Stash Diet Review: Sokkusu

Sokkusu first entered my radar some time last year.  When I started knitting again after my break, I searched out Socktopus as a place to buy nice yarns, only to find it had been replaced by Alice Yus own hand-dyed creations.  I seeked out some images on Ravelry, and I was smitten, then when I read how much research had gone into finding the perfect qualities of yarn base, and then finding someone to mill to the specification of Alices perfect sock base, I knew I had to try it.

When I saw Socktopus were going have a stall at last years Knit Nation, it was on my list of places to spend money.  I feel in love as soon as I laid my eyes on this colourway, Siffie.  As some of you may remember, last year I said I would no longer be buying single lone skeins of anything, so I did receive some flak for this purchase.  I had a great excuse though - this is a dyepot baby!

The colours are the perfect muted rainbow.  I could look at this all day and never bore of it.

One day, I will join her Knit Love Club.  I love this yarn that much!  The base is perfect, and the spin and ply seem tight enough to be able to withstand the wear of being socks, despite being 100% Merino.

I love this yarn, and when my stash has been reduced, I will be seeking out some other colours!  This may become socks, or it may be crocheted into a shawl, I'm not sure yet.  I need to stop looking at it first!

Stash Diet Review: Malabrigo Sock

You can't be a knitter in this day without hearing of Malabrigo eventually.  "MMMMMMalabrigo"  It really is everything the hype makes it out to be.

I was quite late to the Malabrigo game, and bought my first skein (Rayon Vert, below) of Malabrigo Sock in 2011.  I picked it up while at The Yarn Cake in Glasgow one evening and had some money burning a hole.  The Ravelry Red I bought while at Penelope Craft in Amsterdam last summer, and since I love red it was a very obvious must-buy!  The colourways Malabrigo come in are gorgeous, the colours I have seen have been so saturated, it does make me wonder how much the dye will bleed when being washed! ;D
I can't honestly say these will become socks.  The yarn feels so soft, I can't imagine it not pilling and felting really really easily, not to mention the fact there is no nylon and it is 100% Merino.  They also seem to my inexperienced eye to be on the looser scale of plied for sock yarn, but I could be way off base with that.  It really is very very soft, and would be amazing knit up as a shawl or fingerless gloves, but even the gloves might pill badly.

The two colourways I own I fell in love with as soon as I saw them.  I love the way the purples are highlighted by green in Rayon Vert.  The Ravelry Red is just sensational, a real treat for lovers of red everywhere.

I do have projects planned for these.  Honest!  They will both become triangular shawls at some point in the future, but I do not have any specific pattern in mind for them.  I must confess though, being a variegated yarn not-love-just-like-er, Rayon Vert has me worried!  This is my main problem with variegated yarns - I love how they look skeined up, but I hate the randomness of it when it has been knit up, so I may actually crochet a shawl with Rayon Very!

Stash Diet Review: Koigu KPPPM

Just after I moved down here almost 4 years ago, my love of yarn took off.  Shot up like a rocket.  I don't need a psychiatrist to tell me buying yarn was just filling a void left by leaving my friends and family behind; I'm woman enough to admit it!

I joined Ravelry in November 2007, so by the time I moved I was already well aware of the bright glorious world of luxury yarns.  I had this silly notion I might knit socks, and what better website to buy sock yarn from that Socktopus (this is Socktopus of old, when she sold all manner of luxury sock yarns otherwise very hard to obtain in the UK, not the recent Socktopus where Alice dyes her perfect yarns and publishes books.  Though I do love both incarnations equally.)

I loved Socktopus-of-old.  Not a day went by that I didn't look, but I had better self-control than than I do now and only bought yarn (from anywhere) very rarely.  Until the Koigu sale.  

The love affair started with the rainbow skeins at the very top.  It was buy-one-get-one-free, and how could I say no.  

This started the luxury yarn buying.  Not a bad yarn to have as a trigger to an addiction!

The colours are all glorious and vibrant, and the twist is just perfect - not too tight and not too loose, and it produces gorgeous looking fabric.  

So why has it not been used?   Well, because I like it too much.  I am so afraid that what I knit with it will never do this yarn justice.  I started socks with the blue skeins, but frogged them when it became apparent I was never going to finish it, so now I'm worried it's been sitting in cake form so long all the stretch will have been taken out the yarn (which is why I tend to never cake anything up until I'm ready to use it!).

This year, I will use at least one of these colourways, and it may or may not be on socks - KPPPM is 100% Merino, and I really don't want to use 100% wool on something that will be worn as hard as socks!

More details on the colourways can be found on my stash page on ravelry, and here are some more photos for you too drool over ;)

OOOOH boy!

You can see my stash on ravelry, and there are also more photos at the link on the top bar!

I also added an About Me page up there, so have a read if you like :)

A Stitch in Time vol 2 (and they're making a mockery of me!)

It was with great anticipation I received my copy of Stitch in Time vol 2 this week.  This was a mothers day gift, but with the many delays, it is closer to being an early birthday gift!

I love the first book, which is weird as I don't love a lot of the patterns.  The same has happened this time.  I adore the book, the photography is stunning, the print is astounding, and the binding and paper quality are both top notch.

I have high hopes for falling in love with more and more of the patterns, the more I look through the book.  Two jumped out at me, then another, then another.  The thing about the first book is while I don't love a lot of the patterns, I always find a new one I like as I look through it.

You can see some of the images from the new book at knitonthenet. With the book was also some small samples of Excelana, and discount codes (which luckily don't run out until Jan 2012!) so I obviously need to decide what I'm going to be buying with them in January ;)

Now why is it every time I say I won't buy any more, I see something I've wanted for ages and ages?

Whoops

After me saying I would be buying no more yarn until February, I found out that Garnstudio were no longer going to be supplying Scandinavian Knitting Design with yarn!  So, faced with the possible situation of having to pay more in a few months time, I decided to stock up.

Big BIG whoopsie.  I did have permission from Jitterbug though!  He even suggested I place a big order.  So I did.

You will have to wait until it arrives to see what I ordered, though I will say  I got one hooded long sleeve cardigan and many many accessories worth.

So that's it.  NO MORE YARN (but I am going to the East Sussex Spinning Guild exhibition next weekend....).

WIP Wednesday & Yarn Along

I'll warn you now, this may be a long one!  Not because I have loads of WIPs, I have the same number-ish as last week.  No, I am going to write about my secret WIP.  I had to be confident Jitterbug doesn't know about or read my blog, and I am pretty certain now he is blissfully ignorant.  Not that I keep it secret, he can know about it after the secret WIP is no longer a secret.

So, everyone who is likely to come into contact with him, zip it!

I'll start though with the familiar.

February Lady Sweater still no change.

I am itching to get this finished and off the needles, but the Kiss Triangle Shawlette is closer to being finished so it comes first.

I think I'm about 10 rows off being done and ready to start the cast-off.  I'm going to finish the next 10 rows, then make a guess.  I may decide to do one more full pattern repeat - I have enough yarn for it so doesn't make any difference really.

I have finished 2 blocks of my crocheted blanket

I'm doing these while the kids have dinner, so they aren't getting in the way of any valuable knitting time (I tend to need something easily put downable when they eat).

I took new photos of the blocks completed thus far for Lizard Ridge (no, these have not been done this week, it took me 3 years to get to this point :laugh:)

The next block is underway (and has been since February)

And that brings me to secret knitting.  Jitterbug always asks me to knit him a jumper.  My usual response involves hysterical laughter and mutterings usually involving pigs flying.  In April, I saw this pattern and immediately wanted to make it.  I saw an opportunity to be really organised for Christmas, and ordered Knit Picks Wool of the Andes in Bramble Heather and confidently started in May.  I am very lucky in that he goes away quite often (he is in Istanbul this week), I go to stitch & bitch once a week, he usually goes and practices with his band one night a week.  So there is plenty of opportunity to knit.

Why is it then that I am panicking?

Two sleeves

It took me 2.5 months to do the sleeves, and I think they might be too small.  I started the body last month, and am crawling through it.

I need this to be done for Christmas.  I need it to not fit as badly as I am imagining it to.  I know Jitterbug will love it regardless, but I'd quite like him to be able to wear it.  I get the right gauge, so I just need to trust the numbers.  

To see some more lovely WIPs, head on over to Tamis.  For more Yarn Alongs, visit here.

FO Friday

I've no knitted or crocheted FOs today, but I do have sewing, and I have pictures!  Way to trump this weeks WIP Wednesday post!

Three drawstring project bags.  I am not a fan of ironing, so these are quite wonky and uneven, but they are for personal use so I don't care too much.  They are 3 different sizes, clouds being the smallest one.  The largest was made for a particular project for which I don't have a bag big enough for what it will eventually become.

In other news, Jitterbug was in Germany this week (well, technically Switzerland, France and Germany, but only in Basel airport, and kept crossing the French border while driving to Baden Baden) and came back with souvenirs!

To add to my slowly growing snow globe collection is this beauty

And something new is adorning my not very tacky souvenir, a Hindu calendar.

Can you say "more cow bell"?

There won't be an FO Friday post for the next couple of weeks, but I should have something to show off when I return!  To see more of todays FOs, head on over to Tamis blog!

ps I adore Will Ferrell.  I'd totally do him.
pps LOVING the new blogger look - head to draft.blogger.com if you don't already have it!  Googles re-branding is looking very very nice!

Stash... what stash?

It started innocently enough. A few balls of yarn to make random squares, all bought for ultra-reduced prices and none of it very good. Then it was a ball or 2 of the more expensive stuff, just to try, you understand. Then crazy hit and it spiralled out of control. I have a fair amount. Not the most I've seen, but also not exactly buying for a specific project. It ranges from cheap to expensive (or medium priced to those was larger budgets - 2 skeins of some of the stuff here could feed us, as a family, for a week (£30 total). Most of it is very very pretty and I do enjoy looking at it while contemplating all my option. Everything has a rough idea set aside for it, but all too often I get seduced by something else before it comes to fruition. I was (and am) buying quicker than I can knit.

A lot of my stash has been bought from charity shops (best buy still remains the 7 Jaeger Alpaca for £2!), some from friends and some from freecycle.  It contains a variety of fibres, though I wasn't fond of bamboo so sold it on.  And now with the added problem of 3 bags of fleece (which will eventually be bona fide plied and dyed yarn), I am running out of room!

There were 2 solutions to this horrifying problem: knit faster or stash-bust by crocheting everything I am unlikely to use into blankets. I already knit pretty fast now I've managed to somehow teach my fingers how to knit continental (previously I knit in continental 'style', but I still threw my yarn over the needle, but now I seem to do it textbook (as long as we ignore my purling)), so stash-busting was my only option.  Rather conveniently, not long after this revelation, Another showed me how to crochet at stitch n bitch last week.


I am not the biggest crochet fan - I love blankets, but have yet to see something wearable that has been crocheted, so I will probably work on blankets or similarly small projects.  It feels good to be doing something other than knit, although the pangs of guilt over stuff I should be knitting are starting to hit, but the pangs of guilt at not crocheting also hit when I'm washing fleece.  I think I am just a person who feels guilty over pretty much everything!


Sadly, the stash doesn't end with yarny items.  I have, in the past, had an 'thing' with fabric - not a 'problem' but definitely a 'thing'.  I have sold a lot of my fabric in the last year, so it no longer embarrasses me that I have boxes of fabric that sit not being used.

I had a short but sweet love affair with jersey fabric for a while (pictured right).  I had lots of different patterns and grand plans of hoodies and trousers.  Hoodies and trousers never materialised (may have been because I didn't sew them), and the guilt got to much so sold off a lot.  I kept my favourites and will make something with them one day soon!

Cottons are where my heart lies, it's just a shame I don't have the talent to turn them into anything decent!  Again with the grand plans, I was going to do skirts and dresses and cushion covers.... you know how this story goes!  I am quite fond of recycling our old clothes into something new, so I keep anything that might be used again - old pyjamas, t-shirts, jeans.  Seven of the cottons I now have are from Ikea and are just gorgeous, so I am planning to buy more from Ikea when we go next.  I really want to learn to sew curtains, but need them to be lined, but one day Ikea will bring out fabric that will scream 'bedroom curtains' at me and the rest will be history - we will have the wonkiest curtains in our village, but they will be gorgeous!

I know for sure I'll do something with all of this one day, I will not limit myself to project bags!

Let it be known that I do not have a problem with hoarding. Ahem.