A Little Yarn On The Side

Even in my fantasy knitting world, having just discovered an additional 1375 yards of yarn, it didn't seem likely that I could knit up an additional 1375 yards by the end of the year to even things out, but I could knit up an additional skein of yarn, so.... Actually, this Mock Men's Aran hat used just about 130 yards, so I'm scaring myself with the mental discussion that if I could already have knit up one-tenth the amount of yarn I found, am I positive I couldn't knit up maybe half?  Two-thirds?  The entire stupid amount?  I am nothing if not stupidly optimistic.  So, meet the new scarf.  It's on size 8 needles, fairly simple design, and in some of the new mohair yarn.  If I get it done by perhaps the 27th, that will be another 245 yards, then I would only need 1000 yards in the last 4 days of the year to reach 1375, which seems completely reasonable to me as I'm currently on my third cup of coffee this morning.  What could possibly go wron...

So, I had the brilliant idea to get the rest of my yarn photographed so everything would have pictures.  None of the first laceweight yarn I bought had been photographed, so a little rummaging turned up this so I took a picture, pulled up my stash on Ravelry, and.......... It wasn't on there! This 1375-yard hank of cobweb yarn wasn't in my stash!  I have MORE yarn than I thought, and I'm not altogether positive there isn't another hank of this color somewhere.  I actually really like this yarn, and my very first shawl was made from this exact yarn, but my stash added 1375 yards and I didn't get the fun of buying anything!!!   Dang!  Maybe cleaning the sewing room isn't such a great idea after all........

Some days I just defeat myself with my own optimism.  For the last THREE days I have been waiting to update the blog because I was just positive that this was going to really be finished any minute, and then I could brag about using up another ball of yarn for the year.  That fingering weight yarn and size ONE needles could still strike me as "almost done" shortly after turning the heel probably explains a great deal.  SO, three days later, I have now used up almost 15,000 yards of yarn this year, making it my second-best year ever with 10 days left to go. So, it of course made sense to find a really, REALLY large ball of yarn that I can't possibly knit up in 10 days, and start on a toddler sweater that also can't be finished in 10 days.  In my defense, there is a bit of a baby boom happening around us, and my newest "honorary" nephew has already outgrown the sweater I thought I would be giving him for Christmas, and will be receiving a 4-year-old ...

So, I figured out what to do about the mohair, decided how to adapt the monster hat to work with my yarn, and... am working on the socks instead.  Part of it has been because I had a bit of a setback with back/hip problem after Tuesday's physical therapy and I don't care how experienced you may be at knitting--if you're taking pain pills or muscle relaxers, stockinette is your friend.  I'm happy to say that I have been yanked back into position and now just ache rather than hurt.  This is progress.  Speaking of progress, want to see how the musical stockings look now that they're up and being filled? I love how it all turned out! Well, except for the part where the cool "washable" music ribbon I found to make the stocking loops with faded almost completely when the stockings were washed.   That part irritates me to no end.  But the overall effect is still nice.  And I have learned to not waste my money on printed ribbon ever again, so there i...

The yarn that matches beads I already have, gets to be beaded scarves.  Those that don't get to be hats.  See how easy decisions are when one has spent their allowance on yarn? I wish I had some brilliant amount of knitting to show off, but I do not.  Yesterday I wrapped gifts and even got a few sent off.  I'm still not entirely off pain medication--but generally down to one Aleve every 24 hours, instead of 4--but I'm slow and I get worn out pretty fast, and I think I was asleep by 9:00 last night.  So, not much knitting.  BUT, there have been two new ideas: 1.  Get the remainder of my stash photographed for Ravelry.  I think it's all on there, but there is a lot of yarn that didn't have photographs, and it's really easy to not pay attention to those yarns.  So, every time I'm ready to add photos to the blog, I go photograph a few missing yarns.  Interestingly, one of my friends on Ravelry wanted to know if I had robbed a yarn stor...

So, the big monster beret was supposed to look like this , or rather "sort of" as I'm using a totally different yarn because no matter how tempting the idea of angora was, I just couldn't see giving everyone hats in baby pink or baby blue.  With a slight bit of editing, I think I can make the pattern work with the mohair, or I could make mohair scarves.  Idahoans don't wear hats as often as they do on the east coast, I think, as we really don't walk anywhere in the winter.  Maybe one more hat and then some scarves? Do you guys get more use out of hats or scarves?  And, I'm thinking of adding beads to the scarves, which I don't think I can do to the hats.

The mohair hat ended up, well.... really freakin' huge.  And did I check gauge?  Of course not, because I am a slow, slow learner.  It still works as a hat, but it's now a beret rather than the tam I was hoping for.  As it's mohair, it's easier to change expectations than change the hat, but I think in future hats, I will be casting on far fewer stitches for the band.  My back continues to improve, though instead of leaving Friday's physical therapy session full of spunk and energy like I did on Monday, I was so exhausted that I actually came home and fell asleep--then slept another 10 hours that night, and might have made it to 12 if Theo had thought that appropriate.  I have been resting a lot this weekend, which has resulted in the long-promised new sweater finally being cast on and currently resembles some sort of purple ramen-noodley mess that will hopefully be straightened out with some very severe blocking, and because I seem to love frustrat...