2010 - The Year of the Ball Band

Last week, I decided to make this The Year of the Ball Band. I will save (note - not I *have* saved, but I *will* save) the ball bands or tags from each skein of yarn I use. At the end of each month, I can take a picture of the month's contribution and tot up how many yards have passed through my fingers.

Unfortunately, my big project uses coned yarn. So the totting up of yardage will be an estimate.

Also, I just decided to do this last week. Therefore, I am missing evidence of a decent amount of yarn usage - the green from the medieval mittens, anything from the Compass mittens or Brewster Stockings, and the Offering Mitts. (I cheated slightly by using the Merino Style label from the Shades hat (December) to stand in for the green, or the red or purple Merino Style that were wound into a plied ball several months ago, but which I am now using for a class hat. Any way you look at it, I'm 2 labels of MerinoStyle short.)

That should cover all my caveats. Am I missing any?

Ah, yes. The fact that I have a ball band pictured does not mean there are no leftovers. It just means the leftovers are with other yarn of the same ilk, where one ball band will do for all.

This month's total ball band yardage? 1,452 yards. Not counting the cone of 2300 yards of cashmere, which has so far become a 4x4 ft square.

For those of you following our corn stove odyssey, here is what you do NOT want to see inside the stove when you come downstairs at 5 AM and 52 degrees. We're not sure why it does this, sometimes, at the higher heat settings. It could be a warped firebox (and we confess to aiding in the warpage since the critter would NOT come out for cleaning), but that doesn't explain why it works most of the time. Its favorite time to not work is around 2 AM, but it will do it while being watched. All day yesterday? Fine and dandy. This morning? PLUG!

Ah well. It's warm out - 5 degrees with no wind - so I turned it into a stove-cleaning opportunity.

It's a Bonnie Winter

Some winters go by with no sign of hoarfrost. This winter has seen an abundance of it, and I'd like to think it's welcoming our pastor's wife, Bonnie, to Minnesota. Late last fall we saw a lovely picture entitled "Hoarfrosted Berries" and she commented that she hadn't heard of that variety of berry. I explained to her about hoarfrost so she wouldn't go looking for a hoarfrost plant in the catalogs, and hoped we would get some hoarfrost this year.

Hoarfrost has been abundant! And not only abundant, but the winds have been very light, allowing the trees and bushes (and anything else outside) to retain the extra beauty for several hours. A good wind will wipe hoarfrost right off the landscape in 5 minutes or so.

And my latest knitting toy has arrived. Vir thinks it adds a touch of class to our living room. I love how it lets the yarn fumes grace the room with inspiration.

No more knitting toys for a while. I've got a lot of 2/28NM yarn to work up into a shawl (basket 2), plus some Compass Mittens and toasty warm Brewster Stockings to do. Plus there's the Araucania Ranco in basket 1 to find a project for. Lilleput and Stole? Socks? Time will tell.

Piecework Project #3

And, while two of the remaining projects in Piecework are lovely, I have no need for either of them at the moment - unlike the three pairs of Compass Mittens for which I ordered the yarn today. The remaining project from Piecework will have to wait until the yarn arrives as well. So - onwards I go to the Hap Shawl which has been calling my name for a few months!

It will not be featured as a finished project tomorrow. Guaranteed.

Piecework Project #2

Three more pair of Compass Mittens have been requested, and there are three more projects in Piecework calling my name, one of them Very Loudly. Plus one more that I am ordering yarn for tomorrow.

Six project from one magazine? Is that possible?

Piecework Project #1

The latest edition of Piecework should have been illegal.

Here I am, all set to plan on knitting everything from Folk Knitting in Estonia, when into my mailbox drops Piecework.

It's the knitting issue, which is a major reason why I subscribe to Piecework. The Rovaniemi Mitts came out two years ago in the knitting issue, and I scrambled to get a copy.

This issue is drool-worthy. I've got the Compass Mittens on the needles already, and have popped the Offering Mittens and The Brewster Stocking in to my queue to work on next. I'm torn about whether to knit the stocking using the pattern given in the magazine, or get the reproduction pattern from the author, or recreate the sock at the original gauge from the information in the magazine. There are two or three other things in the magazine I'd like to knit, too. Sigh.

Traveling Sock #1

Rita's Socks from Folk Knitting in Estonia - finished yesterday!

Happy Knitting!