My Fourth Quarter Challenge project is done! Done pretty quickly because I was enjoying the project and yarn so much, that I just kept working on it. That, plus I’m still on a knitting streak and I’m trying to get as much done as I can while this lasts. This is the “And So Are You” shawl by Rose Beck, knit with two skeins of Madelinetosh Sport. It’s the first time I’ve knit with Madtosh Sport and I like the weight and feel of it. I have two more skeins of another color of this in my stash, and am trying to decide if I want to knit one of these for myself (this one is for a friend), or if I want to make something else. Decisions, decisions. I really like the texture in this shawl (made with a P3tog/YO/P3tog in the same stitch), and the shape of the shawl is such that it curves around your shoulders and stays put.
One thing I’ve realized about my stash – I have a lot of single skeins. In fact, it’s mostly full of single skeins. There are projects that I want to make (like Sothia and another Whippoorwill) that are multi-color projects, but they require two skeins of one color, plus one of a coordinating color. I need to start getting 2 skeins of some of my more favorite colorways. I used to just get one skein, because I was making socks or one skein shawlettes. After seeing all of the fun 2-color shawls that you all did for Camp Loopy, my knitting preferences have changed a bit. I need to go Loopy shopping again.
Do you add mostly single skeins to your stash? Do you always have a plan for the yarn you’re buying? Because frequently, I add single skeins to my stash without knowing for sure what they will become. I need to start doubling up on the ones I think might become a larger shawl. (Also? I need to start wearing shawls. I have such fun making them, but I don’t wear them all that often.)
Sheri enjoyingabeautifuldayhere.Seethemorningsuninmyphotos?
I also have a lot of single skeins of multi-colors. I have been makin a list of shawl I want to knit using two colors — I too was inspired by the Camp Loopy projects — and then will decide what yarns to order from Loopy Ewe to complete the projects. Your line of plain colored sock yarns is really nice to work with and I think some of them will be ordered soon.
First!
Yeah, I’m mostly a single skeiner. Because I am cheap at heart, and I can justify the one but not the many. And the yarn just wants to come live with me, it doesn’t tell me right away what it wants to be.
I tend to buy yarn in large enough quantities to make a medium shawl or a small sweater with the exception of sock yarns. I have a lot of sock yarn that will eventually be turned into shawlettes or sweaters with stripes or colorwork.
On the other hand, I seem to use a lot less yarn that most of the pattern designers. I have 2.5 skeins left out of 6 for the sweater I made for Loopy project 3!
I have a lot of single (and double) skeins. A few years ago I realized it’s necessary to buy two skeins for many projects, so that helps, but they’re still sitting, waiting for projects. I don’t have a lot of “coordinating colors” to do a two- or more- color project like the Whippoorwill shawl or similar.
I’m mostly a single skein purchaser. I rarely have any project in mind. I just see the beautiful yarn and say “Oh how pretty!”. Then I order it for socks. However, if I use it all for socks, I will have over 200 pairs of socks!
I buy lots of single skeins, and I usually have no idea what I’m going to do with them. Mostly because I’m buying sock yarn and most skeins have enough to make whatever’s on my mind. Also because I’m a very slow knitter and big projects intimidate me.
But sometimes, every once in a while, I know what I want to make, and if I find a yarn that suits, I gobble it up.
When I first started knitting I bought multiple skeins but now I buy mostly singles to test the yarn. I usually make shawls and if I like the west it wears over a couple months I buy more and make a sweater. There’s a pattern in mind at first but that often changes by the time I’m ready to use it.
I’m really glad to hear that I’m not the only one who collects single skeins in my stash. I seem to fall in love with beautiful, but expensive, yarn that I just must have to knit with. So I buy one skein. But I really must start buying two skeins on occasion. I, too, have been wanting to make larger shawls.
I, too, buy single skeins. I rarely have a project in mind, which is why I’m always shuffling through patterns trying to match yarn amounts with projects. Like Seanna Lea I am finding that I often use a LOT less yarn than a pattern calls for. I am not a really tight knitter, so I can’t figure out why I this is so. Plenty of ends for colorful heels and toes, tho’!
I used to buy just one skein, and then wanted a shell, so I started buying multiples (like 3) and I still don’t always have the right number of skeins … thank goodness for patterns like Westknits Earth & Sky where you can use 1 skein in each of 3 colors.
I used to buy single worsted weight skeins. Since Mother’s Day I’ve been buying lots of single skeins of fingering weight and having fun playing with them. I have had to reorder a few colors of the fingering weight for some big projects (Paulie and large Citron).
I tend to buy one skeins also! Figuring out something to do with them other than a scarf can be challenging! Love all the shawls you reference, especially the one you just finished. It was nice to meet you yesterday!
I’m in the same boat as you. I have some single skeins and then some double skeins – but they never seem to be the right yardage for the project. I always ask my knitting ladies when we are shopping and buying – “What are you going to make with it?” The answer is usually the same, “I don’t know.” ha
I finally learned to get more than one skein. Sometimes I think I know what it is going to be, but when I get it in my hands I change my mind! The yarn I buy at the LYS, on the other hand, has already been in my fingers, and I generally use it to make what I bought it for. I am tired of small shawls–they don’t cover enough territory, if I totally love the pattern, I figure out a way to make it larger! I have also started making rectangular shawls instead of triangular ones.
I’m working on “And So Are You” too! I’m about halfway done. I mostly buy single skeins, and when I buy yarn I don’t usually have a pattern in mind. I’m getting better at planning my patterns though.
Oh, one skein for me, mostly. I mostly make socks and shawls so it usually works out just fine. If I know that I really love something or occasionally when i actually have a plan, I will get 2 or if the socks are for my brother, 6′ 2″, or I intend on making a really tall cuff, then I get 2. I agree with Tamara. One skein to try it out and then more if I really like it. Life is way too short to knit with yarn that is scratchy or hard to knit with. There are far too many options out there for that. Fortunately for us, we have the ever popular and always available Loopy Ewe to help out with the options part.
I’m like BFF Liz in that the yarn wants to come live with me. One day it will tell me what it wants to be, until then I wait. 🙂
Sometimes I buy single skeins in sock weight and then wish I had bought its mate because I realize it might have made a great shawl. I find that the single ones that I cannot match up I knit a cowl with it so at least I get to wear it. Your 4th quarter challenge looks lovely. I am excited to be starting mine this week. Happy Knitting!
I always try to get multiple skeins when I do purchase yarn. It makes me feel better to have lotsa yarn. And I think of it when it asks to come home with me – does it want to be a sweater or a shawl – and I want enough so that the yarn can change its mind later.
Ruby
Sheri,
I need to download that pattern asap. Did you use the Luster colorway? Love the color!!!!! I bet that shawl would look great in Bugga, too.
Sheri, you could have written your Post today with me in mind! I raced through my 4th Q project as well because the yarn and project were so much fun. I did Striped Study in Tosh light. I am in live with that yarn. Pics to come once blocked.
Also, as my TLE purchase history will show, I am a chronic one-off amen purchaser. I do have a few sweater quantities in my stash, but for years I have purchased singles that speak to me. I have gotten more selective recently due to the economy and the realization that I have more yarn than 10 people could knit up! 🙂
I have a lot of single skeins, but it depends on the yarn. Some stuff doesn’t lend itself to single skein projects. And about 50% of what I get has a plan. Not that it necessarily remains part of that original plan, but….
lovely shawl
I buy both single skeins and multiples and delude myself into thinking they are going to a certain project but that almost never comes to pass. I went looking for yarn today for spatterdashes and the quantity in my yarnoires (that’s right plural) and all the extra places is overwhelming but it is my retirement fund, when I am eating kibble I can still knit!!!!! :o)
I’ve started buying two or more skeins, but then I find a pattern for one skein that I want to make and don’t want to break up the pair! Sometimes It’s a catch-22. It’s never a bad thing to have too much yarn, singles or more, as my stash will attest 🙂
Love the shawl! You always provide great inspiration and ideas. Is the color “Lustre”? I need to plan my next purchase!
Yep, I constantly have the one skein problem. I see something pretty, buy it but only buy one skein and then when I find a project it’s not enough. Guess I better start buying at least 3. 🙂
I guess I’m a “better buy two or three skeins just in case I want to make a larger shawl” yarn stasher. I hate the thought of running out of a hard to get color or yarn mid-project! The up side of this tendency is that I have more options in my stash; the down side is that I have a lot of money invested in said stash. But it is a very lovely, full of warm, fuzzy, colorful options stash! 😉
I do buy a lot of single skeins but I’m trying to double up more in my recent purchases. It’s nice to have to option to make something larger. I’ve so far knit a total of 16 lacey shawls/scarves. Twelve of them are for me personally but I wear none of them. I really, really need to. Although opening the drawer and looking at them is fun, too. 🙂
for budget reasons if i do not know for sure what i will make i pick up one skein of the must have skein! (due to love of the colorway, feel etc) But otherwise i try and pick up at least 3-400 yards to have enough on hand to really make something.
I am the same – if I fall for something, I will usually buy one skein (especially depending on the price)…. but that does come back to bite me when I am looking thru my stash and cant find anything I like in multiple skeins!
I buy usually with a project in mind but if buying without a plan in mind I make sure there is enough to make at least a scarf with.
Oh! I made my Whippoorwill with three colors (1 skein each) an I think it looks great!! Mad tosh has great texture.
I have too many single skeins and mainly bought just for the beauty of the yarn itself. I have decided to use those single skeins of 100% only and make shawls or squares in a blanket but they should not be used for socks, at least for me that is. If I have enough of similar yarns maybe I can make a sweater as there are so many nice patterns using fingering weight yarns out there.
Actually early on I bought two of everything because I was under the impression that it took two skeins of sock yarn to make a pair of socks. These are some of the more wildly dyed skeins in the stash. With the economy these days (and having lost my fascination with socks on tiny needles) I’m more selective on sock yarn purchases.
Generally if I’m buying sock yarn now, its for a finer gauge project on my machine and I’m looking for quicker gratification than if I completed it by hand. Sometimes it’s process, sometimes it’s product.
Unless I’m absolutely sure the yarn will go for sock (and go there SOON!), I never buy single skeins!
Sheri, good question. I used to frequently buy sweater amounts of yarn with vague ideas of what I was going to do with the yarn, but as yarn prices have gone up (or my taste have changed to priccer yarn?), I do buy less yardage. Now when I bujy 1500-3000 yards, I have a specific pattern in mind.
I do buy plenty of single skeins of sock yarn. I use socks as a way to test out new yarn bases or try out colours I don’t normally use.
I’ve been on a real yarn browsing kick lately. Now if only my yarn budget would match my wish lists! And I love knitting bags – big onces like Namaste and little ones like Chica and KnowKnits.
Still love TLE for lots of of neat stuff! I’m enjoying my new coaster to match my knitting bowls (Hedleys)
For the last year, I only buy yarn when I have a project in mind. The exception is Wollmeise. I will stash that if I get a chance. I put the yarn and pattern in a zip lock bag and queue it alphabetically. The problem is that now the kits are SABLE.
I too have a crazy-large stash of sock yarn, which is pretty much the only yarn I’ll buy sans purpose. After all, one skein makes a pair of socks, gloves, or a nice shawl (or two pairs of underpants…), so they’re not really without a project, just not for a specific project yet. Or so I keep telling myself.
With yarns that I really, really love, I usually have 2 skeins. Not that I bought them together, you understand, I just fall in love with them at 2 different times and don’t discover I already have the same thing until I go to record the yarn in my yarn inventory and, well, guess what! But since I do love them to pieces, I’m happy to have two.
Beautiful new shawl, Sheri. I used to buy only single skeins for socks but now that my son’s feet are as big as his father’s, I have started to buy 2 skeins more than one skein.
Plan for a skein??? What does this funny concept mean??
I have a lot of single skeins as well. When I purchase more than one, it’s because I have something in mind. If I could knit a pair of socks a week, I would not be done with my stash for quite a few years. (too man to count)
I tend to buy color waves and different textures to make up weird projects. My stash is full, but I still keep buying. To knit up all my yarn and never buy again doesn’t make any sense to me… But I do generally have a vague idea why I am buying yarns. I do a lot of toy knitting so I like to keep lots of colors and variety in my stash cos I never know when I might need it… I love your new shawl! I wonder when you have time to ‘breathe’ as you seem to have a prodigious output of knitting! If I had my “druthers” I’d knit all the time!
I almost always buy 2 skeins of fingering weight unless I have a specific project in mind using one or more than 2 if required. If I do a larger project I have the yarn needed and if I only use one I can always trade the other one on ravelry or sometimes I’ll make matching socks or fingerless mitts.
I so love the newest wrap done by Sheri; in fact I love all of the sister pieces by the designer. I’m auew I’ll be making several of them. It will be fun to experiment with different weight yarns on some of them as well. I know another favorite piece that I wear all the time is Stephen West’s Boneyard. I’ve made a couple of different weight yarns but my favorite was done in worsted Royal Lama Silk. Really love that piece.
I mostly buy single skeins if I haven’t got a particular project in mind. Because of the quilting cotton issue. I used to buy quilting cottons in 3 yard chunks when I saw fabric I couldn’t resist because that was what I needed to make a shirt but then found that I didn’t make nearly as many shirts as I was buying fabric. (I still haven’t learned the trick of finishing up all of the existing supplies before buying more though – lol) So when I switched over to knitting (more portable for one thing usually) I tried to not buy too much. So if I have a specific project idea (like a sweater) I buy enough for that. But otherwise I would usually buy just one skein. Depending on the yarn.
I’m pretty much in the same boat, but I’m trying to remember this for future purchases!
I usually think that I am going to knit socks with the one skeins, If I know it will be a sweater than I buy enough for a sweater. I’m not really a shawl person but I have made 4.75 this year and given away 2. My main problem is the beautiful colors that I must have when I see them made in my imagination!
I too, bought lots of single skeins and am now trying to find lots of different patterns to use up the stash, but it won’t happen, as I always flit from small project to larger ones. That’s okay. I love my stash and get a lot of enjoyment from the yarn as well as the finished projects.
ps…
I just added that pattern to my queue! I have gotten so many good ideas from you! Thank you Sheri for continuing to feed my habit!
Yes, I have lots of single skeins, but I’ve started to think I will be putting some together for two color projects.
Love your shawl. It’s going into my queue. Might need some yarn for it…why is that? I have a stash to last till I’m 150 and never seen to have quite the right fiber …guess I really mean THE PERFECT YARN…nothing less will do. Right?
Oh my! I love that shawl! It turned out great! And I ordered two skeins of tosh sock in dusk & magnolia leaf thinking I would do a simple two-color shawl but I decided to do Sothia and i needed another skein. I quickly ordered a second skein of the magnolia leaf and I am thrilled that it matches the first one! So now I have my three skeins. All of this gift knitting is creeping in though…..so I haven’t gotten to start!