savannahchik knits

And The Winner Is...

beccamonstr and her suggestion of legwarmers.

There were several really good ideas, but in the end I went with this one because:

• I haven't ever made a pair of legwarmers
• I have a Jeep Wrangler (very little between you and the outside on the floor of the Jeep) and while my legs get cold my feet are just fine. I think legwarmers would do the trick--I hate hot feet so I usually wear knee highs or just deal with cold calves.
• I can already think of a few ideas for making up a pattern for them. In other words, it's a great excuse to do a little designing.
• They'll use at least 2 balls of the Koigu, which was a big requirement for me. I don't want to make 2 projects out of the same exact shade of Koigu. I just know I'll end up not finishing the second project, and that'd be such a waste of the yarn.
• I can see using some of the yarn I pictured to actually make the legwarmers.

The other ideas I was strongly considering:

• Pixie's bandana suggestion. VERY cute idea!
• Mary Beth's suggestion to do a turtleneck similar to Annie's. I like this idea A LOT but not for the colors I have right now. I will keep this one in mind though as I visit the LYSs. I see a T ranging from blacks at the bottom into greens and maybe a touch of pink. This will definitely mean I'll have to collect some yarn though.
• Dharma'a suggestion to do the Foxy Shawl. How pretty! I love the gradation going longways (similar to the pooling scarf without the anxiety of forcing handdyed to pool!). While you're looking at the Foxy Shawl be sure to visit the rest of Foxy's site. There are tons of Koigu patterns there!

So what does beccamonstr win? Well, I've emailed her* asking for a little direction in terms of the colors she likes. Koigu is too nice not to be used, so I want to make sure it's something that'll suit her. Once we chat and I do a little stashdiving/shopping I'll be sure to show you all too.

Thanks everyone for participating. I got some great ideas and inspiration, as well as the chance to meet some new commenters.

Koigu as Socks

I do still plan on making some of the double hanks into socks. One thing I've heard or read though is that Koigu socks tend to stretch out. Those of you who have made Koigu socks--do you find this to be true? Either way, I'd like to hear about it (including the gauge you used). I suspect some of it may be due to a looser gauge, but I'd like to know now so I can do this yarn right!

*I'm slightly concerned that my email might get filtered out as spam since it has the words "contest" and "winner" in it. If you didn't get my email please email me at savannahchik AT yahoo. Thanks!

Koigu Contest

Interesting comments to yesterday's post! Some of my favs:

• Christy and Katy had similar points in suggesting if we go shopping and can't find anything else that we'll buy sock yarn so we don't come home empty handed. This one hit home. I am positive that I do this (although I never noticed it until she said something).
• Johanna suggests I forget about knitting all the yarn and just roll in it. I like her style!
• Kris made me laugh when she said she plans to catalog her sock yarn before her next order arrives

And this one is the one that made me really think...

• Amy suggests I use the Koigu for something else.

I have considered that, but dismissed it because all the colors I listed are doubles. I bought 2 hanks just for socks. It doesn't mean I _have_ to make them into socks, but it seems like the best fit.

It got me thinking "What else could I do with all these double hanks of Koigu?". The 2 hanks total 350 yards, so I have 350 yards of each of the colors you see here.

So -- the contest...

What is your best suggestion for how to use this yarn? Use one ball, or many. Mix and match as you like. I will say that my inclination is to not split up the 2 hanks of the same color, but I'm open. My favorite suggestion wins...what else? A couple hanks of Koigu -- maybe from the stash, maybe new. I haven't decided yet.

So give me your best idea. I'll leave the contest running until Saturday.

454

That's the magic number. And even though there were over 100 entries, no one guessed that exact number.

The most popular guesses (at 3 each) were 189, 198, 243 and 437 (pretty close!) .

In the end, the person who got the closest without going over was Stacey. Pretty fitting since her blog's subtitle is "from my stash to yours". Stacey gets 3 skeins of Silk Garden color 74.

The closest guess (albeit over) was from Nolee at 455. So Nolee, you've won second prize! It's 300 yards of handdyed worsted weight (4spi) wool in purples.

And for third prize, I decided to pick a number at random just so everyone had a chance of winning. I picked number 7 which was Jackie! Her guess was 420. I'll be sending Jackie a hank of burgandy Brown Sheep Top of the Lamb and a skein of gold Lamb's Pride. The colors go well together and the yarn would make up nicely into a felted bag.

Congrats, Ladies!

Now, many of you left comments saying how lucky I was and how great it was to have such a stash. I've really put some thought into how I feel about it. And here's where I've ended up. I'm grateful to be able to go out and buy yarn on a whim when a new project strikes my fancy, but it really doesn't do much past that initial instant gratification. I've learned that all too often when an idea strikes I want to buy yarn for it RIGHT NOW and I end up making purchases that are less than ideal for the project. So, I've gotta stop that.

Also, I just love shopping for yarn when I'm in the planning stages of a project, and with a big stash I now feel guilty doing that.

So, here's what I'm doing about it. I'll be faithfully tracking all my stash yarn in my spreadsheet that I setup last week. This way I can make sure that I'm continuing the utilize stash yarn. This will let me know that I'm making progress even when it's not very obvious. I'm also going to try my darndest not to buy any more yarn until Maryland Sheep & Wool. And I will probably have more contests here on the blog. I think it's a great way to share the extra skein or two leftover at the end of a project with someone who might have just the right inspiration for it. Plus it gives me a way to say thanks to all my readers out there who so generously give me advice and encouragement whenever I need it!

You Gotta Be In It To Win It!

I've gotten a lot of entries for the Guess the Stash contest, but none have been the exact number. Guesses have ranged from the low 100's all the way up to almost 2000!

I'm extending the contest to end of day today so there's still time to enter. Just leave me a comment here and I'll make sure you're in the running.

Also, I've decided to sweeten the pot and do a First, Second, and Third prize -- so you have 3 chances of winning.

Winners to be announced over the weekend!

448 Gallons: A Contest

I organized my stash this weekend. About 5 months ago I went to Target (that's Tar-zhay) and bought 4 big plastic bins to hold my stash. I took most of the bags and boxes and neatly placed them in the bins. I even had room left in a couple of them.

I knew I had more yarn but I was procrastinating pulling it all together. Bags were piled in a corner in the living room (somewhat out of sight) and on the sunporch and in the huge coffee table that comes chock full of stash hiding opportunities storage.

I've been meaning to get around to it, and when I wrote that post on Thursday I had this organization project on my mind. After getting the WONDERFUL comments from you all I knew I could take a few days off and get my stash in order once and for all.

Stella came over Friday night. As she knit I pulled out ALL MY STASH.

I catalogued everything in Excel and I now know everything I have. I feel freer. Lighter in fact. Hmm...sorta.

I now know that I have 448 Gallons of yarn. That's EIGHT bins of yarn. EIGHT. I cannot believe I have amassed this much yarn. I truly had no idea.

So this is where the contest comes in. Guess how many balls/skeins/hanks/cones of yarn I have in those bins. The person who most closely guesses the number without going over will win something wonderful from the stash. I'm not sure what yet, but really there's nothing bad in there.

Added Later

I've gotten several questions asking what might be in store for the winner. While I still don't know for sure, here are some ideas: a few skeins of Silk Garden, some Koigu, a felting kit in a variety of colors, sportweight Baby Alpaca, a couple hanks of Hand-dyed 4spi wool or some sock yarn. Whatever it might be it will be lovely and be all/predominately a natural fiber.

A couple of hints:

• Two of the bins have some room left in them
• I have one bin dedicated to sock and laceweight yarn
• I have one bin dedicated to cones
• I've counted each pound of yarn on the cone as 1 ball. So, if I have a 2.5 pound cone of yarn, it counts as 2.5 balls.
• Excluding the sock yarn, most of my yarn is 4.5-5.5 spi. I do have some bulky, but it doesn't even fill half of a bin.

Email your guess to savannahchik AT yahoo by Thursday afternoon. I will announce the winner by Sunday. Remember -- you need to be the closest one without going over.