A Little Yarn On The Side

*  When trying to sort out the yarn I will  be knitting in the next 12 months and the yarn I won't  get to in the next year, I have discovered that some part of me really still believes I can knit a 10-year supply of yarn in the next 12 months. *  If one has big rubber tubs full of yarn, until one has actually emptied out every single tub of yarn  and double-checked it, one should not boast that one finally  has one's entire stash on Ravelry....unless one wants to be blindsided by 15 unaccounted for skeins lurking in the depths of the stash. *  Getting the sewing machines and computer all set up on the new sewing table would be even MORE exciting if I knew where my patterns, pin cushions, extra needles, marking pencils, and hem gauges were and could actually start sewing . *  If one can't find a knitting group that one likes, a clever knitter offers to teach all her friends to knit.

For now, the stereo-sitting-on-a-stack-of-yarn-filled-Rubbermade-tubs scheme is probably going to need to be continued in the sewing room, which means 1.  I can move a few things back into the sewing room and out of the bedroom 2.  This would be an excellent time to decide what I want to knit in the next 12 months so I don't discover that the next project is going to require moving a whole bunch of stuff. So, what if  I had two tubs to hold what I planned to knit in the next 12 months.  Could I stick to it?  And could I actually empty two entire tubs in one year?  Could my rise-to-the-challenge-no-matter-how-insane tendencies override the I-don't-want-to-knit-it-if-it's-planned-ahead stubbornness?  Or am I just saying this so I can play with yarn all day and really feel like I'm "cleaning?"

The tough finish an easy scarf: and start a new sweater: This is going to be a cotton tank top, and I would be providing a link to the pattern if I weren't such a nice person.  It's a free pattern, and it's always nice when people decide to share their work for free with the world.  I get that.  And it's a cute tank top, which I also appreciate.  BUT the stated gauge is 5.3 stitches to the inch using the pattern stitch.   5.3 stitches to the inch is insane enough, and generally no one does that, but the pattern has a double decrease separated by the 2 YOs by 5 stitches, which pulls the knitted stitches to a diagonal to form a wavy edge.  So....our gauge is now 5.3 stitches over a wavy pattern, and if one just measures the stitches themselves, they are at an angle and don't accurately represent the width of the stitches.  The solution?  Knit for a while, slide all 180+ stitches onto a piece of yarn and measure to make sure that the darn thing...

As a pretty accomplished woodworker, Andy would probably like it known that this is in no way reflects his general building standard, but this weekend he made me a temporary sewing desk: so we could get our folding table back to use for parties.  It's not pretty, but I am VERY excited, and it's going to be far more stable than the plastic tables I've been using.  He put it together yesterday and today he is assembling it in the sewing room,  with Theo's help, of course, which is actually FAR more helpful than his "help" with the painting: I think Theo's pretty happy with the new arrangement--at least far happier than he was about the paw scrubbing he got yesterday, and now I can start putting part of the sewing room back together while Andy works on the shelving.  Yay!!!!

Picked up the stitches for the neck and button bands for this: "Surely," you must be saying, "that can't have taken the entire day."  Well, I can say for certainty, "Yes it jolly well CAN.  And don't call me Shirley." The problem is that while this is a lovely yarn to knit with, the cool tweedy-look is caused by various threads of a highly argumentative synthetic that run through the yarn....except when trying to grab the yarn with a crochet hook.  Then they abandon the wool entirely and branch out on their own.  And if THAT wasn't enough fun, I'm actually trying to follow the pattern exactly, and the stitches to pick up aren't easy mathematical ratios--like 2 for every 3 stitches or anything of the kind.  On one part it's almost 1 for every 2, but not quite, but along the front it's almost every stitch--but not quite.  I haven't even actually FINISHED picking up all those blasted stitches--I'm down to the left fron...

Today someone on the Cold Sheeping thread on Ravelry asked me if I had any idea what my net stash decrease has been after all this Cold Sheeping.  I know from my side tallies that I have knit up 357 balls/skeins/hanks/whatever.  That's sort of the easy part.  BUT, in the 4 years 2 months of Cold Sheeping, there have been "reward purchases" at the end of the year, a few "dang, I ran out of yarn and need more" purchases, the chemo-cap project, gifts, a few I-don't-actually-have-the-right-yarn purchases, and the infamous "I am on pain pills, in pain, feeling sorry for myself, and basically bribing myself to not murder anyone" purchase in November.  So, that isn't a net stash decrease.  I have now gone through my blog, through my Ravelry stash & stash used up tabs, and I think I can say with reasonable accuracy that the stash IN has been 212 balls, so the true NET decrease is 145 balls.  I did donate a big bag of icky acrylic yarns, but did not...

And the first of TWELVE sweaters is almost finished: and, being me, I still think 12 sweaters/shawls entirely doable.  Probably not too surprising, because I also seem to be able to believe that chocolate chip cookie DOUGH has no calories, even if the cookies do.   My world is a fun place. Now that the sewing room is under attack  an organizational-spree, we thought it would be a good time to rehang the closet doors: which would have been a FANTASTIC thing to remember before packing up all the shelves.  The screws, I can locate.  The metal sliding parts.........not so much.  They are in a plastic baggie, but where that baggie now IS would be anyone's guess.  "A box" is as close as I can come.  So......maybe later.