Stash Addition =)

As a reward for organizing my stash of yarn, I decided to try buying a lot of mixed yarns on Ebay. A 5 pound lot of yarn that is all from before my time, in fact.

Cortez thought it was the most interesting thing in the world. She spent the next 30 minutes going all the way around it. The pink one was especially smelly, apparently, because she sniffed both sides of it and made her silly 'too smelly' face. Yuki didn't care.

But then! Then I did something too interesting for even her to resist. I put it outside to air out a little.

They both agreed that the green skein they're sniffing there is super smelly too. I can't really smell much beyond that the yarn was kept in a cardboard box for a little too long, but I thought it might benefit from some time in the open air anyway. It's all acrylic, as far as I can tell, and it's cloudy outside so I'm not worried about fading. What I am a little worried about is matching those smaller amounts with another yarn to make a hat out of. A few of them I can fit well enough to make something I think is attractive enough to be donated, and I'm sure I can find something to do with the rest of them.

Maybe I'll make some slippers, like I did for a cousin. She said they keep her feet very warm. Yay!

With some leftovers, I made a headband and cowl. I still have a little of each left, so they might show up in future hats.

Pattern: Calorimetry.

Pattern: Heather Weave Moebius Scarf.

Stash Organization

Sometimes yarn isn't all about knitting fun. Sometimes you have trouble finding exactly what you want, so you have to pull out all of the yarn you own and put it in the middle of your living room.

Okay, so this is no longer a hypothetical 'you' and more of an I did this. The yarn left over from my blanket is in the lower right, the larger clear container on the left has some acrylics I've picked up on sale, one of the smaller clear boxes is empty and the other has some sock yarn I bought at the same time as the smaller containers. They're airtight, so I decided to fill them with wool.

I have no gone through everything in my stash and put it on Ravelry so I can see exactly what I have and how much I have. If I find a project I want to make with a specific yarn, I put that in my queue immediately so I won't forget (though I might end up changing my mind). ALL of the yarn is now in one of the plastic bins, in one specific storage cabinet (the things I got in a full bag sale and a few cones of cotton), and my blanket leftovers have all been kept together in a box. I don't know why, but I really like that they're all together.

This organization has reminded me I have some beautiful yarns. Now, what should I do with 5 same dyelot skeins of self striping sock yarn?

198 Yards of Cthulu Commandments

From the maw of the mighty Cthulu came a command: Knit 198 Yards of Heaven.

Here you are, 'Thoolies. I have completed your task. I should have used a bigger needle because it turned out a little small. I only used 173 yards, and I'm worried it's too small for the person I intended to send it to. It was already a shawlette, but the person I'm giving it too is 6 feet tall for goodness sakes! I will have to think on this. At least it looks purdy.

Small Projects

I've been working on a few small projects. First, a few test knit for Cedar Box Knits. A pair of kids mittens with an easy and cute fair isle pattern.

Project page found here. Pattern is not yet available.

I knit a hat for charity, Foliage from Knitty. My gauge was at an awkward place between bulky and worsted. I think I could've made it a little shorter, but I don't see anything wrong with someone being able to cover their forehead and ears either.

I also made a new reusable swiffer wet jet pad because I haven't been able to find the other one I made since we moved. This one is simpler, but really well designed. Cortez helped me take a picture.

I've finished my second Cthulu commanded project, and will be blocking it as soon as I get to the hardware store for some wire to make blocking possible. I don't want to give anything away yet, but it's acrylic and lace so I will be steaming it thoroughly!

Cthulu Commands Me!

I made a Cthulu dice bag a few months into my knitting career. It was one of the first few things I've done with stranded knitting, and the floats are a little too tight. I still love it, but it ripples a bit in between the little colorwork Cthulu. Nevertheless, it is quite serviceable as a bag.

Now that I'm finished with my giant blanket, I've felt like I have no projects to do despite having several project requests from others and a few planned for myself. To combat this, I decided to pick a few patterns that I can make with yarn from my stash, write the names down on little pieces of paper, fold them up, and place them in the bag.

Then, I mixed them all up and picked one. Drum roll please!

A hat for Chatham! He asked me if I could design a hat based on a game called Conway's Game of Life. The game is based on a mathematical equation that determines the movement of squares across a grid based on the surrounding squares. The player creates a starting grid, and then the rest of it is simulated entirely based on an equation. One of the patterns that emerges from this equation is a Glider. Chatham graphed a glider with a 4 stage repeat. The first repeat is on the left, fourth one on the right, and then they start over again with the first one on the left.

I'm knitting the hat in white and then duplicate stitching the gliders on afterward. This means I can show him what the hat looks like, and we can try several different configurations without any trouble. It's a blank canvas of hat!

Other Things Finished While Knitting the Blanket

I finished several small projects while I was working on my blanket to break up the project. I showed you the Blizzard Winds cowl, but I also knit a pair of booties, a few hats, and a quarter of a mitten.

The booties were a test knit and came out absolutely adorable. I don't have a specific recipient in mind right now, but there's a matching hat that I think I'll make as a premade baby gift.

Then, There was a versatile top down hat pattern that I test knit. I picked all of the first hat's characteristics, and used dice to decide the second hat's attributes. The first one is an aran weight hat with pretty spirals and a ribbed bottom.

The second one was chosen completely by dice rolls. Fingering weight, baby size, a block motif (that's obscured by the yarn, unfortunately), and a seed stitch border.

I started a third hat while I was knitting the blanket, and finished it the same day as the blanket. It was a test knit for an ebook with several other hats, and I think it turned out really cute. It doesn't exactly fit me because it's a child's large size, but I wanted to feature the top and it was only visible while being worn.

The quarter of a mitten is now a whole mitten, waiting for it's mate!

Oh, and I can't forget one final tiny lil thing.

The first hexipuff in my second blanket. That's right, I started my second blanket before I even finished my first. This project is intended to be knit as a little side project whenever I feel like it, instead of all at once in a rush. It's puffy and squishy and I need to make some more socks so I can have sock leftovers to make into hexipuffs!

Templeton Square Blanket

HUZZAH! I have finished my blanket and taken some fantastic pictures! This post is picture heavy, so if you have a slow computer it might take a while to load. First thing I had to do was lock the cats outside so I could get a few pictures for the contest without their help.

I really absolutely love it. I think the border really pulls the whole thing together. I almost wish I'd made it bigger, but considering how long it took to knit the two inches of border that are there I'm not sure I would've finished the blanket EVER if I were set on making it bigger.

There are lots of interesting ways to take pictures of the blanket. This one also features Chatham's LEGO bricks, oops!

I thought these springtime colors were particularly appropriate today since it's 80°. Of course I would finish it on the first warm day of the year. A few more detail shots:

Now, for a little math. Each square had 4,200 stitches in it. All of the squares together is 176,400 stitches. The border had 24,200 stitches. So, in total there are 200,600 stitches in my blanket. I did all of the squares in 48 days, and then the border took me another 4 days. I made a queen size blanket in 52 days. I think that's pretty darn impressive.