Using Deep Stash

I am working on, you guessed it, another cowl. It is the Incus cowl, which is part of the Trio of Cowls ebook by Kirsten Kapur. I am looking forward to this finished cowl because it should be big and cuddly, even though I am a little short on yardage so I will probably only be able to do nine cable repeats instead of the ten called for in the pattern.



I am using Socks that Rocks Heavyweight in the Star Sapphire colorway. I have had this yarn kicking around my stash since May of 2008 so I thought it was high time that I used it for something. The downside of having a stash is that I am often distracted by the lovely, new yarns that I buy and I forget that I have some awesome yarns hiding in my yarn cabinet. So, fellow crafters, remember to show a little love to the deep stash ever now and then!

Let's keep the FO train going

I finished another cowl. I made a Donner Pass cowl in Another Crafty Girl's Squishy Aran base in the Punky Brewster colorway. You may be wondering if I have other yarns in my stash, and I do, but right now I am just very inspired by the stuff from Another Crafty Girl.



It doesn't photograph very well but here is the best closeup I could get of all the gorgeous colors.



Any suggestions on my next project? Do you find yourself getting stuck in project phases repeating one type of item over and over until the phase burns out and you move on to something else?

I'm on a roll!

I finished another KAL!!! I'm on fire. Not actual fire, but just as exciting...but you know, way less painful. I finished a Single Men Cowl by Laura Linneman or as you may know her, LaLa of The KnitGirllls. I made it out of Another Crafty Girl's Squishy Aran in the Kermit the Frog inspired colorway. It is fabulous and lives up to its name: squishy! I think the bright greens will look fantastic with the brown corduroy coat that I sometimes wear in the winter. The brown coat is a little tatty on the cuffs but I've had it since college and I just can't seem to let it go.




The KAL is for the Super Summer Knitogether (SSK) retreat that I will be attending this summer. 

Now I just have to figure out what to knit next. It seems like cowls are working out well for me so I'm off to look through patterns on Ravelry.

FO FTW

...or for those not into acronyms, finished object for the win! I finally finished a KAL. I completed the Herringbone Cowl that I was knitting as part of Another Crafty Girl's Muppet KAL.



I used the recommended bind-off and it makes the bound off edge a little floppy and ruffly. I probably could have done a regular bind-off since I cast on more stitches than the pattern called for to make sure that it wouldn't be too snug so I didn't need a lot of stretch in the bound-off edge. Oh well, it was my first time using Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off so I have added a new skill to my knitting arsenal.

Now, what to cast on next?

There really should be a title to this post...

I'm participating in another KAL. It's like I just don't learn, or I never give up hope...pick whichever option fits your philosophical leanings. The dyer at Another Crafty Girl is having a KAL with her muppet-inspired yarns and I just could not resist. I am working on a Herringbone Cowl by Lauren Osborne in the Sam the Eagle colorway. I opted to use Simple DK, the new superwash merino single that Another Crafty Girl just started carrying and it is lovely to work with. It is a tiny bit thick and thin but that is the nature of a single & it is so soft and cuddly. The herringbone stitch usually produces a fairly stiff fabric but with this yarn, it is still nice and cozy and soft.



I'm nearing the end of the cowl so this is probably the first KAL that I am actually going to finish. I picked an easy pattern & I have had lots of time to knit while watching TV this week. It has been a pretty somber week as I found out that a friend has stage 4 breast cancer that has spread to the spine. I haven't felt like doing anything other than frying my brain with TV, knitting and occasionally hysterically crying. Fortunately my friend has started treatment & is the toughest person that I know so everyone is hopeful but it is a tough situation. I hate not being able to fix it.

Awkward. I didn't expect to write about that on the blog, but I did so I'm not going to edit it out.

In news that will shock and surprise no one, the stash is winning. I keep adding to it faster than I am using it up. I will admit that I am adding to it at a slower rate than I have in previous years but I really have to step up the knitting to meet my goal by the end of the year. Here is something lovely that just made it into my stash:



It is Another Crafty Girl's Squishy Aran base in the Punky Brewster colorway. I just love a yarn with that many colors in the skein.

Just a bit of blog housekeeping, the books that were up for grabs in the last post are going to be going to their new home with bellamoden on Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I make it to the post office.

I hope that you are well. Until next time, hug your loved ones close and do something that makes the world a bit brighter.

Happy Doldrums

I just love a project that offers near instant gratification and the Doldrums Cowl by Laura Linneman (co-host of TheKnitGirllls video podcast) fit the bill nicely.



It only took a couple of hours to knit & I'm actually looking forward to winter so I can wear it. I used two skeins of Mirasol Sulka, a bulky weight yarn that have been kicking around in the stash since March of 2008. I decided that I needed to find a quick project to kick-start my knitting mojo which stalled when I ran out of time to finish the scarf I was making for the March KAL.

While I was poking around trying to find a project, I discovered a couple of knitting books that need to go to a good home.





I  just don't see myself making any projects out of the books. So here is the deal, if you would like either book (or both), just leave a comment by April 25th letting me know which book(s) you are interested in. If there is more than one person that wants a book, I'll draw for a winner. If no one leaves a comment by April 25th, the books will be donated to the Books to Prisoners charity.

Are you an innie or an outie?

I am still working on my scarf for the Knitting Blooms March Madness Challenge. The scarf is about 22 inches long (unblocked) and I still have 60 grams of yarn left in ball so I am less than halfway through the yarn and I have until Friday night to finish it. I really would like to finish this KAL on time but I don't know if I will. I was hoping to spend a lot of time knitting on the scarf while I was on vacation but that didn't happen. I took my knitting with me but failed to knit even one stitch and I'm okay with that.



I think the feather and fan stitch was a good choice for this yarn. I haven't decided if I am going to do a hard block on the scarf to open the stitch up as much as possible or if I'm just going to let it dry naturally which will emphasize the ridges. I'm leaning toward the ridges. You can find all the scarf details on my Ravelry project page.

Now that I've talked a bit about the project, I'll get to the point of this post. When you wind your yarn into a center-pull cake, do you pull the yarn from the center (innie) or pull the yarn from the outside of the cake (outie). Normally, I pull from the center but for some reason I decided to pull from the outside when I started knitting on this project. Here's the thing...it doesn't feel like I am making any sort of progress when I look at the ball of yarn.



I started off with 108 grams and the ball is down to 60 grams but it just doesn't seem to be smaller. I know that if I put this ball next to a 100 gram ball it will look smaller but without a point of reference, it seems like I am knitting and knitting and knitting and the ball isn't getting any smaller. I had no idea how much I relied on visual cues to feel a sense of knitting accomplishment. I know the scarf is getting longer but unless I start using stitch markers to track my progress I won't be getting visual feedback every time I knit because it takes several knitting sessions before the scarfs looks longer.

However, there are some definite pluses to being an outie. I haven't had the yarn tangle at all which happens occasionally when I use the yarn from the middle. Also, when the project is finished, any leftover yarn is will still be in a nice yarn cake instead of being collapsed into a pile that has to be wound into a ball.

So, my fellow knitters, are you an innie or an outie? Do you have a definite opinion one way or the other? Shout it out in the comments.