Stashdown update #12

Final count for the end of 2012 - 96. Not bad at all! I had a look through my stash yesterday and spotted more things to be used up too!

Happy New Year!

Stashdown update: target achieved!

Well, I finished up a simple crochet scarf last night, using up some leftover DK. So I have achieved my stashdown target with 3 weeks to go! Hurrah!

Photo to follow.

FO: Black sweater

This is a Bramwell acrylic yarn with coloured slubs, I bought it from a fellow Raveller. I did an alternate picot hem I learned in a Clair Crowston workshop - it looks a bit like moss stitch (see this post - fourth post down, third hem in the picture). It had to be steamed to make it lie down, but it looks ok now. A bit tricky taking a photo of yourself, and black never photographs well.

I've knitted all the pieces for the one xmas knit I'm doing this year, I just need to do some sewing up. There's one last yarn I need to knit up from my "swatching" session back in mid November - white with big slubby blobs - and I suspect it's going to be a trial.

I'm mentally casting around for another hand project to start on (lace shawl? cabled handknit cardigan?) and also casting around wondering what has happened to my favourite 2mm crochet hook. It's a Clover with a soft-grip handle. 2mm crochet hooks are the bane of my life, they are always going missing!

Meanwhile I seem to have hit my stashdown2012 target of 100 entries in Ravelry. Remember the navy and pale blue sweater I made for the Cog (which he shrank)? Then I made another one, running out of navy, which I shrank? Well, the leftover pale blue yarn has been hanging around for a while, and I've been thinking there might be just enough of it for a lovely lacey shawl. Except, it seems to have some damage to the bottom of the cone. It looks like either it's somehow come into contact with a very sharp edge, or I have a moth problem (I'd be surprised by the latter, seeing as most of my yarn is acrylic). So I might well have to bin that yarn, thus inadvertently achieving the 100 goal.

Kind of feels like cheating...

Current mood: annoyed

Stashdown update #11

Post-dating this, as I'm pretty sure I shan't have chance to use up another cone of yarn before the weekend.

Rav stash currently stands at 102. So near, and yet so far! Still, I DO have a week off at xmas, and the deadline is 31st December! :)

Stashdown update #10

Post-dating this as with all the eye-poking I've had this month, it got forgotten.

103 is the yarn total - only 3 away from target!

Stashdown update #9

The stash is currently sitting at 105 separate items on Ravelry - that's 4 down from last month, which is good - but as I've focused on using up the "bits and bobs" I'm now looking at larger cones, which aren't as easy to use up. I *did* pick up a ball of Patons Smoothie last night (in a fetching spring green) but I'm not counting that as stash as it's to be used for making crochet samples for a book I'm writing. Don't hold your breath, this book has been in progress on and off in my head for more than two years!

I'm just not finding much time to sit at the machines, and when I have had time, I've just been too tired. Last weekend I was a bit under the weather with a sore throat. So I cast on a crochet shawl with some coned yarn I got from Colinette.

How I am going to use up a box full of Denys Brunton Magicolor, and another box full of space-dyed acrylics, I'll never know...

In other news, the SportKa is alas no more, it's been traded in for a second-hand red Vauxhall Corsa. Not as much fun to drive, and surprisingly less storage space, but the petrol needle has hardly moved all week and it's certainly a more comfortable drive. I miss the Ka - we had three years of fun together, and it was such a lovely colour (a metallic blue which tended to look purple in certain lights) - but it had a bit of rust around the filler cap, and waiting another year would have meant that the trade-in value would be practically nil. Silly being sentimental about a car, but it was very reliable.

Stashdown update #8

Current stash total is 109 - although it should read 110, I think, because I discovered yet another ball of James C Brett Marble chunky (the pastel one) when I was SURE I'd knitted it all up. D'oh. 10 away from target - d'ya think I'll make it?

I think I'm going to stay away from Ally Pally this year - there'll be yarn on the Knit and Natter day in October, but as I'll be teaching I'll have no time to shop. Must try and avoid the temptation of yarn at the Dream week next week, too.

Stashdown update #7 and other things

Did I miss update #6? Who knows (or cares)? Not I. The stash count is a very palindromic 111 - can I get to that magic 100 by the end of year? At this rate, not likely! :/ I should really stop going to fibre festivals, that's half the problem. Like being on a strict diet and going to a food fesitval.

Deletions, deletions. Every so often I do a dead link check on the Machine Knitter's Treasure Chest site (if you haven't checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?!). This time it was prompted by an email from Charmknits - one of her links needed to be redirected. Discovered links to some 15 patterns from Kangamooknits must come down, plus another ten or so from Smoking Needles. It's always sad having to remove links. Time was I'd hunt around online, because sometimes they've just been moved somewhere. I had a quick look yesterday but drew a blank in both cases. I think Kangamoo Knits closed a while ago (judging by the message archives in Yahoo) and as they were PDFs I don't think the Wayback machine will be any help either (I might still give it a go though - you never know). The domain hasn't expired yet, it's a pity they couldn't have left a "we are now closed" page up (and left the free patterns there until the expiry date). Such a shame - if they'd only asked, I would have been happy to host them myself. I've 50Mb of webspace, but as my site is mostly links and a few PDFs, I'm not using most of the space.

Whilst I'm on the subject, if YOU have a personal pattern you'd like to share online and you're blogless/website-less, please drop me a line (email addy is on the front page of the website) - I'd be happy to host your pattern as a PDF, with full credit/copyright to yourself, free of charge, in perpetuity. I'm already doing it for one lady who lost her website when Geocities closed. I will not share scans of magazine/book  patterns, because that breaches copyright, but if it's your own pattern then it's fine.

Yes, it makes me a little sad - because although I have added new patterns lately, the deletions outnumber the additions. Come on machine knitters - let's prove to the world that we are very much still alive! :)

In other news, I've been swatching pre-programmed pin tuck patterns in the Passap E6000. Acrylic 3ply makes a squat swatch you could, in the words of my friend Yarnmonger, "shingle a house with". The 2/30 one (half the thickness of 3ply) was a lot nicer (and I have a LOT of it to use up). I'm planning a sleeveless bodywarmer with a zip. Even though I still have flashbacks from the last time I tried to insert a zip into knitwear. Wish me luck!

Stashdown update #5

Ravelry stash now at 110 separate items, and the estate sale yarn that was in the garage (not part of the total) now has a new home!

Weather miserable, staying in and swatching for next weekend's knit-in event, whilst watching the Jubilee pageant on the Thames. It's low-tech swatching on the KX395, because its tensions are about 2 settings different from the standard machine.

Belated stashdown update 4

Yeah, the Mac has no hash key, and I can't remember the magic sequence to get it! And this should have been posted at the end of April! Double dammit!

I still seem to have 113 entries on Rav, despite buying a few more things last month. So no progress unfortunately, but then I haven't really been knitting much so it's hardly a surprise. Come to think of it, I did trade a skein of Colinette Lasso for a brooch this weekend, so the total is already one lower.

I did make a baby blanket on the Passap this weekend, which turned out ok apart from some dropped stitches (do NOT separate the beds under any circumstances! Whoops!) and a flatline near the end (if you turn too early the back bed pushers will flatline and wreck the pattern). It's still usable though and I'm sure baby won't care. Will post a photo soon.

Current mood: determined

Stashdown update #3

Tripped up somewhat at the NEC last weekend and bought 3 items, one of which is already run out (total not yet adjusted to reflect that as project is unfinished). Total currently standing at 113 - so only 13 to go to target (and it went down another one yesterday, but that will be in next month's total). We're cooking with gas!


Current mood: determined

Stashdown update #2

Bit late, but at the end of February I had 116 seperate cones or balls of yarn listed on Ravelry. It just went up by one today when I realised I'd failed to add one cone of Peaches n cream (which just happens to be the one I'm crocheting with). Whoops.

Stashdown update #1

End of January 2012 and I’ve 121 stash entries on Ravelry. Target is to get it below 100 by the end of the year. So why oh why am I being taunted by adverts for Kauni? It’s just not fair!

Of course, the Rav stash is only about 95% accurate, and there are some photos missing. It’ll have to do.

Been doing some updates on the Machine Knitter's Treasure Chest site lately. Hand-coding with Wordpad is somewhat tedious, but it's all I have on this 'puter.

And no, the sheep cushion is not for sale, but thanks for the interest. Maybe I should start a production line...