5.56 miles

That's right. There are 5.56 miles worth of yarn in my yarn drawer. That's 9786.5 yards. Wow I haven't even purchased any yarn since Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival and still this amount!?

To make myself feel better, 5247 yards of the total is fingering weight or finer yarn.

My overall goals:

• Knit half that amount by New Years. (4893 yards)
  
• Knit one-fourth of the amount to go to Southeast Animal Fiber Festival in October. (2446 yards)

My Primary Goals to Finish:

• Mandala Lace shawl by Renee Leverington (1500 yards)
• Lace Cable Poncho in Vogue Knitting on the Go (1000 yards)
• DK Classic Mens Vest in Retro Knits (1070 yards)
• Grun ist die Hoffnung socks (437 yards)
• TOTAL: 4007 yards

Secondary Goals:

• Elefante (100 yards)
• Charity hats or Mother Bear Project
• Pomatomus socks by Cookie A. (360 yards)
• Swallowtail Shawl in fingering weight (440 yards)
• Wisp Shawl in cobweb (500 yards)
• Aeolian Shawl in fingering weight (440) yards
• TOTAL: 1840 yards

These projects will take care of about 60% of the stash. phew! Now I just have to knit them... ;)

Do it Yourself

Medical and Scientific Illustrators are visual problem solvers.  We show and educate something that cannot be easily seen.  How often do you see a see-thru liver?  I thought so.  

Medical illustrators are also sort of known for making fun things to visualize something that cannot be seen (ie. balloons with vessels drawn on, pipe cleaners for nerves, modeling clay for molecules, etc) ...I hope it's not just me. 

Anyways, few weeks back I had a weird urge to spin some fiber sitting in the box of ultimate UFOs.  So out came an original drop spindle using a CD, a chopstick, tape, and a stitchholder.  Later the stitch holder got upgraded into a shaped paperclip:

----------

I have also been meaning to get a kitchen/postal scale to measure how much yarn is left for better treatment of leftover yarn.  I knocked off few hangers in the doorway and thought about making a Monty Python style scale using it.  

"...If she weighs as much as a duck, she is made out of wood..."  

"And therefore....?"

"A witch!  A witch!" 

"We shall use the biggest scale in town"

Yeppers.  It's surprisingly accurate.  I used nickels and pennies for weights.  A nickel weighs 5g, and a penny weighs 2.5g.  I'm glad people at the mint think in metric.  

I must have saved at least $40 by making these two stragely simple objects.  Now I can buy $40 worth of yarn...when I use up all the yarn I have now.  :)

Yarn and wheel

Too bad it is so much easier to buy more fiber than to knit.  I think my yarn collection is at its limit.  My drawer of yarn goodness is overflowing.  The yarn from Maryland Sheep and Wool is in my knitted bag, and there is another box of yarn that we ordered from WEBS when they had their annual sale.  

It also didn't help that I learned how to spin.  When we visited Eatonton, I borrowed a castle style spinning wheel and acquired MORE fiber.  Ah!  

I THINK it's Louet S70 (a lot like S10 but older).  The footman/treadle connector was broken, but Asher found a rubber tubing that worked like a charm.  

Check out the Romney being spun.  The 4oz carded roving has been divided to two to make a 2-ply yarn and hopefully make a nice hat or a scarf.  

There are little bit of yarn rejects...someday they may turn into something...like a doll's hair or something.   I'm having trouble spinning the merino top in dark green.  Apparently there is a different way to spin merino top.  I need to go learn that sometimes.  

Great Hat Race 3

I really had a great time knitting hats for the Great Hat Race on Ravelry. They did a wonderful job keeping us updated and everything! I wonder if there is a winner?

Here are the hats I made using more stash yarn (free patterns too!) ...and somehow there is still lots of yarn leftover. Looking forward to the next one!

1. Robin's Egg Blue Hat

Used leftover yarn from Felted Sheep

2. Coronet by Alexandra Virgiel

Used leftover yarn from fisherman's sweater

3. Lace Edged Womens' Hat by Julie M. Hentz

Used leftover yarn from cloche hat

5. Lace Cap by Carissa Browning

Used "new" dk yarn

6. Reflections by LizYvonne (ravelry link)

Used leftover from sweater

6. One Hat Two Hat by AKS

Used yarn given to me by BF's mom

7. Tam by Angela Sixian Wu

Used leftover from battle bonnet, and other scraps of Cascade 220, Noro Kureyon, and Lamb's Pride Worsted

8. Odessa Hat by Grumperina

Used leftover from baby booties that never happened

9. Shedir Hat by Jenna Wilson

Used leftover from Bulldog Sweater

Post Maryland Sheep and Wool Syndrome

Oh dear. Maryland Sheep and Wool. What an adventure! It was my second time, so I wasn't quite as overwhelmed as last time, and bought yarn until I ran out of cash.

Socks that Rock! Lightweight Mill End--light blue/purple/green

Socks that Rock! Lightweight Mill End Red/purple

Regia Silk wine

Mistralee Farm Alpaca Lace- grey

Also, since I created a ghetto drop spindle, I wanted to try out the spinning wheel. A very nice lady named Sally taught me how to use a spinning wheel, and here is the result.

The top right one is the wheel spun one. The grey one is single-ply merino done on a drop spindle, and the blue/green one is 2-ply done on a drop spindle.

Ms. Sally said the best kind of wool to start practicing spinning is Romney and Coopworth, so I got both of them.

----

And how can you talk about MS&WF without all the great animals!

There were few angry and wet animals, but I'm sure they enjoyed being there deep down in their little minds.

What fun!

Stash Busting

Business for 2009 has been slow. so far.

So, I decided to see what I can knit with the medium sized stash I have.

1. Great Hat Race Round 3 Hat #1

Pattern: Robin's Egg Blue Hat by Rachel Iufer

Yarn: Crystal Palace Yarns Kaya in blue and cream (leftover from this)

Needles: #10

Notions: 1 big button (1.5-2 inches)

Cute pattern. I was waiting to make the hole for the button and then realized that it's just sewn on.

I was in suspense the entire time, thinking that I would run out of yarn. I had enough, but not by much:

Yikes.

------

And some of my blanket squares:

Yarn: leftover Crystal Palace Panda Silk from orange sock mystery

Yarn: Leftover yarn from plain ribbed socks

and from the armwarmers. This is my square #12/42.

Monkey Socks

Now I'm an official sock knitter.

Pattern: Monkey by Cookie A.

Yarn: KnitPicks Bare fingering weight dyed with food color

Needle: #2

For: me!

These did knit up pretty quickly. The only modification I added was I did the reinforced heel by s1k1 on RS and p on WS. The colors do work well with the lace pattern, and the way the skein came in, it didn't create too much pooling.

By the way, there's some serious yardage to this skein! Here's what I made from this:

1. Camera sock

2. Socks

3. Blanket square

And there is still some yarn left! Goodness!