yarn stash

Birthday Month!

| Sonia Knits

The happiest month of the year, should be your birthday month am I right? Or at least equal with July (for the Bendigo Sheep & Wool Show) or December for Christmas of course. Thankfully these months are well-spaced, so there’s always something to look forward to.

How are my monthly sweaters getting on?

I’ve put a good dent in my ‘March’ sweater, Wool & Honey by Andrea Mowry. The yarn is named Vivacious by Fyberspates. It is a really gorgeous colour and much deeper in real life. I’m hoping and expecting the slipped stitches which make up the hexagons to settle down a bit after blocking. They look a little springy and spider web like at the moment.

When April came around, I wasn’t mentally ready to cast on my ‘April’ sweater until I got to dividing the sleeves from the body. But now that’s done and it’s easy knitting from here on in… I’ve cast on for Stephen West’s Fragmentation Cardigan. I’m using my Louie & Lola Advent calendar from 2024. I selected the DK weight version, and it is my most favourite yarn calendar yet. I spent a few joyous days arranging and rearranging my colour sequence for the modular panels in the yoke.

I love knitting with colour so much! I will get back to knitting a one colour project in June perhaps! Spoiler alert, the ‘May’ sweater is also going to be super fun.

Louie & Lola have just released their pre-order for this years calendar; but sadly it’s a 12 days of Christmas calendar, 4ply 50gm mini skeins. I really enjoy opening an advent everyday in December, not to mention working with lots of colour, so I’m passing on this calendar this year. Who knows, maybe I won’t purchase a calendar, but make up my own from stash? I won’t make any rash decisions just yet.

At this rate (and because I’ve taken this week off work), I should be finished with the yoke colourwork part today. 8ply is so much faster than 4ply. And because it’s a cardigan, it’s just knitting all the way.

I’ve just picked up a copy of Laine’s newest book 52 Weeks of Scrap Yarn from Sunspun (as well as some delicious Birthday yarn). It’s like this book was made for me, seriously! There’s some really great projects in here, and I know it will be a great source of inspiration for future scrappy projects.

Shopping the Stash

| Sonia Knits

You know it was inevitable. I don’t think any of you would be surprised. But it is the start of the year, where silly things like diets and such begin.

If you’ve looked at my stash over on Ravelry, you will know that this is not any great sacrifice. Yarn diet sounds a little too harsh and not quite as apt as ‘Shopping the Stash’. I think my problems issues with yarn stem from the high I get from whenever I buy the stuff and I can’t knit it fast enough. That is the only way I can explain it.

Of course, there will be provisions for the Bendigo Show, and if I don’t happen to have yarn that I need to buy for a project for nephew or a niece, well then I’m going to do it.

And I also joined Stranded in Oz’s yarn club this year (I’m so excited!), with 6 installments…

So you see, it really isn’t a yarn diet at all…

I’m going to stay away from online yarn updates and visit yarn stores without absolute requirement (I might need needles you know). I’m not giving myself a timeframe, I’m just starting now. But I’m expecting late Christmas yarn to be sitting on my desk when I get back to work.

Starting now!

237,565.8 metres

| Sonia Knits

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I said I wasn’t going to do it, (and I was backing out after my last blog post, thanks for your encouragement Belinda!). But I have done it and it’s taken all my weekend and strength to do it. Once I asked myself the question, ‘how much yarn do I have in metres?’, it’s a question I needed answered.

A lot, was not a good enough answer for me. It’s not that I’m going to do anything with that figure. Despite the fact you’re probably all disgusted with this achievement (!) I don’t plan on going on a yarn diet. My feelings toward my stash have not changed, except to say I’m happy to know exactly what I have, give or take (who are we kidding, give/give) a few thousand yards, for left-overs not counted; odd balls of cotton not counted; handspun not counted; let’s be reasonable here, I wanted a ballpark figure and I have it!

My yarn database on Ravelry will make project planning so much easier, I’m looking forward to utilising Ravelry this way. Can you believe they still don’t make us pay to use the site?

Unfortunately some of the photographs are a bit dark… once I started, I didn’t want to stop, and I hate using flash. Whilst I like having nice photos, my priority was getting it done as quickly as possible. 

What did you do with your weekend?