Lordy Lordy, Ain't It Great!

Q-jamins is turning.. four?



See what a patient puppy he is?



For his birthday, I made four homemade tartlets for Q. One was banana, one was banana/peanut butter, one was pb/carob and the last was carob. Spoiled!

Thank you for all who have more faith in my destashing than I do.. stash contest is now up to 4 votes! There's still a week left--I'll be posting prizes soon, too. I will say that it's good for me to have now listed mostly everything in a giant excel spreadsheet. I can sort by weight, I can see everything in my stash at once, and I can record everything I knit this year to see how much I knit up in a year.

Still raining.. J has a friend in town, I think we'll be meeting up with her soon.

The "Is Anyone Reading?" Stash Contest

Because of a ball winding debacle this morning, my fibery pursuits have been limited. I've long wanted to know how many miles of yarn I have, so today, I've begun the documenting process necessary to find an answer.

So, my dear reader, I am having my very first blog contest.

I haven't determined a prize as of yet, as my brain is a little frazzled, but I will post the prize to be awarded before the end of the contest.

The question you have to answer is simple: how many miles of yarn do I have in my stash?

You should know the following: I am not counting the acrylic yarn I have stashed under our bed upstairs, miscellaneous handspun from a fiber festival that was labeled only in weight, not in yards. I am currently "in progress" on a project, I will not count the skein of yarn that is attached to my needles. I will, however, count the rest of the yarn not currently in use. (Does that make sense?) I will also not count half-used skeins, as I have a scientifically sound method of organizing the yardage, I'm just lazy.

The closest person to guess without going over will win.. something. The contest will end next Sunday, March 22nd.

Hap Blanket

The hap blanket is finally finished!







I love it! It's soft, beautiful, and I think I may go curl up underneath it with all this rainy weather. I didn't have a chance to swatch for Coraline yesterday. I think I may try that, as well as swatch for the Wakame Lace Tunic from last year's summer IK. I figure that I may as well cast on for something that seems.. seasonal?

I am thankful this week that I have my full weekend to unwind, decompress and to knit! Last weekend, I spent elbow-deep in mucky sheep fleece. This weekend, I intend to finish up some UFOs (do you see that side bar over there?!) and maybe start on some new ones.



I have finished up two projects this week.. a pair of socks and a pair of soap holders. The soap holders are a remake from a lost int'l package that will be resent today (and hopefully this time they will make it to their destination). The socks are for a swap, too.



Yesterday, the mailman was kind enough to leave my package of warm wooly goodness at the doorstep for me. I ordered four skeins of Shelridge Farms DKW for Coraline. Reading the pattern more closely last night made me a little nervous that I don't have enough yardage, but I think if I find that's the case, I may do 3/4 length sleeves.



I am hopefully going to swatch for Coraline this weekend. Otherwise, I'll be working on the last twenty rows of my Hap Blanket.

Progress!

Many of the tips from the fleece need to be flicked open... I was feeling a bit frustrated this morning until I looked over at a pile of discarded, raw fleece on the side of the deck.




I do say there's been an improvement, no?

Yesterday afternoon I got impatient, so I quickly carded up some of the gray shetland so I could begin spinning:



It's spinning so finely. I think I'll be able to get a DK/Sport 2-ply of it, which is probably the finest I've spun so far. I'd like to be able to get a fingering weight 2-ply (or even try for a 3-ply) but my spinning skills are still lacking.

Saturday.. nom nom nom

2.6lb of a fawn-colored shetland fleece. It's drying in the sun now (this was before picking and washing) but it's nice and squishy and oh, I can't wait for it to dry!



Nom nom nom. Delicious moorit gray/brown shetland. Here, still raw, but it cleaned up so beautifully.

What else, you ask? Handmade pie crust (a la Mastering the Art of French Cooking) in the fridge for tonight's custard pie. 5 skeins hand-painted yarn. 5 inches of sock knitting. Isn't that enough???

A Stitch in Time

A Grade 2 AC Joint Separation has J temporarily without hobbies. The ortho doctor said yesterday 4 weeks no motorcycle, 6 weeks without skating. Of course, the doctor didn't say anything about driving oneself to the "Watchmen" midnight showing down the road. I'm thankful to have sat, or slept, that one out, as he didn't make it home before 3am.

In yesterday's mail, I was surprised to find my copy of "A Stitch in Time" which came surprisingly fast from the UK. I had promised myself I wouldn't get excited about it until week three but now, I can easily spend all weekend flipping through (and drooling over) the gorgeous patterns. The book is absolutely gorgeous, complete with beautiful photography. I'm happy, too, to see that the book contains both the original knitting pattern as well as the modern rewrite, as it will certainly impact how I look at vintage knitting patterns from now on. I saw, too, on Ravelry, that there is talk of a second volume within the next year, and I'm already eagerly anticipating the next installment. The only downside to such a terrific book is trying to decide what to knit first.