A Little Yarn On The Side

I just caught myself rejecting a basket for the upcoming Virtual Knitting Retreat because it was "too small."  So much for moderation...........

Have I mentioned this month how cool  Ravelry is?  The group I'm most active in is the "Stashdown" group.  It's a group of about 3600 knitters who have more yarn than they care to admit, and are trying to knit partially, mainly, or exclusively from stash.  It's like a support group for those with "yarn purchasing issues." Anyway, today I signed up for the group's first " Virtual Knitting Retreat ."  Since we're spread all over the world (and most of us have tied up our money in fiber anyway), it would be impossible to really get together for a knitting weekend, so we're going to have one on-line.  It's April 7-10, and everyone is to post a picture of their project basket for the long weekend, then hopefully get all the way through it in 4 days.  Obviously, a smart person would find a small basket for this.  And, you know it is possible  that that will be my choice............. 

Um, Mother Nature?  Yeah,  I've moved on to SPRING crafts.  Can we focus just a bit?  It is March here.

It's been a pretty hectic month or two here, so when an opportunity came up to get out of town for a few days, I jumped at the chance.  Theo may never speak to me again, but Thursday I packed up Bernie, some knitting projects, and a few less-necessary things like clothes and headed out for some ALONE time.  Now, this would have been a perfect WIP-reducing weekend.  Instead, I made a second white chemo cap, which, of course, looks EXACTLY like the last one and would have been a very boring thing to be knitting IF finishing it didn't mean that I could move the stash of white stretchy yarn to the "all used up" tab in Ravelry, which brings me to 34!  ( Did I actually set 150 as my goal???????) You might think I would be getting tired of chemo caps by now, but they keep finding their way to new owners and I still have a few balls of the yarn to use up, so That's right!  It's like the movie Groundhog Day only with chemo caps.  The same thing over and over ...

Tuesday:  Received a call from my Husqvarna dealer:  "Did he call you to tell you your machine is ready to be picked up?" Me:  "No, is it fixed?" Dealer:  "Well, I think so.  It's ready to be picked up." (Hard not to just glow with confidence when dealing with these folks) So, last night my husband and I stopped by to pick up my machine.  $60, because they charged me for a "tune up."  Presumably somewhat different than the "tune up" they charged me $89 for in July, which caused more problems than it solved.  AND, of course, told me I was probably causing the problem  by not using enough stabilizer.   And the fact that there had been no problems with the amount of stabilizer I had used for 4 years just doesn't matter to these bozos.   However, I have a list of the tickets, the repair issues, their responses, and the first circuit board (the one I think is actually going out) still has until July under warranty, so when I...

I spent the weekend with my parents to see how they were coping after the hip replacement surgery.  My father is almost speedy, having given up the walker a few days ago and now, only 3 weeks after the surgery, walking better than he has in the last couple years.  However, it is still very much winter there, and being unable to get out and about for 3 weeks is getting to him.  I don't blame him--I'd be going stir crazy and I can knit when confined.  Speaking of, meet the weekend project: Yet another chemo cap.  My mother wanted one for a friend with cancer, so I started it on Saturday, finished it on Sunday, and I think it is on its way to its new owner today.  Personally, I prefer it when the caps sit around and are totally and completely useless, but at least MOST of them are still not needed.  The shawl also saw a little action and is now almost to the point where I will divide for the "v" of the sides.  I think that might make me close ...

This is my fourth year of Cold Sheeping (knitting only from stash and buying NO yarn at all, except to finish a project or on one of my year-end reward purchases when I allow them), and I have been making a lot of progress on The Stash, but there is still a crazy amount of yarn left.  So, it looks like I will be continuing to Cold Sheep for a few more years, but the idea of doing it indefinitely was getting to me, so I have decided that I will continue until my "All used up" tab in Ravelry shows 150 entries.  As it now has 33 entries, and most of my entries are not single skeins of yarn, this is going to be a long  endeavor.  Years.  The other thing I have decided, in order to keep my sanity during this stash marathon, is that I will get to spend $100 on yarn each year.  That way I won't feel too deprived, and I've set a high enough number so that if a few purchases are things like sock yarn that will take up lots of entries in my stash, I'll still end up ...