Big Bag of Yarn Giveaway!

I haven't held a giveaway in ages, so it's about time! I'm giving away many of the leftover skeins from my various knitting projects. I always seem to have at least a skein leftover when I knit sweaters because I don't know how much I will need when I stock up on yarn and I end up buying a bit too much. Here's what's in this pile:

• 1 skein Mirasol Tupa
• 1 skein Rowan Calmer
• 1 skein Knit One Crochet Too 2nd Time Cotton
• 1 skein Rowan purelife Revive
• 1 skein Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy
• 1.5 skeins Valley Yarns Northfield
• 1 skein di.Ve Autunno
• almost 3 skeins Fibranatura Heaven
• 1 skein Awana Kancha baby alpaca -- I've never knitted with this yarn. I won it in a contest, but I never knit with that fine a gauge

Of this batch of yarn, my favorites are the Hempathy and the Northfield. I've knitted at least two garments with each of these yarns. I love the drape of the 2nd Time Cotton, and I've knitted at least two garments with it also, but it's a bit too thick a gauge for summer pullovers. It's good for summer cardigans though.

To enter the giveaway, just leave a comment any time up until 12:00AM PST Monday February 11. Hmm -- that's just after the Lunar New year. Perhaps I will consider this a Lunar New Year giveaway!

Be sure to leave some clue as to how I can find you if you win. If your comment leads to your blog, that's good enough. Otherwise, a ravelry ID would work.

If you don't hear from me until then, Happy Year of the Snake!

FO: Quasi peplum cardigan

My latest finished object is from an improvised pattern. The yarn is Fibranatura Heaven. This might be a discontinued yarn, as I got it at a deep discount, along with the cream colored batch that I used for this sweater. I wanted to do something with some gathers since that would require more yarn than the normal cardigan and I had a ton of yarn. I didn't want the bulk of a full peplum, so I ended up with this quasi peplum cardi. The borders are seed stitch, and the stitch pattern at the waist is something called a "ripple" stitch that I found in one of my stitch pattern books. I used it way back in time on this skirt. It pulls the fabric in with a tighter gauge and is quite stretchy. I decided to use big snaps for the sweater closure so the buttons are decorative. I used some felt between the snaps and the yarn fabric to keep everything sturdy. I think I would have liked this sweater in a heavier yarn of the same gauge, but I'm pretty happy with it.

FO: Arc and Line Cowl

This is the Arc and Line Cowl from Knit.wear Fall 2012. My yarn is some merino yarn by Tattersall Mills which I bought as a souvenir from my New Mexico vacation. My gauge is a bit finer than the pattern's gauge so I added a few stitches to the sides, and I did more vertical repeats. While I was knitting it, I kept thinking of it as the "underwear cowl" because of how it looks when flat. The Other Half says it looks like a pair of feminine tighty whities.

FO: Lace Doily Cocoon Vest

This is the Lace Doily Cocoon Vest, knitted using Bergère de France Ecoton. I normally would not have ever found this pattern because I don't browse through the Tahki Yarns pattern books. My LYS had a knitted sample on display and allowed me to try it on and I liked how it looked. I didn't use the suggested yarn, and I think my yarn is a slightly finer gauge. This is probably a spring and summer type of garment, but I wanted to knit it anyway. It sort of has this 1970s hippie chick vibe which I like.

The pattern was a bit of a pain because I think it had some stitch count errors. Also, the lace pattern is directional so it wasn't easy to make it more or less symmetrical. It is knitted from right to left, and I did not see any instructions on how to terminate the lace pattern on the left side so I had to improvise. It's knit in a rectangle, as seen in the WIP photo. I added a row of single crochet on the underarm edge to bring it in and firm it up. I'm pretty happy with the end result though. I'll have to wait for warmer weather to see how it wears during the course of a day.

It wasn't me

I've done a little bit of yarn bombing myself, as seen here, but I had absolutely nothing to do with this one. It's pretty darn cute.

FO: Orbs Cowl

This is the Orbs Cowl from Knitscene Accessories 2012. My yarn is Debbie Bliss Glen. It's a bigger gauge yarn than what the pattern calls for, so I made one less horizontal repeat of the stitch pattern and I made only 4.5 vertical repeats instead of the six called for in the pattern. It was a quick knit, and it's very warm and fun to wear.

Furniture roulette

A series of events occurred over the last few days that involved used furniture.

1. I found this great curio cabinet at the Los Altos ACS Discovery Shop. (That place has the greatest stuff.) See image above.
2. I moved the cabinet up to SF to be used as a small liquor cabinet. It took the space formerly occupied by a very out-dated 1970's TV stand. The stand got hauled out to the street corner for free-cycling. It was picked up less than 48 hours later.
3. While walking the dog at night, we saw this black chest of drawers set out for free-cycling. I drove over and picked it up and we hauled it up into the spare room. See image below. It's actually an inexpensive piece with flimsy construction, but it's good enough for my purposes. It also had some bits of paint chipped off but a black Magic Marker took care of that.
4. The flimsy chest replaced a small plastic (lavender!) chest of drawers, which got hauled down to the garage.
5. The plastic unit actually replaced something in the garage, which was a sturdy but very ugly small wooden chest of drawers. (Yes, it was uglier than the lavender plastic). No photos provided for either of those units. The sturdy but ugly chest was hauled out to the same street corner for free-cycling. It was also picked up less than 48 hours later.
6. To complete this frenzy of furniture movement, I took an antique rocking chair (see last image) from SF to the Discovery shop as a donation.

So, here are the end results:

-- My furniture count: -1
Woo-hoo! At this point in my life, any decrease in the amount of furniture is good.

-- The number of pieces that have found or will find new homes: 5!

I'm being so green, I could just die.