A Little Yarn On The Side

I would love to say that I buckled down today and finished some component of that pile of unfinished projects, but though I finished the seams and am blocking the Cheap Thrills sweater I decided to do some decorative stitching on a set of towels--or, rather, one towel as even with a sewing machine decorative stitching takes an insanely long time to do, especially where are bands at each end of the hand towels. I'm up to 2 washcloths and 1 hand towel and will not be discussing the amount of my life trim on three pieces of terry cloth represents. The towels are actually almost a navy blue, and the trim is done in an ice-blue rayon thread. I know, no stash depletion, but they do look pretty sharp if I do say so myself. Faced with the mound of Works In Progress, I have been working on the largest project first, a blanket made from Lion's Thick & Quick Chenille. I love the blankets, but like all chenille, it sheds everywhere and will probably wear out quickly. It's most ...

I never learn. I decided to total up all my lace yarn "just to see"......... 46,000 yards! I don't know that I needed to see that in all honesty. Knitter's Fantasy Land is a fun place to live--everything is possible, all patterns will work out, and there's always something soft nearby. Undeterred, since I was considering making April the "Works in Progress" month, I decided to find all my WIPs and just see how many I really have. (See how little I've learned?) My knitting Works In Progress Oh my! And with a tape dispenser for size reference, as the cats either fled or are buried: On the positive side, finishing at least a few of these will count toward stash depletion. On the not-so-positive side, there is a sewing version of the WIP pile, which even I am not fool enough to photograph. But back to the positive side, I found many of my rosewood needles!

So far this year--The Year of the Stash--I have finished a sewing and a knitting project each month. It's been great--we each have a new pair of pajamas, I have a new cardigan & a new pullover, Andy has a new shop apron, and my pi shawl is done. Sewing takes less time, so a project every month is pretty easy, but since I work full time & do a lot of other things, a knitting project every month is pushing me pretty hard, so I think April will be the Works In Progress month--those half/quarter/two-thirds/mostly finished projects that are hiding in almost every knitting basket and bag I own. If I get a few of those finished--and all the yarn & fabric I'm using this year--I really might be able to see the floor in the sewing room by the end of the year. HOPE!!!!

Drum roll please...... It's the end of the first quarter of The Year of the Stash, and this has been used up. (Well, okay--obviously not this exact yarn & fabric, since I couldn't take the picture that way, but this volume ). 19 yards of fabric and 37 skeins (5061 yards) of yarn. Look--it almost completely fills the laundry basket! This is easily the most excitement I've ever gotten out of a laundry basket, but since a load of whites was the previous front-runner, it wasn't exactly a challenge. Still, 3 months and my stash has actually shrunk!!! I haven't added ANYTHING to it!!!! I promise, it isn't smugness--it's shock. It's amazing what a woman can be driven to when she runs out of closet space...

As I am currently taking a decongestant that would stun a horse, Andy is my chauffeur for the next few days, and on a sunny Saturday afternoon I had him take me to Joann's Fabrics, which was inundated with women with that crazed crafting look in their eyes and sale fliers clutched tightly in their hands as they charged racks of 50% off fabric, so I could get these: Size 10 and size 9 dpns, to make sure we prevented any future needle emergencies. I have 2 days left to finish Cheap Thrills--the race is on! The pressure has gotten to Theo but I was able to hold it together enough to finish off another ball of yarn on the sweater I shouldn't be working on until later this fall: No vacuuming yet, though. Rats!

And Cheap Thrills may not make it. I've been working on the seams, and they could get there, but the collar has hit a snag. It turns out that I don't own any size 10 double-pointed needles. Or size 9 or size 10.5. How it is possible for there to be not one size, but three sizes of needles that I don't own will forever remain a mystery--like the whole socks-eating dryer thing. The Fruity Pebbles socks are progressing. But the unscheduled knitting is getting most of my attention: Whether it's because of the pattern, the softness of the alpaca, or because it isn't what I "should" be working on, I am obsessed by this sweater! Just in case it is some compulsive need to do what I shouldn't be doing, I'm going to find a way to convince myself that I absolutely SHOULDN'T vacuum tomorrow.....We'll see what happens!

The Mystic Light KAL started today, and I have the yarn--and heaven knows I have the needles--but haven't yet decided if I will cast on or not. It is in fingering weight, with size 7 needles, so there's some potential for instant gratification, but I didn't PLAN on much lace this year, and then there's little Dem Fischer Sin Fru sitting in the corner of the sewing room, muttering to MS3 about "starteritis" and "flaky knitters" who can't make a commitment. Meanwhile, the new sweater--which has not yet earned an ignominious nickname of any kind--passed skein number 1 and brings me to 33 skeins for the year, which earns it my undying affection this week. Monday will be the end of first quarter (see how hard it is to keep my business life from bleeding over into my knitting?), and whatever stash I have used at that point could be considered an indicator of how much of the stash I can use up this year--provided I quit getting sucked into lace KALs....