Today I exported my Ravelry stash list into an Excel file, and it’s kind of scary! I have at least 56 different yarns right now. Some are on the needles, a couple I’m probably going to try to swap or gift, but man that’s a lot of yarn. I think it’s seriously time for a yarn diet.

At first I thought, ok, I won’t buy any yarn until I use HALF of my stash. But then I thought again, and that seems kind of overly ambitious. I am powerless to the prettiness! So maybe I won’t buy anything until I use up one-third of the stash–that’s about 18 skeins or so. Then I realized, even if I knit, say, a pair of socks per month, it would take me 9 MONTHS to use up 18 skeins. what??!! No new yarn for almost one year?? ok, not a good plan.

Help! What’s a realistic goal here? I’ve never really gone on a yarn diet, and I need guidance!

Posted: July 31st, 2007 under Knitting.
Comments: 5

Mother Nature was in a BAD mood this morning. I was sitting at my work desk when I started hearing crash-boom-crack and then it just started pouring. I was afraid it wouldn’t clear up by noon, and I thought I’d have to take a late lunch since I always go out. Thankfully, the rain lightened enough for me to get to my car, where I ate and listened to podcasts and knit. While I was on my lunch break, the sky turned all pretty! The rain moved on and this was left behind. Gorgeous blue.

So, some pluses and minuses for you:

+ my Malabrigo from eBay arrived, at last!
- I ended up leaving the seller a neutral feedback, due to the misship and my having to go to the post office and mail the incorrect yarn I’d received to the correct customer. Normally I don’t leave neutrals, but I figured that was nicer than negative, right?

+ Lime & Violet now have a new project, The Daily Chum! I’ve already added it to my Bloglines and will stalk it faithfully, daily.
- I was one of 12 applicants for the staff writer position, and unfortunately I didn’t make the cut. I was rather disappointed at first and honestly, I was surprised I made the short list. I’m really not a humor writer, and I didn’t want to overdo it in my application piece–I just wanted to be myself in my writing. So that’s what I did, and I didn’t make the final cut, but that’s ok.
+ I made them a link button anyway.

+ I mentioned it already, but Clapotis the Fourth is DONE. Off the needles and all the ends are woven in. woohoo! I will hopefully have photos tomorrow. I know I said that yesterday, but I really mean it this time!

- both local Barnes & Nobles stores (yes, I checked two!) did not have the reissue of Lord John and the Private Matter, which I’m finally going to read. Even though I am a Diana Gabaldon devotee, I have yet to read the Lord John stories. But since TWO more are releasing in upcoming months, I figure I should get on the ball and read the first one!
+ I couldn’t find it locally, so that’s what Amazon is for.

+ speaking of Amazon, I got my MacBook rebate check in the mail! $75 for me, muahahaha! I’m going to turn around and order the aforementioned Lord John novel, and maybe a couple more books–any suggestions?

Posted: July 30th, 2007 under Bookworm, Knitting, My So-Called Life.
Comments: 1

Clapotis the Fourth is *finished* baby! Photos soon, hopefully tomorrow–I’ve got to get outdoors to photograph this one.

Now that I’ve made four, I wonder if that’s enough. If you average my total Clapotis divided by the number of years I’ve been knitting, it comes out to one per year. That’s not bad! And you can never have too many, right?

Next on my needles is the Everlasting Bagstopper–I’ve been itching to make this one!

Posted: July 29th, 2007 under Knitting.
Comments: 3

Filipino prisoners perform “Thriller” by Michael Jackson. ok, A) disclaimer: I’m Filipino, so it’s with all love when I say, those crazy Filipinos! hehe B) yeah, there’s a lot of them in prison, but dancing is a lot better than stabbing each other in the courtyard, right?

Posted: July 29th, 2007 under Randomness.
Comments: 7

You ever have days when you just feel extremely lonely, but you’re not entirely sure why?

That’s me right now.

Posted: July 26th, 2007 under Deep Thoughts.
Comments: 5

New life motto: I shall channel any stress I may feel over the chaos in my life and KNIT through it all. (Here’s how I justify the new yarny goodness that came in the mail today.) This is Schaefer Anne in Scotch Thistle for the Scotch Thistle Lace Stole, appropriately enough! I think this is going to be a fairly painless lace project–I took a look at the chart and it doesn’t look too bad. And the yarn is soooo pretty. I had to squish it and sniff it. (yes, I smell my yarn.) Just one skein makes the stole, so that’s not too bad!

And I am so excited about this: my first Lexie Barnes bag. Seriously, I’ve wanted this bag since I first started knitting years ago. So I feel like I’ve progressed enough as a knitter to where I deserve spending the amount I did on it. I found it on sale at Gosh Yarn It, and it was the last one they had in the Viona print, hehehe. My invoice has a nice handwritten note that literally says, “You got the last one in this print! yay!” with a smiley face. I love knitters. This bag is going to serve me well, I can already tell. First, it’s much wider than I expected–I think it’s around 16″–which is wonderful. I already tested it by putting my Clapotis in progress in there, and it fits perfectly. The bag has magnetic closures, so it opens easily and then *snap* it closes like magic. hehe! I need to take more photos of it. And cuddle it, possibly.

Lastly, I would have posted a photo of my beautiful blue Malabrigo, but…long story short, I got this instead. And I was so pissed about it that I had posted this big long rant at the L&V boards, which I promptly deleted. I reread it, and I just sounded sort of insane, lol. I think I’m letting my recent bad experience with Etsy affect my patience. The eBay seller I bought the Malabrigo from, the other customer whose yarn I have, and I worked it out (hopefully). She’s going to mail me my Malabrigo and I’m going to mail her this yarn. We live in the same state, so I’m crossing my fingers that I will be sniffing Malabrigo in a couple days or so!

Posted: July 25th, 2007 under Knitting.
Comments: 2

Thanks for all the opinions about my ring situation–I’m going to get it appraised and go from there. I don’t know if I’ll end up putting it on eBay–I will probably take it back to the jeweler who made me an offer for it and see what’s the most he’ll give me for it. Or I could try taking it to other jewelers, but he seemed to know his stuff and hopefully he will end up buying it for a reasonable price.

I have been very steadily knitting on Clapotis the Fourth, in fact it’s much larger than that last photo I took. I’m about halfway through the drop stitches section, which I guess puts me about halfway through the whole thing. I’ve mainly got the repeat memorized since it’s so simple, but geez am I getting sick of Clapotis, haha! You know that will only last a couple months tops, though, as I seem to be addicted to the pattern. It’s just a matter of time.

In the meantime, I have to fight the impulse to cast on several new projects. I REALLY want to make the Everlasting Bagstopper, I think it’s brilliant! I throw away so many plastic bags, even though I use them as waste basket liners in my room, I just have so many bags and don’t recycle (bad human). But this tote would come in so handy every time I go to Barnes & Noble or even the yarn shop, I could just stick my purchase in there and save some waste.

I’m trying to avoid buying the yarn called for in the pattern, however. I read on Ravelry that hemp feels very much like cotton while knitting, and I have come to HATE working with cotton. I think that’s why my Green Gable is coming along so slowly–because of the cotton content–and it’s not even 100% cotton! Dishcloths aren’t so bad since they are small pieces, but a large project? boo. So I’m going to check out one of my LYSes and see what they have that I can sub for the hemp. None of my LYSes carry hemp anyway, so I’ll end up subbing either way. I’m thinking maybe I can find a cotton blend, but I’m wondering what will wear well, since I’ll be using it for that tote…suggestions?

ah yes, and I have cast on another project. I can’t help it! And I have decided to embrace the acrylic with this one. I’m knitting the Retro Redux Shrug from Lace Style. In an effort to balance my recent stash enhancement, I’m knitting from my stash and using Caron Simply Soft in Black. I really like the feel of this yarn so far, it’s super soft and squishy. I can tell it will probably pill quite a bit, but I’m ok with that since the stitch pattern is so open anyway. I’m hoping to finish this sometime soon so that I can wear it at work. They always keep our office *freezing* and this would be a nice little coverup to wear at work.

Posted: July 24th, 2007 under My So-Called Life.
Comments: 4