A Little Yarn On The Side

My goal--well, one of them--is to knit 25,000 yards of yarn before the end of the year.  To be on track, I need to be at 6249.999999999999999999999999999 yards by the end of March.  Currently, I'm just below 4000 yards for the year.  Impossible, you say? Well.........I have two more days, and the latest lace shawl is closing in on the end of an 880-yard skein, the new baby sweater is finishing up the last of a 115 yard skein, and I've picked up the red socks  that were languishing because I couldn't remember where I'd put the pattern book, but are full into the second sock and the second half of a 440-yard skein (or 462 yards as Ravelry insists), so there could be a fighting chance that I could at least end the month a bit closer to target.  Of course, if I finished all three in the next two days I could actually BE on target, but amazingly, even I  am not that delusional--which is quite possibly a first for me.   Do you think there are people who ...

This: arrived yesterday from RobinH , my partner-in-insanity last year with the 100 projects goal.  There is NOTHING knitters do as well as gifts for other knitters, and what could be better than celebrating reaching crazy goals than by swapping gifts?   Aside from some fantastic LOCAL yarn, Robin sent me REAL maple syrup (drool), something called Maple Cream which I haven't heard of but sounds marvelous and now will inspire me to find a really good muffin or waffle recipe worthy of such amazing-sounding stuff.  And.... these are milk chocolate maple creams.  Having only had really hideous maple-flavored mass-produced chocolates, I had no idea how amazing these would be.  OMG!  Seriously, these are incredible--and I'm not even a huge sweets person.  In fact, they are so incredible that here's the link to their website:  www.parkersmaplebarn.com I just can't describe it.  THANKS ROBIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In an AMAZING show of self-restraint, Jeeves is NOT listed on Ebay tonight. Today's recap:  the latest chemo cap having been finished on Wednesday, and great progress having been made on the new baby sweater and am just finishing up the front pieces, I felt knitting has received enough attention this week that I felt confident devoting Finishing Friday to sewing projects.  Especially since a rare bit of sun coming in the window had lured Theo away from my sewing table and I could actually use it for something BESIDES a kitty hangout.  I cut out new pieces for the quilt, and cut out interfacing for the floral jacket, ALL without kitty assistance!  I don't think I've ever had so much time to myself in the sewing room since we adopted Theo.  It was a bit of an odd sensation, but a really productive one. Earlier this week, I had finally relented and set up Jeeves for a trial run.  Not that I thought that he had been fixed--actually, I knew he hadn't-...

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.............