Stash Appreciation: Tosh Merino Light in Tart

I've been on a total Madelinetosh kick lately.  She is such a genius with colors, especially the very saturated and the very subtle.  This skein of Tosh Merino Light is in the colorway Tart, a deep red with undertones of black.  Stunning.  I haven't decided yet what this will be, but I have a feeling it will end up as a shawlette or cowl.  Something close to the face, to show off that gorgeous color.

And my Fashion School Blows My Mind moment of the day: today I learned how to place darts in a bodice using pencil, paper and a gluestick.  Woah.

Stash Appreciation: Knitting Notions Classic Merino Superwash

This gorgeous colorway of Knitting Notions's superwash sock yarn, called Apple Green, is a skein that I picked up during last year's Great Lakes Fiber Festival down in Wooster.  I think it's destined to become one of Cookie A's off-the-grid socks, probably Pointelle (rav link).  I love the way she combined the diagonal travelling motifs and the lacy elements, and I think the light tonal variation of this yarn would make the pattern pop.

Plus, I really need to make an effort to be a product knitter for a while - another pair of socks bit the dust yesterday!  Now, to let go of my ridiculous inability to finish anything that isn't just right, or get distracted by shiny Estonian lace.  Right now my sock drawer could really use a boost.

And, luckily these stash photos are getting double usage: as I may or may not have already mentioned, I've begun the process of photographing and cataloging all of my yarn stash on Ravelry.

I'll say that again to let it sink in, for my own benefit.

All of my stash.  All of my stash.  All of my stash.  All of my stash.

That is... a lot of yarn, guys.

Holy cheeseballs, I think I need a paper bag to hyperventilate into.

Pointelle photo copyright Laura Kicey

Stash Appreciation: Tosh Sock in Coral

Stash: Madelinetosh Tosh Sock.  I now have four or five skeins of this in my stash, and I love all of them as madly as the last.  This cutie, the colorway of which is called Coral but reads much like a Grapefruit to me, was bought during one of my yarn excursions in Ohio.  I haven't yet decided what it will be, but I think whatever it is, it needs to be close to my face.

So the last couple of days have been insane!  Yesterday I went on a little bit of a Goodwill binge, although the lovely thing about Goodwill binges is that they end up costing you like seventy dollars for four really awesome items, and then you don't have to feel quite so bad.  Today, I went out with the Lumberjack and his mom to get him some semi-formal clothes for an interview tomorrow.  Godspeed, Lumberjack!  And now it's time for me to go to bed, so I can get up early tomorrow to give a practice SAT exam to a bunch of munchkins (I mean high schoolers).  It's times like these that I'm grateful to be out of my standardized testing days.

So, onward ho! - and all of that.

Stash Appreciation: Creatively Dyed Beaches

I picked up this skein of gorgeous one-ply fingering weight at the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio, from Creatively Dyed yarns.  My mom and I have gone to this show two years in a row, and although I'm not sure I'll be able to make it next year since I'm no longer living in the area, I'll definitely keep my eye out for this dyer at other fiber fests!  Her entire booth is stuffed with gorgeous yarns - some Wollmeise-esque in their depth and color saturation; others splatter dyed; others, like this gem, in tonal variegated colors.

I was completely overwhelmed at the booth until I saw this skein.  It reminds me a lot of the cashmere I used to make Miralda, which is probably why I was initially drawn to it.  I tend to underbuy pinks because I think I already have a ton in my stash, which leads to overbuying purples and greens because I think I don't have any of those, what with the copious amounts of pink and all.  This one is a droolworthy mixture of vibrant and pale pinks with some subtle violets thrown in.  Overall the color is a little cooler than it appears in these photos.

I'm not sure yet what this skein will become.  A lot of my skeins from festival dyers seem almost too special to knit, so they sit looking pretty in my stash for a long time.  Anybody else have that problem?  Something is so gorgeous and coveted that knitting it up almost seems like wasting it?

In any case, who are we kidding.  This is totally going to become lace.  What type of lace?  Only time will tell.

Stash Appreciation: Tosh Sock Amber Trinket

So my mom went to San Francisco for a conference this last weekend, and when she picked me up from work on Tuesday, she gave me a souvenir present of Tosh Sock in the colorway Amber Trinket.  This color is crazy-deep - purple at first glance, with undertones of amber, green, orange, and pink in the light.  It's seriously pretty.

Now I just have to find the appropriate pattern for it.  I've been drooling over a lot of books lately, particularly Around the World in Knitted Socks and Sock Knitting Master Class.  I can think of a couple of twisted-stitch socks from Sock Knitting Master Class that would look awesome.  Alternately, maybe one of Glenna C's gorgeous sock patterns would be best.  Hmm.  Hmmm.  Hmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Thoughts?

Stash Appreciation: Pigeonroof Studios

So remember how I said I was going to pick up a skein of Pigeonroof Studios?  Well, I'm super speedy!  I got this skein of cashmere/merino/nylon fingering weight yesterday.

I was thinking about getting one of the semisolid colors, which have a beautiful depth.  But what I really love about Pigeonroof Studios is her ability to combine colors - all of her colorways are a touch gothic, blended like watercolors, and often consist of shades that you wouldn't ordinarily combine but end up looking gorgeous.

I don't know if these will become socks.  I think this yarn would look awesome in garter stitch, so I might have to find something with simple lace and garter.  The yardage is a little skimpy - 380 yards - because of the cashmere content, but I'm sure I can find something. 

The last few days have been really great - Lumberjack and I have been hanging out with one of my good friends and her boyfriend, hanging out at a really cool coffee shop in New Haven, and taking naps in the middle of the day - basically the perfect vacation.  Saturday we went to New York to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met, which was breathtaking.  It was really great to see the sheer breadth of his creativity.  All of the clothes were intricate, hand-beaded, intellectualized and yet still beautiful.  The world has lost a genius, but he left an incredible legacy behind him.

Stash Appreciation: I Just Finished College Edition

Yesterday night around 7 pm, I finished the last final of my college career.  It's been a long four years, and I've learned more than I ever thought possible.  I'm proud to have been an Oberlin student.  It's afforded me incredible opportunities: chemistry research, a textiles conservation internship, study abroad in Japan, and the confidence to consider myself well-versed in Japanese history, art history, language and culture.

All that said, I am so looking forward to knitting and sleeping all day for the next three weeks.  A fiber festival, graduation, some quality time with my family, and a trip to New Haven to visit my good friend Emily are all coming up in the next week and a half, and I'm really excited to hang out and enjoy myself for the first time in months.

And what better way to celebrate than with yarn?  I bought these two colorways of gorgeous Mirasol alpaca blend last week, when it was 25% off at my LYS.  The two skeins of grey are 800 yards of Jade Sapphire for a commission, although I also have to admit that I already have 2 skeins of it in my stash, and the reason they ordered the color at my LYS was by my recommendation.  This yarn is truly silver: the shine of the silk and the soft grey of the yarn combine to give an ineffable delicacy.  I can't wait to knit with it.

The blue and the purple are slated to become big, chunky, cowl-like creations.  I haven't decided yet what patterns to use, but I do know that I want this stuff as close to my face as possible.

Ahh.  It's nice to finally get back to the important things in life: yarn.

Stash Appreciation: Jade Sapphire Seeing Red

So I have a confession.

I love my stash.  I love every skein of cashmere, every scrap of merino and silk and camel and bamboo and mohair.  If one were to make a scientific study of my stash, they would see that I gravitate towards skinny yarns: my sock and laceweight stash is almost as big as my larger-weight stash.  In terms of actual yardage or number of skeins, there might be more.  I love knitting socks, and I love knitting lace, which is funny because they are so different in their usage.  Socks you can wear the minute you weave in all the ends, and wear until they have holes in the toes and heels from love.  Lace, on the other hand, is more work-intensive to care for, more valuable.  I wear my shawls every day, but I wear them with a sort of care only afforded to the most important pieces in my wardrobe.  You won't see my lace going to the washing machine, ever.  And yet they share the same space on my shelves of stash, and I look at them with the same yarn-lust in my eyes.

And if I ever really, really take a step back to look at my stash, I will find that there is almost nothing in it that I don't love.  I have stories from almost all of my yarn, from trips and people and times in my life that I can remember by making something wooly out of them.  Some things are best kept in the skein until the right moment has come along to use them.  And whenever I add something new, I undoubtedly love it just as much as everything else in my stash.  Some days I have a hard time deciding what to knit because I want to knit it all, right now.

On that note, Smith's got in six colors of glorious Jade Sapphire this week.  I bought three skeins of a deep, ruby colored silk/cashmere 2-ply, colorway Seeing Red, for a large shawl, despite the fact that I have five more skeins of the stuff in my stash already.  My love for Jade Sapphire is deep and abiding -  it's one of my favorite yarns ever, and this color is unlike any I've seen before: it's the perfect red, unphotographable in its luminosity.

I haven't decided what to make with it yet.  But just having it is good enough for now.  Because in the end, that's why I love my stash: it's full of possibility and beauty just as it is, and knitting it up doesn't increase or subtract from its beauty, it just changes its form.

Happy Friday, everybody!

Stash Appreciation: Socks That Rock Waterlilies

The sun finally came out today.  So far this week has been a mixture of small blessings and failures: I registered for Sock Summit; my $80 computer charger broke after only 9 months of use; my favorite yarn came in to my LYS in a brilliant red, which I promptly bought; I've felt like crap from allergies and headaches and cramps.

Apologies for the sporadic posting - finals are in a scant two weeks, so I've been running around trying to prepare myself.  As usual, it's much harder to motivate when I'm nineteen days away from graduation.  I'd much rather sit in my LYS, play Kings with my friends who aren't graduating this year, lie in the grass, pack my boxes, and say my long goodbye to the place and people I've called home for the last four years.

But onto the yarn: this is Socks that Rock Lightweight in the colorway Waterlilies, slated to become the adorable Breaking Hearts socks by Cristi aka Turtlegirl76, who takes awesome pictures of her kitties along with her yarn and projects.

I picked this skein up at Tricoter out in Seattle last August.  I have this problem that whenever I go to Tricoter, I always end up buying either Socks that Rock or Handmaiden yarn!  I like to support my LYS here in Ohio, so I don't usually get my staple yarns from Tricoter, but I can always count on them for a luxury skein or two.  I also bought the Handmaiden Seasilk I used for Swallowtail at Tricoter.

I love this colorway of STR.  I had a waterlily-themed room when I was little that my mom decorated for me, and I have more than a little soft spot for pink, so this skein called out to me from the basket.  I like that it reflects a lot of the colors in Oberlin right now: the pink of the magnolias, white clouds, yellow-green buds.

Come on, spring.  Just a little while longer and I can enjoy you for real.

Stash Appreciation: Tosh Vintage

Along with the Madelinetosh Merino Light, I also got a couple other things, including this skein of Tosh Vintage.  I'm a sucker for pale pinks, especially when they're as perfect as this one.  I've seen a lot of really gorgeous projects on Ravelry out of Vintage, so I thought I'd try it out.  I usually buy fingering weight when just buying one skein of something, but the combination of the weight and color of this really drew me.

I like that even though it's a heavier weight, it has that lovely squishiness imparted by the twist, very similar to Tosh Sock, which I've used before and enjoyed.

I think it's destined to become a little bow scarf, the anthro-inspired scarflet on Ravelry, that will be great little accent piece.

Stash Appreciation: Madelinetosh, Tosh Merino Light

About a week ago, I went to River Colors with the Lumberjack and my friend Ondrea.  I did some serious yarny damage: four skeins of Tosh Merino Light to make Pas De Valse.



I've been drooling over this sweater ever since it came out in Twist Collective.  I have a grey cardigan with waffley fabric from the Gap that I wear constantly, and this sweater has a similar shape, but I imagine it will be a lot nicer.  I like how versatile the design is - it can be worn open, pinned in a variety of ways, or belted.

With its lovely halo, gorgeous color, and ridiculous softness, I think the Tosh Merino Light will be the perfect pairing of yarn with the pattern.  I'm hoping to swatch tonight.

Even though the colorway is Blue Gingham, this color really reminds me of Wedgewood blue.  So pretty.  I can't wait to work with it.

Pas de Valse photograph belongs to Twist Collective/Marnie MacLean