One's trash, another's stash...

I was most excited to have the opportunity to increase the ol' stash last week, when my mum dropped by with a couple of bulging shopping bags...

Mum volunteers at a local charity op-shop that happens to be situated next door to a yarn shop, and on the day in question (your Honour!), a lady had gone next door with these bags of leftover yarns - although I'm not entirely certain what she thought the yarn shop were going to do with them - and finding them shut, went to the op-shop and left the bags with mum...

And here are the contents!It's not fabulously clean and not much of it is in complete skeins, but a lot of the colours are quite complementary, and because there's a lot of fancy and interestingly textured yarn I'm seeing the potential for a couple of scarves knit with several yarns at the same time... Should be fun experimenting, at least!I'm not even sure what the smeg it is, or even if it IS able to be spun, but I'm sure I'll have fun trying to find out...

And another op-shop find by my talented mum:
I don't know if this Cleckheaton Panama yarn is even made and sold anymore, these look like pretty well-travelled balls... but it is 100% cotton, and I reckon that once unwound and washed, I could dye them some nice kiddie colours and knit up some comfy cotton tops, especially for Little One (who, for those wondering, is showing NO signs of heading south!) later on this year.

I'm getting a lot of fulfillment from knitting children's things right now, there's such a sense of achievement when several projects come off the needles in the space of one month! Although, that being said, I really must pull the drape cardigan out and have a proper crack at it - maybe a new year and a fresh eye on the pattern will help me figure out what I thought is a hideous mathematical error in the increases on the front of this cardie, but as there's no errata listed for this magazine (Simply Knitting?), I have to come to the conclusion that I mustn't be reading this correctly...

I digress. Finished projects?

Here's the finished and blocked Baby Wrap Top, by Erika Knight;... and the next two squares knit for January, ready for the 2009 'Year in a Blanket' KAL. The intarsia on the giraffe isn't completely setting me on fire, but I'm coping (hehe), and the mitred square is a little smaller than I'd intended, but that can be remedied with a crochet border.

Last bit of knitting news (hopefully the last before I have a baby to announce!) is that the Clapotis is underway, and looking loverly so far. With the colour being such gorgeous deep reds, I feel like titling it the 'Raspberry Clapotis'... all ready for hospital knitting!

Swatches, swatches everywhere... and now I need a drink!

I'm trying (trying being the operative word here) to get on with the 'Elegant Drape Cardigan' from Creative Knitting. Tension has never before frustrated me like this! I did my yarn research and made sure that I matched weight, etc (I'm using Sublime Aran merino/silk/cashmere in the colour of 'Mole') and obediently set about with my tension square this afternoon.

I'm looking for 18 stitches per centimetre, using 5mm needles, and in the first attempt got 22-odd. Okay, so I upped the needles to 5.5mm and managed to get around 20 stitches per centimetre. Getting there. Third attempt, on 6mm needles got me 18. Finally.

Then I washed the swatch.

As my sister Lucy would say, 'Cheese and Rice'! The fabric stretched out to give me 16 stitches per centimetre, much to my chagrin. So, based on all the evidence before me in the form of three swatches, I began a fourth, back on the 5mm needles.

Today's lesson? Wash EVERY swatch, EVERY time. I feel a bit stupid having learned this lesson through trial and error even though I've read this rule something like a million times, but as I tried to explain to my family tonight:

"Yarrgh, knitting - she be a harsh mistress"

I mean, If I were a knitting pirate, I'd be saying stuff like that all the time.

In happier news, I completed My First Socks last night and wore them proudly everywhere today. I think I needed a badge that read, "I'm wearing hand-knit socks. Ask me how!"Here, you can see WonderBoy helping me model my lovely lolly-stripe socks. Incidentally, later today when I started swatching for the drape cardie, he came to me, picked up the skein of Sublime and rubbed it against his cheek, saying "ohhh... pretty yarn". I asked him what it felt like, and he replied "Shampoo".

Shampoo indeed. Bless his little (hand-knit!) socks!