Sunday, March 02, 2008

Banished from the stash

Have you ever woken up one morning and suddenly decided that you really really wanted a certain yarn in your stash to just be gone? Not that you don't like the yarn anymore, or want to throw/give it away, but the idea of all those balls/skeins sitting in their little tub doing nothing just drives you mad? Yes? No? Maybe you think I'm a bit crazy now?

A little while ago, I bought several balls of Rowan Calmer on sale. The yarn was destined to become a Nothin' But A T Shirt from Magknits, but I got gun-shy and never got around to starting it. One ball became a Shedir (Rav link), but the rest of the yarn languished in the stash. Every time I opened up that particular bin I'd pull out the yarn with the vague feeling that it was mocking me. And I got sick of staring at that particular pink colour.

So despite having knitted several failures in the sweater department, I finally bit the bullet and began my Nothin' But A T. I've got the back done so far, and I'm a bit worried about the gauge. My gauge is slightly tight (I used to be the loosest knitter in the world, it seems that I've tightened up some over the years, I could probably spend another post psychoanalyzing this phenomenon) so I'm wondering if it will end up being too small? But perhaps I could block it out? And this cotton is rather stretchy? And maybe some negative ease would be a good thing? Or maybe I'll lose some weight (please)?

Nothin' But A T Shirt back

For the shoulder/neck shaping, I tried doing short rows instead of the step-wise bindoffs. It looks like it sort of worked, I guess I won't find out until the finishing happens.

Nothin' But A T Shirt shoulder

At this point I'm basically knitting this thing to have the yarn out of my stash. Yes, I'd love to have a sweater that fits, but I'm also just happy that this yarn is being made into something. Of course, if it ends up being an utter disaster I'll probably still be upset and REALLY vow to never knit a sweater ever again. =)

5 comments:

Jennie said...

I think it's coming along quite nicely. Can't wait to see more. :)

Anonymous said...

I love the colour & the sweater is looking great. You've recently made a very lovely fair isles sweater for your Mom. My point ... you've knit nice sweaters.

Adrienne said...

Thank you both for the encouragement! =)

Karen said...

You know, I'm not sure what you mean when you say you knitted several failures in the sweater department. I have yet to see such a failure.

Your T is looking great, if you ask me. And I think it'll fit you nicely. I totally understand what you mean about just wanting things in your stash to be gone. I have some of that as well, but haven't been able to think of anything good to make with it. Maybe I'll make a gazillion cat toys with them or something (haha).

Adrienne said...

Well, I didn't really blog about the "failure" sweaters, mostly because they weren't very exciting when I was knitting them (big navy blob, big red blob, etc.). =P

I've knitted 4 sweaters, the first 3 for me, none of which I wear (and the first one wasn't even finished). The last sweater was the fair isle for my mom, and that turned out ok.

If you have stuff in your stash that you just want gone but don't actually want to knit it up, you could always donate it to charity or a school or something. My sister used to knit for a group that made scarves for homeless people, I don't know what they were called, but I'm sure I could find out.