The 2011 Stash

I’m not going to lie, I have a pretty big yarn stash.  Oh, you do too? Sweet! I’m not alone 🙂

Because I’m going to be moving again in May (who knows whereto, I still need to work that out…by finding a real job…) I want to cut down on the stuff that I’m going to be moving.  One of the ways to do this is to cut down on my yarn stash.

Its definitely 2 or 3 times this size now...

My plan for 2011 is to not buy any new yarn unless I have a very specific project in mind and will be starting on it immediately (ie, a custom order, birthday and holiday gifts, etc). I will also continue to knit as much as possible, because, clearly, it won’t diminish if I don’t use it, right?

Who’s with me? Anyone want to tackle their own version of this mighty beast?

Organizing Knitting

I was thinking the other day about all of the knitting I want to do in 2011.

• I want to knit sweaters for each of my family members (excluding my mom, she already has one from me haha, sorry mom! I’ll make you another someday!) for their birthdays or something.
• I want to knit my brand new nephew a Christmas stocking so he has a special handmade one for next year.
• I want to knit a Christmas present every month and stash them away in my “Gifts” Box (doesn’t everyone have one of these on the shelf in their closet next to spare sheets and old bags?)
• I have so many designs swimming around in my head that I want to knit up and write patterns for I could fill up an entire library

But with all of the other things that will change in my life (namely the fact that I will be graduating from college in May) I’m not sure how I can get it all done. So my question to you is:

How do you organize knitting projects that you want to undertake?

Do you write a long list and just add and add and add to it as new things come up, crossing off others as they are completed?  Do you use the Favorites or Queue features in Ravelry?  Do you even organize projects at all or just knit what comes to you when it comes to you?

New Hat Pattern Needing To Be Tested

Remember that super slouchy beanie I made as a custom order?  I love it so much I’m making another for myself and figured that you’d all love it too so I’ve written up the pattern for it and will be releasing it for free to the public just as soon as its been test knitted.

you know you want to make one for yourself 🙂

How do you join the fun?  Check out the discussion in my group on Ravelry!

Another Mystery Knit

So the sweater was finished in time!  Yay for speed knitting!  However, I did not get any pictures of the munchkin in it, maybe tomorrow when they open the present, they’ll send me some, whaddya think?

Anyways, in other knitting news, lets see if we can figure out what this specimen is?

She seems calm, unafraid...

I found it lurking in its natural habitat: a warm, welcoming lap where it was being dutifully cared for and raised.

What will she grow into?

What do you think it will be when it grows up? Sock yarn, tiny needles, socks? No. This is something different.

 

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy Holidays!  I hope you all have a wonderful time doing whatever it is that you’re going to do and I’ll be back next week 😀

And The Heat Is On

Who’s still Christmas knitting?

Me, me, me!

Granted, I only have two projects on needles right now that need to be done as Christmas gifts, a little sweater for my nephew which needs to be done by Thursday (that’s tomorrow, in case you were wondering) and another present that should be done next week sometime (so there’s not really a crazy rush on that one).

Wanna see how far along on the sweater I am? I thought so.

A leetle more than halfway done...

I started this guy Monday afternoon and only got a few rows done.  Yesterday most of what you see here happened in between having fun with my momma.

I’m loosely following the Easy Baby Sweater pattern by Diane Soucy.  Loosely in the sense that I’m using larger yarn and needles than the pattern calls for and am still trying to knit a size between the newborn and 6 months.  So far so good.

I get to see my nephew tomorrow for lunch and want to be able to hand over the sweater to his parents and maybe coerce them into putting it on him so i can sneak a few photos…? Maybe?

Check out other WIP Wednesdays here!

Finally Knitting Time!

The semester has finally ended and you know what that means? Tons of knitting time!

a bag o' tricks

This little bag of blue odds and ends was knit up into a beanie within only a few hours yesterday for my roommate.  I’m pretty sure she doesn’t read my blog…but if she does, Spoiler Alert!  She has a gray beanie that she wears and mentioned a few weeks ago that originally she was looking for the blue version, so I went ahead and made her a blue version 🙂

I hope she likes it!

And this custom order was completed a few days ago for a friend and let me just say, it was hard to let go of, I love it so much! I am definitely making one for myself.

super slouchy, super pompom, super awesome

I’ve got a few more projects on needles, but no decent photos since it was so dark last night, hopefully I’ll get some today and I can share more with you 🙂

What have you been up to?

Winnings!

Recently I was the lucky winner of LylianMae‘s Giveaway and my prize arrived in the mail last week, wanna see what I got?

i want to lay on a bed of this stuff

2 skeins of some beautiful and soft handspun and a *cute* little sheep ornament!

baaahhhhh (translation: "I'm super cute, and I will make your tree super cute")

As a young adult, my personal collection of ornaments is very small (read: this is the very start of my ornament collection) and I can’t wait to add to it 🙂

 

What have you been working on recently?

Get To Know Me

• I love tea and drink copious amounts of it everyday

I may have more tea in my body than blood

• I painted my fingernails a color for the first time in my adult life on Saturday
• They’re gunmetal gray
• The sun is blinding me right now, mostly in the left eye
• I bought a car a week ago, I haven’t had a car in a year and a half
• Her name is Shirley Temple – she’s a redhead with freckles in the form of minor pock marks caused by a small hail storm
• My scooter, Daisy, has been my mode of transportation
• I love taking pictures

  

  this is my mom knitting, I ❤ her 🙂

• I love knitting
• I think I’m going to pull out some Christmas knitting now…

Ravelry Giveaway!

On Monday I launched my first ever Ravelry Giveaway in my group!  If you haven’t seen it yet, check it out 🙂 You could win this gorgeous stuff:

scrumptious and soft and warm and lovely

Plus some surprise gifties that will come in the package to the winner!  There are a multitude of ways to enter, but the giveaway ends on December 7th at midnight (next Tuesday) and I will be drawing the winner on Wednesday.

What are you waiting for? Go enter!