Inventory

Fall is here and winter is on its way! This is extremely good news for me, seeing as I hate summer (I can see my friend Emily shaking her head at this, she's a summertime girl). I'm thrilled to see the arrival of cooler weather, and the return of cool weather knitting.


For those non-knitters, the idea that there is summertime knitting and wintertime knitting most likely seems odd. But consider this, when it is 90 degrees outside, do you really want to have a wool sweater in your lap? Yeah, I didn't think so. Summer is a great time to work on things like socks and lace or projects made of lighter yarns, like cotton or linen. Currently, I'm trying to finish the Hey Teach! Cardigan, which is a great summer project. A short-sleeved, half lace, cotton cardigan. I've finished the back, and am almost done with the right front, so I should be done soon.


This means that I can start on some winter projects. Yesterday, I flipped through some patterns on Ravelry, and found a bunch of things that I would like to make. Then, I started to look for yarns to go with them, but I remembered that I was trying to use up some of my stash. However, I cannot remember what I have in the stash, and if I have yarn assigned to a project or not. 


I've used the stash feature on Ravelry awhile ago, but by now I only have odds and ends in there, and I cannot be sure that the yarn I have listed is at all accurate. This led me to spend about an hour today redoing the stash list. At least I have the yarn mostly organized by weight and all the skeins of the same color grouped together. This made the process a lot easier.


I wrote down the type of yarn, colorway, and number of skeins. I also made notes if I have the yarn planned for any project. Then I entered the info into the Ravelry database. Tada! I now have a list that I can reference when browsing patterns.


Time to start planning my winter knitting.

Photo Shoot for After Hours Shawl

I've been toying with the idea of doing lace for some time now. I've even gone as far as to cast on, knit a bit, and then get discouraged and give up. So, I thought a Knit-A-Long (KAL) might just be the way to get one done.

One of my favorite places to order sock yarn, Knitter's Brewing Company, sponsored a KAL for a lace shawl to showcase their newest yarn. I immediately decided to join, the KAL officially begins today, September 1. But I got a bit of a head start.



Yup, that is a completed lace shawl, with a beaded border.



Now, we have just moved. At the old house, I had my go-to places where I knew I could get good photos of my knitting. Now, I have to invest some time into finding new locations for my projects. First, I tired the back deck...



Not too bad, the color came out great, but I thought that a solid background might be better for the lacework, so I tried some on the grass. Those didn't turn out at all. I tried the ladder leading up to the playhouse, but the lace didn't show up at all (this is, however the spot where I got the lovely close up of the border, which is the closest to the yarn's true color). Then I tried the front porch, same problem.

Finally, I headed back inside and took some using a plain, black background...

The black worked well for showing off the stitch detail, but the color seems kind of washed out in it. And what's with the orb in the picture? It showed up in every inside picture I took of the shawl. Perhaps we have a ghost that really likes my knitting (I could live with that). Eventually, I came to the conclusion that lace work is trick to photograph, and I'd have to just keep trying.

On another note, I'm giving myself a pass on the August socks for my pair a month club, I've been busy moving and unpacking. This year I'll settle for 11 pairs in 12 months and call it good. I'll try to squeeze in extra pair in the next four months, but I'm not sure if I'll manage that or not. Time will tell.