Stimulating the economy.

I certainly did my part last week. Other than swap goodies, I also went on a shopping trip extravaganza down south. First stop: Wollmeise summer sale. I really was a picture of restraint; the plan was to get two or three skeins.

The colours are really much brighter but hard to photograph.

From what I gathered, it's important to know which colourways you have. I haven't really checked, I just call them Shiny 1 and Shiny 2. Or the green one and the blue one. Really, if you only have two skeins, a nominal system isn't necessary. So now I know what that particular craze is about. Kind of. The lace was pretty tempting as well, I figure I'll try to get a skein of that once I'm finally able to make cardigans that fit. There was a whole shelf of some lovely lavender sockweight as well, but I just keep chanting "stick to colours you'll wear" over and over. Well, not out loud, just in my head - I'm not that crazy. Same for the very colourful skeins. "Yes, it looks lovely in the skein, but will it still do as a scarf?" So I went for a very subtle semi-solid and a slightly more colourful skein to test the waters. It's odd, it feels both very underwhelming (because by definition, if *I* was able to aquire it, it can't be that terribly rare or special) and daunting (you need to think of something extra special for these immensely precious treasures) to have they laying around. Also, it's the most expensive yarn I've ever bought. Don't get me wrong, 13€/150g is good value for money, especially for handdyed yarn on what feels like a very high-quality base. It's certainly crazy cheap for such a popular product.

Since it wasn't a huge detour, I also visited the Buttinette store on my way back. Last time I was there with my mom for a birthday present and I forgot half the stuff I wanted to buy. So this time I had a list with article numbers and everything. It'd probably have been cheaper without, despite the many bargains they have.

I got some fabric, party swap related - I especially love the dark green one at the bottom. I found it at the bottom of the leftovers bin and it has lovely drape. I'm worried the crappy sewing machine won't be able to handle it though. Also some embroidery thread and a hoop. No, I don't know how to embroider - yet. If my mantra in the Wollmeise shop was to stick to my favourite colours, here it should have been to stick to crafts I know and have the necessary equipment for. Which really only leaves knitting. I got a skein of Opal Regenwald in Caterpillar (did I mention I love the Regenwald line?) and Addi lace circs in 2,0. Yay! Can't wait to try them out. Finally some fabric paint and plastic buttons so I can have matching buttons for that cardigan I shall knit someday which will actually fit.

All in all, a very successful trip and certainly a good investment of my birthday money.

Handspun Hat.

I'm currently busy with my first swap, so there hasn't been a lot of other knitting this month so far. I did finally get around to using my own handspun in a project though.
I used the very first yarn I ever made, which presented two challenges: There wasn't a whole lot of it, and it was really uneven and bulky. I'm not good at bulky, I never know what to do with it. A hat seemed a logical choice though, because it requires very little yardage and you can adjust the size if it turns out there isn't enough. It still took a bit of trial and error and playing with different patterns, but here we are:

Shiny!

Seriously, taking a photo of my own head was almost as difficult as knitting the thing. I've never had a MySpace, so never perfected the art of taking photos of myself from slightly above (duck-lips optional).
I started out with the idea that somehow, lace and eyelets were a good way of saving yarn, which is very much not true. What does work though is knitting with a larger needle size. This hat was done on 4,5 needles, which is the biggest I own.

In the end, it became a very simple top-down stockinette hat, no pattern and no fancy bits. Surprisingly, I like it quite a lot. I used up every last bit and it fits perfectly. Surely, that's a sign that I should keep it for myself!

After a half-hearted attempt at blocking - how do you actually block a hat? - the stitch definition is not that bad and it's certainly not as uneven as by rights it should be with such a thick-thin yarn.

My only concern is that after that first blocking, the hat took almost three days to dry. So probably not a good hat for rainy weather, but we'll see how it goes. It might be fine as long as it isn't soaked completely.

Taking Stock.

I'm currently in the rare position where all the stuff I own is in the same place. I also feel there's too much of it. That also goes for my stash, although I realize it is tiny compared to a lot of people. Still, it was time to take stock. As of yesterday, I own 7.3 kg of yarn and fibre. It's not as much as I'd feared, but it's still a lot. This lot:

Click on image for bigger view.

On the left: Fibre, reclaimed yarn and a bit of Tshirt yarn.
In the middle: Sock yarn on top and inherited acrylic in the bottom. I've already knit up a lot of the acrylic, especially really small amounts, for some charity-ish baby clothing.
On the right: Assorted other yarn on top and cotton bits in the bottom. The huge white cone is crochet thread I'd like to make shawls of and dye them. The orange cone is the still very much unfinished Dragon of Happiness. That one alone is more than a kilo...

I can't remember the site, but I recently read another blog with a neat system of stash reduction: 2:1 - for every 200 grams used up you're allowed to buy 100 gram. I think I'll stick to that, roughly. Except for next week, when I reaaaaally want to visit the Wollmeise summer sale. I'm not a fan (yet), I'm just curious. I already have a couple of pattern ideas if I end up buying a skein or two.