Pretty...

Um, I bought some yarn. Lorna's Laces Shepard Worsted in the Mineshaft colorway.



Seriously, though, it's for a gift. Really. See, this is what happened--months ago I ordered the same yarn, only in the Blackwatch colorway from Loopy Yarns, and I waited for it forever and it never came. Then they called me and told me it was in, and I rushed over from my office to buy it before they closed. When I arrived, they very, very sheepishly told me that they were wrong, my colorway had only arrived in the sock weight yarn. They were so nice, and so apologetic, that I just *had* to take a moment to peruse the rest of the Lorna's Laces shiptment. And, in fact, I do have a gift to make, for which I do not have appropriate yarn, which means that buying this yarn falls sort of squarely within my yarn-diet confines.

And another . . .

This was my second attempt at knitting lace (in dishrag form). The pattern here is "Horseshoe Lace" from the Barbara Walker book. It was . . . a little more difficult than Feather and Fan. I made some mistakes, and you can kind of tell. But the dishes can't.

Now I have some charity knitting coming up! First item will be, I think, a hat.

Good news and dishrags

So, I got a new job. It is a promotion. I was shocked when it happened, and now I'm less shocked than I am completely overwhelmed. Because right now I'm doing the old job, the new job, and supply and demand curves on top of that. It will all be okay, but it's led to a decrease knitting.

Okay, on to the dishrags:


Knitted dishrag #1 -- Ballband pattern. This is my favorite, so I kept it, and I have used it plenty. The pic doesn't really do it justice. It's purple on a black background with a lime green varigated streak.


This is my first attempt at "Feather and Fan", actually my first attempt at lace period. I used the pattern from the Barbara Walker anthology. It was pretty easy, unlike my second attempt at lace, which will get to in a minute.

Title and Registration

I found my camera! I borrowed Robert's car to go to school yesterday, and found the camera right where I apparently stashed it, in the glove compartment.

So, pictures of knitting are coming. Also, I have a real-live face to face intervie in about 2 hours.

I am a Kamera

Sadly, my camera is still missing, and I'm beginning to worry that I might have left it on my desk at work, meaning there is a considerable possibility that it is now in someone else's possession.

Still, I will forge blindly ahead, and post old photos from flickr in the meantime.


Isn't this fun?

Okay, I got A Treasury Knitting Patterns with one of my Christmas gift certificates, and it is awesome. I brought it with me on the Amtrak to St. Louis this weekend, and practiced some of the lace patterns in worsted-weight cotton on US6's, thus killing two birds with one stone:

1. Learning to knit lace.
2. Making more dishcloths!!

Oh, and of course

3. Using up stash.

Since the last few weeks have included holidays and the beginning of a new academic quarter, I haven't made huge dents in the stash. I have, in fact, added to the stash. A box from Lorien Farms arrived this weekend while I was gone. (White lace-weight mohair/merino on a cone, and lace-weight fawn-colored alpaca [super-soft]).I haven't actually fallen off the yarn-diet this quickly--I ordered this stuff in December. Although, really, I paid for it in January, because Lorien has this crazy laid-back "bill me later" option, so I suppose you could argue that, since the yarn both arrived and was paid for in January, it was actually purchased in January. But it wasn't.

Here's another picture.



I have a phone interview today for a possible new job. More about that later, depending on how it goes....


Location: The Cubicle
Listening: Jesus, Etc - Wilco
Knitting: Scarf for Sondra
Reading: Organizational theory stuff, arg.

Sadly

I can't find my camera...

And here we are...

Okay, no grand first of the year entries for me yet. I've been busy celebrating and having houseguests. And knitting dishclothes. It's a problem. I had a big brunch at my place New Year's Day. It was fun.


(Empty plates)

I'll start documenting the de-stashing progress soon.

Sorry, that's the rules.

Here it is, with my own alterations in italics. I was toying with the idea of saying that I was allowed to fall off the wagon one time after each student loan refund check, but no. No no.

Knit From Your Stash 2007: Guidelines for Me, borrowed from here.

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:

2.a. Yarn that is on sale for less than 50% of its regular price is exempt

2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.

2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.

2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.

4. Dyeing supplies are exempt.

I found a picture of my pre-organization stash drawer:



This was one drawer out of four, all stuffed, not including yarn that was boxed up elsewhere. It's neater now, but there's still a lot of yarn . . .

Must go clean the apartment. I'll make a proper year-end post later today.