Stash Confessional: One Twisted Tree (again) and a Super Bonus Surprise

Today was a good mail day. In some respects I love it when 3 packages come at once (even if one of them isn't actually for me) and in others I wish they would spread themselves out over several days so I could keep the fun coming (although another one should be showing up sometime soon, so I guess it's a sort of best of both worlds situation). That said, these two things didn't arrive on the same day so I guess my point isn't hugely relevant here other than to say that I got 3 packages in the mail today and one of them was yarn. The other yarn arrived last week and cost me nothing at all other than knitting/sewing/reading a thing and/or donating to charity. None of which was a hardship in the least. 

So here's what's up. First... One Twisted Tree. You already saw a bunch of yarn from her after ZK. This is sort of tangential to that (although I did count it as its own purchase). After Danie handed me two mini skein samples that happened to be Hinkypunk and Knight Bus Escape and I out them next to each other, I instantly knew they needed to be a striped sweater (mostly the grey/lavender of the Hinkypunk with skinny stripes of the Knight Bus). The dark purple of the Knight Bus really brings out the grey of the Hinkypunk and the colours look beautiful together. All of this with he added bonus that I've been doing a Harry Potter rewatch so I'm in the mood. At the show, Danie didn't have enough of the Hinkypunk and mentioned that she doesn't dye Knight Bus Escape in sport weight (I knew the last thing I needed was to knit another fingering weight sweater), but if I contacted her and asked for a custom order she would dye it for me and ship it free. So that's what I did.
 

Yarn is One Twisted Tree in the Hinkypunk and Knight Bus Escape colourways on the Lavish base 100% superwash merino. 271 yards/skein. Sorry about the glare, but I didn't want to take them out of the plastic wrap since I don't know when I'll get to them.

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Second (although it arrived first) is my prize from the second round of the Knerd Girl Knits Bad-ass women Craft-Along 2016. The theme for this round was women in music. The prize I won (which is awesome!) is yarn that Kris bought when she was at a conference in Tempe, AZ. It's a dyer I've never heard of before and it's a gorgeous wine red colour. I absolutely love it and I'm sure it will become socks sometime in it's life.

Yarn is gherkin's bucket Quick step sock in the "Boudoir" colourway. It's 75/25 superwash merino/nylon. 450 yards of fingering weight.

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 So, that's the stash additions. Not too bad, really. One of them was free and the other I had already accounted for after ZK. Still, it feels like new yarn has shown up just like magic, which is always exciting. Who knows when they will actually become knitted items, but for now I'm happy to welcome them to the fold!

 

Stash Confessional: Yarn Accountability 2016

Well...for those of you who were following along in 2015, you'll probably know that I failed pretty miserably at the lofty yarn stashing goals I set for myself. And then I just plain stopped keeping track. Much of the purchasing was enabled by Jonas, make no mistake, and I did give away somewhat ridiculous amounts of yarn to various charity groups, so I don't feel entirely bad about myself, but as I'm still a person with limited space and even more limited funding, I've put my foot down about purchasing (not just yarn...everything) in 2016. Between this and setting my goals a bit lower, hopefully 2017 will start with a more happy celebration of my 2016 successes instead of me still feeling like I own way more of everything than I really ought. Don't get me wrong, there's NO WAY AT ALL that I'm getting my stash down to even what I'd consider a reasonable size with just the amount of knitting/gifting I'm able to accomplish in one year, but I want to at least look back at 2016 and see that I didn't take in more than I removed.

I started 2015 with 55,081.4 yards/50308.7 metres of yarn. My goal was to end the year with 25308.7 metres of yarn, which I knew was basically ridiculous, but I also knew I needed to set the bar high if I was going to make it mean anything to myself. I did well the first month and actually donated around 4000 metres of yarn to the charity group at Yarn Harbour in Duluth, but things fell off pretty sharply after that. I did have another round of donating yarn in October when the lovely ladies of the KnerdGirl Knits Podcast were doing a charity drive as part of their year-long Bad Ass Women in STEM Craft Along (they're doing women in arts and humanities this year if you want in on the action. It's really low-key and super fun and features great prizes--some of them by yours truly.) So...how did I do? Well...

Here's where we're starting 2016 in terms of yarn stash. I think I got everything that I bought in 2015 and had not bothered to stash for one reason or another, but I fear I may still be missing some things. If that's the case I will, of course, update accordingly. There are still two Gilmore Girls yarn club skeins outstanding, so those will need to be added, but I don't remember what bases I ordered yet.

Here's where I'm starting the year in terms of yarn stash (yes...it's more than I started with last year despite knitting 11,461 yards into projects (granted a chunk of that was a REALLY LONG Doctor Who scarf), and donating/destashing around 19,000 yards:

Skeins of yarn: 230.67

Yards of yarn:  59,459.6

Metres of yarn: 54,369.6

Grams of yarn: 19, 054

This means my yarn acquisition in 2016 was around 26,000 yards. Which was basically the amount I wanted to get rid of. Yep.

With this year's resolutions being all about not acquiring things, I'm hoping I can make a significant dent. I did well last year with donating yarn, but this year the sale/trade yarn has been pretty pared down (because of all last year's donations), so even if I sold/donated all the things I'm willing to part with, I would only decrease the stash by 69.35 skeins/14,200.8 yards/12985.3 meters/4004 grams (roughly 20% of the total), which is an okay number, but not staggering.

Admittedly, my goal is to knit through all the yarn in my stash that's been there since pre-2014, which isn't really that much yarn if you only count the things that aren't in my trade/sell bin (around 6000 yards/5500 meters). Considering even in my light year of knitting this year due to school I managed 11,000 yds, I feel like this is an obtainable goal. If I also include the trade/sell bin (either by donating--although this is all stuff I like and would be willing to knit, so I'd rather either knit it or sell it--or by knitting it or destashing it) I would have to get rid of a further 8000 yards/7400 meters for a total of 14,000 yards/13,000 meters of destashing in 2016. I fully believe I can make it happen...tge trick will be trying to make sure that preference is given to the older yarns. I'm not going to completely adhere myself to that (if newer yarns need to be knit for a specific reason then why prohibit it?), but I'm going to try to look to those older yarns as I plan out projects and have leeway.

But! Most of all...I need to minimise yarn buying. As I've given myself a total of 12 purchases (of anything deemed non-essential/gift for others by Jonas, who has been appointed acquisitions commissioner) with Jonas setting the total dollar value allotted to each purchase, I think I can curb this stash before it REALLY gets too big for its space. Wish me luck though...Jonas is weak under pressure, now also has a yarn-buying habit, and is a horrible enabler if I use the word cute when talking about how much I like it.

Stash Confessional: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2015 (or, OOPS, FANDOM YARNS)

Let's pretend I told you about all the things I've been working on and finishing and giving and receiving for the past month (plus) and just skip to the more recent past. Grad school, it turns out, leaves me with just about enough free time to knit, but not at all enough free time to talk about knitting on the internet.

Suffice to say, my crafting productivity has slowed WAAAY down (but I did manage to fulfill my duties for the two swaps I needed to take care of and dye some yarn...all of which I will try to tell you about) and (as of the last two weekends) my yarn acquisition has sped way up. Which is all a nice way of saying that I completely fail at my "own less yarn" resolution and at this point there's probably no coming back from it unless I sell half my stash.

But enough of that. Let's talk about the knitting retreat I attended in Rochester, MN the last weekend in June: Zombie Knitpocalypse 2015.

For those of you unfamiliar with this event, it's run as part of the Stockinette Zombies videocast, which I highly recommend, and is basically a 200 person hangout for a weekend with super fun events and knitting in a super fun city. People come from all over the US (and the world) and there are informal classes, some swaps, many many prize drawings, a fashion show, a wine and yarn bus, and a 5k run/walk. And a whole lot of just hanging out and knitting and making friends. It's all pretty awesome, if you ask me.

I made many new friends and finished an entire (very tall) sock over the weekend. I also bought a lot of yarn (though not as much as I thought I did...but it was still a significant monetary expenditure, which I think is my bigger concern right now). Interestingly, all of my yarn purchasing was Jonas-enabled. He'd driven down from Minneapolis to visit for the weekend and joined me for the public market after I'd cruised the private market on my own and restricted myself to only purchasing things for swaps. Then Jonas came and I came home with three skeins from Dreams in Fibre and a Gilmore Girls yarn club. So there's that. Admittedly, Jonas also bought yarn, and he doesn't even know how to knit yet, so I guess his problem translates to all of us.

Here's the haul:

Sun Valley Fibers 80/20 Merino Nylon High Twist in the "Hangin With Friends" colourway. This came as part of my retreat goodie bag, so it was free and also it's really pretty.

Because I can never not buy yarn from Alisha Goes Around when I see her at an event AND I can never not buy yarn with bison in it... Alisha Goes Around Tracks (of bison) fingering. I'm not sure what the colourway is, but it's a brownish-purple and blue variegation that's super pretty.

And then...first up in the DAMN YOU FANDOMS section of my purchasing:

Dreams in Fiber Donegal Tweed Aran in the je suis Prest colourway inspired by Outlander. I liked it enough when it was in a sock yarn and then Jonas had to go and find the tweed and then it was all over. Because Scottish themed yarn in a tweed.

Same as above, only in the Lallybroch colourway.

Did I mention I want EVERYTHING in her shop. Because I want EVERYTHING in her shop.

Dreams in Fiber Merino/Nylon Superwash Sock in the "Merlin" colourway. It both looks like the actual bird the merlin and is accurate to the stupid terrible awful BBC show that owned my Friday nights for four years. It's also blue and brown. I HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

Gilmore Girls club from Spartickes Dyes is not pictured (because I don't have it) but coming soon. I think maybe you can still sign up for a bit longer (the form is still open), but signups are closing soon. I'll try to post the yarns as they arrive so you can see them.

I also won a bunch of mini skeins from Quaere fibres and five non-matching quarter skeins from Squoosh Fibre Arts, but I didn't picture them. I'm honestly not sure what to do with them. I don't really use minis.

In short, I have acquired a lot of yarn. Which would be perhaps okay had I not fallen headfirst into the Steven Be sale this past weekend as well. So... yep... no time for knitting, no money for daily life... tons of new yarns.

It keeps, right?

Stash Confessional: Minnesota Knitters Guild Yarnover 2015

So...I acquired some yarn this weekend. I was so proud of myself for knitting a whole sweater out of worsted weight and using up yardage this month, and now I've more than negated all of that for another net gain of yarn. Although, admittedly, the bulk of it wasn't really my fault.

Here's the situation:

Looks pretty bad, right? It is, but I can explain.

Stash Confessional: Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop 2015

Well, you know how I was saying that I had a new way to keep the stashdown resolution and how I was going to do better? Well... I am doing better with knitting. I'm doing less well with not buying yarn.

So, every year several of the local yarn stores get together for what we call "Minnesota Yarn Shop Hop" over one weekend in April. The ultimate goal is for people to go around to all of the stores on the list (there are 17 this year) and there's a free pattern and an exclusive yarn and perks for donating to a local food shelf and prize entries and a grand prize entry for people who go to all the stores. It's good exposure for the stores and the indie dyers they work with and it's a good cause and it's a lot of fun. This was my first year participating. I wasn't going to really go all out, just have Jonas drive me to some of the stores that are closer to us, but one of my knitter friends ended up having Friday off and wanted to go, so I took the day off and went along, foolishly telling myself I wasn't going to buy things no matter what.

And then it ended like this:

Stash Confessional: Birthday money!

Hi again. I’ve got another stash confessional, though a smaller one this time. My wonderful mother, being the amazing, thoughtful, kind, caring person she is, bought me the perfect birthday gift of a gift card to my LYS with the instructions that I was to “Use this to make yourself something beautiful”. So, I took that as a license to buy some really nice yarn that I’ve always wanted and never purchased for myself.

I initially brought it in while the LYS was having a 20% off sale on all the things on the wall and tried to buy myself some Quince & Co. for a sweater, but the amounts and the colours and all the factors weren’t working out. Besides, I have one sweater quantity of Quince & Co. wound up and ready to be a sweater whenever I get to it and one sweater quantity of Quince & Co. on infinite backorder, so I figured maybe this was the yarn gods telling me this wasn’t the correct use of my free $50US. I left with nothing (proud of myself…not too often I can say that during 20% off everything on the wall day. Nearly the whole store is stocked on the walls…at least most of the practical yarn. It’s hard not to buy *something*), and decided that when I came back for my regular knitting night on Thursday I would buy myself something nice. Maybe finally buy some Madeline Tosh despite my opinions about Madeline Tosh or some Malabrigo.

Come back I did, and although I stood staring at the Madeline Tosh and Malabrigo wall for a good half an hour, thinking about hats and cowls and all manner of things I could make, nothing seemed special enough. Nothing seemed right. Then finally, I found it. A yarn store exclusive that oneof the local dyers created for a recent Shop Hop. Colourways inspired by the local Zoological Gardens. All the teal/blue/brown variegation I always wanted and never bought because what was I going to do with all that fingering weight sock yarn? Only now I’m a sock knitter! So I bought it. It’s not lush. It’s not luxurious. But it is the exact colours I love. And it is locally created and locally inspired. And it’s called “More Otter than Sea”. All these things were a win.

 

Now, of course, this didn’t take up all my money (close though…it wasn’t inexpensive sock yarn), so I had to think of what else I could manage to get 1 skein of and still be able to make something. The answer to that, it turns out, was Leading Men Fiber Arts. I’ve been hearing about their yarn (and meaning to listen to their podcast) for a while now, so I was excited to see it in the store a few weeks ago. The colours were beautiful and vibrant and, really, the big problem here was deciding what colour I wanted. I could only get 1 skein of sport weight, so I figure this will turn into a hat or a small cowl or maybe mittens, so it needed to match with my coats and still serve a purpose. Problem is, my coats are brown or blue. And the colours I picked up were either beautiful oranges (still regret not being able to buy that one) or grey or dark green. So, I was forced to use the tiebreaker method and buy on colourway name. Which means the grey won out just because they decided to name it London Fog. Now I need to knit myself just the right thing to take me back to a grey London day where you need the softest cowl to snuggle down into against the damp mist that chills you to the bone and everything will be perfect.

 

So…added some meters to the stash (720.5 m/ 200g), but it’s for a good cause and I'm still grossly ahead of schedule thanks to my destash.Besides, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if one or both of these is used up before the year is out.

Stash Confessional: Minnesota Yarns

This week’s (month’s???) stash confessional is very different than most. Not that it doesn’t mean I didn’t acquire some stash, because I definitely did. Just that I lost significantly more stash than I acquired. Which, you know, is the goal. Still, it puts me decidedly ahead in the plan to be 24,000m lighter by the end of the year. That said, I’m pretty sure I’ll never again get rid of this much yarn at one time, so I suppose I should preface this with a “results not typical” sort of statement.

A bit of background for anyone who might be a new reader. As part of my “own less in 2015” goals, I made a commitment to knit or otherwise rid myself of 2000m of yarn per month. Which . . . considering a worsted weight sweater takes ~900m of yarn is pretty lofty if I were just knitting it all, but it includes knit AND destash. That said, I don’t have THAT MUCH yarn I’m willing to part with as destash, and after Sunday I have even less.

Sunday. I took a birthday trip north (halfway to Canada, as I like to phrase it) and made it a point to stop in to the LYS in town (home of Three Irish Girls) both because I had heard good things about the store (all correct) and because I wanted to get myself some TIG from the source, as it were. While investigating the store, I found out they’re a drop-off location for the charity knitting group F.L.O.C.K. (For Love of Charity Knitting). F.L.O.C.K. will basically take whatever yarn you want to give them and distribute it to various group members who want to charity knit for someone, which I think is great. I would love to do more charity knitting myself, but I also like knitting things FOR myself, so I don’t get around to charity knitting as much as I do in my dreams. I figured this was a good way to go through my stash, figure out what I would have probably designated into charity knitting projects once I got to it anyway, put it all in two giant plastic bags, drive it 2.5 hours north, and drop it off for other people to play with.

All told, I dropped off 4457.65m (2580g) of yarn from my stash. That puts me TWO MONTHS ahead on my stashdown goals, provided I don’t actually purchase more yarn. But you know where this is going, right?

As I said, my primary goal in hitting up the LYS was to PURCHASE yarn, and purchase yarn I did, though I’m incredibly proud of my ability to make decisions, especially in the face of a wall of Kauni and a front-and-centre display of ALL THE THREE IRISH GIRLS with the best colourway names and things I had never seen before. So I came home with 5 new skeins of yarn, all of them local to my area, some of them handspun by lovely people I would like to meet someday so I can praise them for providing me with handspun Border Leicester, for a total of 1453.6m (581g) of new yarn, which evens my destash to acquisition total for this trip to 30004.5m (1999g). Not bad. I count that a mega win! I’m still well ahead for the month of January and still knitting away on a project and swatching for the next.

This probably won’t be the final acquisition post for the month since my mother gave me a $50 US gift card to my LYS with the instruction to “Knit something beautiful” for myself, so I’m betting I’ll be back again next week with more stash confessions.

Which brings us to the moment we’ve all been waiting for. Stash confessional #1 for the year:

1 skein of Three Irish Girls Adorn sock in the “Cooler Bythe Lake” colourway. I actually had this and a “Land of the Loon” colourway that were SUPER similar, but Jonas and I rationalised that although both were awesome, the blue makes this one better. Plus, “Cooler By the Lake” was the tagline of my childhood hometown for a while in the 80’s/90;s so even though I know this meant a different lake, I still felt like it was made just for my home.

 

1 skein of Three Irish Girls Adorn sock in the “Cair Paravel”colourway. And okay . . . it’s named after the castle in Narnia. Do I need to rationalise it beyond that?

1 skein of Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino Worsted inthe “Observation Hill” colourway. Which is pretty. And is named after a place in the city we were visiting (which is where TIG dye out of). But also there was a place in the city I went to University in (my second home) called Observatory Hill and I spent a LOT of time on that hill and I felt like this colour could also represent that place. Plus did I mention it’s pretty?

1 skein of super awesome amazing hand spun Border Leicesteryarn in the “Natural Dark” colourway from a local spinner. It’s 225m in a beautiful chocolate brown and I’m SO EXCITED to work with Border Leicester. No idea what it will become, but whatever it is will almost certainly be warm and happy and made with love from start to finish.

1 skein of super awesome amazing hand spun BLF/Silk in the “LanikaiHike” colourway (presumably inspired by Hawai’i) from a spinner that’s evenmore local to me. It’s beautiful barberpoled brown and blue (you know how much I love brown and blue together!) and is 240m of DK weight. Again, no idea what it will become, but it is sure to be made with love.

Note that despite a WALL OF KAUNI I did not purchase any. This doesn’t mean I didn’t have three different colourways in my hand at one time, it does mean that I decided that Kauni skeins have a LOT of yardage and I still haven’t decided what the three skeins of Kauni I purchased back in May are going to be, so I reluctantly returned them from whence they came because although I love Denmark and Danish yarns/knitting something fierce, 2015 is all about making good decisions with stash and I could walk away feeling comfortable with what I purchased.