stitches west shopping list

It's a month away but I am already thinking about what to buy at Stitches West. I don't usually go with specific yarns in mind but this year I am. Some of my wonderful Boba friends gave me a gift card to WEBS as a thank you for the many baby blankets I designed for them so I am plotting. My plan is to buy Norah Gaughan Vol. 6 and Berroco Booklet #294  and 16 hanks of Berroco Seduce. I want to make one of the Vol. 6 tops, but I'm not sure which, in the Seduce Bellambie in All Seasons Cotton.

I am also going to be on the look out for Sockina. I  got some from The Fold at Sock Summit and knit a pair of socks in it for myself. Several people hinted (some more clearly than others) that they'd like a pair too. I don't think WEBS carries it but I'm hoping someone will have some at Stitches. Maybe The Loopy Ewe?

I also have a gift card to Purlescence from my friends (aren't they the best) but I might wait until Stitches to decide what to get from them also. I have my eye on Rowan Calmer but I might also pick up books that I've had on my wish list since they have a good book selection in their shop. I don't know if I'll buy from Purlescence at Stitches since I know I can go there easily, obviously.

There's also homework to be done for my sweater finishing class. Thankfully, it doesn't require knitting up an entire sweater to finish!

I'm looking forward to Stitches, in case you can't tell.

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the schedule problem

After NaBloPoMo I made a resolution to blog at least once a week, preferably twice. I haven't posted in two weeks now. On Christmas I got a Wii Fit and have been using it every day and getting up early in the morning to walk before I do the Wii Fit exercises. The side effect of that is that I really need to go to bed earlier or I can't get up to walk. The side effect of going to bed earlier is that I have a lot less computer time, which is probably not a bad thing.

So I guess I'm back to my sporadic posting schedule. I expect that everyone understands why. Exercise trumps blogging, right?

I have a lot less knitting and crocheting time but I have managed to finish a couple of things recently. A new crocheted bathmat for our downstairs bath.

finished bathmat

And a pair of fingerless mitts for Niels to wear while scootering to school. They are styled after the mitts Ash wears on Pokemon.

finished mitts

I haven't destashed at all yet, but we do have a destash party planned with my BobaKnit group. The week after that Purlescence is having a yarn swap so if anything is left we can all take it over there.

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miles (and miles) of yarn

As a follow up to yesterday's post about my project count for 2009, I was inspired today by Lisa to calculate how many miles of yarn I used in 2009. I mentioned last year that I was hoping for my stash go down about 10,000 yards or 5 miles. The good news is that is about how much yarn I used (9825.5 yards, by my estimate, not counting yarn used on small crochet projects where I don't bother to weigh all the little pieces and/or use leftovers from other projects). The bad news is that my stash hasn't changed. So apparently I could use 10,000 yards of yarn in a year, but I could also buy that much.

I need to either knit faster (which hardly seems possible) buy less (which I honestly think I was doing) or get rid of some. Destashing time, I think!

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one final FO for 2009 and a roundup

At Wednesday night's Very Special BobaKnit (where we did end up talking about female issues but not on purpose!) I finished my final FO of 2009, the Linoleum Dishcloth by Kay of Mason-Dixon Knitting. Instead of using two colors for the contrast, I used a multi-colored colorway of Sugar n' Cream. I think it came out nicely. (Ravelry link to my project.)

I particularly like the subtlety of the diamond pattern and it feels like it will be nicely scrubby as well. I see more of these in my future. It may replace the ball band dishcloth as my favorite. I use my dishcloths as facial washcloths, actually, so I like them to be a little on the scrubby side, but just a little.

I also made a mosaic for my finished objects from 2009. I "only" had 39 pictures this year instead of 51 like last year. I'm not sure what happened there. More sweaters? Fewer dishcloths? Probably the latter, although you'd think all my tiny crochet would have helped. Ah well, it's not a competition, right?

FOs 2009 Mosaic

FOs 2009 Mosaic

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