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Sunday, August 25, 2013

Y2: Self-Imposed Year of Projects - Update #34

Good morning (for many of you) and happy Sunday :) 

It's been a rough week in our house (but that's for another post). The short version is that we're catching up on sleep and trying to get rid of strep that's been going through the house.

But, we're not here to talk about that (today)...we're here because it's Sunday and it's time for another Self-Impose Year of Projects update. This is my thirty-fourth update and I'm fitting to shake things up again...but we can talk about that in a moment.



Finished Objects (FOs)
1. San Francisco Fog Fingerless Mitts: started January 2, 2013; finished January 10, 2013
2. Don't Blink: started January 16, 2013; finished January 16, 2013  (links to one I made last year using the same yarn)
3. Dalek Dishcloth: started January 16, 2013; finished January 21, 2013 (links to one I made last year using the same yarn)
4. Woven Rib Dishcloth: started February 8, 2013; finished February 11, 2013
5. Icarus Shawl: started March 15, 2010; finished February 14, 2013
6. Little Granite Dishcloth: started February 16, 2013; finished March 2, 2013
7. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth: started March 4, 2013; finished March 27, 2013
8. Garter Stripe Baby Socks: started March 3, 2013; finished April 4, 2013
9. Petal Dishcloth: started May 21, 2013; finished May 22, 2013
10. Petal Dishcloth: started May 22, 2013; finished May 23, 2013
11. Mama's Vanilla Socks (round 2): started June 29, 2012; finished May 24, 2013 
12. Petal Dishcloth: started May 26, 2013; finished May 29, 2013
13. Mini Petal Dishcloth: started June 6, 2013; finished June 10, 2013
14. Eat Your Monkey Socks: started November 29, 2012; finished June 15, 2013
15. Sand Stitch Dishcloth: started June 18, 2013; finished June 20, 2013
16. Roman Stitch (Variation) Dishcloth: started June 21, 2013; finished June 23, 2013

17. Grandma's Favorite Dishcloth: started June 28, 2013; finished July 25, 2013
18. Choose Your Own Adventure Dishcloth: started July 26, 2013; finished August 4, 2013


I haven't finished anything. This isn't surprising when you take into account that we've been sick and tired in this house...

Works-in-Progress (WIPs)
1. Freeport Vest: started March 7, 2013
2. Baby Surprise Jacket: started May 27, 2013
3. Traveling Vines Socks (Adult): started May 31, 2013
4. Greyson: started July 5, 2013


My WIP list is still sitting at four WIPs and the only thing I've touched this week were my Traveling Vines Socks. I'm almost done with the leg for the first sock. However, I haven't touched it since Monday when we were flying back...and I think I updated about that on Tuesday when I did my last (late) update. So I guess I have nothing new to add for this week. Oops.

That means my remaining lists look like this:
 
Children's Items 
1. "Little 16" Newborn Socks
2. Alvin Sweater
3. Milo

 
Items for Me (Selfish Knitting FTW!)
1. Rose's Wrist Warmers
2. Zombie ViXen Fingerless Mitts


Household Items
1. Halloween Creepy Cloths (1)
2. Halloween Creepy Cloths (2)
3. Assorted Harry Potter Cloths
4. Assorted Doctor Who Cloths


Designs (which may or may not be sooper seekrit - obviously the sooper seekrit ones aren't listed)
1. Little Man's Baby Blanket
2. Susan's Hat (4 versions)
3. Assorted dishcloths (set of 12?)
4. Traveling Vines Scarf
5. Traveling Vines Socks (baby and adult-sized as well) - yes, this is a WIP...still working on it...
6. Pinwheel Market Bag
7. Anything else that comes along (I have a notebook or two or seventeen somewhere with potential designs and random ideas)



I'm not going to finish anything on this list at the rate I'm going. I'm perfectly fine with this. I'll keep plugging away as things come and we'll see where I end up. 



In the meantime, I'm going to work on another challenge of sorts. One of the groups I belong to on Ravelry (LSG - which, if you've never been there, is not for the faint of heart) is having a Secret Sock Club. The idea came from the Yarn Harlot where she took some patterns and matched some sock yarn, put them in bags, and pulled them at random to knit the socks in question. Now, she's a relatively quick knitter so for her, doing one pair every month was fine. I'm not that fast and most of the rest of us aren't either. The idea, however, is basically the same: go through your stash, pull out all the sock yarns, match them with patterns, put them in bags, and pull them out at random and knit the project. It was originally intended to be for socks but we've expanded to include other things like shawls, fingerless mitts, hats, baby sweaters...basically anything that can be made with sock yarn. 

My first task in order to get ready for this challenge: go through my stash and see what I have. I went through my stash in the "old school" way. I pulled out a bin (or two) at a time, pulled out all the yarn, and wrote down what I had, how many skeins, type of yarn, color, dye lot, company, etc. I finished doing that on Friday night. It took me a couple of weeks because I didn't do it every day. I also made sure to note if there were other skeins of the same yarn hiding in another place (which happened more than I thought it would). So, I finished that on Friday. My pages had space for 23 entries/page...and I'm at the beginning of the 19th page. So, if you do the math, I have at least 414 entries (18 x 23)....and many of them were multiple skeins in an entry. In short, I have over 500 skeins of yarn. Of that, I'd say at least 40% is sock yarn. I'll do an official count later...I also have more yarn coming in from Wisconsin and I know a fair bit of it is sock yarn. 

::sigh:: I have a problem.

Now that I've finished going through my yarn, I need to spend some time matching yarn to patterns. That should prove entertaining. I suppose that's how I'll spend this week...sort of. 

How is this going to impact my Year of Projects? Well...some of the projects on my list will be matched with yarn and I can just get going. It should make life a bit easier. Maybe. We'll see how things go. 

Anyway, I should be back at some point this week as I owe you a yarn review, book review, and photos from our trip to Wisconsin...and yarn, of course :)

I hope you've all had a fabulous week!

12 comments:

  1. I have the majority of my yarn in Ravelry..just some of the "big box" stuff is not listed...I love that feature....also in the queue feature you can match the project with yarn...I've done that for a lot of my projects....I already have some yarn and projects matched up in bags...did this last year.....I've been on LSG..may even be a member, but haven't been there is awhile..so maybe I'll look this up...

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    1. The problem I have is that I'd buy things and not update my Ravelry stash and take photos and all that. Plus, I move things around and forget to update the stash page.

      I'm hoping this will work out easier.

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  2. are you going to match all your yarn with projects? that seems like a monumental task!

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    1. Oh Bob no! That's too much work (I did the preliminary, quick count and I have 628 skeins of yarn in my stash)...and new patterns come out all the time. So I'm going to try to get a bunch taken care of and see how that goes :)

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  3. Hope you all start feeling a bit better soon. Sounds like a fabulous way to sort out your stash - and what stash you have!!!

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  4. Thanks for your stash honesty. I think I have fewer skeins than you -- no more than 495!

    Looking forward to hearing about your trip to my state!

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    1. I do like home...sometimes, I wish we hadn't left but I know it was good for us to do so.

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  5. Wow! Would I love to have that much yarn at my disposal! You live in a dream house! LOL!
    What a great idea about matching them up. I keep forgetting to go to the Yarn Harlot's blog and I love her books (although they almost put me off of knitting with some of her horror stories when I was just beginning). I also love your Adventure wash cloth! What a hoot! Maybe I should try that as it seems I have difficulties following a pattern! LOL! Hope you all get better!

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  6. That sounds like a great way of not only keeping your knitting interesting but also a great way of using up stash. Now see I read that post and didn't think having all that yarn was a problem lol. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with and the projects. I do hope you are all on the mend again xx.

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  7. I love the secret sock idea (I'm sure I've said that before!) I'm looking forward to seeing your pairings. I would love to do it, but I just don't have enough sock yarn. I hope you're going to post yarn photos so we can ooh and ahh over them!

    And hoping the family is all better now!

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  8. 500 skeins???? Seriously--that sounds like heaven to me! Looking forward to seeing what gets paired with what. Feel better!
    *smiles*

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