Monday, February 13, 2006

I'm supposed to be knitting

I took a break from the shawl and decided to organise my stash.

I feel so ashamed, I don't know how it got that bad, I didn't know it was that big either. This is not including the 3 bags from the wardrobe.

Last year I stuck heaps of yarn into 3 space bags and sucked them down in size to fit into my wardrobe. It is mainly acrylic and enough yarn for complete jumpers and that blanket that I thought would be a good idea to knit as a mindless project. They are still in the wardrobe, what I needed to sort out was the stuff left over, my good sock yarn, scarf yarn etc and put it into plastic bags. I've seen moths!





This is a picture of the main stash - scarfy type yarn. I have soo much feathers it's not funny!

There's a bit of coloured fleece to spin when I get better at it.

And a couple of kits also containing feathers type yarn!






This is my sock yarn. The white yarn is my dyeing stash it's Patonyle and dyes really nicely, see the wound balls underneath it, I dyed them :)

All but the yellow one actually, that's Opal.
But the orange/black/white that's my hand dyed tiger yarn. That was lots of fun to dye up. I used the book "Yarns to Dye For : Creating Self-Patterning Yarns for Knitting" for instructions. I hope it'll knit up like tiger stripes. Not game to use it yet.









These are the new additions to my stash. You've seen 'em before. We won't mention the yucky, wrong coloured yarn will we? (bottom right) We'll imagine it pink and white and fluffy. I wish that I had tried knitting with mohair before I bought 10 balls of it.






The Shawl
I am not pleased with the way it is turning out. I am thinking it would be nicer with something else like angora knitted with it. And I really don't like the big ugly holes either.


I guess I could tell that I wasn't going to finish it after finding myself doing other things. Like bagging up my entire stash and taking photos, and spending hours online. Added to this the fact that I don't go out anywhere to wear a lacey shawl and I feel that I would like it better if it was thicker if you know what I mean.

I have found out that I am a product knitter - if I don't like the product I can't bring myself to knit it.
The pressure to finish something that I wasn't happy with is gone, and it feels good.

I still have time to knit a teddy scarf though don't I?



Update
I found some 100% wool on ebay in a nice silver grey that I think will go nicely with what I have for only $2.50 for 100m. Cheaper than the Angora Supreme I was thinking of at $8 per ball.
I wonder if their shrinkage rates are different? Should I skein and wash them both first?
Didn't think of that did I, see what I mean about jumpin' right in. They won't shrink if I use lukewarm water will they? Hmmm, any advice?

Now just have to work out how to increase 4 times across the row without yarn over holes. Perhaps stick to the M1 increases at the edges and add the same M1 increase either side of the centre stitch that should eliminate the counting I hope.

Now if you can see that I am going to go wrong here please, please let me know.





5 comments:

Vanessa Vain said...

Wow, Lady! That's a lot of yarn. :) I too have what seems like a ridiculous amount of yarn in my stash. And I'm also a product knitter. I find it impossible to finish a project I know I won't want when its done. And if that's how you feel about the shawl, ball it back up and move on. Knitting should not be a pressure sport!

As for swatching I think it's always a good idea to wash them. But then I've never worked with that yarn. Best to go with your instincts

Tigers said...

I just feel bad because it was a Knitting Olympics project and I really wanted to complete it. I'll still knit it but with a few changes and as the yarn I want to knit it with now has to be sent to me I'm not going to make the deadline. Oh well.

Vanessa Vain said...

Maybe you could try a different project for the olympics. I don't know how fast you knit or if you have the yarn, but I knit the mini-sweater from glampyre.com pretty quickly and it's pretty cute. There's also always the teddy scarf.

Yarnsticksbooks said...

YAY I am not the only one with ridiculous amounts of feathers. I no longer want to make scarves with it and have added it to the blanky pile. May be one crazy weird blanky if I decide to stick with it but i'll have room for more yarn if I do.

And I totally understand the procrastination tactics........ bianca's sock is going very slowly while I keep glaring at the kidsilk haze.
Actually I quite enjoyed your delaying tactics....... I love looking at yarn stashes :) And I want your purple sock wool And and and LOL

Tigers said...

I should knit a teddy scarf with feathers!

The mini sweater is cute, but I don't have the yarn for it, or the body hehehe.

Oh I still want to make scarves with it, Feathers is the reason I learned to knit.

I have a pattern for a Sirdar Firefly wrap and similar yarn for it, I just need to get correct gauge and off I go, now that should be easy peasy. Ladder yarn on big needles, in the round.....going to swatch. :)