A Little Yarn On The Side

Sometimes the most hateful projects to make turn out to be wonderful.  Today I wore the corduroy shirt, and I adore it.  I have not yet gotten over the emotional scarring enough to wish I had more corduroy in the stash, but I could actually have more of it the stash somewhere, and I don't know if I'm still smart enough to hope I don't..........................

I was having such fun there with a new finished project every day, and I did really make an effort yesterday, getting all the wedges cut and sewn together, but my hip was really bothering me by that point, so it didn't happen.  Maybe today, though. As INSANE as 200 yards a year sounds, even what I've done so far has made a big difference in my mental stash.  I think I've mentioned before that I started keeping a journal  with all the projects that I have the materials for, and without including most of my yarn and knitting queue, I've filled almost 21 pages since I started it.  Now the FUN part is that there is now at least one finished project on every page. Obviously, since I'm finding fabrics I don't even remember, it isn't a complete list by any stretch of the imagination, but I love seeing the progress.  I check off things as I finish them and add the date.  I'm thinking there will be an extra-large chocolate martini when the first ent...

That's a LOT of sewing.  I'm not sure I'll make it to 200 yards for the year, but it is REALLY nice to get some projects finally done. Last night I wanted to unwind with some simple knitting, and my current knitting projects are in trickier spots, so I dug out one of my "surprise" projects: In July of last year, before climbing back on the sheep, I ordered several yarns for projects, bagged them up with the details, and put them away as future "surprises" for myself when I was feeling the need for new yarns.  This is the first one, and sure enough, I had forgotten all about this yarn so it was a surprise.  Could we have guessed it would be lace yarn?  It's another Begonia Swirl shawl, and I have already cast on.  I love it already!

With the table runner done,  and a little time on our hands last night,  Calisto and I decided to cut out a quick summer dress with FOUR pattern pieces.  FOUR!!!!!!!  Did I mention the corduroy jacket had 25 ?  And with only 4 little pieces, I have another finished project today!  And another 3.375 yards of fabric is gone from the stash.  Not to be left out, Theo helped me stitch the strips together for the next table runner: though we both sort of lost interest after all the strata were ironed.  Instead, I ironed the fabric for the summer clothes for Andy's 2014 birthday.  If one is more than one year late, one can at least try to be less than TWO years late, right?  So, I'm at 22.4 yards of yarn so far this year.  At this rate, I am on track to use up about 135-150 yards for the year.  I need more yardage, and it felt so good to get Andy's shirt done, which has been on the to-do list for several year...

But we do have a finished shirt for Andy, and you KNOW you're serious about finishing a project when you carry on through bloodshed: Being me, I have had to get fairly good at getting bloodstains out of clothing, but bloodstains on clothes that aren't even finished is a new one even for me.  Luckily, it was just on the interfacing, so it isn't going to be a problem.  AND another 2.5 yards of fabric out of the stash!  Normally, I might unwind at the end of the night with a book, but now that I'm obsessed with 200 yards , I started cutting the wedges for the table runner Monday night, finished them up Tuesday morning, had them all sewn together by Tuesday afternoon, and spent this morning finishing up the runner with a speckled-green top-stitching: Another two and a half yards out of stash, putting me at just over 19 yards of fabric for the year-- which FINALLY puts the stash where it was on December 24, before that one last online "hurrah" purc...

This and this are Robin's fault.   She has double-dog dared me to try for 200 yards of fabric this year.  200  Even in my 50,000-yards-of-laceweight-isn't-crazy version of reality, this is just a wee bit insane, but all day I've been musing about what that would really take.  My best sewing year used up 103 yards.  If I went back and finished some of my sewing WIPs, AND focused on bigger projects, AND found a little more sewing time, AND finished a couple of the quilts............. Oh my. So the purple is a cotton print that Andy bought for a shirt several years ago, and which I haven't ever gotten around to.  Since it's a short-sleeved shirt, it's much easier, and I cut it out AND got it started today, which will clear another 2 and a half yards of fabric out of the stash.  And before THAT, I got all the strips sewn together for the Spicy Spiral runner for Andy's parents' anniversary later this year, which will use up another two ...

Whew!  It's Monday again--how did that happen so fast? Guess what?  I'm wearing the corduroy jacket!  I'm still not wild about it, but it is Me Made Monday, and as I was taking the cats to the vet for their shots first thing this morning, I didn't want something I really liked to get shredded.One does have to think about such things with cats. Luckily, no one ended up bleeding this year, but this is as close as my little sidekick is getting to me today.  Neither Andy nor I are brave enough to even attempt to pet Calisto just yet, because she's kind of bitchy at the best of times.  However, being shunned by cats does have a few perks..... like getting control of the cutting table long enough to finish cutting the strips for the table runners,  and even getting the first set pinned and ready for sewing.  They're cute, but feline "help" is rarely, if ever, really helpful.  Maybe I can even get Andy's Valentine shirt cut out before I...