Fiber Festival Stash Knitdown Update

Remember this?

It's finally become this:

Here are the details for my Zig-Zagging Around the World.

Cast on: August 21, 2012
Blocked and photographed: May 28, 2013
Pattern/Designer: Zigzag Wanderer by Kimley Maretzo
Yarn: Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in the Seattle KAL colorway
The yarn was purchased at Sock Summit 2011. Only 8 yards remained after bind-off.

Project Notes: I love how this turned out, but if you decide to knit this pattern, beware! The pattern lists the yardage amount as 400 yards of fingering weight yarn (but the scarf shown in the pattern used Malabrigo sock, which is 440 yards). I ran out of yarn about halfway through the final pattern repeat, and I wasn't the only one; there are numerous projects on Ravelry that had the same fate. That being said, it didn't really matter. The scarf blocked out beautifully, and I'm looking forward to wearing it when the weather gets cooler.

I've written before about my idea to knit down my fiber festival stash by Sock Summit 2014. There is a slight problem with this: sadly, there isn't going to be another Sock Summit. I haven't exactly been speed knitting my fiber festival stash, so I'm giving myself a few extra months, until December 31, 2014 to try to get the task done.  I'll be casting on my next project shortly, so watch for an update post soon.

Two Down, Twenty to Go

Happy New Year! There will be the annual "goals, not resolutions" post coming up soon, but today I want to share the good news that I have completed two (!!) projects in the Fiber Festival Stash Knitdown.

First up is Bluer Than Blue, Linda Welch's great pattern, Crow's Feet, that I have knitted three times in the last two years. Can you tell I love this pattern?

Second is the finally, FINALLY finished Doesn't Look Much Like Seaweed Scarf. I cast this on in July 2011, and it went into hibernation with only 8 rows left over a year ago. It only took a couple hours to finish the knitting—how embarrassing! I like Grace Akrem's Seaweed Scarf pattern very much, but I wasn't wild about my yarn choice, although I think it looks great now that it is finished and blocked. What do you think?

You are probably wondering whether there are any other Fiber Festival Stash Knitdown projects happening. Unfortunately, the only other one has been in time-out for almost two months. This is what it looked like when I put it down:

 

You will find out more about this project when it is reactivated. (And no, I won't let it sit for a year this time!)

A Challenge: The Fiber Festival Stash Knitdown

Do you remember this? It's Sock Summit stash enhancement, fueled by an amazing fiber festival marketplace.

Then there's this:

And this:

As you can see from these photos, that is a fair amount of stash enhancement (and not all of it), entirely purchased at fiber festivals, specifically, Sock Summits 2009 and 2011, the Black Sheep Gathering 2010 and the Madrona Fiber Arts Retreat, 2009-2012.

Ever since I attended Sock Summit last year I have been thinking about organizing that market stash and challenging myself to knit it all by a specific date. The most logical date to aim for is the next Sock Summit, which will be happening sometime in the summer of 2014.

Here is my organizing tool: a collage of 22 yarn portraits representing all of my remaining fiber festival stash. I also included photos of the three finished projects that I knit from fiber festival stash since the last Sock Summit, which was when I first came up with the idea.

So, the challenge has officially begun! I'll be blogging about my progress in the months to come, and I hope to be able to post a collage of FOs when I'm done. Do you care to join me?