Progress

I'm making progress for my goal of using 10 skeins of yarn before MDSW and have finished one Hearts in Owlantis sock.

I know a lot of knitters who are cold sheeping and not purchasing any yarn until they have knitted down some of their stash.  While I am trying to stick to the goal of 10 skeins, I'm not restricting myself from purchasing more yarn if I see something that I fall in love with.  Like this skein from Knitted Wit that fell into my Etsy cart:

It's pretty close to a Tardis blue and is even prettier in person - it has a lot more depth of color and is quite stunning.  What can I say?  I had to have it!

If you are cold sheeping and trying to get your stash down to a reasonable amount of yarn, a good way to do it is to go through your patterns and prioritize them.  Look and see which patterns you really want to knit and then pick the yarn to go with the pattern (if you bought the yarn specifically for the pattern already, then you are one step ahead of the game!).  Put both the yarn and pattern in a project or zip lock bag so that it's ready to go when you decide to cast on.  Give yourself a reward every time you finish a project that included stashing down.  It can be something small and simple like a special candy bar or a nice glass of wine.

If you don't have a pattern in mind for some of the yarn you have, check out Ravelry's search feature.  Enter the type of yarn you have, then check out the suggested patterns for it and completed projects.  There are some great ideas to be had there!  If you have some left over fingering weight yarns, Stash Bash and Camberwell are both great projects to use up those left overs:

Goals for 2015

At the beginning of each year I like to set goals for things that I would like to try to accomplish throughout the year.  It's easy to get discouraged and break New Years Resolutions because it seems that people tend to go for broke and have resolutions that are hard to stick to or achieve.  The goals (I know, it's just a different spin on resolutions, but tomato tomahto) I set are ones that I believe that I can reach and are never anything crazy like giving up chocolate.  One goal that Andy and I set together and has lasted for the past seven years is to recycle.  Recycling isn't mandatory where we live and we had been sporadic about it, after deciding that it was something that we absolutely needed to do for the benefit of the planet it was an easy goal to achieve. 

After decrapping organizing my studio for the umpteenth time, I realized that I needed to set up some knitting goals for this year - especially since we are planning on going to to major fiber festivals.  I'm going to attempt to use up ten, yes ten, skeins of yarn before MDSW which begins on May 2.  This brings me to my second knitting goal, which is to take some knitting time for myself and work on a few just for fun projects during the year.  The top shelf in the yarntertainment center is all fingering and sock weight yarns.  I'll be knitting with as many of them as I can!  I've arranged them by color this go around.  I had them by brand before and I'm not sure which way I like better. The middle shelf is worsted, dk, and lace.  The bottom shelf has needles, jewelry making tools and supplies, and miscellaneous items like my lazy kate and a couple of bobbins.

Because I have a rather extensive fiber stash I've attached a goal to that as well.  My plan is to spin up half of the fiber stash by the end of the year. I've started spinning a bump of baby alpaca from a fleece that I bought at a local farm about three years ago.  It's the softest fiber in my stash and I'm really enjoying spinning it.  I ordered two bobbins from Akerworks and they are due to be delivered today.  I've heard great things about them and thought they would be worth trying.  This is a standard bobbin that goes with Kromski wheels.  

Last week on Facebook someone posted a picture of circle weaving and I thought I would give it a try.   It's fun and easy!  I used my coiled handspun to make this little hot pad.

I spun this yarn quite a few years ago and never could figure out what to do with it.  This little mat was the perfect project for it.  Heart Song Studio has a great tutorial on how to set up the warp and use a nifty knitter for weaving in the round.

I started a pair of Wentletrap's last week and have one finished already.  The yarn is Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Fire on the Mountain colorway.  When they are done, that will be two skeins down (one for Wentletrap and one for the hot pad).  Only eight more to go. 

Sugarplum

I know it's been a few weeks since I've posted, it just couldn't be helped.  I've been a bit under the weather since just after Thanksgiving.  I finally went to the doctor and he gave me on an inhaler and steroids.  the inhaler works great and I'm hardly coughing anymore.  I had a fantastic allergic reaction to the steroids on the first dose, which means I won't take those again!

I'm feeling a bit perkier and wanted to share my latest design release with you. It's called Sugarplum and is a super fun knit.  I knit it the sample up in Countess Ablaze Viscount of Spark in the Fake Your Death colorway.  The yarn was divine to knit with and the colorway is amazing. This cute infinity scarf can be doubled and worn as a cowl on the super cold days of winter.  When spring comes along, wear it with your favorite top as a cute little accessory.

Sugarplum is available on Ravelry for just $2.99 until January 20th.  If you are located in the EU, Sugarplum is available on Love Knitting for the same price later this week.  I apologize for any inconvenience, it takes approximately 24 hours for patterns from Ravelry to make their way over to Love Knitting.

The Annual Festivus Post

The Random Number Generator has chosen!  Congratulations to K Valdes who has won the yarn and pattern book and to Stitched Together who has won her choice of one my patterns!  Happy Festivus! 

The Festivus post started a couple of years ago when I had a few grievances and thought maybe some of you could use a place to air yours without hurting anyone's feelings.  Continuing in this tradition, leave your grievance comment here on my blog by midnight on Festivus (December 21) for a chance to win a three skeins of Berroco Linus with a pattern booklet from Berroco (both are from my stash), and as second prize a choice of one of my patterns.  If you are lucky enough not to have a grievance you can post your Feat of Strength, or Festivus Miracle.  Did you knit twelve pairs of socks over the last few weeks? Well, we want to hear about it!  I'll be drawing the name by random number generator.  Please reply within 48 hours or I will have to choose another winner.  You can email me at my name at aol dot com if you would prefer that I post the comment for you so that you can remain anonymous.

I'll get things started with a grievance.

Dear Crazy: I've had enough of you this year to last me a freaking lifetime.  You come in many forms and show up in many ways and I'm sick of your shit.  Are you some sort of poltergeist that jumps from being to being showing up just when I've had enough time to relax and let my guard down?  Move the hell on and don't show up in 2105.  Enough is enough.

Miss Babs Knitting Tour

Just before we left for our trip to Florida this fall I received a wonderful email from Miss Babs asking if I would like to be one of the designers for the Miss Babs Knitting Tour in 2015.  Of course I said yes, and I am so pleased and excited to be part of this years tour! If you haven't heard of the Knitting Tour before, it's a year long journey to far off places all done from the comfort of your own home.  Four delightful packages are sent out in March, June, September, and December.  Miss Babs has a group just for the Tour on Ravelry where participants can ask questions, chat, show off their projects and generally have a great time: Miss Babs Knitting Tour  You can check out projects from past Tours there as well.  I'm sworn to secrecy about where we will be traveling to this year, but I can tell you it will be a lot of fun.  

Sign ups are open now, just in time for Christmas and holiday gift giving (or receiving, heh!).  Click on the picture below to take you to the sign up page which has a lot more information about the tour as well.

Pack your knitting bag and get ready for a year of travel fun!

Holiday Knitting

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thank you so much for the support during my Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday Sale.  Now that you have stocked your Ravelry Library with some new patterns and did a bit of stash enhancement from the sales lists that Marly Bird and Lisa from Indie Untangled put together it's time to figure out what to cast on!   I'll be casting on a couple of pairs of Intersect Mitt's tonight for gift giving.  They knit up so quickly and it's a really fun pattern.  I have some nice yarn from Indieway Yarns in my stash that I plan on using for both pairs.

I also will be working on a few new designs in the coming months and am really looking forward to getting started on them.  One of them is going to be in this delicious yarn from Bare Naked Wools.  It's called Confection Sport, and there is good reason for that.  If you look up confection in the dictionary it should say: See Bare Naked Wools, but all it says is: a dish or delicacy made with sweet ingredients.  It's absolutely scrumptious!  This colorway is called Nougat, but it comes in several other delicious colorways like: Milk Chocolate and Dark Chocolate.  Yum!!

 I hope that you are enjoying the holiday season and remember to take time to relax and knit in between going to the market and trying to fit in all of the festivities.  Speaking of which, my annual Festivus post is coming right up and I have some fun prizes to give away! 

Happy Thanksgiving from
Lara Smoot Designs
All patterns in my Ravelry Pattern Shop will be 30% beginning November 27 and ending on Midnight December 1.
No coupon code required.