Monday, August 23, 2010

Sorting out the stash

Being a good librarian I decided to re-classify my stash. It was originally stored according to cotton, wool, acrylic and oddments but had long since outgrown this, combined with my Ravelry tags for it which date from when I was living in two different places so I still have yarn labelled "Slough" and "Lincoln" on Ravelry! This was very frustrating to my librarian brain, plus I could never remember where anything was and had forgotten I'd got some stuff. So I got the whole lot out and, with some assistance from Monkey, spread it out on the spare bed. This is the 4ply pile, verging into laceweight at one side:

I've divided it into laceweight, 4ply, DK, aran and chunky, plus an oddments box and it now looks a lot better! And it all fits into one wardrobe...

And it made me feel all inspired to start even more projects. I haven't indulged myself. Yet.

The two projects I have got on the go are coming along nicely. I've nearly finished the first Owen sock. I was going to keep going until I'd used up half the yarn but, after weighing it on the kitchen scales (cue very funny look from the OH) I'm nowhere near that point and don't really want them going much further up my legs! More piccies on Ravelry.

I have also been flaunting the Owen socks on the train as I totally freaked out a couple of men having a very dull conversation about sales targets on the train to work last week. They kept getting distracted by my knitting. In fact, they couldn't take their eyes off it.


And I've finished the front and back of a nephew's Christmas jumper and used the three-needle-bind-off to join the shoulder seams. I've also finished both sleeves so just the hood and a whole other jumper for the other nephew to go now. Heck, it's still August anyway. Oodles of time.

The goodies I ordered at Knit Nation arrived - a matching set of Babylonglegs sock yarn and Vampire on the bus knitting bag from Nicsknots! Aren't they cool?

Yet another colleague had a birthday so I made a chocolate beetroot cake this time. Then forgot to take a picture of it at home so had to take one with my mobile at work! Chocolate beetroot cake is highly recommended, not only is it very tasty, but it's also obviously incredibly healthy as it has vegetables in. We'll ignore the sugar, butter, chocolate etc. Ignore the array of biscuits behind the cake. Another colleague had just returned from holiday and it's obligatory to bring biscuits back from holiday in our department.

And the rose project is continuing apace. All six seeds germinated and have now been potted on into individual pots with seed compost in!


That's it for now. I was going to write up a couple of book reviews too but this is already going to be lengthy. I'll save them for another post.








8 comments:

Sue said...

Wow your so organised. I love the sweater your knitting for your nephew, and you have knit it so quickly too. My sister makes chocolate beetroot cake and it tastes delicious!

Mary Anne said...

Lovely organizing of the stash (although I don't think you were getting much assistance from Monkey).

The nephew jumper is a nice colour and I like the cabling design.

My mom used to make beetroot cake and most delicious it was.

The sock yarn is a yummy colour, both the train-knitting yarn and the yarn you received by post.

ps: why is there a vampire on the bus? Is it a London bus slogan?

Liz H said...

Love the way the colours are blending on the sock.
Excellent reclassification. I have a similar system in place, although it doesn't take up quite so many boxes.

P.S. Sign-ups for Iron Knitter (search for the group on Rav) end this weekend. The combination of puzzles and sock knitting has proved too much and I have succumbed. Go-on, you know you want to join in. I'm sure I will be ousted within the first or second round, but you still get 6 new sock patterns for $4.

Heather said...

I am very inspired by your stash organisation! I am hoping to get a bit more sorted with mine soon.

The cake sounds delicious, and your roses look like they are doing well.

Well done being so organised about Christmas knitting!

Linda said...

The stash looks very good, I love organising too!

Jamie said...

We librarians are a hopeless lot. Or is it hopeful? I reorganized my stash last fall as I took pics for Rav. I've sorted by weight. For now. I resisted the urge to also order by color. lol

Lovely jumper and an interesting cake (looks yummy!).

Why is it Vampire on the Bus? It is a cute bag, though.

Victoria T said...

Thanks for the comment on my afghan. I'm using Caron Simply Soft. It's an economical choice (only $21 if I use all of the yarn I purchased, which I may not need it all) and it feels nice. It's pretty smooth, but it's acrylic, so it's washable. Plus it's really shiny, which I like for some reason!

Your stash is huge! Mine fits into ONE of the drawers on a thing like this: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Sterilite-3-Drawer-Wide-Cart-White/8282897

The socks looks nice. I still haven't attempted socks, and I was worried about using a self-striping yarn, but your's are looking very nice!

Ptitemaana said...

You've got space on your spare bed, this is great! Mine is more like my laundry area...and I struggle to get it cleared...luckily my wool stash is not as big as yours.
The bit about knitting socks on the train is hilarious :D