Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Boredom Buster



It's been the Bermuda Triangle for knitting projects around here lately. I have all kinds of things on the needles that go into my WIP bins and...well, stay there for a while. I like everything I'm knitting these days, and things do get finished, but I am so easily distracted that I keep starting new things.

Then I received some Christmas Cash from my ever-loving DMIL and DFIL. Now yarn is starting to flow back into this house. Naturally, as soon as something wonderful arrives, I have to drop everything and cast on THAT. But wait! What about all these other (previously) wonderful things? Am I really as unfaithful as that?? I wandered around in a yarn-drunk stupor all day on Saturday, arguing with myself, making foolish promises about finishing items before casting on new yarn. Resisting. Caving. Resisting. Then I found a middle ground. I was looking through my Yarnplay book and remembered this funky and highly tempting sweater. She calls it the Everything But The Kitchen Sink Sweater. And it can be made without purchasing a single new ball of yarn.

As long as you have a stash.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!

This is the "mini" stash I built for the purpose of building my Kitchen Sink Sweater.



And this is my sweater so far. That's Trish's darling little stitch marker travelling 'round and 'round (and hey, it matches the project!)



Obviously this project has captured all my attention. I have already knit 11" of the front and back (it's knit in the round), and I only started on Saturday evening. I'm having a blast with this one. The trick is to use a lot of different yarn shades and textures, but all in a basic weight (I'm working with worsted/aran). In the book, she recommends using a minimun of eighteen different yarns, but says her model project uses 38. I have used 22 so far, with more to come.

This is a fantastic way to play with all those one-of balls of yarn and leftovers from other projects. I've been sneaking in ten or twenty yards off of other projects that I know are safe. I tend to buy one ball of this and that when I'm seeing if I like a yarn, so I have all kinds of things to add to the fray. Can anyone guess what I've used so far??

And if you're wondering about all those tails (ack! gag!). I'm doing spit-splices. Just say NO to tails.

Oh yeah...remember all that snow?

All gone. Temperatures nicely above freezing again. And there was much rejoicing.



PS. Lisa W, I Love You! (Saskatoon Jam is my Fave!!)

3 comments:

Gail said...

Ahhh, but Jayne - have you seen what's in store for us over the next week? Back into the deep freeze we go! Maybe even a white Christmas this year, which is so very rare on this wet coast...

Anonymous said...

You have such an eye for color. The kitchen sink is inspiring! Love looking at your WIP's.
kelly

LisaW. said...

ya welcome! Hey I love the new sweater pattern AND your color scheme. you are amazing at picking colors! And that's definately a Lisa W type sweater...10 more lbs and i'll be back in horizontal stripes