Insanity Blanket
The Annual Super Bowl Yarnstravaganza!
As you could see from the last blog post, we ventured out in the cold morning to wait in line with a bunch of crazy knitters, with the hopes that we could score some beautiful yarn at a serious discount.
Sitting in line is always fun for me. It’s even better when I have friends around. This year we had a very solid team of 5 knitters with a serious plan, DIVIDE AND CONQUER.
Each one of us had a section of the store to dash to. We had an idea of what each of us wanted and in what quantities. We dashed, grabbed, and then met at the table in the middle of the store to exchange yarn with each other, each one of us getting exactly what we wanted without having to throw any elbows.
We received many compliments on our strategy. A few ladies even said they would love to join our group next year.
Meeting in the middle after our dash and grab.
These ladies were first in line. They had BAGS full of yarn.
My haul.
Now, I would like to say that I went into this whole thing with just the intention of getting that bright yellow yarn on top there. I had no other purpose for it other than to use it in both of my “Legacy projects”. Yes, I know I had said that I would only use SCRAP yarn, but I love this yellow so much…and I am of the tragic ilk that is unable to wear the color yellow. It is sad…I know…
I do have some happy news though (for me at least). I went in there and acquired a couple skeins of cash-silk lace yarn, enough fingering weight in a beautiful sky blue to knit a sweater, and some lovely grey yarn that is just begging to be a cowl. All in all, that bag of yarn…retail price…would cost me over $200. Between the sale price, the additional discount, and my store credit….it came to a whopping…..wait for it…..
$40.66
Happy Birthday to me!
Memorial Day Marathon Knitting!
The kids had been sick all weekend, and I wasn’t feeling so hot myself. I found I couldn’t seem to sleep in and faced with the prospect of spending the entire day indoors, I got right to it. I was going to have a marathon knitting session of immense proportions and no one was going to stop me.
I took breaks to tend to the kids and to eat meals and spent the entire day in my jammies. Yay!
Ashley's Square
2 squares from Mirna's yarn
5 squares from yarn from MSHMom
2 squares (and a 3rd started) from Happy Feet swap
And I decided to round it out with a little summer sweater knitting…
I need at least 6 inches before I can start decreasing...
I haven’t been knitting…
…on this too much in the last week, but I do have more squares to show off.
From Ang, Michelle and The Orphans and Waifs swap.
The one on the left there is a square made from a mini skein that my friend Angelique dyed for me! Gorgeous!!
I’ve been working on it more than usual…
The Insanity Blanket. It’s been making more appearances as of late. I have been tagging my photos on flickr, so you won’t see exactly which squares/yarn came from here on my blog…but trust me, I AM keeping track.
Here are some of the latest squares…
Yarn from The Orphans and waifs swap, Angelique and Michelle.
Prphans and Waifs yarn and yarn from Mei Lan.
2 square of yarn from Michelle and 2 from the Orphans and Waifs swap.
So far I am sticking to my plan and I have not yet repeated any colors/yarns in the blanket yet (that I know of, ya know, in case I screwed up and somehow did repeat one). I know the time is coming that I will need to start additional squares in colors I have already used. I am trying really hard to use everything once, then I will go back and go through them again. It is hard to keep track though, given that all my yarn is divided by who gave it to me as opposed to if it’s been used.
And so I keep working…
A little inspiration…
It might have been a good thing that I decided to bring in my Insanity Blanket to show the folks at Thursday Charity Knitting.
My friend Wendy has been my right hand girl with a lot of this charity stuff. Like me, she is totally into fiber. She knits, crochets and spins…she’s a super talented girl!
She was stash diving for more yarn at my desk because she was looking for new colors to work with the yarn she had already started on. She made a comment about things matching and I immediately thought to pull out my blanket. I wanted to let people know they don’t always have to be all matchy-matchy.
Squares from my stocking yarn, some from Stephanie and some mystery yarn.
I have been working on it a lot more recently and a lot less on garments. It hasn’t quite reached the whole “too big to carry with me” status yet, but it definitely needs its own bag, especially if I will be carrying around all that scrap yarn!
One of my new squares...
Yarn from Lady Danio.
Tugs picked this one out of the Oprhans and Waifs bag.
Sometimes the kids want to be involved, so I have started letting them pick the color of whatever square I might knit next. Then they start asking me “Mommy, where is my square?”
Should I maybe start something?
So, I haven’t really been doing much knitting since I got back. It’s actually been nice because I haven’t been putting any pressure on myself to get things done. It’s a new thing for me…and it’s good. I have enough stress in real life without having to impose more deadlines on myself.
Instead of starting something right off the bat, I decided to do some work on the insanity blanket. I spent my free time over the weekend adding new squares. I still have a very long way to go…and I don’t expect to get this project done anytime soon.
Three of the six squares I completed.
Early morning excursions and stash acquisition…
I figured I should post some pics of my new yarn from the Superbowl sale and the scraps I got from Stephanie for my blankie…
The line ahead of me…
The line behind me...
Me and Courtney.
It was a madhouse inside...
It got busier, and I lost Courtney somewhere in there...
Sweet Georgia Sport in Coastal.
Before you get up in arms about the differences in the skeins…I picked these on purpose. They were the most “tonal” I saw. The others seemed one flat color without much variation. I figure I will be alternating balls anyway, so it’ll all work out in the end…
The sock stash bag from Stephanie...
Winding balls took all afternoon...
Of course, I’ve also been working on Bigfoot. I’d like to get him done in the next few weeks.
Unwind Post Holiday Party
Every year we have an Unwind Post Holiday Party where we get together to eat goodies and do our annual Secret Santa Gift Exchange.
Yes, I started drinking at ten in the morning. I got pretty sugared up too on yummy treats!
Ang got me Wollmeise!
Laura gave me some yarn for my blanket.
I asked Emily to knit a square on my blanket.
Emily got started on the square and had to go. You can tell where I picked up below. The lower half is Emily’s loose gauge…
Me…well I knit like a stress case.
Gauge, gauge, gauge...
More yarn insanity…
Friday night I scored some scraps from Suzanne for my “legacy project”.
All kinds of nice stuff!
I wanted to work on it more, but I didn’t get much done with my other projects. I did however get some of the yarn from my Valsez dans l’abime (the infamous french sweater) and make a square for my blanket. Now it has a permanent home.
Home in the insanity.
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