My fiber closet!

It was almost too easy to do this, after The Yarn Project -- just a matter of emptying the craft closet of unrelated items, inventorying the fiber and tools and packaging it all up neatly in the enormous space I had created.

Stash sorting snafu

Someone please tell me how this happens!  I began this project with the best of intentions for organizing my stash, and now high holy heck has broken loose. Now I'm playing a sort of game of Yarn Tetris, fitting hanks and skeins into projects of sweaters and vests and ponchos (because I can never plan a small project, though I do long for them from time to time.)  This is what I'm looking at right now -- I'll talk to you when I've dug my way out a bit more:

Sweaters on deck

My one fiber resolution for 2011 is to work primarily from my stash.  I have come to an understanding that this will involve a deep and honest evaluation of my yarn and UFO collection, and that some difficult decisions will need to be made.

This first decision was not at all difficult:  Frog City.  I hate it so much I may not even bother to unravel the yarn, I may just pass it on to the Goodwill in vest form.  It was meant to be a Berkshire Sweater from Weekend Knitting like the Violet Beauregarde sweater I made a year or so back, but the gauge was all funky and the yarn was not delicious and the whole thing was just sad.  I will need to think of something to do with the yarn -- it's Debbie Bliss Chunky Donegal Tweed -- or else it goes to someone else's stash, so ideas are welcome.

 

This sweater is another no-brainer.  It's the Millie Cardigan from Vintage Crochet and it's so close to done!  I just need some concentrated quiet time to get the counting right.  I can't wait to wear this!

 

Okay.  This is just what it looks like:  a pile of Lopi yarn in a bunch of colors I thought looked pretty together.  It was way on sale.  I'm thinking of something in garter stitch, maybe vertical stripes?  Input is, as usual, appreciated.

And this is where I broke my no-new-fiber rule.  Because I found the Blizzard yarn that I made my original Violet Beauregarde out of in a warehouse sale for, once again, way cheap.  And I have a bunch of modifications that I want to try with the sweater to make it more attractive and comfy to wear.  Nuff said.

 

Another pile of Lopi yarn, this time destined to become knitty.com's awesome Sonnet sweater.  I'm going to have fun looking for buttons to go with this one.  Have I mentioned that I love working with bulky yarn?

And, at last, my current fave, Madelintosh's tea leaves cardigan, done in Cascade Eco Duo that had been meant for an EZ seamless yoke sweater which I was simply not ready to tackle.

I would love to stay and chat but K's birthday party is this afternoon and I am using up precious knitting moments.  Until next time!

My handspun!

The stats: Natural Grey Border Leicester, 136 yards or thereabouts, somewhere between aran and bulky weight -- I did not measure wraps per inch because I forgot before I skeined it, but that's such a hairy unit of measurement that I'm not sure it matters much. It's got a nice soft hand; I think it will be suitable for a scarf, hat and mittens, which was my intended project for this fiber.

I picked up a pound of this nice Border Leicester at Rhinebeck the weekend before last when I got my NEW SPINNING WHEEL (the Road Bug by Merlin Tree, more to come on that soon.)  I have about twelve different projects going on, as usual, but would like to get a gauge swatch done on this yarn soon, so look for that and poke me if you don't see it.