Someone said to flash the stash

Remember in the olden days of blogging, April 1 was Flash your Stash day? I did it in 2006, when I was in England, and I am totally freaked out to see that I still some of that yarn!

I found a thread on Ravelry the other day about flashing the stash, and aside from the arguments about whether it should be done in April or now, it was quite cool to see everyone's displays!

I got the idea that one should have "before" and "after" pictures, so, here's my "before."

That is a king-size bed. Click to embiggen the picture -- in the front is the sock yarn, in the upper left is the denim, in between is the Felted Tweed , to the right is miscellaneous stuff of all weights and amounts.


Some of the sock yarn, which I almost forgot because I keep it in a separate place, not the closet!

As you see, I will not even half this by making 5 or 6 or 7 pairs of socks!

The denim. This pile should be quite reduced by the end of the year if I manage to make my gansey!

I don't have too many sweater-lots of yarn, but I do have enough to keep me going for a long time!

A pair of socks uses up one ball of 100g, and takes {ahem} a week or two or a month. A lace shawl would take a long time, and use up one or two of those balls on the bed. A sweater takes up 10 or 20 balls of yarn and could keep me amused for anywhere from a month to a year!

So how does one calculate how much knitting one has stored up in one's stash? Or is this just a silly question....

All I know is that I have enough yarn for now, and hope to have maybe a single bed's worth at the end of the year!

Saturday sky, and a wee bit of new yarn

Nice blue bits in the sky, but mainly overcast today. Warm as heck, making everything melt.

See, big puddles, to reflect the sky!

This morning, before the melt got well under way, I went up the hill to Knitomatic, for their big sale.

Oh, my, a lineup outside the shop! Oh, my, a ton of people in the little shop!

They had a lot of novelty stuff, and the story I heard in the lineup was that Haley was thinking of donating the old yarn she had in the basement to the Goodwill, but decided to see what she could sell cheap first. The green wool I got was $1, the orange $3 a ball and the sock yarn $8, which is not at all bad! People were walking out with stuffed shopping bags, so I guess she is doing okay! Of course, you get in there looking for a bargain and can't resist the full-price cashmere....

So, I have used my one chance to buy yarn before Sept 30, and didn't do anything outrageous. I'm keen on this Knitting from Stash stuff, and just got myself a couple of little pretty things.

Day one of March break is almost done, too!

Getting itchy fingers

I've taken all my sock yarn out of the closet to "study" it. Yeah, and tossed it all over the unmade bed...

I've got another bag of yarn tipped out on the living room couch. I am looking at lace patterns for a shawl, and I don't even really want a shawl! I've got two projects almost completed, and I'm dying to toss them aside and start something else.

It's a sickness, I tell you! Must be strong! Must finish one sock before starting another! Must not try to knit all the yarn in the house at once!

Sheesh!

33 and still handsome -- now closer to 50

How many times do you think I'll change my mind between now and the end of September, when I can buy more yarn? What will be the new project, once all the little projects are finished off?

This is my present pick. I've actually liked this sweater since 1989, when Vogue Knitting published it as a Then and Now pattern; the original is from 1956. I want to do some cabled something or other, but don't want a big bulky sweater. (This 1989 version calls for some yarn with golden nubs in it -- I'm all for tweed, but not glittery tweed!)

I could show you a dozen more, but let's not get overwhelmed with choices! And my Knitting from Stash means lots of little projects, since my stash is not full of sweaters-worth of yarn.

And the present projects are coming along:

Branching Out, with the patch of brown/ grey/ black in the forest of green. I like it.

Now I'm torn about how long to make it. Finish the ball, and make a quite long scarf, or have that little bit left over, making a scarf just long enough to tuck in? It doesn't seem right to make a long skinny lacy scarf...


And Arthur's second sock.

It gets carried around a lot, but not knitted on too much!

I've got banana bread in the oven, preparing for the Knitting Ladies to pop over this afternoon. Must get the clean laundry off the living room couch, and make room in the front hall for snowboots and big coats. It seems we're getting a bit of winter, after all. The thrill will wear off soon, but this morning the kids were up and ready to go early enough that they got the walk shoveled before going to school!

On the needles now

Oh, it's Friday, so I shall find some Eye Candy for you.

I really wanted to show you the glorious decorated house sometime this season, but Mr Whosis, who decorates it, has not been in the usual mood. I hope he is not ill or something. This year, instead of a Nativity scene at the North Pole with light-up reindeer greeting Baby Jesus, we have a few push lawnmowers, a bunch of hay, and this ball peeking out. What's up?

But, things are getting a bit fancy -- the wooden fence bits are now protected from the elements by sheets of plastic. A never-ending source of delight, this...

And, what's getting knitted?
I am delighted to be turning the heel on this green sock. The first one was finished in June! Since I'm planning on finishing a pair of socks for each of the Project Spectrum 2-month periods, I'd better speed up! I did try the first one on Arthur again today, and it still fits, so at least he's not growing faster than I'm knitting!

His blue second sock will fit in with the Feb/March scheme, and so he should have 2 new pairs of wool socks just as sandal season rolls around. Sigh.

Funny, this Knit from Stash business. I've had
this beautiful ball of Lady Godiva wool/silk something-or-other for maybe 3 years. It may well be the nicest looking yarn in the whole closet. But since I am now knitting from stash, I simply must find something to do with it! Three guesses what the pattern is... Right in one, it's Branching Out. I hope it will be long enough!

That's really all I'm working on now, but I've started looking around for blue, white and grey projects for PS and find I have about seventy-million half-done bluish things lying around the house. I'm looking forward to these various blogiverse/ knitalong/ peer pressure things coalescing -- WIP Wipeout, Knit from Stash, and Project Spectrum to show the way. Come the end of September, things'll be different around here!

I'm ready for the new year

I couldn't stay out of the yarn shops, though I did miss the day of the big sale. I heard from a man working in Romni that there was a lineup outside 45 minutes before they even opened. So if I had to pay full price for my yarn, at least I was spared the stress and fuss of shopping under extreme conditions.

I went with my friend Pat, who can always be counted on to buy more than me, despite initial protestations. At one point, I offered to remove her bodily from the shop, but she assured me that she could handle the situation. So, I got a ball of chenille for a small project and 4 balls of Rowan Felted Tweed, to go with my other 7 balls of Felted Tweed, and she got a sweater's worth of Malabrigo and another's worth of Manos. So, heck, I feel virtuous. I admired all sorts of stuff, but just couldn't commit to a sweater's worth of anything, and am actually fed up with buying enough of something for a scarf or hat, without having a person in mind to make it for. Heaven knows I do not need another scarf or hat! And you know what? All that yarn will still be there in nine months, when I am cleansed and pure and able to buy yarn again, and might actually have some idea what I want! I don't like having things I don't use, and I'm kind of keen to winnow down my moderate stash.

Crazy Aunt Purl has a list or two for 2007, and some of her things make great sense to me.

She says

• Walk on the treadmill each day, even if it's just for 10 minutes!

Well, I don't have a treadmill, but I did learn that milk is 40 cents cheaper at the corner store, so I plan to make a trip there, instead of buying milk at the supermarket, so that's an extra walk every day or two. And perhaps I shall set aside that 40 cents for October when I'll need the cashola for the yarn shopping!

• Spend 15 minutes each evening picking up and tidying the house.

This sounds easy... Perhaps... I won't commit to this one!

• Take a multivitamin.

Yup, should do that!

• Drink a lot of water.

Yup, should do that!

• Floss.

Yup, should do that, too!

• Leave five minutes earlier.

Well, I am what we call the quarterback in this house, and I am the one in charge of shoving everyone else out the door. I would be happy if they would leave five minutes earlier, so then the kids could actually get to school on time. I shall work on this one!