Worsted Bridie

We all struggle with our ever growing stash. In the past, I, like everyone else, just made accommodations to suit its inevitable growth. But this is going to change, my friends! I am getting rid of my stash, one skein at a time. How am I going to do that? I'm either going to make something out of the yarn, or I will give it away or toss it. No exceptions! No excuses! This is one of the first things I'm taking care of on my (very long) self-improvement list.

To start with my de-stashing, I started with four skeins of Borocco Ultra Alpaca worsted weight yarn in pink that was gifted to me. I'm usually not a pink person, but I needed a cute sweater to replace my thrift store sweater that is sadly, and very drastically, falling to pieces.

I started with searching on Ravelry for a sweater project in worsted weight. I just didn't find anything I really liked. There was a pattern in my Knit Knit book that I liked called "Bridie," but it calls for DK weight yarn.

So I turned to math.

I knit a gauge swatch with my worsted weight yarn on my size 5's and calculated that my gauge in worsted weight was about 4.5 stitches/inch as opposed to 5.5 stitches/inch as the pattern calls for. So I basically took all of the instructions in the pattern, and multiplied them by 0.8 (80%). "Cast on 56 stitches" then means "Cast on 44 stitches" (56 x 0.8 = 44). This is obviously a very simplified explanation  and there was a lot of trial and error involved, but it ended up working pretty well.

Of course, the joke's always on me. This project was intended to get rid of a bunch of yarn, but while I was finishing the last sleeve, I ran out. So that means I have to order some more so I can finish it. D'oh. I got desperate and disassembled my gauge swatch so I could finish the sleeve, and my friend D graciously ordered me another skein so that I can sew it up and do the button band.

Here are the finished pieces:

And by the way, this is Jorge! He certainly caught on quick that cats are supposed to get in the way as much as possible. He is the cutest, though. More about him on another day.

Here's a better picture:

It is blocking as we speak and hopefully within the next few weeks it will be sewn up and finished.

Hello Again

Well, hi. Here I am again. Since I haven't posted in a while, here's what I've been up to lately:

New Place

I moved into a neat house with 6 of my closest friends. It's an amazing historic house that's impossible to heat on a budget. I've got the best spot, the third floor flat. It's windows all around (no napping for me) and it has a great lake view.

I got an awesome new set of skis for Christmas!

So I've been out and about a bunch on those. I've also started dabbling in the sport of skijoring. If you've never heard of it (I think it's a midwestern thing) you should Google it, or YouTube search it, because it's fun to watch if nothing else. But basically I've been doing this by getting on my skis, taking my friend D's dogs to the park, and holding on for dear life. 

They don't look evil, but obviously looks can be deceiving. 

There is a more sophisticated method to it, however, and that usually involves getting some quality equipment. Skijoring set-ups like the Skijor Now and the Ruffwear kit cost between $150-$250. For me, that's a lot of money, but I really wanted it. I went back and forth on it, putting it in my Amazon shopping cart, taking it out, putting it back in again. One day I thought, hey, I could probably whip something together myself. Some nylon straps, some rope, some clasps, what else do you need? I set out to my usual first stop on my crafting tour, my parents' house. That's where I tell my mom what I'm planning on doing and she gives me materials if she has them, and coupons if she doesn't. However, when I got there, Mom was out so I explained to Dad what I wanted to do. He said, "Well it sounds like you just need a climbing harness." And yeah, that's pretty much exactly what I needed. Some people who skijor simply use a climbing harness that they already had, and it works well. Turns out Dad had his old climbing harness from his urban lumberjack* days that he was willing to part with.

I haven't tried it out yet, but I think it will work! It was free, and best of all, it looks totally badass! Yes that is real leather!

I'll be ready to go as soon as I get some snow :(

I'll do a post on all of my Christmas present projects soon.

*An urban lumberjack is what I call the guys who work for the city who come and trim and/or cut down trees if they're near power lines or what have you.