A Little Yarn On The Side

When things start to look desperate, it's time to go get an easy project, Ta-da!!!  The second set of fall towels has been trimmed.  Unfortunately, we only have 4 of these towels, so this is the end of my towel-decorating stash.  Still, it's project 80. And............ the hat is finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Cast on October 25 and finished October 29!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HATS COULD SAVE ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 62 days left in the year, 19 projects to go, and I have a book entirely filled with hat patterns.  It could be down to the wire..................................

That's how much yarn is LEFT in my stash. HOLY COW!  Er, I mean holy sheep!

There are 66 days left in the year, and I still need 21 finished projects.  And, in those 66 days are slightly time-consuming things called "the holiday season," which really kicks off right before Thanksgiving and ends either after New Year's Day or whenever people collapse from exhaustion--whichever comes first.  And during this time, I need to average a finished object every 3 days. WHAT WAS I THINKING?????????????????????????????????  I think, at this point, it's time for a little visit to the land of REALITY.  Not a long enough visit to accept that setting insane goals for one's hobby is completely idiotic and give up or anything, but I think it's time for a strategy session.  66 days left, and there are a few facts that even I cannot ignore: 1.  It's time to raid the Project Time Out Bin.  Half-finished projects are my friends right now. 2.  It's time to finish Fleur, even if it does mean unraveling some of the beaded band because it'...

I woke up feeling much better today, so of course it struck me as a Really Good Plan For The Day for Andy and I to go out in the rain to harvest the remainder of the tomatoes--both red and green.  This, of course, being what most normal people would do when getting over a cold......

*  Can a knitter finally have too many sweaters? *  Is it wrong to see a bright side in Global Warming?  Such as the need for more sweaters? *  Were legwarmers invented by a knitter who couldn't turn a heel? *  If I decorate a few walls with lace shawls, will it keep the house warmer? *  If I started wearing them for pajamas, would that double my need for sweaters? *  Is it more believable to blame the recent casting on of 3 new projects on the cold or the drugs? *  Should I hope for a speedy recovery or hold out for a couple more sick/knitting days?

So I've been sleeping a lot.  Admittedly, I'm probably really babying this cold, but as the last cold I had turned into a 6-week saga ending in a bad case of bronchitis and massive amounts of drugs, I'm a bit nervous about colds now.  I didn't actually know they could get that nasty.  So, I've been sleeping, reading, and knitting, so there is a finished scarf progress on a few WIPs, and then some new socks to thoroughly demonstrate my lack of attention span (as if anyone actually suspected I had one).  A bit of a bad picture, but this is a variation of the pattern I used for the Sunshine socks, called the oblique openwork pattern from Sensational Knitted Socks.   I had intended to use a different pattern, but I thought it best not to get too creative while under the influence of Nyquil.  Over the weekend (before the cold hit) I finished two more mittens for the mitten garland, taking advantage of all my new decorative stitching options, and then...

Found camera?  check. Figured out how to buy more storage from Blogger?  check Actually finish things to show off? Check. Check. Check. Derailed my desire to buy yarn with a frenzy of new projects?  Check. Check. Convince Theo I'm actually serious about sewing today and will be hanging out with him instead of battling pantry moths? Well, 4 out of 5 isn't bad........................

This is my third year of Cold Sheeping, and I am wanting to buy yarn today more than at any other time in the last two and a half years.  Why you might ask? *  I'm still  battling the pantry moths, and while I've certainly made a lot of progress, today I found the little cocoon things in the coffee filters!    *   We have a burner not working on the stove.  Last week when the Sears guy was supposed to come and take a look at it, Sears failed to call and say he was running late, so we waited for 4 hours for the guy, and he called 2 hours AFTER the outside time frame.  And unless he is on our doorstop in 12 minutes or less, the Sears guy is standing us up AGAIN!!!!!! *  Earlier this summer, I discovered the hard way that not all rubber gloves will keep one from getting burned while handling jalapenos, but that wearing latex gloves under the rubber gloves would solve the problem.  It did not occur to me that if I put the rubber glov...

Don't get excited--I haven't finished 80 projects yet (nor is the icky bug invasion completely contained.which has nothing to do with 80 at all, but would make me super freakin' happy all the same, so I thought it worth mentioning)  However, as of tonight I have used up 81.6 yards of fabric for the year which is a new personal best.  AND I even like what I made AND I had planned to being showing it to you right now, but Google informs me I've used up all my free blogger photo space and must now purchase some storage....but it won't be available to me for about a day. So.............I'm off to work things out with Google, battle bugs, and do some frantic crafting so that when I can finally show you some pictures they will be of finished projects!

Since I haven't been whining about my crazy 100-projects-finished-in-2010 goal, you might be wondering what the heck I have been doing with myself this week.  Knitting?  No.  Sewing? No. Anything at all remotely enjoyable?  No.  This week I am: Toni, slayer of icky bugs Our pantry has been invaded by grain moths and their disgusting wormy children.  If they weren't so revolting, I'd admire their tenacity as they get EVERYWHERE.  They can't get through the lids of things I've canned, but they can crawl into the rings and build little wormy nests.  Luckily, most of the stuff I canned is in an area that gets too cold for bugs, they found hundreds of other places.  Even in the cardboard boxes where we keep some of the nicer serving stuff, which sort of makes me wonder whether our bugs are actually some sort of separatist grain moth cult that has chosen to eat cardboard and Styrofoam instead of grain.  So my last several days have been spe...

You might have noticed that there are two new projects on the side tally, and yet there are no subsequent pictures on the blog.  This is because I cleaned the sewing room this weekend, and as we all know, there is no faster way for me to lose things than to clean, and my camera is the latest casualty. So, what we DO have is: *  a moderately less-messy sewing room *  progress on the stretchy sock--I think I have 2 more rounds before starting the heel *  a new black peachskin tank-top sort-of shirt--basically exactly like the short paisley one but without the paisley part *  a missing camera *  two new embroidered towels, with Jeeves performing flawlessly *  90 days in which to complete 28 projects *  a subsequent realization that working on the Kauni cardigan rather than the sock might be...um......stupid, perhaps? *  an overwhelming desire to cast on something new--with cables *  two cats and a husband who strongly suspect I ...