A Little Yarn On The Side

There is a finished cross stitch project! Okay, it's stamped rather than counted, but still, how often do "finished" and "cross stitch" end up in the same sentence if "therapy" isn't also mentioned?  It still needs to be washed and ironed, but I'm so giddy with excitement that I'm waiting a bit to double-check everything before washing it. And, the purple chemo cap is also done!  This is a much better picture of the color, which I just find completely cheerful.  The additional chemo cap yarn will arrive today, so I have a blue cap on the needles now, and while 3 doesn't really make a spacial dent in the chemo cap yarn stash, it does make me feel a bit less like a yarn-hoarder--more like a Fiber Protection Specialist........... And Project 93 , is finished as well.  For the past year, 6 of us have been having monthly "New Recipe Dinners."  When I proposed it, I had actually suggested 4 times a year, but we'v...

I was really hoping to be showing you a finished object right now, but at least I'm very, very close.  This is one of the colors I got with my credits, and I love it.  It's a bit brighter in real life, and I think will be quite cheerful--considering it's a chemo cap.  And it might be making me feel good to finish another one while more of this yarn is now making its way to my door.....

IF you had been on a strict yarn diet for almost two years, what would your breaking point be?  I think I've been pretty good--I used my $50 credit to get yarn for a white shawl for me (reward yarn) and the rest I used for yarn for chemo caps.  Then the odd little things I didn't have--the white acrylic, the mens' scarf, the crochet thread, and the one ruffle scarf.  I have to say, I surprised myself.  I have held out against 1/2-off sock yarn, and had even resisted an angora blend worsted at a fabulous price, but this morning I finally broke.  For one day only (of course) the place with the fabulous angora yarn and the sock yarn was giving away 10 balls of chemo cap yarn with purchases over a certain amount--that amount being enough to get the angora yarn and a bit of sock yarn, conveniently enough.  So......................there might be some yarn on its way to my house at this point..........In my defense, it did take $35 of free yarn for my favorite pr...

...the entire state is trying to figure out how time-consuming hobbies amongst heterosexual couples have been caused by gay people, or at least by gay marriage.  Because that, as it turns out, is one of the arguments our governor tried to use in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to persuade them to allow Idaho's same-sex marriage ban to stand.  I don't think one is allowed to call someone an idiot in a legal ruling, but they came pretty close in a (for attorneys) rather humorous ruling striking down Idaho's ban today: He a lso sta t e s, in c onc lusory fa shion, tha t a llowing sa m e -se x m a rria ge will le a d opposite -se x c ouple s to a buse a l c ohol a nd drugs, e nga ge in e xtra m a rita l a ffa irs, ta ke on de m a n d ing work sc he dule s, a n d pa rtic ipa te in tim e -c onsum ing hobbie s. W e se riously doub...

You might have noticed a sudden upturn in my crafting productivity lately.  Sadly, there isn't an accompanying big new amount of free space in the sewing room--it's probably not even really any less frightening--but I am up to 89 finished projects so far this year.  Why this sudden upturn in creativity?  Because the garden was a dismal, dismal failure this year, so at this time of year when I would normally be canning I have nothing to can. One of my beds of tomatoes got hit by a fungus, but new extreme heat patterns did the rest.  People can debate global warming all they want, but the lovely thing about science is that it doesn't need one to believe in it--it just is.  And my garden really just isn't this year.  I had such an overabundance of tomatoes last year that there's nothing we really needed this year, but some soups would have been nice.  However, pulling weeds is something my back can't do this year, my allergies have gone completely cra...

Probably quite a shock around here, huh? So, since I have taken a break from Cold Sheeping, I have been thinking about what I would buy before climbing back onto the sheep for 2015.  I want some new wool colors for the color work ornaments,   especially some greens and metallics if I can find them.  Then, of course, I started browsing lace yarn--of which I need nothing and have room for even less--then started checking out sock yarn.  Some plain colors in sock yarn and maybe some self-patterning is a possibility, but of course I started moving from "some" to a whole bunch--rationalizing that it would be my next project for gifts. Ever had one of those moments when your rationalizations to do something sort of stupid sound a bit familiar?  Sort of deja dumb?  In 2011 in a self-pity-wallow yarn purchase, I had bought 8 or 9 balls of dk-weight mohair, planning to make mohair hats for all my friends for Christmas.  3 years later, there is one hat...

One of the reasons for my scary fabric stash is the presence of local fabric stores.  Until Joann Fabrics closed two stores to open one "super" store here, it was my favorite.  The "super" store model is short for "super-long-waits" stores, and they actually knew they were going to be so understaffed and have such long lines at the cutting counter (in a FABRIC store) that they put in a ticket system with a loudspeaker prior to opening.  So, I had switched allegiance to the little, floundering Hancock Fabric store struggling along.  They have smaller selection in cotton, but more apparel fabrics.  So, all was good until Hancock put in a new "upselling" policy.  Now when you get fabric cut--which, you know, means you're buying something from them--you get treated to some product being relentlessly pushed on you.  Lately it's been quilt basting spray, but there's been a magnetic pin thing, scissors, and all sorts of stuff that one genera...