In case any of you are thinking Melissa is a brute for denying me the opportunity to buy yarn, allow me to clarify. She did get me to promise to hold off on buying more (with my inserted list of exceptions), but only after I’d been both celebrating and bemoaning the fact that I’d purchased a nice lot of Soy Wool Stripes and other basic wools that I found on sale at Michaels (thanks Mrs. H!). The celebrating part needs no explanation, of course. The bemoaning has to do with not having sufficient funds in checking and deciding to put everything on the credit card. I will pay it all off at the start of the December, but I’ve worked long and hard to get myself to purchase yarn with cash (or the equivalent) only, so this was a slip-up for me.
Melissa is actually quite understanding about my sudden, desperate needs for new yarns, needles, etc.—just as I am understanding about her sudden, desperate needs for paints, canvases, gigantic rolls of watercolor paper, and the like. We’ll save money by buying cheaper food and fewer cleaning products, thank you.
At the The Golden Fleece‘s community knitting on Sunday, Carol showed me the new Smooshy Sock yarn, and I was instantly smitten. I am happy to report that she, Margaret, and I have worked out a deal: I’m designing a pattern for them in Smooshy in exchange for some of the yarn. So, if you’re local be on the lookout for the results. Here are two hints: I’m making a hat, and I’m using two colors, Cloud Jungle (370) and Gothic Rose (340).
Melissa will verify that I have been absolutely rapturous about Smooshy. The Cloud Jungle colorway, which is a warm, but unassuming grey grey at a distance, is marvelously rich close up—shot through with plums and greens and deep teals. It takes about thirty seconds of working with this yarn to relieve my nastiest post-work headaches. (Carol and Margaret were probably wise to work out this swap with me. They’ve created an addict, and I won’t be able to stop with the two skeins I currently have in hand.)
This has been a wretchedly busy time at work (see headache reference above), and to distract myself I’ve begun working on my queue on Ravelry. I try to knit from free patterns when I can, so my queue is essentially becoming my own customized on-line pattern book. I can click on the project, then go from there to fetch the pattern or to see what results others have had with it. I’m trying to be reasonable, so I’ve managed to keep my queue down to only fifty-eight projects thus far.
I feel kind of ridiculous (I typed ridicularous first!) putting all the things in my queue that I want to knit sometime. There are just too many. I need to prioritize! Yet I want to mentally note patterns I want to knit sometime (for example, I saw a sweater somewhere in blogland with a deep V-neck with lace edging that I know my 12-year-old daughter would wear over a tank top or camisole; she even approved it over my shoulder. Can I remember where it was or what it was called? NO! I hope I bookmarked it at home…
So I think my approach will be to browse a pattern on Ravelry, then ‘favorite’ the iterations of it I like (that will help me with modifications, notes, etc. too) and save my queue for the things I’m really planning to or have to knit soon. Because otherwise the size of the queue will make me feel guilty, and I might get even more distracted from the things I’m needing or was planning to knit soon….
Love Smooshy. Love.
PS: Have you felted with SWS? If you want to felt, it’s very potent felting material, awesome. If you don’t want to felt, be a bit careful! (Voice of experience here.)
That’s exactly how I’m using my Ravelry. I’ve been able to clear out a tonne of bookmarks too. Love it!
Ahh, a job that pays in yarn, I am jealous! I already write articles and get paid in free books, and my 10yo daughter was telling me the other day if I could find a job where I make patterns and get paid in yarn, I would be in heaven, lol. Of course, she crochets, so she would be right there with me!
I actually didn’t buy any of the SWS after telling you about it. I was worried that it would felt if I tried to make socks out of it, so I went with KnitPicks instead. We’ll see how it goes. My Ravelry ID is theplaceofh.
Hmmmm.. something else to think about and learn to use at Ravelry? Oh my.. Well, I’ll just have to put the little pointy nose to the grind stone and try to shake up the little grey cells with the vibrations.
So much to do!
Hope that work slows down and you get that new job whipped into shape. Ooooo yarn buying. That’s not as bad as throwing “empties” out of a moving car now, is it?