froggy friday

Last night, my hands needed a break from knitting but I still had some creative spark to expend, so I worked on taking stock of my yarn stash, inspired by the Stash-Less project.  I have some good stuff. Some things that I feel sheepish to say that I even forgot I had.

I have 2 WIPs that I am excited about finishing this spring besides the Cormac and one erstwhile WIP that has given me a lot of trouble. It started out as a trusty top-down raglan cardigan, but I couldn't get the stitches divided and the gauge right to create the fit that I wanted.  Every time I turned around, I was frogging and reworking parts of it.  My classicist husband started calling it the Penelope sweater because I ended up unraveling it to rework the fit again and again.

It was sucking all the joy out of my will to knit.  Like an albatross hanging round my neck, it weighed on me and I felt that I had to finish it before moving onto something more satisfying - I trudged on with finishing in & got everything but the front button bands and the sleeve seaming done before I lost all inspiration. I hated it so much that I stashed it away for over a year and pretty much stopped knitting altogether for a while.

Meanwhile, it lay dormant in the spare room, languishing and looming over me. What to do?  There was just one thing to do, really. Fortified by The Craft Sessions, I knew it had to be unraveled.

56 minutes later - the makings of something new were ready... I felt lighter and happier.  I felt free.

I am daydreaming of ideas for this now - In making the Cormac, I've realized that the chainette stitch and other openwork, makes this worsted weight Peruvian wool (Knit Picks Wool of the Andes - essentially identical to Cascade 220, as well) more wearable - it's a bit much as a pure stockinette cardigan.  It would be nice with lots of cables for an outerwear piece or with lots of yarnovers to let it breathe a bit for something to wear inside. Maybe I'll just make a second Cormac, if I like the way it turns out.

I have 10 skeins of Aurora Heather Wool of the Andes to contend with, as well.

It's a lovely rich green and I am thinking of making it into a lacy cardigan one of these days.

I have a WIP sweater vest for my gentleman almost finished in Wool of the Andes Currant and I made my father-in-law the same vest in Midnight Heather for Christmas - I have a couple extra skeins of each color left.  I will eventually also have remainders of the Tumeric and Fjord colors after I finish Cormac and whatever the Fjord blue becomes, plus a random skein of heather grey Cascade 220 I thrifted for a dollar.

I intend, in a year or two, when all this knitting is done, to make a crazy striped sweater with all the leftovers. Something like this would be good because it's designed for Cascade 220... but I think I would like it more oversized and slouchy... maybe with smaller, more gradient stripes and perhaps mismatched stripes on the sleeves. We'll see what happens when the time comes. I'm not in a rush, but I am quite looking forward to that project someday in the future.

Also on the docket, down the road a bit - a couple of projects with Knit Picks Diadem fingerling yarn. This angora/silk blend is just lovely to touch.  I got two discontinued colors that were on clearance a couple of years ago. 3 skeins of teal that is enough for a sweater (maybe the Grace cardigan?)  and 2 skeins of royal blue which I intended for a shawl when I bought it. Revisiting the yarn on Knit Picks today, I discovered the Scrub Jay shawl pattern that looks like it is knit in my very color and requires two skeins.  Perfect.  It's in my queue on Ravelry now!

http://www.knitpicks.com/patterns/Scrub_Jay__D13280220.html

Two more sweaters-worth of yarn in my stash that sung to me were vintage yarn thrift scores - a vintage Bernat slubby worsted wool in a bright red and a creamy 100% Italian mohair.

I've been thrifting for a red cardigan for about a year now - I try at least one on every time I'm out, but have yet to find the perfect one.  Red is so glorious when it's right, and so bad when it's off.  This is the bright happy red I've been dreaming about and forgot that I had - about 12 ounces worth for $4.

I couldn't pass up the mohair, though I have only made one thing I liked with mohair in the past and that was only a little fair isle accent on a bulky weight sweater - about 12 years ago. I love the cream color and the fact that it's 100% - not blended with nylon or other synthetics.  I have 7 large skeins - all for $5.00.

I think it would be nice with this cream colored fingerling as the ribbing edges or even textural stripes. That would take some fussing to figure out... but I think it will be a fun project, maybe next winter?

I've got a lot that My Baby yarn - I went crazy with it on ebay one day on my phone while riding to dinner in the back of my father-in-law's car... I was trying to find one more skein to finish the Twisted Grapes sweater. I accidentally bought the wrong grey, so then I bought the right grey and and ended up impulse buying over a dozen more skeins in various colors, in the process. Ugh.

I don't really know what to do with all this yarn at the moment.  It's really soft wool/cashmere/silk and it is pleasurable to knit, but the colors aren't really exciting to me at the moment and I feel a little awkward about the weird impulse buy.  It's from China and it was selling for about $2 a skein with free shipping.  I went to look up the seller and the store is closed down now, but I think this is similar.

It's nice yarn, but the green and aqua both turned out to be a little off from what I hoped for - I was wanting that mint green that I am still coveting and have now found, so these seem like second best. Maybe later they will find the perfect use.  Or maybe I will find the perfect moment to give them away.  Who knows what the the future holds!? <3