A Little Yarn On The Side

Starting November 1, one of our area radio station kicks in with the Christmas music, so following their in-need-of-a-calendar lead, November 1 kicks off “FILL YOUR HOLIDAYS WITH MUSIC” STASHDASH Find a cute holiday-ish basket that will inspire you to fill it with yarny-goodness Between November 1 and midnight of December 31, fill it with any combination of the following: A. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas - knit something small (less than 6 inches or thereabout) B. Frosty the Snowman - knit a snowman of some sort or something with a snowman on it C. Toyland - make the toy of your choice D. My Favorite Things - make “warm woolen mittens” in your choice of yarn and size. Mini mittens do count E. Here Comes Santa Claus - knit a Santa or something with Santa on it F. A Marshmallow World - spin the fiber of your choice G. Silver Bells - make a bell or something with a bell motif H. Jingle Bells - make something (such as an ornament or stocking or whatever)...

*  On Ravelry yesterday, someone suggested making 2013 the Year of Starmore knitting.  This actually struck me as a good idea *  It occurred to me that it might be fun to write a knitting sequel to Kafka's Metamorphoses where Gregor wakes up to find he has been turned into a moth.  His family is initially okay with keeping him--until he starts eating their sweaters.  Then they squash the daylights out of him and get on with life. *  Theo is starting to look at me as if I sleep too much during the day *  The new Knitpicks catalog wasn't even remotely interesting *  The idea of casting on a sock using size 1 needles when I'm trying desperately to knit up yarn as fast as possible seems to have merit *  I am considering a 3-month spending ban on my personal account.  This going in to Christmas........... *  And, most importantly, it's after 2:00 in the afternoon and I haven't done a single thing that my physical therapis...

Dear Blog Sphere Gods: Please let me figure out those "type what you see here to prove you're not a robot" messages even half as fast as the computer spam bots do. Sincerely, Toni "I can't read those darn squiggles" Sutton

The brioche scarf is now done: and with it's 440 yards of yarn, I have now achieved my second-highest yardage in a year with two and a half months to go!  And--even more encouraging in many ways, this yarn is all used up from my stash!  In a fit of madness obsession with variegated yarns, I ordered 4 HANKS of this yarn in either 2006 or 2007.  Call it a "youthful indiscretion," or, if you'd like to include the other 18 hanks of variegated yarns I also acquired around that time, call it "complete idiocy."  I am happy to say that even I came to my senses and realized that variegated lace yarns have never work out for shawls as I hope they will, and it might have taken me about 10,000 yards of lace to learn this, but with my stash, it could have been worse.  Much, MUCH worse.  Rather than starting another scarf for portable knitting, I opted for: a new sweater!  I might be obsessed with yardage, but I haven't yet given up on finishing those 12 ...

I have deleted an earlier post today because an anonymous commenter quite rightly took me to task for it.  I had been really ticked off about a comment on one of my posts that had nothing to do with knitting or my post, but was just a promotion for the commenter's own blog, which is irritating enough, but the blog had nothing whatsoever to do with knitting.  What very understandably chapped my anonymous commenter is that I complained that it was a religious blog.  I can SO understand why that would offend someone, and I would like to apologize to her directly, but that's the problem with anonymous comments--I can't.  So, here I am.  I am apologizing to the knitting internet at large--she was right, I was absolutely wrong, and I wish I could set it straight if I could.  She correctly asked me if I would have been so angry if it would have been a blog about writing, knitting, another type of religion, or by a liberal, and I would say knitting, no.  A...

Sometimes I find myself wishing for a weekend where all I did was knit.  I need to stop wishing for these things, as thanks to the re-aggravated back problem, that is almost all I have done this weekend. I knew my back was doing badly, but with all the issues with my father's health, put it on the "back burner" to get seen to.  Monday I was feeling quite proud of myself, having called the spine clinic to set an appointment for Thursday just to see if they could help me get back on track--no pun intended.   Tuesday I walked down to our library (only 3 miles and no hills at all) and ended up hardly able to walk by the time I got home.  The heating pad and I had an affair all day Wednesday, then Thursday I went to my appointment knowing that I would probably get evaluated then referred to physical therapy--which is exactly what happened.  That's all good, except the back problem exists because my hip turns, and it has been turned for a couple months now and...

It's October 11 and I have knit (or removed) 15,058.85 yards of yarn this year.  This is my fifth year of tracking yardage, and I'm already at my third-highest yardage with just over two and a half months to go.  Finally crossing that 20,000 yard mark might finally be doable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I know--this obsession makes me a complete maniac and most people knit to actually get a knitted object.  But THIS knitter lives with a crazy stash, and in order to not look at the size of my stash and get totally nauseous, I keep track of how much yarn I use in a year.  Thus far, I have not achieved S.A.B.L.E. ( s tash a ccumulation b eyond l ife e xpectancy), and if I can knit 20,000 yards each year, I'd have about a 5-year yarn accumulation, which doesn't sound nearly as bad as a 10-15 year supply, which might be slightly more realistic if I ever chose to try realism in my knitting world, which seems unlikely.  So, I am on a mad quest for yardage, and what am I working ...