A Little Yarn On The Side

It's December 1, and in November I used up: 9.4 skeins of yarn 1,594.8 yards of yarn absolutely no fabric whatsoever (gotta work on that part) It felt like a lot more yarn than that, but the obsession with the Alice Starmore sweater in fingering yarn might have something to do with that.  I may never be this close to 20,000 yards in a year again, so with even more than my usual maniacal yarny fever, I need to knit just under 2,000 yards of yarn this month.  Amid all the Christmas parties and other festivities.  Hm......... Meet the new (hopefully) yarn-eating project: which is a free pattern from Lion Brand yarns.  I'm using size 7 needles to get gauge, and the skeins are only 110 yards each, so I'm hoping this will be super motivating.  And anyone thinking this yarn looks slightly familiar, it's part of the "oh-my-gosh-what-if-I-use-up-my-entire-stash" purchase made in 2007   before starting my first year of Cold-Sheeping.  I just lo...

Gaidig raised an interesting point yesterday--bigger needles don't always mean faster knitting.  Actually, I don't often knit with anything bigger than size 8s because the big needles feel uncomfortable.  Of course, there are still faster options than this: which is the project that got all the attention yesterday.  Does anyone think size 1 needles are the fastest knitting option?  I was actually planning on tackling some sweater WIPs because I have THREE sweaters really close to being finished--two of which I can even locate.  But, Monday I lifted some weights, walked in the pool for an hour, assembled the monster tree: had a turkey-rematch, vacuumed the stairs, and did lots of physical therapy exercises.  As you might have guessed, Tuesday was a bit painful, but my back did pretty well--or well enough for me to think another hour of walking in the pool yesterday would be a good idea.  So, whether or not the socks are fast or slow knitting, they...

So, no new "things" from my personal account this year, but I am allowing activities.  Last spring a friend invited me to meet her Great Discussions group.  I had never heard of the Great Discussions program, but it's this wonderful program put on by the Foreign Policy Association.  They send out books and a DVD, and the group meets once a week for 8 weeks (I think) and you read a chapter in the book, watch the DVD, then discuss that topic.  I got to join them last year for the last one, which was on global energy policy.  For a topic I had honestly never thought about, it was fascinating.  I just got the email about this year's group, and while I will need to buy my own booklet, I'm counting that more as an "activity fee" than a "thing."  Extra points for it being a totally nerdy activity, too.  :)

I am now just over 1000 yards away from tying my best yardage year ever , and 2000 yards away from that 20,000 mark that I've been chasing for years.  I see a lot of BIG needles in my future next month.........

Knowing that I am on a year-long buying ban and knowing that it could be very, very dangerous, I still couldn't help myself:  I had to look at the Cyber-Monday sales at Knit Picks to see if the yarn I had recently ordered to do ornaments next year was on sale.  Why, I don't know.  Torture?  Curiosity?  Tempting fate?  But for once the Knitting Gods were on my side.  NONE of the colors I had bought were on sale.  Ha! Ha! What I would have done if they were on sale is anyone's guess, but thankfully it didn't come to that.  I am feeling supremely smug anyway.

The Stashdown group on Ravelry is having a virtual "Black Sheep" retreat this week in honor of the holidays and going NOWHERE near a mall for the holiday weekend, and without officially signing up, I have pretty much been participating, thanks to a cold.  Yep, missed Thanksgiving for the second year in a row, but at least this year Andy got to join our friends for the festivities, so we're making progress.  And sleeping most of Thanksgiving Day really did help, as I now have only a slight cough and intermittent sore throat, and I think the nausea level has moved back to the general "I'm-taking-pain-pills" level, versus the "Get-out-of-my-way-if-you-know-what's-good-for-you" level, and never did get to the "please-just-let-me-die" levels of the new muscle relaxers a few weeks ago, so REALLY there is progress.  And, a sock for next year's Christmas gift bag is in progress, the cowl neck sweater is gaining the cowl neck, which ...