2014 Event #2 (Iknitarod): Finished!

The Iditarod is done, so the Iknitarod knitalong is also finished!  My goal was to finish a new sweater (Driven), and I made it!

Pattern: Driven
Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Gaea in Midsummer Night

I actually knit the sweater in 10 days, and even though the goal of the Iknitarod was to finish before the final musher crossed the finish line, I actually finished (the knitting, not the finishing) before the first musher finished!  And I got the ends woven in, the blocking done, and the pictures taken before the Red Lantern, which is awesome.

The yarn was pretty good--the color is beautiful, the yarn is soft without being too delicate, and the yardage is excellent (it was only 3 skeins for the entire sweater).  However, every single skein had at least one knot in the middle, which meant I had twice as many ends to weave in as I expected, which is not cool, especially for a hand-dyed yarn that is definitely not cheap.  The yarn had been marinating in my stash for almost 4 years, so I'm really glad I finally used it (on a totally different pattern than originally planned), but because of the knots I'm not completely sure I would buy it again.

Anyway, I've got a few days of break time here before the next event (March Madness, starting up on the 18th).  I've finally posted a page of all the events and projects I'm planning for the year, so please join me for one or many of the events, if you're so inclined!

2014: The Year So Far

Yes, it's been way too long since I last posted, as usual. If it makes you feel any better, I do think about my poor, lonely blog a lot, even if I'm not posting as often as I'd like!

I've had a pretty eventful 2014 so far, in terms of knitting...

I spent several weeks in January organizing my yarn stash and projects (both FOs and WIP), and updating Ravelry with all the latest. I've even got most of my books in my Ravelry library, though I haven't gotten to the magazines yet, and my unspun fiber stash is another story altogether... But even so, I made fantastic progress on organizing things in a more useful (i.e., Ravelry-enabled) way. Here's a small sampling of my yarn photos (for more, or to see some of the yarn I'm currently trying to de-stash, check out my stash on Ravelry):

Then I participated in the Ravellenic Games in February (I think this is my third Games, if I remember correctly!). My goal was to finish one sweater for Jack:

Diplodocus in Malabrigo Rios

But the first sweater went so quickly that I also managed to finish a second one before the Olympics were over:

Necco Wafer Hoodie in Takhi Cotton Classic

And I got two medals for my efforts!

And then I was so proud of myself that when my friend mentioned the Iknitarod starting in March, I decided to go for it, and as of today I'm almost done with the body of a new sweater for me (sleeves to come next...):

Driven in Blue Moon Fiber Arts Gaea

And then I was so inspired that I've planned out a whole 2014 Knitting Challenge, where I'm going to knit along with major sporting events throughout the year! 

Thanks to my January stash organization, I've got my yarn all catalogued and I've got projects queued up based (mostly) on yarn that I have in my stash, so I'm all set for a bunch of productive knitting this year. (I'll put up a separate post with the dates and sporting events I'm going to be knitting with this year, in case you want to join me, or just track my progress.)

Also, coming up in a month is the LA County Yarn Crawl! I've decided to be more strategic this year about what I'm buying (since just how much stash I already have is very fresh in my mind), but I'm definitely planning to get out and visit some yarn stores, especially some ones I haven't been to before. I hope to see some of you there!

Happy knitting, everyone!

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