This is the official end of the year tallying-up post!

Incoming fibre in 2011:
33.5 ounces fibre acquired at Maryland Sheep and Wool

Outgoing fibre in 2011:
Er… I spun a little bit. Not a lot. Way more came in than went out.

Incoming yarn in 2011:
7 skeins of Red Heart for my first crocheting project
1 sock yarn for Michael
3 Lang Merino DK for Winterlude-inspired colourwork hat and armwarmers
1 skein sock yarn at Rhinebeck
2 balls Patons Kroy Socks FX
5 balls Sugar ‘n Cream for washcloths
1 ball Serenity Sock Weight in navy for heels and toes on socks
4 balls Elann Silken Kydd for shawl
—
24

Outgoing yarn in 2011:
1.5 – Baby Surprise jacket
2 – Michael’s Fleeps
3 – Winterlude Hat ™
2 – time traveling Jaywalkers
7 – Hexagon blanket
6 – Sweaters for the twins
1 – gave a ball of sock yarn to Mom
1 – white washcloth
1 – blue washcloth
1 – argyle washcloth
1 – greens washcloth
1 – Quick Relief socks
—
27.5

There are some fair amount of leftovers from the hexagon blanket and the twins’ sweaters, unfortunately. On the other hand, the leftovers may come in handy for swatching, experimenting, or knitting little toys. Still, more yarn went out than came in, and I’m pleased with that!

The Year in Knitting (and Crocheting):
2011 Projects

Favourite project:
I think that prize would have to go to the Winterlude Hat(tm), for being the only thing I knit this year of my own handspun. Between the wool and the fleece lining it’s a super warm hat, even if I think I made the lining a little on the small side. It stays on just fine when I tie it under my chin!

Least Favourite project:
Unfortunately, it was the Presto Chango sweaters. I am a little sad that I didn’t put as much love into my niecelets’ sweaters as I wanted to. Had I used a different yarn, I might have felt differently about them. The pattern was great, but the KnitPicks Swish and I didn’t get along very well.

Patterns Published:
None. But I have ideas! Many, many ideas…

For Next Year:
I know it’s a mistake to make too many resolutions, so here are the things I *want* to do, and if I get some of them done I’ll be happy!
- spin more
- knit something with handspun yarn
- design and publish two new patterns
- try a new sock architecture
- finish Napramach and the Stripy Socks
- finish the Dancing Cranes stole in time to wear to a wedding
- cast on for fancy cabled knee socks
- use up more yarn and fibre than I purchase
- get some stock in the Etsy shop

After I’d taken pictures of many sheep, I met up with friend Holly at The Fold’s booth, where we tried to resist buying every single skein of Socks that Rock. The colourway that I was looking for was nowhere to be found, unfortunately.

For the next several hours we perused as many of the vendors’ offerings as we could. Despite my best efforts to buy nothing, I had gone into the day knowing that I would probably buy something, and indeed I did:

Two braids of Blue-Faced Leicester in the “Stone House” colourway from Three Waters Farm. I’m not sure what I’ll make with this yet, which is why I went for two braids instead of one – I’ll have more options that way. BFL is great for socks, and with eight ounces I’d surely have enough for some nice tall socks. If I made regular-length socks, I’d probably have enough yarn left over for a second pair, or maybe armwarmers. When I unbraid it, I’ll decide whether I’m going to do a three-ply or a chain-plied yarn. I like the barberpoled look of a true three-ply, but then the striping of chain-plied yarn is tempting.

Two ounces each of Ashland Bay’s merino-silk blend in McKenzie, Concord and Sea Lilac will eventually become another colourwork hat. The spun-up samples of the two darker colours were nothing like what it looks like now; they were lovely heathered shades without any hint of striping at all. I’ll have to sample to see how to get that effect. While I do generally like to buy hand-dyed fibre from small companies or individual fibre artists, Ashland Bay’s fibres are always appealing not only because the colours are beautiful, but because the prep is so consistent; every piece of fibre is just as smooth-drafting as the next. The first real usable yarn I spun was from Ashland Bay fibre, so I guess I have a soft spot for it.

From Little Barn, eight ounces of unbleached tussah silk and eight ounces of silk noil for carding into blended batts. The drum carder is set up in its new station and I’m excited to get started on producing some beautiful batts. I have about 14 ounces of Corriedale top in a variety of solid colours, some undyed mohair and nylon that can be added in for sock blends, quite a bit of alpaca in natural shades, and now the silk.

Then, Holly gave me a bag full of Cormo locks that she prepped. I’ve never spun Cormo before and I’m really curious to try it! She warned me that while it’s clean, it does still have a bit of lanolin in it. I think I’ll try spinning it as it is, and then wash it in hot water with dish soap after it’s all plied up.

Being around so much fibre has gotten me anticipating this year’s Tour de Fleece, a spinning challenge that parallels the Tour de France. I’ve already joined “Team Kromski” as I’ll be spinning on Grace the Sonata. So far I haven’t set any goals for myself other than “spin daily, and spin more”. Last year I left the wheel out in the living room and was reminded to spin daily. This year with the cats I don’t think that would be the wisest of ideas. They think that Patience the Traditional’s drive band is a great toy and I can only imagine what damage they would do to any fibre I left unsupervised.

The only problem is that the Tour begins on July 2, and I’ll be out of town until July 5. So I won’t be able to start until the fifth day, and that puts me in the “Lantern Rouge” group of spinners who can’t quite do the whole thing but participate as much as possible. Will I be able to catch up and match last year’s spinning if I start late? Will the cats begin to hate me if I spend nearly three weeks locked away from them with my wheel? Will I actually set a real goal or will I just leave it as “spin daily, and spin more”? Time will tell…

You know what this weekend is? The Maryland Sheep and Wool festival. I’m going to head up there on Saturday morning.

You know what I’m going to buy? NOTHING. Last year I came home with two and a half pounds of fibre that I’d bought, and then I was given another three and a half pounds of wool roving and a goodly amount of alpaca fleece. So this year I really don’t need anything.

You know what else? I’m a big fat liar. I can’t go there and buy NOTHING. That’s just an impossibility. But I’m not going to buy a LOT, okay? The only really splurgey thing I might get, if I find one, is a box picker to fluff up the eight pounds of alpaca fleece that’s too compacted to run through the drum carder the way it is. One day I’d like to have a triple picker and a supercard, but that day is not today.

Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches.
How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

Once upon a time, my entire yarn stash fit into this picnic basket. The top tray held all my tools, needles, and the ball bands from yarns I’d used. Underneath, I put all the yarn I owned. These days I laugh at that. The top tray of the basket still holds tools, but the main compartment is now completely reserved for handspun yarn – and it’s filling up!

I bought a bunch of large plastic totes at Costco, and sorted my yarn into them. One holds only sock yarn. Two are stuffed with raw alpaca fleece waiting to be carded and spun. A third has my collection of dyed fiber and a fourth has batts that I’ve carded and haven’t yet gotten the chance to spin. Yet another tote is for heavier yarns and leftovers from previous projects. I don’t have a picture of the totes, because it’s not really that impressive.

Right now all of this resides in my loft room, but the plan is to move them downstairs when Pirate-Husband and I finish building out the craft room in the basement. That should open up a lot of space for me upstairs. Who knows, I might even start letting the cats go in there!

Almost every yarn I own has been photographed, and each one has a listing in my Ravelry stash. That helps me to keep track of what I own, and when I’m having a bad day I can pull up the stash photos and think about the different projects that I’m going to make with all that beautiful yarn. I like making lists, so I’ve crosslinked my yarns with the projects in my queue. Of course, I don’t always work from my queue in order… but at least the organization is there.

Once again, I visited my sworn-sister the Knitting Ninja (along with a bunch of other friends) in her hometown of Ottawa for the annual Winterlude festivities. In addition to the usual things we do there – eat stew at the cook-off, drink lots of beer, buy fancy cheeses and make a meal of them, watch the Super Bowl – we visited two yarn stores.

Our first stop was the new Yarns Etc., where I acquired a skein of Cascade Heritage Paints in the understated blues and grays “Thunder” colourway. Understated blues and grays… if you’ve been following along for a while, you may have guessed that this is going to be socks for Michael. (And if you haven’t, now you know!) I have no idea when I’m going to get to them, and first he has to tell me where the last pair of socks could fit better, but eventually there will be a new pair of plain ribbed socks for him.

Since it was within blocks of our hotel, we walked down to Yarn Forward. Last year I’d gotten two skeins of Lang Merino 120, a smooth DK weight superwash yarn, in black. This year I supplemented them with three more skeins, one each of cream, green, and blue-ish. The colours aren’t exactly wintery, but somehow they remind me of winter. Blue and green are more springlike, but with the cream in there they make me think of ice. So I’m thinking of designing a Winterlude-inspired hat and armwarmers set to be my very first for-sale patterns.

To that end, I wandered around the ice sculptures in Confederation Park looking at, and sneaking pictures of, people’s hats. There was lots of inspiration to be found, since of course in February in Ottawa it’s cold enough for nearly everyone to be wearing a hat, and many of them are hand-knit.

Many of them also have earflaps, which was my motivation last year to knit the hat that I didn’t want to buy. I finished sewing the lining into my Winterlude Hat(tm) just a day before leaving, and got the cords in with some help from Pirate-Husband, and was quite pleased with how warm it was while I traipsed around Ottawa. There are a couple of things that I would change, if I were to be making it again: first, I’d make the earflaps wider. They are wider than my ears, but still let wind in unless I tied the cords under my chin. And second, I’d make the lining a teensy bit larger, because it felt as if the hat kept riding up on my head unless I tied the cords under my chin. So third, I’d make the cords a couple of inches longer, because it was hard to tie them while wearing gloves. Even without those things, I absolutely love my new hat. Wearing something made of yarn I spun myself is so gratifying! The polar fleece lining kept me from having a terrible case of hat hair, which is definitely a good thing. (I know I’m squinty in this picture. It was very bright out.)

Speaking of gloves, there’s another finger to repair on my Fleeps. They still kept my hands warm, though I can definitely feel that they’re getting thin. Maybe I can wear them for another year, but then it will be time to make another pair for myself. Meanwhile, Michael’s new Fleeps made their debut and did their job wonderfully. He says he’s going to show them off to everyone, and I totally believe him. The magnet-snaps that I sewed in are seriously awesome. My next pair will definitely have those included.

End of year tallying-up post!

Incoming fibre in 2010:
3572 grams / 7.8 pounds – some handpainted top, some natural roving. Nearly four pounds of wool and one pound of alpaca were unexpected gifts to me! And I won a lovely 4 ounces of combed top in the Tour de Fleece, pictured here. It’s the brightest fibre I think I’ve ever owned.

Outgoing fibre in 2010:
Spun 450 grams / almost one pound. Participating in the Tour de Fleece sure helped with that number, but I’m hoping and planning to spin even more next year. Knitting with handspun yarn is a wonderful thing, and therefore I must make more yarn so that I can knit with it. This three-ply Corriedale would make great thick armwarmers, and I have some foresty green and gold merino/silk that would be wonderful as gloves or socks, and some bluesy-green Falkland that would be perfect as a hat.

Incoming yarn in 2010:
28 skeins in, which seems high, except eleven of them are small skeins for the twins’ sweaters.

Outgoing yarn in 2010:
19 skeins out, if I include the almost-done projects in my count. That might be cheating a bit. Twelve, if I only count 100% finished projects.

Here are the things I knit this year! Five pairs of socks, three of which were gifts. One pair was made from my very own handspun yarn. Two baby hats and a pair of baby booties, and an adult-size hat. Three more projects – Michael’s Fleeps, a hat and a secret baby gift – are very close to completion. Wow, I only finished two things for myself this year? Crazy.

Favourite project:
If I have to pick a finished project, Pirate-Husband’s Paraphernalia socks were the most fun to work on. Keeping them secret was part of the fun, and so was modifying the pattern to fit his feet.

If it’s not cheating too much to pick a project that’s not 100% completed, I’m going to say the Winterlude Hat(tm). It’s knit from two-ply Jacob yarn I spun myself, it was a fun challenge to do the colourwork and get it even, I learned how to do a crocheted edging, and it’s going to be the warmest hat ever after I line it with polar fleece.

Least Favourite project:
If I have to pick a project that I finished, I think it would be the Gnome Hat and Booties. Not because there was anything wrong with the pattern, but because the yarn was no fun to work with.

Since I liked everything I finished this year, I’m going to go back to an unfinished project and say the Kureyon socks. I love how they look, but knitting with the Kureyon sock yarn is no fun for me at all. Perhaps I will buckle down in 2011 and get them done, already, and never buy this yarn again. Some people really like it, so I’ll leave it to them.

Patterns Published:
Two! First the Sibling Socks, a fine-gauge sock that grew from the need for a suitable pattern to use with Trekking XXL at 45 stitches per four inches. Then, in a more sensible gauge, the similar Cakewalk Socks.

I’d like to release at least one new pattern in 2011, and maybe even two of them! I’ve got plans in mind, it really will just come down to having enough time to sit down and work on them.

My brother and sister-in-law found out last week that both of the impending twins are girls! I am so excited to have two more little niecelings on the way. (Only a tiny bit of that is because “nephewling” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.) Right now they’re being referred to as Thing One and Thing Two… yes, my brother is a Dr. Suess fan, why do you ask?

I brought the KnitPicks catalogue with me to New York, and pointed out the Swish Worsted to my sister-in-law as the yarn I thought would be best for the twins’ sweaters. We had a lot of fun looking at the colours, but she already knew that she wanted one sweater to be pink, and one to be purple. It was just a matter of picking the right shades. The pink was easy, since there was only one that we liked – the other was way too bright. This colourway is called “Carnation”. Carnations are my favourite flowers, and maybe the Pink Nieceling will grow up to like them as well.

The purple was a little more difficult, since there were more shades to choose from. After going back and forth we decided that this “Amethyst Heather” would work well. The plan is to make two “Presto Chango” sweaters (link to free pattern on Jimmy Beans Wool) with an extra front panel in each colour. The twins can then wear solid colours, or swap their sweater-fronts for a new look. I’m considering making each panel with a different lace pattern so I don’t get too bored with knitting the same thing four times over. Two identical sweaters will be enough as it is; it’s a good thing that baby knits go so quickly!

I wasn’t sure how much of each colour to buy, so I asked the wise minds on the Ravelry forums, and we settled on five skeins per sweater. That should definitely be enough for the extra panel as well. Someone suggested that if there was enough yarn remaining after the sweaters were done, I could knit a hat. That seemed like such a good idea that I bought one extra skein in “Sugar Plum” to coordinate. If I have time, I’ll stripe it with the leftovers to make two not-quite matching hats.

The three yarn pictures in this post came directly from KnitPicks’ site. I’m sure I’ll take my own pictures as soon as the yarn arrives!

I found out yesterday that one of the best local yarn stores, With Yarn In Front, is closing down. They were having a 40% off everything liquidation sale, so I stopped by on my way home to see if anything was left.

Most everything had been cleared out well before I got there, but I did find this skein of Sockin’ Sox, 436 yards of a wool, bamboo and nylon blend. I might not have bought this at its original price, but at 40% off it was definitely worth it. It will knit up into subtle stripes of red, tan and blue with black spots spattered throughout. I looked up some of the socks knit in the same colourway on Ravelry and I am leaning towards keeping it for myself for a pair of plain socks, though it might make a cute striped infant-sized sweater or a good-sized stuffed toy.

I’ve been looking for these things for a while. The sock in progress, which lives in my purse, has a tendency to slide on the needles and lose a few stitches, especially if I don’t take it out and work on it frequently. Maybe it’s giving me a hint? Anyway, I had a holder for a sock in progress that was made from a plastic toothbrush holder, but it was rough on the edges and snagged the yarn too often, so I stopped using it… and never made another. These little coils wrap around the needles together, and will prevent any further sliding. I think these will work better for me than the style of holder that goes around the whole project.

It’s always sad when a local yarn store closes. This is the second one in recent days. I never shopped at the other one, so its closing was disappointing but I didn’t feel much of a loss. With Yarn in Front was a wonderful store, with a wide selection of yarns, spinning fibers, and even wheels. I tried a Kromski Sonata there,which firmed up my decision to buy one. I will definitely miss the store. It’s so doubtful that a new LYS will open to replace it.

Everyone knows that the yarn diet goes out the window when a friend announces a pregnancy, right?

I’m pleased that the solid red matches the red in the variegated colourway so well, and I’m curious to try knitting with this yarn. I generally don’t like cotton yarn, but it’s so good for babies’ sensitive skin. This yarn, Cascade Fixation, has 1.7% elastic in it. Will that help mitigate the harshness of knitting with cotton yarn, or will the elastic only make it even harder to knit up?

There’s really not much to blog about the project yet, since the yarn is still neatly wound up just as it came from the store. It will soon become a little hat and a pair of booties, but first I want to finish the Timey-Wimey socks. The baby isn’t due until late December, so I’m not hurried at all.

In non-knitting news (there’s such a thing?) I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I live on top of a mountain, and I thought it might be nice to share the view from my window. It was just luck that I had my camera on the table with me, since it’s usually nowhere in sight. But I’d just taken the pictures of the yarn and still had the camera out. When I saw the deer drinking from my fishpond, I grabbed the opportunity to shoot this quick video. Hope you like it! :)

This is the last yarn I’ll be getting for a while, I think! It is Cascade Heritage Paints in the “Isle of Skye” colourway, and it seems like the perfect colours for Mom. I hope she doesn’t mind the tinges of purple amongst the blues!

I plan to make a simple ribbed sock, 64 stitches around, since my 64-stitch socks fit her just fine. The only measurement I need to get is the length of her foot, and then I’m good to go – as soon as I finish some other projects! (Psst, Mom, can you measure your foot for me please?)

It is becoming more difficult by the day to refrain from casting on for a new project! I’m doing my best to hold out but I don’t know how long I can manage…

KnitPicks has my vote based on shipping speed alone – I ordered this yarn only two days ago, and here it is. That is amazingly fast! This is the first time I’ve seen the Felici yarn in person, and already I’m pleased with it. It feels very soft and smells deliciously of wool. The only disappointment I have is that the skeins don’t begin with the same colour, so I’m going to have to skip a few stripes of one in order to make matching socks with the stripes properly lined up. It will be incredibly difficult to keep myself from casting on for the new Jaywalkers tonight. I haven’t been this excited about starting a new pair of socks in a while!

When I told Pirate-Husband about this yarn, he quipped, “If you knit the socks for me, then you could be The Time Traveler’s Wife.” *groan* Awful.

On Saturday, I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. My car turned 25k on the way, which is sort of amazing given that I’ve only had it for thirteen months. I drove up by myself and had a lovely time shopping, aiming mostly for things that I haven’t tried before. After lunch of a pretty good, not great lamb gyro I met up with friends Josh, Efrain, Sam and Jen and wandered around with them for a while. I helped Sam and Jen each pick out a drop spindle from Turnstyles, after looking through the selections at several other booths but not finding the ones that were just right.

This is what I bought:

On the left, eight ounces of Ashland Bay merino in “Lapis”. I know this is really standard commercial top, but it’s also quite nice to spin with, and I liked the colour. On the right, 4 ounces of a 50-50 merino/tencel blend from Bonkers Handmade Originals. I’ve never spun with tencel before, but the colours really shine and I couldn’t resist it.

Two four ounce packages of a merino-tussah-bamboo blend from Bullen’s Wullens. Bamboo is another new-to-me fibre. I was only going to get one package, but they were offering a deal for purchasing two, so…

On the left, a six ounce sampler of Jacob roving from Firefly Farm, another new-to-me fibre. I bought this with the thought that I’d spin each one separately and make some colourwork mittens or a hat. Or both, depending on how much yarn I get out of it. On the right, something I’ve been wanting to try for a while – roving that will spin into a tweedy yarn. It’s Corriedale from a sheep named Lilly, dyed with indigo and iron by Handspun by Stefania, with multicolour silk noil carded in to make the tweeds.

Lastly, eight ounces of merino pencil roving from Pucker Brush Farm. I really liked the colours, and I’ve never spun anything from pencil roving before. I think I’m going to like it! At this point, my backpack was stuffed full and I was (amazingly!) still under the budget I’d set for myself, so I stopped buying stuff. I’m sure if I kept looking, I would have found something else that I loved, but I resisted. We all headed back to Josh’s house to sort and crow over our loot, and so I could teach Jen and Sam to use their new spindles. That’s when Josh reminded me that he’d been holding onto a metric ton of roving from his former housemate, and offered to give some of it to me…

Four giant balls of mystery wool roving, averaging 420 grams each. It was processed some years ago by Frankenmuth Woolen Mill. Much of it was marked ‘unwashed’ or ‘rewash’, but there is very little vegetable matter in it. It feels like it has some lanolin, but a lot less than I think completely unwashed wool would have. If I had known that I’d be getting over 3.5 pounds of naturally-coloured roving, I might not have bought that Jacob sampler to do colourwork! I was also given 470g of alpaca blanket, two in brown and one in white. It’s unwashed as well, with some vegetable matter but not much, and it’s a lot higher quality than the second cuts I had at home to play/practice with. And all of that was only about a quarter of what was there! Sam and Jen each took another quarter, and we saved some for Janis.

It was a lot of fun teaching Sam and Jen to spin. They both picked up the basics of park-and-draft very quickly, and pretty soon Efrain was making a drop spindle from a CD and a chopstick so that he could try as well. Sam offered to buy my Ashford Traditional, Patience, from me – but I’m still not sure I want to sell her! I go back and forth about it. I love how she looks but I don’t spin on her since I got Grace, the Kromski Sonata. On the first hand, I have some emotional attachment to Patience since she was a birthday present. On the other, wouldn’t it be better if someone was making yarn with her?

Last weekend, while my house in Virginia was buried in more than two feet of snow, I went to Canada. Ironically, the weather there was beautiful and clear, if really cold. It was even too cold for me to want to skate on the canal. Instead, my sworn-sister the Ninja and I, along with our friend Amy, took an afternoon to visit yarn stores.

Our first stop was Wool N’ Things in Orleans, where I was thrilled to find some of the discontinued Jo Sharp Silkroad DK Tweed, the same yarn that I used to knit my Fleep-Tops. I picked up two skeins in Cedar, a gorgeous dark green with red and yellow flecks. They’ll probably become another pair of Fleeps, as backup for when my first pair inevitably wears out. The green totally doesn’t match my dark blue winter coat, but it’s time for a new coat anyway. Perhaps something in green, or preferably black. Black goes with everything.

Then we headed over to Yarn Forward in Ottawa proper, where I bought two skeins of this super-soft (and superwash!) Lang Merino DK in a gray so dark it’s almost black. My first thought was that it might make a pair of Fleeps for Michael, but he wanted something thicker and tweedier, so I’m going to use it for a pair of classy office armwarmers for myself and pick up some Rowan Felted Tweed in as black as it comes for him. Not that I mind being able to use this pettably soft stuff for myself, not at all! I am thinking about making something like these Cafe au Lait Mitts from SnapperKnits, or perhaps I will come up with my own pattern for them.

I did have a disappointment this year: My old Stellar Toque, now over four years old, may be nearing retirement. It’s gotten stretched out and too large, and lets the wind through to my ears. I am thinking that before next Winterlude, I will knit a colourwork hat with earflaps and line it with fleece. We saw many of them in the Byward Market when we were there for the Stew Cook-Off on Friday, and I was seriously tempted to buy one – but why buy what I can knit? Pirate-Husband suggested that I could salvage the Stellar Toque by knitting earflaps onto it and lining it with fleece, instead of making a whole new hat. I could also felt it a little to shrink it and make it more windproof.

A visit from my swornsister the Knitting Ninja would not have been complete without a trip to at least one yarn store. We, along with our brother Michael, decided to check out the new Needles in the Haymarket. They’ve recently moved from the third floor of their building to a much larger store on the first floor. It’s quite nice already, and looks as if there’s even more yarn to come!

I told both sibs that I was on a yarn diet and would not be buying anything. Then this jumped into my hands. “These look like your colors,” I said to Michael, and maybe also “I would knit you another pair of socks,” and perhaps I might have added “One little skein won’t hurt, right?”

Said Michael, “If you’re going to knit socks for me, then I should buy the yarn for you.” And he did, thus absolving me of sin for having broken the yarn diet. (Isn’t it lovely and so subtle in the colors? I can’t wait to see how it knits up!)

Pirate-Husband laughed at me when I said “After this, I’m not going to buy any more yarn until MD Sheep and Wool in May.” Can I really go nine months without buying any yarn? We shall see – but that’s my plan!

But this was a special case (aren’t they all?) This is Opal Rainforest yarn in the discontinued and hard-to-find Tiger colorway, and I’ve been looking for two skeins of it for over a year so that I can make matching tiger paw socks for both of us. I finally found some through an Australian Raveler who was kind enough to ship overseas for me!

My favorite animal is the mountain lion, but Pirate-Husband likes tigers better, and so I thought it would be perfect to make him socks like these. Here is a link to the original project on Ravelry. I think they’re adorable!

I did tell Pirate-Husband that I have no idea when I’m going to actually get to knit these. But at least now I have the yarn, right?

When I pulled up the driveway this afternoon, I could see it on the front steps – my package from Discontinued Name Brand Yarn! I tore it open as soon as I got inside. Wow, this is red. It’s very red. It’s very, very red. I love it, partially because no one expects me to be the sort of person who’d wear something very, very red.

I like doing things that no one expects me to do. About five years ago at a convention, I complimented a friend on her pink cargo pants and added, “I would so wear a pair of pants like that.” Twenty heads swiveled around and what seemed like twenty voices chorused in unison, “You? YOU would wear PINK pants?” …so I went home from the convention and bought a pair of pink cargo capris. Here is photographic evidence of me wearing the pinkness in Philadelphia the following summer.

Anyway, it might be some time before I start the huge task of knitting the Rhiannon socks. I have three pair of socks on the needles as well as some other projects, and at least one piece of babywear queued up (the baby’s not even a glimmer yet, but I know he or she is going to be announced relatively soon). But they’re right up there. I’d like to have them done in time for next September. That gives me a year. I should be able to knit them in a year!

I know I said I didn’t need any.

I know I said I would only buy yarn at festivals.

I know I have enough yarn, especially sock yarn, to keep me knitting for at least five years.

But I didn’t buy any yarn or fiber at Pennsic, and yesterday there was a sale on Louet Gems Fingering at Discontinued Brand Name Yarn, which is just the stuff I need to make Cookie A.’s Rhiannon socks. I could not resist the incredible price of $3.49/skein, marked down from $13.95/skein, and so I bought five skeins in *cherry red*, which should be the most awesome color for knee socks ever.

I bought this pattern (the picture is from Cookie A.’s site) back in September, when I attended her top-down sock design class, and I’ve been waiting for the right yarn to show up ever since. Nothing was quite right – it was too expensive, it was the wrong color, it had the wrong feel to it. But now I’ve got the right stuff! It may take me forever and a day to knit these monsters, but I am really excited about them! Doesn’t everyone need a pair of cherry-red knee socks? I’m already daydreaming the outfit to go with them – maybe one of those cute flared black skirts, a blouse with just the right red to match. Most likely it’ll take me as long to find the right pair of shoes as it will to knit the socks, so I’d better start looking for those now. It’s not always easy to find affordable size 10.5 shoes that aren’t terribly ugly.

Pirate-Husband thinks that I should wear them as thigh-high socks with the tops unfolded. I’m not so sure, but he can be awfully convincing sometimes…

Earlier this afternoon, at one of those warehouse stores where you can buy six pounds of peanut butter at a time, Pirate-Husband talked me into getting nine clear stackable plastic totes for yarn and fiber storage. Admittedly, it didn’t take much arm-twisting.

I spent some time sorting and filling them, and now I am feeling as if my room is much neater! It looks much better to have my stash in totes, rather than in a variety of cardboard boxes. I have one for sock yarn and one for miscellaneous stuff that got in my stash when I wasn’t looking. One holds the yarn for big projects, and one holds everything else. Three have fiber… but I think that’s about to be four, as I’m going to move the fiber that lives near the wheel to a tote. Having everything in sight will probably keep me from impulsively buying more, and remind me to keep working on the time-consuming projects, like carding alpaca.

Slowly, slowly… organization is happening. I still have not yet painted the room, so there’s a lot that isn’t unpacked yet. After over a year in the house, it might be time to get around to that, y’think?

On Saturday, Janis and I went to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, and had a wonderful time! For the most part, I kept to my shopping list. I didn’t buy anything that wasn’t on the list, and I didn’t buy some things that were on the list, like semi-solid sock yarns. I didn’t buy any yarn at all, actually!

I picked up both a spinner’s control card and a WPI (wraps per inch) tool, which is basically just a bit of wood with a one inch notch cut in it. These should help me get to a point where I’m more consistent in my spinning.

Then I bought a variety of fibers to spin – a four ounce braid of Merino/silk in a foresty green and brown, four ounces each of Merino/silk and Falklands dyed in the same bluesy colorway that I plan to spin separately and ply together, eight ounces of “Starry Night”, 50-50 wool and mohair with a bit of gold glitz, and an eight ounce bag of Finn/mohair locks in a variety of colors that somehow all go together well.

Janis and I are splitting two pounds of raw Romney, but she’s taking the whole of it home with her to clean. I think that’s awesome of her!

I snagged about fourteen ounces of Corriedale in a bunch of solid colors for making blends on the drum carder, but I couldn’t find any nylon roving at the show. When I got home, I ordered a pound of it from Sheep Shed Studio. I got a few small baggies of glitz in different colors to blend in, surprising myself, as I never thought I’d like the stuff. It’s a lot less scratchy than I thought it would be.

What’s surprising is that I decided that I like the walnut finish on the Kromski Sonata better than the new mahogany finish. I had been so excited for the Sonata to be released in mahogany, as I’d seen both finishes on websites here and there and didn’t really care for the walnut much. Now that I’ve seen them in person, I’m definitely leaning towards the walnut!

On Sunday, I sorted out the colors in the Finn/mohair blend and carded two batts. The fiber seems to be less clean than I thought it would be; I’m definitely noticing lanolin on my hands, and wondering if I should re-wash it before I card any more. The first batt seems to be more mohair, and the second more Finn. I teased the locks apart with my fingers and fed the batt through three times. For the second batt, I used the teasing tool that came with the carder to open up the locks more, and only had to do two passes to get a reasonably smooth batt.

When I was tired of carding, I went upstairs and spun for about 45 minutes before bed. I’m working on some Ashland Bay merino top that might be thin enough for a three-ply sock yarn, and coming to the end of the second bobbin. I’ll have to weigh the singles, since I was stupid and didn’t split the top before I began.

More pictures when I have a sunny day, so I can get good shots with accurate color!

I got this yarn as part of a Ravelry gift swap, and I am appropriately ashamed that I didn’t immediately take pictures of it and add it to the stash. Here we have some 100% linen laceweight in purple. I have no idea what to do with it, but the color is beautiful! It’s about 165 yards, lightly variegated. What could I make with this?

And here’s 600 meters of grey Icelandic laceweight, which may one day become a shawl. It’s sort of hairy and coarse, so it wouldn’t be suitable for a next-to-the-skin project. Both of these yarns are beautiful and neither of them is something I’d've purchased on my own, so it’s perfect to have gotten them in a gift swap!