Monday, February 23, 2009

Destashing and frogging...


Well, there's more than one way to get projects moved out of the WIP queue. The Cog had a flare-up of the hives on his face last Wednesday, and refused to go to work. Consequently, he really wanted to go out for a drive Wednesday night. I obliged, and skipped club - although, the dirty rat then admitted he'd actually brought no cash, once we were on the road. I only had shrapnel, which limited us to soft drinks. I'd popped some sock knitting in my bag, but we weren't really sat down anywhere long enough to work on it. The first pub was a tiny village pub, and although the patrons were friendly, they all seemed to know each other and it was a bit off-putting. The second pub is not far from us, and was completely packed out - I did walk the length of it, to establish that, yes, all seats were taken (they do excellent food as well). I spotted sock yarn trailing from my hangbag, so picked it up. Yesterday I fished the sock out, intending to add a few more rounds, and, shock horror! There is no longer a ball of yarn attached to the sock!

I was having a bit of a game with the yarn (Regia pompon in black) and I'm too embarrassed to go back to the pub, so I chucked the remainder in the bin. No great loss. What can I say, but, whoops? I bought some zip lock bags at the weekend, I think I need to start bagging stuff up, stop it mating and/or escaping.

I also went up into the attic and bagged up all the unwanted cones of yarn - I was quite ruthless, and only kept what I absolutely thought I might use in the future. The rest is going to college tomorrow. Result? My stash is now contained in one room of the house, excepting the small amount in my workbasket downstairs. I also chucked a bag of white acrylic - lovely soft yarn, but somebody had wound it off onto toilet roll centres, and it kept tangling. I chucked it after 20 frustrating minutes. Sometimes it's just not worth it!

I finished up the passap jumper with the shawl front - it came out rather well I think. I did get to the bottom of the FORM program, but ended up using a round-necked sweater calculated in Knitware instead. The shawl was supposed to be 1 metre long, but the yarn ran out with literally 1 inch to spare. There are supposed to be sequins on the shawl, and buttons on the shoulder strip. I might add sequins, there were two dropped stitches in the shawl that I fixed, that might benefit from a sequin. I think I'll forgo the buttons though. I love the drape of the shawl. The main yarn is actually a pale blue with lilac undertones - it doesn't photograph well indoors, and it was dark when I'd finished the sweater.

I need to add some sort of border to the long cardigan for the Cog - the original pattern suggested I made rib on 274 needles, which would be fine, but my machine only has 200. So I might do a vertical rib border - it would certainly be quicker than trying to crochet or hand-knit one. I have a zip ready, although I don't think it's long enough - it was the longest I could find.

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