constant struggle with leftovers

We all have them.

The extra skein you bought just in case the sweater ate yarn. The 40 grams left from the socks you just finished because you have tiny feet and never use the whole ball. The piles and piles of little bits you save just in case you decide to go all Alice Starmore and make an epic fair isle sweater using 50 different colors in perfect harmony. Your favorite yarn comes in 200 yard balls but that hat only took 120, even with cables.

Leftovers. Rarely appealing in any sense of the word. Except Chinese takeout, but whatever.

I'm primarily a sock knitter so the bulk of my oddballs are fingering weight. I've always enjoyed using them in stripy socks as I saw fit and when the Beekeeper's Quilt came out I squeed a little bit.

I started making hexipuffs for that quilt in 2011. I finally stitched some together for this chair cushiony thing in 2014. I am still making hexipuffs. I have huge apothecary jars full of them. I just made another 20 this week. I'm just about hexipuffed out. Plus, each hexipuff only uses about 3 grams, takes 45 minutes a piece and oh my god just thinking that is enough to make me stabby after awhile. And then you have to sew them together. No small feat.

"Make minis and do swaps!" they say. Um. Have you ever priced that shit? No thanks. Totally not practical or logical for me to do. If that is your cup o'tea then drink on, sista! And then I just get MORE leftovers calling themselves minis.

I make a lot of stripy socks still. They are not always the prettiest, but I feel this innate frugal bliss when I finish a pair. Here are some recent projects:


This pair used up some self striping and a weird variegated. I still didn't use up all the yarn!












This is what the yarn looked like before:

And here is another pair I finished the other day. I actually really really love them more than I should. These would be the equivalent of Chinese food- as mentioned above. But we must stop mentioning it because now I need an eggroll. I also need an eggroll after our friend drives by in his biofuel van. True story.

I would share the before photos but I was really lazy and didn't take a pic of the variegated before I used it and just swiped the dyer's photo for my Ravelry project page.

Dreams of using fresh, whole unmolested skeins for completely pure monoyarn socks are dancing in my head. But the guilt of those leftovers is gnawing on my brain.

To ease the burden, I busted these out and those other hexipuffs (always with the hexipuffs) and the basket is significantly lighter but OMG. I need a fresh start.

What do you guys do with your leftovers? Is it morally corrupt to throw them away? Ha- I need to wear the scarlet A for that a million times over. Should I suck it up as a side effect of my chronic knitting?

Eggrolls.

Knitting EDC

Oh hell, that's pretty dorky. I didn't go all prepper on you guys. EDC (every day carry) is a popular thing to do if you are a guy (usually) and want to show off your fancy flashlight and pocket knife. Or if you are a hipster and have an overpriced journal and cool pen.

I have all of these things except a little flashlight and I think I want one. But anyway...

THIS is my knitting EDC. And since I carry my knitting everywhere, I mean everywhere, I thought I would share what I always have on my person. Yeah, I just wrote those words.

The bag is from Knit Picks. It is the 'tool pouch' and I think it is the best notions bag ever. I like the size and that it is clear. So when my scissors are missing, I know. I mean, I have this spidey-sense when my scissors are missing anyway but visual confirmation is important.

The needle tube is the Clover Chibi darning needle set. It has picked up a few straggling orphan needles.

The scissors are the very bestest scissors ever. Mark gave them to me early in our marriage and I use them everyday. I think they were from Walmart, although I could be wrong!

A small nail file. Broken fingernails destroy yarn. And my favorite wooden sock needles sometimes need a bit of smoothing.

A small tin of stitch markers and progress keepers. I like the snagless rings the best!

Washi tape. I don't know. I use it, but not every day. It might get jettisoned.

Tape measure. God help you if you break my tape measure. It is second only to the scissors. Don't ever touch it or move it or look at it funny. I will cut you. But not with my stork scissors because they are for yarn only!

A little gold crochet hookie thing. Yeah, that may go out the airlock with the washi tape. I don't use it very much. Maybe I should have cleaned this out before taking a photo?

Sakura Micron pen. That snuck in as well. It is nice to write with but I think it was thrown in to keep a certain little person from sneaking off with it.

Mechanical pencil (bright green) hand-turned by Mark. I love it. It is starting to behave like a teenager though so yeah... tough times.

Hand turned fountain pen- once again, Mark's work. I love this pen. Currently, I have Pilot Iroshizuku ink in Shin-kai. I think I get street cred for that.

A cheap bird notebook and green post-its. I use the notebook for design ideas and the post-its for everything else. I love post-its. So much so that I recite Michelle's glue monologue from Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion way more frequently than I should. Ordinarily when you make glue, first you need to thermo set your resin.... I could go on, and I usually do!

That's it! And I will let you borrow anything if you need it but I will watch you like a hawk if you borrow the scissors or tape measure. I think I've mentioned that before.

What is in your notions bag?

I just re-watched this. Lisa Kudrow is brilliant.

Wildes Meer

Drive by posting here.

I finished this little beauty the other day. The pattern is Wildes Meer by Voolenvine (have you watched Kristin's Yarngasm podcast? What am I thinking? Of course, you have...)

I used Wollmeise Lacegarn in Madame Souris which is fairly deep stash from 2013. It was nice but adding beads was a pain. The yarn has a billion small plies and the crochet hook practically shredded them so I used the flosser technique so save my sanity- sorta...

So the pattern was great. Not only well written and a beautiful finished object, but the actual pattern had amazing graphics and the layout was fantastic. I am looking forward to more of Kristin's work in the future. And I will most likely make another Wildes Meer soon!

I have another shawl blocking as I type, so maybe (HAHAHAHA) I'll post it when it is dry and ready for it's close up!