How much yarn is too much?

Warning: all about yarn (no fabric here sorry!)

The week before last I assembled all my yarn in one place.

I didn’t intend for it to be there for long. Things happened (a story for another post) and I was just too exhausted in the evenings to do anything! By the time I updated my  records on Ravelry, it took me most of a week! However, I was able to look at the whole lot realistically and make some decisions about what to keep and what to give away!

To tell the truth, at first I was overwhelmed by the amount of yarn I had. However, the longer it sat in front of me, the more used to it I became and now it doesn’t seem so bad!

So we’ll begin with what I had before the cull!

The synthetic yarns were mostly on the table. Here is the view from the end of the table closest to my knitting chair

 

and here are the synthetics (including baby yarn) again from the side of the table (yes, that is my fruit bowl lost in there!)

 

That's a lot less synthetic than there used to be but still way too much for my liking!

On the floor, under the end of the table were the cottons and bamboos, with the sock yarns to their right

 

I discovered that I could knit a pair of socks each week for a year and not run out of yarn (I had no idea I had so much)!

Finally, in front of the television unit, are the wools, including UFO’s in that white box.

One thing this exercise has reinforced is that my stash is mostly either 8ply (DK) or sock yarn. No wonder I never get around to knitting all those lightweight projects I have queued!

And, because we all need closure, here is my yarn collection now. Now I just need to find a permanent home for those nine 28 litre (7.4 gallons) tubs (left to right, top to bottom: baby yarn, two tubs of sock yarn, yarn for me, cotton and cotton blends, wool in weights other than 8ply/DK, UFOs for me, sock yarn for me, acrylic 5ply/sport-weight). The two large ones, which have a capacity of 80 litres each (21 gallons) live under the spare bed. The bottom one holds my 8ply/DK wool yarn, the other is full of 8ply acrylic!

This collection of tubs does not include my stash in “grab bags”; some of which are seen in this photo. These are housed in a drawer under the spare single/twin bed.

I did not take a photo of the yarn I gave away – that didn’t even occur to me, sorry.

Now that the yarn is sorted, I can get back to some stitching! Of course, there’ll be some music in the background while I sew or some television viewing while I knit.

What do you like to watch (or listen to) while you’re stitching?

blocking is not for the faint hearted

Imagine a rectangle 102cm x 96cm.

Now think about 126 round-headed pins. Yes, that's right, one-hundred-and-twenty-six!

That’s how many pins I used to block my Blanket for Emily.

It’s knitted in 10ply (Aran-weight) Fiddle-De-Dee by Cleckheaton; a sadly-discontinued line of 100%cotton which is both machine-washable and machine dryable.

Because the blanket was knitted in cotton, I needed less pins than if it had been knitted in wool.

I could get away with one pin in each of those scallops because cotton doesn't have “memory” like wool does. Once stretched, it’s stretched. Wool bounces back to it’s original shape (if not stretched too far). Items knitted of wool may need blocking again after a few washes if they were not severely blocked the first time. Cotton, on the other hand, stays stretched.

As I was saying, this is a good thing.

Good because I needed less pins to block it and was therefore on my hands and knees for a lot less time than I might have been!

Good because my niece can wash and dry this many times and it should retain its shape (unless she stretches it more (by hanging by clothes pegs or some such)!

Good because this particular cotton can be dried in the machine which, in the weather we’ve been having, is almost the only way to get the washing dry!

I love the way that blocking evens out the puckering that occurs while doing entrelac in stocking stitch.

So, may I present another finish for June? A blanket for Emily (details on Ravelry). The photo was taken while the blanket was still blocking (and before the ends were sewn in) inside on a very wet winter’s day without flash because that washed-out the colour. The lights were on which, of course, gives a yellow cast to the photo. The yellow is more lemon than the photo shows but I couldn’t get the right tones by editing.

The ends have been sewn in now but you don’t need another photo, do you?

Five finishes this month! I hope I can keep this up for the rest of the year next month’s 2013: Year of the Finished Object challenge.

washcloths?

This post has been edited to acknowledge the authors of the patterns and their Ravelry links.
My sincere apologies to all four who share their patterns for free.

What do you knit the grandson who seems to have more clothes than he could possibly need? Who already has socks and singlets and nappies (diapers) and blankets and wraps galore?

Washcloths, of course. But these are not for washing, oh no! These are burp cloths - so much more interesting to look at than a nappy hanging round mum's neck or over dad's shoulder.

And so, I present for your viewing pleasure: Ben's burp cloths. All are knitted in Cleckheaton Fiddle De Dee 100% cotton which is both machine washable and dryable. All took less than two hours to complete and all used less than one 50g skein of yarn. None have yet been blocked.

Above is Quacking Up by Elaine Fitzpatrick. There is a pattern for a matching bib too.
Below is Airplane, Free by Susan Mrenna and Giddy-up by Amy-lynne Mitchell.

The final two are Knitted "B" dishcloth and Knitted Musical Notes by Rhonda White

Aran weight - really?

Take another look at the baby blanket on the cover - the one that many visitors to the blog have been admiring. Does it look like Aran weight to you?

No, I didn't think so! More like 5ply wool [or similar] but hey, who am I to argue? According to the book, it's medium weight - Worsted, Aran, Afghan; or that which we, in Australia, call 10ply! The sample is apparently knitted in Bernat Satin which the company describes as "the perfect luxury knitting worsted weight yarn, ideal for all knit and crochet projects" and a "glorious yarn with a clean defined stitch" - it's 100% acrylic so I was right about the wool or equivalent!

So, this is the one I'll be knitting first because my brother told me on Friday that they are expecting a girl and I have lots of variegated pink, Aran weight Fiddle De Dee cotton to knit! I just have to finish  the lemon Tilting Blocks blanket I started for my little niece [before I knew she was a she]. That blanket will go to DD instead because grandbubby didn't want to reveal his/her sex just now!!

Here's the first public photo of Granbubby the First! DD and SIL have more up on Facebook but I don't want to turn this into Grandma's Brag Book!!