CogKnition » Yarn

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

CogKnition — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 05:48:14 +0000

So I finished the Cobijita Floresita blanket. After knitting 13 petals for a 10-petal flower. I discovered after the seventh petal that I’d mis-counted the rows on three of them. Riiiip, and re-crochet. But now it’s done. This is how it looks blocking.

And then I frogged a bunch of stuff to re-claim the yarn.

On the left, seven hanks of Cascade 220 reclaimed from that intarsia bag that I never felted. Then some tan Cascade 220 reclaimed from a large swatch. And finally, some Mission Falls 1824 wool superwash rescued from a sweater my brother was knitting (and mostly completed) but never finished due to fit and construction issues.

I also started a hat project. About five times because I kept changing my mind about the design of the hat. Ribbing or no? Two-by-two ribbing or one-by-one? Long tail or tubular cast-on? I thought the sixth time would take, but it turns out that the hat is sized to fit a basketball, not a human head. Riiiiiiiiiiiip.

And Now We Prey

CogKnition — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:18:32 +0000

Sleepy Snake is done, except for the wash-and-dry.

Occasionally he turns into Narcoleptic Ouroboros.

Now I just need to knit him a few victims friends. I plan to make 3-4 of Mischievous Mice, and here are the most mouse-appropriate colors in my stash:

Right now I’m leaning towards blue mice with cream-colored tails (bottom left in the picture). I could also do white mice with cream or tan tails, or maybe just make each mouse a different color combination. Hmmm…

Amimono!

CogKnition — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:05:13 +0000

I have to admit, yarn shopping takes a back seat when the alternatives include visiting Kinkaku-ji.

On our last day in Japan, my mother-in-law took us to Yuzawaya. Check out the knitting sheep logo!

Yuzawaya isn’t so much a yarn shop as a craft department store. Japanese department stores are somewhat legendary for their size and the range of services they offer and Yuzawaya fit the bill. The basement was food, as is traditional for a depato. First floor was fabric and floral arranging. Yarn was on the second floor. Yarn, notions, spinning wheels, and knitting machines. And random breads and bake mixes.

I browse yarn with a future knitter of Japan…

…and stop to ponder this pink crocheted bag. The pattern is free with purchase of yarn!

What color shall I make the bag? Surely not this hideous yellow I am holding.

If you look right above my head, you can glimpse a couple spinning wheels on display. (And that’s my mother-in-law in the background.)

Oh look! Wall of Noro! Most of the yarn in the store was sold by the bag and the Noro was no different. I try to think of a yarn shop in the US where I could walk in a buy a nicely-packed bag of Noro, instead of having to dig through a bin looking for matching dye lots.

I encounter a British Sheep Breeds poster and am taken in by some kind of longwool.

The haul was ultimately small, as I do not yet own a Mary-Poppins-style suitcase. But I came away with both yarn and books:

Clockwise from top left we have: an amigurumi book of crazy adorableness (of course), Tebukuro & Handowoma (gloves and handwarmers), Kantan Nitto-wadorobu (easy knit wardrobe), and the pattern and supplies for the pink crocheted bag I was looking at.

I’ll probably post more in-depth commentary on each book, but I did notice that all three books are contain both knit and crochet, and the projects in the “Easy Knit Wardrobe” book are quite a bit more difficult than the average easy knits book in Barnes & Noble. I bet there are cultural differences in the exposure to, and the value of craft that are well worth exploring. Plus it will give me a chance to practice my Japanese!

Stash Sale Update

CogKnition — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:49:55 +0000

Thank you, thank you all for giving my yarn a new home. There are still a few items left from the original posting, and I decided to add a couple more things for sale. As before, prices are in USD and include shipping to the contiguous 48 US states. Paypal is preferred, but will accept other forms of payment. Take a look!

New Items

Joseph Galler Prime Alpaca
100% superfine alpaca
Sport weight
$12

This is leftover from the Haruha Scarf. Over half the ball is left over (4.5oz out of 8oz), so definitely enough to make another lacy scarf.

Lily Sugar ‘n Cream
100% cotton
Worsted weight
SOLD

Three brand new balls in red, cream, and light blue. I tried to become a dishcloth knitter, but it’s just not in me.

Leftover Sock Yarn
Fingering weight
SOLD

Each pair of the little balls shown here totals around 50g, so you should have enough to make a pair of children’s socks or small women’s socks/anklets out of the yarn. Here’s what we’ve got:

Front left:
Knitpicks Essential, Burgundy
47g left over from Denmark

Back left:
Lang Jawoll Superwash Solid, #88
45g left over from Hedera
Includes full spool of matching reinforcing thread

Front right:
Fortissima Socka, #1035
59g left over from Cable Twist Socks

Middle right:
Fortissima Socka, #1004
53g left over from Embossed Leaves Socks

Back right:
Fortissima Socka, #1005
47g left over from Straight-Laced Socks

Remaining items from previous sale post after the jump.

Continue reading Stash Sale Update (159 words) »

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Please Take Some of this Yarn Off My Hands

CogKnition — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 23:40:00 +0000

Update July 12, 2008: Please see this post for updated stash sale info.

So…what have I been up to this last month? Not hiding from my fellow knitters, that is for sure. I did a very cool project for Lauren at LaBeana Bags, which you may see the fruits of shortly. And I am in the last stages of:

Figuring out dissertation logistics—the proposal is written, I just need to put out a fire on the experimental logistics front
Wedding planning
Moving planning

And that last item is what bwings us togevaaaaaaah today.

Let’s face it, I have no use for bulky wool in Texas. So I beg of y’all who have actual winters to please take some of it off my hands. Along with some orphan yarn and yarn that I’m just tired of looking at. All yarn has been stored in drawers or plastic ziploc bags in a smoke-free, pet-free home.

If you’re interested in any of the yarn listed below or if you have any questions, please send me an e-mail. Prices listed are in USD and include first-class shipping to the contiguous 48 states.

Bulky Wool, Handpainted Yarn.com
100% wool
Bulky, thick/thin single
$15 for the lot (PENDING)

Part of one hank was swatched and ripped out. Others have never been knit.

There’s over 230g here, probably around 340 yards.

Bulky Wool, Handpainted Yarn.com
100% wool
Bulky, thick/thin single
SOLD

Was knit into a scarf and frogged. Yarn has been washed and dried and is ready to go again!

Approximately 400 yards.

Manos del Uruguay
100% wool
Bulky
$12 for the lot (PENDING)

The two hanks on the left (approx. 120g) were salvaged from this scarf, washed, and are ready to knit again.

Two hanks on the right (approx. 120g) have never been knit.

About 340 yards total. This is colorway 116.

Manos del Uruguay
100% wool
Bulky
$5 (PENDING)

Part of ball was used for a fabulous scarf; this is what’s left over.

There’s a little over 85g here, enough to make a small hat or a small pair of mittens. Or felted flowers!

Laceweight, sock yarn, and more after the jump!

Continue reading Please Take Some of this Yarn Off My Hands (391 words) »

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Something Pretty

CogKnition — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 22:43:13 +0000

You may remember that I was disgruntled with my yarn and was going to splurge on something pretty.

Well, I hit the big WEBS sale and this showed up on my doorstep last week:

I have no idea what to do with transmission parts.

So it’s a good thing that there was a WEBS label on top of the box. Sure enough, it was full of yarn-y goodness.

I have (basking in the warm glow of the sunset):

…two skeins of Plymouth Encore for making more Wave of Babies Booties samples…

…six balls of Debbie Bliss Rialto (mmm…buttery-soft) to knit something for my Maid of Honor…

…and a bag of Rowan Felted Tweed for Eunny’s Tangled Yoke Cardigan. I’ve been wanting that sweater for eight months. I will be wearing a Tangled Yoke Cardigan this fall and winter or I will eat my Addi Turbos.

It was a good splurge.

I am Starting to Understand Why People Stash Yarn

CogKnition — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:36:47 +0000

I literally have nothing on the needles right now. Ok, not quite literally, as I have about four rows of a tiny tube knit up after I got it into my head that I was going to design a sock. And then I quit. But beyond that, nothing. Not so much as a baby hat.

I have a couple of toys on hooks, one of which you saw here, but that’s it.

And it occurred to me the other day that I’m just uninspired. The projects out there are plenty inspiring. But the yarn I own…meh.

I’ve never been a big yarn stasher. Limited income (poor grad student) and limited space (poor grad student apartment) just make it impossible to really stash. If you remember, my entire stash looks like this:

And right now, those green drawers are easily half empty. The basket mostly held yarn for the Ombre Blanket and is now three-quarters empty.

This year has been an expensive year (though for good, happy reasons) and I just can’t justify buying yarn when I had, at last count, almost thirteen miles of it. Except for the ball of green Plymouth Encore being used for the amigurumi frog ($5.75), I cannot remember the last time I bought yarn. I’ve just been knitting through what I’ve got, and I’m officially sick of it all.

Thirteen miles of yarn, all earmarked for projects, and I don’t want to cast on any of it. Not the Alpaca Silk, long earmarked for the long-coveted Vintage Cardigan by Norah Gaughan. Not even the gorgeous laceweight from Sundara, because I wanted to design something special for that, and that requires time (something else I don’t have much of right now).

If I had a random stash of non-earmarked yarn, I could at least do something. Swatch exciting stitch patterns. Make a purse. Some random socks.

Instead, I’ve got thirteen miles of earmarked yarn, and not a yard I want to knit. What is up with that?

You won’t tell anyone if I go splurge on something pretty this weekend, will you?

F-Weekend Report

CogKnition — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 01:15:16 +0000

It is done. (She says ominously.)

I don’t know why I thought ripping the sweaters would be a quick job, but I suppose it’s only fair that what takes 100 hours to knit takes at least an afternoon to destroy.

I can’t decide if Hourglass was excited or terrified to be frogged, but when I went to unpick the neck facing I discovered it had already started unraveling of its own accord.

Seamless yoke constructions are pretty easy to frog, unless you mess up the ratio of sweater ripping to yarn containment.

Three hours and a pile of pill fuzz later, I had four hanks of yarn.

Continue reading F-Weekend Report (250 words) »

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Getting into the Froggy Mood

CogKnition — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:46:31 +0000

F-Day is approaching and like all good Froglympic athletes, I got in a little practice in preparation for the big day.

My two victims:

I knit both these scarves back in 2005, towards the end of my bulky, handspun, hand-dyed, variegated wool phase. The green scarf is knit from Manos del Uruguay in colorway #116. The blue scarf is from Malabrigo bulky wool in a colorway whose name has been lost to the ages.

The green scarf I wore exactly once, because it is 11 feet long, or more than twice as long as I am tall. What possessed me to knit this ridiculous length of skinny scarf, I will never know. I’m guessing a failure to check gauge factored in, as the scarf is knit lengthwise—cast on a billion stitches, knit a few rows, bind off.

The blue scarf I’ve actually worn a few times. But it’s too long and too bulky to really wear comfortably under a jacket. It also tends to fold itself in half, which doesn’t make matters any better. I decided to frog these two scarves long ago, and what better time than now?

Mindful of Katy‘s suggestion to contain the yarn, I recruited an inverted wire shoe rack to wind the yarn on. Let the ripping begin!

It was strangely relaxing. As I ripped, the scarf morphed from an object of dislike into pretty, pretty yarn that I loved. I remembered how the rich blues and greens so attracted me, and why I impulsively grabbed three hanks and took it to the register.

I also discovered that I knit this scarf in two pieces and sewed them together. I can only conclude that I must have been drugged, or in a fugue state, for not measuring the first half and realizing the scarf was going to be eleven feet long.

Well, that wasn’t so bad. If only I had any idea what to do with it now.

Oddballs, Begone!

CogKnition — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 00:01:05 +0000

Thanks for the nice comments on my last entry! I promise I will write more on learning theory as it applies to knitting at some point, maybe after I’m done squeezing every last drop of academic knowledge out of my brain in order to survive the rest of this semester.

I’m actually dying, DYING, I say! to run a study evaluating childhood knitting instruction on spatial skills, math skills, fine motor coordination, all that good stuff, and see if, like all knitters believe, it actually makes a difference. But that will have to wait for a day when I have my own lab and research funding, because I really don’t see getting that one past my dissertation committee.

But in the meantime, let’s talk oddballs.

Like anybody who’s been knitting for a while, I’ve accumulated quite an oddball stash. In fact, based on my updated yarn inventory, 4500 yards of my current stash are oddballs. That’s 2.5 miles of yarn, for people who are keeping track.

I’m probably luckier than most knitters, in that a significant chunk of my oddball stash comes in the form of three different yarns: 700 yards of Fortissima Socka, 600 yards of Elann Peruvian Highland Wool, and 950 yards of Cascade 220, leftover from many socks, the Ombre Blanket, and assorted felted items.

That said, the small and weird amounts left in sometimes-clashing colors still doesn’t make for easy re-combining of yarn to make a new project. Unless it’s a baby project. But who wants a baby item that’s 100% non-superwash wool?

Enter Afghans for Afghans.

Afghans for Afghans is conducting a special Mother’s Day drive, looking for baby and child garments made of 100% wool. Hence, the abundance of baby hats in my progress bars. So these:

…are going to stop uselessly taking up space in my stash, and go usefully off to make some nice Afghani child’s head nice and warm. It’s a good system, I think.

A Swift Kick in the Pants

CogKnition — Sat, 10 Mar 2007 16:34:22 +0000

Look, look what I got!

I bought myself a swift in anticipation of having to wind a billion yards of laceweight for the shawls that I want to knit.

And look, look, it works!

It’s more dumpling-shaped than cake-shaped, but it’s definitely a center-pull ball. This is Sundara’s scrumptious silk lace, in one of her unrepeatable somewhat-solid colorways. You’ve seen this before, and I’m now almost positive it’s going to become a Print o’ the Wave stole for myself.

But, look, look!

This was a hank of navy Merino Oro for the Myrtle leaf shawl and now…yuck. Even a swift can’t help you wind yarn that’s already gotten hopelessly tangled in the hank. So, despite my best efforts to avoid exactly this scenario, I will be winding 1375 yards of cobweb-weight yarn by hand. Assuming, of course, that I can get it untangled.

Harvard Square…Vest

CogKnition — Sat, 03 Mar 2007 19:43:47 +0000

In the course of dealing with my One Project Paralysis following the completion of the Endpaper Mitts, I came to the conclusion that I wasn’t in the mood to knit anything challenging. No lace, no cables, no epic projects. I was flailing around for a project to knit next when a bunch of babies came to the rescue. Enter the Harvard Square Cardigan.

The Harvard Square Cardigan, which you can see at the left, is from Knitting for Baby, by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas. I will give this book a proper review some day, but I love it and have been eyeing the Harvard Square Cardigan pretty much since I bought it.

Eagle-eyed readers who have been with me for a while will recognize the yarn I’m using for the sweater as the same yarn I used for Fred the turtle. It’s been a quick and easy knit so far—heck, most of it is garter stitch—but it’s also curing me of my current lack of desire to work on a challenging knit. I’ve been spending a lot of time lately looking at lace and laceweight yarn lately (as if I need more yarn) and I think I will be casting on for one of these from Victorian Lace Today (which I will also review properly at some point) after I finish the sleeves on the cardigan.

And then I will probably treat myself to some of Sundara’s cherry blossom yarn.

Taking Yarnventory

CogKnition — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 04:38:43 +0000

Alternate post title 1: Yarn by the Numbers
Alternate post title 2: Forget Being Coy, We’re Talking About a Half-Marathon of Yarn
Alternate post title 3: Can’t Sleep…Yarn Will Eat Me…
Alternate post title 4: This is all KathyMarie‘s Fault

To clarify, it’s not KathyMarie’s fault that my yarn stash will eat me tonight after I go to sleep. But it is her fault that I know exactly how much yarn will be invading my bedroom and swallowing my head. She, after all, posted about her yarn inventory and her yarn spreadsheet and I was overcome.

Spreadsheets are quite possibly the next best thing to yarn. I love spreadsheets, I love yarn…of course I had to drop everything and make a yarn spreadsheet! A yarn spreadsheet with a pivot table. I am such a nerd.

In short, I have 12.9 miles of yarn. This includes oddballs. This does not include the grandma stash, anything in the tub o’ swatches, or yarn for any of the projects currently on the needles, so I’m probably under-counting by at least a mile of yarn.

I have:

0.6 miles of bulky yarn
1.4 miles of worsted/aran
0.8 miles of DK weight
1.5 miles of sport weight
4.4 miles of sock/fingering weight
4.2 miles of lace weight

Although I didn’t do an analysis by color, it seems that I am especially fond of:

Reds and purples, particularly wine red/burgundy red shades
Green-blues and blue-greens
Dusty and denim blues

And all of that fits in this corner:

Not too bad, I don’t think, especially since most of that is already earmarked for a project. I do need to knit a lot of socks and shawls soon, though!

My Favorite Things…

CogKnition — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 21:25:29 +0000

…that I don’t have.

A friend commented today that my Amazon wish list is “knitting heavy.” I told him that it didn’t contain the half of it, as Amazon’s selection of yarn and other knitting supplies is woefully nonexistent.

In addition to the very enticing Victorian Lace Today and Cables Untangled, among many other knitting books, and the horribly out-of-place The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death (I have weird fascinations with miniatures and true crime), here is a list of things that I hope, hope! I might get for Christmas or my birthday:

Ball winder and swift
Blocking board and blocking wires
A pair of 10″, US6 Brittany birch needles
I wouldn’t kick a set of Knitpicks Options needles out of my stash, either
A gift certificate to Ruhama’s or Knit One (as if I need more yarn, hah!)

Speaking of yarn, here’s a peek into my stash.

This is the silver-blue over ice somewhat solid yarn from Sundara yarn, destined to become a Print o’ the Wave stole for me, or I may try to design something.

Continue reading My Favorite Things… (124 words) »

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1000 Yards of Pale Pink Plastic

CogKnition — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 01:17:11 +0000

My grandmother discovered I was a knitter at our family reunion two summers ago. She got all excited, exactly as you would expect a grandmother to do. She promised me she would send me her stash. I got all excited, exactly as you would expect a knitter to do.

And sure enough, a package arrived in the mail shortly after. It did not contain fifty balls of talking, homosexual sock yarn. Or a cigarette-smoking sheep. What arrived was silent, but not in a good way. It was in the delivering-a-menacing-death-glare, very very bad way.

It looks innocent, but it’s not.

The yarn is probably as old as I am, with yellowed ball bands in Japanese. A quick swatching and attempted blocking confirmed that it was the squeaky, sticky kind of acrylic that doesn’t even pretend to absorb water.

I came to regard it as a strange cousin that had come to stay.

Maybe I could knit it into a large, pink elephant.

Two, Two, One

CogKnition — Wed, 28 Jun 2006 20:27:37 +0000

Two socks, two circs, one foot. And I guess one bag.

I present to you what appears to be a successful heel turn and set of gusset decreases on the straight-laced socks. This is getting exciting!

My only beef with the project so far is the yarn. I’m using Fortissima Socka. I love the color, but it comes out of the skein like hairballs out of a cat. There’s some intense buildup, and then all of a sudden you have a snarly mess on your floor.

Combine that with the already-messy two socks on two circs method, and well, I’ve probably spent 20% of my time untangling yarn from yarn and yarn from knitting. I’m going to have to work out a better system. I already have something in mind, and it involves making a felted bag.

Yarn Lust and Fashion Sense

CogKnition — Sat, 10 Jun 2006 08:03:22 +0000

Yarn is like crack. The presence of a gorgeous yarn, heck even the virtual presence of a gorgeous yarn, is sufficient to make a yarn addict shake and sweat.

My name is Yvonne, and I think I may have a problem. I think as far as knitters go, I am fairly restrained about yarn purchases. I am a few-project knitter (UFOs cry and yell at me to finish them, and if I had more than a few at a time, I would never be able to live with all the racket) and I do not buy yarn that is not earmarked for something specific.

But slowly, the stash monster has been creeping up on me, a growing spectre of woolly goodness that I imagine will some day emerge from the corner, fully conscious, and smother me in my sleep. It began with yarn leftovers, half-skeins of Plymouth Encore, tattered remainders of the dreaded Microspun.

Then came a few unfortunate internet purchases, during which my monitor deceived me quite thoroughly. The blue? Not vibrant, but dusty. The orange? Not orange at all, but a goldenrod yellow. Then my grandmother sent me ten skeins of an unidentifable pink acrylic with yellowed ball bands in Japanese. I think the yarn is quite possibly as old as I am.

And now I have a giant laundry basket full of yarn that spills over into a stack of shoe boxes on the side. About half of that is yarn for the neverending Ombre Blanket that is my knitting penance. The rest of it is, unmistakeably, stash.

Continue reading Yarn Lust and Fashion Sense (580 words) »

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Macro Hate for Microspun

CogKnition — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 22:46:23 +0000

You might have guessed, based on my choice of yarns for Rogue, that I am a bit of a yarn snob. And you would be right.

I’m not snobbish about price–I have found a number of perfectly good yarns that retail for dirt cheap–nor am I snobbish about fiber type–although I’ve inherited some of my mother’s disdain for acrylic, there are a number of acrylic yarns I am perfectly happy to knit with, if the project requires acrylic. Mostly, I’m just a stickler about quality.

I have bought yarn from a big box craft store exactly twice, and both times I wound up regretting it. I would have been better off taking the $5-10 and spending it on a hundred yards of good quality yarn from a real yarn shop, than spending it on a thousand yards of yarn horror.

Continue reading Macro Hate for Microspun (401 words) »

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CogKnition » Yarn

Two Steps Forward, Three Steps Back

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And Now We Prey

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Amimono!

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Stash Sale Update

New Items

Please Take Some of this Yarn Off My Hands

Something Pretty

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I am Starting to Understand Why People Stash Yarn

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F-Weekend Report

Getting into the Froggy Mood

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Oddballs, Begone!

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A Swift Kick in the Pants

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Harvard Square…Vest

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Taking Yarnventory

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My Favorite Things…

1000 Yards of Pale Pink Plastic

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Two, Two, One

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Macro Hate for Microspun