A Little Yarn On The Side

*  It's impossible to fully appreciate what a crappy job one has been doing on dusting until one starts packing up a room *  A marker without a cap will always fall ink-side down into the carpet, but a straight pin will fall pointy-end UP *  BEFORE the boxes start getting packed up, think through any possible reason--such as trying out furniture arrangements--that might make one wish that one had not just thrown crap randomly in boxes, or, alternatively, keep at least ONE measly little project together--patterns, pins, directions, thread-- just in case *  If two long-haired cats regularly insist on hanging out in the sewing room with you, vacuum really often or get a vacuum cleaner that doesn't  have the clear cylinder showing you the scary amount of fur that just came out of your carpet. *  There are smarter things to do than pack and schlep boxes when recovering from a back injury *  If your cat has his own water glass  in the sewing r...

The blue sweater is now all one piece and the raglan sleeve shaping has begun, which has used up no less than THREE 175-yard balls of yarn, leaving me just short of 4,000 yards of yarn for the year so far.  That does, of course, include the chucking of 880 yards in the form of a shawl with issues, but it also includes a ball of yarn that didn't count because it had already been knit and frogged once before and has to be frogged and reknit again, so it almost balances out.  Whew!  And that 3 ball difference is going to make such  a difference when trying to get all the yarn back INTO the sewing room........... Which, by the way, is painted! The odd smudges on the green wall are either reflections of something or something on the lens, not actually on the wall.  2 green walls and two in "dried stem."  I just love how it turned out. While everything (mostly) is out of the sewing room, we decided it would be a good time for me to play around wit...

Finding out one might have a 12-year supply of yarn can be pretty darn motivating, it turns out.  We now have a new Christmas ornament from newly discovered yarn that I'm actually pretty excited to have found as I haven't seen anything quite like this being currently sold.  (Warning:  there may be many pathetic attempts made on this blog to present the Great Yarn Stash as a good  thing.) There are also two new washcloths, or rather one and as much of a second as I could get out of the last of the yarn.   That finishes up a 603-yard ball of yarn I bought just over a year ago, which gives me 57 items in the "all used up" tab and gives me a little boost in the yardage tally.  I'd been trying to guess how much yarn each of the dishcloths and tribbles was using up, but I was obviously wrong unless one of these two washcloths involved 200 yards of yarn, so I got to make an adjustment.  Yay!!! In celebration (and to make sure I could be knitting ...

Abb y brought up an interesting question about my last post:  Have I achieved SABLE, would I want to knit exclusively from stash for the next several years, and do I have yarn that I should give away?  After having schlepped all my yarn around the house, it does feel  like I have a life supply of yarn, especially since these were holding up my stereo in the sewing room, and when opened revealed yarns that I was relatively were not all represented on Ravelry.  I was happy to find that SOME of the yarn was indeed already accounted for, and have spent a fair bit of the morning adding most of the new yarn to Ravelry.  According to the latest figure, I have just under 190,000 yards of yarn.  I wish I could say I thought, "Well, haven't seen it for a while so I can part with it," but I didn't.  When I found a pretty large amount of Lion Brand Wool-Ease worsted, my reaction was, in fact, "Yippee!"  It's one of my favorite yarns for scarve...

I'll admit, I was wavering a bit on the continued cold sheeping.  It's fun to buy yarn.  I like buying yarn.  I had even started to ask myself, "What would be the harm?" So, it was a perfect weekend to have to lug around a large percentage of the yarn stash.  This: is now next to my bed, which is sort of like having a big burly bouncer-type man at the door to a yarn shop, since most of my yarn is bought online.  It looms over me out of the corner of my eye--just a little bit scary--and so far has kept me from even LOOKING at yarn online. This: is Andy's side of the bedroom.  Perhaps less frightening, but I think it makes a pretty good case for not buying any more fabric for a while as well.  Especially since the bulk of the fabric stash is elsewhere.....  I was excited to see the walls for the first time in about 5 years:   though the thought wasn't exciting enough to keep me from doing extra  exercises at the gym simpl...

Since it's a three day weekend, Andy decided to get cracking on the shelves for the sewing room, which leads to me having to decide what color that wall needs to be painted (the overall theme is hunter green & mushroom), and in a fit of exuberance and complete insanity, I suggested we try for painting the entire room at once.  So, when I get back from the gym, I will be tackling the sewing room and trying to find spaces for everything IN the sewing room. If you don't hear from me again, please call Search & Rescue...............

For winter, we have some snowflakes Andy made to hang in the entryway, because otherwise it's really sort of stark and bare.  For spring I've often hung some flower garlands across the top, but then it's a constant battle with the cats to A) keep them off the railing, and B) keep them from beating up the flowers while ON the railing.  So I got the idea today to make some big fabric flowers to hang.  With, of course, my fearless assistant: I made a flower petal pattern on some scrap muslin, scrounged in the quilting fabric bin for some spring/flower colored material and discovered that I had enough fabric for a seriously anemic flower or one side of a reversible flower.  (Note to self:  unless one is actually serious about quilting, 1/2 yard is a pretty stupid amount of fabric to purchase).  Next came deciding how many petals the flower should have, and I just didn't think 6 worked that well, so I opted for 7: which would make it a fuller f...

I have become a monogamous knitter. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it????  I don't think I have touched any knitting except the blue sweater for at least a week now--perhaps since I started the sleeves.  That makes it sort of sad that they aren't farther along, but let's recap the week: Monday:  Physical therapy appointment, managed to twist pelvic bone before even getting home, got home and took Valium for the pain and went to bed. Tuesday:  30 minutes on the elliptical machine, 2 circuits on the weight machines, 45 minutes in the pool, forgot about the damn hip and hopped to a rock in the garden, twisted pelvic bone out of place AGAIN, dashed upstairs to twist pelvic bone back INTO place again, then celebrated Valentine's Day with friends Wednesday:  Exhausted and just trying to break the throwing-the-hip-out streak I seemed to have been on Today:  Appointment with the spine doctor, 2 circuits on the weight machines, 1 hour in t...

It's February 15, which kicks off Spring Stashdash 2012.  This time, we are filling a basket with: 1 finished item from yarn that makes you think of spring 1 finished gift 1 finished gift for yourself 1 item in your queue (if you have one) 1 item from a pattern you already own 1 item from yarn (or fabric, beads, etc. if you’re including other hobbies) that you have owned for more than one year The "dash" ends on May 31.  Since I did such a spectacularly poor job of EMPTYING my Valentine's basket, I thought I'd be safer with a filling the basket dash.  I can hardly do worse.  The categories are very broad, so I'm hoping to keep myself motivated by being able to pick projects as I choose.  If I get the current blue sweater done, it can be the finished gift for myself.  The yarn is from November's self-pity yarn binge, so it certainly wouldn't qualify for the yarn owned longer than a year item, nor does it make me think of spring in any way.  ...

And I can stop pretending (as if I were) that I am working on anything even remotely related to the Valentine's Stashdash basket and move on to other things (as if I haven't).

Though I can't think of any of the 12s they fit into, so they're just an "extra."  Bummer.  However, there is hope on the horizon for another 12: The sleeves for the new sweater are in progress and ALL stockinette!  I don't know why--perhaps just because they're usually what I do last--but sleeves are always my least favorite part of a sweater.  So I'm doing those now and saving the front, and since they'll go pretty quickly, I think I'll stay motivated to finish this by the end of the month.  Whoo hoo! Did I mention that I was not buying any fabric this year?  Well,  ..... ahem.... there might have been a moment of weakness brought on my a bit of self-pity.  I hope my hip improves soon--if for no other reason than for the sake of the space in the sewing room.  I'm thinking either knitting bag (like I need more of them) or a jacket.  At least I'm hoping it will re-motivate me in the sewing department.....or maybe being abl...

...and Valentine's Day being just 4 days away, it was time to revisit the place mats. I like the idea of whimsical swirls and hearts to secure the batting, but I decided not to sew them by hand as that never seems as secure as machine stitching, and my capacity to sit is not improving much after last weekend's choir escapade, so... concentric hearts it is.  I put a piece of masking tape on the throat to use as a guide (the sewing machine's, not mine) to do the first stitch, then added more seams in different colors: I was hurrying to get all 6 done, so there are a few wonky bits that need to be ripped out and done over, but I was hurrying to get them done before I ran out of ability to sit, so if all else fails, all 6 are ready to be used if I don't get time to clean the seams up.  Theo was on-hand to help with the sewing, though he's still displeased over the new table height.  For a while he had taken to sleeping on the floor near  the sewing room tabl...

Saturday I attended a gospel singing workshop.  I'm not a religious person, but I do sing and I was really excited to do ANYTHING that didn't involve home, the gym, or physical therapy, and I thought it would be one of the better choices as I assumed we would be standing rather than sitting.  Who sings while sitting? Apparently, gospel choirs.  Even with the strongest pain medication I'm allowed, I had to duck out early and take part of a Valium to even get myself home, and Theo and I spent Saturday night and Sunday pretty much like this: except I'm not quite that cute when I do it.  Nor, thank heavens, that furry. I did get a little work done on the new sweater, but most of the time was spent finishing up the socks I started for my birthday: which are now FINISHED!!!!!  Since they were in progress before the start of the year, I'm counting them for one of my 12 WIPs since they MUST count for something on my list, and I have used up one of my "prec...

....what I would like  to be showing you is an actual finished project. What I actually could  be showing you is the pool at my gym where I spent an hour and a half this morning.  After yesterday's physical therapy appointment, I really, REALLY didn't want to go to the gym today, so I made myself go anyway and increased  my workout time to an hour and 15 minutes (up from 1 hour)--both to prove to myself that I wasn't going to wimp out and  because I am an idiot. What I could also  be showing you is my sorry knitterly self laying on the bed because my leg muscles are just exhausted and sitting still hurts.  Or my pajamas--which I will be crawling into in just a few short minutes.    Or myself unconscious....which should be in about 5 minutes..................

Wednesdays are not generally my day for crafting, but this week I've really worn myself out and thought it best to take a rest day before physical therapy tomorrow.  So, I decided to work on the Valentine place mats, and I'm very pleased with how they are turning out,  but I need to do something to tack down the batting in them and can't decide if I should do a couple concentric hearts in maybe purple or pink or if I should do something more whimsical--like swirls or dots?  What do you think?