Trapped!

Crafters are hoarders. Show me a crafter who doesn't have a stash of one kind or another and I'll root out their hiding spots.

They sneak yarn into the house, slightly concerned about the eye rolls from their significant other, hide it in the boot of the car, stuff it in nooks and crannies or have another crafter mind it for them.

And it's not just yarn.  While my yarn stash threatens to take over the house from downstairs, the magazine stash is trying to burst from its designated spot upstairs!

I used to be a 2 magazine subscriber. The anticipation of waiting on the postman to deliver the magazine was great. What patterns would I get this month? What stash would I be able to use with it? And, most importantly, what will the free gift be!?

Needless to say that once I ripped the plastic off the magazine, had a look at the free gift (and 9 times out of 10 said I wouldn't use it) and gave the patterns a  cursery look, the magazine was abandoned in a corner until someone texted to say they were visiting. At that point the magazines were scooped up and thrown in another corner out of sight.

In order to corral the mess, I didn't resubscribe to one magazine when my year ran out.  In my eternal stupidity, I continued to buy the magazine and not knit any patterns from them.  So the decision has been made not to resubscribe to magazine 2.

And then there's tools- needles, crochet hooks, stitch markers and buttons. We knitters tend to hoard these items too and yet, we never have what we need when we need it.

So the moral of this tale is simple. Despite your belief that your crafter has every thing they could ever possibly need,  you're wrong. We'll always need something else, something new and shiny.

My advice is to just go with the flow. One day you'll come home to find them buried under the stash and then, and only then, will the notion of "enough" cross their mind. And as quickly as the notion came it'll go again.

Evil temptress

What is it that makes crafters immune to saying no when new yarn is involved?

This is a question I've been pondering over for a while and it all began in September.

A fellow crafter in work was bemoaning the state of her craft room (I know, a whole room for crafting in). There was card and stamps and inks and glues everywhere and getting glitter out of carpet isn't easy.  In return I was venting about the stash getting out of hand....again.

I wanted to get the stash knitted up before the annual knitting pilgrimage to Dublin. Why? To make room for all the new yarn I would acquire.  Unfortunately the stash contains the excitedly purchased yarn from the four previous pilgrimages.

But why when, for as long as I can remember,  I've been cold sheeping?

Because I get the thrill of hitting the purchase button online. It's not just the yarn I'm buying but the illusion of time to knit it up.

Sometimes this thrill comes back to bit you. For example, last week a knitting website was advertising their grab bags. Oh ho says I,  an excellent opportunity to try new yarn out for a discounted price. So I ordered 3 bags- cascade, berocco and crystal palace.

Imagine my excitement when the parcel arrived.  I opened the first....

Started well with berocco weekend. Nice colours and the yarn feels nice.

Then came the second bag,  the cascade...

Another victory! Bulky merino in blues which I love.

Then, the final bag...the crystal  palace. Would I be lucky and get 3 fab bags of yarn??

No. Bag 3  was 5 balls of fun fur that I have no idea what to do with.

And, despite the new mystery yarn (and one or five other balls that arrived yesterday), the knitters are in talks about ordering a lot of sock yarn from Germany! 

This only means one thing....I knit to climb back on the sheep until mid November and knit socks like they're going out of fashion!

This blog is brought to you by the letter F

Finishing. There are many levels of finishing when it comes to knitting.

Some class a project as finished as soon as the knitting part is done. Some believe finishing occurs once the ends have been woven it while others go as far as washing and blocking their piece before they declare their work finished.

Me? I'm in the weaving in the ends camp.  However, I'm getting rather lax about even going that far.

This little pile contains all the "finishing" I need to do, and most of it is quite simple and straightforward.- ends, seaming and a pompom or two. Instead of just getting on with it, I threw the lot in a bag and pretended it didn't exist...except that I keep tripping over it!.

This week's goal is to bring a handful to knitting tomorrow and weave in those ends!  Hopefully next week I'll be regaling you with a series of FOs instead of nearly-but-not-quite finished objects.

Technical issues

I had a wonderful post planned for Tuesday but alas, technology let me down. My laptop is on its way out and is now refusing to connect to the Internet. So now I'm stuck with an app on my phone!

I'm just going to have to adjust even though I don't want to lol.

See you Tuesday!