Fun Things May Be Coming

 I have been playing with a new to me yarn called Coastal Cotton Ocean Mist by the Queensland Collection.  The yarn is 100% Cotton, the label says it is Pure Soft Cotton.  I must wholeheartedly agree with that statement.  By the way it is carried by both of Tucson’s Local Yarn Shops, Birdhouse Yarns and Grandma’s Spinning Wheel.

I chose this yarn because I am currently knitting items for a higher end charity event.  I wanted my yarn to reflect this. So far with the first skein I have made one 8” x 8” washcloth.  I have enough yarn to make a second washcloth which I started tonight.  If I have enough to make 3 washcloths I will add an addendum to the bottom of this post. 

I am really rocking geometric shapes in the patterns that I am designing. The yarn seems to be holding up well to this fun style of knitting.  I am also pleased with the yarn definition as I’m changing between knitting and pearling. I am also not using a pattern or sketches of any kind. I am just going with the flow. 

For full disclosure. I purchased all the yarn for the charity auction work, replacing yarn in current patterns and for the new patterns in the works. I purchased half the yarn from each of my locally owned yarn shops. If this yarn is not available locally to you both shops will take phone orders and mail out the yarn and anything else that they carry.

Knitting Accessories

 It has been determined that my husband’s car has a preference to what knitting accessories it likes to eat. It’s number one choice is the expensive Chibi darning needles. Once one falls I will never get it back.  I have tried flashlights and magnets to no avail. 

The car however, does not like stitch markers which is a huge surprise to me because I loose so many. The car practically spits them back at me. My guess is the car just does not know what to do with stitch markers.  

Does your car have a preference to what knitting accessories it likes to eat?  I am just curious. 

No Yarn Chicken for Me

 Tonight I decided that there was not enough remaining cashmere on the skein to knit 2 rows.  Since I don’t like frogging Cashmere I decided to change the yarn at the end of the row. I thought it would give the shawl, a more elegant look.

So it was time to change to the second color, which is 222 g of  hand spun yarn.  The yarn was a spinning challenge to try to make a color way that looked like a Monet‘s paintings. I think I came pretty close. Also the bonus is that one of the shades of the hand spun yarn Has the same red color as a cashmere yarn. 

Since the shawl is going to a charity auction. I will not be taking pictures of it because it is something called a blind auction. I will pack it up in a box with a note inside that they can read after they have won the auction. I like the idea of bidding on a mystery box.  I will be making several boxes for this charity event. Almost all will include something hand knit. 

So I will include a picture Of the Yarn I decided not to play chicken with. I will also say if you ever have a chance to knit with high-quality cashmere yarn go for it. Even if it’s not the whole project, it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

I Need More Spoons

 I am sad that my body will not keep up with what my mind wants to do.  I am really getting tired, no pun intended, of not having the spoons to knit my new knitting project after dinner. 

Even more that I am in the mood to clean and declutter but if I do it standing and walk around the house, it’s 20 minutes max before I need a 2 hour nap.  If I am lucky enough to be able to do the project sitting down, I can go for hours.  I just can’t figure out why there is such a difference.  

I have also decided to get a wooden coat stand with shelves for my knitting and spinning baskets.  That will free up more shelf space for yarn and kits.  It will also leave the floor empty so John can run his robot in the room occasionally.  

Well it’s time to call it a day.  

The Next Batch

 The next batch of yarn to leave the house is all Sugar and Crème yarn that I used for fundraising efforts for Eric’s day program.  I got the yarn whenever it was on sale at least 50% off the regular retail price. I did this because I used to give the day program 100% of the sale price.  So stocking up on yarn at really low prices made sense. After Eric died we as a family decided that it was time for the parents of current participates to take over the fundraising efforts.  It was also time for me to explore the next chapter in my life. 

The yarn is going to a Tucson knitting group who make hand knit and crocheted washcloths and other items to sell to raise funds for The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona. The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona is a cause that our family has supported since so last century.  So I feel very good about where all the Sugar and Crème yarn is going. A little over 100 quarts of yarn. My ultimate goal is to get my yarn stash into counting it by skeins instead of quarts and gallons.  Wish me luck on that one. 

I am also going to put a Google link at the bottom of this post if you would like to help out The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona.  Of course at this time of country wide need because of  the current climate in Washington D.C. all our food banks across the country need help. So I am asking all of my readers to be a blessing in their areas to support your fellow community members. Whether it is your local food bank, Meals on Wheels, religious organizations that house and feed people, helping out with school supplies and clothing, everything helps. 

As a bonus for the group members I am also going through my knitting and crochet magazines to give them all the ones that I no longer want.  

I never knew that getting rid of extra yarn and the things like books that I have already read would make me physically feel a lot lighter.  Not to mention give me more space.  I might be nearing the end of this deep cleaning cycle but rest assured there will be more on the way.  

Did Someone Say UFO

 The down side to doing a massive knitting room clean up is finding all the UFO’s that I had hidden away.  Below you can see a picture of my fireplace. This is only about 80% of my current UFO’s. Each bag holds a between 1 and 6 UFO’s.  Two of the bags hold my charity knitting projects, the are always being refilled with yarn because I like to make as many hats and scarfs for the Flowing Wells School District Clothing Bank as possible. I have a few different projects going for the Navajo Knitting Project, I make very large scarves for the older kids and I am currently working on 3 for next year. 

On the far right side of the picture are 12 kits set up for weaving scarfs mostly for different charities.  I believe that I have enough scarfs for myself and family at this point. 

The rest include patterns that I wanted to try. Patterns that I was designing and did not meet the mark or have things that need to be changed before it can become a viable pattern.  Even classes that I have taken and not finished the project  

There are at least 20 bags on the fireplace. I also have other bags and baskets of spinning, weaving and knitting projects scattered throughout the house. 

My goal for the rest of the year is to complete as many of these UFO’s as possible without starting too many new projects.  That is really going to be the hard part.  Wish me luck on this one.  

330 Gallons of Yarn

 This stage of my latest yarn de stash is complete.  I know that you have heard this countless times before. It has not been my biggest de stash of yarn. There was still an epic number of gallons of yarn that left my yarn stash over the past few days. So far it is 11 bags with a total of 330 gallons of yarn leaving the house. I also have an empty 32 quart bin going into the garage. 

If you are interested in acquiring any of this yarn please follow The Old Pueblo Knitting Guild to find out when the yarn sale will be.  Be sure to arrive earlier rather than later for the best selection of yarn.  I know people who drive from out of state just to go to this yarn sale.  Go to Old Pueblo Knitting Guild.org.  There you will find information on what we do as a knitting guild. The charities we support. Find out how you can join. You can even make a donation to help cover the cost of some of our charity work.

In this latest donation for the yarn sale, I have included Aspirational Yarn with projects that I wasn’t sure what I was gonna make with the yarn someday. Only that I loved the yarn. I have also included a lot of size 1,2 and 3 weight yarns because I can no longer work with smaller knitting needles.  It absolutely broke my heart to have to remove from my stash, some beautiful yarns, including silks and silk blends. It is the time of my life to become more pragmatic about what I keep and what I get rid of. I hope the Yarn that is leaving the house finds a really good Knitter or Crocheter to make beautiful projects.

With that being said, my knitting and spinning room is more organized. More useful to me because I know where everything is. And I even put together a few projects with some of my hand spun yarn which are destined to go to another funding raising project for another organization. And I know you will believe that I found a few more UFOs. I have also found projects to tink and make something much better or fix major construction problems. 

Now it is time to work on my current knitting project.