Stash WIPs

I'm participating in a Stashalong with others in the craft forum at Sybermoms. The idea is to avoid buying yarn as long as possible. Probably every knitter/crocheter has a stash of yarn they've bought for projects that were abandoned, projects that were never started, leftovers from completed projects, yarn we fell in love with at the store but for which we couldn't find the perfect project, etc. If you click on the link, you can go to the blog for the Stashalong. As a result I have a lot of projects on the needles that are from yarn that's been in my stash.

This is the Lotus Blossom Tank from the Summer 2006 issue of Interweave Knits. I'm about halfway through the third lace repeat. I think this will be very pretty when it's done, and it's been fairly interesting to work on. The yarn is Knitpicks Shine sport in Cream. I had originally made the Honeymoon Tank from this yarn, but decided it was too bare for me. Just not my style. I'm thinking this one will be much more me. I love working with Shine. It's not as hard on my wrists as most cotton yarns, and the modal gives it a beautiful sheen. This is also the first official stash project cast on from scratch.

These socks were cast on well over a year ago. I can't remember exactly when. I originally started them for a pair of boy-girl twins. Sadly, I'm sure those babies have outgrown them by now. I had completed one of the blue socks on dpns, decided that it would take forever and I'd likely get bored before completing four socks on dpns, and cast on the second blue and first of the pink onto 2 circulars. Then I got bored. The truly pitiful part of this is that I got bored with only 5 rows to go before the toe shaping. These took me no time at all to finish. I will hang my head in shame for leaving these OTN for so long when they were really so close to completion.

This is a hat for a friend who has cancer and expects to be losing her hair shortly. It is from the special breast cancer issue of Knitty. The name of the pattern is Shedir, and it is the second in the issue. You'll note from the picture that it's a lovely cap with several cable crossings, none of which you can see in the picture of my work thus far. I hate working with black, but my friend requested black. I will deal with it. Maybe I'll get an OTT-lite for Valentine's Day out of this. (Yes, that's a hint if you ever read my blog, sweetie!) I'm taking a break from it right now to work on. . .

Toe-up Socks! These are the yarn-over cable socks from Sensational Knitted Socks
by Charlene Schurch. The yarn was an impulse buy when I was picking up a second ball of yarn for the Branching Out scarf for stepMIL. I haven't figured out the striping pattern yet. I thought it would go from maroon/orange to maroon/pink to maroon/yellow, but it went back to maroon/orange before the yellow showed up. Interesting. It's a cotton/wool blend yarn. So far it is not bothering my wrists too much. I started those yesterday and that's how much I had finished yesterday afternoon. I thought I'd do them on dpns for a change, and I really just don't like them! I'll stick with them since the only other size 1s I have are a knitpicks circular which I could use for magic loop, but I would hate it if it turned out to be slightly a different size.

As it is these next socks are on a susan bates size 2 (2.75 mm) and a knitpicks size 2 (3.0 mm). I'm hoping that won't matter too much. I hate hate hate hate hate these socks. They began as doubleknit socks a la extreme knitting. Once I'd mastered the technique, I got bored with it. It also seemed to hurt my hands, but that might be the yarn since it's 100% acrylic. (The self-striping seduced me, and I neglected to check the fiber contents on the label.) I'm bored with them, and I think they're going to come out too big since the nasty acrylic doesn't seem to have much stretch at all.

That actually is it for things on the needles at present. I'm not counting the Big Sack Sweater from Stitch n' Bitch because it will be frogged. I discovered that I already had a sweater almost identical to it. Dh had given it to me a few Christmases ago. It's oversized, has raglan seaming, and has a rope cable going up the center front just like the Big Sack Sweater. The only differences would have been the color and the rolled edges of which I'm not a huge fan anyway. The only other thing actually on a needle is the dishcloth which I've discussed before. I haven't felt like throwing lately, so I haven't worked on it.

The best thing about all of these projects? None of them have a deadline so I don't have to be monogamous with any of them. I think that will work out nicely.