Year of The Yarn, Take Two

Two and a half years later, I remember that I have a blog. As noted in the last entry (May, 2009!) I am not exceptionally good at finishing what I start. That said, I think (think) that I did succeed in my yarn diet of 2009.

Unfortunately, since then my yarn buying has been rampant and my knitting has been lax. The combination is not good. No longer contained to its assigned Rubbermaid totes, my yarn fills drawers (leaving no room for my shirts), peaks out of reusable bags, and makes my partner-- a confirmed non-knitter-- distinctly unhappy.

The only solution is Year of the Yarn, version 2.0. Much yarn will be knit, but not purchased, by me between now and October 21, 2012. Results will be documented (really this time) here.

Stay tuned for Version Two's Project One (already on the needles!) to be posted. In the meantime, this blog may just be the best thing ever: http://www.yarnyuck.blogspot.com/ (Though I would both make and wear the dinosaur sweater currently on the first page.)

Project Four: Finishing What You've Started

I have a bad habit of starting things and not finishing them. While this statement can (unfortunately) be broadly applied to most aspects of my life, it is particularly evident in my knitting habits. Here's the proof...

The yarn:


Visible in this photo are parts of a bag that I felted and hated, a single sock, a single mitten, a baby sweater that needs blocking and buttons, half a hat, unfinished toys, a sweater without sleeves and a cat bed. Some of these projects will be finished, some will be frogged, the fate of others remains undetermined.

The project:

The fluffy purple pieces on the left were started in January, 2007 with the goal of making the cat bed from Stitch 'n Bitch. The bed was intended as a second birthday present for the very handsome Little T, pictured below.


Little T is now four years old. I have no reason or excuse for why it took so long, but this is just one of those projects that got put to the side. I finally picked it back up, and in THREE DAYS it was done.

The result:

The cats were already enjoying the project when it was in progress. As evidenced, Milo didn't hesitate in testing it out before it was even sewn.



Eventually it was sewn, however. The pattern didn't call for stuffing, but I thought it would be improved by a little fattening up, so the sides were sewn into a tube and stuffed with polyfil before being stitched to the bottom mat.


Perfect!

The rest:

All of the cats love it, except Little T... of course! He has yet to step foot in it, but I'm not too worried. I'm sure it will get plenty of use!

Project Three: Swine Flu Blanket

Such-titled for the significant amount of knitting accomplished while screening people for the pandemic at the health centre where I work. This huge blanket garnered much attention everywhere I went. Strangers repeatedly asked me for assurance: "It's for a girl, right?" It's not.

Knit for the punk-rock baby of a friend. Seriously, this kid is cooler than you, and he's not even eight pounds yet.

The yarn:

Knit Picks' Swish DK, in Coal and Petal. Took way more yarn than called for, approximately seven balls of each colour to make size small.

The project: http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall08/PATTopart.html

The result:


The rest: It was a pain to knit with over 600 stitches in the outer rounds, but much-appreciated by Baby H's parents. I'm sure Baby H will appreciate it too, as soon as he wakes up from his nap.

Project Two: Camden

As a general rule, I do not knit sweaters for friends. Armwarmers, hats, scarves, sure. But sweaters, that's a bit much.

Once in a rare while, though, you just see something and think "That's ______!" You know, it just is them.

So...

The yarn:
Knit Picks' Swish DK, in Jade. I think it took 8 balls?

The (perfect) project: Knitty's Camden

The result:

The rest: To be gifted to the friend tonight, update to follow!

Project One: The Sweater of Doom

The Sweater of Doom was the first project in the year of stash busting.

It was started in December, originally intended as my mother's Christmas gift. Unfortunately, my gauge proved incorrect, as the sweater proved large enough to fit a large man-- which my mother is not. I frogged the entire thing, and began the year with mass quantities of...

The yarn:


Red alpaca blend (I'm guessing on the fibre-content), purchased by my mother on a trip to Peru. 5.5 balls used in total.

My mother, you see, has a lovely habit of buying me yarn and saying "This would make a lovely _________ for mother!" In this case it was...

The project: Cloud V-Neck Raglan

The result:



The rest: Given to my mother in March, who loves it-- and not just because she's related to me, I hope.

Temptation

If there was one day in the year that I thought I might break my diet, today was it. Why? Because today it was:


The Knitters' Frolic. Room after room filled with yarn. All textures, weights, fibres, colours! There was yarn with plastic gnomes spun into it. Gnomes! And the sales, oh the sales!

Take a look:
And here, for good measure, is a picture of my fellow frolickers enjoying their yarn:




The yarn was so much more delectable than my photos, of course.

But do you know what?

Really, guess what!

I didn't buy a thing. Not the yarn with the gnomes, not the laceweight silk with the tiny beads, not the amazingly discounted yarn. Nothing. Because the yarn I have, the stuff that's already mine, it's just waiting to be knit. And I don't want to leave it waiting.

Exhibit A

To truly understand why I, a dedicated knitter, would choose to spend a year knitting only with the yarn already in my home I feel that photographic evidence is neccessary.

So, here is my stash:


Most of it, actually. Some of it is just outside of the photo's edges. Some is still in roving form. Some of it has already been knit in the two months of stash busting that precede this post (evidence of this to be posted soon). Some of it is shoved into forgotten corners of my home, to be stumbled across one day. In any case, it's a lot. The space the yarn is covering in this photo is, in fact, a queen-sized bed.

My goal is to knit only from this yarn for an entire year. I'll let you know how it goes.