I’ve told myself I should join Camp Loopy.

Well this year I did.

There’s a challenge each month.  First month is to knit up at least 400 yards into a project.

I picked my yarn – Malabrigo Mechita in English Rose.  I love the color variations!  And since it pretty much matches my blog you know how I feel about the color.

Next up is the pattern choice.  The color variations say garter stitch to me.  I’ve narrowed it down to 4 shawls:

• Pennae by Hilary Smith Calis – 2 colors, stripes and lace should keep me interested.
• Antarktis by Janina Kallio – simple but effective and the use of the mesh stitch allows it to get bigger than most 400 yard shawls.
• Meridian by JumperCablesKnitting – simple with the addition of a second color divided by a row of eyelets.  I’ll be able to use up the whole skein and then add as much of the second color as I want for added length.
• Mrs. Blandings by Casapinka – Stripes and simple lace between the panels blend 2 colors beautifully

Which one do you like best?  Any others that you’d recommend?  Of course I cycle between the 4 (and have bouts of “omg I *have* to add this one too”) but I’ve been keeping to these 4 for a few days now.

I’ll catch you on the purl side…

Isn’t it pretty?  I love love love the colors!

It’s Miss Babs Yowza Whatta Skein in the Perfectly Wreckless colorway. I’ve checked out a bunch of WIPs with this colorway and they vary greatly – from lotsa pink, to lotsa white, to more black/purple (like mine). I didn’t realize they varied so much when I bought it at Rhinebeck but I’m glad I got the shading that my skein has.
The thing that strikes me the most is the quick variation of the yarn.  Look at all those colors!  I only get a few stitches on one shade and then it’s on to the next.  Makes for some great knitting.

These pics are a couple days old and I’m now on the ruffle border.  Just 6 more rows and I’ll be done!

I’ll catch you on the purl side…

I quickly decided that I wanted to knit Briquette out of Miss Babs Yowza in Scarlet Letter.  Pretty color and the hoodie is something I’ll get a lot of wear out of on the weekends.

But then I looked at my sweater yarn stash – I actually have several choices.  Going with my “be more deliberate” approach that I’m taking on this year I wanted to make sure I wasn’t making a rash decision.  I don’t want to frog this just because it wasn’t a good choice.

I came up with a few more options…

Briquette in GGH Bali Brown with a small stripe (or two) on the sleeve with the blue.  I like the sportier look for the weekend.

Pier 60 out of Dream in Color Jilly.  The pattern is designed for worsted so it would be a big change from the original.  I think the stitch pattern could work really nicely in this colorway though and the neckline makes it fit the lighter weight feeling of the yarn.  This could be inspired or irrational.

Salted in Jilly as well.  I like that someone else made one in Tosh Merino Light (a very similar yarn) but it’s in a more solid colorway.  How will the openwork look at the top?  I don’t need you to see it well but I want to make sure it doesn’t detract.  And for the body I could do it in reverse stockinette stitch (knitting it inside out so I do knits in the round instead of purls).

I’m really not sure which way I want to go at this point.  One thing all these options have is that I’ll finish it right before spring starts so I’ll get a lot of wear out of it.

What do you think?  Any other options that you see here?  What are you joining in with for the KAL?

I’ll catch you on the purl side…

First up were these socks in yarn I bought (and loved) 3 years ago.

I special-ordered the bump from glblf and got it Navajo plied from Plied Together after I fell in love with a pair of socks in my Friends feed.  If it wasn’t for the Personal Mystery Sock Yarn Club I still wouldn’t have started these.  Since they’re handspun they’re a bit thicker than regular sock yarn so they’re knitting up quickly.

Then I CO these socks out of Gnome Acres House Gnome in the Berry Gnomey colorway.

Pink, purple, white and a splash of blue.  Love them.  They feel so thin after working on the handspun socks.

And then to keep in interesting I started a pair of mittens.

These are the Wood Hollow mittens out of some Cascade 220.  I have mixed feelings about the yarn – the color is great but it’s a quatro colorway and I think the speckliness takes away from the cables a bit.

I’m through the ribbing on mitten #2 and hope to be done this weekend.

So that’s it – three new projects from stash yarn to fill my beginning of year knitting.  I only finished 3 projects in 2014 and that bothers me – I want more to show for it – so I’m making more deliberate decisions with my WIPs.

What projects did you start?

I’ll catch you on the purl side.

Tomorrow is the beginning of a new year and all the dreams and wonderment are alive in the knitting community.

This looks like it’s the year of Knit Your Stash (or really, yet another year of Knit Your Stash).  Lots of KALs cropping up:

• My Sister’s Knitter – This is the one that spurred on my excitement (full disclosure, I’m one of the mods).
• Yarniacs 2015 Q1 Stash Down Challenge – knit any pattern you choose from stash yarn
• Plum Dandi Ultimate KAL – knit any sweater pattern by Alicia Plummer or Melissa Schaschwary

Join for camaraderie, support and maybe even a fun prize or two.

I got a little crazy and frogged several WIPs that weren’t getting any love.  New year, clear needles…and omg I have A LOT of 4.0mm needles.

Then, I started tagging patterns and stash that I’d like to use.  Here are a few of my favorite combos:

Briquette in Yowza Whatta Skein in this gorgeous red.  This can triple dip in all three KALs – I want to CO tomorrow but the Plum Dandi KAL starts on January 9th.

Tatu in Tosh Merino Light in Baltic.  I stopped using this yarn because I realized it’d look like I was wearing a suit if I wore it with jeans – and I wear jeans All.The.Time.  I’m going to give overdyeing a try after knitting this one (probably in a spruce green).  Any pointers for overdyeing?

Lace Tiered Skirt in Hempathy.  I’d get a lot of wear out of this one once the weather warms up and both the pattern and the yarn have been in my stash for several years.  Every year I think about it in May and it’s too late to make it worth it for that season so it goes to the backburner.  Time to get this into the FO column.  I’ll probably make mine a bit shorter because at 5’2″ that length will be the oh-so-flattering length of mid-calf.  Yuk.

Inner Peace in Miss Babs Shiruku.  This one was on my Christmas wish list and has to be knit.  And CO tomorrow?

Yowza Weight It Shawl in Yowza Whatta Skein.  I need a simple knit otn for those times when I just want to pick up and go.

Lots of reds and purples with a little blue (and overdyed green?) thrown in too.  My classic colors.  My stash.  No idea what I’ll really finish but it was fun to put the list together.

And I haven’t even talked about the socks – that’s for tomorrow.

I’ll catch you on the purl side…