Iris in the snow

A few years ago as a graduate student, I spent some time in Madison, WI one summer. The research I did there was really interesting, and I was surrounded by people doing stuff very similar to me. Despite all that though I was fairly lonely, and spent a far amount of time on gtalk with my friends and family, knitting away while I was on the line.

That is how I found Lakeside Fibers in my exploration of Madison, I had run out of stuff that I had brought and needed something new. These days I still have a few items in the stash from there, though they are slowly disappearing. So fast forward to the present, and I have one more FO from the yarn I had purchased there.

The colorway is called "Iris", and I could not resist it when I looked outside with all the snow. I feel like we have had more snow on the ground this year than the last few. Since I am anxious to do some planting this spring, I hope that trend doesn't continue too much.

Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock Multi in Iris
Yarn Supplier: Lakeside Fibers in Madison, Wisconsin
Needles: US 1 / 2.25 mm

These are a pair of socklettes for Chiquita, who prefers short wool socks. Somehow that seems like an oxymoron in some way. Hey, it is super cold with lots of snow. I know what would be perfect, a really short pair of socks! But if it makes her happy, how can I say no? Especially when they are so quick to make.

The Mending Bag

Like many crafty people I know, I have a mending pile. It is filled with items with small tears and rips, items to be be hemmed, and other assorted things that I am convinced that I could fix... That is if anything ever came out of the black hole which is that pile. You see, the mending bag is really where things go to die.

I did manage to hem a few pairs of pants after we moved, but then again the bag was immediately refilled with a few items from my housemate that I was sure we could save.

One of them was this wrap/hanging that had been left in a window and had been sun damaged. The full length of it had been damaged, though it was signifiantly worse in some areas.

Here you can see the extent of the damage. Side by side we have an undamaged section next to a sun bleached one. Nothing we couldn't solve with careful use of dye right? Fortunately I already had in the craft stash some RIT dye in cornflower blue that looked like it might work.

Well it took 6 months to finally get around to working on it, but now it is done. This was a good start to an attempt this year actually fixing the items that have gone to the mending basket instead of just letting them die. (Heh, the pun was unintentional.) I suppose that means I should go hem some more pants now...

Wedding Shawl Take 2

About 2.5-3 years ago I shared with you all the journey of my sister's wedding shawl from cast-on to FO. Well now I am starting a new one, not for my sister (who is still happily married with two beautiful children), but for me.


This one will be in Zephyr like the other, but otherwise quite different. The Peacock Feather Shawl is triangular and has several different charts as you work through. And as I am not one for white, I am going with a deep emerald.

2009 in Review

I have been trying to put together a New Years post (similar to my 2008 review) for several weeks now, and somehow it just hasn't happened. Part of that is that I have been busy getting ready for Arisia.

One of the things I wanted to talk about was a sort of "State of the Stash." This looks to be another stash diving year with having bought a house.

Plus I have been thinking a lot about how best to store my yarn in the new space. I like having my yarn where I can see it, and that means that using what I have makes that more possible. I am pretty happy with the contents of my stash though, and I feel it is full of stuff stuff that I am happy to use.
(Points of interest here are the 2 places where the yardage goes up only one of which was in 2009, both of which were trips to Webs. Also note the leveling out the past 2 months or so as I have been doing Arisia stuff instead of that much knitting.)

A brief pictorial review of some of the highlights:
So in 2009 I knit or crocheted:

• 3 sweaters
• 1 vest
  
• 14 baby items
• 7 pairs of socks
• 1 pair of mittens
• 1 scarf
• 7 hat
• 3 blankets
• 1 shawl
  
• 6 misc. items

Not a bad year all and all, even if it was not quite as productive as the prior year. I did not manage the ~1 mile per month average pace of last year, much of which had to do with the house hunting, moving, a particularly busy work schedule this semester and a larger volunteering role than I have taken previously. But it was a good year, and I am looking forward to the rest of 2010.