After completing the last round of custom orders, I've actually started making forward progress again! I packed up a footlocker's worth of yarn that'll go with me during our move, but I have another left to knit from for the next few weeks.
In the meantime, I've broken out the kit I've made up for the second stocking for my brother and his partner. I finished the cuff and plan on tackling some of the colorwork tomorrow while it's nice and rainy out. It's a pretty quick knit, but it requires slightly more brain commitment than I usually need. It'll be good to have those done, boxed up, and ready to mail out when the time comes.
After knocking out a pair of socks for my shop, I decided to make myself a pair of convertible mitts. They turned out pretty kick ass, if I say so myself. I originally intended them to be just red, but the cream and yellow jumped out of my scrap drawer and had to be used. The cream and yellow stripes are at the top of the cuffs, the top of the mitten flaps, and two narrower stripes run at the base of the fingers on the fingerless glove part. Pleased!
While looking for my next project, I ran across six balls of a wool-acrylic blend yarn. I vaguely recall receiving it a few years ago from my mother-in-law, and it's been stuck in one of my stash boxes since then, awaiting a project.
I did some experimenting with it, knit a couple of swatches, and found that it actually had a pretty hand and excellent memory. Both of those qualities made me automatically assume that it'd knit up into nice socks, and indeed it did! I'm actually pretty impressed and listed
the pair in my shop.
They're a bit less, price-wise, than my 100% natural fiber socks, which is probably a good thing. They're also easier care than most of my current listings, and I hope both appeal to people who've been put off before.
I have two more colors that need to be used up, and I hope to get to them in the next week or two. It's great to see my item count climbing! Of course, it'd be nice to have to work my butt off to keep things stocked, but I might actually reach my goal of 50 items by the holiday shopping season.
I have a constantly updated catalog of the yarns I have, but I never realize exactly what I have until I go stash diving. I dumped all of my tubs and bins out onto a sheet and went through all of the yarns I could find yesterday.
Some of them are what I find to be unfortunate colors, some are similar to colors that I use regularly, and some just disappeared into my stash. My plan is to move these long neglected skeins to the front of the knitting line as a housekeeping measure, otherwise they'll keep getting rotated to the bottom of the pile.
I plan, after that task has been completed, to make an order and incorporate some 'lighter' and cooler blends for the upcoming spring and summer. I'm trying hard not to focus on new yarns, because I really need to beef up the inventory in my stores. I'm considering doing a few shows next autumn, and I'd like to start the year out on top.
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