A Little Yarn On The Side

Since I was out running errands today, I ran by Joanns to pick up black buttons (exactly 4 buttons), one square of orange felt (for the next round of snowmen, not the current ones), and black embroidery thread.  I was really good.  I didn't even LOOK at fabric or yarn, but obviously the stress of a severe stash diet might have weakened my brain.  While trying to figure out if the 5-, 8- or 12-sized balls of black thread meant "embroidery" thread, and whether or not it was more economical as balls or the little floss skeins (no idea), when I was viciously assaulted by a display of half-priced cross stitch kits.  It took 20 minutes to extricate myself from the wily little pouches without having to bring one home with me, but I positively FLED the store before they could rally for a second attempt. Obviously, my brain has snapped.  For one thing, I have a cross stitch kit here at home that I started at least 5 years ago, and which I do occasionally drag out to wo...

He doesn't get one: Truth be told, I almost never give snowmen noses anyway.  Of course, this decision was helped along by the fact that I didn't have any feltable orange yarn either (can you tell orange is my absolute LEAST favorite color in the world?)  I may eventually add a pompom to his hat, or the pattern calls for earmuffs made from a 2-inch pompom and a pipe cleaner (at least I have the pipe cleaner), but I thought he was pretty adorable as-is, so he's now on the shelf in our stairway.  In the future, I'll be doing something different for snowmen scarves.  The scarf Frosty has is actually two bands--one going around his neck, and one draped over, then gathered to look like it was tied.  It would have been far, far, FAR easier to just have one band and actually tie the thing than to fuss around with making this one look tied, so his buddy with the red buttons will get a real scarf.  Maybe even a knitted one? And we finally have a picture of t...

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...