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17.7.08

What's a Stash?

Lol. In the '70s and '80s, a "stash" meant something far different from what we knitters and spinners call a stash these days! I'll let your imagination wander. My purchased yarn stash is on a spreadsheet--over 85,000 yards of it! I woke up at 2 am and thought, what's the conversion to miles? So I grabbed my handy-dandy cell phone and punched in the numbers into my unit converter and came up with, gulp, 48.28 miles! Phew! Now that's a stash!

So, someone asked me how much fiber (unspun) stash do I have? Here's what I found around the house in terms of roving (in ounces):

7 white alpaca, 2 superfine brown alpaca, .5 superfine camel down, 3 dk brown alpaca, 3 quanaco, 16 super soft fawn Icelandic wool, 16 super soft silver gray wool/merino blend, 3.25 gray and color silk/merino, 23 superfine white something�alpaca?, 1 white angora, 10 black lamb�s wool, 12 silver grey silk/wool, 6 white alpaca, 20 silver/grey wool, 12 jet black lamb�s wool, 32 dk brown lamb�s wool, 48 dk brown lamb�s wool (different shade), 16 black gray wool, 32 white friesian sheep wool, 32 white sheep wool (low grade), 8 lt brown camel top, 4 gray alpaca (northstaralpacas), 4white huacaya alpaca/merino (northstaralpacas), 4 black blend (luke: northstaralpacas), 7 green/purple merino top, 4 teal/purple soysilk/merino, 4 white Shetland.

That's roughly 330 ounces, or about 20 pounds of fiber. I think I can get a couple of sweaters out of this... ; )

And then, there are over 5 fleeces in the garage not washed yet, and some other roving, but nothing fabulous--that's all in the house. Oh yeah, then I have about 2 pounds of cotton, in various blends...

J says "sell, sell, sell!"

Cheers!

16.7.08

Knit Witch Contest!

I found this on one of the blogs I visit, and heck, it looks easy and won't cost you a cent!

Check it out: Knit Witch Contest for a new yarn store opening up. Contest ends July 31st! Act quick! Amia Yarn Company.

They are concerned about American and local products. I share in those concerns!

Surprises and Gifts...

My partner thinks I have an over-abundance of yarn, rovings, and fleeces. (I do, and he would prefer that I start using up some of my stash before buying more.) But there's something about surrounding myself with these wonderful things that can be transformed into objects of beauty, function, and fashion--well, maybe not the fashion, this is Vermont, after all! I'm quite positive I lived during the 1880's through the 1930's. I have the "Depression Mentality" where I need to have dry and canned goods stocked up to take us through times of trouble, and I also am horribly drawn to the Victorian England time period (as a "Born to the Manor" type, of course.).

Click on pics for a larger view...

J and I try to do as much as we can to reduce our carbon footprint on the planet. We hang laundry outside in the summer, have a small drying rack to dry hand towels, dish towels, etc., and have changed most of our light bulbs to the energy saving kind. (Although, we are both concerned about how to dispose of these when they die--they have mercury in them.)

So, (there was a point to this) I was out in the garage, fumbling through the stacks of boxes of yarn, rovings, and fleeces (sorry--no pic; it's way too messy) looking for this large wooden drying rack we had when we moved from Burlington to Jericho a bunch of years ago. Alas, I never found it, but I found that I had all this fiber I had totally forgotten about.

In the stacks I found (among tons of other great stuff): 2 pounds of dark brownish-gray wool roving (enough for a sweater, plus), 1 pound of Icelandic roving (unfortunately, it's the rough, long and itchy stuff), the Russian cashmere spindles I bought at SOAR '97 at Smugglers' Notch, a Judy's Kick 'n Spin spindle, a Takli and bowl (for spinning cotton), and 1 pound of mohair dyed pinkish red, and sky blue. What finds!

In today's mail, I received another box from Kenny in Houston--fabulous yarn for socks! Fibranatura Yummy 100% superwash wool, in turquoise blue, salmon-orange, browns and greens (I'm color blind--what do I know.), and a skein of Acquerello superwash wool/nylon hand-dyed in a deep, dark reddish brown. A color he promptly described as, well, blood-clot red. Tigger is in the above pic modeling the yarns. There are two pics of tigger, as he's so darn cute. Thanks to Kenny for the care package. You are a great friend!

And, you ask, why does Tigger look so grumpy in the pic with the yarn? Because I moved the newspaper he was sitting on so that I could take the pic! He will not sit on our laps, but the second a piece of newspaper is put down, he jumps right on it and curls up and takes a snooze! I was reading the paper and he decided to plop his royal butt right on the paper! He's really quite a character!

Knitting projects: I finished the second of the Jewelled Steps socks. Love. Them. Although I have to redo the bind-off. And, I started a pair of Monkey-Socks by Cookie A., but the toe-up version. Although, now that I've done 2 reps of the pattern, I kind of like the idea of the purled base under the "V" in the pattern. What do you think? Leave a comment!

I'm using the Audacity yarn by Black Bunny. She's a member of the Knitters for Obama group I'm in on Ravelry.com. And, she's fabulously talented. I'm doing the linen stitch on the bottom (see second sock pic) for more durability.

Oh, I almost forgot! In the Knitters for Obama group, we are doing a second fundraiser--an afghan of the U.S. flag. The red and white stripes consist of squares with raised reliefs of the states. J and I were on vacation in Seattle and Victoria, and they were so sweet to save Vermont for me to do! Woo hoo! Here's a pic of my square before I sent it, and a pic of all the squares before being sewn together by one of the group members.

A couple of my friends are experiencing some rough medical problems with family members, so I ask all my friends out there if you could take just a minute or two out of your hectic life and say a little prayer, meditate, or just send some positive, healing, and loving vibes out to the Universe.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated!

Peace and Love to you all!
Chris

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