What Happens To Your Stash When You Die

A few weeks ago a knitting buddy passed away. She hadn't been well, but I hadn't realized she had taken a turn for the worse. Then, just this past weekend, a bunch of us were alerted that her stash was going to be dismantled.

Cathy had been quite thorough with her documentation of her stash on ravelry. I decided that the best way to remember her would be to knit a pair of socks that she had planned to make, but didn't get to. Only a few queued sock patterns had yarn ideas assigned to them. Cathy and I had bonded over color work socks, so when I saw that the Swedish Fish pattern was one with an assigned yarn, I made it my mission to find the skein of Baltic and Warm Maize in Tosh sock in her enormous stash. (She had over 1700 entries, not just skeins, on ravelry) Luckily I had some help and eventually was able to find each skein. I got a little teary when I saw that the skein of Baltic had already been wound.

I pulled out some other skeins while I was there. Most notably a skein of Baah La Jolla in Burmese Ruby. Cathy had the best taste in reds.

I also left with a sweater quantity of Brooklyn Tweed's Loft in Meteorite and Artifact to make another Pente. Cathy was one of the group of us who made a Pente together. She was the one who coined the term "stockinette hell."

Farewell Cathy. I hope that you have already found the yarn shop on the other side. I'm sure you will find the best red over there too.

Crater Lake

I have been all over the place in the last two weeks and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon. I was in Davis saying goodbye to friends and helping one pack up her house for moving day. Next week I'll be volunteering my time at a youth camp. But in between I went up to Oregon to visit my Oma. She's not been well, so I wanted to be sure to say goodbye before leaving for New Zealand. We had good, long visits. 

One of the days we were up there, we went out to Crater Lake. On the way we stopped by a natural bridge. The Rogue River briefly disappears as it shoots through a lava tube! It's pretty neat to see, but hard to capture in a photo. Below you can see the river entering the lava tube.

As we continued our way to Crater Lake we stopped again to see the Rogue Gorge, which is where the canyon narrows and water rushes by at a tremendous speed.

The power of the water is amazing to watch. This log had gotten jammed near the entrance to the gorge and water was spraying up into the air as it pressed into the wood.

After doing the two little hikes, we stopped at the lodge at Crater Lake for lunch. Afterwards, my aunt told us to go enjoy the view while she paid the bill. A fellow knitter stopped me and asked about my Pente sweater. (Id' finished weaving in the ends that morning, but hadn't blocked it yet.) It's always a good day when you get to talk about knitting.

I made sure to get my jumping photo in. Once again, I remembered to tuck my shirt in first.

It was cool and crisp up there, but that made it better sweater weather. Just before we left, Mum wanted to do a selfie. (Mum is not the most tech-literate, so I can't help but giggle when she says something like "selfie") She did a pretty good job getting us all in the frame. 

Yarn Chicken

I wish I could show off a finished sweater. Alas, with three stripes left to go, I've made the classic rookie mistake and run out of yarn. (Note: It doesn't matter how long you've been knitting, sometime when you play yarn chicken, you crash and burn.) 

When I bought the yarn I hadn't planned to make any modifications. But when knitting, I thought I'd extend the sleeves to full length rather than three quarter.

Thanks to ravelry, I was able to get another skein out of someone's destash. It isn't the same dye lot, but I've noticed that Brooklyn Tweed does a pretty good job blending their yarns. Like Cascade, it seems to be pretty consistent between skeins.

Hopefully I'll be done with this sweater (Pente) soon!

Knit All The Socks And Sweaters

My Pomme De Pin is finished! Actually, it was finished July 13th, but it took awhile to get some pictures.

I used Cephalopod's Bugga! in the Nebraska Conehead color way. Just days after I finished the sweater, Cephalopod announced that they were closing their doors. I'm just happy that I have a nice sweater out of their yarn.

I made many modifications, the most visual one being the way I changed the collar. All the details can be found on my Pomme De Pin project page via ravelry.

Of course I can't leave out a picture of the sleeve after explaining how it was sewn in.

Just after finishing the Pomme De Pin, I cast on these socks. It is a future pattern design. The fancy patterning is on the other side of the socks. I have one last diagram to draw before they are ready for testing.

I also completed my Something's Rotten In The State Of Denmark socks from Canon Hand Dyes. It had felt like I'd been knitting these forever. I started these on May 30th and finished them on July 20th. Let it be known that the knitter's definition of forever is a month and three quarters.

Of course I always have to have a Canon Hand Dyes sock on the needles. Here is Yoga For Elephants. I wanted to cast on these ever since the yarn arrived, but I'm proud to say that I remained disciplined and finished the Denmark socks.

I've also got Pente on the needles. A group of us decided to do a knit along with each other, which quickly became a knit against. I'm knitting the second sleeve, then I just have the back and some finishing to do. Once you start knitting the sleeves, this sweater quickly becomes a tangled mess. I considered trying to lay it out, but honestly, the way it sits in my knitting basket is the most accurate illustration as to how it feels to be knitting this sweater. It will be worth it in the end though.

What has everyone else got on the needles these days? Any crazy, tangled knitting going on?

Stockinette Hell

Last post I showed all my recent yarn acquisitions and Alicia asked what in the world all that Shelter and Loft would become. Well... when Tyler, Christine, Cathy, and I went to A Verb For Keeping Warm last month to look at the Wool People 7 trunk show, I tried on Coda and Pente. (I look good in both.) But the Pente looked particularly good on me. Of course when you are in a crowd of enablers, you aren't going to leave without yarn. So I bought enough to make the sweater, despite Cathy saying, "You know that you are going to be in stockinette hell, right?" Well, the power of wool is strong. Cathy tried on Pente, also looked great in it, and was at the register with her sweater's amount of Loft when I said, "What about stockinette hell?" To which Cathy replied, "Damn."
Long story short, everyone but Tyler is going to make this sweater. We are having an unofficial KAL, starting tomorrow. Cathy has already cheated and started. (I don't care what your justification is, Cathy. You totally started a week early.)

As for the Shelter, these four greys are to test out a blanket design idea I have. All going well, I'll need more yarn. But I thought I'd just get a skein of each to start. It is Snowbound, Sweatshirt, Soot, and Cast Iron.

And this lovely skein of Shelter, in Long Johns, I got to see if I really liked the color enough to make a sweater out of it. They were out at Verb, and my color card can only tell me so much, so I ordered online. I do like it. I probably will make a sweater out of it. But I'll finish some other projects before buying more.