Stash

I'm at university, in a dorm room. I have limited space and my stash has officially reached ridiculous proportions. I have two baskets overflowing with yarn, a drawer full, and about 7 rolls here and there. I also have a large ball of yarn and a 12 pack of eyelash yarn being mailed to me at some point (I couldn't fit them in the luggage to bring them home). This is awesome.

Blocking

I had my first experiences with blocking fabric the other day. Again, my partner's mum who's been doing this since way before I was alive. We used the ironing with steam (on acrylic, which would freak me out so much) and it is just so amazing how well she did it. We couldn't stretch it enough to pin it to the right dimensions without the pins flying off and she managed to iron it out to an inch longer. Not the best thing, but that is just amazing.

Provisional Casting on

I've been spending the winter break with my partner at their mum's. Their mum's been knitting & crocheting for decades, and it's damn sobering to watch her work. I'm not bad, but after watching her I know I'm definitely still an amateur. And not even a talented one.

I picked up a book of knitting patterns that was on sale here and one of the things it has is something called crochet cast-on that I've never heard of and may use from now on. I knit very tightly, so generally my stuff ends up very narrow at the start from the casting on and it seems like this reduces that. Very nice.

I've been working on a circular crocheted blanket for 2 weeks and it's getting kind of tedious, the rows take so freaking long to finish and there's no corners or anything to break them up. Occupational hazard.

Sock

I've finished my first ever sock, using the Knit Princess's farrow rib sock pattern. It fits really nicely and feels pretty good. I wasn't sure if it would or not, but I think I like it a lot better than the store bought kinds.

Now to make the second one.

Stash

I admit, I am truly both amazed and a bit disturbed by just how out of hand a stash can get. Anyone who hasn't done knitting (and so probably finds my blog title offensive... Sorry. Unless you find it offensive because of something about "those people" if so, go away) or crocheting or other yarn arts may not know what a stash is. Basically, it's a collection of yarn that you'll use to knit/crochet/etc. Some day. Hopefully.

I have a pretty sorry stash right now. Half of it is stuff that my dad found at a Salvation Army and the other half is cheap yarn that I use to practice patterns/stitches I'm not sure I understand before trying it on the real stuff. I think if I had more money my stash would reach Topazgirl's proportions, though.

Instead of a stash of yarn- I have a stash of half-finished projects. No, really, it's very "impressive" how many things I've started, only to "take a break" halfway through. Although, with the socks, in my defense it is damn tiring to try to knit with tiny yarn and tinier needles. I'm used to knitting with size 10 needles and medium weight yarn...
I don't really have much of a defense with pretty much anything else, though, beyond getting distracted. I have to get a LOT better at this.

I finished my first self-made project

I finished the first thing that I ever came up with the pattern all by myself with (although it was mostly guesswork rather than careful planning and writing out a proper pattern). It's not terribly impressive and I misguessed a few things, particularly how @#$@#$#@$@ much stockinette rolls... I ended up having to crochet a border on the bottom to get it to hang flat.

It's a sort of mini-vest to keep my chest warm because the cold doesn't agree with its healing after surgery, and winter's a-coming.

It's to go under my shirts, so I didn't worry too terribly about switching to a different color, cheaper yarn to do most of the back instead of wasting (and risking running out of) the softer yarn that I had to use on the front. This is, really, only the second project I've properly finished for myself (the first was a shortened Dr Who scarf. Then I started making them and Jayne Hats to sell online and they kind of interrupted things) and it's also the first one that I've completely made up the pattern for (I did a few gloves/arm warmers that were a modified pattern). I'm pleased with myself.