R:tAG's off to E3 today. I could have gone too, but he'll be stuck at the booth for most of the time and neither the event or the location appeal to me enough to warrant going further into vacation-time hock.
Man, that was a convoluted sentence. Sorry.
Anyway, I still have knitting related information in my system, so full speed ahead! Apart from The Tablecloth, since the Knitting Olympics I've mainly been working on small stuff; little impulse knits like hats, toys, baby gifts, etc.. This is partly a virtuous attempt to reduce the amount of yarn I have hanging around the place (this is called "stash" by knitters). The worst thing about the lace kick that I've been on is that it's got a terrible effort/stash-reduction ratio. A year of knitting The Tablecloth, and the stash only shrinks by a cubic foot. A week on a doily, and there's only a golf-ball size hole in the stash:
From the top right corner clockwise: the box of red/purple/pink oddballs, the box of white/gray/black oddballs, the box of green/blue oddballs, the box of yellow/orange/brown oddballs, and two bags of recently purchased unfiled yarn. Not shown; two shopping bags full of less-than-a-meter lengths*, and a shoebox full of doily cotton.
Well, one might say (especially if one knows any other knitters), this isn't actually that bad considering that you've been knitting for about 30 years.
Well...
This (including the contents of the steamer trunk; the Rubbermaid bin was to catch the overflow, then it overflowed...) is all the unstarted projects I have. Most are "spoken for"... the intended pattern is stored with the yarn. Of course, I sometimes change my mind about that as I discover new patterns or realize that the yarn is really unsuitable.** I think I have about 17 defined projects here, and material for another three or four that I haven't decided on.
Yet somehow, I keep buying more yarn...
So if you come to Calgary, I'll give you a ball of yarn!
* Shut up! There is so too a use for them!
** Normally I find out the yarn is unsuitable after I've made the project. I'm getting up the gumption to rip out three sweaters because of this. The lessons here:
- Wool doesn't drape like silk. A cardigan that is slinky and flowy and drapey in silk will look like a Jetson's outfit in wool
- Lopi doesn't go next to my skin.
- Alpaca is soft and inelastic. Making a fitted ribbed top out of it seems like a good idea (soft = nice next to the skin, inelastic = compensated for by the rib). However, alpaca is also very very very warm. Ribbing makes it even warmer. Don't use alpaca for anything that one can't remove with propriety.
>> * Shut up! There is so too a use for them!
Of course there is. Anyone who thinks that strange Just Doesn't Understand. Although if the lengths are not rolled or bagged......
Way to flash your stash! It's not out of control at all. And it is well organized, by colour family. 17 started projects though - that's intense.
That tablecloth is INSANELY amazing. Are you seriously going to unpick the cast on? I guess you might as well, if you're not happy with how it looks - you should really be completely satisfied with it after so much work.
I will look at the lace knitting other bloggers do with disdain now.
Oh no, no, no, it's not 17 started projects. None are started. It's just that the materials are allocated, unlike the oddball bins.
And thank you for understanding about the impulse to unpick the cast-on. That's exactly it. After so much time spent, it had better be perfect!
I'm really confused about the problem with the Jetson's outfit. I mean, besides that it wasn't what you were going for, if you just consider that anew without your drapey preconceptions of the outfit, it's the Jetson's! In wool! Who woulda thunk it?
Um. I suppose someone's actually supposed to wear it. OK, now I get the problem. It was totally awesome up 'till then. *sigh*
are you saying you wouldn't totally be wearing Jetsons clothes ALL THE TIME if you could?