A Little Yarn On The Side

Last night I finished and blocked Sweet Pea and am now stuck with trying to figure out a way to wear a wool scarf in the summer because I am STILL madly in love with this scarf & really, really, REALLY want to wear it. And better yet--I have now used 49 balls of yarn and over 7000 yards of yarn from the stash!!!! Happy dance!!!!!!!!

I have no idea if "memed" is a word, or if "meme" is a word (spell check is saying no), but basically there's a large-scale game of blogger tag, and I'm "IT," having been tagged by Jill and by Toni in Florida . The Rules: Rules are posted at the beginning. At the end of the post, the player tags 6 people and posts their names. Then the player goes to each of the “named” people’s blogs and leaves a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog. If you’ve been tagged, you do the same, letting the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer. Your answer, of course, is the answer to the following questions. Here we go! 1. What was I doing 10 years ago? I believe I was working for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation as a contract fundraiser (I would later become permanent staff for a total of two years.) I had been in telecommunication sales, but that was during the frenzy of telecom mergers, and I had ...

My love affair with the scarf continues.... to the exclusion of all other projects, including the birthday poncho, which I really truly have been working on until I met Sweet Pea here. Why can I only develop good habits when it's a really inopportune time to do so?

After deciding to do The Year of The Stash, I allowed myself one last purchase from Knitpicks in December of 2007 : Today is May 22 and I have not yet used up the number of skeins I bought in just one order. I'm not even that close . Yardage-wise I might be a little bit better (though there was some lace-weight in there, so that might be even worse), but it is going to take me at least a total of 6 months of knitting to use up the yarn I added to the stash "just in case." Granted, it was a much larger order than I normally would place (sale + not getting any new yarn for an entire year), but under normal circumstances, I would have purchased a similar amount in smaller orders by now--AND have not knit any faster than I currently am. Anyone ever tried knitting from stash for 2 years????????????????????????????????

Ever since casting this on last night I have been completely obsessed with it! Details: Knit Picks Gossamer in "Sweat Pea," which unfortunately was discontinued (Sorry RobinH --and yes, I have counted my stash yarns and would know if something suddenly went missing.....). Size 6 needle--though for some insane reason, this is a 4.25 mm size 6, not a 4.0 size 6, which does indeed prove that some people just like to mess with knitters' minds. Simple moss stitch border and simple faggotting stitch (yo, k2 tog on odd rows, yo, p2 tog on even ones). Not quite mindless, but pretty close. Sorry, I've been away from it long enough......must keep knitting!!!

Somehow, this makes rational sense. Not sure HOW yet, but it does. So last week's hat was looking a little, well, small.... Not that size matters, but it does look an awful lot like a child's hat. Not that there is anything wrong with children's hats, or children for that matter, but I have several young nieces & nephews and refuse to be Aunt-Toni-of-the-boring-knitted-hat-as-a-gift. I'm a great lover of hand-made gifts now that I'm an adult, but as a child, they were a pretty big let-down--especially at Christmas. This is just the ribbing of a stocking cap, which can stretch, so....... .is it wrong that I'm more excited about using up a ball of yarn than in getting a hat out of it??????? Yikes Sometimes, we all need a little motivation. Sometimes, it's a pep talk. Sometimes, it's an idea. Sometimes, it's bribery. Tonight I made a deal with myself. I can cast on this AND this if I will quit sulking about not being able to buy new yarn. Som...

50-yard balls of yarn. My main motivation in knitting has become to change the stash progress tally . End up with a sweater? Fine. Finish some socks? Whatever. Use up another ball of yarn? Whoo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I realize that bigger balls of yarn are accounted for by the total yards used and that I am still using up stash which was SUPPOSED to be the idea, but it takes SO much longer to knit up 200-400 yards of yarn than say, 80, so I don't get to change the tally as often. And THAT has become my main focus this year. Did you see how close I am to 50 balls??????? This is what happens when "Type A" personalities knit. Now I'm going to go find the project with the least yarn left on the skein......