Cold Sheep, Warm Sheep? The one where Rizza rambles about everything.

I started this blog as a way to keep myself accountable while cold sheeping. I set up rules, which were:

• A vast majority of my stash is used up
• Yet another person I know gets pregnant 
• Vivid Fiber Arts stocks a color I love

So, nobody else is pregnant yet and I have not used up a significant chunk of my stash at all. However, Vivid Fiber Arts stocked a color that I needed. NEEDED. Look at this! I had to. It's perfect. Maybe it will one day become my kryptonite, Renaissance Fan. It will. It has to.

I also had a moment of weakness once I saw that Madeline Tosh has a box subscription, so I signed up for the three month club. I've always wanted to try a yarn box, but I'm internally terrified at the idea of getting mystery yarn. With this club, at least whatever I'm getting is Madeline Tosh (which happens to be my favorite yarn ever). If I like the club, I may eventually branch out into other yarn clubs, but I hate making socks. What else do you make with ONE skein? Maybe I have to find *that* sock pattern that works for me. Decisions...

Speaking of socks, I stopped by Knitty City over the weekend and picked up some 9" circs to try and get my socks done faster. They've been WIPs for months and I never really worked on them. I love the yarn, I love the stripes, but I 'm not feeling the socks themselves. Oh well.

I've recently discovered knitting podcasts on YouTube and I fell down a rabbit hole. Hard. I'm still down there. In zero particular order of the podcasts I've started to watch:

• The Yarn Hoarder - I want to roll around in her stash. It's amazing.
• Jessica Ruth Knits - Tiny house, a farm! I started watching for the knitting goodness and now I find myself waiting for the last few minutes where she talks about her life and tiny house living which is super, super interesting.
• Mean Girls Knit - I feel like we'd be friends in "real" life.

While watching all of these, I've noticed that Stephen West is REALLY popular. So I went to look at his patterns, and I decided on Glacier Sweep for my first West Knit. It looks like a nice intro to Stephen shawl, and I think I have enough Tosh Merino Light in 79th Street Sunset to do it. As of now I'm on the last section and I still have a whole skein left, so I should be okay. This last section is gigantic, though. After the shawl is done, I'll probably hop on the Exploration Station train extremely late.

Since the last time I've posted, I finished my first sweater ever! I knitted up Ease, which was a great pattern. Super easy and it knit up quick. The sleeves seemed baggy, but hopefully that'll work itself out after it's done drying. I actually have no idea how to even block a sweater, so I'm hoping that it comes out okay.

Next on my quest to use up all the stash, I'm knitting up a Ten Stitch Twist blanket to use up my obscene amount of Bernat Blanket that I bought well over a year ago (SEVEN balls! The big ones! What was I thinking?!) The pattern itself is a nice simple knit, great for Netflix binging (let's be real, knitting podcast binging).

So as of now the plan is: finish Glacier Sweep, finish Ten Stitch Twist, work on Fox and the Grapes. Will that happen in that order? Let's attempt it.

Current works in progress:

• Catskill Mountain Shawl 
• Fox and the Grapes Shawl 
• Striped Socks 
• Glacier Sweep
• Ten Stitch Twist

Finished Objects:

• ABC Baby Blanket  Completed 1/27/17
• Ease Completed 2/2/17

Acquired:

Nothing until my packages arrive! Success?



I don't have any pictures this time around, so here's Odin trying to prevent me from going to work:

First FO of 2017

So, first thing's first.  I finished the baby blanket!  This took me a little over a month, which is actually pretty good when it comes to baby blankets (for me, anyway).  By finished, I of course mean I still need to block and weave in the ends.  The pattern was super easy, and, bonus, it's free!  At first, I was turned off because of the charts, but they make a lot of sense in this case.  (I hate charts.  HATE. Charts.)

Look at this work of art!

I used KnitPicks Brava Worsted in Lady Slipper.  The actual color is far more purple than the image above is letting on.  The yarn is 100% premium acrylic 218 yards/100 grams.  Generally I run far, far away from acrylic yarn as all I picture is SuperSaver.  I can feel the scratchiness thinking about it. Brava is super squishy and soft - I was happily surprised.  I would use this again if I had anything that called for a worsted weight yarn that needs to take a beating.

With the baby blanket complete, I can finally work on my schweater again!  This is Ease by Alicia Plummer.  It's a paid pattern ($6.50) and the pattern is simple and easy to follow.  I used size 9s for the body and sleeves and 6s for the body ribbing.  I tried the 10s the pattern calls for, but it was way too large.  Luckily, my darling boyfriend pointed that out, because I like to live on the wild side and not do a gauge swatch.  As of today, I've finished the right sleeve and I'm working on the left sleeve as I write this.  Hopefully, I can update this blog again soon with Ease as a FO.

I'm making Ease out of  KnitPicks Preciosa Tonal Worsted in Panther.  It's a worsted weight 100% merino wool 273 yards/100 grams.  It is so, so soft.  I'm in love with it's softiness.  It's advertised as a tonal but it's sort of a striping yarn between dark gray and black.  This doesn't bother me at all, but there is some color pooling right in the front of the sweater.

Current works in progress:

• Ease 
• Catskill Mountain Shawl 
• Fox and the Grapes Shawl 
• Striped Socks 

Finished Objects:

• ABC Baby Blanket   Completed 1/27/17

Acquired:

Nothing! Success!