A Little Yarn On The Side

OK, and I'm working on the Top Secret project which I cannot post pictures of until it is done & in the recipient's hot little hands. But Top Secret will require just about HALF the yarn of the Mohair Monster, so it's all good. And it isn't mohair, which is even better. I need to get back to the Hibiscus for Hope test knit, but I think I have about a week left on the Top Secret project which really needs to get done and shipped--then I can go back & do some edits for the test knit. Which probably works out for the best, as I'm taking cold medicine and math and tiny needles are probably not a good combo for me right now. The next attempt could result in something truly outrageous--like a "willy warmer" or other things my knitting is a bit too G-rated for...... The worst part of the cold (besides envisioning a willy warmer), is that I didn't get my celebratory white chocolate martini to celebrate finishing the Lady's Circular Cape! Dang ...

HALLELUJAH! IT'S DONE! IT'S DONE!!! IT'S DONE!!! And a quick shot while wearing it, which won't be seen again until late fall or early winter, as mohair is much warmer than it looks. IT'S DONE! IT'S DONE!!! IT'S DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 6 months and 1475 yards of yarn. I am now going to find something to do with the largest needles I own. Anyone tried knitting with broomsticks?

Thanks largely to all the moral support and insane amounts of caffeine, I have finished the very last swoopy and have finished most of the remaining edge. All that remains now is the rest of the front edge, the last corner, and half of the neck edge--all of which requires less knitting than one of those dang swoopies. Finally the thought of being done with the Great Mohair Abyss is enough to motivate me to work on it. It has taken 6 months to get this far! Granted, I can't seem to manage project monogamy, but I have managed sporadic monogamy and it has still taken 6 months . I'm not sure when I'll be able to face lace again without shuddering, but that might be another 6 months. And some therapy--I wonder if there are counselors who specialize in mohair?

OK. I have endured 1362 yards of mohair--500+ of it contained in the mind-numbing, soul-sucking edging that has gone on forever. It is down to the final swoopy and the final ball of yarn. After 4 cups of coffee, and a promise that I could work on the floral dress & skirt when I stopped shaking, I joined the final ball of mohair and..... I'm halfway through the final swoopy. There is still a front and half a neck edge left to do, but there will be no more balls of yarn after this one!!! That thought is keeping me going. And sheer, absolute bribery:

I was able to arrange my work schedule enough to take a 5-day weekend this week, and I was so excited about having a day off that I was up by 6:00 and had this done by 8:00 AM: The first part of sleeve number 1 for Sitcom Chic and yarn ball number 61 for the year. The Top Secret project got some attention today: though the Lady's Circular Cape remained at the bottom of the knitting bag. This is going to be the final ball of yarn used on the LCC, but while it stared at me from the shelf all day long, I just couldn't bring myself to take it up. Ever been completely buffaloed by a ball of mohair?

Tomorrow is the end of June and the halfway point of The Year of the Stash (nevermind that I've decided it might be a 2-year endeavor--I try not to think about that). To be able to say I've used up 59 balls by June 30 drove me to this: See where we're at? Only one more swoopy, then the side and back edging. This also marks the end of the first additional ball of yarn I bought for this shawl, making me extremely glad I didn't just buy one. That I bought three was perhaps a little overkill, but put "discontinued" with "mind-numbing never-ending rows of edging" and it's amazing I didn't orchestrate a hostile takeover of Rowan to get their remaining stock of Kidsilk Haze Night. Once I used up the 59th ball of yarn, I shoved the mohair episode into a bag and spent a little quality time at the sewing machine. I finished Andy's flannel pajama top today, which is extremely fortunate as it was a nippy 104 degrees today. The house is so warm t...

Through tenacity, dedication, and bribery, I have finished 9 1/2 swoopies: 2 1/2 swoopies left. This was on my list as the knitting project to finish for June, but that would be a lot of swoopies in 2 days. I'm just not sure even a box full of merino would be sufficient bribery for that sort of torture.... Hibiscus for Hope progressed all the way to the short-row heel, which looks fabulous until Unstretched, it's about an inch too long for my insanely-pale foot. Some frogging will be occurring this evening. Luckily, it's so far off that I think I can eliminate an entire pattern repeat, which would mean the least amount of frogging and pattern editing. Or I can find a woman with feet 2 inches longer than mine.....

Last night the Stealth Project got all the attention, largely because the skein was so close to the end that I was able to post the 57th ball used from the stash late last night. I was going to wait until morning, but I was so excited that I finally got out of bed to update the tally! Obviously, not buying yarn for extended periods of time is bad for one's sanity. I spent a little time with the Lady's Circular Cape, but didn't make it very far on swoopy number 9 before I was just too exhausted to stay up any longer. It turns out that it might not be the swoopies themselves that cause a problem. I caught Theo playing with the mohair, and a few seconds later I was not aware that mohair was powerful sleep aid. That could explain some of the problems with the shawl. Either that or the edging just goes on forever...

4 more swoopies to go!!! And then of course, two corners, the side, and the back of the neck, but it will FEEL like it's done after the mind-numbing-bottomless-pit charmingly consistent edging on the bottom of the lovely shawl. (soothing herbal teas are doing so much for my outlook....) The true love of my life lately is Sitcom Chic This lovely work of art is knit on size 8 needles and worsted weight yarn that comes in skeins of a delightful 82 yards . I have now used up my third skein and will be joining the fourth after some, er, " quality time" with the Fluff Monster--formerly known as the Lady's Circular Cape.

Last night I just couldn't bring myself to face the mind-numbing-endless-abyss that is the mohair edging, so I spent a little time with Sitcom Chic: And the Top Secret project: which is safe to photograph for a while as it is still in "amorphous blob" stage and could be anything--sort of like knitting in general. I don't want to get distracted from finishing the Lady's Circular Cape after having come this far, but I just couldn't face the mohair again. To put things in perspective, I dug this out: Many of my friends cross-stitch and they absolutely rave about it--how relaxing it is, how enjoyable it is, etc. I can actually see how it can be relaxing--there is something very soothing about doing little thread x's all over a piece of material. What I don't get is how there are ever finished cross stitch projects. It takes forever . I worked on this thing for at least half an hour and do not even have a square inch to show for my efforts. Know who w...

See this? It's an entire ball of yarn. Completely used up & out of the stash. Bringing me to 53 balls used this year. That was SO rejuvenating! Rejuvenating enough to spend some time with this: We've reached 7 swoopies now, which would be REALLY exciting if there were 10 swoopies. With 12, it's just one past the halfway mark. But at least it is PAST the halfway mark. Slowly, slowly, slowly......

This freak of never-ending-mohair-edging has driven me to lengths no other project has ever done. Yesterday, I cleaned the sewing room. Not clean enough that I'm willing to post pictures of it or anything--let's not get crazy here--but it is cleaner than it has been since the Christmas Gift Blizzard of '07. Bare table has even been glimpsed. Then, in a moment of true weakness, I slipped..... In the corner, looking lost and a little shy, was a lovely worsted weight cotton And I know--I have this great thing going with the mohair, but look at this: 82 yards to the skein and size 8 needles. SIZE 8s! With those I could knock 3-4 balls out of the stash each week! I'm not proud, but.... before I knew what had happened, I had 7 rows of Sitcom Chic on the needles. I was WEAK--beaten down by those unending rows of edging--1368 rows!!!! Can you blame me?

There are 12 swoopies, not 10!!! I'm not quite halfway. Heaven help me, I may have just lost the will to knit. I'm going to go clean the sewing room--that involves NO mohair and very little purple..... And somebody needs a "time out:"

Last night it was just me, the Lady's Circular Cape, a REALLY strange movie called Lord Love a Duck that I rented in honor of the passing of Harvey Korman and which I still don't understand, and the last of the original yarn for the cape: I was truly planning on not blogging until I could say I had used up my 52nd ball of yarn, but that last little bit of yarn is much bigger than it looks. I just crossed over the halfway mark on the edging (YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and still have enough yarn left for another swoopy. Not that I wouldn't have run out of yarn, as I'm only halfway around the edging and it's a LOT of edging: Jane Sowerby, I'm so glad I doubted you! Not that she isn't a perfectly lovely person--I'm sure she is. But I think we can all agree that it's a good thing she didn't decide to become an accountant. Knitters might forgive you for being off by 20%, but the IRS is pretty touchy about stuff like that. 4 1/2 left to go!

"I have measured out my life with coffee spoons" -- T. S. Eliot "I have measured out my life with fluffy purple swoopies" --Toni Sutton I'm up to 4 swoopies now. It's not halfway, but it's 4 instead of 3. And the only thing that is keeping me from flinging myself at the stash to find something--anything--different to knit is the knowledge that I have only about 70 yards more on this ball of yarn and I can add it to the TALLY. Well, that and the white chocolate martini I have promised myself when I do finish this ball. I might bathe in them when I finally finish this shawl...

This purple in fact-- It might take me that long. See those swoopy-parts? The bottom of the shawl actually has 10 of them. I have knit 3. I have all this: still left to knit. And this: is how much of the original yarn I have left to use, which is about 100 yards. I guess as long as I broke my one-year ban on buying yarn, I'm glad I just proved it was totally & completely necessary, but what if I hadn't been able to find more of the yarn???? Victorian Lace Today is so far off on yardage requirements that it is SCARY. I bought 3 more balls--681 EXTRA yards--and I might use up most of them!!!! That's a pretty big variance, even in lace knitting. And on a related note, 46,000 yards of lace yarn might indeed be a bit.....well...insane, really, but I just used up another 227 yards--which of course makes a HUGE difference..... At this rate I could actually RUN OUT of laceweight--probably in 2015???? I shudder at the very thought......

The deceptive thing about some lace projects is that it really feels like you're almost done when you reach the edging. The reality is, you're not even close. I have been working on the Lady's Circular Cape pretty faithfully (for me) for the past couple days, and this is how far I've gotten. It looks pretty far & feels pretty far until you look at how far I have left to go just on the bottom. Those are some very closely scrunched stitches, and each of those requires 2 rows of edging. Doing a little math, which is rarely a good idea at such times but I did it anyway, there are 684 stitches on the needle by the time you finish the body. Each of those requires a minimum of 2 rows (sometimes 4, but that's just too overwhelming to contemplate right now), so the bottom ALONE takes 1368 rows of knitted edging. Then there are the 2 sides and the top as well.... Heaven help me. The good news is that in the Year of the Stash Plan, this was optimistically listed as...

Today I finished the Fruity Pebbles socks which brings me to 50 balls of yarn used this year!!!!!!!! HAPPY DANCE (in some sporty new socks even)!!!! Just think how exciting that would be if I hadn't bought 75 balls of yarn in December....that would actually be a net stash decrease....but I'm still hopeful for a net decrease overall. I do still have 7 more months. In a fit of resolution, madness, or total rebellion because I really did have other projects I needed to work on, I even finished a fall table runner that I started about 3 years ago: which means I average about one square a year. Truly a scary concept if I ever decide to make a king-size quilt--does cotton rot in 50 years????? And the latest obsession-- the Lady's Circular Cape, which is now at the border stage. I love the cleverness of knitted-on borders--it's such a great way to finish lace. Even if it does take FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's May and this weekend it was over 90 degrees!!! I had not even turned the heat off yet. I guess we're skipping spring this year & going straight to nasty-hot. So, even the most devoted/obsessed knitter can't be too excited about wool in times like these, so today I finished this: It's actually a red & white patterned cotton--not pinky-orange as it looks in the picture. Chalk up another 3 3/8 yards used up from the fabric stash--which even I have the sense to not tally up. Let's just say that I'm not going to run out of fabric anytime during the "aught" decade... Speaking of stash, if you follow my main blog you are aware that I ordered 3 balls of yarn yesterday. :( I had always told myself that the only yarn I would be allowed to buy this year was IF and only IF it was to finish a project that I had started in good faith (no starting a shawl with 200 yards of sock yarn or something like that), but it's still depressing. I have d...

The good news : I just finished the third ball of yarn on the Lady's Circular Cape, which brings me to 6,432 yards of yarn, or just over 3 and a half miles of yarn used so far this year. YAY! The bad news : I'm not quite to the edging, and it seems that a lot of knitters are running out of yarn on this project--even ones who made it farther than I did with that third ball of yarn. The ones who had purchased clearance or discontinued yarns for this project have resulted to weeping, bartering, and knitting voodoo dolls of the designer, which they pierce repeatedly with size one knitting needles. I don't think my yarn is out of stock, but buying more yarn would be breaking the rules of The Year of the Stash, and having made it 4 months already..... I don't know for certain that I will run out of yarn, but if I do, it will result in putting this away until 2009, which would be really, REALLY irritating as I am totally enamored of this project. It's soft, it's g...