A very crafty Christmas

Before we say goodbye to 2006, one last post with the holiday knits!

Most of my knits this year went to a swap partner. I participated in a swap on craftster.org that was called the "12 Days of Christmas." The idea was to send your partner 12 things for day 12, 11 things for day 11, and so on - a total of 78 presents. It was a huge undertaking (although the things for some days were small, or store-bought), and I did quite a bit of knitting for it. I tried two new techniques - fair isle and intarsia. My partner said that she was really into goth things - skulls, etc. - so I tried to accomodate that. It was a bit outside of my comfort zone (not too much gothy about me...), but I found that very fun - part of why I do swaps with strangers!

First up, the Arrrgyle Pillow:

ARRRGYLE!

ARRGYLE back!

I used the fabulous Arrrgyle pattern here (links to PDF), but knit it in Lopi and then felted it. I got a very short and wide panel of thick fabric, when I then decided to make into a pillow. A bit of hand sewing and stuffing, and I was done.

And for the "big" project (this was Day 1), I did a winter set, of the Yorick scarf and the We Call Them Pirates Hat:

Skulls ahoy!

The Pirates hat is in Lion Brand Microspun, which knit up very tight and warm, but soft and comfortable on US 3's. However, my row gauge was quite a bit different from the pattern yarn and 3 skull repeats didn't result in a very tall hat. It was very much a "beanie." Rather than taking out the top and doing another skull repeat (which is what I will do next time), I added another bottom band below the provisional cast-on, and then knit the lining band. Basically, it's only supposed to have one horizontal band around the bottom, not two.
Yorick is knit exactly to the pattern out of Nature's Pride worsted.

I knit my sister a neckwarmer out of one skein of the African silk yarn that I bought at Stitches East (and blogged about here) but didn't take any pictures of it... Mom, if she brought it home can you help?

And my other crafty present was one for mom - Kaffe Fassett was at Stitches East signing several of his knitting books, but there were a few quilting ones, too! I picked one up for Mom and had him autograph it... I think she was happy:

Mom at Christmas

Of course, I received some crafty presents, too, including some amazing pillows from my sister, but those are going to have to wait until the new year.

Happy New Year!

Knit From Your Stash 2007

There's a great idea floating around blogland these days... Knit From Your Stash 2007. The brainchild of Wendy and L-B, it's a pledge to knit things from stash yarn for the first nine months of 2007.

When your stash looks like this:

the idea of using it up sounds like a good one. This photo is from April, and there may have been a few additions since then (a few things have also been finished, so I think I'm at relatively steady-state).

Here are the guidelines, customized for me (my additions are in italics):

1. The Knit-From-Your-Stash-a-Thon will start January 1, 2007 and run through September 30, 2007 -- a period of nine months.

2. We will not buy any yarn during that period, with the following exceptions:
2.a. Sock yarn does not count.
2.b. If someone asks for a specific knitted gift that we really and truly do not have the yarn for, we may buy yarn to knit that gift.
2.c. If we are knitting something and run out of yarn, we may purchase enough to complete the project.
2.d. We each get one "Get Out of Jail Free" card -- we are each allowed to fall off the wagon one time.
2.e. Fiber festivals are exempt from the purchase restrictions - Maryland Sheep & Wool and any others that might pop up.

3. We are allowed to receive gifts of yarn.
3.a. I am allowed to get yarn in swaps or exchanges, when I have given up yarn to be swapped or exchanged.

4. Spinning fiber of any sort is exempt.

In all honesty, this is pretty similar to how I usually work - I rarely buy yarn outside of fiber festivals anymore, but I think it will help me to publicly pledge that I'm going to try to knit from my stash this year.

I have a few stashy things that I especially want to work on... more about that in a future post.

Anyone with me?

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays, everyone. Hope your family and those that are near and dear to you are close, or at least close at heart. Hope you are warm in your handknits!

Long Time No Blog...

Well, hello there! How are you, blogland? I'm doing fine, thanks. Just really busy. There was the working, then the traveling, then the working again. But I'm still here, thanks.

No big news, unlike some others - Jenny had a baby! So did Johanna! And Maggi's adding to her family, too! Very exciting! Congrats all around.

It's probably a bit late to review my Stitches East purchases (I think that ship has sailed, considering that it was over 6 weeks ago), but it's all on my flickr site. I did want to show one really cool yarn that I found, because I'm really excited about it and its story.

Kalahari silk

This is wild silk from the Kalahari desert in Africa. It's part of the Namibian Wild Silk Project, which is a local cooperative in Leonardville, Namibia. The local people were having a lot of trouble with their cattle and wildlife dying each year after they ate cocoons from a moth species (the cattle would mistake the cocoons for seed pods, and they can't digest them). An ecologist realized that silk could be produced from the cocoons, which would also ensure that they weren't eaten by the cattle, and began the business. This silk is also called "peace silk" because it's vegan friendly, since none of the caterpillars/moths are killed while harvesting the silk - it's all from the discarded cocoons, after the moths have hatched. I love the colors, the story, and everything about it! It's not cheap, but I'm OK with spending a little more to support good things with my checkbook :)

I mentioned traveling... I was lucky enough to get the chance to hang out with some awesome friends and knitbloggers! Thanks to Anne Marie and Carrie for showing me around Athens! I wish I'd had more time to meet up with some other folks like Jenny or Jodi, but maybe next time. I did get to meet Mary Jessica, too (because Athens is quite the small town!).

Me and the hostess with the mostess

Thanks so much, Anne Marie! I had a great time staying with you, Petey and Puppy! (Oh, and Tim, another houseguest, too!).

And Petey either approved of me, or was trying to see how I tasted before deciding whether to eat me. He was grooming my hair, which felt strange but also kind of cool...

Tasty Sarah!

While I was in Atlanta, I also managed to swing by the Georgia Aquarium, which is amazing. I spent quite a bit of time checking out their whale sharks, which are just amazing... here's the best photo I got:

Whale sharks!

And, just to prove that this is still a knitting blog, and that I still knit, here's my newest WIP:

Look, mom, it's ribbing!

It's the Ballet Wrap Cardigan from the Winter 2005 Interweave Knits in Lionbrand Landscapes, which was a Christmas gift last year from my mom. Time to clean out the yarn stash in anticipation of more Christmas yarn! (I only have 11 days, but let's not dwell, OK?)

I've been knitting a lot over the past few weeks, actually, but can't show any of it yet because it's gifts...