A Little Yarn On The Side

Yesterday I finished the neutral chemo cap and a secret surprise project, and today I came really, really close to finishing one of these: which are snowmen-to-be, just in case it isn't obvious.  They are from this pattern: and Theo was so excited to be sewing again that he didn't even let me get the pattern pieces cut out before "helping." I might have actually finished at least one of them today had the unthinkable happened:  I didn't have all the materials the pattern called for.  Now those of you who have seen my sewing room realize how amazing this is.  I have stashes of beads, felt, zippers, buttons, elastic, braid, thread--all the things that I need to complete projects in one sitting.  They aren't HUGE stashes (unlike, you know, the yarn one), but they do usually meet the needs of any project I attempt.  Until now, of course.  It started with black buttons.  I have a large stash of craft buttons, "real" buttons, and just cleaned up on...

Day 6 and the third project is done: leaving me with 108 left to go.  I admit, it is seriously daunting to have to work my way down to 100, rather than just starting there.  I'm hoping to at least get below the 100-left-to-go mark by the end of the month.  That would help, I think. I finished the scarf in the morning, then actually caught myself reading without a knitting project later this afternoon, so I immediately cast on another chemo cap: As my old Lutheran great grandmother probably would have said, "Idle hands aren't going to read 25,000 yards for the year."  Okay, I never met the woman, so I'm not sure she would have said anything of the kind, and even if she had, it would have been in Norwegian so I wouldn't have understood it anyway, but as a strict teetotaler and a woman who never allowed card games of any kind, I'm guessing there would have been SOME remark about idle hands somewhere in her arsenal.  At any rate, I've used up 424 yard...

So, I have approximately 149,000 yards of yarn in my stash.  At the rate I have averaged, that's about 10 years of yarn.  BUT IF I COULD MANAGE TO KNIT 25,000 YARDS A YEAR, IT'S LESS THAN A 6 YEAR STASH! Okay, so I actually haven't ever managed 25,000 yards in one year, but until last year, I hadn't managed 100 projects in one year either.  Incredibly silly crafting goals do tend to motivate me, so there IS a chance.......

Actually, 72% off:  http://www.elann.com/Commerce.web/product.aspx?catID=&id=126406 I get brownie points or something for this, right????????????????

Thanks largely to Theo's help, I'm getting up a bit earlier than usual and getting in a little crafting time before my day gets going.  Not that this was actually my plan , but it is working, so who am I to argue?  Besides, Theo does not have a snooze button.  So, the February birthday socks are moving along at a decent pace: and I'm liking the results, though I think if I were to do them over, I might start a reverse stockinette stitch triangle to build into the first row of the pattern, creating a diamond effect.  I'm not sure I like the abruptness of the switch to the pattern, but I really liked how this looked on the leg of a pair of socks I made for Andy and I wanted to play with having it start on the foot & having that little coin cable run all the way up the side.  We'll see how it turns out. And if you're wondering why the scarf is now really long that would be because I can't do cables at Theo's new wake-up time, nor after about 9:00 P...

but there is NOT a finished project number 3.  Well, it was a fun streak while it lasted.

With my right arm strained and a toe on my left foot broken, I'm a rather sorry state of affairs right now, and because I am a seriously impatient person, I have pushed until they both hurt quite a lot today.  So, having virtually guaranteed that almost every other activity in the world would hurt, I have spent today crafting.  And What do I have to show for it? Finished project number 1: (which really should have been finished in 2010 but I was being super lazy about the hand stitching stuff), finished project number 2: (which is EXACTLY like the last black chemo cap down to the button, but why mess with a good thing?)  and quite a bit of progress on the socks for a friend's birthday in February which look better than either photograph would lead you to believe.  I'm really just playing with designs here.  I have cables running up both sides and will split them to make the short row heel, which could look quite cool or be hardly noticeable.  We shal...