A Little Yarn On The Side

My goal--well, one of them--is to knit 25,000 yards of yarn before the end of the year.  To be on track, I need to be at 6249.999999999999999999999999999 yards by the end of March.  Currently, I'm just below 4000 yards for the year.  Impossible, you say? Well.........I have two more days, and the latest lace shawl is closing in on the end of an 880-yard skein, the new baby sweater is finishing up the last of a 115 yard skein, and I've picked up the red socks  that were languishing because I couldn't remember where I'd put the pattern book, but are full into the second sock and the second half of a 440-yard skein (or 462 yards as Ravelry insists), so there could be a fighting chance that I could at least end the month a bit closer to target.  Of course, if I finished all three in the next two days I could actually BE on target, but amazingly, even I  am not that delusional--which is quite possibly a first for me.   Do you think there are people who ...

This: arrived yesterday from RobinH , my partner-in-insanity last year with the 100 projects goal.  There is NOTHING knitters do as well as gifts for other knitters, and what could be better than celebrating reaching crazy goals than by swapping gifts?   Aside from some fantastic LOCAL yarn, Robin sent me REAL maple syrup (drool), something called Maple Cream which I haven't heard of but sounds marvelous and now will inspire me to find a really good muffin or waffle recipe worthy of such amazing-sounding stuff.  And.... these are milk chocolate maple creams.  Having only had really hideous maple-flavored mass-produced chocolates, I had no idea how amazing these would be.  OMG!  Seriously, these are incredible--and I'm not even a huge sweets person.  In fact, they are so incredible that here's the link to their website:  www.parkersmaplebarn.com I just can't describe it.  THANKS ROBIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In an AMAZING show of self-restraint, Jeeves is NOT listed on Ebay tonight. Today's recap:  the latest chemo cap having been finished on Wednesday, and great progress having been made on the new baby sweater and am just finishing up the front pieces, I felt knitting has received enough attention this week that I felt confident devoting Finishing Friday to sewing projects.  Especially since a rare bit of sun coming in the window had lured Theo away from my sewing table and I could actually use it for something BESIDES a kitty hangout.  I cut out new pieces for the quilt, and cut out interfacing for the floral jacket, ALL without kitty assistance!  I don't think I've ever had so much time to myself in the sewing room since we adopted Theo.  It was a bit of an odd sensation, but a really productive one. Earlier this week, I had finally relented and set up Jeeves for a trial run.  Not that I thought that he had been fixed--actually, I knew he hadn't-...

Today I happened to be discussing novelty yarns with someone on Ravelry, and it just struck me: I still own some novelty yarn, and it isn't listed in my Ravelry stash DAMN!   Dang!!!!!  I really hoped that the 190   items listen in my Ravelry stash actually included all the yarn I own.  Dang dang dang dang dang!!!!  I don't know where the novelty yarn actually IS at the moment, or I would be outside right now hucking it at passing cars.   I know why it isn't listed--I didn't want to admit that I owned any of it.  When novelty yarns first appeared, knitting inexplicably became HIP.  The dorky hobby I had been ridiculed for doing most of my life was suddenly "cool" and "in" because of weird yarns that looked like someone had shaved the Muppets and spun the results into yarn, and wasn't going to pass up my one and only chance to be "trendy," no matter how obnoxious the yarn.   My problem is that I grew up during the last knit-and-croc...

While I really, really wanted to spend Finishing Friday working on the tapestry jacket or the new quilt, it occurred to me that doing strange projects like "Project of the Month" bags might be far easier and even less stressful if I stopped waiting until the very last minute to finish them. (Go figure).  So, most of Friday and the better part of today has been spent madly sewing, and ta-da!  A dress which is not overly well done, has huge problems where the trim and the zipper coincide, and won't be able to be worn for at least another 3 months without hypothermia.  But a Finished Project is a finished project.  I decided to go with the pink trim for the well-thought out reason that I simply couldn't find anything else.  I did have a little lavender ribbon-type yarn that matched better in color but it was too thin and I thought might look slightly anemic.   And I decided that even if the results weren't perfect, I've never sewn on trim before, so...

I just caught myself rejecting a basket for the upcoming Virtual Knitting Retreat because it was "too small."  So much for moderation...........

Have I mentioned this month how cool  Ravelry is?  The group I'm most active in is the "Stashdown" group.  It's a group of about 3600 knitters who have more yarn than they care to admit, and are trying to knit partially, mainly, or exclusively from stash.  It's like a support group for those with "yarn purchasing issues." Anyway, today I signed up for the group's first " Virtual Knitting Retreat ."  Since we're spread all over the world (and most of us have tied up our money in fiber anyway), it would be impossible to really get together for a knitting weekend, so we're going to have one on-line.  It's April 7-10, and everyone is to post a picture of their project basket for the long weekend, then hopefully get all the way through it in 4 days.  Obviously, a smart person would find a small basket for this.  And, you know it is possible  that that will be my choice............. 

Um, Mother Nature?  Yeah,  I've moved on to SPRING crafts.  Can we focus just a bit?  It is March here.

It's been a pretty hectic month or two here, so when an opportunity came up to get out of town for a few days, I jumped at the chance.  Theo may never speak to me again, but Thursday I packed up Bernie, some knitting projects, and a few less-necessary things like clothes and headed out for some ALONE time.  Now, this would have been a perfect WIP-reducing weekend.  Instead, I made a second white chemo cap, which, of course, looks EXACTLY like the last one and would have been a very boring thing to be knitting IF finishing it didn't mean that I could move the stash of white stretchy yarn to the "all used up" tab in Ravelry, which brings me to 34!  ( Did I actually set 150 as my goal???????) You might think I would be getting tired of chemo caps by now, but they keep finding their way to new owners and I still have a few balls of the yarn to use up, so That's right!  It's like the movie Groundhog Day only with chemo caps.  The same thing over and over ...

Tuesday:  Received a call from my Husqvarna dealer:  "Did he call you to tell you your machine is ready to be picked up?" Me:  "No, is it fixed?" Dealer:  "Well, I think so.  It's ready to be picked up." (Hard not to just glow with confidence when dealing with these folks) So, last night my husband and I stopped by to pick up my machine.  $60, because they charged me for a "tune up."  Presumably somewhat different than the "tune up" they charged me $89 for in July, which caused more problems than it solved.  AND, of course, told me I was probably causing the problem  by not using enough stabilizer.   And the fact that there had been no problems with the amount of stabilizer I had used for 4 years just doesn't matter to these bozos.   However, I have a list of the tickets, the repair issues, their responses, and the first circuit board (the one I think is actually going out) still has until July under warranty, so when I...

I spent the weekend with my parents to see how they were coping after the hip replacement surgery.  My father is almost speedy, having given up the walker a few days ago and now, only 3 weeks after the surgery, walking better than he has in the last couple years.  However, it is still very much winter there, and being unable to get out and about for 3 weeks is getting to him.  I don't blame him--I'd be going stir crazy and I can knit when confined.  Speaking of, meet the weekend project: Yet another chemo cap.  My mother wanted one for a friend with cancer, so I started it on Saturday, finished it on Sunday, and I think it is on its way to its new owner today.  Personally, I prefer it when the caps sit around and are totally and completely useless, but at least MOST of them are still not needed.  The shawl also saw a little action and is now almost to the point where I will divide for the "v" of the sides.  I think that might make me close ...

This is my fourth year of Cold Sheeping (knitting only from stash and buying NO yarn at all, except to finish a project or on one of my year-end reward purchases when I allow them), and I have been making a lot of progress on The Stash, but there is still a crazy amount of yarn left.  So, it looks like I will be continuing to Cold Sheep for a few more years, but the idea of doing it indefinitely was getting to me, so I have decided that I will continue until my "All used up" tab in Ravelry shows 150 entries.  As it now has 33 entries, and most of my entries are not single skeins of yarn, this is going to be a long  endeavor.  Years.  The other thing I have decided, in order to keep my sanity during this stash marathon, is that I will get to spend $100 on yarn each year.  That way I won't feel too deprived, and I've set a high enough number so that if a few purchases are things like sock yarn that will take up lots of entries in my stash, I'll still end up ...

This week's Finishing Friday got off to a head start last night with a finished scarf and the crafting jacket finished today by noon. OK--yes, technically this was supposed to be finished in February, but I think even our mortgage company might give us 5 days for a "grace period," so I see no reason why the Project of the Month shouldn't get one as well. It still needs 2 large buttons--which I don't have--and will need to be washed, but I'm pleased overall.  It's rather bigger than I thought it would be, and I'm not sure if it's just supposed to be fairly big or if this is one of those "no-woman-wants-to-wear-a-large-so-we've-made-the-medium-humongous"  sort of things.  Still, I think it will be nice to have in the crafting room, and add 2.75 yards of fabric to the "all used up" category. Swearing that I would do better this month, I decided to cut out the March project of the month:  though my suspicions of anythin...

My February crafting totals stand thus:  (don't you just love it when you can use rather archaic words in a sentence?) Number of finished projects:  11  (exceeds goal) Yards of fabric used:  9.625  (exceeds goal, but still behind for the year) Balls of yarn used:  6.25   (no goal set) Yards of yarn used:  1037   (nowhere NEAR goal) Some people might find it somewhat (or totally) insane to have goals related to one's hobby, and they could certainly be right, but then they don't have a stash that is threatening to explode out of the sewing room either..........

Sometimes even the most crazed of us have to accept defeat.  Though, in my defense, I must say that had I not gotten sick on Monday, this might have truly been finished in February.  I did at least finish this just under the wire, so I do at least have something to show for myself this week.  (Besides lots of napping with Theo). Yesterday I did pick a new Project of the Month bag to find this: which involves some of the oldest fabric in my stash and fabric that I fear might not be of the best quality.  Just as most knitters I have known had to start with cheap yarn before they could appreciate why one would buy expensive yarn, I had to start with cheap fabric before getting this concept in sewing.  So, I am not sure how well this will turn out, but I am going to wash the mystery fabric today and if the dress falls apart after one wearing, we'll call it a "muslin" and celebrate the fact that I have used up 3 yards of old fabric stash.  And hopefully if...