A Little Yarn On The Side

Step 1. Admit that you have more yarn than you can knit within the next 6 months, unless you can learn to knit in your sleep. Step 2. Admit that sheep, llamas, and alpacas have produced fleece for hundreds of years, and they will probably continue to do so Step 3. Admit that some yarn in your stash you have never truly intended to knit–you just wanted to own it. Step 4. Admit that just because it’s 50% off, bad yarn is still bad yarn Step 5. Admit that, try as you might, there will always be a limit to how fast you can knit Step 6. Admit that other family members have rights to closet space, too. Step 7. Admit that visiting a LYS daily is probably not a good idea Step 8. Admit...

Remember this which has been languishing since December because I needed 2 more skeins of this in order to finish it? Do you also remember that 10 DAYS after placing the order with Joanns.com, they finally shipped my order (after three separate attempts to contact them on my part), but without the yarn or the fusible thread because it was now out of stock? On the same day--after driving to several different stores looking for the darn stuff--I placed an order with Herrschners . On the following Monday, the 12th, I received an email from Herrschners informing me my order had been shipped, and giving me a tracking number that actually worked. Today, it arrived!!!! And the order from Joanns.com that I placed on January 1 and was supposedly shipped before I even placed the Herrschners order???? No flipping idea--the tracking information hasn't been updated since it was shipped. A big kudos to Herrschners, who were quite quick to answer questions and take care of an address i...

I love Ravelry --adore it--spend WAY too much time on it. But, is it just me, or has it made knitting "hard?" Knitting has been going on for a very, VERY long time, quite often by people who could neither read nor write. All the techniques we have--lace patterns, turning heels, steeks, buttonholes, spit joins, casting off--all of these were thought out by someone. Probably many someones as communications were rather limited at that time and it's highly doubtful than conches or tribal drums lent themselves to podcasts. I learned to knit as a young enough child that my Barbie and her friends were the recipients of my earliest knitting endeavors and those "blankets" (term applied loosely as there wasn't a straight side in the lot) had all sorts of funny spots where I tried out different things JUST TO SEE WHAT WOULD HAPPEN. What does happen when you purl instead of knit? When you mix them up? Knit from the back loop instead of the front? They are supreme...

1. You are less likely to become known to the moth community as THE place to be. 2. All those rubber tubs and boxes could be used for something else. 3. It's like living in your own private yarn store where shoplifting is allowed 4. Other knitters will admire and fear you 5. It will shock your spouse 6. You can use all that shopping time as extra knitting time 7. We are no longer artificially inflating the demand in the yarn market. Look what happened to real estate, after all. 8. Think of the liability if your stash fell on someone and smothered her. 9. The longer you put off facing those 80s fluorescent acrylic yarns the worse it will get 10. It's too hard to catalog it all for homeowner's insurance 11. Some people have closets that hold things BESIDES yarn. (I know! Go figure...)

The first yarn to arrive from my one-day yarn-buying windows was the Knitpicks order. For her retirement gift, my mother picked a shawl in white/cream/natural, and wouldn't you believe it--in that big pile of lace yarn, I didn't have any appropriate yarn. So..... I ordered 3 hanks of Bare laceweight, which is probably about an entire hank more than I need, but I'm so frustrated over running out of yarn and/or fabric that I was being cautious. Then, before I could make it safely off their website, I was blindsided by This is my favorite colorway, and it's being discontinued. Count 'em. 10 skeins--4,400 yards added to the stash. Oops. Thank heavens it wasn't a two-day window--I'd have been in serious trouble. A friend is giving us her condo in McCall for a week, and she won't let us pay her anything for it, so I thought a scarf would be nice. I dug through my laceweight--which is really fun to do if you want to know the truth, and came up with Elan...

YARN HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!!! YARN HAS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!! After one YEAR of not buying new yarn and 16 days of waiting on shipping issues, I HAVE NEW YARN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am a HUGE fan of New Year's Resolutions. Not the sort most people make--lose weight, eat healthy, quit smoking--but of realistic ones (trying a new recipe every week, a year without processed foods, making 6 new desserts, etc.). I'm running a bit late this year, but I finally have mine: 1. Read or listen to 100 books (tally on the main blog) 2. Use up 150 skeins of yarn 3. Use up 150 yards of fabric 4. Complete the 12 "Project of the Month" projects 5. The Year of No Processed Foods (see the main blog for that one) 6. Finish the bridesmaid's quilts (there's a long story) 7. Buy no new yarn or fabric 8. Have Christmas gifts completed by the end of October. (OK, only sort of realistic) The yarn and fabric goals are significantly higher than I accomplished last year, but since I'm taking some time off, I should be able to do more sewing & knitting--right? Provided full time kitty-tending comes to a stop in the near future. (Incidentally--Th...