Taming of The Stash and other tales

I can’t believe it’s been a whole month since I’ve posted. I’ve been busy with end of school stuff with the kids, vacation, lots of knitting and lots of procrastinating (you should see my house). Knitting is so much more fun than laundry, cleaning house, organizing paperwork, cooking . . .

About a month ago, I had a “taming of The Stash” – well, as much as I could get to – there’re still several skeins lurking at the back of a closet that shrink from my grip when I try to reach them. I must sheepishly admit that The Stash, when fully stretched out, covered my 8’ long dining table. Wow! It is now grouped by type–baby, acrylic, eyelash, wool, etc. – and logged it into Ravelry, along with all my knitting needles. It is amazing to me how well The Stash is behaving now that it has all of its pieces and parts where they should be. Although The Stash is no longer outstretched on my dining table, it is still lazing around my living room waiting to be put to use, put away, or put out of its misery. I know The Stash has parts that I will never use, but I just don’t have the heart to remove any part of The Stash that won’t be put to good use. So, for now, I’ll just have to settle for living with a tamed version of The Stash. I guess it’s better than the monster in the closet it had been.

Now on to my knitting projects:

I made this easy garter stitch scarf to wear around the office. The yarn reminded me of the ocean and I bought it a couple of weeks before vacation.

I’ve wanted to try some bamboo, since I’ve heard so much about it in the last year or so. A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by Haus of Yarn (one of our local LYS’s) and bought a ball of Royal Bamboo just to play with. I made this drop stitch scarf and I think it turned out very nicely. While I was at the Haus, I bought some Bonsai in a shimmery black. I’m thinking about making one of those neat little cravat scarves with it, but I’m still looking for a good pattern.


Tangerine Twist is done! (I call it Vanilla Twist since mine is white – made with Berroco Comfort.) I finished it last week while I was on vacation, and I wore it today for the first time. We have a group of Ravelers that meets at a downtown coffee shop every Wednesday and they were all very complimentary. They had seen this top about 3 weeks ago when I was still working on the back, but not since then. Their comments were very nice affirmations for me, because they are all such talented knitters.


I got a great deal on some MeiMei Bamboo sport weight on ebay and started on the After Dark Robe from Mason Dixon last week. I’m not very far into it, but that Bamboo is absolutely sinful. I can’t wait to wrap up in it.

Last night, I started a Bunny Blanket Bunny in some pink Red Heart Baby Clouds that was in The Stash. It’s for a baby girl that was born last week. I thought it’d be a cute, quick project for her. I’m already half-way done with that.



I also started a baby blanket for Warm Woolies with some of the acrylic in The Stash. They only accept wool clothing items, but will accept baby blankets made from anything, and they say they need as many as they can get. I had heard about Warm Woolies before, but never looked into the program. Then I watched an episode of Extreme Makeover Home Edition that was shot on an Indian reservation somewhere out west. It was absolutely mind-boggling that such poverty exists in our country. When I found out that Warm Woolies not only provides clothing and blankets to Mongolia and other overseas communities, but also to several Indian reservations in the US, I decided that I needed to do something to contribute. I think The Stash will be happy to know that it is helping others too.

Lastly, I have half a pair of fingerless mitts done that I’m making for a friend with fibromyalgia. She said that when her hands get cold, her fingers hurt, so we’ll see if these help.

Like everyone, I have lots more ideas running around in this noggin, but my fingers only work so fast. I was listening to Stash and Burn (my absolute favorite knitting podcast) this morning and they were talking about an octopus and how much knitting one could accomplish with 8 hands. Hee hee! I’ve often daydreamed about knitting with my toes so I could go twice as fast.

Ribbit Ribbit Ribbit

I absolutely hate to frog, tink, rip, whatever you want to call it. HOWEVER, I'm working on Tangerine Twist right now (see my Fantasy Project list) I'd really like it to turn out well. I have learned that this project is not good "visiting" knitting for me. I've had to rip out the last few rows about 3 times now and I'm getting very frustrated. I'm hoping it will be worth all the trouble.

2nd Annual Paralegals with Needles - Dogwood Winter 2008

On Friday, My knitting pal and I headed again to The Cabin at Still Waters in Cumberland Furnace, TN, leaving husbands, children, cats, dogs, hamsters, etc. to fend for themselves for our 2nd Annual Paralegals with Needles knitting retreat.

It was unseasonably cold, so there was very little knitting in my favorite nest, the screened-in back deck. In addition, both of us are battling nasty spring colds. (Sniff! Cough! Groan!) However, we still managed to have a great time, get a lot of knitting done, and vegged a little in front of the TV without having to fight for the remote.

I finished my Hazy Paves scarf and blocked it last week, so I brought it for show & tell:

This flowering shrub seemed to like it because it grabbed hold as I walked by:

It was about 40 degrees and blustery this morning, so I tried to warm up this little fellow:




I decided he needed something a little more substantial, so he tried on my tank that I finished on this trip:

Our Guardian Indian looked a little forlorn so I let him wear the Calorimetry and the wristbands for a while:



And finally, here's EC's birthday gift hanging around the dog pen. (Honey, there's no dog in there any more.)

Sniffles, piles of tissues, and spells of crummy feeling aside, we had a wonderful time and enjoyed lots of knitting and cleaning up some of those pesky UFOs.