A Little Yarn On The Side

First, I should probably come clean about the last post--the picture of the closet is not actually the whole stash. It's just the only part I'm willing to post pictures of--the rest is not even HALF so neat and orderly and has, in fact, overflowed (just a little) to the back room. The large pile of fleece that is teetering precariously on the table beside my computer....I'm not ready to talk about that yet. The first part of the birthday poncho is finished & blocked, though I am willing to finally admit that it doesn't have a glimmer of a chance of being finished by Monday, though I reserve the right to be delusional enough to consider Friday. Today I started on the February sewing project-- flannel-backed satin pajamas for me. Boise has finally gotten serious about winter and sleeping in regular flannel pajamas with flannel sheets has a bit of a velcro-effect. Other progress updates: 30 rows left TOTAL on the MS3 mystery stole!!!!!!! Everyone else's might b...

I have survived the first month of the Year of the Stash!!!! OK, it's a little hard to tell that there's any progress just yet--maybe the closet is a little less overflowing. But almost 13 yards of fabric and 17 skeins of yarn have been used and are no longer "stash." And I finished both "January" projects--the pink sweater & pajamas for Andy--so I'm mostly on track. I say mostly because the poncho is not going to be done on time. OK, it was a long shot, but there was a slight/dim/tiny chance--perhaps if we were snowed in for the next few days???

Sometime between adding the original post and this evening my pictures had all disappeared. Bet you thought the lack of new yarn had just muddled my senses enough to make my writing incoherent, huh? Well, that may indeed be the case, but another skein of 197 yards has just bitten the dust. I may be going through withdrawals, but I'm still able to knit!

After washing the January sweater, my heart sank. The knitting gods had wreaked their revenge. No matter what I did when I laid it out to dry, the ribbing was a disaster--the garter stitch was stretched and looked terrible. I tried turning it, rolling it--nothing helped. Finally out of desperation, I threw it into the dryer on low, and amazingly it looks like a sweater again! An additional bonus may be the large ball of Pepto-Bismal pink fuzz that ended up in the lint filter. Just in case, this sweater will get its own lint brush. And it is finished just in time. Boise, usually of the rain and fog winters, has had over 11 inches of snow in January alone. I show you this to explain my total lack of progress on dem fischer sin fru. Theo has willingly saved my place while I shovel snow in the evenings. The birthday poncho deadline is looming and maybe. OK, if I had any concept of reality & knitting I wouldn't have 30,000 yards of laceweight yarn in my stash. So....I stil...

You know, sometimes insomnia is a good thing... The January cardigan was finished last night and with a little help from Theo, is blocking tonight. Actually, I think he's inspecting it to make sure that we don't have any clothes that don't have cat hair on them somewhere. Three days left to go in January, and I know the knitting gods will smite me for this, but I am feeling SMUG!!!!!! Now I'll go make sure my stash hasn't burst into spontaneous flames or given rise to some bizarre species of winter moths....

4 days left to finish January's project! Rows and rows of mind-numbing edging, followed by sewing the silly thing onto the sweater. Why exactly did I decide on one project every month?????

I have finally found a way to finish the baby blankets from last weekend, and I prefer to look at it as exploring my options rather than getting my tail kicked by the serger. I resorted to decorative stitching which I think looks rather nice. When I bought my sewing machine 2 years ago, I wasn't sure if I would use the decorative stitching capabilities, but I use them all the time. In a few more years, I might even be willing to admit what I paid for the machine.... The January sweater is almost done--as is January--and what have I done?????? Joined a lace knit-a-long. The good side is that when it is done I will have used up 2100 yards and 5 hanks of yarn. The bad side is that those 2000 yards really don't take up much room in the stash & when all 5 are gone the only thing I will have accomplished is that the rubber tub containing lace yarn will be LESS overflowing. What I need are a few KALs involving bulky-weight yarn--where is the Mystery Afghan when you need it...