I buyed yarn.

robinson
Originally uploaded by ropeadope_ie

Yes, I caved and bought yarn but its to knit this:

Isn't it cute!? Its called Robinson and is from Patons Nursery Story pattern book.

Here's my plan, and I believe it to be a rather cunning plan at that.

I had a look at the pattern and noted that the age 2-3 required 5 balls of the main colour (brown in the photo) and 1 of the contrasting colour (cream), and I handily enough had 5 balls of one colour...

These balls to be more precise:


The colourway is called Misty and randomlythe photo is quite a good match for what the colour is like in person. My plan is to knit the above cardigan and therefore have purchased 2 balls in order to knit up 5 (yes, there are 5 there) which I think is quite a good method of using the stash and getting a lovely cardigan at the end of the day.



So these are the 2 balls I bought, as the contrasting colour, nice and green. I was thinking of doing the ribbing in the green to brighten it up a tad, and also in case there's not enough of the blue, but I have a while to think about it.

So... do you think my yarn purchase was justified?

a little ramble

Just did a quick count of the number of skeins of yarn I have, based on the info on ravelry. I have 411. Now I knew I had a lot, but with the stash knitdown that I was (am) doing, I had hoped to have decreased that number (I’ve used/gifted 89balls this year which isn’t too bad really, hope to get to 100 by New Years Eve)

However, I have added 58 balls to the stash in many varying weights and honestly its mostly sock yarn. Given that I’ve managed to knit 11 pairs of socks this year and my sock stash is rapidly increasing, I really should knit nothing but socks for a while, lol.

Why am I waffling like this? Simple. I was in a bad, but the only LYS we have here, and they had nice aran yarn for 99p per ball. Conveniently I have a pattern book for kids knits in this yarn and I thought to myself “here’s a chance to get something nice and knit it up!” hence the yarn count. I was going to buy at least 6 balls but have just realised that this is rather silly due to the huge number of balls in my stash that aren’t leaving. Instead, I’ve decided to purchase one ball, and one ball only to knit the pattern using the yarn I already have that’s required. One ball to use up 5 that I already have isn’t too bad… is it?

Also, I don’t even think I’ll get round to knitting the kids cardigan hoodie thing this year so really I’m buying yarn to carry over to 2010. I need to finish my Christmas knitting and start planning my 2010 knits… which will be for me and me alone!!!

christmas socks

christmas socks and tintin
Originally uploaded by ropeadope_ie

I've just finished my first pair of socks to be gifted for Christmas... for my two cousins who have been asking for socks for ages. Just have another pair to do, with about 10,000 other things too, lol.

More progress...

The cardigan was taken home last Wednesday and apparently it fits the 2 year old perfectly. I saw a photo of it on him and it looks quite good... couldn't steal the photo though.

In other knitting news, I've the first sock of 2 Christmas pairs very nearly done... another 2 or 3 inches and its done... with just the mate to go. I also finished my sisters cowl tonight while watching some James Bond, so I could actually get all my knitting done before Christmas without taking more stuff off the list.

Here's hoping!

the torture is over!

cardigan sleeve
Originally uploaded by ropeadope_ie

i have just literally finished the baby cardigan. Its only been on the go for 6 weeks or so which is just too long. But here's a very bad photo of the cables on the sleeves, the rest of just plain. Didn't have enough blue buttons so I used a nice light yellow instead.

Socks tomorrow for snb. Have to rip out and redo the heel though, that won't be fun but at least its not a cardigan!

Birthday cowl

birthday cowl
Originally uploaded by ropeadope_ie

This is the cowl I was talking about last time, for my friend Jolene. Please ignore the shiny plastic chair but it was the only decent surface available for picture taking :)

In this cowl you can at least see the pattern, and she seemed to like it, which I hope is a good sign.

I'm just about to start seaming the sleeves of the baby cardigan. Its been floating around far too much and it is starting to get on my nerves, lol! To the needle!!!!

knitting has taken place

symphony cowl
Originally uploaded by ropeadope_ie

I finished this cowl for myself last Monday and haven't taken it off since! Its lovely and soft, snuggly and quick to knit. I knitted it out of patons symphony and took a grand total of 6 hours!!!!

I have another on the go too, and the baby cardigan is nearly done too... just the ends, sleeves and buttons to do.

Have Christmas socks started as well, so much knitting and no finishing going on, lol. Hopefully that will all change tomorrow with SOMETHING being finished!