but I control the yarn around here.) Now the question is, do I have grey and green in my yarn stash. Probably. After all, the Sheepfyndor was made with leftovers from the stash. Not sure I have enough grey for three scarves, but I am certain to have enough green (it's my favorite color).

Pink Kimono Progress

After coming to the end of the first skein of the Pink Yarn of Doom, I realized I didn't have enough to finish even the smaller sized kimono. I wouldn't have needed more yarn if this particular lot didn't look so blobby when used with larger needles. At current gauge, however, I lacked about 3 skeins. Yes, it's true: I needed more yarn.

At first, I considered simply ordering 3-4 skeins from the manufacturer (I think it's only available online), but I just didn't wanna. I wanted to add another color, maybe some green or something to counteract the pinkness. Don't get me wrong: I actually like the color and have a couple of blouses I wear to work that are a very similar color. I only call it the Pink Yarn of Doom because it's funny and sounds RPG-ish. But let's face it: a pink kimono large enough to fit me is gonna be a lot of pink. I'm hoping if I add some green or something it will unpinkify it a bit. Also, I like green, and I particularly like pink/green/cream color combinations (even though I don't seem to have any in my wardrobe).

So, with my test swatch and a label from the pink yarn in hand, my ever-so-patient Hubby and I went off to our LYS the Woolie Ewe to see what could be found in the way of coordinating yarns in a similar weight. Ordinarily, I rarely get out of my LYS for less than $50, primarily because there's too much ooh-ing and aah-ing by both of us. However, the store has a points-based coupon frequent buyer yarnaholic enabling program which, of course, I'm a member of. Today, we ended up with a little yarn guide (a plastic thingy intended to help with using multiple strands, but I use them to keep from wearing a thin sock-yarn-wide groove into my index finger), a ball of shiny orange yarn my hubby picked out (no idea what he I am going do with it), and the green yarn we found for the kimono. Between the coupon and the Ravelry discount, we got out of there for less than $20. That was a red letter day.

Anyway, here's the test swatch for the green, side-by-side with the current pink:

The odd thing about the pink yarn is that it never photographs or scans exactly the color it really is. It's kind of a dusty, darkish pink, which is what I like about it. The lighter shade of the green yarn doesn't seem to want to photograph exactly either, but this is close for both of them:

Strangely, though the green yarn appears thicker, it actually knits to the same gauge. I figured it would be close, since the meters-per-50 gms length was the same, but once I started the swatch I thought surely I'd have to use smaller needles. I guess it's just that the green yarn splays out a bit, and the pink stays twisted together. Weird, but convenient.

Of course, this means I gotta frog out the whole pink thing and start over. Fortunately, I think the new color combo will work out well, and I'm even more excited about this project than I was when I first decided to make the Pink Yarn of Doom into a kimono. Naturally, that probably means my older daughter will swipe the thing as soon as it's done and I'll never see it again except on her person. Either way, it's always good if something I've knitted is enjoyed. We shall see.

New Additions to the Yarn Booty

My Hubby and I managed to get out of the house last weekend, so of course we went to Madness, which is our local game store and, of course, our LYS. We are planning for me to make dice bags, possibly for sale, so we bought lots of pretty yarn:

 

Thanks to our game store purchases and superb parental influence, my older daughter was able to produce a tiny guardian for the new Yarn Booty additions:

 

Here's a close-up of the tiny guardian, held aloft by his owner/trainer:

Yes, that's a Wee Ninja. And yes, that's a fuzzy pencil with a tiny devil duck on either end, intended to be a two-ended weapon for the ninja.

You just can't buy that kind of parental pride.

Happy Yarn Blob Says Hi

 

Mens Worsted Weight Socks - Free Pattern

While shopping at Hobby Lobby recently, I came across a worsted Red Heart yarn in a color called Marrakesh:

It was too vibrant and pretty not to pick up a skein. Naturally, I made socks with it, and naturally, they have already been deployed:

At first I sized these for myself, but it’s really not my color. Despite the bright pink, my Hubby likes the color, so I re-sized them for him. Now I can expect to see them quite frequently around the house, since we tend to wear the worsted-weight socks as slippers. Once I’ve seen them around awhile, I can decide whether I like the color enough to make something bigger, like an afghan. Meanwhile, here’s the pattern.

I wanted to use this color to show how I use the stitch markers for the increase on the arches. I use three: one in the middle of the back, and one at each side of the back, between the original number of stitches and the increased stitches. It starts out a bit odd-looking:

But once you’ve increased a few stitches, it becomes very easy to count how many you’ve increased:

Once I get to the number of stitches I need and begin the heel decrease, I use the middle marker as my counter for the first decrease and turn (which is generally the middle stitch plus 2). Once I’ve done that, all the stitch markers come out, though the middle one can be left in to mark the center of the back row for bind-off purposes.

Now, off to a late lunch with my Hubby, who has chosen to wear the new socks today. Guess I'll take the cabled scarf with me to work on.

Update and Cookies

Well I basically did no knitting at all last night. I did some yesterday at lunch on some very brightly colored socks, but I'll post that when they're done.

I got this far Wednesday on the blue cabled scarf:

As you can see from the mad knittist 3x5" cards glowing brightly in undimmable contrast, that's a whopping inch and a half.

In all fairness, I did make very late Valentine's Day cookies Wednesday, and iced them rather sloppily last night:

So, another slow yarn day. And I have a whole new bag and then some of pretty, sparkly, fuzzy yarn, just begging for attention. So much yarn, so little time. Sigh.

Yarn Blob

Vaguely Heart-Shaped Red Yarn Blob says Happy Hearts and Flowers Day

Cauldron O’Yarn

They have “slow news days” in TV news, so maybe knitter bloggy people can have slow news days too. I've made some progress on a couple of projects but haven't finished anything, so this is that day. Thus, here’s a random pic of yarn. In a cauldron. On a hearth. Next to a giraffe-print pillow. I’ll leave explanations to the imagination.

Argh matey, don’t ya be touchin’ me lucky charms. Or me cauldron o’yarn!

PS I nearly finished a dice bag and would have posted that, but I had to re-do the bottom of the liner.

Yarn Blob

Art critic kitteh does not approve of your Yarn Blob interpretation of the Greyed Rainbow.

Cast-ons

I'll admit to being highly intimidated when it comes to learning new cast-on techniques. After all, the one I've been using works. Funny thing is, it's apparently not even called what I thought it was called. I thought it was the thumb method but apparently it's actually the single cast-on or backward-loop cast-on. Seems like back when I learned it many years ago, they called it the thumb method, though I could be mistaken. Maybe they've just developed the craft a lot more, or found a lot more from around the globe thanks to the Internet. There wasn't a lot of information on it at the time. Now, Better Homes and Gardens has updated their site, which is the one I originally learned from. I see they still don't mention Continental vs. English. But I digress.

I saw a cool video awhile back that showed how to cast on in 2 colors for a knitted braid edging. In this case, it was to help with a hat pattern they were selling on the same site. I liked the hat, but at the time I figured I was seriously not ready to attempt it. I had never seen anyone move yarn around that way with even one color, let alone two. I guess that's what happens when you teach yourself to knit from a 2-dimensional image.

Recently, however, while looking up who knows what, I came across a site called Knitting Help that has videos for several cast-on techniques. I haven't watched all of them, but the cool thing is that for the more complex cast-ons, they have videos for both Continental and English knitting styles. I'm always pleased to see that, since I knit in the Continental style. But I digress again. I watched the video for the long-tail cast-on and actually managed to do it. Boo-yah.

Then, of course, I remembered that hat video with the cool braided edge, and recalled the yarn manipulation for the cast-on looking very similar. Unfortunately, I hadn't bookmarked the video, apparently thinking I just would never be able to do it. But, being who I am, I hunted that puppy down. It's on the Knit Whits site and was posted to their Facebook page, which is where I saw it. I knew it was one of the ones I read most frequently, and they are one of the top two. For inquiring minds, the other is Knitting Daily (Interweave Press).

Having located the video, I was surprised to realize that apparently, by "awhile back," I meant September of 2008. Wow. I can't believe it's been that long. In re-watching the video, now that I've learned the long-tail cast-on, I totally get it, and am determined to try it. Not today, but soon, before I forget (or before yet another year goes by). I have since bookmarked the page so I can buy the downloadable hat pattern, which I still very much like.

I hate to post blog entries with no pictures, so here's a pic of a mini my Hubby painted for me, that I used in probably the first D&D game I played with him serving as DM:

Her name is Shadow (though the mini is officially called "Therese" by Reaper Minis), and she is guarding the yarn with both weapons, so watch out for that sneak attack.