Tricotbec: March 2013

Saturday, March 2, 2013

A conquering stash: year two

Well, another year just began and I tough I would give you all a second update on my stashing situation!

First, I would like you all to visit my new website: www.tricotbec.com! This very important step into my designing career was just achieved and I am very proud of it! I will also encourage you to subscribe to my newsletter, as I mean to use it a lot for shameless self-promotion, special discount coupon codes and giveaways!

To be honest, last year my stash won the battle fair and square by more money than I care to admit! See, I am one of those people who buys yarn because it is on sale, or because I have very optimistic plans, or simply because it was a crappy day and I felt like indulging myself. The later happens too often for my needles to catch up, as I have an incurable penchant to indulge myself!

So I my resolution for the year 2013 is not only to knit from stash until I finally win the war, but to design from stash as well. Again, same as last year, see: A story about a conquering stash.

Now, my stash is actually way to big to list the content of it here (and this would be a quite boring post). The fact that last year was apparently a very humiliating failure leads me to search for another way of organizing this war.

I have decided to focus on collections to help me get the motivation to actually use up my stash instead of day dreaming about all the possible things I could design with other yarns!

After analyzing the content of my huge piles of yarns, I was able to sort them into groups easily identifiable by the end products I can hope to get from it.

Here are the groups I ended up with (more or less):

Hats, mittens, cowls and other small accessories

My accessories stash

Now you may look at this and see that I seem to have a weird color theme: not a very wide palette of colors here. I made myself the same comment and arrived to the conclusion that I must widen my color palette in the future!

I am making a separate post for the plans for the accessories stash here : Frugal Knitting, a collection of accessories!

Garments for my son (size 4T to 6 years old these days)

Children's garment stash

Here I have to say is the lion's share of my stash. It was actually too big to fit on my kitchen table, so I stuffed it in this bin to show you the extent of my yarn-related expense relating to knitting for my only child! Way too much yarn for so little finished projects: I do solemnly swear to turn this around this year, and soon I will be posting about my plans for this, because I do have one!

Garments for a full grown women

Women's garment stash

Looking at this you will probably think again that I have a weird color theme. You will be right and I was weirded myself, because I don't wear that much purple and yellow! I do have plans for at least 3 out of the 4 garment quantity yarns you see here, so you can expect some garment designs from me in 2013!

Lovely fingering weight yarns for luxury items

Shawl stash

Now at least here we can see a wide palette range! I do have a lot of these, though less than last year because I designed my first collection out of last year's stash (my only victory of the year....). As I had a lot of fun last year designing a themed collection, I will do it again this year with another collection of small shawls. Follow "Ode to the Spring: a collection of sideways shawls" !

Now that I did sort my yarns into these useful groups, I am expecting this will help me get the motivation to work with the yarn I have instead of letting my imagination get the best of me!

Ode to the Spring: a collection of sideways shawls

Post Updated September 17th 2013

My small shawls collection for the year 2013 will be centered on 2 themes: a sideways construction and the Spring. The collections will be comprised of 6 small shawls using only onle skein of 100gr of fingering weight yarn or the equivalent ( I will be using lace weight yarns held double in this collection, but you can substitute as much as you want!). All the yarns I will use are from my Shawl stash, see my post: A conquering stash: year two.

Ode to the Spring is now available and completed! You can buy it for a discounted price of 15$ until December 20th 2013. After the last pattern is added, price will be 18$.

I have been planning this for a while now and most of the designs to be included in the collection are fully charted and ready for sample knitting. While I cannot promise a set release date for each design, they will all be released to the subscribers during the year, starting in May 2013.

Return of the swallow - Released May 1st 2013

Return of the Swallow is a uniquely constructed triangular shawl, worked from side to side with diagonal lines. In only one piece and finished with an attached edging along the small side of the asymmetrical triangle, it is both fun an intriguing to knit without being overly complicated.

You can now buy Return of the Swallow!

Apple Bloom - Released May 2013

Apple Bloom was first released exclusively as part of the lovely Biscotte&Cie yarn club and will be the second shawl of the collection to be released to the general public.

Apple Bloom shawl

Apple Bloom is worked from side to side in one piece with a classic triangular shape that is softened by the lovely vintage lace edging. Not overly complicated, it makes for a fast and rewarding small shawl sure to add a soft touch to any outfits!

Apple Bloom is now available for individual purchase as well as included in the collection!

Earth's Awakening - Released October 2013

Earth's Awakening

A triangular shawl with unusual lace pattern representing a freshly plowed field.

Earth's Awakening is now available for individual purchase as well as included in the collection!

Sweet Lilac - Released October 2013

Sweet Lilac shawl

Here is the first preview of this original crescent shaped shawl using easy short rows to create an elegant crescent shape. The design is ideal to showcase variegated yarns and can easily adjusted.