Clubbing May 1, 2011

You may remember from this post a while ago that I have a bit of a sock yarn problem.  Although it’s only a problem if you feel it’s a problem. I see it as my own little private art collection. And insulation.

In any case, I decided it was time to do something about it, after the discovery that I seem to have over 70 skeins of sock yarn kicking around. Inspired by my friend Suzanne, who was, in turn, inspired by this, I resolved to make myself a sock club aimed at using up what’s in my stash.

In the intervening period I got a little distracted by tiny things, like finishing off custom orders and having a baby. You know, the little, every day things that suddenly crop up and absorb every minute of your waking life.

But then this week I had a little time to myself so I ordered a big parcel of brown paper bags and today I went stash diving.

Snorkel is optional. But probably useful.

Stash diving is So.Much.Fun.

If you haven’t done it recently, you really should.Every so often, even if I’m not actually planning on making anything I like to dig through mine and roll around in it remind myself of what’s in there.

There's no yellow in my rainbow.

In my case, a surprising amount of purple and green. But no yellow.

One of the things I love about indie yarn is the way each dyer can take a particular colour and produce their own totally unique spin on it. (No pun intended. Genuinely sorry.)

Here’s some examples I retrieved from my heap this afternoon.

Sweet Clement, Enchanted Knoll, Knitting Goddess and Yarn To Knit.

All nominally green. All totally different. The Sweet Clement is incredibly intense, almost glowing. The Yarn To Knit is intense too, but it has a really grassy feel.

Another good example is purple. True purple, or so I understand from dabbling and much reading, is really hard to dye. Something to do with the different uptake times of red and blue dyes. It is also one of my favourite colours, as evidenced by the fact that I have a HUGE amount of purple yarn in my stash. I like purple because there’s such enormous variety and subtlety of shade in there. And it can be so rich.

Check it out:

Knitting Goddess, Sweet Clement, Old Maiden Aunt

Again, all purple, all semi solids but the differences between each dyer is incredible.

And then you have all the variegated and striping yarns. And again, no two dyers will do the exact same thing with the same colour palette.

Viz:

Fyberspates, Solstice Yarns

The yarn on the left is some Fyberspates I got in a 12 month sock club a few years ago. It was the February skein, as I recall. The yarn on the right is a skein of Solstice Yarn I picked up just before Christmas. They use a similar colour palette but each dyer has done something different and striking with those colours.

Anyway, I digress.

I’ve spent a very happy morning and afternoon going through my books, paper print outs and Ravelry.

Yes, yes I do have a slight penchant for Cookie A's patterns. How could you tell?

I’ve picked 30 or 40 patterns and matched them up with appropriate yarns.

Make sure you work out whether the pattern will suit variegated or semi solid yarns best.

Knitting Goddess, Paintbox

The end result of the exercise: a massive pile of brown paper parcels:

Not *quite* as attractive as before. But intriguing!

I’m really looking forward to dipping into these. I figure with approximately 40 odd packages, there should be enough to keep me occupied for a good long while. You know, in those dull moments between changing nappies, feeding and generally stimulating the older kids, breastfeeding, making stuff for the shop and sleeping.

Sarah

S.A.B.L.E. February 19, 2011

I was supposed to be writing a post about the beautiful bag I’m making for myself but due to the whims of fate and the fact that I live with two crazy making whirlwinds of destruction, I haven’t finished it.

Instead I have gratuitous pictures of yarn and a promise to make.

A friend of ours is organising a yarn/craft supplies swishing afternoon and in preparation for it, this afternoon I took a deep breath and plunged myself into my Stash.

I’ve been acquiring yarn like it was going out of style for the last six years. The pictures above don’t look too bad, until you realise that every single one of those bags and post packs is crammed full.

The jumper side of things is not so bad. I have one tub that is full of DK-ish weight yarn. Some of it is absolutely gorgeous:

Fyberspates, Scrumptious DK

Beautiful natural colours.

Artesano alpaca

Some of it was bought because I was high on yarn fumes. I have about a million balls of this stuff:

I have an entire bag of the stuff. Plus a half knitted jumper in a bizarre yellowish colour.

I really have no idea what I was thinking when I bought it. I don’t know what I was planning to knit with it or why it is still in my stash, five years later. It’s definitely going. I will never ever use it, someone else might.

But on the whole, the jumper weight box is not too bad. A few screaming mistakes and impulse buys here and there but really, not too bad at all.

But, oh you guys, the shame of the other box. The sock yarn box.

I made a couple of important discoveries this afternoon.

1. I own a hell of a lot of sock yarn.

2. The rule about sock yarn not counting as stash? That only works if you actually KNIT the sock yarn you own, before you buy more of it.

3. I need to knit a lot of socks to justify ever buying any more yarn. EVER.

The problem with sock yarn is that it is easy to justify.

One skein will usually be enough to knit a decent sized pair of socks, with some left over for darning purposes. Even for my ginormous boat feet.

SMOOOOOSHY

Just one skein can be used for other projects like baby jackets or shawls or scarves or hats.

SQUOOSHY

It’s a great way of spoiling yourself a little bit or buying a colourway you wouldn’t normally try.because it’s only one skein.

Loads of wonderful indie hand dyers make beautiful beautiful things and by buying one little skein or two you can feel like you’re supporting independent craftspeople.

It’s only one skein. Four simple little words that have led to me having well and truly achieved SABLE. Stash Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy.

Glorious!

This is just what I’ve acquired in the last 12 months. Most of it just in the last 6 months. I haven’t photographed the other stuff. The stuff that I’ve been hoarding for the last few years. I have another 2 or 3 bags of yarn cakes and skeins tucked away out of sight.

I didn’t count it all but I am fairly sure I probably have enough skeins to knit between 50 and 100 pairs of socks. I am really very ashamed of myself.

So the way I see it there are only two solutions to this problem:

1. I cut my own feet off so I am never ever tempted to buy another skein of sock yarn again. This has various impracticalities to it and would be fairly painful and inconvenient.

2. I learn to exercise some restraint. Yes, it’s only one skein but if I add to all the other ‘only one skeins’ I will soon no longer be able to fit inside my house. And yes, I could make some large bean bags to contain it all but that really doesn’t solve the root problem which is that I am buying too much stuff and not using it.

I am opting for number 2. Feel free to remind me of this next time you see me pawing through baskets in a frenzy at one of the big shows.

To aid me in my restraint I’m thinking of joining the other ladies from the Foxpin Knitters’ Group and taking part in this, if they’ll have me. I love to knit socks anyway and I really need some new ones.

The other great suggestion I picked up from my friends Suzanne and Aliyah is a paper bag yarn club. (I believe they may have picked it up, in turn, from a knitting guru beginning with Y and H but don’t quote me.)

Rather than signing up to a new sock club to get the thrill of new and unexpected yarn surprises, I grab a bunch of paper bags. I pick out a bunch of skeins of yarn, match them to patterns I’ve been meaning to try for a while, then tape them up in a paper bag and put them in a box. Each time I finish a project, I get to pick out a new paper bag. Fun and surprises!

Feel free to point me in the direction of favourite sock patterns or shawls. I can use all the inspiration I can get.

Meanwhile, I have weeded out a bunch of stuff to send to new homes at this swishing party. I even managed to persuade myself to part with some of my sock yarn. It’s a small step in the right direction…

Sarah

Edited to Add:

After some teasing from Alex as to my gigantic swollen sock yarn stash, I bit the bullet and did the counting thing and am pleased to say it’s not _quite_ as out of control as I’d suspected. In case you’re curious, the sum total of my sock stash is 69 skeins, 70 including the skein I’m currently knitting from. That doesn’t include partial skein left over from other projects, but they don’t count as stash… (Oh dear.)

New beads! January 12, 2011

These are our new, amazing beads. I’ll be making them into stitch markers, and we’ll be launching these babies at Unravel on 26th and 27th February, at Farnham, Surrey. I can’t wait to see people’s reactions to these.

What do you think?

Alex 🙂

Mission accomplished February 4, 2010

So far today I’ve managed to do everything I set out to accomplish. It’s unusual and pleasing!

Got packages dropped off to the post office,  got daughter 1 to go to preschool without too much of a tantrum, had some quiet time with daughter 2 and had a lovely cup of tea with our new friend Lola and delivered her custom crochet set.

She seemed delighted with it, so that’s great. While I am at it, you should all go have a look at her Folksy shop because she crochets some really beautiful things, hats, bags and gorgeous jewellery. She crochets the jewellery with wire and beads and all sorts of things. The little lilac evening bag she has up there has beautiful texture to it and her hats are lovely – her own design. Lovely soft yarn in beautiful colours.

We had a very nice afternoon, drinking tea, chatting about crafty things and reading (many) stories to the kids. And I scored an invite to come along to the knitting/crocheting group Lola goes to on a Tuesday morning, so I am very excited about that! looking forward to actually getting out of the house and meeting some new people.

All in all, not a bad day!

Sarah

A general round up of the weekend’s crafty goodness. September 13, 2009

For starters, Friday was the iKnit Weekender.

We headed over to West London-  heady climes for us Southerners. (Hey, we live here, we’re allowed to claim it for our own. And anyway, you can’t get much further South than where we’re really from.) Wandered around for a while trying to find the Horticultural Halls and eventually succumbed and asked for directions, which we then passed on to the other equally confused looking ladies we saw in the streets, avidly clutching their bright yellow tickets.

Once inside we stroked all the pretties. And I have to say, the pretties were many. The range of stalls was amazing, loads of independant dyers, small sellers, notions people etc. Lovely to see so many creative people all in one place. BUt sad to say, we came away largely empty handed, apart from these little guys:

BUTTONS!

We spent about half an hour lurking around the stall of the lovely people from Textile Garden. They just had so many gorgeous buttons. In the end the teeny wee owls sold it for us. Well, for me. The scotty dogs and bee hives got Alex.

They are intended to find their way onto some new bits for the shop, so I guess they may find their way to one of you, one of these days. I thought they’d be perfect for bibs or for gloves or wrist cuffs. All manner of fine applications.

But that was it for us. No other purchases. We wandered about, said hi to some people we knew, pawed a few cute bits and bobs (like the sheepy banks at the Herdy stall. Baa.) and then left. Unfettered by giant bags of yarn.

It felt odd leaving with out yarn. I don’t think I’ve ever left a knitting show without at least one random mildly insane purchase. But there was just nothing there that I had to have. Plus, what I didn’t spend on yarn, I can now spend on fabric.

I don’t think it’s that our love of all things yarny is waning. The socks, mittens, jumper and cardigan that I’m working on at the moment all attest to that, as does Alex’s giant sock yarn blanket of doom. It’s just, we’ve learned restraint. And I think that’s a good thing.

Now, as to crafting, I have had a little mini-hiatus over the weekend as I have had relatives visiting. But Alex informs me she has been busily chopping up various pieces of fabric, ready for me to quilt together as baby blankets. She kidnapped my bib template on Friday and a whole sackload of cute material, so there’ll be bibs galore at some point.I love making bibs. The moment when you turn them inside out and iron them is just super satisfying.

The only crafting I did over the weekend was a few rows on my extremely lurid pink and green socks. I’ve been working on them for a while, but with all the sewing I’ve been doing I just haven’t had time to knit. I completed the first sock the other day and am just rounding the third pattern repeat on the second. It was nice to have a little knitting time last night, instead of feeling like I need to be busting my needles and pins out and tacking things together. I don’t want crafting to feel like a chore. That kind of defeats the object.

Speaking of objects, this evening I’ve been stitching together a few of these:

I really enjoy making them. You cut tear drops of coordinating material and stitch them together to make  a pinwheel flower shape.

They have quite a few applications. You can stitch them onto things like pillow cases, bags, tshirts and so forth. Or you can make them into potholders – use plenty of wadding if you’re going to do that and DO NOT use acrylic, it will melt because – and I can’t stress this enough – it is PLASTIC and therefore not heat resistant.

I will probably turn them into toys of some kind. Either balls or maybe some more mobiles. I made a cute one a while back, with a Japanese doll (sarubobo) parachuting from it.

Whatever I do with them, it’s fun just tinkering about with them, playing with colours, size, number of patches. Not thinking too hard about the purpose, just enjoying the making.