Hey wait! It's still February!

I had plans, big plans I tell ya, for Fair Isle February. I really want to make the Tropical Garden Vest from Knit 2 Together.

I've been flip-flopping between making the vest or reducing my stash all month. In the end stash reduction won. After all, there are plenty of small stranded projects I can do with what I already have. Plus I have to admit I am not 100% happy yet with my mad stranded skillz. I've done a couple of small projects and so far I haven't mastered the art of even stranded knitting. Everything comes out kind of lumpy. But my Fair Isle February project, a Bea Ellis traditional hat in Dale of Norway Heilo is my most even yet. The snowflakes aren't lumpy at all!



The hat has been gift-wrapped and sent up north to a friend. I'll start the Tropical Garden Vest (sort of a tropical inspired Fair Isle pattern more appropriate for Florida than a snowflake hat) soon. I've put it at the end of the queue, after a few more pairs of socks and a cable vest I already have the yarn for. Does the list get longer and longer for all knitters?!

I caved.

I had to buy it. I had so much fun making my first baby sweater. Then I saw this at my LYS and I couldn't help myself. The photo doesn't do the color justice. It's not dark blue, its more jewel-toned. Like that blue night sky in winter, when it gets dark too early but that electric blue hangs around for an hour and the world seems rather magical. All I needed was one skein to make the sweater. That's not so bad, right?


I even like the strange arrow shaped pooling.

The Great 2007 Stash Bustin' Snoozefest

New rule: I can't buy any new yarn until I de-stashed a bit (arrgh, I'm knitting as fast as I can!). I'm not being as strict as the Knit From Your Stash 2007 folks in terms of rules about when my de-stashing will be over. I just have absolutely no storage space in my small house (two tiny closets, people!). There is yarn crammed into every available space. My office, once used only for my work, has now been taken over by plastic boxes full of yarn. Bedroom dresser: yarn stuffed in between t-shirts and sweaters. Open the storage/sofa end tables, where once housed DVD's and CD's? Yarn.

The one indulgence I am allowing myself is the Socks That Rock! Socks Club; the first shipment of which should arrive ANY DAY NOW. I've been hovering around my mailbox like Ralphie waiting for his secret decoder ring. (If the first sock yarn shipment has anything to do with Ovaltine I will lose it!)

In the meantime, I continue to de-stash. Most of 2006 for me was a blur of out-of-control yarn purchases (I'm not the only one, right?!). Unfortunately I wasn't very smart about my purchases. Not realizing that I would actually be confident enough to one day knit a whole sweater, I bought yarn 2 to 3 skeins at a time. The result is that I now have tons of yarn but can't knit any big projects with it (well, maybe if I took the time and got creative about it, but that seems like a lot of work). My idea? Baby sweaters. The people in my life have gone all baby crazy and said babies are at the age where I can knit them sweaters with 2 to 3 skeins. I figure it's destashing and acquiring some sweater know-how all in one.

Here's my first sweater. It's a test sweater, really, but came out better than I expected. It's made from yarn I bought within my first month of knitting, before I realized there was yarn besides Jo-Ann Fabrics. It's a Jo-Ann's yarn, Bellezza Collection Dolcetto (what is up with that full of it name?!). It has the same yarn content and feels exactly like Rowan Soft Baby. It's not plied (is that the correct term?) so the yarn would probably look better as a blanket, but the sweater is cute anyway. The pattern is Knitting Pure and Simple's Baby Pullover. It took less than 2 skeins (for 6 month size):


Up next, ribbed socks made from this worsted weight little lovely:

Prism Yarn, Andee in colorway Garden. I would've used this for a baby sweater, but all the babies I know are boys. Plus, I really want some nice warm socks made with this.