There has been knitting....

Just no finishing of the knitted things.  I have the back of my brothers jumper nearly finished but haven't got the interest to finish it. I think that once I get over the hump of having a section completely finished I'll get the spur I need to do the fronts and sleeves....I'll knit both at the same time  so I HAVE to finish them.

I'm also knitting a little cardigan because the jumper is too large to take out with me. It's taken me a while to get the increases done as I really don't like the yarn. But as its in the stash it MUST be knitted! Tonight I managed to finish the increases and am now zipping through the body section and making myself quite happy in the process.

And because I don't have enough WIPs on the go, I started a shawl on Wednesday. I have a fear of lace patterns, lace weight yarn and intended yarn overs which occur more than once in a pattern row. This shawl is in sock weight and has a fair few yarn overs.... I tried it twice and gave up and thankfully another knitter came to the rescue, knitted the first few rows for me and sent me on my merry way. Needless to say it's been in its project ever since and completely ignored.  it'll get knitted eventually.

A wipdown is in my future I think... I've about 6 hanging around and some have deadlines. Nothing like some knitting procrastination to spur you on!

Update

I tried knitting the cardigan for the brother but it just wasn't out, so I ripped out the sleeves and am very nearly at the arm hole shaping for the yarns second incarnation. Hopefully I'll get the back finished tomorrow and start on the fronts.

As today is the last day of January its time to post the yardage total:

            1,979 yards out of stash.
            28 December 2012 was date of last yarn purchase
           
Not doing too badly.

I've signed up to take part in a "mad dash" on ravelry and put myself forward for 2,000 yards in 6 weeks. I see a fair few double stranded dog blankets in my immediate future!

Oops

I've a few inches to go on the rather heavy sleeves and I think I need to rip them out. They're far too wide for my skinny armed brother.

Despite the fact that I did actually swatch for this, I'm still unsure of what actual size to knit so I'll recheck the gauge on the (nearly finished) sleeves and go from there.

I got him to measure the length of his arm last night, 20 inches, which in the pattern is the extra large size, but the length of his back is the small size. See, problems all round.

I'll see what happens.

Good start to the year

Just to prove why I've not been blogging on a regular basis, may I present my finished object:

Miracles happen

Tonight after I finished a ballband dishcloth, a miracle occured.


I started swatching.

Slowly but surely

Well this week my stash has decreased by over a mile courtesy of some garter stitch doggy blankets, finishing a pair of socks and selling some yarn.

A decrease is a decrease no matter how I get there.

I'm quite please that I've used up 7 balls of yarn this year so far, given that its only the start of the month. Hopefully the pace will continue and if so, I could end up with a much reduced stash by 31 December!

Goal!!

I tallied my stash last night. It was scary.

In 2012 I knitted 18,448 yards.

In my language thats 10.48 MILES

The scary thing is that I currently have 51miles in my stash which, if I don't buy any new yarn, will last me 5 YEARS!!!

Pretty scary stuff.

So my goal for 2013 is to try my best to cold sheep, knit from stash and keep the wips under control. I finished the dog blanket on Sunday night so have been working away on a pair of sock which were meant to be for me, although I think I know someone who would appreciate them.