Cross one knitting goal off the list!

Back in January, I decided that this was going to be the year that I learned how to do entrelac. After experimenting with some Garterlac Dishcloths, I moved on to what was the original goal of learning entrelac in the first place, making a ring bearer pillow for my sister's wedding, which I largely based on this pattern. I only have half of it done, but I feel like I can say I know how to do entrelac now, so I felt the need to show it off:





The yarns are Lion Brand Microspun and Patons Brilliant, which I think are working out well together. Now I just have to knit the other half of the pillow. Don't worry; the wedding's not until August!

Flashing my stash

It's that time of year again, time for the annual Flash Your Stash. After reviewing my stash-flashings from last year

and the year before

and comparing them to the current state of my stash,

I have come to the conclusion that I have reached some form of stash equilibrium. Although I bought yarn over the past year, I must have been using up yarn from the stash at about the same rate. Either that, or I have a magical Rubbermaid box that will engulf any amount of yarn.
In the interest of doing something slightly different with my yarn this year, I liberated it from the confines of the Rubbermaid box and went for the ever-popular yarn on the bed shot:

What I've been doing

No, I haven't been winding yarn into balls for the last six months, while I wasn't posting to my blog. I have been doing a lot of it lately, since the husband got me a ball winder for Valentine's Day. Maybe I can make my stash look somewhat presentable for the upcoming Flash Your Stash.

What I've really been doing that has kept me away from my blog is this:



As you may remember, from my sporadic posts, the husband and I were building a house, and we're finally done! Well, not entirely done, but we've moved in, and we're finishing up little things here and there. To see some more recent pictures, click here, and if you want a look at the whole thing from the beginning, click here.

Now that things have settled down on the house-building front, I have actually been getting some knitting done. When we were unpacking some of our possessions (we're not quite done with that yet), I discovered a half-finished Broadripple sock. Amazingly, none of the stitches had fallen off of the needles, and I actually remembered where I was in the pattern. So, I finished that sock, and now I am more than halfway done with its mate.



Also, I have finally jumped on the Clapotis bandwagon. I am making mine out of bamboo yarn from Discontinued Name Brand Yarn. So far, I am enjoying the pattern - I can't wait until I get to start dropping stitches!



Now that life is getting back to normal, I hope to resume many of my usual activities that got put on hold for a while, including posting to my blog!

My summer fling

I know that it's been a very, very long time since I posted, and I'm still really busy, so I probably won't post much for a while, but something has happened that is worthy of breaking my months of silence: I got a package from my Summer Fling SP! I'm still amazed that she packed so many wonderful goodies inside a Priority Mail envelope! I'll start with the non-knitting related items:



There is some really yummy-smelling vanilla lotion, and a box of Good & Plenty (my favorite candy EVER!), posed in front of the adorable card that accompanied all of this. Now, on to the knitting stuff:



Two skeins of KnitPicks Dancing in an awesome colorway, a size 3 circular needle (I really needed circulars in small sizes), and two balls of Plymouth Royal Bamboo (I have been dying to try some bamboo yarn) in a wonderful shade of pink. She also just so happened to include a pattern that I think would be perfect for the bamboo yarn, Stephanie Japel's One Skein Wonder:



And speaking of patterns, there was also the pattern that I have been absolutely coveting for months, Eunny Jang's Deep V Argyle Vest:



I'm so excited! This was my first Secret Pal exchange, and I was so lucky to get such a great pal. Thank you, whoever you are!

Accessorizing

Contrary to what one might gather from my recent posts (or lack thereof), I have actually been doing some knitting over the past few months. Lately, I haven't been very interested in knitting garments; instead, I have been working on smaller projects, accessories mostly. First (although I guess this isn't really knitting), I finished the second of the crocheted fingerless gloves that I showed off in an earlier post.



My husband wasn't home to take a picture of me modeling both of them, so just to prove that there actually are two of them:



I also finished another pair of wrist accessories, Marnie MacLean's Executive Funk. I made these out of a skein of Elsebeth Lavold's Silky Wool that was given to me as a gift.





I had never knit with Silky Wool before, and I have to say that I love this yarn! I am, however, trying to fight my nagging suspicion that because of the color of the yarn, it looks a little bit like I am wearing lettuce leaves around my wrists.

A new experience

On Tuesday night, I did something that I've never done before - I went to a book signing. Debbie Stoller actually included Lincoln on her Happy Hooker book tour, and completely by accident, I managed to find out about the event before it happened. So I am now the proud owner of The Happy Hooker,


and as you can see, it is signed.



Although I was never really drawn to either of the Stich 'N' Bitch knitting books, I do really like this book. Maybe it's because I'm such a newbie crocheter, but there are several patterns in the book that I can't wait to make. In fact, I already started working on the Fat Bottom Bag:



And I have had to repeatedly talk myself out of running out to buy yarn for several more projects. (Going to school + building house = no money...)

Stash-flashing

Well, it's that time of year again...the second annual Flash Your Stash is upon us, and I am dutifully flashing my stash. I am a little bit early, I know, since it's not quite April 1st yet, but I have time to post now, so I'm going to go ahead and do it.

I know that my stash is pretty small compared to some people's stashes (I keep pointing this out to my husband), and I was successfully on a yarn diet for eight months out of the past year, so my stash may very well be even smaller than it was last year. (Check out last year's post if you want to compare.) But I am going to flash it anyway, so here it is:

I keep the bulk of my stash in a Rubbermaid container under my bed:



And here are interior shots of the contents. My one attempt at organization was to divide my stash into acrylics on one side...



and my "nice" yarns on the other.



The remainder of my stash is scattered throughout the apartment as part of various works in progress. Here is my double-knit hat yarn...



my stripey scarf yarn...



and my Tartan Jacket yarn (I'm embarrassed to admit that this project is at exactly the same status as it was at this time last year).



There is also a small portion of my stash that is consumed in projects-to-be-frogged:



(In case you can't tell, that picture is of a hat and a pile of sweater pieces.)

And last, but definitely not least, I proudly present the newest addition to my stash, the kid mohair from my swap with Holly, which arrived in the mail yesterday, just in time to be included in the stash-flashing.



Well, I think I'll go see if there are any other early flashers out there!