Shock and Awe

My husband and I are in the processing of buying a house. By in the process, I mean we keep driving through neighborhoods, my husband haunts movoto.com, and we've actually talked to a mortgage guy and a real estate agent. We have not actually chosen a house, but we better if we want to move on time!

In preparation, I have decided I should probably start going through stuff and packing. I think I'd be more motivate on the packing front if I had not shouldered ninety-five percent of the responsibility last year. Maybe it was more; since my husband was cramming for summer classes, all I remember him packing was his cookbook collection. Actually, I think he went through them and I packed them after he had purged his collection slightly, and we had returned his mom's books.

You get my point. Anyway, I decided to start with my yarn, because I've noticed that it has spread all over the house.

I'm still in shock. I never thought I had much stash; I listen to some women talk about their stashes, and theirs are huge! I never buy that much yarn.

Behold! I have bins of the stuff. WHERE DID IT COME FROM? HOW DID I COLLECT SO MUCH YARN?



And why do my UFOs number in the double digits? I tried counting some of them as WIPS, but I had to admit that if I've knit less than a row in the past three weeks, it's not really "in progress", per se.


A few of my UFOs

Give Socks a Chance

I tried making socks once before, but I hated them. The pattern was easy enough: Wendy's Generic Toe-Up Socks from Wendy Knits. The construction made sense, and I had no problem with the short row toe and heel.

But I hated making them. I made it all the way to the ankle on the first sock, but I had to make myself do it. I hated the fiddly tiny needle with the skinny yarn. I had to pay close attention to holding the needles, and it took a bit of finger contortion to ensure that the needles I wasn't using didn't fall out–especially the one next to the working needles.

That's not good when you do most of your work on the bus in tight quarters.

However, the wonderful ladies at the Yarn Garden in Lawrenceville showed me the most amazing tiny circular needles! It's only six inches long!

Finally I decided to give them a try. I bought a size 0 (or was it size 1) needle, because I knit loosely (it's the only way I avoid knitting so tightly I can't get my needle in!). I also bought a skein of Malabrigo sock yarn, to entice myself into knitting. (I don't actually have a stash of sock yarn, unlike the rest of the yarn-obsessed universe!)

I also switched to an eyelet rib pattern I found; since I've proved I can grasp the structure, that leaves me free to do something interesting.

The skinny yarn and skinny needles still require more of my attention than I might like, but at least I won't lose needles and have to scramble under my bus seat for them. As much as I love interesting socks, I need to learn to knit them!

Danger! New Addiction!

Guess what? I discovered yarn falls! I made a red, black, and grey one for Sunday night's dance show at Nicola's, because my new, henna-enhanced hair color doesn't match my fake ponytail.

And now I find myself looking for reasons to wear it. I've had it one week, and tomorrow morning will be my fifth time wearing it. See, I made it Friday, then decided to give it a test run when the Atlanta Christian Gaming and Anime Meetup went to Suno and karaoke. I figure I needed to see what it felt like, and I knew my friends would love it.

Then Sunday I wore it for the show. Monday, I was going to the Whole Foods/Harry's Farmers Market in Roswell for the BPAL Georgia Will-Call. I knew they would love it, so I put it on after work. Thursday, I went to knit night at the Yarn Garden. Well, I had to wear it, right? Who better to appreciate my clever use of stash than a group of knitters?

And by request, I'm wearing it tomorrow to Worldwide Knit in Public day, hosted by the Yarn Garden and being held in downtown Lawrenceville. Yay!

I'm serious about it being addictive, though. By Sunday night, I had plans to make two more, at least. I need one in black and gold, and of course I need one in browns. I mean, that is the other staple of my wardrobe. But could I maybe do one in blues, too? Or maybe black and white? Hmm…