Sheep On My Stuff

I present to you a quickie two-day using-up-the-stash project: SPIRALING PASTELS OF DOOM!

It's 30" x 36" and made of the nicest, softest acrylic I've ever worked with (Dark Horse Fantasy). It took 382 grams, which certainly helps my stash statistics. :)

Hey, speaking of statistics: I said quite a while ago that I was going to try to complete/toss/frog 1.5 projects for every 1 project I started. Now, when I made that goal, I had a closetful of incomplete projects, and I was hoping that I'd use that goal as incentive to stop starting projects and not finishing them. However, at this point I'm down to nine WIPs, two of which will be done by the end of the year, one of which I plan to frog when I get around to it, and two more which may or may not end up frogged. I'd be down to five if all that happens, so it really looks like I've kicked the startitis habit. (No, seriously, that's a perfectly reasonable number of WIPs! It is!)

My current ratio is 102:101 (which rounds off to 1.0:1), and that's counting yarn I bought and stashed (but haven't yet worked with) as "new projects". Without counting that, I'd be at 102:88 (1.2:1). Not bad at all. :)

I was also going to try to knit 2 projects from the stash for every 1 project made out of new yarn. WHICH I HAVE DONE. \o/ My ratio is 2.0 exactly, counting yarn I've bought but haven't used and cross-stitching patterns I've bought but haven't worked (wow, why did I start counting those in the spreadsheet? The yarn, I think counting that is probably the right thing to do, but the cross-stitching?). Without the cross-stitching, my ratio would be 2.6:1. :)

The destashing goal is definitely a better one for my sanity, better for reclaiming closet space, but it's nice to see I wasn't as far off with the original goals as I thought I would be by the end of the year. :)

You remember how I had a Sneaky Sheep in my flock? Here, I'll refresh your memory:

Well, it turns out Sneaky Sheep has been going on missions. So far he's managed to infiltrate the study, while I was raiding Tempest Keep:

...the bathroom, as I was brushing my teeth...

...my bedroom window, as I was going to sleep...

...and now the kitchen cabinets!

(For fun and prizes, find the bonus sheep in each of those pictures. There are eight, plus an "extra".)

I do have other things going! I've been working on shopping bags, and two friends have graciously agreed to help me test a pattern. (It's crochet, requires about 300 yards of not-too-stretchy yarn, and roughly an H hook -- mileage varies.) I'm also working on a shawl project, but it's a gift for someone; as such, I won't be posting pictures of it until it's complete and in the hands of the recipient. :)

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Yarn used: Lily Sugar 'n' Cream Twist, Taupe Twist. Hook size: 5mm.

ÜnterSchëpenFloppen is back, modeling the second of my granny square grocery bags. (The first one is not yet complete.) I've got two bags now, and I definitely like this one better than the first one I did. I hadn't intended to do two of the same pattern, but I realized midway through making the gusset/bottom that I didn't really want one done in a main color/contrasting color; I'd rather have them be the same color throughout. And thus I have two bags! The other one should be easy enough to finish.

I needed something to spice up my crafting life, and I'd been toying with the idea of making some crocheted grocery bags. (Reusable grocery bags are very in around the Seattle area these days.) It happened that I had some Cotton-Ease... in sweater form, but in the form of a sweater I wasn't happy with. I frogged the sweater, reclaimed the yarn, and made this:

Yarn used: Cotton-Ease by Lion Brand. Hook size: 5mm.

It was fun to break the crochet hook out again, but I can't say I love this pattern! Woolo, the sheep modeling it, doesn't mind it nearly so much. :)

The bag I'm more excited about is a granny square bag:

Yarn used: Sugar 'n' Cream Stripes by Lily (with a contrasting color to come). Hook size: 5mm.

It's working up so fast. I'll be done with it tomorrow at the latest, and I'll be able to make more of these easily. I'm quite pleased with how it looks so far, too. :) Meanwhile, ÜnterSchëpenFloppen thinks the yarn looks like Neapolitan ice cream. Mmm... Neapolitan. I haven't had any of that in far too long. Why doesn't Häagen-Dazs make a neapolitan? It'd be so good.

I'm back with three projects to show off! Here we go:

Yarn used: Sugar 'n' Cream cotton in purple. Hook used: I (5mm) by Susan Bates/Boyes).

I like loofas. I use a loofa daily. When I saw the crocheted, cotton bath puff, I thought it was kind of a neat idea. And it was indeed fun to crochet! It also used most of a ball of cotton yarn, which was handy -- I have tons of that put away in various places. But in terms of usability, not so much. It's heavy, doesn't absorb water well, and doesn't lather much. I'll stick with washcloths. Well, really, I'll stick with my loofa, but sometimes I use washcloths when traveling.

The sheep loofa is decorative only. I wouldn't want to risk destroying a SHEEP! by showering with it too often! And no... that isn't the only sheep loofa in my collection.

Yarn used: Wool-Ease Sprinkles in Burgundy Heather. Needles used: 5mm.

Here's another of my "use up the Wool-Ease" projects. This one's a farrow-rib scarf, and I have to say, farrow-rib is becoming one of my favorite stitch patterns. This is probably kid-sized. The knitting part was finished ages ago; it took me about a month to bother sewing in the one remaining yarn end. Oops.

Not-A-Blanket-Either Lamb is happy to be featured on the blog; her twin brother showed up to model the March of Dimes Blanket, but she hadn't gotten a turn in the spotlight lately. :)

Yarn used: Wool-Ease Sportweight in Wheat. Needles used: 3.75mm.

The second Bog Jacket is working up a lot faster than I'd expected! Given that there's an extra 70 stitches on the needle due to the gauge change, I was expecting it to take forever to get to this point. Instead, I've nearly gotten it done up to the armpits, where I then get to do interesting stuff again. The garter's not so bad, though! It gives me something to do while I read, watch movies, and so on.

Beautiful Sheep is happy to be returning, and bleats that she will volunteer to keep modeling Bog Jackets for as long as I keep making them. I'm not sure if that's a vote of confidence or not. *eyes sheep suspiciously*

So I've decided to modify my stashbusting/WIP-completing goal for the year (seen here).

• Old goal: "work or throw out one in-progress project for every two new projects I start"
• New goal: Complete, frog, or throw out 1.5 projects for every 1 project I start.

1.5? Well, it's a ratio, and the point is merely to finish more than I start (rather than to finish only half as much as I start, as was the previous goal, or to finish as many as I start, which is only keeping even). So far, my ratio is 10:13 (or 0.8:1), which is not so great. But I did toss or frog four projects I was never going to complete over the weekend, which bumped up my stats and cleared out one of the secret caches in which I store my stash. Ideally, by the time we hit the midway point for the year, I will have cleared the yarn caches out of every room except the yarn room (which is where the yarn stash belongs), and the yarn room will be clean instead of having yarn piled on the futon.

Don't get me wrong; I love having a stash. But my stash contains a lot of yarn I don't love, and I'd like to be able to rotate out yarn I don't love in favor of yarn I do love. I'd also like it more organized. And, oh yeah, on Ravelry. But a smaller yarn footprint is one step towards all of that (or so I hope), and thus I am going to try to keep completing projects just a little faster than I start them.

It's Trisia again -- and she's back with a finished epic elekk!

Smile for the camera, girls!

Yarn used: Lion Brand Microspun in Lily White, Royal Blue, and (now discontinued) Silver Grey. Hook used: G (4.25mm).

The pattern (as noted last time) is from Lion Brand (registration required), but now that you can see the finished elekk, you can see all my modifications. It's the legs, the tusks, the helmet, saddle, and banners that make her an elekk, and I left off a lot of the detail. Still -- very cute, no?

 Also in the works: a new scarf (same as the old scarf):

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Yarn used: SWS [Soy Wool] from Patons. Needle size: Supposedly 4mm, from Boyes, but it is a LIE. They're closer to 4.25mm.

Last time I posed ÜnterSchëpenfloppen with the scarf; now I'm posing the scarf with FloppenCousin, a close (but larger) relative. The pattern is the same (Farrow Rib), and the colorway is the same (Natural Earth). This scarf is being done by request, and unless someone else I really love wants something made out of this fabric, that's it for me -- it splits even more than Microspun, which is saying something! Still, it's very soft and looks really nice.

Yarn used: The now-discontinued Merino Light in maroon (#8 on the color card). Needles used: US10.5 -- 6.5mm.

Beautiful Sheep bleats hello!  Here's our check-in to see how I'm doing on the Bog Jacket. Answer: Quite well; I'm nearly up to the bit where I split off the arms and add some more stitches to the arms. It stopped being mindless garter when I had to do waist shaping (waist shaping is my friend, since I have a quite large bustline and quite small waist), and I'm sort of sorry for that, as I was enjoying having something I didn't have to look at at all. But it seems to be working out nicely, and the yarn is much, much nicer-looking on 6.5mm needles than it was on 4.5mm needles.

Thursday I hope to have a finished SWS plus a bit of progress on that Bog Jacket.  Maybe something exciting like the arm-dividing bit?  We'll see.

I don't know if I'm still on track for my goal of stash yarn-to-new yarn and new project-to-old project ratios. Certainly not after today.

Yarn used: Microspun by Lion Brand in Silver Grey (now discontinued), Royal Blue, and Lily White. Crochet hook used: G (4.25mm).

The black sheep is Trisia (of New Zealand, courtesy the Russ Berrie Co.!), named for my mage in World of Warcraft. I don't have a sheep named after one of my Draenei, because I have only two -- Teuthida, who is one of my two main characters (and a shaman), and Ovilya, who is a hunter... and L19. And Draenei are so... tentacle-y. They just don't seem like sheep to me.

Anyway, in WoW, Draenei can ride on giant elephant-like creatures called elekks. Teu's elekk has blue accents -- armor plating, really -- on all four legs, head, sides, and back. I'll be posting a screenshot for comparison when I'm done -- and while it may look like I'm done, trust me, I'm not even close!

This project was primarily started to use up the grey Microspun I had remaining (about a ball and a half, and I used about 3/4 of a ball on this -- the grey bits are almost if not completely done). I then realized I had the perfect blue to match Teu's elekk's barding, and thought, "Ooh! I could make it an elekk and not just an elephant!"

...which meant I needed white yarn. Doh. (Put this in both the "stash project" and "new yarn project" piles.)

Anyway, you can't see it in this picture, but he is missing two legs -- they're crocheted, just not attached. He's also missing tusks, a hat-piece, and a saddle. I may or may not add the horns (yes, they have horns as well as tusks) and I doubt I'll get very elaborate with the back and shoulder barding, but we'll see. Tusks, hat, and backpiece, and I'll be happy. I am very pleased with the leg stripes.

It turns out I actually started crocheting before I started knitting, but I seldom do it anymore. But once in a while I see a really cute crochet pattern and must try it out. If you're interested, this one is from the Lion Brand website. You need to register, but once you've done so, you can find the pattern here.

Yarn used: The now-discontinued Merino Light in maroon (#8 on the color card). Needles used: 10 point freaking 5 -- 6.5mm. This feels crazy huge after all the socks.

This next project doesn't look like much in the picture, but that's okay -- it doesn't look like much yet at all! It's a Bog Jacket, from the book pictured. The idea is you take a "square" of fabric and make strategic cuts to make a jacket, but in knitting you can do it without all the messy cutting, and with invisible seams. I started this before, actually, but on size 7 needles. I took a good hard look at the project and decided that the fabric was much too stiff. It's looser now and has much more give to it, plus the yarn is going further, obviously, which is a bonus -- because this is stash yarn (yay) and I've only got 15 (very small put-ups) balls of it. However, I do think I'll make it.

The sheep pictured is named Beautiful Sheep. She's one of the oldest ones in my flock, from Bloomington, Indiana. She's actually made by Gund, as are many of my fine sheep.