Knitting from the stash

I have yet to check out the LYS in Homer. For one, I usually have someone who does not care for yarn or knitting with me. Secondly, I haven’t had the van much since Bug got a job last week. Already he’s put in three or four full eight hour days and by the time he gets home, there’s not much time for me to drive back into Homer for some yarn therapy.

I did get a chance to observe the knitting group that meets at the library and while I know it’s unfair of me to judge, the knitters remind me very much of the group at my LYS in Ohio. I’m not sure I’m ready to jump into the group so for now I’ll stick to my evening knitting in front of Netflix. Brian has been binge watching White Color episodes and since I’ve never watched the series, now seems like a good time to start a new Netflix obsession.

Without being able to check out the LYS in Homer, I’m knitting from my yarn stash. This makes Brian extremely happy but it makes my knitty heart long for some new yarn. I have plenty of projects on the needles but like I may have told you before; yarn is like crack – I need a fix soon or I’m going to start going through withdrawal. The only way to curb the craving is to cast on a new project.

I found a new group on Facebook over the weekend. (Ravelry Free Projects) – they post free projects and projects that are free with a coupon or discount code. Right off the bat, I found three patterns that I think are perfect for fall knitting. The one I’ve decided to start with however, will use up all five of my Knit Picks Palette in Lynx Heather.  At first I thought I might use my Madeline Tosh Light from my June Poststitch box but it’s a smaller amount of yarn and I really wanted a larger shawl. Oh and the shawl? A rather simple knit and purl pattern called Nae on Ravelry.

Perfect color for a fall shawl, don’t you think?

If this pattern goes well (I’m going to follow the advice of others and put in some mods) and so far it is, there’s a good chance I’m going to make one or two more in some other colors I have.

I’m not regretting my choice of yarns but I do think that I need to try it in variegated yarn in order to bring out the definition of the pattern. The Heather may be too muted in order to bring out its simple, yet lovely, design. I’ve only just started the body portion of the pattern but I can already see why the designer chose Madeline Tosh so I may end up ordering a couple of extra skeins to make a 2nd (or 3rd) in the length I want.

In other knitting from the stash news, most of my yarn is still packed which makes things (like knitting with it) difficult. Lady Bug (Bug’s adorable girlfriend – Gawd I miss her) did the hard work of helping me vacuum seal all my yarn into space bags and it makes me a little sad to let the air back into the bags and her not here to do it with me. When I was destashing and packing all the yarn, I knew that the space bags wouldn’t be enough so I packed some additional yarn into my carry on suitcase.

This was an exhausting job!

I know between the space bags and the suitcase I have two afghans planned out and I just found another pattern that should easily yield a third (provided I have enough yarn… but I’m not even sure what yarn I want to use for that pattern). Then there are the two blankets that are currently on the needles along with two cowls and at one hat.

Geez, this is starting to sound like a 12 Days of Christmas Knitter’s version… Hopefully this weekend I’ll open it up and see what’s in there because I honestly don’t remember where everything ended up.