Total time!

There's going to a LOT of totals this time round, mainly to take in the end of the month as well as the end of the year.

December:

Bought 0g, zero, zilch, nada!!!
Used 1,095g
Completed 6

I thought that was quite an achievement for December and totalled 0.9 miles. As I flicked through my diary/knitting book, I discovered that the amount I knitted this month isn't the largest total I had... August was 1500g ( thats what happens when you're on holiday you see, lol)

Anyway, the YEAR's total:

Bought 10,714g
Used 10,692g
Completed 56

There's a difference there of 22g... 22 measley grams. If I had just made the cuffs on my last pair of socks longer I would have used that 22g. But what's done is done.

Overall, I'm pretty pleased that I haven't significantly added to the stash. Effectively, I've used what I bought and my plan for 2009 is to have bought next to nothing and knitted the same weight or more.

Ta da!!!

I've another WIP ticked off the list! My fetchings are done and dusted. Just a baby cardigan to do (once I rip out one side) and the donegal blanket. I think I'll frog the rose tyler arm warmers though, too fiddley for me at the minute.

I got the parents foot measurements, so maybe one of the many pairs of socks will be for them this year - the mother's birthday is in April so I might try and get a pair for her.... not handwash socks though (she felted my brothers pair earlier in the year)

So... pic of the fetchings. My camera is crap so you've been warned!

I skipped a cable repeat and the picot edging, but I like them!

Another sock done!

I've completed another sock.... in less than a week! This excites me greatly since it was a big ugly sock for me and not a nice Siobhan sized sock.

This makes me even more hopeful that I'll manage to knit all my sock club socks in 2009.

Of course, this week I've knitted nothing BUT socks, so maybe when I start something else the sock tally will drop, lol.

Sock Club 09

I've just managed to sort out my sock club for next year. It's not really that exciting (more scary than anything) as 5 pairs are patterned, some with cables, some with twists and other mad things. For a bit of a break, the other 7 are plain.

I've put a plain and pattern together in an envelope with the yarn/pattern on a slip of paper and sealed it. I've also written "pattern then plain" on it, just in case I cheat, lol. The patterns are now in my ravelry queue so I can just hit a button and they're in the notebook.

Now the difference with my club is this: Because I don't think I'm that fast at sock knitting, the next pair will be started when the previous one is completed.

Hopefully by this time next year I will be on my 12th or 13th pair of socks!

I have left a slip out of the envelopes - Trekking XXL. That yarn was a pain for me during the year so those are the first 2009 socks to be knitted!

Blogging on Christmas day?!

Yes I am and thats because I rock, lol.

I managed to knit a sister sized sock in a few days which is the quickest I think I've knitted a sock before. Last night I was 3 rows into the ribbed top before I fell asleep and today, moments ago, I finished it. I rock!!!!

Now the photos aren't great (cuz they weren't taken in broad daylight but they're bright and happy little socks and she likes them)

Please note the disgarded toy packaging lying beside her!

Merry Christmas and happy knitting 2009!

(I'm off to cast on sock 2 of the Russian's)

By the end of the year

I have decided that I would love to start 2009 with no Wip's, none at all. So between now and midnight on New Year's eve, I want to finish:

1. Siobhan's regia socks. The first is done and the second was cast on last night. Hopefully be done by the end of the week.

2. My Russian sock. Sock one is done but no sign of two being started yet.

3. Donegal blanket being sewn up ready to learn the crocheting thing for the boarder

4. Fetchings finished. I've most of the first done but have to do the thumb and the entire second mitt.

Am I mad? Yes. Am I slightly ambitious in thinking that this will all be done? Again, yes.

I'll give it a good shot though!

Ahead of the game!!

This week (and its only Tuesday) I have managed to finish knitting all 3 work people presents... and managed to use half a mile of yarn in the process... I love the knitmeter you know. The yardage I knitted is a quick walk for my dog!!

So tomorrow I'm taking another present with me to start. I think I'm on target but we'll see how we get on tomorrow!

New Year's Resolutions!

I know its a tad early for the resolution business, but I'm going to throw these ideas that Nicky and I came up with out into the ether.

Socks
We're going to do our own sock club, and some of the patterns will be coming from the Simply Knitting calander that came with an issue a couple of months ago... since all I can do is plain socks, this is going to be a challenge. I'm asking my mum to bring home lunch bags from Washington next week - if I can see the yarn, I'll not want to knit it so its best to hide these things, lol.

Stash
We're also going to try the Stash Knit Down 2009 ravelry groups "Knit 100 balls in 2009" challenge. I know I have more than enough stash to keep me going to for a while and I'm going to not buy any yarn. However, there is a clause here. Nicky and I are hoping to go to Toronto at some stage, so it is my plan to not buy yarn until I go, I can buy when I'm there and then when I get back, its no yarn again. Unless I need a ball or two to finish a project, thats allowed.

Our challenges/knitalongs!
To make 2009 slightly interesting, Nicky and I came up with a list of 13 challenges/knitalongs for us to do over the year. One challenge starts whenever the last one ends, so it could take 18 months but on the other hand it could take 9 months!

So we have, in no particular order:

1. fairisle and steaking in the one project, we're nothing if not crazy, lol.
2. the pi shawl
3. crocheted starghan (I can't crochet so should be interesting for me)
4. baby suprise jacket
5. Dream swatch headwrap
6. Clapotis
7. Endpaper mittens
8. Hoodie time! We both have hoodies we want to knit, just different ones
9. Emerald cardigan
10. More cardigans!!! (it gets cold here you know, lol)
11. Gift challenge - knit gifts for birthdays/Christmas
12. WIP finishing marathon
13. Pinwheel blanket

So there we have it, the 2009 crazy train!

If we add all the yarn from the 13 knitalongs AND the socks then I think I'm well over the 100 ball mark and therefore have succeeded in knitting down the stash in 2009, knitted some pretty nifty things AND learnt some new knitting skills as well as how to crochet! Win/win I'd say.

Current WIP's
I have a few wip's on the go now that are starting to take over my life, lol. I have 2 different socks on the go, trying to knit a Christmas present and have a birthday present to start. Then, once those are done, I've a few things to knit for the ones I work with (which they demanded I should add) Although the socks aren't desperately needed by a deadline, they see m to be the only thing I want to knit. I think I need to hide them until Christmas is over, or at least until I get everything else knitted!

Its total time!

Once again, its the end of the month and time for the totals!

Bought: 100g
Used: 600g!
Completed: 4

Hooray! The stash is heading in the right direction! I did a bit of a yearly total and there's somewhere in the region of about 500g difference in the incoming and outgoing stash. Seems I bought too much this year after all, and if by some miracle I manage to knit that 500g in December, I'll have knit all that I bought this year and made absolutely no headway in the whole destashing thing.

But there are plans for 2009, lots of destashing plans and knitalongs with Nicky. We hatched a plan on Friday night in Starbucks, and I'll post that next week!

Scary amounts!

I just did a rough totalling of my yarn skeins... and there's over 300 of them floating about. This surpises me for two reasons:

1. I thought I had more yarn when I looked at it all, and

2. How did I manage to buy over 300 skeins of yarn!?

My tallying on a monthly basis seems to be heading in the right direction, and I hopefully can keep this up in 2009. I would also like a decrease in the yarn purchases without going totally cold turkey so I would need to keep an eye on the spending.

I would like to use up about 100 skeins. This is only a third of the stash and a good lot would go if I knitted:

1. my cadigan

2. another cardigan

3. my CPH

4. my jumper

Those 4 garments would bring the usage to approximately 50, so if I just knitted cardigans in 2009 I would be done in no time, lol.

However, the sock stash is really quite large so if I managed to learn short row heels, I'm sure I could do AT LEAST 6 pairs and bring the usage to about 15 balls and altogether 65 skeins.

Its all good in theory though, lets see how it REALLY pans out, lol

Another one bites the dust

I finished my first ballband dishcloth today and I like it a lot... it reminds me of typical Irish summer weather, but I suppose its best to explain the thing when you can actually see it, lol.

I also cast on some Rose Arm Warmer's for a Christmas present.. these might take as long as the jumper!

the evils of Supernatural

I was watching the latest episode of Supernatural while knitting this snowflake dishcloth, and must have skipped a row... I ended up with the right and wrong side on the same side, lol.

Naturally I didn't notice until I was casting off, so its a bit of a mismatch. Supernatural was great though AND this little mistake helped me use some cotton so it was Win/Win all round.

I'm also currently in the midst of my very first ballband dishcloth and I'm liking it a lot. New skills are great!

Jumper take 3

Well I finished the jumper yesterday - just a smidge over 9 balls of click DK to took... it also took 2 months but thats what happens when you aren't sticking to one project at a time.

I quite like this jumper, I managed to do it all myself without Nicky having to come to my assistance (although I did need guidance on the v of the v-neck though) but apart from that its all my own hard work.

I asked my brother to put the jumper on, its not his cup of tea since it doesn't drown him, and he hates having to model knitted stuff but tough, lol. Its what he has to do if he wants a knitted Peruvian ear flap hat a la South Park

Jumper take 2

Well, I managed to finish the sleeve last night, now just to sew that bad boy up, do the ribbing (ick) and ta da!!

I don't know the name of the stitch i ususally use to seam things, but Nicky tried the matress stitch a few weeks ago and liked it - out comes Knitting for Dummies and i shall find instructions on how to do it nicely.

Overall so far, the jumper hasn't used that much - only about 450g of sirdar click dk. Not bad for a manly jumper, lol

Jumper

I've been knitting my dad a birthday jumper for a while, and am nearly at the final hurdle. Its a raglan sleeve jumper and i was raglaning away when it dawned on me that this was not what i had done for the first sleeve. I skipped a paragraph in the instructions first time round.

So tonight, i'm going to rip back to the cast off, pick up those stitches and carry on - totally forgetting the paragraph that was omitted first time round. hopefully itll be finished tomorrow at SnB, giving me time to block, seam and do the v-neck ribbing before his birthday on 15 November!

Oops!

remember how on Saturday I bought a ball of yarn I already had so I could "make something bigger" out of it? Well today I did the same thing again. Only this time it was a ball of James C Brett's Magi Knit. Just don't know what to knit with it though.

With the Saturday and today' purchases, my total in/out tally for this month is as follows:

Used: 750g
Bought: 650g
Completed: 5

Just think, if I hadn't bought those 4oog of yarn, the tally would be much better looking!

I bought yarn

Yesterday Nicky and I went for a drive and ended up in the yarn shop in Coleraine. I had made a deal with myself that I could buy yarn I already had in order to make an actual project and I got this:

I already had one ball but one is never enough so I now have two AND a project in mind for it, so all in all a decent enough purchase.













We went round the WHOLE shop and then, we spotted these and after much deliberation, took them home:
Here we have some King Cole Zig Zig in a lovely blue and white combo and then we have,

Wendy Happy is a lovely soft bamboo yarn and the colourways are zodiac names - this is pisces (I've seen pics of the capricorn and think its a tad bright, might be a whole lot different in person)

I needed more sock yarn like a hole in the head (if I were to knit a pair a month, I'd still be knitting come 2011!) but its lovely and couldn't stay there, lol.

Bye bye moonglow!

Having taken the stern talking to by Gaietygirl seriously, I finished the MJ's on Tuesday night. They were meant to be mine but I put them on my sister for a photo and once the flash went, she scarpered off in them! They now have a new home on her feet, which suits me since I don't think I did them right, lol. But by finishing them I completed another project AND finished another 50g of yarn.

As a once subscriber of *shudder* the Art of KNitting, I had more than a few balls of nasty acrylic lying around. I think there's about 30 of them doing nothing but taking up space and giving me more yarn to try and get rid of. Well, a girl in work volunteers at an animal shelter and they need blankets for the cats and dogs so what better way to (a) help the shelter and (b)get rid of the evil AOK yarn!!!

I'm on my first (of many) doggy blankets and reckon 10 balls would make a decent enough size blanket - currently I'm on ball 3. Just a way to go, lol, but destashing is destashing after all!

Socks or slippers??

I started mary jane's during the week - quick and easy AND more importantly helps me destash 2 50g balls of paton's moonglow. I got one done on Friday night in starbucks with Nicky and started the second.

However, I was watching Supernatural on Friday when I got home and for some reason had an urge to cast on socks. I haven't knitted socks since the start of the summer where I finished 2 pairs in rapid (for me) succession and put myself right off them.

So now I have a dilema. I'm over 3 wip's now (blanket, jumper, mary jane's and the socks) and I would like to have 3 again. Do I finish the MJ now and work on the sock OR do I just let the MJ lie there for MONTHS before finishing it and therefore miss out on using another ball of yarn?

Oh yes, and when do I finish the jumper? Time is running out on this one!

Here we go again!

It was my foolish intention that I would not buy yarn in 2008. Please note the word "foolish". I did not succeed in my 2008 quest but did however manage to note all yarn's incoming and going from the stash. Some months I got more than I used, others I used more than I bought. Some months the totals were the same.

My intention for 2009 is to USE MORE than I actually BUY. I'm not vetoing the purchaing, just trying to restrict it. I would LOVE to not buy yarn but asking that of me is like asking people not to breathe - ain't going to happen. I just want to be able to say on 31st December 2009 that I used a lot more than I bought.

My pitfalls ( and occasionally successes I imagine) shall be noted here, and I'm going to start the whole experiment off now too.

So far, for October I have:

Bought 250g
Used 321g
Completed 2

the bought yarn was straight in and out which is the overall aim of the whole thing.

I'm halfway through another project so hopefully it'll be done by the end of the week and I can do some serious knitting on my dad's jumper!