Biscuit Stitches

Knitting, spinning, and working through my stash in 2026

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I'm trying to decide on my next project now, so I dug out my 5lb cone of cotton/seacell to finally swatch it. I am not entirely surprised it has a slight bias. I did buy it from a weaver. Oh, and cotton.

The bias is not bad and it can be tugged into place, but when shook the swatch goes back to bias.

Spin it into a 2 ply cable yarn to balance the bias

It's not unexpected or the end of the world.

My choices to deal with it are

Knit it and hope the weight overcomes the bias

Knit patterns that will balance out the bias

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Feb 2026 Destash Round Up

Feb was a "hey, I should get a progress photo" and then I promptly got distracted and did not get any photos or make any posts.

Tl;dr of what was finished:

The glass houses shawl

120 yards of 3 ply handspun

finally plied up 900 yards of mystery wool that had been sitting on bobbins since September

Finished the body portion of my Oleander sweater

Finally wove in the ends of the cardigan from January

Made multiple swatches fiddling with color and stitch patterns

Started spinning the pastel Rambo that's been in my stash for years

Blended about 180g of fiber, have another 300g to go.

The Glass Houses used one skein + a few yards of the white, and the entire skein of the yellow handspun. It came out a little smaller than expected but actually is a very cute fit around my shoulders/neck.

The combo of the pale yellow on the tonal/grey-tinged white is killer. LOVE IT! Going to keep it in mind for future projects.

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2026 Destash: Month 1 complete!

First month of my destash is complete. I spun 310g of yarn (only 180 pictured, I forgot about the 2 previously finished :P) and finished the Miss Summerbee cardigan.

I really liked the Summerbee pattern. It fits really well. I knit mine in size XL (46"), and I added 7cm to the overall length of the body and sleeves. This was my first DROPS cardi and I'll be knitting more since the fit works for me. But I will be altering the next one to extend the yoke sizing to accomodate my bust better. But I never wear my cardis closed so it's no big deal this one is snug across the front.

I used 210 yards of the blue handspun, and 405g of Fleurville 4 ply. I had to wind up an entire skein for literally like 2 rows and the bind off edge. 🙄 Total yardage was ~1770yds.

It's too cold to block the cardi or finish the yarn, so that's just going to have to wait for a solid sunny day. But it fits really well! Just have to weave in a few ends I didn't weave in on the fly, and sew on the buttons.

Currently on the needles:

Project 2 - Love On The Edge Shawl (handspun/handblended longwool & silk)

Project 3: Glass Houses Shawl (Fleurville + handspun rambo)

Project 4: Oleander Top (Fleurville in "Rose")

Currently on my wheel:

RHL american top in mint green

And I'm blending a knock-off of the WoW colorway "Cover Girl" using bits and pieces from my fiber stash. Hoping to get a sweater quanity.

I did math on how much fiber & yarn I actually have and this is my estimation:

61 braids (~6100g, but some are 100g and some are 4oz)

153 skeins/cones (roughly)

12lbs of undyed fiber (5,448g)

So my stash reduction is:

310/11548g fiber

5/153 skeins

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Project 3 : Glass Houses (the unloved skeins)

Pattern Cost : $8 (a few years ago)

Yarn Cost: $10 (yellow Rambo), $5 (fleurville 4 ply) = $14/total

Time Estimate: 35 hours

I wasn't going to cast on a third project, but I'm doing endless stockinette on Project 1 and I hate Project 2, so I decided to add project 3. I also have a neglected Shetland shawl I've been working on for 3 years, but we don't talk about that.

I would really have loved to do this one in a dark brown with maroon or black with bright pink or saturated blue, but I didn't have any brown or black or dark gray.

So I got the bright idea to go pale on pale. I chose the overspun Rambo skein I spun a few years ago (the colorway is "Lemonade") and paired it with one of my Fleurville skeins. I was going to use the last ball of merino/suri I have, but it's been frogged so many times it gives a rubbish result despite being re-set and dried under tension.

So I guess the merino/suri is going in the scrap bin for testing stitch patterns.

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2 finished skeins!

I am 99% sure the dark blue was done with Dharma "Blued Steel". The pale one I dyed myself with left over dyebath from a 1% Blued Steel batch.

The dark blue was on a bobbin that's been hanging out for months and I finally finished it--it is supposdly Corriedale, but it is the most unusual Corriedale I've ever had if it is. It's more like Punta Arenas, and Punta Arenas is my favorite. I got it in a trade, so it's possible whoever had it originally forgot. I've asked the original dyer if they can confirm the batch (it came in a lot of 4 braids) was Corrie, so will report back.

The dark blue is about 80g and 15wpi, and I just realized I haven't counted its yardage. :P

The other is RHL "American Top" 3 ply, 25wpi, 206 yards, but doesn't seem 25wpi fine. The genero RHL American top is consistently one of my favorite things to spin and knit. It's reasonably smooth/soft, airy, can be spun bulky or lace, doesn't felt even if it takes an accidental tumble through the dryer, and is durable as heck. I don't know any indie dyers that use it except for Zephyr Creek.

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Project 1 : Lady Summerbee Cardigan

Size: XL

Cost: $21 (blue BFL + lotus braids) + $25 (Hollyhock, on clearence for $4.87 a skein)

Gauge: ~25/10cm, row gauge totally off (as usual)

Mods : 2 colors, 3" to torso & sleeves

Time Spent so far: 55 hours

Time estimated: 80 hours

Yardage estimate: ~2120

Technically I started this on December 25th, but we'll give it a pass to 2026.

This is the Lady Summerbee Cardigan from DROPS. I'm knitting it with the texture work in 2 colors. The blue is handspun, hand-blended BFL + Lotus fiber that I was pretty disapointed with when I originally spun it, but it worked out to be the ideal match with the Fleurville colorway "Hollyhock"

I was torn between knitting the 46" and the 51". I settled on the 46" because my gauge is slightly larger than the called-for gauge (and my row gauge, as usual, is completely off, nothing new there). So I'm going to end up with about a 48". Because my row gauge is completely off, I had to adjust the placement of the increases somewhat to make sure the yoke would fit.

I don't know if I will have the enough of the MC because I have to add about 3" to the sleeves and torso (as always) and I was already a bit close with the 5 skeins of I have. So I knit both sleeves to almost where I'd start the cuffs before starting the body. I figure if I don't have enough MC, I will just add some colorwork with the remaining CC to stretch the MC. If I really run out, I have a cowl that uses the MC I can frog to get the last little bit.

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DESTASH 2026 MUST HAPPEN

Not pictured because I forgot to go get it out of the downstairs freezer:

1.5lbs of targhee top

10 skeins of fingering weight yarn

4lb cone of 6/2 cotton/seacell yarn, about 3600 yards (I think? It might be more)

My knitting (and de-stash) goals for 2026:

Reduce the stash by 2 pictures

Try to use only free patterns or patterns I already own

only buy new yarn/fiber if it's necessary for a project or such a screaming good deal I will kick myself on the daily for not buying

Considering everything in these pictures is fingering, lace, cobweb, or fiber needing to be spun... this is a daunting prospect.

The fiber in the picture in the big bag is 1lb of cotton and 10lbs of merino/seacell. I will be spinning that the rest of my life, I'm sure. But it's gorgeous, so I don't care.

My Plan of Attack

Because I've got several sweater quanities of yarn, I'm going to focus on making items that will use multiple skeins of the same color at once. I may or may not add in a single contrast color (like with the Lady Summerbee cardi) using one of my orphan skeins.

While I'm working through that, I'll be spinning my partial braids and then once that's done, I'll move on to just spinning solid color yarn. I'm going to hold off spinning the fancy braids because I don't know what I want to spin them into. But one always needs more undyed fingering and sport!

After I've used up all the big chunks of yarn, I'll try to make something with what's left. All the big chunks I have are Fleurville 4ply, and that line was designed so all 10 colors can work with each other. I may be able to cobble together something out of what remains.

Then I'll move on to focusing on my orphan skeins, maybe using the yarn spun earlier in the year if necessary.