FO: Susie Roger's Reading Mitts

yummy yarn, fab pattern

Regular readers of my blog will recognize this pattern: Susie Roger's Reading Mitts, a favourite of mine and counting this pair, I've knit this pattern three times. This time around I've knit the mitts in Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK and they are fabulous! Buttery soft and smooth, the yarn was an absolute pleasure to knit and very luxurious to wear.

Each mitt took about 2/3rds of a 50gr ball, so I'm left with enough to make one more mitt. Which begs the question ... should I buy one more ball to make another matching pair? On the one hand, a pair of these gloves would be a very nice Christmas present for some lucky person on my gift list. But on the other hand, I'm supposed to be on a yarn diet, right? Can I consider it stash-busting if I buy one ball in order to use up two smaller leftover balls?

As you may have guessed from the radio silence on this end, my week was ridiculously busy. What with going into work early and getting home late I've barely had a minute to knit ... or blog. These gloves were pretty much knit in transit. Precious little progress has been made on my vest but hopefully that will change over the course of the weekend. In fact, maybe that's what I should do next? Hmmmm. Knitting? Or laundry?

work in progress Wednesday

The news today on the vest front is all good. I've knit the fronts to the shoulders, I've sorted out the dropped stitch on the back and now there a just a handful of rows before I work the shoulder shaping and do the 3-needle bindoffs. Once that's all done there are armhole bands and neck bands to work. Now that things are back on the rails with this project I'm feeling a lot more motivated.  My plan is to finish this vest in time for a Friday post. And based on the weather forecast for this week maybe I can even wear it on Friday.

In contrast the news on the sock front is all bad. The colourwork cuff is too tight and too inflexible for my foot. My coworker is much more petite, so the cuff fits her alright but the rest of the sock is just plain huge.  To make it work for me I'd need to reknit the cuff on larger needles. To make it work for her, I'd need to rip all the way back to the cuff and then add leg shaping to drastically reduce the number of stitches from the cuff on down. And shorten the foot by about an inch too. Both options pretty much mean starting over and I'm just not feeling motivated. I don't think I like the pattern enough to make the effort. Instead I think I'll put this single sock in a time out and move on.

Sometimes a change is as good as a rest, and with that in mind I think I'll cast on some fingerless gloves for my transit knitting today.  I have a couple of balls of Debbie Bliss cashmerino waiting for just that purpose. Besides, the vest is too much to cart around so a new small project is in order, isn't it? That's what I'll be doing over the next couple of days. To see what a crowd of other clever crafters are up to check out the links at Tami's Amis.

FO: Daphne and Delilah II

Here's a second set of monsters for Isaida's Monster Mission of Love. My goal was to get both sets finished up this weekend and in the mail - mission accomplished! Hopefully these little darlings find new homes quickly and get down to the business of providing comfort and companionship to kids in difficult situations.

The main colour of my earlier set was Red Heart Super Saver, but this time I've used Red Heart Soft Touch with Bernat Satin. As a resulting the finished monsters are about 7% smaller. Maybe I should have expected that because the yarn does feel a bit finer, but I used the same needles and expected the gauge would be closer than that. Not that it matters in this case -  a monster is a monster, big or bigger. One thing though, knit in softer yarn, the pocket on Daphne sags a bit. The sturdier RHSS actually makes a better pocket.

They're quite addictive, these little softies. With the completion of this second set I've knit through a fair chunk of the worsted acrylic yarn in my stash. What remains fits in a shoebox. But I bet I could squeak out a few more monsters. Now I just need to find a reason to knit Penelope the Empathetic Monster. I've already pm'ed Isaida to see if she can use a few more monsters. Any other suggestions for toy donations are welcome.

Vest update: the vest fronts are knit to the shoulders and I made a good start on the back. Well I thought it was a good start until I noticed that I had dropped a stitch at which point the vest was put aside in disgust. Tonight I'll settle myself on the sofa with the vest on my lap, take a few deep breaths and go searching for that stitch with a crochet hook and a lot of patience.

Year of Projects - Christmas in Tallinn 02

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

As it turns out a braided cuff and a multi-row colourwork band make the leg of my first Christmas in Tallinn sock quite inflexible. Both Gavin and I really struggled to get our heels and arches into the sock. And then struggled to pull the sock off again. I've purposely made the foot of the sock small - the accountant at work is very petite and she's been asking for a pair of handknit socks for ages - but I hadn't meant to make the socks difficult to get in and out of. She works Tuesdays, so I'll ask her to try this sock on then. Depending on how that goes, there may or may not be a sock number two. Another idea I had was to knit the colourwork panel on larger needles to make the cuff bigger and less stiff. That might work.

The subtlety of the dark variegated yarn still disappoints except from very close up. Maybe a yarn that wasn't so dark would have been a better choice? The main coloured yarn is a new one to me - Sandnes Garn Sisu - and it's left me disappointed. It's very splitty. Very. And I encountered more slubs and unevenness in yarn texture than I expected. Other Ravelers comment that it's soft and hard-wearing so maybe it will redeem itself in my opinion over time.

Enough complaining; let's focus on the positive. Spring has definitely arrived around here - my tulips and lilies are up and my crocuses are blooming. All the trees and shrubs have buds. We've seen lots of robins and red-winged blackbirds at the backyard feeders. And a pair of rock doves are nesting in a wall mounted planter at our front door. So far mama dove has been serene and unflappable with all the comings and goings on our porch - hopefully that doesn't change once there are eggs and the little ones. Can't wait to see that!

it's not a vest

It's kind of you not to mention the fact that this is quite obviously not a photo of the vest I've been working on. Don't worry, there's no problem there; it's just going more slowly than I predicted. The right front is knit, the left front is in progress, and I suspect that the back, the neckband and the armhole bands will take the rest of the weekend to complete. Or maybe even longer than that. I'm absolutely dreading the "pick up stitches evenly" steps to create those bands - that's make or break in terms of how polished the finish vest looks, isn't it?

Rather than confront that challenge, I seem to be indulging in some typical procrastination behaviour: creating a small distraction for myself. I've started a smaller, simpler project - another set of monsters -  that I know I can complete in a couple of days without much effort. Based on my experience of last week with this pattern, I'm confident I'll be satisfied with the result so there's no anxiety there. And I've got a series of justifications ready if you want to hear them: it's stash-busting, I can ship'em with those I finished last week, it's for a good cause, I was too tired to give the vest decreases the attention they needed ...

Enough excuses, it's time to overcome all this procrastination and push ahead on the vest... as soon as I finish these little monsters. I promise.

work in progress Wednesday

According to the five-day forecast our early glimpse of summer will end shortly and we'll be back in vest-wearing temperatures by Friday in Toronto. My goal then is to finish the vest by the weekend - that might be overly optimistic though. I've knit the body of the vest and am now working on the left front between the armhole and the neckline. But this is the tricky part because now I have to work back and forth in the established pattern while managing a complicated schedule of decreases at both ends of the needle. It's so easy to mess this up; I need to really pay attention to what I'm doing now. No more knitting with distractions until this is done, however long it takes.

Now that the right front and the back stitches are on waste yarn I was able to try it on. It fits quite generously. In fact I probably could have gone down a size, but I'm okay with the loose fit. I chose the tunic length to knit and that looks perfect - the bottom sits low on my hips which is just what I wanted. Seeing it on was quite a relief because I had a lot of doubts as I was knitting ... you know that feeling of dread that after knitting many hours and hundreds of yards the thing won't fit and you'll be ripping out and starting over? Reminds me of why I so seldom knit garments for myself. Anyway, dodged that bullet so far!

As always on Wednesday there's a link party at Tami's Amis where you can see an amazing range of projects and progress. Be sure to check them out!

FO: Daphne and Delilah

Late yesterday afternoon I had a bit of time to work on my monster project; that's all the time I needed to complete the little monster and all the finishing. The pattern is Daphne and Delilah from Danger Crafts. It's priced at $6 US -  a bit steep considering the simplicity of the pattern -  but it's darn cute and I'll get my money's worth if I make a few more. The nice thing is that you can knit whatever size at whatever gauge with whatever yarn you have on hand. That's great for stash-busting! I'm already looking through my remaining stash of acrylic worsted to plan my next monsters.

I'm very happy (relieved?) at how well the finishing went. Three needle bind-offs at the tops of the monster provide a tidy seam. Picking up the stitches for the front pocket proved easier than I had feared. And it looks like I'm actually getting the hang of mattress stitch which I used to close up the crotch areas. Those little monster mouths were the most challenging. Turns out felt is quite difficult to cut. Who knew? I gave up on free-handing them with scissors and instead created illustrator templates on the computer which Gavin cut from felt with an olfa knife on a cutting mat.

We spent most of yesterday at the Home Show and Canada Blooms but overall I was a disappointed. The garden plantings shown mainly featured spring bulbs and some roses - my local garden centres show a better variety of plants. And there was nothing very interesting about garden hardscaping or construction either except one booth showing hugely expensive tiered garden boxes that were quite attractive. Well, at that price they'd have to be! Lesson learned: I'll save my time and money for craft shows.

Year of Projects - Christmas in Tallinn 01

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

Full disclosure: this is actually my second go at these socks. On my first go I used navy as the second contrast colour but found it too dark and too close to the dark green contrast colour. Oh, and I messed up the chart too on that first go.

Now with peacock blue for contrast the colours are playing nicely together and my Christmas in Tallinn sock is well underway. The pattern as written directs that the last nineteen rounds of the chart are to be worked twice but I think once will be enough for me - after all I want a wearable sock not a Christmas stocking. If you click the above photo to enlarge you will see that the variegation of the dark coloured yarn is detectable. It's a bit more subtle than I had hoped but I'm only about a third of the way through the cuff chart. Maybe it'll become more obvious as I knit more?

The sock begins with a "double-start cast on" which I'm now (finally) able to do without prompting from diagrams or a YouTube video. The next two rounds of the cuff are an Estonian pattern called Kihnu Vits - alternating colours knit in round one are purled with the opposing colour in round two while both yarns are carried in front of the knitting so that the purl bump from round one and the float from round two create a lateral braid. Cool huh?

There won't be much time to work on these today though. Gavin agreed that this weekend we could do whatever I wanted, so we're off to The National Home Show and Canada Blooms. Maybe seeing all those gorgeous gardens will be enough to keep me out of my own for now despite the mild weather?

a monstrous start

I know I should be working on my vest, but then I saw this. For her "Monster Mission of Love" Isaida is collecting knitted monsters to distribute to children in foster homes in her region. What a great idea! And what a perfect project for some of the acrylic worsted yarns in my stash, not to mention safety eyes, white felt and stuffing that I also have on hand. When I pulled out the yellow and gold I wasn't too sure how it'd look, but it's really working for me. I like the two colours together better than I ever liked either of them separately. Weird, huh?

Have a look at the incredible amount of cuteness in Rebecca Danger's pattern shop - it was a tough task to decide where to start! Finally I settled on Daphne and Delilah and why not? It's a two-fer. Besides Daphne has a pouch on her belly; that's got to be handy, right? The pattern is very detailed and very clearly illustrated so it's going well. I started with jogless jogs but I'm not sold on them, so I think I'll knit the rest letting the jogs happen at colour changes. The designer suggests a row counter, but as the colours alternate every three rounds I don't find it too hard to keep track of the row counts.

Now let's see if I can wrap this monster project up quickly and get back to that vest.

Finished Object Friday

For the last couple of days I've been knitting my vest fairly monogamously - after all I'd like to finish the vest while the weather remains vest-suitable. But I did take a bit of a time out to crochet this little star dishcloth. I've crocheted it with a size H hook from scraps of dishcloth cotton, and despite the pattern name it works up to a not insubstantial 8-1/2" across.

In fact round five should have been yellow as well, but after round four there was very little yellow left so I worked that round as well as the edging in natural. And dare I say, I think it's pretty nice this way. This pattern has crocheted up extremely well - my finished result is flat, even and looks exactly like the pattern photo - so it's a keeper. Too bad I don't have more scraps of different coloured dishcloth cotton in my stash. Although ... maybe I can convince my crafty friends to donate some of their scraps ... or trade them them for entire balls of natural colour? Hmmm. Must work on that.

If you've got some time today, have a look at the parade of finished objects at Tami's Amis. There's almost always something inspiring and surprising!

Work in Progress Wednesday

are you sitting, Dee?

The last several days of very mild spring weather left me perplexed yesterday about what to wear to work. With temperatures in the mid-teens Celsius it's still not really short-sleeves weather, but long-sleeved sweaters are too warm and wintery. What I really need, I decided, was a vest. (And apparently, if you read Dee's blog, she came to the same conclusion yesterday). So I cast on this one that's been in my queue for ages with some Briggs & Little aran weight yarn from my stash. I have plenty of yarn so my plan is to make it about hip length.

There's a second reason for this vest; after weeks and months of sock knitting I have an urge to knit something with bulkier yarn on bigger needles. When you're trying to knit through your stash, progress can seem very slow on size 0 needles with fingering weight yarn. After binding off a pair of socks yesterday, the inclination to start another pair was entirely missing. Aran weight instead then.

Now as the Yarn Harlot has often observed it would have been better if the urge to knit this vest had arrived several weeks before vest-wearing weather. As a knitter I run the risk of finishing an aran weight wool garment at the most inappropriate time if the weather continues to get warmer. But spring is early this year, and if I knit monogamously on this project hopefully I can finish it with weeks of spring remaining.

So that's what I'm up to these days. Happy pi day! And Happy Birthday to my brother Mark! Be sure to check the links at Tami's Amis to see what everyone else is up to.

FO: Huron Mountain Socks

Ta Da! Although I've photographed them on my feet, and although I'm wearing them right now, these socks are not for me. They're about a half inch shorter along the foot than I would like them. Given that most people's feet are a half inch (or more) shorter than mine, I suspect they'll fit many others just perfectly.

The heel is a band heel - aka German strap heel - where the heel flap narrows down towards the heel turn avoiding the need to work gusset decreases. That's a good thing with a colourwork pattern continuing around the foot! I wondered about whether this heel would feel any differently on my foot, but it feels just fine.

The pattern, Huron Mountain, is meant to mimic a Loon's plumage, and I think it does that quite effectively. The likeness would be more pronounced had I used black yarn instead of grey and white yarn instead of cream but I like it nonetheless. Besides, it's the best I could do with yarn from my stash. So that's another very nice pattern from Nancy Bush! And another project finished from my Year of Projects.

Year of Projects - Huron Mountain 02

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

The high today is expected to be in the double digits. In fact, we're expecting temperatures 10° C above seasonal norms all next week (10°C = 18° F!). Yippee!

My first Huron Mountain sock was finished Tuesday and I've been overwhelmed by its popularity. Several coworkers and friends have tried to put dibs on this pair or place orders for their own pairs. Even Gavin has remarked that he particularly likes this pair, and he's not generally a fan of socks at all. The second sock was cast on Friday. After some steady knitting through last night's hockey game I've finished the first chart and am ready to start the second to complete the leg to the heel. Once the sock is done I'm going to wear it around the house a bit  - with shoes and in stocking feet - to see how I like the feel of the banded heel. It's kind of nice to be able to carry the colourwork chart through the foot with the interruption of gusset decreases, so I'm hoping it tests out okay.

My guess is that my second Huron Mountain sock will be finished about midweek. Looking through the list of patterns remaining to be knit, I decided to tackle Christmas in Tallinn next. The pattern is written as a Christmas stocking, but as the chart repeats at 18 stitches which can be knit 4 times across 72 stitches, I'm determined instead to knit it as a pair of socks instead. Socks with a very fancy leg pattern, that's for sure, but socks they will be! In anticipation I had a look through my stash for yarn that would work; here's what I decided upon -  the main colour will be a light grey, the main contrast will be worked in a variegated blue/green yarn and for the small bits of the second contrasting colour in the cuff I'm using a solid navy blue. I hope the effect will be interesting and dramatic. We'll see by next week!

That's it for me this Sunday - it's way too nice to stay inside! Have a great week on your Year of Projects and whatever else you turn your attention to!

two little projects

Yesterday I finished the Barbie Dress (pattern 781) that I had started on Tuesday. When I cast on the dress I thought it'd be a quick little project - boy was I wrong! Turns out that dress uses a lot of yarn and takes a lot of time. I should have guessed that from the beginning when the first instruction is to cast on 162 stitches for the skirt! Yikes! The bottom part of the skirt is straight stockinette so it's inclined to roll up; if I were to do it again I'd start with a few rounds of garter stitch to straighten it out. Following the pattern directions, there should have been more purple reaching higher but when I ran out of purple I decided that the drop waist would start a whole lot sooner. Round 19 of the decrease shaping - with all its K3tog TBL and m1 K1 m1s - was nearly the death of me. That's enough of playing with dolls for now! Phew!

With the dress finished, I moved on to crochet a square to fulfill a promise made to SIBOL. This is for their "One Heart from Around the World" blanket. The challenge had been posted for some time and it turned out that they were extending the deadline hoping to get a few more squares. I checked my stash, I had just enough red worsted, so I signed up for one square. Of all the squares I've crocheted this is not my favourite. Those really long double-triples in the bottom corners just bug me, as do the stitches worked two rounds below at the top centre of the heart. As well because the centre of the square is worked as a ring of seven chain stitches, it leaves quite a hole in the centre of the block. I used the yarn end to tighten that ring to narrow the hole but if I did this square again, I'd use the adjustable magic ring instead.

Now that these two little projects are wrapped up, it's back to socks. I cast on my second Huron Mountain sock last night. Gavin's had a migraine for the last couple of days, and it's still "buzzing" in his head today, so it looks like a quiet weekend for us.

Work-in-progress Wednesday

This morning I have one finished Huron Mountain sock. Before casting on the second I decided instead to use those size 0 needles to knit up a Barbie Doll dress, pattern 781. A local charity collects the dolls and their gear for a store they open before Christmas - parents on social assistance can shop for gifts for their children at no cost. Sounds like a good use for my sock yarn scraps, so I'm trying to knit an outfit or two a month.

As for the book, at the moment I'm reading The Cat's Table. Last year at the beginning of October I decided to read all the books on the Giller Prize shortlist. Although the prize was awarded at the end of October,  I'm still catching up: two read, one started and three to go. Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient is one of my most favourite books ever in no small part because of the lyrical quality of his prose. So far his new book is just as fulfilling; absolutely beautifully written, worth savouring every sentence and every paragraph. And so far each book on the shortlist is a completely different animal from the last which has been kind of fun.

There's lots going on in the craft world - check out the links at Tami's Amis to see what everyone else is sharing!

dishcloth fail

Some unknown amount of time ago I picked up this free pattern sheet for a Snowflake Dishcloth while browsing the yarn aisles at Michael's or Len's Mill. Looked pretty cute in the picture so I thought I'd give it ago. But I've stopped and frogged before even completing the final round. One thing's for sure - there must have been some serious blocking to make that dishcloth look so pretty in the pattern photo! Theirs looks much sturdier, it lays flat and their picots uniformly point in the correct direction. Who blocks a dishcloth? Seriously?!

Of course it doesn't help that I was using natural colour cotton from my stash rather than the bright white they recommend. Looks rather like the grubby snow that accumulates at roadsides several days after a snowfall, doesn't it? Not nice at all.

Never mind. I think I'll go back to knitting socks now.

Year of Projects - Huron Mountain 01

Knitting on the Road: Canada • Canal du Midi • Conwy • Dalarna • Denmark • Friday Harbor • Hiiumaa • Huron Mountain • New England • The Road to Oslo • Santa Fe • Spey Valley • Christmas in Tallinn • Traveler's Stockings • Uinta Cabin • Unst • Whitby

There's something about a colourwork chart that I find addictive. As soon as I finish one section of a chart I can't wait to start the next just to see how it looks. And then onto the next, and so on. That's the story with this sock too; I'm drawn from one section to the next with an impatience to see how it'll look. And as a result, this Sunday morning finds me halfway through the first Huron Mountain sock after just two days of knitting.

The pattern is meant to look like the plumage of the North American Loon. To be more accurate I should be using a true black instead of charcoal grey and a bright white instead of this creamy white, however I'm not a fan of knitting on tiny needles with very dark coloured yarn. The light in my living room is not sufficient and my eyes are not up to that challenge. Besides I'm trying to knit from my stash, so this was the best I could do.

The heel construction is quite unusual - one Raveler described it as a "band" heel. The heel flap is shaped so that after picking up stitches to reinstate the round the original number of stitches is attained without need of any gusset decreases. In so doing the "lice" pattern is carried on from the leg and worked right away after the heel without adjustment for a decreasing stitch count. This is also the first time I've worked "lice" stitches - widely spaced single contrast colour stitches within a field of the main colour, something that finds its roots in traditional Norwegian knitting.

One more thing to admit: this is one of the patterns in the book that I didn't want to knit. Now I'm glad I did. I've learned a new heel, I worked a lice pattern for the first time and, as it turns out, I like the sock more than I ever thought I would. Another pleasant surprise from designer Nancy Bush.

Finished Object Friday

It was Thursday morning when I finished my New England socks. Really pretty, huh? Both the lacy pattern and the sorbet coloured yarn. On either side of the central diamond pattern and around the back of the top four inches of the leg there is a "lacy rib" pattern which is surprisingly stretchy. I'm always afraid with lacy sock patterns that there'll be no stretch and no give, resulting in an ill-fitting sock. Not so in this case. And once more I realize that I should never doubt Nancy Bush - she absolutely knows what she's doing when she designs socks.

I changed from a round toe as written to my usual with decreases every second row on each side - is there a name for that toe? It's my standard because I just can't abide the feel of decreases across the top of my toes or under my toes.

The heel is a bit odd as written - the slipped stitch rib pattern continues from the heel flap across the heel turn - but I decided to just go with it. Will it make the bottom of the heel sturdier? Maybe. I've worn out plenty of socks at the bottom of the heel so that seemed like a good thing to try.

The yarn is the biggest surprise in all of this. Based on what I saw in the skein I expected pink and yellow stripes - kind of like what happened on the back of the heels. Instead, for the most part, the effect when knitted is virtually semi-solid. It's a happy accident and it certainly suits the pattern nicely. The yarn is Alley Cat sock from Wandering Cat Yarns in a colourway called "Peeps", which is not unlike their stock colourway "Aurora". It's a lovely yarn to knit - very soft and non-splitty.

Upon finishing the socks I considered what to do with the leftover yarn. Seems to me these colours would suit a blue-eyed blond beautifully so Barbie doll clothes it is. Here she is "dolled up" in a sundress based on this pattern. Looks like there's still enough yarn for another sweater or two. They are quick little knits; besides Barbie dolls and clothes are always welcome donations at the local charity No-Charge Christmas Store.

As always on Fridays, check the links at Tami's Amis  - prepare to be inspired, amazed and surprised!

Surmount the Stash March Update

We're now two months into my year long commitment to Surmount the Stash in 2012, so it's time for another report card. Let's see how I did this month!


Monthly budget of $50 for all knitting related expenses: I spent $20.00 for the grey wool from Dutch Hollow Acres for Susie Rodgers Reading Mitts + $6.00 for the Windscheif pattern + $4.50 for the Koolhaas pattern + $10.02 mailing costs for a SIBOL square and a chemo cap + $31.08 at the Purple Purl for a retracting measuring tape and a skein of sock yarn + $23.56 at Knit-o-matic for highlighter tape and some Debbie Bliss Cashmerino =$95.16. Remembering that I was $0.98 over last month, I'm now $46.14 over budget. That's not very good, is it? To get back on track I'm pledging not to spent one more cent this month.


Manage my WIPs: Once again I've been disciplined about starting and finishing things. Three hats and one charity square were completed and shipped to charities. Another two baby hats have been knit and are awaiting donation. It felt like I was starting and finishing something about every other day through February and now, on the first day of March, there's one last sock on needles that'll be finished before I leave for work this morning.


Plan projects to work through my inventory of yarns in my Stash: This month there were a few yarn purchases and pattern purchases that weren't strictly necessary. As well, for much of the month my projects were in sock and baby yarn - stash busting goes much more slowly when the yarn is so fine! I didn't make any scrap yarn socks last month and just one dishcloth - I can and will do better this month.


My conclusions? The grades on this month's report card have definitely slipped when compared to last month. Time to recommit and see how what I can accomplish in March.