princessdeia

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.

May 13th 2008
Filed under General, Project Spectrum, Project Spectrum - Elements, Stash Enhancement

So after three months of stash-busting, I have finally brought some yarn! I read on Ravelry about Crafty Cottage stocking Peaches and Creme Cotton in the U.K. and I had to give it a try! Jo offers nearly all the shades of Peaches N Creme and a fantastic service, the yarn arrived the next day, there was a slight error with my order, but she quickly sorted out the problem and sent me an extra ball for compensation, now I can’t wait to get knitting.

Original my stash-busting plan was not to buy any yarn in February and March and to try and use up all my pink and orange yarns, as it turns out I ended up knitting a lot slower that I thought and as it ended up, I didn’t buy any yarn in April! I am currently working through my green and brown yarn as part of PS3-Earth.

Part of my plan was to also donate all the money I saved from buying yarn to charity, but I have decided to give the extra savings to Ravelry – even though Ravelraising is over, the amount of time I spent online it makes sense. Speaking of Ravelraising did you check out the list of prize-winners , I was completely shocked!

 
Finally yesterday morning, the first of my flower appeared on my Chilli Plant! 

May 1st 2008
Filed under General

It seems that lately, I haven’t been able to find the time to knit let alone blog. I have had the Baudelaire socks on the needles for over a month now. I have been able to make a few smaller projects, – hot water bottle covers and a beret. I have added them to Ravelry but not updated them here, (my poor blog have been neglected). So the stash busting is going well, I now have more “used” yarn in my Stash on Ravelry than in my “stash” tab. There is still enough for 7 more pairs of socks, and several scarves/shawls. But the great thing is I am remembering why I brought this yarn in the first place and falling in love with it all over again.

April 1st 2008
Filed under General, Project Spectrum, Project Spectrum - Elements

Two months ago, I set myself some definate goals as part of Stashalong, I made a long list, , sorted out my stash, and even created a page to montiner my goals… and of course like all good plans it didn’t quiet work out that way.

I did suceed in using up most of my pink yarn – apart from the Knit Pick Shimmer (I still have no idea what I am going to use this yarn for), and I am now ready to start working with my earthy shades – yet again I have a list!

1. The Natural Dyed Studio – Alba, 2. KnitWitches Pure Silk, 3. Lorna Lace Solid Sock Yarn

I am planning on casting on another pair of Baudelaire socks in the green – ready for the Socktopus meet up on Thursday. a scarf in the silk and more socks in the brown – stashbusting with some leftover Lorna Lace.

On a final note from PS3 – Fire, I recieved this lovely little fire faerie from Wanda.

March 31st 2008
Filed under Project Spectrum, Project Spectrum - Elements, Socks

When I first started this round of Project Spectrum, I had a lot of big intentions. I was going to use this opportunity to stash bust, experiment with adding more colour into my life and blog away about all things fiery. Of course, it didn’t work out like that at all!

I have had very little free time recently, which translate to very little knitting and even less blogging. So in a last minute attempt to show I have been embracing all things pink, orange and yellow! Now I haven’t painted any walls yellow or rushed out to buy a bright pink coat, I have slowly been adding more colour into my life.

I figured the reason I never considered wearing yellow or orange was because I had never found the right shade for me… so before going to Rome I brought this mustard yellow top, I thought it was a safe bet, it works well with the staples in my wardrobe (dark blue jeans or brown cords).
Please ignore the lame photo it was taken as part of the “Fontana di Trevi Experiement” on Ravelry!

However, I am yet to find the perfect shade of orange and this colour is still missing from my palette. Pink has been the easiest colour for me to play with, it is very easy to throw on my pink converse shoes, and I have previously knitted several pink socks and of course I have had another pair of pink socks on the needles this month! I am hoping to finish these tomorrow, so I can start working with the earth tones for the next cycle of PS3.

February 29th 2008
Filed under General

So I have been part of the Stashalong for a month now, and although I have been lacking in the knitting department, I haven’t brought any yarn! I have even managed to control my Startitis – however, I still hate those final chores to complete a garment – blocking, seaming, even sewing on a button!

March is going to be a different! I have set up a progress page to watch my Stashalong, I have a few small projects planned so hopefully I can there won’t be much finished off to do and I can finally have some true progress.

February 28th 2008
Filed under Finished Projects 2008, General

Yarn: Cascade 220 Heather – Purple Jewel.
Pattern: Fingerless Mitts.
Needles: 4.5mm
Notes: As I always seem to knit scarves as gifts, it was lovely to receive hand-knitted scarf from my sister! A simple garter pattern in chunky wool. I wanted to take it away with my this weekend, and figured I needed some simple gloves to go with it.
The fingerless mitt pattern is amazingly quick (about two hours per glove), simply constructed and I think look fabulous!

February 4th 2008
Filed under General, Project Spectrum, Project Spectrum - Elements

For the last year, I have had limited space to store my knitting gear as a result I am a little obsessed with de-stashing, I have always know my stash isn’t huge but it is too big for me to handle, so over the last few weeks I have been joining several groups on Ravelry and even joined the Stashalong.

I guess for me, my stash has become a little overwhelming, I have all this lovely sock yarn and no idea which one to use first, or I find it hard to select a pattern every though I have loads in my queue. Project Spectrum has made this a little easier, as I am using my firey shades at the moment. As I needed to collect all my pink and orange yarn I decided to take advantage of this time to re-organise my stash.

Normally my stash is in three boxes one for sock yarn, one for wool and one for others (mainly silks at the moment), Now it is colour order (depending on the colours for each theme). Also I am taking advantage of Ravelry, now when I see a pattern I like as well as adding it to my queue, I am going to assign a yarn it. For patterns I like that I don’t have the yarn for, I will send them to the end of my queue, ensuring the next project in my queue is a stash busting one. As for all the yarn in my stash I have no idea what to do with, I have been using the pattern suggestion tab on the yarn page, to look for inspiration.

After the issue of TWIR last week, I tried to calculate how much money I have spend on yarn per year. Looking through my blog entries from last year on yarn I brought for myself (not including yarns for gifts or swaps), I estimate I spent about £250 ($475), I don’t think that is too awful, the yarn kept me amused for a the year and I have some wonderful projects to show for this money. However, seeing it in black and white has made me realise I do spend a lot on this little old hobby of mine and potential I could save some money this year by stash busting!

What am I going to do with this money?
The answer is simple I am going to use it to build a house!

Last week, I also read about Christy‘s project to get knitters to donate money to help build a house in Lower 9th Ward in New Orleans (the area worst effected by Hurricane Katrina). I remember taking up Yarn Harlot’s TSF challenge a few years ago and realising how much money I “waste” in a week on things, and it is the same with yarn I could easily spend £30 a month in my LYS and the yarn will still in stash until next year, so I am going to do something positive with it.

February 1st 2008
Filed under General, Project Spectrum, Project Spectrum - Elements

For me and my knitting February means the start of Project Spectrum, this year’s theme all about the Elements and linking them to colour and crafting…

The project is starting of with FIRE incorporating oranges, reds, and pinks. I am hoping adding elements to the project will really help me get a little more creative, I am apart from just experimenting with colours now we have a theme, knitting Flickering Flames Socks or Candle Flame Shawl.

I want to experiment more with colour for me, I live in a uniform of jeans and tee during the day and dresses in the evening. All are shades of blue, black or brown. Occasionally, I buy a red or pink t-shirt and only wear it once. I would never dream of wearing something orange or yellow (I barely even wear green). My home is exactly the same, shades of blue and brown, the only colour is on the beds with a pink or lilac duvet cover.

For Christmas, I got the Kate Spade Style book, I love the ways she talks about colour and it’s relation to the world around us, from, people to film, to clothes to everyday objects. She also then gives tips to add colour to our lives. I figure this is the perfect time for me start examining colour and also experimenting with it in my life.

As this is a knitting blog, I guess I should show off the firey yarn in my stash.

1. NDS – Dazzle, for a special project, 2. Cascade 220, for a Hot Bottle Cover,
3. KnitWitches Sock Yarn, 4. Knit Picks Shimmer – I have not idea what to do with these yarns.

January 28th 2008
Filed under General, Stash Enhancement

1. NDS – Mirage, 2. NDS – Dazzle, 3. Cascade 220 – Paints,
4. Cascade 220 – Heathers, 5. Cascade 220 – Quarto, 6. Cascade 220.

I did have big plans to start the year as a two-project-gal, to stash bust and not to develop startitis. Of course this wasn’t going to last long, I went a little mad online, was planning on finally getting around to ordering my Knit Picks Options Needles and Nickel DPN sets. (I got even some cash for Christmas I wanted to spend), then I wanted to buy some Cascade Yarn to make felted hot bottle covers (I went really mad here and brought four types), and then I remember the lovely mirage sock yarn Emms was using at Alice‘s Knitmas Party, so of course I have to buy some.

I have been really good in regard to not starting projects, for most this month I have only had two pairs of socks on the needles. I was planning on casting on the Ene shawl (as it was the poll winner last month), however, I am not sure if Shimmer is the right yarn for this project – I think I will get some Knitwitches Silk for this project.

Instead I cast on a Short Row Scarf, using Wendy Fusion yarn, I felt the colour runs where too long to really show off the entrelac pattern, this pattern is much better suited, as each section seems to be a “different” colour.

*Stash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy