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Posted by Telma on 21st July 2010
2

Stashbusting Like It’s Going Out Of Style

It’s about time I posted something! I went deep into vacation mode last week to the point where I completely neglected my blog and anything online really. But, you know what? It was awesome.

I started to work on pairing up my yarn stash with projects and before I knew it, I had more than 2 projects on the go at any given moment :)

I’m still working on the black shrug. I swear that it’s the never ending knitting project. I’ve finally got it to the point where I’m a mere 8 inches or so from the end. Them, I sew and wait for some chilly nights so I can wear it!

I did however knit myself a one ball hat :)

I used some Patons Shetland Chunky in Charcoal to knit this

Robin’s Egg Blue Hat (Rav Link)

hat1

hat2

I used a button that I had bought a long while back. No idea why I bought the buttoin, but I’m happy I did cause I think it looks perfect :)

I also decided to blast through 3 balls of Lion Brand Jiffy in Fisherman. I had originally bought this for a scarf but it was really itchy. So… purse it was!

Can I just say… I LOVE this purse. I adore the knitting needles as part of the bag. This will now become my knitting project bag. I’ve yet to line it, but as far as stash busting goes… it’s DONE! ;)

Knitting Needle Knitting Bag (Rav Link)

purse1

purse2

purse3

purse4

I’m now working on some fingerless mitts for my sis for her Bday :) i’m not gonna post pics till she gets them cause she knows she’s getting fingerless mitts… just not which ones!!!!!!!

YAY!!!!

Stashbusting Like It’s Going Out Of Style
Posted by Telma on 12th July 2010
8

Montreal, Cheese & Knitting… Oh My!

Rich and I decided to take another staycation (they’re our fave) and to start off said staycation… we went on a road trip with our good friends Ivanka & James to Montreal for the weekend. The main reason for this trek was to see a comedy show. The show we went to go see was “The Nasty Show”. Man, I have never laughed so much in my whole entire life! Mind you… if you are at all the slightest bit easy to offend… this show is NOT for you :)

We left on friday morning and all seemed well. It’s about a 6 hour drive once you add all the pit stops so I had a ton of time for knitting :) I took the shrug I’m working on, as well as another pair of socks for the 12 Socks Project :) About an hour or so in, Ivanka wanted to take a nap but realized that she had left her pillow at home. Luckily, I brought a bunch of balls of yarn for the shrug and lo and behold… a pillow! Never thought of using yarn that way… but hey, it worked!

she’s gonna kill me for posting this :)

yarnpillow

The drive was going well until we hit a wall of rain. This wasn’t a normal rain fall, this was literally a wall of rain. The visibility quickly jumped to zero and we slowly just surely made our way through it. It was pretty scary cause every now and then, we would see funnel clouds forming and luckily, dissipating :)

This is James driving… at this precise moment James is saying WTF?!

rain

We finally got into Montreal in the afternoon and checked into our Hotel. We had a lovely dinner at the Keg and then made our way to Crescent St. for some drinks :)

We strolled back to our hotel at about 2 in the morning. Needless to say, some drinks were had. I don’t drink, and I always have a camera on me (evil laugh) so I decided to snap some pics as my lovely husband and James decided that it would be fun to button up their shirt “gang style” and march down the street. It was soooo humid out that my lens kept fogging up, but it made for some fun pics :)

boys1

Aren’t they cute with their almost matching plaid shirts?!

boys2

The next morning, Ivanka, Rich and I went for a walk through Old Montreal. They had a lot of these hand painted parking meters and I thought they were the coolest ever.

paymeter

We found a Starbucks and I decided that it would be a good idea to have a cupcake for breakfast. I mean, look at it, wouldn’t you be tempted!?

cupcake

Rich decided to document this breakfast extravaganza :)

meeatingcupcake

It was soooooo yummy.

We did some shopping and then headed back to the hotel to nap/freshen up. I needless to say… decided to knit :) We then went out for some dinner at quite possibly the worst Italian restaurant I have ever been to. My pasta was frozen in the middle!!!! oh well. We then headed over to the comedy show, had a ton of laughs and then met up with some friends for some drinks.

At the end of that night, I decided to force everyone to have some poutine as Ivanka & James had never tried Montreal poutine, which is the BEST ever! In case you don’t know what Poutine is… its basically fries, cheese curds & grave :) yum.

I opted to get hot dogs on mine.

poutine

On sunday we were going to hit up a yarn store but realized that they didn’t open till noon so we just got on the road and headed home. It was an awesome weekend.

Oh ya!!! this is the only thing I bought while there… my new knitting bag :)

purse

So now for the rest of the week, I’ll be knitting away like a mad woman working on busting my stash :) I’ll post pics of my progress!!!

Montreal, Cheese & Knitting… Oh My!
Posted by Telma on 7th July 2010
6

How I Plan To Bust My Stash

Ladies and Gentlemen… my stash:

Now, I know it may not seem like a lot to many people… But to me, little old me who lives in a tiny little bungalow with zero room… It’s a lot of yarn. My little shopping spree at Michaels really put my stash over the edge for me in terms of “holy crap, I have no more room!”. I’m at the point where I will have to buy furniture to hold my yarn. There isn’t anything wrong with that by the way. I just have a hard time justifying buying new “make do” furniture. I know that we’re not going to stay here forever and I REALLY want to buy nice furniture when I can really have a craft room. Not a “well, for now this can be your office, but if we have a baby, it’s gonna be the baby room” room. I just can’t get comfortable in my “office”. That’s why I haven’t put any pictures up or personalized past painting it.

Also, it’s getting really hard to come up with “excuses” as to why I NEED more yarn. I’m not one to hide my purchases from the Hubby, so because of that… I get the “are you kidding me? Don’t you have yarn JUST like that already?!” I don’t usually argue back. Because really, to him… yarn is yarn. He doesn’t understand that feeling you get when you walk into a yarn store and you lock eyes with that one skein of the most perfect blue in the most softest merino ever. He doesn’t understand that to me, yarn is my drug. And you know what… that’s ok. He knows that knitting makes me happy, but at the same time, I can understand his frustration when all he sees are little piles of yarn all over the house.

So… the stash busting. I am officially on a yarn diet, but I have “allowances” :)

  • I’m totally allowed to purchase SOCK yarn for the 12 Socks Challenge
  • I’m allowed to purchase yarn for gift making if I REALLY dont have something in my stash that “will do”
  • I’m allowed to purchase yarn if it’s a ridiculously awesome deal, because then I can play the “I’m saving money” card :)

Now, I have some steps/guidelines for myself so that I can bust through the stash quickly and reach my end goal which is… well, buying more yarn! lol

  • Catalogue all your yarn on Ravelry – Done! My Stash on Ravelry
  • Pick projects that will use up the bulkier yarn that you have multiple skeins of
  • Don’t get overly ambitious with projects. Speed is of the essence!
  • If you can’t find something to make for yourself with stash yarn, then think of making something for someone else as a gift or to donate to charity.
  • Have fun!!!!

I think that I’ll be able to bust through my stash pretty quickly. I do have my sister’s bday as well as xmas coming up, so I’ll have to be smart about it. My goal is to have 70-90% of my stash knit up by my birthday at the end of October. Cause we all know what I’m gonna ask for right?! :)

My first stash busting project is this shrug using my Stitch Nation Full O’Sheep in black. Originally I wanted to make a Vinelle cardigan but I didnt like how the yarn was knitting up for a cardigan.

Free pattern on Lion Brand site

From there, I’m not sure what I’m going to make :) but I will for sure be working hard over the next little while trying REALLY hard to exercise my butt off for this yarn diet :)

How I Plan To Bust My Stash
Posted by Telma on 3rd July 2010
2

The 12 Socks Project

It all began with this photo:

I reblogged it on Tumblr and Melissa aka ATreeHuggersWife on twitter re-tweeted it and came up with the goal of knitting 12 pairs of socks in 12 months. She re-posted the “challenge” and shortly there after Chris aka VTKnitboy joined in. Mind you… he’s a sock GENIUS!! Next, Karin aka iknit2purl2 on twitter joined in :) My friend Joni aka orbitalpopdog asked if she could join in too! She asked if you needed a blog to participate, the answer is … nope!

We’re keeping track of all the fun on twitter via the hastag #12socks so if you want to see what we’re all up to, just take a peek :)

Now, I cast on my first pair on July 1st. I want to learn how to knit them toe up and eventually 2 at a time. For now though, I started with what I know… top down :)

Pair #1 - Dark Grey

I’ve since that pic turned the heel and have a few more inches before I start the toe :)

I also HAD to take a macro shot of that lovely stitch marker I’m using. It came with my Sunkissed sock skein I ordered from JLYarnWorks :) it’s soooooo pretty!

Pair #1 - Dark Grey - Closeup

I doubt 12 pairs of socks will fill my sock drawer, BUT I will have a bunch of yummy socks in the end :)

The 12 Socks Project
Posted by Telma on 2nd July 2010
4

I’m Officially on a Yarn Diet… I’m Not Kidding

Man oh man… today I got to go and spend my $100 gift card at Michaels. I tried to be smart about it. Instead of going bananas and just grabbing whatever amount of pretty yarn I fell in love with at the time … I decided to buy for specific projects :) So… Here’s the damage and my new projects :) oh and sorry for the crappy pics. iphone + fluorescent lighting = le crap!

I bought 6 skeins of Stitch Nation Full O’ Sheep in black so I can make Vinelle (rav link) – by Kristin Alexandra I can’t wait to start this.

I also bought 4 skeins of the same Stitch Nation yarn so I can make French Press Felted Slippers by Melynda Bernardi (the blue is more of a teal, but again, crappy iphone photos)

I bought some Bernat Satin in purple to make a hat for my friend Anne.

And… I got some Patons Kroy for my next pair of socks for the #12socks challenge on twitter :)

Not bad for $100 bucks huh? mind you, I felt a little raped after seeing the SRP for the Stitch Nation yarn as 4.99USD on her site yet Michaels took $7.99CDN for each ball. I know it’s only $3 roughly mark up… but still :)

NOW…..

Some of my knitting photos on Flickr have been added to a group called Knitting Art. I was extremely flattered to be asked to have my photos added. I was chatting a bit with the creator of the group, Sifis, who is the 3rd generation yarn shop owner in Greece! How cool is that?! Sifis was kind enough to send me some yarn so I could make myself a shawl. Can I just express how incredibly rare it is now a days to see random acts of kindness like that!?!?!? He doesnt know me from a carton of milk, but insisted on sending me some yarn so I could keep knitting. Man… I’m still floored by his kind generosity! I will for sure have to pay it forward!

So, after I got back from Michaels today, I see this on my desk:

I immediately called out for my friend Sue who’s office is conveniently beside mine. We both sat there as I carefully opened the package… once I got the top of the box off… I see this….

Its 6 balls of some extrafine, superwash, %100 merino!!!! Sifis had asked me what color I would like, so I said blue like the greek flag so I could always remember where the yarn came from. Now, there’s WAY more than enough yarn to make a shawl here… so now I’m gonna see if I can make a garment with them. man… today… sure was a yarn-o-holics dream day.

But seriously… the only other yarn that should be entering my house is the batt that Rachel is spinning for me. Other than that… I’m officially on lock down. I’m so gonna need help. lol Actually, to prove that I REALLY don’t need more yarn… I’ll take pics of my ALL my yarn soon. It’s gonna take a while….

I’m Officially on a Yarn Diet… I’m Not Kidding