Green Deep Stash

Deep Stash Departure Yardage
Since last tally:	2,756	1.57 miles
Current Total:	3,182	1.81 miles

It started with yoga socks.

Actually, it started with decrepitude in my knees, officially diagnosed as oseoarthritis.  To strengthen the joints, I took up yoga this summer, and THAT prompted me to knit yoga socks.  For which, I dove into the deep stash and whipped up this unispiring yet serviceable pair.

YOGA SOCKS

Yarn:  Unlabeled green acrylic
Yards:  103.2



Tubes with holes for ankles, toes, and heels.  So, stirrup pants without the pants part.  Remember stirrup pants, Gen Xers?  A '90s nod to a more equestrian era, no doubt.

I made a few modifications from Diana McKay's Mindful Yoga Socks instructions (free, through Ravelry.com), such as working from the toe up, keeping an inch of the ribbing all the way around the toes but working stockinette stitch for the bottom of the foot.  I cast on with the stretchy Old Norwegian Cast On and bound off with my favorite Miraculous Elastic method.

Weeks passed, and I knit on various and sundry things I'll write about at a later date.  My blog remained silent because I had nothing cohesive to add to it.

And then the temperatures began to fall, finally.  In mid-October, for crying out loud.  So, I pulled out the fat needles and bulky yarns which also happened to be green.  (A feeble common denominator, thematically, for a blog post, but my life is what it is.)


I purchased both of the following yarns at the same time with the intention of creating a matchy-matchy winter wear set.  And so I have.

OWL MITTS

Yarn:  Mirasol Sulka in Pear
Yards:  72.6



My grandma Mc was an owl fan, and I thought of her while I made these Owl Study Gloves, pattern by Meghan Bosanko.  Of course, I changed them a bit since I can't leave well enough alone.  I added more stitches to the cast on since my wrists are of the stocky variety, and I repeated the ribbing at the fingers.  Again, I used the cast on and bind off I mentioned earlier, except for the thumb which was the standard-issue bind off.

The buttons came from the collection handed down to me from my mom.  I believe they're mother-of-pearl, the tiny kind that could once be found on the cuffs of ladies' dresses.  So, my owls have beady, untrustworthy little eyes.  They don't need to see anything, anyway.

MOURA HEADBAND

Yarn: same as above
Yards:  37.4

The rest of the Sulka I put into the Moura Headband, pattern by Clara Beauty.



I followed the example of a fellow knitter on Ravelry and tapered the beginning and ending of the headband.  I had enough yarn to work only six pattern repeats, but I had enough left over to extend the tapered ending by three or four rows of seed stitching.  I blocked it to about 23 inches before I seams the ends together.



I think that's the first yarn I have completely eliminated from stash.

ARCTIC VERT COWL

Yarn:  Cascade Magnum
Yards:  almost 212.8

Finally, I had a super chunky yarn that looks like pencil roving, so I put it into this cowl of fat, undulating cables designed by Patrizia Momigliano.  It's called Arctic Blanc on Ravelry.



The husband told me I looked like a shady Star Wars character when I tried it on.  Fine.  A shady, WARM Star Wars character, thankyouverymuch.

I didn't modify the pattern in any way except for all the mistakes I made.  I've never cabled on the edges of a project before, and twice I held the cable needle to the back instead of the front like I was supposed to.  Also, my grafting stitches are loosey-goosey because I held the parallel needles too far apart.



For every mistake, I just was too unmotivated to fix it.  If they can't be discerned by someone on the back of a galloping horse (equestrian nod, again), and I can tolerate them, then they get to settle in.  There.  Proof of tolerance on my part.  Don't I feel morally wholesome now.

A grand total of 426 yards have taken their leave of Deep Stash with all this.  A bit shy of a quarter of a mile.  Not bad.