A Little Yarn On The Side

Actually, 8067. Even better. Tomorrow night I'll be ready to face the swoopies again, but for tonight, I'm in it for the yardage!

The never-ending-mohair and I needed a little "apart" time tonight, so I spent tonight's knitting time with a project that I can't show you because it's a surprise. Since I can't show it to you, it would really be better manners to not talk about it as it makes me sound like either a spy or a 5-year-old with a "sharing" problem, but I just had to mention.... 7985 yards of stash used up so far this year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is over 4 1/2 miles of yarn used in a productive, knitterly manner, which has been a rule lately added as I don't think it really counts as "using" my stash if I am using it to insulate the walls of the sewing room. In moments of desperation, I am capable of almost anything.

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...