Next Years big projects - blankets and making them affordable

While I'm looking at my big projects for next year... I'm also looking at affordable yarn buying options AS WELL AS keeping an eye toward working with buying yarn from a dear friend who just opened up a new LYS in town.

She's been kind enough to offer to special order for me 'big' orders as well as offering a discount on big orders... and I'd love to do my shopping there all the time... but let's face it. Her wool collection has to be larger than her non-wool offerings for sale - that's just common sense. But she is trying to make sure she offers me options as well (which is VERY kind and considerate). So I do want to repay her kindness.

Generally speaking, if she's going to order yarn for me (in bulk) she'll have to get on average 10 skeins of yarn for each color ordered.

So, first out of the gate, one of the blankets I'm planning to make next year only needs 2 skeins of 5 colors and 7 skeins of a 6th color. If she already had in stock the colors I needed, I wouldn't feel bad asking her to order the sixth color in a larger batch for me. BUT she doesn't. I'm looking for rainbow-color-bright with black as the sixth color. I don't think it's fair for me to ask her to order five other colors if I'm only going to want 2 of the 10 skeins from each package as then she has to have someone else around who is going to want to make something in your face BRIGHT.

But, another project I'm thinking about making requires 15-18 skeins of the same color. THAT one I think I should order through her - she'll get to sell most of the order immediately and I wouldn't worry as much about the few skeins I wasn't using being sold as I will be picking a much more muted/in style tone of color.

But let's look at pricing (not including tax - simplify my math).

At the LYS - I can get about 250 yards/skein for $5.40 - but my LYS owner now hopes someone else wants to make a rainbow in your face BRIGHT blanket
At Knitpicks - I can get about 220 yards/skein for $3.00.
At the hobby shop - I can get about 350 yards/skein for $5.00.

For the 6-color blanket - I need about 400 yards for each of the first five colors and 1700 yards for the sixth color.

Knitpicks - 17 skeins - $51.00
Hobby Shop - $75.00 (2 less skeins for the sixth color)

In this scenario - Knitpicks is going to get my order because I can't get away with only one skein of the hobby shop yarn - I'd have to buy two to get 400 yards; which ends up costing me more in the end.

For the 1-color blanket - I need about 3600 yards.
At the LYS - if I order 16 skeins (to ensure enough yarn) $86.40
At Knitpicks - 18 skeins - $54.00
At hobby shop - $60.00

In this scenario - I'm still tempted to buy yarn at the LYS. Yes, I could save about $30 at knitpicks, but the LYS yarn is EVERY bit as nice, if not a bit nicer to work with AND I get to figure that a good portion of that difference is money that is staying in my local economy.

AND yes, I'm fully aware I can buy blankets cheaper at Walmart. This isn't about the end result blanket. It's about finding ways to invest in my hobby, make something beautiful and not go broke while doing it.

First December FO's

The mochimochi snowman was super cute, but man - it was kind of a pain to work with. Very fiddly at least in the beginning.

I found a couple of free Ravelry patterns and these aren't as tiny, but are still seriously cute.

First my snowman:  Rav link - Snowman Ornament

He's about 3" tall and uses leftover scraps. I used a little of my initial homespun yarn (very poorly done) - which is a great use for it since I won't ever turn it into something I can use.



Next my angel: Rav link - Quick and Easy Ornament

Also right about 3" tall and using left over scraps along with a little gold crochet thread. Also using a little handspun wool for stuffing for the head.

Per "a" he likes the snowman best, so I plan on making about six of them for him to take to school and hand out to his teachers, aids, and the nurse. Then I will make five more for myself and my immediate members of my family. It's a family tradition that's 25 years old this year to make home-made ornaments and share them with loved ones.

I figure now that I have the pattern sorted and the idea, I'll probably work on them a bit assembly style. Hope to have the first six done before too long so he can get them distributed.

December Planning

THERE WILL BE NO PLAN -!!!

But I do have the following on the needles that will get picked up and worked on as the mood strikes!

• OWL sweater - colorwork cardigan with about 10 hours remaining
• Brown Sweater (started in October) - about 40 hours remaining
• Mario Hat - duplicate stitching remaining - about 4 hours
• Teddy Bear - 90% of him remaining - about 8 hours of work

So, I wouldn't mind finishing the last two of those. But the first two will get finished to the last end woven in and trimmed - so that I can turn them in for future WIPtheFirsts.

Christmas knitting that I haven't started yet and will probably do this month... though if I don't there won't be anyone applying any guilt (best and only type of Christmas knitting I will do).

• Christmas ornaments for my family and Alex's teachers at school
• Red scarf for my future daughter-in-law

Since it'll be the new year around the corner.... there is also one last WIP that hasn't gotten a mention all year.... the hibernating project, the dreaded alligator. About 20 hours of knitting remains on him. And it's down to the nit-picky little bits. Not much to do, but it's all down to somewhat fiddly and fussy. But he's been hibernating for about 18 months and I would like to finish him. If I can get him to within 99% of done, he can be an AWESOME WIPtheFirst in the future.

I will pick out a blanket project, order yarn and knit a swatch for the New Year at some point this month. 

November EOM Progress

ARRRGGG! Again, I didn't manage to finish my OWL.

The Hat Time Trial followed by the enui that followed it, cost me. I knew it was going to be close and the OWL was the only thing I worked on for the full last week of November (sadly this includes housework, so, um, yeah - now I get to clean house today - lol!).  By Friday at noon, all I had left was the button-less button band. Approx. 93" of 22 stitches of K2, P2 Ribbing. I did 3" during my 30 minutes of lunch, getting me to 38". Which left me with 57". At 3" in 30 minutes, or 6" in 1 hour.... that would be 9-ish hours of knitting left... plus seaming and weaving in the final ends - so approx. 10 hours. I was only going to have 8 hours left before HPKCHC end of term.

SO CLOSE. SO DARN CLOSE.

But, if I wasn't going to finish, I wasn't going to stay up all night trying to finish.

So, instead... I tried to tackle some of my other class ideas.

COMPLETED:
1 mochimochi snowman

This took a LOT longer than I anticipated and I had a lot of trouble with it. I didn't have any fingering weight white yarn to use - so I used sport, but same size needles recommended (even though I'm a loose knitter -with the idea larger yarn would compensate).  It's certainly cute. And my son claimed it 2 seconds after I finished it. But I will most certainly NOT be making more like this. I might end up trying to see how big they end up with worsted weight yarn on size 3... but if it's as fiddly to start as this is? I probably will come up with a different ornament to make for my son's teachers at school.

Previously posted:
41 hats
2 cowls

ON THE NEEDLES:

My so-close OWL
This is a shot of the body being blocked pre ends woven....

Here's a close up on the colorwork, for a night shot, it's actually somewhat true to the color.











The Mario Hat (hat is finished, just none of the duplicate stitching yet):

And lastly, one little leg (all alone) of a teddy bear:

I also had my TKGA Master Knitter Level 1 hat to start... but it was 10:30 pm, I was tired... and that is NOT the time to try to start a master knitter project.

I may sigh and whine about what I didn't finish. But, honestly? I got a TON done this month. I just need to remember that being a single mom working two jobs? No matter how cupper-crazy I may be, I have boundaries and it's ok. Because... lookie what I did get done!  Seriously? I have a lot to be proud of, you know?

So, my plan for December is to rest and recharge! There will be knitting. And there will be FO's posted. But they will be whatever they will be based on motivation and moments. And no official plan.

Reviewing my 2012 goals for the year

Here were my original goals:

• 12 sweaters/tops - for me - in 2012
• 40 hats for homeless charity
• two baby blankets for Project Linus by April 1st
• whatever else comes my way through Dumbledore's Yarny

So, how did I do? 

• I finished EXACTLY 12 sweaters / tops for me.

I started 2 that I didn't get finished, one is SOOOO close (the colorful cardigan that was my OWL this term). But I just realized it needs 10 hours of work. I have 8 hours between work ending and the end of term at 2:00 AM CST tonight.

I will probably get it down to the last end to weave in (and probably wear it that way - lol) and weave in the final end for WIPFirst in January.

The second one is the brown one I got about 33% done in October. I'll probably pick it back up after my Christmas knitting is finished and it can be a WIPFirst in February.

I also knit a dog sweater and a kid sweater... so all-in-all, not too shabby.

• I finished EXACTLY 90 hats for Homeless/charity knitting

Woot! I figured that with the extra effort to do more sweaters I wouldn't have time for lots of hats (my goal last year was 100, and I knit 101 because I'm not good at counting, apparently).

Technically, I would have stopped at 40 if it weren't for the mega-Quidditch point options this term... and technically, if I had stopped at fewer hats, I probably would have finished my OWL sweater. so, yikes. But, in the end, there were a TON more points form the hats than the 13th sweater - even if it was an OWL.

• two baby blankets for Project Linus by April 1st

I actually finished four baby blankets. Sadly, the only Project Linus drop-off place in the area was no longer affiliated with that project. But they still went to a good charity and they are still now available for keeping babies warm.

• whatever else comes my way through Dumbledore's Yarny

They never put any more challenges out for this... so technically, I got all of the challenges met (lol).

But that said, ten of my charity hats were for Click for babies. There were two Animal Rescue cat blankets taken to a shelter. There were three scarves and three cowls made for a winter clothing drive for the homeless.

So, while I might not have been able to stick to the letter of the goal, I sure did stick with the meaning behind it.

I will probably do a couple more charity projects for Christmas presents, but there won't be much more added to my achievements for 2012. And I'm ok with that. I've felt a bit mojo-less post-Hat Trials earlier this month and I'm going to try to take it pretty easy on the knitting front starting tomorrow. (Tonight, I'm hoping to squeeze out one more small project and a couple of partials for some last minute points.)

Cleaning out stash

My wool allergies have gotten a LOT worse.

So, about a year ago I got rid of a ton of lower-quality 100% wool balls by shipping off a box to a random number drawing from asking folks if they wanted it within the Gryffindor house. Some of it got used for an OWL - how awesome is that?

But some of the nicer, expensive yarns I didn't feel comfortable gifting quite the same way. And I had thought about donating them as prizes in Gryffindor... but wasn't sure about that. So, instead, I listed them on Ravelry in Stash to be traded/sold.  They've been sitting there for a good year. It's not like there's a lot of yarn there... just one or two balls of different quality/type/etc. Some of them I did use to trade for the last Cleaning Wars prizes; and a couple of more are slated to go in teh next Cleaning Wars prizes sometime next month.

But what surprised me is that I've actually sold two of them, like within a week of each other.

It's not a lot of money - just $8. But hey. It's $8. AND I get to get rid of more wool from my house. How cool is that?!

My goal for next year is to eliminate all wool from the house as lately? Literally picking up the skein and moving it to another place with wool? Makes me break out in hives. It's got to be eliminated. So, I figure in January I'll decide what's decent enough to contribute as a prize. What's not will probably get thrown into a 'grab bag'... and I'll probably pick someone from my pride to send it as a random act of kindness.

Cyber Monday Yarn Shopping

Quite a few online stores are having cyber Monday sales today. Quite a lot of them are offering 25% off or 30% off or even 40% off.

But so far? The deal that I couldn't resist?

Knitpicks.com

Select yarn and tools are 50% off. And their prices are usually very reasonable to start with.

I had at one point two sweaters-worth quantity of yarn in my shopping cart. But only one of the yarns was at 50% off. So, I ended up deciding to move the non-sale priced yarn into my wish list instead.

So what did I get? I got enough sport-weight baby alpaca in a Heathered Indigo to make a sweater. Easily $150 worth of yarn (bought elsewhere); worth $100 at Knitpicks not on sale;  for $49.50.