A Little Yarn On The Side

Today I happened to be discussing novelty yarns with someone on Ravelry, and it just struck me: I still own some novelty yarn, and it isn't listed in my Ravelry stash DAMN!   Dang!!!!!  I really hoped that the 190   items listen in my Ravelry stash actually included all the yarn I own.  Dang dang dang dang dang!!!!  I don't know where the novelty yarn actually IS at the moment, or I would be outside right now hucking it at passing cars.   I know why it isn't listed--I didn't want to admit that I owned any of it.  When novelty yarns first appeared, knitting inexplicably became HIP.  The dorky hobby I had been ridiculed for doing most of my life was suddenly "cool" and "in" because of weird yarns that looked like someone had shaved the Muppets and spun the results into yarn, and wasn't going to pass up my one and only chance to be "trendy," no matter how obnoxious the yarn.   My problem is that I grew up during the last knit-and-croc...

While I really, really wanted to spend Finishing Friday working on the tapestry jacket or the new quilt, it occurred to me that doing strange projects like "Project of the Month" bags might be far easier and even less stressful if I stopped waiting until the very last minute to finish them. (Go figure).  So, most of Friday and the better part of today has been spent madly sewing, and ta-da!  A dress which is not overly well done, has huge problems where the trim and the zipper coincide, and won't be able to be worn for at least another 3 months without hypothermia.  But a Finished Project is a finished project.  I decided to go with the pink trim for the well-thought out reason that I simply couldn't find anything else.  I did have a little lavender ribbon-type yarn that matched better in color but it was too thin and I thought might look slightly anemic.   And I decided that even if the results weren't perfect, I've never sewn on trim before, so...

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...