The Earth Beneath Our Feet.

Christmas Stockings

I might actually finish my family Christmas Stockings before Christmas 2012. Now that I have started over on them for the last time (i think). Pictures to come.

I have found yet another reason I like buying good yarn. I have taken this particular stocking apart 4 or 5 times, an the yarn is still holding up.

Day 14: What’s the worst yarn/fiber that you’ve worked with and why?

Sugar and Cream Cotton yarn. I actually love the stuff. It makes for really great products when you need a yarn with little drape or super absorbent. It just takes me much longer to knit projects with because it is so hard on your hands, especially on little needles.

Another yarn that I don’t like is acrylic. I feel like it looks so wonderful (and cheap) in the skein, then every time I knit with it I regret it. It pills, or splits, or fuzzes, or does something else I don’t want it to do. Plus it is difficult to block because it is plastic.

Day 13: Do you have yarn that you love but can’t find a project for?

YES! I bought his lovely yarn for a little shrug, it’s a silk cashmere blend with a really long varigation. It was so expensive that I want to use it for something really really nice. I probably wouldn’t have bought it if it wasn’t for the store owner. I went into this specialty shop to check it out and ask questions. And they only had really high quality yarn. I ended up buying this yarn because it was so nice, but I bought less yards than the pattern called for because I didn’t want to spend nearly $100 on a shrug I was knitting myself and this skein was only 20 yards short. I thought that I would be able to squeak by because I was going to make it a little smaller than the pattern called for. I never found out because the whole time I was knitting it I was so concerned that I was going to be too short on yarn and I took it apart. I’ve been looking for a shawl pattern that I can use it for.

Day 12: Where do you keep your stash?

I have two places that I stash my yarn. I have a cloth basket that I store everything that I am immediately working on and a bag of yarn that I store next to the couch. I don’t have a massive stash, because most of the time I only buy yarn for a specific project. Most of the yarn in my stash is extra or left over yarn from a project.

Day 9: What fiber or yarn do you love working with?

I really like this Red Heart Eco-Ways Bamboo Wool. It has incredible stitch definition and it’s really soft. I bought like 5 skeins of it in yellow a while ago when it went on sale. It can only take gentle wear though. I made a pair of socks from it for my husband and they got all matted and stiff from wear.