The End of April

It's been a mad month with snow storms and heavy rains, muggy and hot one day and freezing cold the next! But we've been busy here in Buffalo, knitting the month away. Here are just some of the things I've accomplished this month:

I knit half a dozen dish cloths, some oven mitts (to be felted later on). I crocheted little face pads for washing my face instead of using cotton pads and I finished my Whisper Cardigan. I'm in love with the cardigan and will be wearing it constantly!

I'm also making good progress on my coldsheeping diet. My End of April/Beginning of May totals are thus:

Current yardage: 29072.93
Total knit: 7663.23

My stash took a BIG jump this month when LoloKnits found a huge shopping cart full of gorgeous hand dyed yarns at a thrift store. We divvied them up. This is what I came home with:

Half of that is roving!! She had even more, I think. I added over 7000 to my total stash! But, such gorgeous stuff, it was completely worth it. We're still hoping to do a craft booth in August, so we're both knitting items for that. Should be fun!

Cheers!

Sereknitty

March Madness

Hi, it's Sereknitty again.

It's been awhile since we posted. We've been slogging through the end of winter, in that weird in between place we call "Sprinter". Lovely and warm one day, snowing and cold the next. It's a time when everybody is a bit crabby. We're all sick of winter and all that it entails: scraping snow and ice off the car, dark long days, winter coats, ice on the roads. Even warm comfort foods. We want fresh veggies from the farmer's market and to peel off a couple layers of clothing. We're almost there, but we can't quite get our hopes up yet. The end of winter always has a few surprises for us.

Everybody has their own way of surviving until Spring. Not surprisingly, I knit. As LoloKnits announced the other day, "Knitting is my default." And that pretty much is all I have been doing every single spare second of my days. As you would expect, I've been getting quite a lot done. Here are a few of my projects:

I knit this adorable giraffe for my boss for her birthday last month

along with some washcloths and a little stuffed duck for baby gifts for a coworker:

I'm also working on a pair of socks for my BIL, two pairs of socks for me, a scarf for a recently retired co-worker, a cozy for my coffee press (it's a KAL!), my second End Paper Mitt, a Holden Shawlette (my first ever lace shawl and a KAL!), and I've nearly finished my Cloisonne Jacket. As you can tell, I am quite busy. I haven't been doing much for our Etsy shop, but I've got some hand-dyed roving that I need to spin up. Since LoloKnits and I are going to have a table at a craft booth in August, I really need to start working on some projects for that. I have several in mind. We'll see how they go. I know she's knit quite a few wash cloths already! I'm just hoping to get a few projects finished soon so I can dedicate more time to that. As I'm not working OT anymore, that gives me more time to knit. And catch up housework. Or knit. :)

I promise to update my Yarn Diet status at the end of the month. Hopefully Cloisonne will be done by then; that'll add quite a bit to my monthly total!

Happy Knitting!

Sereknitty

Yes Virginia, there is a loloknits

Hi! Yes, I am real, SereKnitty's partner in fiber crime. By day, I a radiation scientist in North Buffalo, but one day, I would like to make knitting my full-time gig. I'd also like to have a couple of angora rabbits and try to pass off one of those tiny sheep as my dog....
What's on my needles now? I'm less of my knitting polygamist self and only have 3 things going right now...S and I are both making the Closionne Jacket from the Fall 2010 IK, she in a beautiful brown and turquoise combination (her favourite colours) and mine is a deep purple and mossy colour. I decided to be a bit of a weenie and follow the non-circular, non-steek directions - maybe I regret it? I have the torso and one sleeve done, it shall be done soon! I'm also working on a pair of socks, made to order, no pattern - I'm just knitting, tweaking and hoping it fits. luckily the recipent is around, poor man has to keep trying them on! With the goal of a small craft fair at the end of the summer, I'm starting Washcloth-apalooza 2011! I picked up more sugar n cream plus I have cones of plain cotton from who knows where...add a stitch dictionary and here we go! I've always thought that there is something really lovely about a well-done washcloth. Now that I've finally done the blogging thing, I'll really try to keep making it better.
My quote of the moment: Seeking happiness outside ourselves is like waiting for sunshine in a cave face north. -Tibetan saying
May you alway get gauge,
Loloknits

Keepin' it Honest

Sereknitty here again.

I started my yarn diet like I said I would. I'm going cold sheep (with a few exceptions, of course.)  Here are my current stats:  Yardage:  24359.68.  Yards used: 385.1

This will change, obviously, as I have some yarn coming in the mail that I needed for a sweater (I already had half the yarn so I needed the rest) and as I hope to get a few things off my needles soon. Also, despite my best efforts, I still don't think I've cataloged my entire stash. I know there's more hiding out there!  And there are some random bits I have to figure out. What are they/how much is there, etc. etc. But, the bulk of my stash is accounted for. The goal for this year is to use up 15,000 this year, (And to DEFINITELY use up more than I bring in) and I think I can do it, especially if I can get some felted projects going.

Wish me luck!

Knitting New Year's Resolutions

Sereknitty again!

I decided that this year I need to go on a yarn diet to shrink my stash a bit. It's not that my stash is overly large, it's that it's primarily made up of three things:  sock yarn, kitchen cotton and felting yarn.  Which I guess says a lot about my knitting habits.  I think I figured out today that I have enough sock yarn to make 15-20 pairs of socks.  At least! I want to shrink my stash so I can build it up with other stuff. Like a sweater's worth of Malabrigo, or some really awesome Etsy hand dyes.  Plus, I bought all this yarn with projects in mind, projects that keep getting shoved aside for other things.  I want to get those projects knit!  So, my big New Year's Resolution this year is the Yarn Diet.  But, as with all things, there are some exceptions:

1.  Baby yarn.   Several people in my life are either pregnant, trying to adopt or trying to get pregnant and all those babies need nice things so I'm allowed to buy yarn to make baby gifts. One of my goals this year is to keep one baby item on the needles at all times and to build up a stash of gifts to pull from when necessary.  I want to use stuff from my stash first, but I don't have the yarn to knit a stuffed giraffe or a whole baby blanket and I need to remedy that.
2.  Yarn to finish projects. I have half a sweater's worth of Cascade 220 and I want to get the rest of the yarn I need so I can make the sweater.  If I already have the yarn in my stash and just need to add to it, that's ok.
3.  Knitting Requests/Gifts.  If someone asks me to make them something or if I want to make a gift for someone and I don't have the right yarn in my stash, I'm allowed to buy it.  As long as it's not for myself.
4.  Bare Yarn/Roving to sell. I'm allowed to buy bare yarn to dye or roving to dye/spin.   You know, as soon as I start making any money off our Etsy shop.

I think those are my only exceptions.

Do you have a knitting/fibre related resolution?  I'd love to hear about it!

Etsy Shop a Go-Go!

Sereknitty here!

I have finally managed to find time to get the first items posted to our Etsy shop. More coming, of course, but here are a few teasers:

You can check our our shop at KnitCoreBuffalo.

In other news:  LoloKnits is currently exploring Iceland and hopefully bringing back loads of yarn and pictures of sheep.  And, I got a SPINNING WHEEL for Christmas. It's an Ashford Kiwi:

which my dad was assured by the lovely people at Webs was great for a beginner and a lefty.  It's GORGEOUS and I assembled it ALL BY MYSELF (you can applaud here.) I'm having trouble deciding which hand I want to draft with (which isn't a problem I've ever had with a drop spindle) and keep switching, but it doesn't seem to matter. I think this may be just another lefty evolutionary advantage (like being able to use a mouse or a ten key pad WHILE taking notes. Oh yes!) Either way, my first attempts are spinning on a wheel are turning out gorgeous. I'm using some lovely lovely roving I picked up at the Rhinebeck Sheep & Wool Festival by Gnomespun Yarn (www.gnomespunyarn.com). The colour is called "Mourning Dove" and it's so gorgeous that I don't think I could spin badly enough NOT to make beautiful yarn. If that made any sense.  I can't wait to see how it turns out.

So, that's the news now. I hope LoloKnits will have pictures and stories when she gets back from Iceland next week.  And, coming up soon...KNITTING NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS!

Cheers,

Sereknitty

Post the First

This is Sereknitty here.  So, LoloKnits and I decided to open an Etsy shop.  She wants to sell random bits of lovely she makes, I mostly want to sell the yarn I dye. It's become a bit of an obsession and I can't fund it solely on my salary so I must part with some of my lovelies to make enough money to make more.  Like the shoemaker who only had enough leather for one pair of shoes and sold them and so had enough to make two pairs of shoes.  It's been a long time coming, but we're nearly there.  We have the shop all set up, now it's up to me to actually get some items up for sale (that's my job in this venture).  I just need to survive a certain week-away holiday, what with last minute gift-knitting and present wrapping and oh no I've run out of cards.  Plus, I do feel a bit guilty about sitting and knitting when I've got a MOUNTAIN of dishes in the sink.  As much as I try, I just can't get my cat to do the dishes!!

But tomorrow is our knitting group's yearly holiday party/yarn swap, which is always a fun time.  I might come home with some new yarns and new project ideas; as if I needed more!  So, posting items in our shop is going to have to wait a couple more days. But trust me, it's going to be worth the wait...I hope!