The funny thing about the knitting/fishing couple is that the two interests are relatively compatible. This week, I received a big box of yarn, and my husband received a big box of fishing stuff (hooks, lures, bait etc.)! Even the costs seem to be relatively similar, although we haven't done a direct comparison. Believe me, my husband is ecstatic that I've taken up knitting because it means that I don't complain when he disappears for hours on end on the lake (I am happily at home or at shore, or in some cases, on the boat with him, knitting). Nor do I complain when our tv is set to the fishing channel for hours on end - when I really can't take it, I watch or listen to something off my computer, while knitting! Fishing does slow down in the winter, at least on the east coast, but there's always the aforementioned fishing channel, and plenty of research and shopping online in preparation for the next season. At least we both have our obsessions, although he has yet to start a fishing blog and I don't think there's a ravelry for fishing... yet! I'm sure there are sites where people post pictures of their catch but I can't say I've gone looking...
We even share some of the same accessories. Well, not share exactly, as in at the same time, but I have a nice fishing tackle box and some cute little boxes for some of my knitting accessories.
I also recently "lent" him some of my plastic yarn containers to hold all his plastic worms (don't ask) which were hitherto spread all over our living room floor. Kind of like my yarn is now - I need those boxes back!
Speaking of which, well, yes, I've bought a lot of yarn lately. Here are my stats for August (running net total, with total for the month in parentheses):
skeins purchased: 276 (17)
skeins knit: 112 (2.5)
yards purchased: 46,107 (5,795)
yards knit: 17,125 (439)
yards remaining: 28.083
$ spent on yarn (not including sales tax or shipping): $542.40 (eek!)
knitting since: 1/27/07
Yards knit is pretty low for me - I spent too much time shopping! And it's the most $ spent and yards purchased in a month so far... but not by much.
$ spent does include my first Sundara subscription payment for yarn I have not received yet (so is therefore not counted in my stash) and it does include my Madtosh orders which I have not yet received. I've already counted that yardage though because, well, it's not going to get any better this month because well um yes cough splutter I have been trying my hand at purchasing yarn off the ravelry boards. And succeeding! Or failing... to keep to a budget. But let's look at the positive shall we?!
Lurking around and frequently refreshing on ravelry to keep an eye on ISO (in search of) and destashing threads does pay off. On Monday, I managed to snap up a skein of Mama Blue sock yarn which was very exciting as I have never even been close to obtaining this yarn. I was also approached by a super nice ravelry user who saw my name on the "ISO list" and offered to sell me a skein of toasted orange over pistachio sock yarn that I have been seriously coveting for my giraffe project and also for general gorgeousness but had pretty much given up upon. I can't tell you how happy I was!!! I picked it up from the post office yesterday and oh my.
Why yes I did open it on the way home from the post office!
Doesn't it look great with my citrus zinger?
So of course now I am torn between a) starting a Little Giraffe right away b) waiting until my MadTosh arrives to see how those colors look and c) saving this beautiful yarn for something more "worthy" than a stuffed toy. Neither color are exactly "wardrobe colors" for me but I think I'll wait for the MadTosh (where are they?!!!) to decide for sure.
This is kind of my dilemma with Sundara in general - there are many more colors that I love than there are colors that I'd like clothing or accessories in, but I really want all the colors that I love! A given skein can be so pretty as an object in and of itself that is so hard to resist... but there's only so much yarn one can justify buying just because it's pretty! The latest announcement about the new collections that are coming out has me even more confused and I think I'm getting a little carried away by the scarcity frenzy. I'm keeping my four Seasons subscription and that should give me more than enough yarn, but then something like toasted orange over pistachio arrives on my doorstep and is so stunningly gorgeous that I just want more. It's not easy, this endless cycle of self-restraint and gluttony!
That's not all - gluttony won over yesterday when I found myself purchasing not one but two separate skeins of Sundara Silk Lace... this after declaring myself officially "off lace" for a while following all my recent lace projects! They were for sale on the ravelry boards and so rarely do a) people want to sell rather than trade for other Sundara and b) I see their posts within minutes so I stand half a chance of getting them that I just couldn't resist. One is grey over pink which was a limited edition (I could only find a photo of the colorway in aran silky merino) and the other is mahogany over marmalade, the latest Autumn silk lace shipment (to those who were subscribed earlier this year ie not me!)
Yeah, so much for a yarn budget!
I think it's about time I knit a lace project for myself though, don't you think?!
I'm determined to do more knitting this month because shopping is fun but... not quite as relaxing. I have been working on the trellis baby blanket and it is coming along great, so I do feel I have my "knitting mojo" back. It's the first time since my recent deadline knitting that I've felt truly addicted and enthralled and I am enjoying every minute of it. I'll post photos soon.
In the meantime, I'm also going through my stash and assigning projects to it where I can so I can get a better handle of where I am. Ravelry isn't quite set up yet to create such a list so I've started a page here on the blog for it, although it's mostly for my reference, so there are no links or anything. So now when I feel like "shopping" I can look through my queue or other patterns to see if I can assign more of my stash to projects! My first pass already reminded me of some leftovers from various projects that I could use to knit hats or blanket squares for the Stash and Burn 7 Long project (see episode 58).
I'm looking forward to more queue organization in ravelry though, so I can sort between "am definitely knitting soon", "would like to knit someday" and "just want to bookmark for now" projects. It would be great to be able to link yarn to projects before "casting on" too...
Knitting and football season/watching are also compatible, even though I have zero interest in watching sports. I will save my more complicated projects to focus on and will sit with DH to work on them while he's watching the game, or will do an easy project while listening to an audiobook with noise cancelling headphones.
Posted by: SP | Monday, September 08, 2008 at 02:10 PM