FO: dice bag

I made this dice bag for Paul at his request with yarn that he picked out. He wanted a dice bag that was reminiscent of his very first dice bag that was lost years ago. The yarn is Bella, the chart is just the skull and crossbones from the arrrgyle chart. I knit it on dpns from the top down like a sock but without the heel flap.

Some of you know that I'm vegan, and while I would never buy silk or wool yarn for myself, I couldn't say no to Paul who bought this yarn (he's omni) for me to make him a dice bag. It's probably not a compromise many other vegans would be willing to make, and I'll say that I'll never use silk yarn again because I really didn't care for it's feeling in my hand.

Flashing My Stash

My mom and I went to see the yarn harlot Stephanie Pearl-McPhee at WEBS in Northampton. I think it was the first time I spent any significant amount of time in Northampton and it was a pretty good time overall. I didn't meet Stephanie up close in person because I had to come back to pick Paul up at a friend's house in Boston and I didn't want to be too late for waiting. Of course Stephanie was a great speaker despite her nerves and she mentioned stash a bunch of times. So my mom asked me how much stash I had. I think being allergic to wool and a fairly new knitter helps in keeping the stash "manageable", though as of late I've had a few episodes of "What was I thinking!" Also I've been knitting a lot more recently as I've been spending more time with my family and attending pre-events for my friend Dave's wedding. Knitting calms me and makes me more tollerant and hopefully more tollerable to others.

So here it is, my somewhat diminutive stash:



From left to right there are: the disturbing and unnecessary amount of yarn I bought for the Vogue Knitting cover Capecho. I'm not sure what posessed me to buy so much except for that fear Stephanie talks about that the world will run out. My sister said that she likes the color, so maybe I'll make her a throw blanket out of the leftovers once I'm done.



Next to that is the pile of leftover microspun from the Arrrrgyle hat I made my brother-in-law Deq. Just above it is the first start on the chart that I did as a warm up. I suppose I could make something of it, but I hate the yarn, it's so splitty it made me want to pluck my eyeballs out with dpns...



Next column at the top is the pair of socks I'm working on for myself out of Cascade Fixations. I'm working them both alternatingly so that they match fairly closely at each stage of creation. I did most of the cuffs while I was waiting at various pre-wedding events. I've been working on Capecho, but it's now too bulky to easily carry with me so I cast on the socks for traveling.



Just below the socks are two skeins of Jaeger Aqua Cotton that I got at Windsor Button along with the leftover bamboo and the leaves of bamboo scarf that will probably be gifted away once I block it. I have no idea what I will do with these 3 skeins, though the cotton will likely become socks. I was on a purple kick when I bought them.



Next over is a ball of red cotton that I bought for play and now have no idea what to do with :)

Below that is an assemblage of pink and cream stuff that I used to make a bunny hat out of for my niece Charlie, I've started several mitten/bootie projects which she has since outgrown :) and at the bottom near the pink pile of fun fur is a couple tiny balls of periwinkle cotton that are leftover from the cross-slung cabled bag that I knit as an interpretation of Tasha from knitty.com.



And lastly the two fuschia squares are the charity blanket squares we were asked to knit at the WEBS event out of cashmerino that they gave us *free* which I knit in my first foray into non-vegan yarn and surprizingly didn't break out in hives or even really itch too much. They knit up so quickly that I was truly depressed when the yarn ran out and I had none left. I just wanted to blog them before I mailed them off.

So there you have it, my current projects and stash. Not too bad...

Deq's hat finished

I ended up using Halfdome from Knitty for the decreases on the top and I worked downward from the provisional cast on for the ribbing. Hopefully it'll fit and he'll like it :)

On the needles...

This is a hat based on the arrrgyle chart from moth heaven. Instead of socks though, I'm making it into a hat for Deqlan. I'm planning to continue up past the chart in black on dpns, and sew down the seam in the back. The bottom is a provisional cast on that will get taken out and I'll knit ribbing from there down to get the arrrgyle pattern optimally placed on the front. This is my solution for just wanting to jump right in on the pattern before committing to it. I thought about knitting it in the round, but I'm really glad I decided against it. That's 20, count 'em, 20 separate bobbins of yarn to get the pattern. Once this is finished I'll feel like a super knitter. I'm just really glad that the pattern is mostly geometric :)