I worked on my Mariah swatch and hit gauge with 4.0mm needles. I hit both vertical and horizontal guage which is a feat since I usually only hit the horizontal. Now I’ll be knitting on two purple projects.
Here’s one of the first pictures I have of Prana:
Thebes and I got him from the Taos Humane Society four years ago. He was about six months old. Doesn’t he look so small?
I’ve gotten six inches into my Freedom Skirt. I absolutely love this yarn. It feels so good to knit with it. One skein got me this much:
So I’ll definitely have enough to make it below the knee. I’m thinking of trying a different type of lace pattern for the bottom. Originally I was going to do an invisible hem but decided to line it instead so I’ll need to sew the hem.
I also bought the Best of Interweave Knits book at the Taos Wool Festival. I got it at the Good Fibrations booth. (Love the name!)
There are so many cool patterns in this book. There’s one in particular that I want to make for Thebes:
Abbey and I are going to do another knitalong. This time we’re going to knit Mariah:
While I love my new yarn it wasn’t cheap. At $15 a skein my yarn budget was almost used up. So I bought my Mariah yarn at Knit Picks. Look a yarn pyramid!
The blue yarn is for Thebes kilt hose and the green is for the heels and toes of my next sock project.
So much yarn, so little time. I somehow need to get paid to stay at home, listen to podcasts and knit.
Here’s a cute picture of Sieben.
Recently I went to the Taos Wool Festival. It was better than I imagined. There was so much crafty goodness!
Here’s a pictures of me and Abbey. Notice how we dressed up in our knits? I had several people recognize my Ogee which was awesome!
This is a corset made from woven fiber. It was so gorgeous. Actually, the booth JWM Fibers had tons of drool worthy items. They had shrugs that made me change my opinion on shrugs. Previously I hated shrugs and was confused why anyone would make one. After trying on JWM Fibers shrugs I am now in love with them and understand why people wear them. I must make one, or several, for myself now.
There was such yummy yarn everywhere!
Abbey got the pattern to make this incredibly cool cactus project. Do you see the little lizard?
There was this booth called Pure Felt that had groovy felt work.
Another neat piece:
More amazing felt projects:
At first glance I thought this was a painting. Looking closely I realized it was painted with wool!
I wonder if you make it using stuff like these dyed mohair locks?
There were some cool woven pieces:
A woven sheep.
I want it all!
And now the animals! First this cute guy:
Then these adorable llamas:
These are Pygora goats.
Check out this crazy cool hat!
This is a needle felted Venus of Willendorf and some needle felted flowers. A needle felted Venus of Willendorf?!? OMG it was the coolest thing there. Actually the goddess and flowers were already bought and the woman who bought them was very nice and let me take a pic for my blog.
Two other nice woman (whose names I didn’t get) talked to Abbey and I about spinning and drop spindles. They gave us so much good information. One of them crocheted this cool house plant. Abbey and I decided right then that we both need crafted house plants and they are now on our huge craft to make list.
Thebes and Abbey’s husband also came along. We had so much fun and I feel so inspired to make so many things. I’ll definately go again next year.
This is the yarn I bought at the Taos Wool Festival. It’s from Lonesome Stone and is called Shades of Plum. It’s 100% wool and has 200 yards per skein. I love it! The color, the texture and the smell. Oh the smell! It is heavenly. I keep picking up the yarn to sniff it. It smells so earthy! Can knitters get high off sniffing yarn? Because every time I smell this yarn I am just filled with happiness. I wish they could make yarn incense. The color is more accurate in this photo:
I just cast on for a Freedom Skirt last night. I think I have enough yarn to make it reach my knees. If I run out I’ll buy some lighter shade purple yarn to do the lacework. I plan to embroider it with flowers and line it with some light purple fabric.
Prana posed with the yarn and my swatch. He was intrigued by the smell too.
He fell asleep soon after and I snuck up and took this picture.
Ahh, look at that face. My little boy is so adorable.
I also bought an Interweave Knits pattern book. Leafing through the pages I realized I was “oooohing” and “ahhhhhing” so much I needed to buy it. Pics of that and of the Wool Fest in the next post.
Knit From Your Stash ended September 30th. How did I do? Pretty good I think. I still have a stash but it’s definately smaller. All of it fits into one of those walmart bins with room to spare.
I liked this challenge. There’s a freedom in stash knitting. I felt I could take on projects with more difficulty. If I’m knitting with brand new fancy yarn I have a tendency to knit “safe” projects that I know won’t be destined for the frog pond.
Knitting from my stash gave me the confidence to experiment. Ogee and the Knucks were both from stash yarn.
The to-be-felted bowls are also stash projects. I’m inexperienced with felting so at this point I wouldn’t buy fancy new yarn for felting in case I ruined it. The bowls are made from thrifted sweaters so if they don’t felt perfectly my wallet won’t have suffered needlessly.
During the nine months I naturally bought sock yarn and Thebes bought me the yarn for my Arwen sweater. That technically meant I didn’t cheat.
Was this challenge a success? I’d say so. It helped me experiment. It helped me evaluate my consumerism. Instead of buying yarn just to buy yarn I considered my choices more. Yarn was synched up to projects instead of just sitting in my stash pile for months. I feel this project has help me grow as a knitter.
I won’t be getting rid of my stash pile. It’s a useful thing to have since my mood changes on what I want to knit. There’s nothing quite like the thrill of buying new yarn though. I think I’ll settle into a happy medium of new yarn and stash yarn knitting.
That being said, I bought some yarn at the Taos Wool Fest and will write up a post about that soon.
I finished my second to be felted bowl. This bowl I made taller and wider. Mr. Penguin models for scale. The bottom was sort of free formed. It seems a little too puffy to me but I’m hoping it will flatten out with felting.
Sieben is growing so much! His ears are both standing up now. The pics below are from a couple of weeks ago. He looks so small compared to his size now.
I finished the orange yellow socks. They fit and feel great. An action shot:
I love the way the variegation turned out.
I also finished my second felted bowl. There’s nothing on the needles. I want to get some solid color yarn to do the toes and heels of my next socks.
Most likely I’ll start another felted project while deciding on what yarn to buy.
That’s right! Knit From Your Stash is over. I’ll write up a post about my thoughts on stash knitting soon.