Stash-buster blanket

 I have decided to make this doubleweave blanket a complete stash-reducing project!

 So far, I have woven through several skeins of acrylic yarn, and it feels so good to clear them off my shelf!

 

This blanket is weaving up so quickly.  In fact, I have only spent a few hours weaving and I am at least 75% done!

 The two layers seem to be working out just fine, too!  Here is a peek inside:

 It's such a long stretch that my depth of field on my camera has a hard time!  Here's the other end:

 So far, I have managed to weave through 24 bobbins of yarn! 

 

It's really thick on the loom.  I hope 4 yards of warp wasn't too long!

I haven't done much plain weave since getting my floor looms, but it's cute!  I kind of miss it!

I can't wait to experiment with some doubleweave 2/2 twills on my 8-shaft loom.  That will be amazing, also!

But first, I must finish my first doubleweave feat! 

It's just a little Texas dirt!

Now that I'm all caught up on some major projects, I can focus again on stash-busting!  I have gone back to the alpaca from Texas I purchased several summers ago when I went to visit my sister.  We found this yarn store randomly on our way to sight-see near Louisiana.  It's pretty dirty alpaca!  It sure doesn't look this dirty, but my hands are pretty greasy and grimy afterwards!

In my opinion, alpaca is very hard to spin.  It's very slick and breaks apart so easily.  I decided to mix it with wool, 50/50.  I really like the original color best, but it's SOOO much easier to spin when it's mixed with half with wool!  I think I will go with the easier to spin... plus, it will make it last a little bit longer.  Great... just when I need when I'm trying to stash-bust!

Go stash busters!!!

Stash-buster Rug

I can't get Zip off this wool rug, not that he's a nuisance about it or anything. And it really IS a project that he CAN sit on!  Scout really likes it, too!

It ended up being a really cool rug, even though it's made out of stash-busted materials!  I really like the pattern.  It reminds me of an Indian rug that my grandma purchased on the Navajo Indian Reservation in the 1950's or 60's.  The rug I'm thinking of is in black and white, and it's a lot thinner than this rug.  But my stash-busted rug is so nice and squishy!!  AND... it only used 4 balls of yarn.  I can make a lot of rugs!

The only problem is that the rug is REALLY slick on the tile floor, so I'm going to get some non-slip mat to go under it.  

This rug is for Brian because he doesn't like the cold tile on his feet when he first gets out of bed in the morning.  But I don't want the rug to slip out from under him!

Go Stash-Busters!!!!

Here's another balloon picture from the launch on Sunday morning!

This was actually the only balloon that launched due to the wind.  And we heard they pretty much landed in a field somewhere.  It's been fun participating in some of these local festivities!

Anyway, moving along into weaving stuff:

I've done very few rugs before, so I don't really know what I'm doing!  

But this is sort of an experiment so I can learn the basics and then maybe next time make adjustments.

I started out with my 2 yard warp from this luxurious French crochet yarn... from the thrift store and in my stash.

I sett 2 strands at 8 epi.  Then I put both strands through 1 heddle...
yes, I broke a weaving rule!  Or did I?

The weft yarn is brittle wool from my stash that is really only good for rugs.

And here it is so far!

It's really quite cool looking!  So far, the rug is very soft and I think it will give some great cushion on our tile floor.

By the way, this little amount was 6 bobbins of yarn!!

Holy cow... I think I should be moving faster than I really am, but this is it!  This is definitely a project which will take some time... but that's ok.  It keeps me busy and out of trouble AND it is a stash-busting project!

GO STASH BUSTERS!!!!

More on Stash Reduction

My hubby and I had a fun evening last night watching the balloon glow festivities!  We took a night bike ride over to the event and everyone thought we were workers!  Riding a bike is just not a common thing to do around here, so when people see it, they wonder why you're doing it!  We did fool a few people.  I started yesterday morning with a bike ride down a street that had a "road closed" sign on it... Silly me, I figured it didn't count for me since I was on a bike.  Little did I know it was the start of a parade!  Yikes... lets just say there were a lot of eyes watching me and people thought I was working that event, too!  I guess I was the parade pre-show!  Anyway, yesterday was a great day filled with great events, and it was fun to be really out on the town!






I'm so glad that Linda's projects all turned out so well.  It's now waiting to be packed up and head off to the post office!  The little armadillo will have a new home!








So here is my stash reduction, day 2.  I was able to work on spinning up the rest of the bag of yarn I started in December... I think it was December!  I have more yarn from this somewhere, but I spun that as 3-ply.  I also gave some to my mom and this stuff down here is 2-ply.  The bags of batt have so much in them that they will each produce quite a bit of yarn.  I am excited to possibly use this as a shawl or woven blanket for the winter.  I know the cats will be all over it, and I do want to make it so it can withstand use from them, too.  So, I'm thinking something with very small floats, like a 2/2 twill or even hopsack weave.  I love hopsack!  I am thinking it would be beautiful to make a plaid design just out of natural colors. 







Remember my alpaca from Texas?  I'm still working on it!  Here are a few skeins from the last time I was spinning this yarn.  I still have half a bag of alpaca to card and spin through.  This will be my next spinning stash reduction activity!



As far as weaving projects go, I'm still waiting to hear back about the bookmarks, which is ok because the other 1900 isn't needed until December... not that I want to procrastinate that one.  But I'm going to leave that to simmer on the back burner for awhile while I have a few other summer projects going on right now, like some sewing stuff and a few private sewing lessons for teenagers around town.  We have been making a few quilts and clothing!  It's been fun.

Another project I have up my sleeve right now is something for Brian's aunt Katie who lives in Seattle.  She wants some nice napkins to use at the dinner table, because the ones she has now are very old and just falling to pieces!  So, I sent her some samples and some colors a few weeks ago and she replied by email what she liked and didn't like, so now I have some direction.  She wants me to stick mainly to purples, although I can put in a few more colors as I see fit as long as it's not orange!  Also, she really liked the feel of the P2P2 sample I sent, it was a 2/2 twill.  It's so soft!  She likes the feel but doesn't want something so structured.  She also liked the basket weave sample I sent and the lace weave sample I sent.  So, I know that leaves some huge doors open, but I think I can narrow it down to something she will like!  I always get a little nervous before a big project like this for someone else, because I don't want to disappoint them!

Pieces of my closet

I have decided to go on a yarn and fiber fast, until I can get control of my closet again, and I want it to take about a year to get through it.  It's actually 2 closets now... and maybe a few shelves... but I will start with the worst of it all!

Maybe I should start like an AA meeting... but it can be a YA meeting (Yarnaholics Anonymous)

Hi, my name is Amanda and I'm a yarnaholic.  This is my closet:

A few weeks ago, it was looking pretty good.  In fact, it looked so good that my husband complimented me on it.

That was in March.

I don't know what happened... a little of this, a little of that... and this is what you get.  A culmination of clutter. 

So...

Before you rip into me about my clutter or my crazy challenge, let me assure you it's just this one area.  I have spent a lot of time and effort de-cluttering the whole house!  And it looks real good!

But this one closet.

Here is the color-coded tour:

• In light purple, we have my favorite 12/2 cottons... those will be preserved and saved!
• In light blue, we have some wool for scarves, same story as the 12/2 cotton!
• In light pink, we have one of those UFO projects that has been moved to 3 different housing areas.  Might be time to do something about it before it makes it to a 4th, which won't be for a long time... hence the reason it's time to do something about it!
• In baby blue, we have some rug yarn, so that needs to get used up.
• In red, we have some alpaca to spin.... LOTS AND LOTS OF IT!  In fact, I'm sure I could whip up 3 or 4 shawls from it!  I need to wash it first and then I can card it and spin it and then weave it!!
• In yellow, we have a mix of 8/2 and 8/4 cottons that will make great towels.
• Behind the spinning wheel is more rug yarn.
• In green, is my new cotton and linen I just got recently, and I'm not sure how to use it yet.
• In orange, I have my finished projects, they are being saved as gifts.  So when Christmas comes, look out family and friends!!

But as you can see, it IS time to do a yearly stash-reduction exercise and get through some of this stuff!  NO MORE BUYING until I can do some PROCESSING! 

And you know what?  This isn't all my stash.  No...

This closet doesn't even include the shelves...

Yes, THE shelves...

Ay, yi, yi!  Floor to ceiling of yarn, fluff to spin, and a few supplies...

Ugh.

It's almost overwhelming to have too much stuff.  I can power through this!