Falling Off the Stash Wagon

I’ve fallen off the wagon. The yarn stash wagon. I told myself I would not buy anymore yarn. I’ve have enough to last me a long while. At the rate I knit, and lately it seems I am cranking out all kinds of knitting projects quite faithfully, I have enough yarn to last me for years….or more. This doesn’t even count the handspun.

Along comes an email from Smiley’s Yarns. “ Cotton Elite for 99 cents a skein”. Almost 200 yds of soft goodness for .99. It was a temptation I could not resist. I was imagining all the Procion MX dye I still had in my shelves and all the lovely color I could be dyeing the yarn. I cave. Hours….no days…..of unsurmountable joy with experimenting with color! How could I resist? I bought 30 skeins: 20 in white and 20 in yellow (to over dye). Oh no,……it says minimum order is $40!!!!!. I get sucked in. I order 7 more skeins of a $1.50 skeins of a Lovely Acrylic I’ve never seen before. I’m no “yarn snob”. I like good acrylic, especially if its soft and washable.

I think I need to join a Yarnaholics group. Actually, I think there is a Stashaholics group on Ravelry.

Back on Track!

I’ve recovered from my “wall” episode. Stress can make one so overwhelmed, the mind and body tends to shut down as a defense mechanism. Luckily, we have hidden resources that can reset our thinking and get one back on track. My stress related to a big review coming up in my job and my limited time to prepare for it, while attempting, at the same time to conduct all the duties of my job. Once I made a workable plan to break it in small chunks and received the approval and support of my boss, I feel a lot better.

So……I am back to my knitting. I am back to repairing the sweat pants I’ve started in September. I’ve ripped back the body and am reknitting them. My husband and I went to see a movie yesterday, and I got a lot done in the theatre. Luckily, it was all in stockinette on Size 7 needles so I did not have to look at it in the dark. I’m so glad I can do this.

I’m also working on my Candlelight scarf. This soft yarn is so soothing, but it is very challenging, since the stitches are so tiny on Size 2 needles. I tried to knit under a large magnifying glass but I still need a lot of light to see the stitches. Perhaps I should invest in one of those OPT lights.

Well, today is the day! Today I tackle cataloguing my handspun and commercial purchased stash for Ravelry. My” Stash Wall” is in need of a lot of organizing, as you can see. This is two or three years of spinning and dyeing. I could probably open up a small yarn store with all that I have. Hmmm, …..perhaps I should explore that idea!

I wanted to share this little thing I saw a few days ago that I found simply ironic. I was taking my lunch break and went to a local Taco Bell. I was sitting in my car listening to my Knitting podcasts when I saw this.

There was an owl sitting on the roof of the Taco Bell. Actually, there was two owls: one on each end of the restaurant, which are not common in my area of Los Angeles County,. It wasn’t long before I realized that these were wooden owls that the owner put up to scare away other birds that like to roost and leave their excrement on the Spanish tiles of the roof, waiting for tidbits of food to be left by customers. This is how effective they were……



…….or NOT.