Stashdown - January

Stashdown 2015 is my focus this year.
All projects must comply - including my spinning.

January's challenge, as decreed by the UPTOSDOWN dictators, was to knit with one of your oldest yarns.  At long last, I knit the Briggs & Little Anniversary Twist (aran) wool that has been in my stash since around the time that Cloth and Clay in Waterloo, ON closed.  That is, right around when I started knitting.

According to my Ravelry stash notes I had 6 skeins of this.  So I started knitting the Drops Chocolate Passion jacket expecting to have enough and, well, if I ran a little short I could stripe in some dark brown Philosopher's Wool that I picked up years ago at their home/shop.

 Everything was going well until I realized I couldn't find 3 skeins. They've disappeared. It seems I only have the 3 and a bit skeins that I had frogged years ago.
But I was not to be deterred from my goal of knitting this project and using up the Anniversary Twist.  Instead, I frogged the entire cabled back piece so that I could use that yarn to finish the other front and I reknit the back using the brown yarn.

 One skein of brown was not enough, however, with 3 skeins missing, so I started striping the sleeves in leftover Briggs & Little in a darker blue.
I do like the result.

Unfortunately, I feel that the shoulders are too wide for me.
Fortunately, I know some deserving folks who average out to my size with wider shoulders. I can't name names yet.

While this may have been my largest knit, it was most certainly not my only project for January.

First, I finished knitting this beautiful design by Kate Atherly - Wavedeck from the most recent Knitty.   I used some handspun BFL yarn I purchased that has been waiting for an appropriate project. When I saw this design I knew it was meant to be.
I started it as soon as the pattern was released - in December.  I had to refrain from knitting the final rows and binding off until January 1 to include it in the stashdown.  It is my Tequila Sunrise shawl.

To keep me from finishing this shawl in December, I knit up this Trafalgar True [rav link] vest using my own handspun - making it up as I went and inspired by the story of Trafalgar True and the sunstone.

I did bind it off before January - under pressure from hubby who insisted it was cheating to start so many projects just before the Stashdown and finish them on Jan1.  This is my pre-stashdown / last of 2014 knits project.

Returning to January, hubby suggested I make my dad a good warm scarf because he overheard my dad, taking the kids outside, saying how he now appreciates why some folks have warm scarves. He's only lived in Winterpeg... for many, many, many years.

It's simply a squishy double basket stitch.

And mom had asked me to knit a shawl for her friend. Mom paid for the baby llama yarn. I'll be asking her to 'pay me' for my work by helping clean fleeces. Seems fair, non?

 This Earthy Lights shawl started as a Chandelier Shawl designed by Anna Dalvi, but my needles were smaller and it wasn't coming out as big as I'd hoped, so I made up my own edging (in the dark yarn).  Mom already wanted a two-toned shawl like this.  The Eco-Llama yarn is FABULOUSLY soft.

There was one more FO at the end of January, but it is deserving of its own post. It has the longest history so far.