Saturday, January 24, 2015

2014 Knitting Stats


I found my used yardage stats on Ravelry.  10,547 yards used (this doesn't show the 400 yds used on a Leftie scarf in Feb). Not bad for not having enough time to knit this year. Que Sera, Sera blanket used up a ton of stash I didn't care for and extra scraps I had around. When it was drying she made a comment that it looked warm. I took that she had some interest in having it so I gave it to her. I completely forgot to update that the Hopsalots slippers that used 272 yards is finished, bringing up the count to 10,819 yards! Close to 11k off my shoulders. I won't bum myself out by thinking of all the yarn that I added to the stash this past year. 

Stitches West is less than a month away. I vaguely recall buying more no more than 3 projects worth of yarn last year: Quince & Co. Owl yarn for San Pablo Cowl (finished in Nov.),  Miss Babs Kilamanjaro for a better Viajante (currently on needles) and Plucky Knitter yarn for the Herrington Cowl (still stashed away but intend to use soon). The yarn for the latter project was not cheap. I had to stew on it that Friday to make sure it wasn't a hasty decision. I went back on Saturday to purchase. I have a few weeks to come up with a plan and a set budget. I know...I crack myself up too! Me and my delusions... 

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Lessons never learned

So, yeah. My Stash Buster Blanket is made with all different blends of yarn to 100% wool that had been sitting in bins in the garage for YEARS. Mostly yarn I didn't care too much about but knew it would get donated or used for something eventually. I finished it in December. It came out a bit wonky because stitches were lost as I re-learned Tunisian Crochet. I weaved in the ends this week. Then I lost my mind, threw caution to the wind and  put it in the washing machine. I didn't do anything crazy. My intention was to soak in Eucalan, spin on the lowest possible setting to take out most of the water, and hang to dry. It's just a blanket. Apparently the spin cycle wasn't low enough. The wool definitely felted lightly and the blends/machine wash wool did not. It wasn't shocking, but I was hoping that wouldn't be the outcome. I'm a big dummy. *sigh* It's still a usable blanket that will be used on my bed as a nice weight over my comforter. My cat loves it. Oh yeah, and chances are I'll be making many more stash buster blankets that I WILL NOT felt. Yarn is one thing I'll never run out of.