Another contest

3/28/2008 ETA: CONTEST CLOSED

You may remember that Erica was one of the winner of my last contest, and here comes another one. When asked to pick a yarn and and a colorway, she chose the Fregene* colorway and a new yarn I will be carrying that it is not listed yet.



I just dyed two of these babies, one is for Erica, the second one for whoever guess the fiber content of the yarn. Leave your guess in the comments.

*Just north of Rome, Fregene, once a simple fishing village, is a quick getaway from Rome and an upscale alternative to the congested beaches of nearby Ostia. Throughout the summer, actors, soccer stars and the Roman gentry go there to feast in waterfront restaurants, to dance until the wee hours and, most of all, to tan themselves on the beaches.

Just because

I saw it on Dani's blog:

What Lucia Means

You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way. And because you're so lucky, you don't really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You're sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

A plan for 2008

I know it is March 19 already, and usually a plan for the incoming year is made in December/January, but I am still wondering where the first three months of 2008 went, so here it goes. The fact that I have a somehow large stash (68,224 yards of yarn) does not bother me, but yarn marinating in my stash for too long makes me feel guilty. I can feel the yarn staring at me and thinking, "Are you EVER going to touch me?"
Hence, THE PLAN: for each month of 2008 I am going to pick the oldest yarn in my stash and decide either to make something with it RIGHT THEN, or de-stash it, or giving it away.
Since as already noted it is already March, I have January and February to take care off too.

January yarn: Lorna's Laces Shephard Sport in Glenwood, 2 skeins. Destash.

February yarn: South West Trading Company Karaoke, 2 balls in 287 Loganberry, leftovers from Sursa. I have been obsessed with making pouches lately:



I'll make two more. NOW.

March yarn: Color Me Silken, 6 skeins in Fiery. Time to use this up. Jewel-Tone Wrap
by Iris Schreier [Raverly Link]: right weight, right yardage (with 60 yards to spare). Time to cast on.

While Ariann is drying

I mad this:


Pattern: Shrug This by Toni Kayser Weiner [Ravelry Link]
Yarn: GGH Bel Air 2 skeins = 284.0 yards (259.7m) in colorway 03

A couple of hours of knitting and voila', a FO for me!

Guess what this is

No pictures

I am still working on my Ariann [Ravelry link] and I have the sneaking suspicion that I do not really need the two extra ball I got. You see, I realized that I thought I was decreasing for the yoke, but I was not, because I was balancing the decreases with yarn overs of the pattern. So I ripped the whole thing off to the beginning of the yoke and then I went 4 inches up, 2 inches down, 5 inches up, 1 inch, down and so on all week.
I swear, you would think it is called Penelope instead of Ariann.

For the trill of finishing something, I made another Jen's Sensational Scarf [Ravelry link], same yarn, same everything.

I have not forgot about the contest, I just forgot to post about it. Thank you so much to everybody who donated, and we have to winners: Erica (very rightly so because she was the first one) and no-blog Mary. Gals, I will email you shortly about your prizes!

March Finally

I am so glad February is over, I just do not like that month. It is too short and with ski week smack in the middle, even more. And the peak of the flu season, so everybody gets sick. Really, really happy is March now!

Update on Ariann [Ravelry link]: the wonderful of Little Knits sent me two more balls of Queensland Uruguay DK [Ravelry link], even matching the dye lots - yippee! I can now finish Ariann, in fact I have been working on it no stop. I will probably only need one extra ball, just you know, just in case.

This latest incident of yarn shortage made me think about my yarn habit.
Should I stop buying yarn in I do not have a project for it so that I buy the right quantity? This would not have prevented the Ariann problem, because I did have the right quantity according to the pattern.
Should I try and use the yarn I buy in a reasonable time frame so that it does not become impossible to match dye lots if I need more? I have yarn in my stash whose photo I took in 2005! Don't know why, but yarn sitting in my stash for more than 2 years bugs me and makes me feel guilty. Poor yarn, waiting and waiting for my attention! So next project will be with the last 3 balls of my first Karaoke (July 2005) - does that sound like a wine?

While waiting for Ariann's yarn, I made a baby hat [Ravelry link]:


Yarn: LuLu's Yarns TM Sock in Ciclamini (double) - 1/3 of a skein

A scarf [Ravelry link]:


Yarn: Baywood Yarns Luxury Sock & Shawl in Summer Sunser and Karabella Gossamer (1/2 skein each)
Pattern: Jan's Sensational Scarf [Ravelry link]

And I finally put the fringe on my Multidirectional Scarf [Ravelry link]:


Yarn: Lang Yarns Mille Colori - 3 balls
Pattern: Multidirectional Scarf by Karen Baumer