Sparkly Socks, and Stashbusting

I am on a stashbusting mission- there is yarn in every room of my house, except for the bathroom (and some days, there's yarn in there too). I need to use up some of the yarn I already have, before I buy more.

To that end, I have been knitting with leftovers (the Hitchcock Sweater), and stuff that I bought but forgot, including these wonderful yarns that I picked up last summer in Portland, at Yarnia.

Yarnia is a unique store- it's crammed top to bottom with fine yarns on cones in all colors, sizes and fiber contents. You choose the colors and blends you like, and the folks there will wind them together for you on a cone. The combinations are endless, and the colors are intoxicating, and the yarn is cheap (I don't think either of the above cones cost more than $10, and both have/had enough yarn to knit a pair of socks).

This yarn consists of 5 strands of very fine yarn- ice blue, darker blue, green, yellow, and metallic green sparkle (I'm a sucker for The Sparkly). The combined strands look like they're slightly heavier than heavy fingering weight, but they knit up like worsted weight. I used my general worsted weight sock formula (size 5 needles, 48 sts), and a simple texture (K 3 rnds, next rnd: K3, P1 around) to make the sparkle pop.

This yarn feels slightly thinner than the green above. It's 3 strands: cream wool, peach wool, green metallic sparkle (as I said, sucker for the sparkles). But it blooms nicely, and I'm knitting it with the same pattern as the green sparkle socks.

One caveat about this yarn- it's the definition of *splitty*. It's very easy to lose a strand, especially the metallic one. And no matter how carefully you unwind, one of the strands will eventually end up either being too short or too long. It's not a major problem (either cut the other strands and tie them on again, or cut the long one and do the same), but it does happen at regular intervals (say, every 3" in the knitted fabric).

And- I didn't write down the fiber content of these yarn combos, which  means that while they might be totally superwash, I can't vouch for it, so the socks will have to be hand washed.

Here's another stashbuster- a doll sweater using only leftover sock yarn bits and pieces (and despite the way it looks in the pic- the bottom front edges do line up properly. The buttonholes stretch the ribbing out). (Note to Self: next time, make fewer buttonholes). You wouldn't think so, but one of these sweaters (knit on size 3 needles) takes more yarn, and more time than a sock. But it's oh so cute, and more than worth the time and effort.

See- they do line up...  (once again, note the sparkle)