Knitting update November 2008

Again, I reorganized my yarn stash. The first time was documented here. A friend of mine, her mother passed away 4 years ago, and she gave me her yarn. Because we are working on finding a condo to move to (closing date Dec 12!), we've been trying to cull out stuff. Husband knew about my friend's mother's stash and told me: Do not take her stash!

So I waited until he was out of town for a boys' football weekend, to get the yarn :) Spent a lovely afternoon with my friend and her neighbor and now I have a new friend! And doubled my stash.

I stuffed them all into those vacuum seal bags and other zip top bags to make it fit in the Ikea bookcase where I keep my yarn stash. The top half of the bookcase looked like this:

Not the best solution. I went to get some yarn and had to pull out each bag to find the yarn I needed. Then to get the yarn I wanted, I had to pull out all the yarn, and then restuff. It also didn't help that I was not quite familiar with the new yarn. Whenever I buy yarn, I think about it pretty carefully. It's not unusual for me to spend an hour in a yarn shop before buying, even if it's a big box craft store. If it's yarn I order online, it takes even longer, over days of clicking around and comparing prices.

Yesterday, I got some clear plastic storage boxes from Target and now the stash looks like this:It looks better but somehow not as space efficient because I had to put one of those vacuum seal bags in the bottom drawer. Now I have to figure out what to do with the stuff that used to be in that bottom drawer. Ah well. At least I got a bit better acquainted with the new yarn. Lots of wool and mohair in neutrals. That'll come in handy when making gifts for people who are not as fond a bright primary colors as I am.

In other knitting news, here are some finished objects:

First, the vest for my Dad for his birthday. I spoke to him last night and he was so happy to get it. And my mom got all choked up talking about it too. Well, I'm glad that he likes it!

This one is a sweater I made for me, using the yarn I dyed here inspired by the orange pantsuit Hilary Clinton wore at the Democratic National Convention. So psyched that she's going to be Secretary of State. Anyway, the cardigan is based on the Long Chevron Coat in Fitted Knits, and the shawl collar by Emerald from Knitty. It's triple stranded wool and very, very warm.On the needles, I have a shawl for my mother, the Wool Peddler Shawl (Ravelry link) from Folk Shawls. It's in the Ivy Kettle-dyed yarn from KnitPicks. There'll be a lace border along the bottom.
Her birthday is Dec 23, so I need to keep cranking on this. Brother One and I will be driving up to DC to spend Thanksgiving with Sister and Brother Two, so that will be prime knitting time.

The fact that my mom was so touched by my gift to my dad gives me more incentive to make sure this is done right and in time. That took a bit of the sting out of the fact that I had to rip back about 5 rows if not more to fix a mistake. Each row is over 100 stitches! But something happened and the yarn overs going down the middle got misaligned. It's a pretty obvious mistake so I had to rip back. There goes a week's worth of knitting.

But just imagine what my mom's reaction will be when she gets it!

And also, because it's impossible for me to practice project monogamy, I started a beret for my sister-in-law. I made this sweater for her husband so I thought I should make her something too.
But my mom's shawl will have to come first. It takes 10 days for a package to get to Taiwan from the US so I'm working towards a Dec 12 deadline. It takes much less time to get a package from Georgia to Wisconsin, so SIL's beret will just have to wait.