Green Dilly Beans

Ouch

Forget the Ides of March... 

Beware the pitfalls of falling yarn. 

I was on the phone with my sister tonight - going over my Ravelry queue and reviewing projects I have lined up, especially those I have identified for her daughter/my niece, the Onion, and my sister herself. 

As it turns out, E spotted the Just Like A Peasant Cap in my queue and said she'd love one too.  I went back to the wall o' yarn to scope out potential yarn matches.  I spotted a gorgeous fawn colored wool/silk blend from our Nanna's stash that could work well for this hat.  Inevitably, it was on the top shelf of the 9' 6" floor to ceiling bookshelves lining the back wall.  So here I was, on the phone, standing on a chair, looking up to the top shelf and jumping up and down trying to grab said wool/silk blend.  I knocked the desired yarn off the shelf, but in doing so, clobbered myself in the nose with another massive falling cone of yarn.

I would not wish for anyone to get hit on the nose with the cardboard base of a falling yarn cone.  I was actually a little scared for the health of my rather wide-brimmed nose.  All at once, I was laughing to E and trying to justify the tirade of expletives I had just unleashed while making my way to the bathroom to see if I was bleeding from the collision's impact. 

Of course, once I had established that there was no bleeding, I had to weigh said falling yarn cone with my new digital kitchen scale.  It clocked in at 1 lb 5 7/8 oz.  I know there must be some sort of Newtonian formula to calculate the impact of yarn to nose based on weight, falling height, and resulting velocity.  However, without getting into the math, I can assure you, it hurt like hell. 

All is can say is, I really like my sister, and she better really like her Peasant Cap.

The Big Reveal

The yarn is on the shelves!  Admittedly, it's not exactly all cataloged on Ravelry yet, but a lot of it is, and I have been able to reclaim my dining table. 

Neutral yarns were boxed up and stored in closets, anything with color is out on the upper shelves of my bookcases.  It makes for a striking display, if I do say so myself.

Thanks to all of you who gave advice and offered encouragement in this endeavor!

The End of an Era

No I'm not here to write about Favre's retirement.  I want to mark the passing of another great....  This morning I used up the last of my Spinner's Hill Licorice Twist Yarn.

Licorice Twist played a starring role in my first Hourglass sweater.  It went on to play supporting roles in Kate the Cat, BSJ #1, and now, in its final appearance, the BAWK Hot Water Bottle Cozy (Ravelry link)

Despite the presence of a down comforter, which has been counteracted by the absence of a husband, I've had a real problem keeping my feet warm at night.  Enter the BAWK, my shameless attempt at finding a substitute for B.  I know my toes will appreciate that the last bits of Licorice Twist have been put into service in the name of warm feet.   

Morning Update: Consider me converted to the cult of hot water bottles.  For the first time since October I went to bed without wearing wool socks.  My toes had a toasty, warm base at the bottom of the bed.  The bottle has some serious staying power too.  It was still warm when I woke up this morning!

Crappers*

I've been on a roll tonight weighing, identifying and photographing my new stash.  Unfortunately tonight is also the night that Ravelry's Flickr linkage has decided to conk out on me.  All attempts to add pictures have led to the same error message.  At least progress is being made, even if for now it can't be public progress.

*Ravelry's error message begins: "Crappers.  Okay - we're not perfect."  Love the word choice. 

 

Baby Booty

I did it! I knit something out of my color comfort zone.  I really do like colors beyond R, O, and V of ROYGBIV, but I've been knitting pretty exclusively from the former.  Really there's no escaping my red routine.  Do I lose points for photographing against a red background?  No matter anyway, for now I'm going back to my glut of red and orange UFOs. 

These Saartje's Baby Booties were knit from cotton stash remnants held together on size 4 needles.  It looks like I'll even have enough to knit a second pair for another baby girl in the pipeline.   

In the realm of gift knitting, I was foolish enough to think that a collection of pictures would conceal the gifts within.  Two of the photos were gifts for my sister.  She laughed to realize I thought she wouldn't notice, that she'd be blinded by the coordinating whole and ignore the treasures earmarked for her.  Hmph, I've never been very good at keeping knitting secrets from her anyway, I just get too excited. 

Change of Strategery

I've changed my plan of attack to organize this week's yarn acquisition.  My mom helpfully pointed out that the yarn was packed to maximize space, not for effective fiber organization.  My plan to go box by box didn't seem so smart anymore.  Instead, I cleared off my table, put in the extra leaf, and set out ALL the yarn. 

There were a lot of layers stacked up in those boxes!  It's actually kind of a relief to see it all together at once.  It is a lot, but it is a finite amount.  So far I've done a preliminary sorting by fiber content and sub-sorting by color.  I've also got a fair sized section of unidentified mystery yarn.  Does anyone know of yarn test methods that would provide clues to determine its fiber content?

To be fair, not all the boxes I pictured earlier in the week contained yarn.  They also contained some familiar faces that Nanna, my grandma, made for The Onion.

Pre-Disney Pooh and friends, a la AA Milne.   Tigger is on the way.  I'll deliver them to Duluth later this week. 

Seeing Red

This is a sampling of projects recently completed or currently underway.

Minimalist Cardigan                   Chevron Mitts                           EZ's BSJ

      

Stulpen Mitts                            Clementine Beret             February Baby Sweater

      

Herringbone Mitts                             Seaweed                           Clapotis 

   

Notice a trend here?  Yep, I thought so.  Looking at my collective Ravelry projects, I immediately cast on for something to get me out of my reddish-orangey-purple rut.  Saartjes baby booties for The Onion (yes, she has a name now, but this shall be her blog name) in a blue-purple cotton. 

Yeah, yeah.  Baby booties are barely big enough to count as a new direction in my palette spectrum.  But I've gotta ease into this.  Baby steps you know, both literally and figuratively. 

The Deluge

In general, it sucks when your husband lives 1200 miles away.  Until yesterday it would have been hard for me to think of a real advantage to living away from B. 

I'm genuinely glad he was not here to see this unloaded from the UPS truck.

It's yarn, all yarn.  I told him it was coming, but nothing I said would have prepared him for the shock and awe that occurs when 70 pounds of fiber is delivered to your house.  B, sorry if I didn't accurately describe the yarn supply, but say hello our new tenants, stacked several layers deep in the photo boxes below.

Over the holidays, my parents helped my grandmother clear out some of her fiber stash.  I agreed to be its lucky recipient.  Despite numerous conversations with several family members about the quantities of yarn to be sent, nothing could have prepared me for the magnitude of what was to come. 

I'm really excited about the possibilities that lie in these boxes.  At the same time, I'm also a little overwhelmed by all the possibilities that lie in these boxes. 

It is clear that I need a new strategy for my latest stash addition.  Following the first mini delivery on Thursday, I stuck a few cones in my bag before heading to the food co-op.  I used the digital scales there to weigh my yarn, alternating with other customers weighing their bulk purchases of quinoa and carob chips. Somehow I don't see schlepping all of this to the grocery store as a viable way to weigh this much yarn. 

My new approach sets a goal of cataloging one box per week in my Ravelry stash.  At that rate, I should be done by the end of February, although early March might be a more realistic goal. I'll also be checking with the Weavers Guild to see if I can borrow  a digital scale. 

Does anyone have any suggestions or resources to help me in this endeavor?  The yarn is in various states of labeling; some of it is a complete mystery to me.  I've got the Knitters Book of Yarn, which is a start, but other ideas are welcome.  Once I get organized I can actually start using it!

Reknitting What Was Lost

My chevron mitts are back in action.  Not the originals mind you, I've accepted that they are gone for good.  This is such a great pattern, I'm just glad to have some again.  Minor mods are detailed on Ravelry.

As I was knitting this second pair, I found some handy (oops, another unintentional pun) solutions for the lost mitten challenged among us.

A Sign of Things to Come

Hooray for living in a place where packages can be left on the back door stoop!

There's more on the way.