Molasses in January

Stash inventory continues at a slow-as-molasses-in-January pace. (That's slow as, not slow because of.) Yarn inventory is pretty much complete, but the floss contingent lags. The old way of organizing floss was to wind all the colors needed for a project around a folded-up sheet of looseleaf paper. It took a few minutes. One new method is Floss-A-Way, billed as The Instant Organizer. Ha!



Floss-A-Way is a set of tiny, tiny zip bags, complete with a write-on area to record color numbers. I got the 100 pack, so useful for all one's Embroidery Floss & Specialty Threads. So time-consuming, too.

For needles (the kind with an eye), there's the Sweetheart Needle Book. This one belonged to DH's grandmother.



As for needles without an eye, I'm experimenting with lace patterns from the magnificent book Heirloom Knitting by Sharon Miller, using peacock JaggerSpun Zephyr (50% wool, 50% Tussah silk). The center pattern is traditional, Print O' the Wave, and the edging patterns are paired Ocean Wave, shown without and with flash.

   

This proved remarkably difficult to photograph. Without flash, the embossed spine of the waves and other texture shows nicely, but not the structure of the lace. With flash, the graceful cresting wave shapes and zigzag trellis show well, but the silk in the yarn flares like it's radioactive, obscuring the pretty texture of the stitches. Not to mention the yarn is much more green, much less blue than it appears in either photo. Or the dye is staining my bamboo circular needle green, which is making me purple.