princessdeia

March 9th 2011
Filed under General, Stash Enhancement

The one thing I have been really keen on with our new bedroom is to have a luxury bed, somewhere to really unwind after a long day. As a result, I have become obsessed with thread counts and togs, I want the feel of a 5 star hotel in my bedroom! Whilst the High Street shops seem to be pretty good at realizing the luxury bedding market, there is one area they fail in, Throws!

In my research (walking around the stores in Westfield), I saw several throws that would be suitable for our bed, I have obviously picked a colour that is en vogue in home-ware because every store had something to offer. I saw a lovely chenille type one, an elegant woven one and in one department store one that was sold as being hand-knitted. But when I looked on the tags, what did all these throws have in common, they all said 100% Polyester!

I don’t consider myself to be that greater a yarn snob, and I do understand the need for polyester or acrylic in the modern world, I don’t like the feel of knitting with acrylic, and I definately wouldn’t knit a garment in it, I might consider buying an garment, but only if it was really stunning! I am certianly not going to have a polyester blanket in my luxury bedroom! And to add insult to injury, there was the price tag, the average price was £90! For that amount of money I could buy the yarn and knit a blanket! Yes, it would take a long time, but at least it would be personal.

Having a quick look through my stash, I found several yarns within the colour range (and some of the yarn left over from the cushion), each yarn has a story to go with it. The mohair was a present in the One Skein Swap, that Interweave organised back in 2006, one sock yarn was from the Socktopus Launch and the other from a competition on Ravelry. In a way this blanket will tell a little story about my knitting adventures. I’ve knitted over 10 squares so far – without buying any extra yarn!

I popped down to Peter Jones today, with some of the squares scoured the shelves for any yarn that match, buying up 3 more yarns in the aqua family. I do realize this yarn doesn’t have a cute story attached to it, but don’t care as my blanket a little personal!

July 21st 2008
Filed under General

After seeing Yoel’s success on Stash Busting, it struck me that if I am seriously going to decrease my stash, I am going to have to break into my core stash… without a doubt my favourite yarn has to be my mirage sock yarn – I love the colour, the texture, everything about this yarn but it deserves to be something special… and so I cast on the Lace Ribbon Scarf.

 Next, I had some Wexford Merino Silk, as I had one skein, I knew my choices would be limited. My first thought was a mini clapotis or one row scarf, but Yogicknitter suggested a Dream Swatch Head Wrap, which works really well with the silk, I actually have enough yarn to make a scarf rather than just the wrap.

August 28th 2007
Filed under General, Hats, Sweaters

Over the last week the weather in London has been very autumnal, it is not quite scarf and gloves weather – but we are getting there. As a quick project this I thought I would cast on some Fetching Gloves, I know last autumn these were all the rage in knitting blogland – but I am always late on the bandwagon (I still haven’t made any Monkey socks).

I had brought the Andean Silk with this project in mind, a quick check on Ravelry I found it is a popular yarn for these mitts, and I also discovered it is advised to going down a needle size.

As we had the three day weekend in the UK, why would I cast on one new project, when I could cast on two so I ordered the Gretel Beret from Ysolda, I am also making this in Andean Silk.

Of course, my knitting this weekend did include some work on the Central Park Hoodie, I have now finished the hood and all I need to do is the ribbed edging (what would be the button band without the buttons).

I am slightly concerned that all my knits are blue and feature cables – I have to admit I love the colour blue – but I think this might be a little excessive.

August 17th 2007
Filed under Project Spectrum v2.0, Sweaters

Inspired by the group on Ravelry, I have decided to try and knit from my stash again. With my knitting budget linked to Knit Wars (I have nearly 30 pounds saved up), a guilty feeling every time I see the two boxes of yarn in the corner and this bi-monthly colour triad for Project Spectrum (why do I collect purple yarn).

1. Texere Top Cotton, 2. Araucania Patagonia Nature Cotton (to make a v-neck sweater).
3. Natural Dye Studio, (Pomatomus Socks) 4. Knit Picks Palette – Brown -(top-up socks, maybe Baudelaire).

I have been working on my Central Park Hoodie most the week, following Lauren’s lead on at the KAL, I decided to knit this baby in one working on the back and sides at the same time.

I have adjusted the pattern slightly to accommodate knitting as one piece, eliminating a stitch at each edge for selvage, then adding an extra set of cables – which will be under the arms (where the seam should be).

Also, I have finished my Silk Shrug, I am just waiting for some sunshine to get outside and take some decent photos.

May 16th 2007
Filed under General, Sockapalooza, Socks, Stash Enhancement, Summer of Socks, Sweaters

I have been taking advantage of Rule 2.a in the guidelines for Knit from Your Stash and have ordered several hanks of Natural Dye Studio yarn. I first brought this yarn for my One Skein Secret Pal, last year and of course, I had to buy some for myself. However the yarn has sat in the drawer since the summer, when I signed up for Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, I decided to send this yarn to my spoilee.

The thought of being separated from this yarn, drew my right back to eBay. My plan was to buy some yarn to make my sockapalooza sock, my pal is from America and loves colour, so I thought a hand dyed British socks would be perfect. The colour is Lilac Sun, as for the pattern, I am thinking something like Lacy Scallops (pdf) or Razor Shell (pdf).

Of course, I couldn’t bid on just one lot and ended up buying four different colours – and there was me thinking the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, was designed to help stash-bust not to encourage me to buy more yarn!

As I am knitting from my stash I have already decided what socks I am going to make. I am going to jump on the Cookie A bandwagon, the Lipstick (bright pink) is going to become Hedera, the Regency (pink/lilac )is going to become some Pomatomus and I guess if you are going to knit some Cookie A socks you have to make some Monkey socks which will be the Midnight Ice (blue/white).

To help encourage me to knit these socks, I have signed up to the Summer of Socks KAL, I doubt I will be able to knit four pairs of socks this summer – I am sure SSS will set in but you never know. I guess I should finish the my jaywalkers.

I am trying to convince myself that buying yarn from Knit Picks is benefiting numerous knitters therefore it doesn’t matter that I am breaking the rules of Knit from your Stash, I could place an order entirely of sock yarn – but I have been thinking about patterns I love, like Central Park Hoodie and Fetching and have been buying to make those projects.

May 8th 2007
Filed under General, Sockapalooza, Socks

I signed up to Knit from your Stash at the beginning of the year in an attempt to clear some room, get more organised and cross some items of my “To Knit” list… However, since then I have not been knitting. I am still slowly working on my sister’s cardigan (it’s only been 8 months) but I haven’t even put a dent in my stash.

As it is my sister’s birthday this month, I thought I’d knit her another pair of birthday socks, like I did for my Mum. So as it stands my To Knit list is…

1. Grey Cardigan for my Sister – pattern made up.
2. Socks for my Sister – Jaywalkers.
3. Socks for my Sockapalooooza Pal
4. Shrug in Pure Silk.
5. Pullover (Adaption of Leftovers with sleeves) in purple yarn from my OSSP and Good Fortune Cotton.

I signed up to the Superfluous Sock Yarn Swap, however, when deciding what yarn to swap, I rediscovered The Natural Dye Studio, and have ended up ordering more sock yarn, and so my stash is growing!

Speaking of lists, I rediscovered 43things recently and I decided to try and read the previous six Harry Potter Books, before the release of the seventh book, according to The Leaky Cauldron, I have 73 days and counting down…

Of course, I can’t just have one list of things to do so far, I have 9.

January 30th 2007
Filed under Project Spectrum v2.0

Finally, I have caught up on all my bloglines reading – it seemed a little odd reading about plans for Christmas in January – but then I have never considered myself to be normal.

Whilst reading, I came across a few interesting things, Project Spectrum v. 2.0 is starting next month, I have to say I am looking forward to it. Last year, I loved looking over the Flickr group at the array for projects, I also got some great ideas for future knits.

I am not sure if the postcard swap is running this time, I think that was what I enjoyed the most, I got to “met” six different people, got to create some cards and in return ended up with an amazing display of card – the cards where only taken down just before Christmas.

The next interesting thing I found was Knit From Your Stash 2007! I have always tried to manage a small stash, only buying yarn for a set project, not planning to far in the future and showing amazing power in John Lewis. However, over the last few months my stash has steadily increased. I received a lot of wool as gifts last year – from exchanges and birthday gifts, couples with my new obsession of buying yarn online. I now have a stash.

What I loved about Knit From Your Stash, is the simplicity of the rules (and the fact you can change them to suit your needs) – you have to love rule 2.a. Sock yarn does not count. What? You think we are made of stone?

 I am going to try and link both projects, however, it may be a slight problem as all my yarn is blue or grey, so I will be extremely busy in February and March. With not much in knit in April, as I have no yellow or pink wool (although I have nearly finished my green cardigan).