How Is This Possible?

One month. Just one month in the new year and I cannot bring myself to post a photo. I am making myself believe it is not because I have lost hope but because I am full of it (hope, that is, not full of it the way we usually mean it.)

You remember the resolution to eliminate the yarn stash? You also remember there were two exceptions: to purchase yarn to go with what was in the stash with the expressed intention of completing a project thus getting rid of the stashed and purchased yarn.

To purchase one particular yarn I've wanted to try.

And the circumstance of purchasing that yarn was that it was going to be on sale. It was on sale. I told you guys it was on sale and that I was going to go get some.

I did.

Bummer.

We don't get along - this new yarn and I. I purchased four skeins; two colors. Both shades of green that can be blended. One shade was Camo, I don't remember the other. I started with the Camo and the feel of it, while soft, is somewhat strange and the whole purpose of this yarn was that it's supposed to have all these wonderful color changes...

Not so much.

Though I suppose if you're called 'camo' you probably shouldn't change color too much or else you wouldn't be very 'flauged' would you? The other color, I believe it's 'Rustic' does appear to have more color changes or color fusion. But I'm let down just a little.

I tried to continue with the camo but alas we had to have the discussion ("It's not you; it's me.) and I told it I paid way too much for it, even on sale, for me to disregard it completely. It will become a part of the stash set aside to make my favorite afghan. I explained that it had the texture and softness to fit right in and because there was so much of it (390 yards) it could be the cornerstone of the whole piece. I then removed it from the needles and cast on with another yarn purchased to clear away the one skein in the stash and make another prayer shawl.

Meanwhile, the rustic color looked at me as if to say, "Don't put me in that same basket. I deserve a fair shot." And it does. But a little later. I don't want to risk the disappointment again.

Nothing Beats a Dare

I made a great many resolutions for the new year and then decided instead of trying to tackle them all at once I would take them on one at a time, accomplish the task and then move on to the next.
It's not a bad plan, really, not that I cannot multi-task because I can, but that it was self motivation and satisfying. Besides, the way humans work, OK the way this human works is that slipping on one resolution could bring the rest tumbling down. Better to hit one, knock it out and move on. At least that's what I'm telling myself. The first resolution I selected from among more than a dozen was to eliminate the stash. I told you guys this before. Not to decrease the stash, but to eliminate it. Make it gone. The ideal stash for me will be to have yarn for just three projects.

It seems simple enough however seeing pictures of my stash, we all know this is Herculean. So, how's the plan going as we leave January and have only eleven more months to accomplish the task?

I dunno.

I've made more than a dozen prayer shawls which comes to 36 skeins of yarn that are gone. But that's hardly a dent - especially since some of the yarn was purchased at the end of the year. My office is a stash forest of bags and trunks of yarn. However, downstairs, boxes are now half full so I actually emptied out a box by combining contents.

But we all know yarn breeds when left alone in the dark. Strange thing, though, when two skeins of, say, Homespun breed, they create four skeins of 'I Love This Yarn' in green. Don't know how it manages to do that but I have proof.

Of course the key to stash reduction is the same as the key to weight reduction (another resolution somewhere on the list) Take in less and use up more. Which translated for knit speak is: less shopping, more knitting. I can actually accomplish this. I was in a store recently and walked out without purchasing one skein of yarn - of course it was the hardware store. I'm, kidding, it was Hobby Lobby. I will be making a trip some time today to a yarn place to purchase a Tunisian crochet hook and the skeins to complete the dreaded shawl and figure if I purchase too much, I will fringe the shawl with the remainder thus not adding to the stash by default.

I'm clever like that.

One of Those Strange Things

ennadoolf points out that she has an acrylic garden - in response to my post where I said I have an acrylic yarn farm. Well, my darling, a farm is nothing more than a garden on steroids. So I thank you for being a partner in my acrylic yarn-ness!

That rage continues. For those who are keeping track (and for those who are not) there are two new hats in the stable. That brings the total to - I don't even know. I know there are 15 on sale in the shop
and eleven of those were created in the rage. There are now at least eight that have not been photographed, just sitting on the models looking cute, so if I take off my socks and count little piggies more than one time around and carry the one, I get 19. 19 hats, four scarves and a purse all made in about a month. I would say that was pretty good, wouldn't you?

Mr. Honey, as always, has been very supportive, he mentioned that I have a 'fine variety of hats' and I said to him that he could also rejoice that the yarn stash was being used. As I was starting the white hat you see on the left and pulling the yarn from the stash bag he passed by and said "Are you sure that stash is going down?"

Well, I think I coughed or something to stall to come up with a good answer because I had snuck off to the car and pulled out six of the sixteen skeins hiding in the trunk and I put them in the stash bag. This leads me to believe I may not be as stealth as I believe I am - but I am not going to bring up the subject lest I am as stealth as I believe and confess to being a yarn hoarder which would then blow my stealth-ness. Besides, he has a key to the trunk and that could cause random trunk inspections and that takes away a key component to my yarn hoardiness. That sounds incredibly - sordid. Yummm.

So, I said to him the incredible thing about these hats was that they all took less than one skein of yarn to make. I then pulled out a half skein as proof.

"What are you doing with the leftovers?"
"I can make another hat or save it to make afghans or I can make fingerless gloves."
"Yes! Now that's a good idea. You should make the fingerless gloves. I like that."

How much do I want to encourage this behavior? Mr. Honey is already incredibly supportive in the spousal role - do I actually want him to weigh in on the knitting? On the one hand, I haven't gone too far off when I've listened to him in the past. And it pulls him closer to me so he might not question the stash again - like when I eventually sneak the other ten skeins into the house and the stash bag. And making the fingerless gloves really isn't a bad idea. They would match up to a hat or could be their own accessory - even though I am inclined to make my favorite afghan that uses chunky weight yarn. I haven't made one of those in a long time and these remnants would look really great in the pattern.

I will probably wind up making a few pair of the gloves. I checked out some of the other shops and they sell fairly well. Then the rest of the yarn will go towards the afghan cuz I still need to make the big afghan for the sale.

It's all about the compromise in a marriage - and the need for a secret stash.
041304

Mission Name: Operation Stash Bust

This has been under the dining room table for - heck, I don't how long. Yes, I have too much yarn. There, I've said it again. I have too much yarn. I am also itching to try Epais Yarn and it's on sale at Hobby Lobby this week but I am not even going to get behind the wheel of the car in case some yarn spirit takes over and forces the car to go to the Hobby Lobby where it will be met by the fiber fairy who will then force me to purchase aforementioned Epais Yarn and I couldn't very well use the excuse that the devil made me to do since it would be spirits and angels.

So, for some strange reason instead of just putting the box down in the basement with the rest of the stash, I decided I needed to start yet another project and thus Operation Stashbust is now in effect. I say again, Operation Stashbust is now in effect.
Now, I am still working on the wedding present afghan (8 squares down!) and the time crunch is on. I don't want to start sewing the squares together because I don't yet know what the other squares will look like or what color, or rather shade of blue, they will be. But I am compelled to get some of the yarn into something marketable. (It occurs to me, I could put together those mystery bags of yarn and sell them - nah!)

I decided to look in my Ravelry queue and the first thing there was the Falling Leaves afghan
Perfecto! This definitely a stash buster and since I can pull off one those puppies in about 20 mins. I can start off each knitting season with two leaves and then start on the blue afghan. Which is just what I did. There are six leaves pinned onto the press board (if I don't tell you the two big squares are two of the blue afghan, then you won't know it's part of the wedding present afghan, will you? I'm not saying they are, mind you, I'm just asking a question.)

I have to make the blue afghan the priority because of the time crunch so the Falling Leaves will keep me from getting A.A.D.D. (Afghan Attention Deficit Disorder.) I have to make 276 of the full leaves and 30 something of the half leaves. That stash should be well and truly busted.

Who-rah!

021604

Let Me Be The One

They talk to you -
At least they talk to me - no, no, I won't be noble and say this happens only to me - I know they talk to you, too.

Fibers.

They see live people.

And they talk to you. Now, I admit, most of you get talked to by natural and animal fibers, they talk to me, too, but I can usually ignore them (until I go to a shop in St. Louis, but that's another post.) I get talked to by the acrylics, too. Here is something I am going to put out into the atmosphere that will cause a tremor through those of us who have one:

There is no real need for a yarn stash.
There. I've said it. I heard the collective gasp but you all know it's true. We have one because we want one. Oh, I can hear it, "but what if I wanted to start another project?" "I need some...just in case." In case of what? Alien yarn hoarders from another planet come and take away the LYS and every Joann's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby on the planet?

Here's the second thing:
You can only work on one object at a time.
You're ready to throw me out the club, aren't you?

Put down the noose and stop building the stake. I'm on your side. You guys know I have a yarn stash - I have a HUGE yarn stash. I have yarn that's not made any more. I have yarn purchased from stores that haven't been in business...for years. I am not about to give up my stash.

But there's a down side to all this yarn around (OK, more than one but I'm trying to focus) IT TALKS TO YOU. I am working on afghans because both the StitchCraft stash and the designbcb
stash is a little light. I pulled out a pattern and before I could even flip it over, the voices started:
"Pick me."
"You don't have enough of that one; pick me."
"Yes, but if she doesn't have enough she can go get some of my cousins; pick me."

The voices started in on how they were the yarn best suited for the job - or not - I heard from the St. Louis Fibers (great name for a soccer team!): "Don't even think about using us - not enough of us. Go down to the lesser mortals." They look innocent enough when they wrapped in the harmless looking skeins - but oh the egos they have. They think they should be touched. They think they should be admired. They think they should be used.

So you pick one and all the voices go silent and you think that's the end of it. But whoa to her (or him) that does not finish the project. Who lets it go for a little while - or worse - who frogs several times. Then the voices start again: "What are you doing to me? I thought I was going to be a cable? Do you have a clue?"

I might have a clue but I have over 1000 patterns. Sometimes a pattern you'd think is easy turns out not to be as facile as you thought. Sometimes the pattern and yarn don't mesh up. Sometimes other things get in the way.
What you really want to do is tell the fiber to stuff it - but it is your fiber after all and it is the blood of your knitting existence. So you humbly apologize - yes, even to acrylic yarn - and you strive to do better.

If only our marriages ran like that. So, I have three projects going. For the moment, the mumbling is down to a minimum. I have touched them all and that seems to have appeased them:

but I'm gonna get busy.
013104

Conviction of the Heart

Yes, the little voice inside my head won out. The little scarf voice that kept saying "Make me, make me!" and I was resistant because it isn't the right season for a scarf. It was very insistent and I finally gave in and put it one the needles.

Do you see the new fu-fu slubby yarn I got from Hobby Lobby? It's called Artistic and it's named after...artists - go figure. I have some Van Gogh and I have some Raphael. This is Mondrian. I must admit I love it! I would see it in the store and I would finger it and talk to it and tell it I would love to bring it home so it could live with the rest of my yarn. But then I would have to explain to it that my home would be different than what it was used to. My yarn stash consisted of little street urchins not upscale princes and princesses who were somehow displaced. And I would leave it on the shelf and sigh.

I would never have purchased it when it was $9.85 but all of it was in the clearance racks at $1.99. So here it is in my yarn stash - yes, I know it can feel humiliated but the other yarns have made it feel right at home. They know what is among them as do I. The Mondrian has no problem being seen with the Caron by the Pound and they (along with my beloved rosewood needles) are making a very lovely scarf.

If I say so myself.

Thanks to Susie for making a comment on my striped bag from yesterday saying it looks like it could hold a Kindle! I will have to put that suggestion in the shop description!

When Karma Taps You On the Shoulder

I can't go downstairs to get the camera because when I came upstairs, I told Joe I was coming upstairs to clean my office (which is a serious clutter bomb) and I was cleaning the office. I started in the corner that has the upstairs stash (that is no longer a stash.) These boxes here:
Well, oddly enough, I decided to go through the boxes to see what could be consolidated now that it wasn't a stash and therefore didn't need to be organized I am more willing to take a look at it.
You see in the photograph five garment boxes and a big storage box. If I had a camera upstairs (note to self, stick a digital camera upstairs) and if I took a photo and placed it here - you would see only three garment boxes and a big storage box.

The stash that is not a stash has shrunk!

I have comfortably consolidated yarn that it left me with two empty boxes! This is the cosmos taking immense pity on me and saying: "Dear child, we know you are trying your best so we will give you a hand here."

I know what you're thinking, but no, I am not going to fill these boxes with new yarn procurements. There are enough loose skeins on the other floor that can fill them, but I am not going to fill them with yarn at all. These boxes are going to find themselves over at Marilyn's house where I am certain she can use them (and I don't really care if she can't cuz they'll be out of my house!)

Now wasn't that worth stopping the work and telling you about?

I Don't Have A Stash

Imagine my utter amazement to discover I no longer have a yarn stash. I mean, if you've followed me even for a little bit, you know I have yarn bombs all over the house. There's yarn, in some degree, in every room of the house. I wouldn't be surprised to find yarn in the garage - I mean everything else but a car is in there.

However, this afternoon, I have it on good authority that I don't have a yarn stash.

A 'stash' according to Dictionary.com is something put away or hidden.

This - and the other twelve boxes or containers are neither hidden or put away. Therefore, not a stash.

No stash. Nothing to organize.

My work here is done.

In The New Era of Hope

I went to my office early this morning (all of a five second commute) so I didn't come downstairs at all until it was almost noon. I came downstairs to this:









The carpet needs to have the biannual carpet cleaning, and I really need to knit Duke a new bed, but that's not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is yesterday when I came down.

this and






this








and this







along with this







and also this







was all over this









I wish I could say it was all put in nice little cubby holes that would make Martha Stewart declare my house a 'good thing.' But it is not so. There are now little piles of things in the perimeter. The good new is there is a path so I can shampoo the carpet. And the better news is I can tackle one little pile at a time. The bad part (but which could be a good part because it involves inventiveness) is I need to create a space for my goods to be nicely stowed while they wait for me. My office is incredibly small. So the only space is to be found in the basement where my little gym is. I will not be sacrificing fitness because I now work out upstairs since my little VCR stopped working down there. And also with good weather comes walking. I see a box system in my future since there is a semblance of one already down there.

On to step two: prepping the new space!

The Main Floor Stash

Yes, the yarn is climbing out of the box trying to escape.
This is the main floor stash - this is most of the main floor stash because some of it has escaped and is running around the living room.

Is it any wonder why the HB wanted me to give away more yarn? To the left of the box is a big carry on bag the HB got me to hold my FOs to the right is a bag with yarn scraplets -that's right, I formed a word.

You can't see the bottom of the box, but it is a big box and it is filled to the brim with yarn. I admit it, I tend to be compulsive when I am in to something and I'm into knitting. Which is why I won't show you my needle collection.

It's not as neat as the upstairs stash because the upstairs stash and the basement stash are feeder stashes for the main floor stash because this is where I do most of my knitting - heck, it's the only place I knit now - and with as many as eight projects going, there was a lot of yarn that needed to be fed - and now the beast is gorging and threatening to eat the dog.

I am doing my best to get through the box. I have two afghans which are made of blocks and I am using some main colors but the rest are a hodge-podge and I'm using as many colors as I can. - Which reminds me, I have to tell you the books I got for my birthday present. Later.

A New Scarf for the Old HB

So, the HB wanted a plain, black scarf. No special stitches, no patterns, I couldn't even add just a touch of brown. A plain, black scarf.

I didn't want to knit that.

So, I crocheted it instead. I haven't done much crochet lately and there was a time I prefered crochet to knitting. I'm crocheting one of the wips and decided I would crochet his scarf. I just finished a few moments ago while watching Pride and Prejudice on my DVR. (Along with some episodes of Knitty Gritty and Needle Arts Studio.) He hasn't seen it yet. I will leave it on his chair so he will see it in a few hours when he wakes up. And he'll need it. Winter has begun in Chi-town and it's a little nippy out there at 4:30 in the morning when he leaves.

So, this is all single crochet (except for one row of double crochet I threw in just to be obstinate.) Used all of the skein of "I Love This Yarn" from Hobby Lobby. I do love this yarn. It's cushy and soft. And knit up pretty cleanly - though I did run into a knot where they joined some yarn. No big deal, it got lost in the scarf somewhere.

He told me he would probably find his scarf after I made this one. No matter, I told him he would have an option between the black scarf and the black scarf.

What a nice wife he has. And the stash is one skein lighter.
Y'all know I'm gearing up to go shopping, right?

What Goes Around

The H-B has been bumbling around for a few days grumbling because he cannot find his winter scarf. It was there one moment and gone the next and he doesn't know where he put it. It's not in his car. It's not in my car. It's not at his mom's condo. It's lost.

After a few days of this, I spoke up (well, the fun was gone for me so I had to move on)
"Would you like me to make you a scarf?" (While thinking - you have a wife who knits, you could have had a scarf an hour after you lost the first one.)

"Did you make the last one?" (Hmmm, couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or not, but I think not, just surly.)

"No, but does it matter? Do you think it was lost because it might or might not have been homemade?" (Definately sarcastic)

"No." (Grumble, grumble. Open closet door for the umpteenth time, close closet door with no scarf)

"So, would you like me to make you a scarf?'

"Yeah, why not?'

"Would you like another black one?"

"Yes."

"I will check and see what black yarn I have in my stash."

"There's some in that box."

That box? "You mean in the box of yarn you're making me give away? I'm pretty sure I have more black yarn that won't turn me into a false advertiser. Would you like a scarf or a cowl?"

"A scarf."

Man, how I wish I didn't have those other skeins of black yarn in the upstairs stash. I could have turned that into a legitimate reason to shop.

The Upstairs Stash

I've been working away on my wip's. (I started the cutest little baby sweater last night and it's almost done already. It's for a newborn and it's adorable!) I needed to go through the stash to see if I could find some more of the blue yarn I need for another project - and since we're in the midst of our yarn giveaway and I've been talking about the stash, I thought it might be interesting to show it.

This is the upstairs stash - most of it. That's right, there's an upstairs stash, a stash on the main floor and a stash in the basement. What you don't see are the drawers in the dresser in the bedroom that have yarn in them. The yarn on the top are some of the skeins going into the second box of yarn I'll be giving away. There's nine skeins there and more to be added from the other stash points. This mix of yarn can be best described as vintage cuz there are some oldies in there but there's also some Lion brand cupcake, some bernat softee chunky and lion brand jiffy. I don't know what else will make it in there, but something will by the 28th. So keep those comments coming and tell your friends about it - you may not win it, but they could and then you can guilt them into sharing.