How to drive someone crazy from 1100 miles away

03 August 2007

Little half-skeins and what to do with them

I can't stand surprises, so here it is. The cardigan I worked up for Cygknit's new son, Emerson. See? Sporty and preppy.
No, it doesn't have buttons yet. I am going to get some simple plastic buttons to sew on, just to keep everything machine washable. It needs a little blocking, and some ends woven in, as you can see...

This was my first foray into intarsia. I have to admit, I prefer Fair Isle (more fun, more intricate) but I didn't want to drive the poor kid nuts with a pile of snowflakes just yet. It was also my first knitted-on button band. I did 1x1 ribbing, but I think next time I will just try garter.

Yoshi thinks it's cute, too. I may have to make one for him, but you know, a little bigger. There's a huge difference in his chest (46") and Emerson's (16"), so I will have to muster all my strength to deal with the miles and miles of plain, single-color stockinette, not to mention it seems to take at least twenty balls of anything to cover him. I'm so glad there are babies in my life to knit for, and that I can make the smallest size of anything for me. Saves me piles of cash, let me tell you.

Emerson's cardi was a stash dive. I had two balls of Sirdar Snuggly, bought in March when last Mrs. Cygknit had opportunity to grace me with her lovely presence, at about 6 months preggers with Em. I remember picking it up and thinking "that little boy will need something in yellow and navy... I wonder what it is". And then quickly concealing it from her inquisitive eyes. But, I never figured out what it wanted to be. A sudden yen towards making myself a top-down sweater led me to want to practice on something, someone, and how ideal that my little nephew is here now, just perfect for such experimentation.

Of course, I'll have to wing it on the bust darts...

Working from the stash has unexpectedly created a new stash: leftovers.
While this stash is not quite as bulky as its parent stash, it is a bit confounding, because the parent stash is full of hope and plans for the future, and this one is just an odd assortment of who-knows-what. My style dictates that I don't really make the same thing twice (at least not in a row), so I don't really have a great pile of all the same thing from which to create a colorific nightmare. It's a tiny ball of bulky weight, two colors of machine washable DK, some green thick-thin stuff, etc. You get the idea.

If I had a yardage meter, I could at least catalog some of it and turn it into something useful, or trade it on the Knittyboard, or check out my yardage guide and see what baby things I could make. But alas.
What to do with it all? Tiny change purses? That won't get boring after two (note sarcasm). And who needs seventy thousand change purses? I don't know or like enough people to call that a gift-giving opportunity. Besides, who needs a change purse that looks like my giant green sweater thing?

What do you do with all your leftovers?

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wouldn't it be a good idea if the wool winder came with a yardage counter? I wonder why they don't.

Leftovers usually get bagged up and given away. I've given some to Ellen for her grandson and others I've just bagged up and taken to Goodwill.

3:00 PM

 

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