Top Ten Tuesday: You Know You Want It Edition, AKA Free to a Good Home

Well, there is still no definite location or time line decided yet, but it is definite that we will be moving. In preparation for what ought to be a really "fun" time (selling a house and moving with a 2 year-old, a newborn and two dogs), I am trying to declutter all areas of my house. This includes my stash. For the non-knitters who read this blog, your "stash" is your collection of yarn. The stash is an almost living creature. It starts small, but slowly (or, in some cases, not so slowly) grows until it becomes so big that you have to part with some of it. As stashes go, I think mine is pretty modest. A lot of it is leftover yarn (leftover from a completed project). There are a few impulse buys in there--yarns I thought I would use, but never did. I'm much better now. I find the project first and THEN buy the yarn. And, well, as most of you know, most of my stash is made up of ... acrylic. Yes, I know it is a dirty word in some knitting circles. But it's machine-washable and usually inexpensive and it comes in so many varieties. But enough of my excuses for my stash--as I mentioned I'm decluttering all parts of my life including my stash. I have 4 grocery bags of yarn that I am getting rid of--all yarns that I loved as a newbie knitter, but no longer see myself using anytime in the foreseeable future. I thought about just dumping it all in one of the donation barrels for Warm Up America. I think it's a great thing and I've always meant to knit some squares, but I've never gotten around to it. Anyway, before I go dump my lovely yarns on the unsuspecting charitable knitters of the world, I thought I would showcase it here in case any of my blog friends want to take a walk on the wild side of crazy acrylic (or polyester) yarn. Maybe you know some children who need some yarn to learn to knit with. Maybe you know some little girls who would love some flashy scarfs or hats. Or maybe you're just feeling wild and crazy and want to make a different kind of knit. Anyway, here we go. This week's Top Ten Tuesday:

Top Ten Reasons You Want My Destash (Free to a Good Home)

10. Lion Brand Homespun: "A richly textured yarn designed for afghans, throws and your favorite fashions." 98% Acrylic/2% Polyester. Bulky weight. Machine washable and dryable. A full skein is 185 yards. All but two of these are partials.

9. Bernat Softee Baby "Lemon Sparkle". 90% "Gentle Soft" Acrylic/10% Acetate. Sport/DK weight. Gauge: 22 stitches x 30 rows = 4 inches on Size 6 needles. Machine washable and dryable. 8. Yummy charcoal gray goodness. Bernat Soft Boucle "Grey Shades." 98% Gentle Soft Acrylic/ 2% Polyester. Machine washable and dryable. Gauge: 15 stitches x 22 rows = 4 inches on size 10 needles.

7. Bernat Matrix is a "Light" ladder yarn. 62% Nylon/ 38% Polyester. Machine washable and dryable. 140 yards. Gauge: 24 stitches x 34 rows = 4 inches on size 6 needles.

Lion Moonlight Mohair (partial skein). 35% Mohair/ 30% Acrylic/ 25% Cotton/ 10% Metallic. Gauge: 12 stitches x 18 rows = 4 inches on size 10.5 needles.

6. Patons Divine (approximately 4 skeins in Good Earth [actually a dark brown, not the gray that it appears in this photo], 1 skein Orangina, 1 skein Floral Fantasy). Bulky weight. 79.5% Acrylic/ 18% Mohair/ 2.5% Polyester. Gauge: 12 stitches x 16 rows = 4 inches on size 8 needles. 142 yards.

5. Lots more Patons Divine (partial skeins) as well as some full skeins (1 skein Shrimp, 1 skein Coconut Ice?, 1 skein Folliage) of it's generic twin: Darice Mo' Hair. 130 yards.

4. Yes, that's Lion Fun Fur! (2 skeins Raspberry, 2 skeins Red, 2 skeins Violet, and lots of partials). "An easy-to-use novelty 'eyelash' yarn. Use for entire projects, for trim or combine with other yarns." 100% Polyester. Machine washable and dryable. Gauge: 16 stitches x 20 rows = 4 inches on size 10.5 needles. 64 yards.

3. More "novelty yarn."

Dessert by Darice in "Lime." 100% Polyester. 57 yards. Gauge: 13 stitches x 14 rows = 4 inches on size 7 needles.

Fringy by Darice in "Rainbow Mix." Eyelash. 100% Polyester. 55 yards. Gauge: 16 stitches x 20 rows = 4 inches on size 7 needles.

Flutter by Darice. 100% Polyester. 56 yards. Gauge: 18 stitches x 26 rows = 4 inches on 4mm needles.

2. Look at all that fun novelty yarn. It's every little girl's dream to have tacky hand-knit goodies that only these yarns could produce!

1. It would really humor me to know that someone was using and, hopefully, loving these poor yarns that I am deeming unworthy of moving. Yet, I'm still a little sad to part with them.

Anyway, I hope my destashing has brought a smile to your face. If it has also brought out a yearning for acrylic, polyester or "novelty," then please let me know via the comments or an e-mail (ehstoneATyahooDOTcom). I will contact you to get your mailing address. I will hold on to the yarn for a week or so and then it goes to the unsuspecting folks who are knitting for Warm Up America.

Hope you are all having a terrific Tuesday!

A Contest

Sophanne over at beckyknitstoo is having a great contest. Check it out here to see if you can help her use her stash and win part of it.

Socks! Socks! Socks!

Warning: Pictures Totally Unrelated to Post

I seem to be commenting a lot about socks these days so I decided to do a new post about them. Since I started blogging, I seem to be constantly surrounded by sock knitters. Everywhere I look--socks, socks and more socks. I, as a knitter, had never been tempted to knit socks. I didn't know anyone personally who knits socks (although I didn't know any knitters except my mom, an older former co-worker and a few girls I taught how to knit). And even when I began to be surrounded by sock after beautiful sock, I was not tempted by the sock.



However, the sock gave me a different feeling, inferiority. Suddenly, I began to feel like less of a knitter because I don't knit socks. I felt that somehow my knitting skills (which have grown quite a bit in my few self-taught knitting years) were less "real" than the abilities to do toe-up socks and toe-down socks and socks with picot edges and gusset heels. I don't even know what a gusset heel is. I felt like less of a knitter because I've never seen (in real life), much less touched or used, Koigu or STR or Shibui.




I just read on Kathy's blog about her similar feelings about sweaters. It was nice to hear that I'm not the only one who gets Knitting Inferiority Complex. Apparently, KIC is more rampant than I originally thought because I also read this post by Maritza. Anyway, I've decided to follow Kathy's suit and be undaunted by my non-sock-knitting status.




There's only one problem...now I've seen the sock that has tempted me to knit socks. I saw these socks by Megan. More specifically I saw her Lemongrass Pomatomus Almost Kneehighs in STR Mediumweight in Lemongrass (the yellowy-green one in the upper righthand corner of Megan's sock picture). The sock in the Pomatomus pattern did not so appeal to me, but when put into this lovely Lemongrass, the intricate pattern is showcased in such a lovely way. I want some. I want them to be knee highs. Maybe in a lovely warm gray or gray blue or something more funky like this or this. I don't know, but someday I want them.




But that day is not now. For now, my yarn budget is at $0. Because due to uncontrollable circumstances, we may possibly be without our main income sometime in the not-so-distant future. Until there is a certain beer on the market, our little household may be surviving off of my sad little sporadic paychecks and our savings. It should be doable, but it will not be pretty. No money for fun extras like sock yarn or any yarn for that matter. As there is no lovely sock yarn in my stash (none of this or this or this or this), then I will continue being a non-sock knitter for now. But someday I'm going to knit those knee high Pomatomuses and I'm going to love them.