How much wool could a knitter knit, if a knitter could knit wool?

Well, luckily for me, I can knit a lot. This is a good thing, because my stash pretty much doubled overnight.

As I previously mentioned, I won Shepherd Susie’s 2-year stash of yarn. I had started thinking of all of the ways I could pay it forward: sell handmade items, teach another knitting class, have some kind of a mystery Knit Along, all of the money going to charity of course. And this was before I even had any clue what would even be in this stash. Well, I’ve got it now and the ideas keep flowing.

I came home one night and the box was there on the porch, just waiting to be opened. The box was deceivingly heavy, but I managed to get it in the house. Minnie loves boxes. Usually she couldn’t care less about what is inside. But she was definitely curious.

I never really thought about how much yarn I have by volume, but here’s what someone else’s stash looks like.


It was like some weird magic yarn hat. I started unloading the box and it seemed to be never ending. It just kept coming and coming. I starting piling it on the bed, and it grew into a mountain. Super bulky, wool, cotton, alpaca, mohair, reds, blues, greens, pinks. You name it, it was there. At first the cats were amused. Then they were scared.


Minnie: “That’s a lot of yarn. Do you think she’ll remember us?”
Mickey: “Remember us?!? Heck, she’ll never find us again.”
Minnie: “Good point. We’d better get out of here before she vacuum packs us up with the black super bulky wool.”


By the time I was done, the entire bed was covered in yarn (and for those of you wondering, the cats made it out safe and sound).

Now, I’m not suggesting you run out to your yarn stash (under your bed, in the closet, in the attic, completely encompassing your entire garage, or the extra storage unit you had to rent in order to fit it all in), and lay it out in a pile. But if you do, but all means take a picture for me.

Urban Burp Review

I wanted to do a review of an awesome fabric store I recently found through Groupon called Urban Burp. I couldn't believe that this store was 4 blocks from my office and I never knew about it. So off I went one day with my friend Carolyn and my handy Groupon in hand, and fell in love with the place. I could spend hours there. Don't get me wrong, I love Britex Fabrics, but this place offered more period fabrics.

The description on the website is quite accurate:
Urban Burp offers rare, vintage (very cool) fabrics and high quality interior design services to give your home that designer look without paying designer prices.

Electra, the owner, is quite a character and knows about everything in the store. And you can tell she loves fabric!

Here's a sampling of what I left with....

I loved this pattern and colors. I'm thinking it would make a lovely liner for a felted purse.

This is actually an authentic feed sack from the 1930's. I love it as is and would hate to cut it up for something. It would actually make a lovely pillowcase.

Both Carolyn and I fell in love with this. It's from Germany from the 1920's. It's a beautiful flexible silk. I'm not sure what I will do with it, but I bought what she has left and promised to share it : )



If you are near Jackson Square/Chinatown in San Francisco I highly recommend stopping by. They are located at 170 Columbus in between Jackson and Kearny. Open M-F 11-6 and Sat 12-4. www.urbanburp.com.

And we're waiting

Okay, it's been a week now since the yarn was shipped and I am getting anxious. So in the meantime, I'll do a little yarn review.

I had the opportunity to go to Stitches West a few weeks back and took some great classes, including one with Lily Chin and Melissa Leapman. I knew I had a box of yarn "in the mail" so I went "light" on my actual purchases.

I found some amazing yarn at PolarKnit. It's polar fleece in yarn form. I knitted up a cute little red hat. It's super easy to work with and of course it's nice a warm. I'm going to make a cowl next, and some fingerless gloves to go along with the hat. Amy and friends were so nice and helpful. They are coming out with their own line and have some cute kits in addition to yarn.

Then I went and visited with Karrie at Girl on the Rocks and picked up some luscious yarn in Claret. She gave me some great ideas on patterns. Can’t wait to get started with it. She also has the cutest stitch markers.

Also, I recently found Quince yarn company and love their Puffin line in particular. It’s a great bulky wool in beautiful colors. I’m working on a Gap-tastic infinity scarf as we speak and just finished up a little red cowl.

That's about it for now. Maybe the box of yarn will come tomorrow.

A friend in need

It all started with a simple post on Juniper Moon Farm's Blog: A Friend in Need. An organic farmer's barn in Vermont (Pete's Greens) had burned down and Susie at Juniper Moon thought it would be great to do a fundraiser to help Pete rebuild.

So I donated.

In her usual flare, Susie had accumulated an enormous amount of prizes for those that donated. And I won. I won Susie's own stash of yarn that she had been collecting for two years but hadn't gotten around to using yet. Yikes, I know my own two-year stash of yarn is quite large and extensive, and I could only imagine what hers was going to be like.

In the interim, Pete, who was the recipient of the fundraiser (which raised over $11K), promised to pay-it-forward. Once his business is back up and running he has plans to help other farmers and folks in need.

So when I heard I was the lucky recipeint of a two-year yarn stash, I knew I had to do something special with it. Somehow pay it forward as well. Thus the creation of this blog - Pay It yfwd (otherwise known as Yarn Forward). How appropriate.

Many of you know how I like to knit items and then sell them to raise money for charity. So you know I have some fun ideas in mind for this yarn.

Journey of the yarn: It was shipped from Virginia to California on Feb. 25. Once I have it, I will inventory it, photographic it and post info here.

From there, the fun beings.....