Monday, December 31, 2007

Yikes.

I got a new camera for Christmas this year. Nothing fancy - in fact, less fancy even than the point and shoot my husband and I have been fighting over sharing, even. But it's wee, and easy, and lacking my least favorite feature of the other - the power button is no longer in the spot my finger thinks should be the shutter button. Three cheers for not accidentally turning off my camera anymore!

The new camera, combined with my usual New Year's urge to de-clutter, re-organize and just basically clean stuff up, meant I spent all day yesterday pulling out the stash, photographing it and jotting down its vital signs. Today was painfully slow at work, so I spent most of the day entering the newly photographed yarn into Ravelry, marking off the ones I'm willing or happy to part with.

The final tally is a sobering number, as I've calculated out the mileage. While not as bad as many, I'd say that nearly 20 miles of yarn in my wee little house may be a wee bit more than I need. Of that, about 13 miles is yarn I really want to keep, and the stuff I'm happy to see go to new homes makes up almost 7 miles. All the to-go yarns are sequestered in their own big Ziploc bag, and there's a Stash Bash to which they'll get carried at the end of the month if I've not moved my posterior about selling them before them.

That leaves me with a dresser full of yarn that I really do love.

I think this is the year that I focus on trying to knit from the stash full of yarns I adore instead of having my head turned by all the pretty shiny new yarns I come across. We'll see how well that works for me. It shouldn't be that hard to start, as right now, having it all laid out in front of me like fresh sparking new yarn, my main problem is that I can't decide where to start, but we'll see how well I can stick to it once the like-new freshness wears off again.

To close, on this chilly New Year's Eve, I'd like to wish you all the happiest of new years to come!

Friday, December 28, 2007

Phew!

I made it.

I survived the Christmas knitting. I might, just maybe, have finished the last present while parking in the driveway at my grandparents (husband drove too fast, darn him), but all the gifts I'd planned to give were put into their recipient's hands finished!

To recap, I finished:

Mountain Stream Scarf for my me-mere. Knit with one skein of Zephyr from a Touch of Twist
Mountain Stream3


Mountain Stream4

Boot socks for my Dad (garter rib pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks) in Dale Falk, grey and black

Boot Socks

Two Chapeau Marnier, both in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport - one berry, one chocolate, for my mom and my sister.

Chapeau1


Becky and Widget

Counterpoint for my music teacher brother. Knit with Cascade 220 Superwash.

Counterpoint1

Unoriginal Hat for my sister-in-law Kati. Knit in Plymouth Italia Fingerpaint that I had marinating in my stash.

UnoriginalHat Color

Lastly, and sadly, picture-less, is the Ristra for my mom-in-law. In my hurry to get her stuff packaged up, I managed to forget to snap a picture of the darn thing. Trust me, it was cute!

My reward for all the holiday completion around here?

I finally got to knit up the yarn I spun for Ms. Widget when I was at yarn school. I've been dying to knit this up since I got back in September. It was everything I hoped it would be.

Hat:
Handspun Hat

Scarf:
Handspun Scarf2

She loves them and I'm just wishing I had enough of the yarn to make a set for myself!

Know that we're done with the insanity of the holiday knitting, and I've excavated my desk for more easy computer usage at home, I'm hoping I'll make it back to posting more frequently.

I'll leave you with a pic of my vote for funniest present of the holiday, for the shirt my one brother Nick, gave my other brother, James.



James