Update on the DESTASH!

Okay, so remember how much yarn I initially had up for sale in my DESTASH?

Well, all that’s left is just the blue container in front!  Things have gone better than I ever imagined they would and, in the process, I have a lot more space in my crafty area, the yarn has many new homes where it will live a happy and productive life, and I have a nice balance in my Paypal account for future yarn purposes to redecorate my crafty area.  ;)

I just wanted to point out that all of the destash yarns are on one page for easier shopping!  

And I have extended the free shipping timeline to....forever!  All yarns now include free USPS shipping to the US!  International people should contact me about additional shipping outside of the US.

Happy shopping!

Pineapple Lace

Back in December, two local residents, Mr. & Mrs. W, contacted me about commissioning me to knit a piece of lace that would decorate the top of a new-to-them antique sideboard.  Now, what the heck is a sideboard, you ask?  Well, before they sent me pictures, I had no idea what it was either.  But I quickly learned that it's a very large piece of furniture and this particular sideboard in the W's home is incredibly ornate and very, very old.

Photo courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. W

Photo courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. W

Mr. & Mrs. W are huge supporters of the local arts, so I was really flattered that they thought of me when it came to finding someone to create the piece of lace that they envisioned.  And then as soon as I got over the flattery, I became nearly paralyzed with doubt that I could make something that would be good enough to reside in their home.   You see, their house is adorned with so many amazing pieces of art from local artists as well as artists from elsewhere in Alaska, and I was afraid that my lace just wouldn't measure up.

But I quickly snapped out of it, grew some confidence, and reasoned that if they didn't think that I could do it then they wouldn't have asked. And then I immediately set out to find the perfect yarn to work with for this piece.

After much perusing of all my favorite online yarn haunts, I finally settled on something that was already in my stash (perfect, right?)....Knit Picks Bare sock yarn.  Mrs. W had told me that she wanted something white or off-white, so it was perfect.  And with the added nylon in the yarn, I felt that this would help make the piece more durable.

After settling on the yarn, I grabbed my many stitch dictionaries and settled in for a fun-filled afternoon of looking over the lace sections of the different reference guides and deciding on which stitch patterns to include in the work.  This was my absolute favorite part of the project to date. (I'm assuming that ultimately my favorite part of the project will be unpinning the finished work after blocking, but I don't want to put the cart before the horse at this point!)

I made a few swatches so that I would have something to show Mrs. W when I met with her to go over what she liked and, more importantly, what she didn't like. Mrs. W's family is from Hawaii and she had told me that she liked pineapple shapes, so I had this helpful clue to guide me in the right direction.  I ended up purchasing a pineapple lace book on ebay and this handy guide lead me to what will be the border of the work (shown here in its unblocked glory):

The swatches below were whipped up to show her some possible stitches that could make up the body of the piece.  In addition, I came up with a few different sketches and was ready to include multiple panels of lace and make it super duper fancy.  But, in the end, Mrs. W chose the simple eyelet lace in the lower right corner, with the reasoning that the sideboard is already so ornate that the lace should be simple and understated.  I couldn't agree more!

Basically, the piece is going to be one long rectangle of the eyelet lace and then I'll pick up stitches all around and work the pineapple lace border in the round and finish it off with a crocheted bind off and edging.  I'm excited!

I've cast on for it and am slogging my way through the eyelet lace.  The good thing about this is that it's mindless knitting (yo, k2tog...easy as pie!), and I can always go for that.

Stay tuned for some updates on the sideboard lace over the next few weeks.  I've already gotten a bit of a late start on it, but my aim is to be finished with the body in the next couple weeks.  I've set a goal of 3 inches a day...let's see if I can stick to it!

Strawberries and Snow...and a Destash Sale

I’m so excited to report that we got our first big snow!  And then after the big overnight dumping of the white stuff, we awoke to this bluebird day.  This is the view from my knitting chair!

Check out our driveway...Jeff shoveled that all by hand!  I think he was going a little bit stir crazy and probably was just looking for an excuse to get away from me for a bit, but seriously, that’s a lot of work!

In addition to the beautiful (but still very chilly) weather, the grocery store had the most beautiful strawberries I’ve ever seen here in Skagway.  You see, beautiful fruit is incredibly hard to come by here in rural southeast Alaska...not only in the winter, but also the summer.  

So when something as tasty-looking as these berries jumped out at me on the produce shelves, I did what any normal Skagwegian in their winter-loving mind would do:  I bought up every last container of them.  Stomach-aches be damned!  

Let’s just say that I’ll be eating more than my fair share of strawberries for the next few days.  Hey, when something this good comes along, I’ve learned that you have to snatch it up quickly before the next person comes along. So, in keeping with my all-strawberry diet, I had sliced strawberries with homemade whipped cream for breakfast & lunch today.  Aren’t you jealous? You should be.

In honor of the fact that I was able to eat fruit today that wasn't already rotten when I bought it, I'm having a sale on my DESTASH yarn.  Until 2/28, all shipping to the US is included in the price of the yarn.  No shipping costs!  Go check out the yarn that's still available HERE and HERE.  Thanks for looking!

DESTASH - Round 3!

Okay, so it's been a rough couple days.  Thanks to everyone for your patience!  I'm finally able to stand up with out throwing up.  I don't recall ever being that sick, even in childhood.  I throw up very rarely with my migraines, but nothing compared to the hours and hours of nausea, fever, and intense body aches that I experienced over the last couple days.  Last night I attempted to choke down 1/2 a boiled plain potato and today so far I've had some tea and pudding.  Slowly getting better and stronger, but to top it all off, I woke up today with a killer migraine, probably due to the fact that I'm uber-dehydrated.  Yah, I've seen better days.


Needless to say, I've been home from work the last two days and I haven't really left my bed.  Sucks to be so sick that I can't even knit, let alone form a coherent thought!  But, I'm feeling okay enough to put up the last round of destash!  


Same rules apply:


1.  I will list each yarn with the following information:
     a.  Yarn brand and name
     b.  How many skeins are included
     c.  Colorway
     d.  Retail price (average from several different online sites)
     e.  My price
     f.  Shipping cost (I have estimated. If total actual shipping cost is higher than originally quoted, I will absorb the difference.  If total shipping cost is lower than quoted, I will refund you the difference.)

2.  Payment is by Paypal only. Payment must be completed within 3 days of receipt of invoice.  If payment is not made within 3 days, purchaser forfeits rights to purchase and the opportunity will be given to the next person in line.

3.  If you would like to purchase a lot or lots of yarn, please email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know which yarn you'd like to purchase.

The first person to email me about a specific yarn lot will have first right to purchase.  The second person to email about a yarn lot will have second rights, and so on.  If for some reason the 1st person is not able to complete the sale within 3 days, I will then turn to the 2nd person, and so on. 


4.  If a sale is pending, I will note this in big letters under the description.  However, you can still email me about it to put your name on the list in case the first person does not end up buying it. 

5.  If a sale has been made, I will take the yarn lot off the destash page altogether, to keep things looking neat and clean.

6.  Shipping costs: 
     a.  If you purchase more than one yarn lot, please email me about combining shipping.  I am happy to help you save a little bit of money and combine packaging.
     b.  All shipping estimates are for US Shipping only.  If you would like me to ship internationally, please contact me before purchase to see about rates.
     c.  Shipment will be from my home in Alaska.  Things take a little bit longer to ship from up here, so please don't freak out if something doesn't get to you in the time it normally takes in the lower 48. :)
     d.  All shipping quotes include delivery confirmation.

7.  If you'd like to earn a discount on the already low prices, all you have to do is post a link to my destash page on Twitter or write up a quick blog post telling all your followers about the big destash and you'll get an extra 10% off your yarn purchase!  When you make your purchase, just email me the link to the tweet or post so that I can verify.



I will keep the yarn up on the Destash pages for as long as they are for sale.

Okay, I think that's it!  All of these yarns can be found on my DESTASH - Round 3 PAGE (click the link to the left or click on the tab up at the top of the page).  Thanks for looking!

We Interrupt This Program...

...I know many of you were looking forward to the third and final installment of Destash Bash 2011, but I have very quickly come down with what can only be described as the pukey flu.  It's going around town and I have definitely been bitten by the bug.

So, I am going to go to bed and I will hopefully be bringing you destashy goodness tomorrow.  So sorry for the delay, everyone, but I can't barely hold my head up right now.  Ugh.  I hate nausea.

In the meantime, there's still plenty of destash left on the DESTASH - Round 1 page.  Thanks to all who made Destash - Round 2 a resounding success...it's all gone!

DESTASH - Round 2! All Knit Picks!

ETA:  All Round 2 destash yarns have been sold, so I took down that particular destash page.  Thanks for making it a success!


So, today's destash installment (2 of 3) is a bit smaller than yesterday's, but it's no less awesome!  I've decided to group this one as all Knit Picks yarns for easier browsing!


Since KP yarns are already discounted, I'm not able to discount these yarns as much as I did on the other destash yarns yesterday, but I did discount a smidge to make it worth your while!  AND, shipping to the US is included for all Knit Picks destash yarns!  How about them apples?


All the same rules apply:


1.  I will list each yarn with the following information:
     a.  Yarn brand and name
     b.  How many skeins are included
     c.  Colorway
     d.  Retail price (average from several different online sites)
     e.  My price
   
2.  Payment is by Paypal only. Payment must be completed within 3 days of receipt of invoice.  If payment is not made within 3 days, purchaser forfeits rights to purchase and the opportunity will be given to the next person in line.

3.  If you would like to purchase a lot or lots of yarn, please email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know which yarn you'd like to purchase.

The first person to email me about a specific yarn lot will have first right to purchase.  The second person to email about a yarn lot will have second rights, and so on.  If for some reason the 1st person is not able to complete the sale within 3 days, I will then turn to the 2nd person, and so on. 

4.  If a sale is pending, I will note this in big letters under the description.  However, you can still email me about it to put your name on the list in case the first person does not end up buying it. 

5.  If a sale has been made, I will take the yarn lot off the destash page altogether, to keep things looking neat and clean.

6.  Shipping costs: 
     a.  Included in all Knit Picks Destash Yarns!

7.  If you'd like to earn a discount on the already low prices, all you have to do is post a link to my destash page on Twitter or write up a quick blog post telling all your followers about the big destash and you'll get an extra 10% off your yarn purchase!  When you make your purchase, just email me the link to the tweet or post so that I can verify.

I will keep the yarn up on the Destash pages for as long as they are for sale.

Okay, I think that's it!  All of my KP yarns can be found on my DESTASH - Round 2 PAGE (click the link to the left or click on the tab up at the top of the page).  Thanks for looking!

Oh, and don't forget about all the yarns still for sale on the DESTASH - Round 1 page!

And.....DESTASH!

A few fun facts about my destash:
1. The retail value of the yarn I'm destashing is nearly $2500.00.  That's two thousand, five hundred American dollars.  And I'm destashing about 1/3 of my stash, which really is eye-opening to me and makes me realize how much of a yarn hoarder I've become.
2.  There will be a total of 328 balls/skeins/hanks/knots of yarn for sale over the next few days.  Yikes.  That frees up a lot of space in my tiny house, which was one of the main goals of all of this. :)


Okay, on to the DESTASH rules:

1.  I will list each yarn with the following information:
     a.  Yarn brand and name
     b.  How many skeins are included
     c.  Colorway
     d.  Retail price (average from several different online sites)
     e.  My price
     f.  Shipping cost (I have estimated. If total actual shipping cost is higher than originally quoted, I will absorb the difference.  If total shipping cost is lower than quoted, I will refund you the difference.)

2.  Payment is by Paypal only. Payment must be completed within 3 days of receipt of invoice.  If payment is not made within 3 days, purchaser forfeits rights to purchase and the opportunity will be given to the next person in line.

3.  If you would like to purchase a lot or lots of yarn, please email at allison@alaskanpurl.com and let me know which yarn you'd like to purchase.

The first person to email me about a specific yarn lot will have first right to purchase.  The second person to email about a yarn lot will have second rights, and so on.  If for some reason the 1st person is not able to complete the sale within 3 days, I will then turn to the 2nd person, and so on. 


4.  If a sale is pending, I will note this in big letters under the description.  However, you can still email me about it to put your name on the list in case the first person does not end up buying it.

5.  If a sale has been made, I will take the yarn lot off the destash page altogether, to keep things looking neat and clean.

6.  Shipping costs:
     a.  If you purchase more than one yarn lot, please email me about combining shipping.  I am happy to help you save a little bit of money and combine packaging.
     b.  All shipping estimates are for US Shipping only.  If you would like me to ship internationally, please contact me before purchase to see about rates.
     c.  Shipment will be from my home in Alaska.  Things take a little bit longer to ship from up here, so please don't freak out if something doesn't get to you in the time it normally takes in the lower 48. :)
     d.  All shipping quotes include delivery confirmation.

7.  If you'd like to earn a discount on the already low prices, all you have to do is post a link to my destash page on Twitter or write up a quick blog post telling all your followers about the big destash and you'll get an extra 10% off your yarn purchase!  When you make your purchase, just email me the link to the tweet or post so that I can verify.


I will be doing 3 different phases of the Destash.  I will put more yarn up on Monday 2/7 for the second round and Tuesday 2/8 for the third and final round.  I will keep separate tabs at the top of the page for each day (so, today is Destash - Round 1, tomorrow Destash - Round 2, and then Destash - Round 3) for ease of browsing.

I will keep the yarn up on the Destash pages for as long as they are for sale.

Okay, I think that's it!  All of my yarns can be found on my DESTASH PAGE (click the link to the left or click on the tab up at the top of the page).  Thanks for looking!

Sneak peek of a new design...

So, although I've been a bit negligent about posting actual knitting content as of late, that does not mean that no knitting is happening.

Here is a sneak peek of a design that has been in my head since last May and really should have been released in September, as it's been so very nearly finished since then.  I have no excuse for the tardiness of the release, other than sometimes designs need time to ferment in my brain for awhile until the image that I see in my mind matches what I see real life.  This is finally the case with this design.

It involves cables, flowers, and some lovely sock yarn.  The pattern is receiving its final edits as I type and then the finished piece will be shipped off for final approval.  With any luck, it will go live in the next couple weeks.

I can't wait to reveal the whole picture and share more details with you all!

Update on the destash process...

...to answer some of your questions about my huge destash in progress...

1. Haven't I gotten my act in gear and taken photos/blogged about some of the yarn to be for sale YET?
Short answer: no.  This week has been incredibly busy and last weekend I chose to hang out with a good friend that I never get to hang out with instead of readying for the destash, so I have not yet had the chance to begin the HUGE process of cataloging it all, taking photos of it, and getting the descriptions/prices up on the blog.  I will definitely be working on it this weekend though and am aiming to have the first big batch up by Sunday evening!

2.  Where will I be posting the destash?
For the time being, it will all be up on my blog.  I will more than likely create a separate Destash page within my site and then post when I've added more stuff to it.  If I'm not selling the stuff as quickly as I'd like, I may put up some postings on Rav, but we'll see.

I'll post a photo & description of the yarn and how much I'm asking for it and then the first person to email me about it will be the person who gets to take it off my hands!

Payment will be by Paypal only.

3.  Will there be opportunities for a discount on my pricing?
Why, yes!  I'll have more details on this later, but if you blog or tweet about my destash, you'll get a bit of a discount on your purchase. :)

Ok, be on the lookout for more destash details on Sunday February 6th!  It will be bigger than the Super Bowl!  ...or not.  ;)