Winter Stash Updates and Stashdown 2015

Friends of mine in KW, home of the fabulous Uptown Knit Mob, have organized a stashdown competition for 2015.  I'm all in!
I'm fully committed to ONLY knitting and spinning from my stash in 2015.
That meant I had to sneak a few more items into the stash before the end of the year ;)

How could I resist a Cyber Monday sale at Georgian Bay Fibre company?  I'd not yet heard of this Canadian yarn and fibre dyer, but happily I was tipped off by a random Twitter retweet. Sweet joys of social networking.  With free shipping on an order over $50 and yarn/fibre at 50% off, how could I lose/not shop?  Just look at these fabulous braids of BFL (the purple-grey is a blend with silk):

Soon after, a surprise package from the same Mob arrived at my door. I'm pretty sure it's an attempt to sabbotage my stashdown efforts with more stash goodness.

There was also jam. I tried some immediately. The silver purse is to coordinate with my silver dress - should I ever have the opportunity to wear it again. It will also look fabulous with any of my little black dresses.

As if this yarn and fibre wasn't enough to pad the stash, my sister gave me this!

This spring I will open it up to see the fleeces packed solid inside. We have no idea what to expect, but they will need to be cleaned. Hopefully at least some of it will be spinning quality.  These fleeces are from the sheep who used to live on the farm that my sister just bought.  The story I was told is that when my sister and BIL mentioned to the owner that I was hoping one day they would get fibre animals, she left this in the barn for me.  It's a test - if I can handle processing this fibre my sister and BIL will consider fibre animals.  The infrastructure is already there.
I think it's really just my sister's bribery attempt to get me to visit the farm often.  It's not close to the city.
Before the spring I'll need to shop for huge bins to wash the fibre, some sort of scour product, more drying racks and laundry bags... and if the fibre's all good, I'll want a wool picker and possibly a drum carder/other fibre processing tools.  It's going to be an exciting spring!

Dr. Sheep

Last night I justified last Yule's gift-to-me.  I needed to justify last year's purchase so I could free myself to potentially gift-to-me some more. Because I'm the only family member who seems to believe me when I say I WANT YARN AND FIBRE AND KNITTING OR SPINNING TOOLS FOR GIFTS.

I started with the sheep intended by the kit.

This was my first time working in 3D felting. It was fun. Not a perfect looking sheep, but I don't entirely blame myself because the instructions were crap.

There was plenty of fibre leftover, but all I had next to me while watching the TV was the black. So I started this...

And today he was finished.

He'll be flying down to KW as an Uptown Knit Mob Stashdown prize.
Yes folks, you read that correctly.
#spoilers

Fluffin Snow

There are big fluffy snowflakes falling.
So thought I'd have a quick sale on wintery knits.
Use code FSnow for 50% off my wintery knits - found here in this bundle on Ravelry.
(There is an ongoing sale on my Dragon knits too, FYI).

Good thing I already made kiddo this fluffy cowl - using the Really Want You in my World pattern - well, based on it. This one is wider.

She loves it. It can do all sorts of cool things, she says.

Yes, it can even double as a baby-doll sling. (Baby not shown here.)

Masquerade

The Battle-Weary was re-blocked to keep me warm with this dress on.

I was so very excited to be able to wear this dress again. I've had it for 16 years... why yes, since my highschool grad.

Back in the day.

This is the dollar store mask I upgraded for the event.  The sparkles already matched my dress perfectly.  Removed the useless ties and added a stick to hold it up with.  Most importantly, I crocheted several motifs (mostly Irish style) using black crochet cotton and leftover Montague lace from the shawl and glued them on. I'd debated doing something more complex - such as a full lace mask - but I decided to be realistic. Even these did not glued on until 2 hours before the event.

Battle Worn Dragon

This morning I decided I should reblock my Battle Weary shawl to wear tomorrow to a masquerade ball - where I will be wearing a silver dress.
It's the only thing I have that will remotely coordinate with the dress.  I've realized I need a  "little black lace stole".  There was not time to knit one, even though I have the black lace yarn.

As I was stretching it over the mats I discovered this:

 So I dug out this wee bit of leftovers

 then I added a new scar -this one is horizontal and not part of the design.  Have you ever tried to duplicate stitch over a slipped stitches and garter pattern in fine yarn?  Yeah, I knew it was hopeless to try and match it, especially with the yarn drying and toddlers waiting impatiently.

 The scar stands out more right now as the item is wet but the scar-yarn is dry.

 I'm going to chalk it up to battles. It's more character...

Fall Knits

Ah, sweet fall.
(Which is not how I describe it most mornings.)
Full of opportunities to wear handknits.
(Looking at the bright side; but we deserved a longer summer after the incredibly long winter.)

A season for fingerless mitts - before we shift to full-on mittens.

Eldest needed her own pair.  I've not knit any for her since she was a toddler. (And where are those so I only need to knit one more pair for twins?)

Whipped up these ribbed lovelies that should grow with her for a few years. I was going to knit them longer as arm warmers, but she wanted them done and insisted they are long enough.

Started with a simple 2x2 ribbing with leftover fingering weight yarns and 52 sts. Worked them two at a time on 2.5mm circs.  Added a stockinette panel to duplicate stitch the heart on to and worked the ribbing on the opposite side with an alternating eyelet pattern for a bit of lace and texture. Thumb area is worked back and forth for about 18 rows. I deliberately worked the stockinette pattern to stop ribbing from pulling in the thumb area.  Another Koigu orphan all used up.

There May Be Dragons Here

I've been sitting on a couple of dragon-inspired designs waiting for the cooler weather.  Of course, I didn't want to wait too long, because folks need time to knit all the dragon-y goodness before the last installment of Smaug - I mean, The Hobbit.

First there is the Dragon of Fearn.

In this shawl, texture and unique shaping combine to create a ferociously-fantastic design.  It is designed in a tutorial style to accommodate a range of sizes. In its origins it was designed to use 4oz of handspun singles, which is what I have used for my shawls, but it can most certainly be knit with your favourite yarns ranging from fingering to a light DK weight.

The top shawl was made with two different fibre colours. I bought the fibre as single ounces at Ram Wools Yarn Co-op.  The bottom (first-made) shawl was made from a gradient fibre (lingering in my stash) that I split into two quarters and a half.

Dragon of Fearn starts at the tips (of the darker yarns shown) that are worked towards the center. Next the two sides are joined with the spine. Finally, the stitches along the long edge are picked up and the remainder of the shawl is worked from the bottom up.  The delightful benefit of all this is that there are very few stitches to cast on and very few to bind off at the end. It's all knitting!


Second is the simpler beaded Dragon's Tail scarf, which is a cousin of the Battle-Weary Dragon.

I had to modify the scales pattern, but it is based on the beaded Battle-Weary scales that I loved so much I knew they needed another project.  The scarf -weight yarn (DK-light worsted) requires larger beads. Actually, it was inspired by the size 2/0 silver-lined blue glass beads I had picked up years ago.  After spinning the lavender wool I could see that the yarn and beads belonged together.  I'd tried other projects, but in the end I realized I had the perfect yardage for a scarf.

These two designs bring the count of dragon-inspired designs up to four (five if you count the free fire scarf from many years ago).  I had considered combining them as an eBook, with the possibility of adding to it in the future (because there are still dragons in my head).  However, that would require a great deal of reformatting of the patterns, and I quite simply do not have the time for that - not while I'm busy formatting and teaching a new course at the university while looking after toddler twins and calming a 6 year-old.  Instead I'm using the new bundles feature on Ravelry to group them together.  All my dragon designs can be found at There May Be Dragons Here and because eBooks typically provide multiple patterns at a discounted price, I've set an ongoing sale.  With a minimum purchase of 3 patterns there is an automatic discount of 25%.  I've also set the promotion to include past purchases. That is, if folks already purchased Battle Weary and/or the Hatchling Dragon Shawl on Ravelry, those purchases will count towards the 3 minimum.