Stash Expansion Extravaganza

I may have gotten carried away with stash enhancement this month. I just wanted some self-striping yarn.

My new babies, L-R: String Theory Continuum Self-Striping in Coronal Mass Ejection (bought from a destash on Rav), Spinning Fates Toula in Sam The Snowman (Etsy purchase), Lollipop Yarn Feelings in Shazam (Etsy purchase), and Gynx Yarn Sock in Oil Slick (fantastic Christmas present from Gnome). Clearly I need to block Etsy on my computer.

I don't think this one counts as a self-striping, so I photographed it alone. I love the colors in this skein so much-I can't believe no one bought it before I did!

It's Another Crafty Girl's Strong Sock in Hideous Zippleback (another Etsy purchase... sigh). Finally, Tempted is offering a 20% off Christmas sale, so I convinced DH that I really need more blue yarn. Sidra came home to me.

Then there was the yarn that I bought for Christmas presents. I personally don't think it should count as stash enhancement since it won't be staying here for long, and therefore shouldn't count towards my total number of skeins acquired. Just sayin.

First up is another skein of Malabrigo Silky Merino. I'm going to make the same cowl that I made as a Christmas present for one of my friends (I'll show you that here in a bit), the Stacked Eyelet Cowl. My mom is a bit of a tomboy, so I got her a manly color, Smoke (per her request, nothing "pretty").

I'm also going to knit hats for my friend's 2 daughters, so I bought some Malabrigo Merino Worsted in the Gerino colorway. I think I'm only going to need one of them though-the first hat didn't take much.

I finished a Christmas present about a week ago. I am awful about keeping presents until Christmas, so the recipient already got it. She loved it. :)

Stacked Eyelet Cowl
Needles: US 7
Yarn: Malabrigo Silky Merino in Blackberry

I've finished one of the hats for my friend's daughters. One more to go.

Pattern: 54
Needles: US9 dpns
Yarn: Malabrigo Merino Worsted in Gerino

I'm knitting the Jacques Cousteau hat for DH's Christmas present. I've knit on it in front of him and he hasn't even noticed. Since I have until Christmas to finish it, I've set it aside for now while I work on other Christmas knitting (I need those hats done by Thursday, 12/15). I have somewhere between 4 and 6 inches. I start the decreases when I get to 8 inches or so.

Jacques Cousteau Hat
Needles: US 7 dpns
Yarn: Cascade 220 in 9465 (aka dark brown)

Finally, I have a shameful confession. I've jumped on the sock yarn blanket bandwagon. I started Shelly Kang's Sock Yarn Blanket last Monday. I have a small OCD problem, and I agonized over the decisions I had to make with this blanket. Do I knit it in diamonds like the original? Or in squares? If I go with diamonds, do I live with the sawtoothed edges or do I knit triangles to fill them? If I go with squares, there is a nice solid border. Regardless of orientation, do I knit a border? I had to start over 4 times before I finally decided on the square orientation. I still haven't decided whether or not to knit a border around it. The thought of picking up all of those stitches is a tad bit intimidating, but I do have a 60" knitpicks interchangeable cable. I also need to decide how big to make it. Each square is 2" wide or so. I think I'll probably want a 4'x5' blanket, so that'll be 24 squares wide by 30 squares tall. That'll be 720 squares. Sheesh. It's a good thing they're fun.

Here is my blanket as of 10 minutes ago:

I've had to make myself put it down in order to knit Christmas presents. When I finish a gift, I get to knit on the blanket for a while. As long as I do 2 or more squares per day, I'll have it done within a year. I hope to be done by May.

Starting this blanket made me realize exactly how few sock yarn remnants I actually have. I could have sworn that I have a lot, but I don't. After joining the blankie mania group on Ravelry, I discovered the world of sock yarn mini skeins. People apparently divide up skeins into mini skeins of ~20yds or 5g and then sell them or swap them. There are Etsy sellers who sell them as well. Since starting this blanket, I have bought.... 28 mini skeins. I've received 9 of them in the mail so far. I have to stop myself from buying more. Here's what's come so far:

2 mini skeins of Colinette Jitterbug in the Jay colorway. I have approximately 40yds total, and have already knit a square with one of them.

Next up are 7 skeins of Sunshine Yarns Sock Yarn in Deep Within, Peacock, In Bloom, Biosphere, Be Thankful, Everlast, and Bella. They are 6g each, totalling approximately 155yds. I've already used Be Thankful and Everlast in the blanket.

There should be some kind of warning on these things about how addictive they are. Good grief.