Saltwater Purls

To Fall Like Lucifer Fell...

Lucifer in latin means light bearer (from lux, lucis, "light", and ferre, "to bear, bring") and was the roman term for the morning star (planet Venus). Venus (Lucifer) is the brightest object in the sky after the Sun and the Moon. As bright and as brilliant as it is, ancient people couldn't understand why they couldn't see it at midnight like the outer planets, or during midday, like the Sun and Moon. Myths about Lucifer being cast out from Heaven may have been invented to explain this. Lucifer shone so brightly so to take over the thrones of Saturn and Jupiter, both of which more important planetary deities. Christian thought derived from this interpretation that Lucifer is a fallen angel (or Satan). In Christian literature and legend, Lucifer is generally considered to have been a prominent archangel in heaven. Lucifer had been motivated by pride to lead a revolution against God. When the rebellion failed, Lucifer was cast out of heaven, along with a third of the heavenly host, and came to reside in the world.

This is all well and good but what does it have to do with stash. Well I have fallen off my yarn diet so dramatically that it can only be viewed as truely catastrophic in my attempts to reduce stash. However, the yarn is so beautiful that I can only see it as a blaze of beauty as we all crash headlong down to Earth. Blame the hormones, blame the winter sales, blame the fact I am an unashamed Rowan _____ (insert word meaning loose woman). What has arrived at Casa Saltwater Purls...
A new hoard of Rowan Kid Silk Haze to fill the hole left by Ombre (who knew there would be such a hole). 1/2 price no less.
Elsabeth Lavold Hempathy at a ridiculous price
Diakeito Diacosta, also 1/2 price for this expensive, relatively rare yarn.
Louet Euroflax Originals....yummy colours in pure linen at a very very low price.
Cherry Tree Hill Possum Lace in Wild Cherry, discontinued and rare at a good price....my own lace ribbon scarf-to-be. There are a couple more stash and library enhancements that will be mentioned in later posts but my camera refuses to focus (must be the brightness) so I'll stop here

Woman over-rationalizes...

stash grows as a consequence.

So I have been attempting to reduce my stash by knitting at least two garments out of my stash for every garments worth of yarn brought...rather than the other way around which has been the business as usual policy around here. I have been fairly successful so far... re: Emily, Lydia, Ogee Tunic, Finlays hat... although I did purchase the yarn for Jane Origami Pullover (as it was the only way to get the pattern)...so I figured I could buy the yarn for a new project...Amory out of Kim Hargreaves new book...at Artfibers in San Francisco. I picked out the yarn and everything before I went. Rush is a cotton yarn so I won't be knitting this until the spring. Out of sight out of mind.

I got an email from Touch yarns on Friday saying they had misplaced my order and did I still want it? Well no because Knitaround has it. Furthermore I have a 20% card waiting for me at the store ... and I have been fairly successful so far with my new stash rules... re: Emily, Lydia, Ogee Tunic, Finlays hat... so I figured I could buy the yarn for a new project... Bubble sweater from Knitting Nature...using Malabrigo which I've seen made into several gorjuss bubble sweaters. I picked a lovely maroon shade and added it to the basket with the Touch bunny wool and ....hmmm it's the same colour (don't forget I'm knitting Emily in maroon too).

So I went back and traded it for a pretty dark brown, lavendar shade. To my purchase I added the latest Rowan magazine...more about that later.  It wasn't until I got home I realised I had A) broken my stash rule and B) purchsed the same colour as the Rush cotton.

Off the wagon

Well its been almost a year (almost except for the sale yarn from Vancouver) since I added to my stash and I have knitted out of my stash a little...Lydia, Ogee, Wicked, Starbright, Center Cable. I have almost finished Lydia (I'm on the ties right now), so I decided to get the handmaiden kit I've been oogling for a while...the Jane Origami Pullover designed by Perle Grey.
The yarn is called Ottawa and the colourway is vineyard nightfall. The only downside is that the pattern has two sizes s/m and m/l, and nowhere does it say what that means. On one site it said  s/m was a 6-10 and m/l was a 12-14 but there is no measurement on the schematic or bust size suggestion.  have emailed Perle Grey to get an answer to this question...I'll keep you posted. In the meantime I have not cast on.

The other purchase was for Tussie Mussie. I unfortunately made a little error on the gauge thinking that this cardy was in 4ply and so I purchased some RYC 4ply cashsoft on sale in colourway deep. Actually wool cotton is more like dk weight. So my question is...do I do the math and make it in 4ply anyway? do I not make Tussie Mussie and fnd another 4 ply pattern? Or do I add to the 4ply with another yarn and aim for the wool cotton gauge.

Ungrateful stash grabber

...why that would be me because I took up the offer of stash and have not blogged about it. Right now seems like a good time as I have just submitted the Chumash manuscript to Science...and all the work that it has taken to get the manuscript to that point,  the fact it could be returned to me faster than a boomarang makes me feel ill.

Kate sent out a message to all A2 knitters that she was off loading some stash...Dale of Norway to be precise. At first I though about continuing the pattern she had started for her husband...for my hubby...but then I came to my senses. What if the yarn was cursed by the pattern! Besides which there was a pattern I would like to make for myself...this one. What I would like to do is dye the white yarn with a dusky mauve. I think the mauve and brown would go great together. The green would make a great highlight and I can afford to by one other colour I think...maybe a dark purple or another green or even a lighter pink. So hmmmm dyeing....Lynn suggested we could all go to Annes house and have a dyeing party...

Following the Rules

Stash Rules for 2007: No yarn buying unless it is to complete a sweater ('stewing in the stash'). At the LYS winter sale I followed these rules. I picked a couple of balls of Rowan Tapestry to add to some Cascade already brewing for a sweater for hubby. I plan to make Viktor from Rowan #40 except using the Cascade in place of the Tapestry and the Tapestry instead of the Kid Classic.

The second purchase was another ball of Rowan Calmer in Kahki to add to the left over balls from the Dread Sweater. I plan to make a raglan sweater like the sweetheart one I made at Xmas except that this one will have a star on its belly like a sneetche.

Stash rules for 2007

How do you know there has been a party in your stash and you weren't invited? 'I'm a little teapot' was frogged this weekend (in a UFO frenzy...how do you reduce your UFO....frog them!). I only got 1/2 way through the great disentanglement of mohair and angora, when I gave up for the night. This is what I found in the morning. I still love the magic fabric the two yarns were making together, but I had to admit I would never wear the teapot cozy...and alas together the two yarns make one extremely warm object...but I haven't given up, maybe a shoulder throw?

I need stash rules for this year too, as the stash has gotten somewhat out of hand (that's only the part of my stash you can see that will rapidly become something...rapidly meaning in the next few years) and I am broke. Of course I am not the first to land in this predicament or the first to decide to do something about it. Luckily for me someone has already come up with this idea...Knit from your stash 2007...and as I did not announce before today my January indiscretion does not count. The rules also allow me to game the system and make use of the LYSs winter sale where I plan to get some Rowan Tapestry and Rowan Calmer to complete sweaters for my husband and child that I have not yet started.

Did I mention an indiscretion? Well I had a panic that I would run out of Noro Aurora for Cutaway and the Webs sale was on and Aurora was further reduced and fast disappearing before my eyes. When they were down to the last 6 balls I broke down and ordered two more balls just in case...and some more yarn that I eyed earlier and resisted but was now also further reduced. Namely some Rowan Chunky Print for Blackberry and some Rowan All Seasons Cotton for Duel from Rowan Babies.

From the whine cellar

Oh my woes are great indeed...I have too much creativity swirling around my head and not enough time. I am completely frustrated that my present knitting projects, Anya and Chunky Cables, were not finished like yesterday so I can burn through my stash and make more! The ideas for sweaters out of my stash are like a landslide waiting to happen. What happens if I run out of yarn when the idea finally sees the light of day, and its been so long since I brought the yarn that it has been discontinued!!! Horror...

Take this green Adrienne Vittadini for example. Originally purchased for a generous A-frame sweater to be made for my pregnant body. I did not take into account that at least in the first trimester  I would be more interested in hurling  than knitting. Now I would like to make center cable from Adrienne Vittadini Fall 2005, but the pattern calls for 19 balls and I can only find 15...fortunately this yarn is still manufactured but for how long? Panic!

This yarn was purchased to make Gloria, but after making one sleeve I decided I hated the garter stitch, the gauge was way off and I ripped it. Now I would like to use it for another Chicknits sweater (Scoop de Jour) and play with the colours. Again I wonder if I will have enough Noro silk garden in that colourway. Can I start this now? It should be mindless knitting... hang on a gosh-darn-minute I am already knitting one aran weight sweater and I need to wait for the needles...

This is a recent stash enhancement. I have been trying to stay on a yarn diet, and in the sense I had 4 sweaters worth of yarn in the shopping cart and deleted back to one, I have been successful. In the sense of reducing stash I haven't as I have completed 2 sweaters (Eva and Adriann) recently but also purchased 2 sweaters worth of yarn (this indiscretion and Chunky Cable). This is a Noro yarn in DK weight called Aurora. I originally thought it had tinsel running through it but actually it is an iridescent strand. I'm not too sure about that... Anyway I was thinking about Chicknits Cutaway but now am now leaning toward a free Rowan pattern for a jacket called Hardy. And then there is stash I haven't shown you...my Kid Classic in colourway crushed velvet....some 4ply from Elan in a maroon heather...some Zara in a grey lavender...some Jo Sharp DK wool.....can you hear the rumbling of the landslide....

I know I said...but I lied...

I know I said I would me Anya next, but I lied. See Bonnie-Marie just created a super cute new cardy, and there is a KAL. Sooo I joined. I pulled some balls of Merlin Camelot by Louet Sales from my stash. Its 70% wool, 30% linen, 3 strands, one purple (of course), one black and the linen in grey. I think the linen should make it drape nicely and give the eyelets definition. But I can't swatch it until I finish Eva...which I should do tonight (hah but not sew it up of course...no that will have to wait until the weekend).

I was very proud of myself yesterday I totally resisted the urge to purchase some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk off Elann...I had my finger on the purchase button and I backed away. I know the yarn is very soft and doesn't wear well and I although I like Lara as a design I think I would be bored silly making it....and even at 50% off it is an expensve yarn. As well, even if I hadn't jumped onto Ariann bandwagon, I have another project bursting out of the sidelines as well. When I was back in NZ I picked up some Naturally NZ Harmony 10 ply for this delicious cabley sweater from the most recent Vogue. It's a strange yarn...single ply and then felted, so it is extremely lightweight. The colours were all natural I was torn but ended up with the dark grey like the Vogue sweater because I think it will be the most versitile colour.

Falling off the Wagon

There is a lot of effort right now in the knitting blogosphere to not acquire STASH or in some cases (like mine) SABLE (Stash Acquisition Beyond Life Expectancy). Sometimes I think I enjoy the existence of my stash more than I enjoy knitting it. When the yarn is in balls it has so much potential, so many possibilities, colour combinations, fashion statements, creative expressions. Sometimes I like to pull out my patterns or my stash and just imagine. When I finally knit some stash the process is fairly random. I'm a process knitter so I'm not thinking about whether I will wear the outcome or want the outcome more than any other sweater known to human kind. So where am I going with this...I'm soooo off the wagon right now (admittedly I brought no yarn for less than 50% off).

GGH Samoa, 10 balls, Online Linnie City, 8 balls, Rowan Soft Lux, 10 balls, Collinette Giotto, 1 ball, Online Linnie Summertime, what you see for a cute sweater for Finn

Splash your stash....

....or as my husband said 'you should be thankful I gave you something to blog about'. well actually I have things to blog about but I need the time to photograph them...

We did the Finlay trade off at 4pm today...I stayed late to meet with students. about 6.30pm one of my students popped her head in to warn me to head home soon as a severe thunderstorm was heading our way very shortly. So I called Hubby up for a lift home...we did not make it home before the storm hit He swore that had he not been called out he would have noticed and fixed the problem before it happened...the problem? Someone who will remain nameless (although he is male and over 6 feet) opened up (opened up wide) the north facing window over my stash baskets...where I display my most precious and beautiful yarn in their colour spectrum (bags...did you say plastic bags...but that would be no fun). Our storms all come from the north...vertical rain from the north... vertical torrential rain from the north...I can tell you that kid crack does not absorb water as fast as calmer does if you're interested...