A Little Yarn On The Side

Okay, so I didn't get either the shawl OR the socks finished, so the month didn't finish that strong in any category: Projects finished:  8 Yards of yarn used:  1057 Balls of yarn used: 9 Yards of fabric used:  6.75 Doesn't that make you wonder what exactly I was doing with myself last month?

For those of you who are interested in the Ravelry "increase your stash" group, it seems to be my Cold Sheeping thread in the Stashdown group on Ravelry.  I've actually had a member of the group respond to a new Cold Sheeper that she thought the total ban on yarn purchasing was much too harsh.  On the Cold Sheeping  thread.  So it may be possible after all that I am leading a group that is advocating refrigerating one's pet ewes. :)

*  Announce in a sock knitting forum that kitchenering the toes is passe , and that you prefer to dining room yours. *  Tell everyone that you aren't actually knitting, but doing a lesser-known two-handed method of crochet. *  Email your favorite lace designer and ask if there are any instructions for adding a few pom poms to her most popular shawl design. *  Announce to your local stitch and bitch that you don't really have much of a problem with Second Sock Syndrome, but that third sock really gets to you sometimes. *  When you hear a fellow knitter say, "Oh, I could never do that," agree with her wholeheartedly and suggest that she stick to garter stitch scarves. *  Start a group on Ravelry solely devoted to INCREASING one's yarn stash.  Adopt such slogans as "Global Warming affects sheep too," "Sharing is Stupid," and "Get it before someone else does."

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...