Miniskeins and Auction Prep

I never really got onto the miniskein train when that hit a few years ago. I watched in fascination as knitting friends traded, looked for special kits, and a plethora of patterns showed up that required specific numbers of miniskeins of specific lengths paired with a solid or a this or that... 

All interesting projects and of course I ended up with a few sets because I am a lemming for a beautiful gradient or I just couldn't resist the Color Kittens theme. But overarchingly they sit in the stash because it either requires more brain space than I currently have or the idea of having to pay attention to when I am changing colors or this pattern requires 7 colors and I only have 6 and why no, I do not wish to completely rework the pattern math thank you.

One of these sets acquired was the Progress Pride set from the now dye-retired Stranded Dyeworks. 

 I even cast it on, hoping to knit through a Gingko Biloba pattern that I've admired for years. And then it sat for 3-4 years.  The problem here wasn't that the yarn was too fussy but that the pattern requires a medium amount of attention. It's not a shawl where I know I'm going to be staring distractedly at a lace chart; it's not socks where I can be on the train, standing, and having a full conversation while the hands go around and around. I have tried to knit this pattern at least twice, possibly three times, and I always flame out somewhere around petal four. 

Enter the Stash Toss over the winter break and I pulled this out again and realized I should (a) knit this up for the Romancing the Vote auction this summer and (b) it needed a different pattern. Fortunately, an Ambah O'Brien pattern, Woollsia, presented itself and we were off to the races. 

Per the recommendation of some other crafters, I'm treating this set of miniskeins as though it were a single skein-- I'm not trying to blend between the colors. (This pattern is also just easy enough that if I were knitting in with a couple of skeins of the same color, I'd absolutely go 15-20 rows without noticing I forgot an eyelet row.) I have lined things up with changing yarn so one side doesn't have any garter ridge bumps. 

And progress is indeed underway! I am just over halfway through, five colors completed, color six (red) underway, and five colors left to go. It's rocking along. 

This is just big enough now that it's not really good public knitting but when I get back into longer meetings where I just need to knit it will be fine and overall it's small enough still that I could work on it on the train.  

The color changes are satisfying in that sense of feelings of accomplishments. I know I'm on skein 6/11 and each skein goes by fairly quickly. That said, I think if it were anything other than what I know it will be -- a specific flag of stripes -- I'd find it more annoying. The hard stripes between this many colors are not something I'd seek out to wear. So I'm feeling validated in not having more actively pursued mini skein knits.  I'll work through the other (does quick math) 10 sets eventually. At least six of them are gradients -- not distinct colors -- though one is a Wollmeise advent calendar. 

I am reminded though that I have bags of leftovers that I've been meaning to turn into hexagons that will eventually be a "socks I have knit" blanket. If I can memorize that pattern, using those up would also put a nice dent in the mess around the stash section of my office. 

I'm hoping to have this ready for the auction pile by the end of January. 

As You Mean to Go On

 "If that means you need to be knitting more, make sure you're doing that." 

It's not often I hear the recommendation that I knit more from someone I report to, but in 2025 I did. We were talking about trying to manage the changes and stress levels coming from the federal changes and the reality that our jobs were changing hourly some days.  

I took it to heart, trying to make sure I was getting back to holding yarn again regularly, not just carrying it in my work bag back and forth and pretending I have made progress while instead I stare blankly at my phone or out the train windows.  Someone asked recently why it is that all of my Zoom calls don't equate to buckets of knitting time and I had to explain that most of my meetings, I'm running them or actively doing something and if not, well... I might be trying to rewrite a to do list or knock out 1-5 quick emails that come in faster than I can read them. 

But over the winter break I did go through the stash, only six months late on my annual Toss the Stash and Try to Re-Sort It Enough So You Can Put It Away. 

Obviously Widge had to help. She spent several hours as I moved yarn around entirely tucked into her cat bed, snoring gently and entirely unconcerned that an avalanche of yarn might end up on top of her.  The Stash Toss, as it usually does, made me want to start about 18 new large and significant projects. I also pulled this upcoming years' worth of sock yarn. I only made it through six pair this year, though there are two pair in project bags that could probably be finished in not too long that will set me up for 2026 finished object counts nicely. 

I also pulled out a box of things that have moved to my Ravelry trade/sell page and have already shipped off some yarn. 

Looking at what I've pulled out and set up compared to what I've finished in 2025, I'm expecting to knit about 6-7x what I accomplished this year. Even in 2020, which was the year I hit 20k, that's not where I was so this should be fascinatingly ambitious. 

I did make this sweater though! This is a TinCanKnits pattern, Prairie Fire, and it used 1200 yards of Lisa Souza's Polwarth Silk in the Rust Colorway. It's a wonderfully cozy sweater. The pattern doesn't have any shaping, so it fits more like a sweatshirt than a tailored sweater and the yarn is cushy. It's perfect with a pair of jeans. It's currently on the drying rack after having been worn instantly after I cast off -- let us hope that it returns properly in sizing.  

TinCanKnits patterns are always exquisitely written. My only delay in working on the project came at one point on the body because I, as the fallible human, did not read the entire chart and instructions before launching into it. Once I did that, smooth sailing. 

For now though I have wound the skein for the traditional New Year's Eve socks, which will follow me around a couple of parties and hopefully bring in a fresh new calendar with yarn front and center. 

Begin as you mean to go on.... whether at midnight or in the morning. Happy New Year!

Sock Show Friday

I used to do sock project updates on Thursdays and then I trailed off on knitting socks for a decade. I was still knitting them, but not in the Always All the Time and Everyone Has  Rich Sock Drawer way that I was a decade ago. Honey cowls took over for a few years there. But I'm back on my sock nonsense for 2025 and that means I need some updates here to make sure that in five years I knew what I did again. 

I won't get to everything today because at the moment I have at least four pair on the needles. My brain keeps yelling that there is a fifth pair but I can't find it/figure out where it is. I'm sure some project bag will be coughed up somewhere and there will be that ah ha moment. (Note while I'm still drafting but after I got home, there is a fifth pair,  it was on my home office desk.)

What is very familiar is being back at the stage of "Oh I can't work on that pair because I'm at the toe and I need to check foot length." Which is, of course, how we got to five pair on the needles in the first place. It does mean that the four pairs currently that I can think of (orange/purple; green/gray; autumn/at work; bright blue and teal/purple/blue) are all on the second sock! 

I'd set out for 2025 to make a dozen pairs and right now that feels very doable. I've also given myself permission that anytime I'm sad or irritated or just need a hit of dopamine I'm allowed to start a new knitting project. The WIPs will abound. 

I have managed to achieve one full pair of socks so far.  Of course they are Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight. The colorway is Blackbird. I knit a sweater out of this colorway a few years ago and sadly, it is likely the only BMFA STR sweater I'll get to knit, as Tina hasn't been dyeing for a few years and most of us bought one skein in a colorway at a time. These socks were made of the leftovers. I'd forgotten how much this particular batch bled -- my hands were sooty black every time I worked on them and I need to make sure I do a couple of pre-rinses before wearing. 

Socks are an interesting trick -- you have a tube and then *mystical hand waving and occasional swearing* and then another tube and then.... SOCK.  It always gets questions in public, even as most of my friends recognize if there are more than 2 needles, it will likely be a sock. 

I have a huge bin of yarn set aside for 2025 socks, we shall see how far I get.   

Prepping for Next Year: 2024 Romancing the Vote and Ahead

I didn't really make time to blog about Romancing the Vote last summer but the joy and community it brought and continues to bring to me has been so critical. Below are screenshots of the various things I put into the 2024 auction, all of which have gone off to their various homes. One cowl even went to an author whose name was immediately recognizable. I hope it's been a great addition to her winter wardrobe. 

The auction went again to support organizations that work for voting rights, registration, and access and that is a cause I am very pleased to stay engaged with and to put support towards. 

As we got into the week of auctions, it was clear that "more things" would probably sell and I ended up adding two custom honey cowls. I emailed the winners after and we negotiated what colors I had in stash that I could knit up for them. I saw one in a picture in the online wild recently! 

And the team behind RTV has said we will indeed be back for 2026. On one hand, the idea of July 2026 feels like it is a million years from now. On the other and at the speed I have been knitting recently, that's basically tomorrow. So I'm back into the stash, pairing up things for yet more honey cowls to knit on the go. I have a plan for a great big shawl for people to fight over -- we'll see if I get it done enough that I am confident to submit it. 

A Redo

 I started this pair of socks on New Years Eve just before 2020. I finished them in May 2020, amidst a lot of optimism about what I'd accomplish for Stash Dash that year.  

And then they sat. I usually try to keep a backlog of finished socks here and there, sometimes I need a new pair, sometimes they are for a gift or I just haven't seen my mother in a while to have her try on whatever it is that fits around here.  She and AudioGirl continue to get first rummage through my finished objects--though it the pair is too small for all of us, then obviously Sibling the Elder gets those. 

But somewhere in there, moths made some damage, necessitating a complete rip out and redo. 

Having yarn in the quantities that I have means that the moth battles are continual. The stash lives in double layers of plastic and gets upended into piles regularly to check for damage. Finished projects get dried and into Ziplocks. I have traps up. But even with all that, occasionally I will see damage and when you consider there was a move and the first few years of this endless pandemic rolling along... I can't say I'm dreadfully surprised.  

Originally I thought these socks would just need a repair on each sock but it turned out it was more like 3 different break points on each-- spread across legs and feet and heels. And while I believe the leftovers are here somewhere (glances at a giant bag of leftovers that I 100% did not go rummaging through), I knew that trying to do that many repairs would leave a lot of extra rubbing spots and so, time for a redo. 

I ripped the socks out while watching a mandatory training -- preserve me from trainings that have a "click here to continue" every 35 seconds. But the training is done, the socks are restarted. 

The yarn is Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks that Rock Lightweight in the Harvest Star colorway. I've been working on acquiring more BMFA STR-L for socks recently through Ravelry trade/sale contacts. I have a couple of long pending orders with BMFA but it's unclear when those will come through and so I want a backlog. Fortunately, a few very nice people have been more than willing to trade yarn for dollars.  

Bigger issue of course is do I have space for any new yarn? Of course I do not. But space has never been a primary consideration when beautiful yarn is involved. 

I should also see about getting that sock project in my entryway and putting it on my desk rather than far enough away that I can't reach it and therefore don't have it when I have five minutes and another training video to watch. 

Marking the Year End and 100

 I finally wove in the ends, so officially I've finished the 100th pair of socks that I've made.  It only took 15 years.  Fortunately, I have it well documented when I started with the Tsock Tsarina Sock 101 kit in summer 2008. 

This picture is about 3 seconds before I put them on for a Christmas Eve event.  They are, keen eyed readers will observe, my favorite Blue Moon Fiber Arts Socks That Rock base. It is unclear if I'll ever be able to get more of that from the dyer -- between health issues and mill issues -- BMFA STR might be a "only from people selling their stash" -- and why yes I did just have to stop myself going to see if I could acquire some. I'm fine, I have a lot. Especially at the rate I've been knitting this year.  

I also have my end of year amounts.  

This was surprisingly more than I realized I'd completed. I had some vague optimism about completing one more shawl and indeed in the past few days I've made a real dent. However, there are about 80 rows left and I have things planned to do other than knit for the next three days (seriously, what else should the week between Christmas and New Years be for??) 

My brain is finally quiet enough though that I have aspirations of all the knitting I will do in 2024. It will be multi-colored and brilliant. My yarn will FINALLY fit back in the stash boxes, and I will also find homes for the variety of things that currently don't have one.  

We shall see what actually comes to fruition but I have optimism and needles.  

Not the right needles, obviously. I need to get a few more. Also we need to talk about the yarn store I went to in Canada and and and and... 

  

Spite Yarn

Since the store is now permanently closed, I will tell you about the time I bought yarn out of spite.

When you see me, even if I'm not knitting there's probably an Emotional Support Sock in my purse. So about a decade ago when I happened to be up at my very new boyfriend's apartment for the weekend and realized I was without wool, I popped into the local yarn store to get something that would tide me over for the five or six hours until I got back to my stash. This was when I was knitting 10-15 pair of socks a year, so I was more fidgety than I am at present. 

The yarn store was small and had an okay selection but the store owner seemed deeply unwilling to sell me yarn. It became clear over a few minutes that I was not her preferred clientele (who all appeared to be richer and older than I was, then about 30). I remember getting a condescending answer when I asked if she carried metal needles. Oh, *those* were just not as good. My 20 years experience with mostly metal needles at the time was surprised to hear that. Also, wooden dpns that are 2.25 mm thick.... do you know how easily those snap when I sit on the bag accidentally? 

Spite Yarn

But I was determined and I found at least one colorway that I liked. What was I going to make, she asked? Socks.  She was SHOCKED! I COULDN'T! Great, do you have this colorway in any other base. Well, NO. Cool, I'll take the Madtosh Singles skein then. House slippers it would be.  

I'd say it was the most resentful $30 I think I've ever had a yarn store owner receive from me but I think that prize goes to the yarn store owner in La Crosse who physically got between me and the yarn on my first visit -- and kept scooting around so I couldn't get to the shelves -- that actually takes the cake.  (Caveat, the only money I ever spent in the LAX store was for a gift card that we gave away at an event.) 

The Philosopher spent years suggesting I try the store again after we moved in together and one afternoon I did. The owner was alone that day, I wasn't offending any of her knitting groups and we sort of chatted about yarn. I remember making a comment on how obviously something was Kaffe Fasset and his delight for Bonkers amounts of colors and her response of "well No One knits plain black socks."  

My response to that was to pull a pair of half finished plain black socks out of my purse. Yes they do. When your mother asks for plain black socks, that's something you make. Oh. 

I asked what she suggested for baby blankets, of which I was planning to make a few. She handed me super bulky multi-colored yarn in weirdly mixed colors that was never going to be machine washable. And with that I left. 

The store closed permanently sometime last year. I tried to think of it as a loss but it's not for me. If she'd been remotely friendly, I would have spent stupid amounts of money and heavily promoted them. I would have come in and knit and loaned them finished objects for the display window. 

And in this pass through the stash, I've decided the Spite Yarn needs to go. No, I never did knit it up into socks. I worked on it for a few inches and then went back to my own stash and one of the hundreds of other skeins I have.  

I've kept the yarn because spite and because the colorway is beautiful but I realized in this pass through the stash that I have several skeins from dyers I love in similar shades. So it's off to be in someone else's hands, someone for whom it won't immediately invoke spite. 

That's growth, right?