Ah the knitter’s stash and stash-busting.  For the uninitiated, the stash is what knitters call their hoard of yarn.  Stash busting is using yarn from the stash, thereby making the stash a tiny bit smaller.  

The title of this post is really only figurative, because while my stash occupies a large portion of my closet, it has also spread to sections of my book shelf, and, horror of horrors, the terribly yarn-un-friendly location of the garage.  

Lori, Lori, quite aquisitory, how does your stash grow?  

Well, I am guilty of what I will call “whole project buying”.  I see a pattern, I love it, I buy all the yarn needed for it, and then I squirrel it away because I certainly don’t have time to start a new project, I have several projects going already!  Sometimes, three years later, I start these projects, sometimes, I don’t.  

Sometimes you need a tiny bit of black acrylic for the ends of the eye stalks of some hermit crab, and so you buy a giant ball of red heart, which never, ever, ends, all the while taking up a lot of cubic inches of stash real estate.  

A lot of the time, you know that it takes 100g of sock yarn to make a pair of socks, so you buy 1000g of sock yarn, 100g at a time, with the expectation that some day you will make ten pairs of socks.  Not an unlikely expectation at all.  

The only problem is that then, the new knitting magazines show up on your door step, or you spend a night browsing on Ravelry, or someone you can’t refuse says, I found this pattern, please make it for me, and then you find yourself buying more yarn.  And at the end of these projects, there is always a little yarn left over, and so the stash grows a little, even though yarn is leaving the house.  

But then, none of this is really complaining, because gazing at your stash is a satisfying sort of activity in it’s own right.  

But so is stash busting.  

I’m working on two stash busting projects right now.  One is a sweet sweater I started about one year ago.  I’m re-starting it really.  The little dutch sweater dress that will some day be a reality.  

I’ve got miles to knit before I sleep on this one, but the pattern keeps it entertaining, imagining what little dutch people would say while they were waiting for their heads to be knit.  Instead of just making the original vintage pattern larger, I’m using the general pattern suggestions for the Global Warming sweater, I’m looking forward to doing the sleeves!  I had a brief conniption last night because, while I’ve known I will need to order more of the white yarn for a while, I’ve been putting it off.  The white is a nice thick sport weight from Knitpicks called Telemark.  Well, "they" have discontinued Telemark, and it seems, replaced it with Wool of the Andes, which I don't have a particular gripe with, except that WotA has about 30 yds more per 50g ball, which means it is not as thick and sturdy.  I was imagining all kinds of tragic looking outcomes to this situation, but this morning I found 6 balls of the yarn hanging out in the UK, and that should be enough to finish the project.  Hurrah!

But even while I have this project that is so sweet and tons of fun, and even has some technical planning aspects to keep me engaged, I’ve been just pining to crochet.  So much so that I made this a few nights ago:

I was pouring over my doily books, almost drooling, wondering where I could get size 30 cotton thread.  However, I am well aware that clearly I don’t need more thread, and really, more doilies.  So, the part of my mind that wasn’t overtaken with feverish doily planning remembered a box of yarn from 2009 that was in the garage that was waiting to become a ripple afghan.  Ta-da:

Not that we need blankets either, but I dream of a day when I’ve got a lovely purple ruffle afghan on the back of one chair, and a beautiful mustard Girasole over the back of the couch.  I haven’t bought the yarn for the Girasole...yet.  

Thanksgiving is coming up and that means the photos of the Under the Sea blanket will be posted in a matter of days!  Until then, a few tiny silver things to tide you over.

I wanted to make a tiny laptop that was tiny enough for a tiny Santa to use.  I'll tell you why later.  Sometimes you just want a tiny tiny laptop. 

 I used 0/5 sized needles, and one ply of embroidery floss.  Sadly, I couldn't work my tiny laptop pattern in the round, but I was able to work the pattern as written, working the rows flat back and forth.  I then graft the top closed and seam up the side and bottom.  The seam ended up being pretty invisible. The keys don't stand out as much as I would like, but we can't have everything, I guess.

This pattern is from Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi by Anna Hrachovec, same as the gnomes in an earlier post.  It was made for the same friend that got the magical mailbox way back last year.  It was made using size 1 needles and fit perfectly into a jewelry box for mailing.  

The tiny letter is separate and has it's own little face on the back.  Embroidering on knitted material is challenging under the best conditions, but I think that the initials on the front came out not-too-serial-killer-handwriting-ish.

I haven’t done a blog post recently because I’ve been concentrating all my energies on this:

This is a close up shot of the making of my under the sea blanket.  I just found the color combination too pleasing now to document it.  I’ve posted a few finished items for this project on the blog, here, or here.  I started this project in 2008, but I’ve actually made the bulk of it over the last month.  In the past few days though, I’ve realized how glad I am that I waited.  It is nice to be able to see improvement in your own skills.  I think what I see most in my own work is an increased willingness to improvise, and I’m glad to see it.  The blanket will get its own post after Thanksgiving after I’ve had a chance to give it.

But wait!  I have photos of other projects that have just been hanging around.  I don’t know what I’ve been waiting for, except that I’ve just been knitting sea critters all night, and so I haven’t been in a writing mood.  I thought I would do a little winter cleaning and get these photos posted.  

Here is a miniaturization of the Hansi Singh Jackalope pattern.  I made a larger version for my parents a few years ago.  Being Mid-Westerners always in their hearts if not their address, it was much appreciated.  I love Hansi’s patterns, and I love making them tiny.  This guy ended up being bigger than a chipmunk, but smaller than a squirrel.  

I worked this pattern almost exactly as written.  I attached the legs after the body was grafted together, making them set a little wider apart at the top, and I had to redo the bottoms of the feet, which didn’t miniaturize as well.  I suspect this is because my rainbow yarn is a little thicker than fingerling weight.  I just picked up the recommended number of stitches, K2tog around, and then threaded the needed through the remaining stitches and pulled tight.  I used 000 needles, some brown sock yarn I had kicking around in my stash and some rainbow yarn left over from this project.  I used some of my trusty garden wire in the legs to make them a little stronger.  

I also just want to give a shout out to my Tiny Laptop Pattern.   Over 100 have added the project to their favorites on Ravelry, my favorite social network site for knitters and crocheters.  One industrious crafter has already made several for her little monsters to play with!  I agree with her that it is pretty irresistible to put toys to work when you’ve got a tiny laptop bumping around your house.  On the internet, nobody knows your a Jackalope.  

Boy it has been hot here.

Especially to someone from Norway.

Good thing he grew his beard to a modest length. 

Gnothing on Earth could compell me to knit a gnome gpenis. 

Yay! I wrote a pattern for the little laptop that the octopus is holding in the last post.  You can download it on Ravelry, or here, or, there is a link on the sidebar.  Make one!  Tell your friends to make one!  Fill the world with tiny laptops.  It is a 2-3 hour project and good fun for everyone, octopuses and lovers of cute things alike. 

I'm pretty much a sucker for an awesome pattern.  I mean, I'm sure that is the case for most knitters.  I horde yarn for a polar bear sweater I will make some day, I buy and then later get rid of scads of pattern books.  (No, I don't really get rid of them, keeping them for inspiration is a totally valid rationalization.)  Upon seeing a truly amazing pattern, I will probably buy the yarn that day and start it that night.  I also love a new way to do something that I've done before.  

Enter this amazing octopus:

Don't you love the eyes!  You knit his head with slits and then push the eyes in afterwards, so for a while you have a blind zombie octopus in your house!  Also, as you can see, the eyes make a really great hand puppet.  This may be my low key Halloween costume, two of these babies sewn onto some kind of finger sleeve, I haven't decided.  

It turns out that I was the first person to finish this pattern on Ravelry and the designer Max Alexander has asked if he can post  one of my photos on his blog.  Max has got it down with the eyes.  To me, his pieces have a great cartoon quality, almost like they are drawn.  I really like this bee. 

Because I am, and love to be, a machine for cranking out yarn versions of friend's inside jokes, this guy has a few accessories, including a baked potato from Anna Hrachovec's Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi.

and a laptop. I'm very proud of the laptop. 

I designed it myself, and this weekend I'm going to write out the pattern, because there are no tiny laptop patterns floating around the internet that I could find and now, knowing that, well, this situation cannot persist.  

Happily, another family I know had a baby, and so he is now the recipient of my new favorite baby item:

Knowing this little baby was a boy, I decided to add some little blue stripes.  I like how they look like soccer socks a little.  I did the Interlock bindoff this time, so the tops don't roll when not filled with a fat little leg, but they are just as stretchy as the correctly named Stretchy bindoff that I used on the last pair.

I would love to say that I've been knitting up a storm instead of posting here, but that isn't quite the case.  I've also been baking pies and cleaning the living room and watching TV.  In the midst of a few un-ending UFOs, my passion has been flagging a little.  

Which isn't to say of course that I haven't finished anything since July when I last posted.  August was actually a productive month, knitting wise.  It just didn't definitely feel that way.  Though I could question the health of it, what I love is to have a project going that I think about all the time.  Something I plan out aspects of during down time at work and can't wait to get home to.  How I felt about the sideways socks and my tiny hermit crab.  

But I also think I will find that project somewhere in my massive horde of projects waiting to be started.  Last weekend I made it though the left and right front of a sweater and part of the way up the back before I lost oomph over concerns about the tightness of the arm holes and running out of yarn.  Is it better to know you don't have enough yarn to finish a project, or to always think you might not have enough yarn to finish a project?  If you know the answer to this puzzle, please let me know in the comments.  

Alright, enough musing and down to brass tacks.  What exactly have I been up to since July?  Well...

Atomic Fireball Socks for my Father-in-law
Lots of cables for large men's feet.  They took me quite a while, but they have a lot of small touches that I like.  The heel is the extra long, good for men's socks, Fleegle's short-row heel.  It used up more yarn than I think a heel flap heel would have, but I also think a well fitting heel is half the battle in good sock fit.  I used the Interlock Bindoff, which I really like a lot.  It is possibly the most ridiculous and complicated sewn bindoff, but the results are fantastic, very stretchy, but also attractive.

Java Socks for my Dad
These were my first two-at-a-time socks.  Though of course each row takes twice as long, it is wonderful to cast off and be totally finished with a project.  The second sock is always the bane of my existence.  Very much like sleeves, my brain just doesn't want to do the same thing it just did, AGAIN.  I like the Java pattern because it is so stretchy.  The sad truth is that the more ornate a handmade sock is, the more it is like a tiny wool foot blanket, no give, no stretch, very thick.  So, though I love them, I think I am finished with Fair Isle socks because they just don't work for 80% of feet.  

Wedding Umaro
These photos really don't do it the color or the dimensions justice.  I blocked in haste and didn't think to snap a photo then, and these are pre-blocking.  The blanket ended up double bed sized, but that may only be because a double bed is the largest surface in my home that I have to block on.  The color is more of a natural cream.  It took FOREVER, but the result is beautiful and well worth it for a wedding gift.  

Baby Wonton Wrapper
I made this for the arrival of my brand new little 1st cousin once removed.  She is beautiful and lovely.  I knew she was coming, but I didn't know her gender.  I figured yellow and teal would be good bright gender neutral colors.  The blanket is 100% cotton.  The main yellow part is Lion Brand, and then I had to delve into fancy yarn store territory for the teal because it would seem that there are no good true mass-market teals commercially available.  This baby's birth was conveniently timed during a trip East, and so I had a chance, the night before going to see her, to whip up some little coral colored star embellishments.  I didn't invent this star pattern.  Actually I scoured the internet for a free star pattern, only to discover that the best one, and I mean, really, the best crocheted stars in all history and time, would cost me $4.95.  I hemmed and hawed for a day, and finally my husband agreed to split the cost with me so that I could stop agonizing.  They are totally worth it.  The blanket has a little triangle sewn onto the front of one of the corners to act as a baby hood.  I love the texture of seed stitch, so I alternated squares of that with squares of straight knitting.  The boarder is a broken rib, so it doesn't shrink up but still has the texture of a rib.  Also, a baby blanket takes a lot less time than a wedding blanket with cables!

Baby Duck Booties
Tucked inside the blanket are some booties that I finished within a month of finding out about the pregnancy, but that I haven't posted, just to cover my gifts are supposed to be surprises bases.  The pattern is a field trip into the mind of a master knitter and I loved making them, and actually plan to make another pair very soon for a friend's baby.  

Well, thanks for making it through the poorly lit photos and the rambling prose.  Though it gets hot here before it gets cool, I think Fall always brings good knitting.  

I think that everyone crafts for different reasons.  While I love giving gifts, I am all about process.  I am incredibly pleased by pieces of a sweater laid out on a bed.  I love socks in progress, as though they are falling out of the circle that my needles create.  Charts and graphs sing a siren's songs to me.  Their black and white symbols demand to be recreated in color.  My first real craft was cross-stitch.  I 
think that this was not by chance, because I asked to be taught many crafts over the years.  Cross-stitch, though I could never say it is my favorite, is a sort of guilty pleasure now.  After all, cross-stitch is so non-essential.  It only makes things better, never practical.

When moving offices not too long ago, a co-worker and I found an opened, but unused, cross-stitch kit in the bottom of a file drawer.  How tragic, my secret mind thought, and so I took it home to sew and personalize.  The fact that the text on the cross-stitch made little sense was only a bonus.  The other aspect of cross-stitch being so decorative is that it is almost always saccharine.  Wise words become pablum when stitched in little x's on even weave fabric.  Only, that isn't quite what I mean. Wise words are still wise, but serious and well meaning tripe are stripped bare and revealed to be nothing more than greeting card sentiment.  However, when that powerful force of banality is harnessed, I think the results can be quite charming.  One of my favorite artists, Steotch, creates samplers of pop-cultural idioms.  The surprise is the joke, because no one expects much out of cross-stitch.  Not that I did anything revolutionary, but I altered this little picture of a sleeping kitten so that it also included a silly, boastful phrase about the Reserves department in the library.

And just to document my process, I took pictures after completing the stitching for each color. Cross-stitch looks so mechanized and pixilated to me, that laying down the colors, almost like a printing process, seems like a natural step.

If you found this appealing, then may I please recommend this and this, some great Lego build stop motions that I can't get enough of.

A slightly larger partner in crime to my smaller mantis from a few months ago.  A co-worker saw my little mantis, and the large one from longer ago (both have made it to work somehow, on different desks).  She asked if I might make one for her daughter who had a spring birthday and is also graduating from high school, and, more importantly, had been working on a final art project, a watercolor of a mantis.  I had been itching for the chance to make another mini-mantis/work any Hansi pattern small, with no real justification for doing so, and I liked the serendipity of the whole thing. 

When I was at Stitches South in April, I made a special point of visiting the Miss Babs booth.  I had gotten overwhelmed there at Stitches West and wanted another crack at it.  Not only did I purchase many beautiful skeins of yarn for socks that you will hopefully see here before too long, but I was also able to get two little half balls of sock yarn for the mantis.  The beautiful depth of the Miss Babs yarn makes you never want to buy machine dyed yarn again, until you remember how much it costs.  For the special toy though, I think it is totally worth it.  And this guy is special from the tops of his antennae down to the tips of his tarsi. 

The other lovely thing about this Miss Babs yarn is that they use very poetic names.  Sometimes I resent poetic naming on yarns because I feel like I'm just being tricked into yearning for a yarn that isn't available,  that I don't really need* because of some deep emotional attachment to some movie.  The yarns for this project though, are so thoroughly beautiful, and I had to buy the yarn for a project, so the names are just icing on the cake: Violets in the Grass and Ghost Ship.  Beautiful and evocative.

*as though there is such a thing, but I can still aspire to be practical.

Because this yarn is a little fuller than the yarn I used to make the tiny mantis, I went up a needle size to 00 needles.  I also made sure to amend my earlier mistake and not trim off the tops of the wires inside the legs.  This time I left them long and bent them so they fitted nicely into the body.  The result was a much more stable mantis who can actually stand with his abdomen off the ground completely if he so chooses.

Well, I had fun making the mantis, and I thought that was that.  I feel pretty strongly that I can't take money for making something from a pattern that I didn't design, so I just said don't worry about it, and my co-worker was very appreciative.  And then she and her daughter spoiled me rotten.  I got two beautiful cards, one with a charming paper cut, and one of them hand painted by the recipient herself of a little parrot, a gift certificate to a local yarn store, and the most beautiful bouquet of flowers, which really match the mantis quite well.  I love trading a craft for a craft, and I certainly don't mind working for flowers when the project itself was intriguing anyway.