Knitting Stuff Boggles My Mind

Just Finished, World Series Finale
Originally uploaded by sunasak

You can see what I did most of yesterday--I didn't feel too hot, so skipped all social obligations (except one, will mention later) to just knit or do knitting-related activities. And I vowed to finish those darned Redwood Pagoda Lace socks. I got them done before the World Series was over. And since they are "redwood" it's like I knitted Red Socks for the Red Sox. (I thought both teams were very good, though.) I like my idea of recording where I was and what I was doing when I finish a pair of socks. In any case, these are interesting, mainly in that I think my gauge changed from one sock to the other. The second one fits more comfortably and is longer, even though they have the same number of pattern repeats. Of course, knowing how often I messed up the pattern, sock #1 could simply have more mistakes in it. I really should do this pattern again in semi-solid or solid yarn. But, I love the colors and will enjoy wearing a decent pair of brown socks, at last.

Yes, I did get a little done on the other projects. Shedir is bigger and the lace scarf is well into the easy part of the main section. The Former Tangled Mess is very pretty.

Much of what I did over the weekend, though, was thinking, planning, and recording. I took pictures of the Rosebud Shawl, which is stalled at the moment, and of an old feather-and-fan baby afghan I made for Tuba Boy in 1991. Yowee it was made out of extra acrylic, but it held up well.

Then I took a deep breath, and since I have new lighting in the media room and the camera suddenly likes batteries, I began to photograph my commercial sock yarn balls. I just counted, and I photographed 36 skeins of sock yarn, predominantly Opal, Trekking , Regia, Meilenweit, and Austerman Step. Goodness. I got the info on all the yarn in my decorative "bowl o' sock yarn" plus the top layer of the "big basket o' sock yarn." This means there are probably at least 20 MORE balls of yarn in the bottom of that basket. Ai yi yi.

Anyone who's glanced at what I already uploaded to Ravelry (69 yarns so far) knows that most of my stash is sock yarn (with lace a distant but substantial second). I wonder if I will break a hundred skeins of sock yarn yet to be knitted, once I have them all up? (Noting that many of them are 50 gram balls, so a lot of the colorways have two skeins...yep, I may hit it.)

It will take me a while to edit all the photos, so just a bit of it went up today. Whee, something to look forward to. I am sure my poor parents are sick of going to my Flickr pages looking for pix of their grandchildren, only to see endless balls of yarn. I promise, it's almost over, and soon just a few will go up, as I buy stuff. And I am slowing down. Really.

I DO knit socks most of the time, but also other stuff. So I doubt I'll ever get to all this. That's OK, because as I have declared before, it's a collection, not a stash. Some of the yarns are valuable collector's items (like the test skeins and limited editions), and other are just beautiful to behold. So I declare that I feel no guilt about the extent of my sock yarn stash. It's an investment that may well increase in value, like other people's trading cards or Hummel figurines. Yeah.

Long Live My Sock Yarn Stash! I just ordered three more skeins from that enabling Loopy Ewe!

My personal news is that my wonderful Life Partner Man Lee bought me an engagement ring yesterday, with a genuine practically colorless practically flawless diamond in it. I can't wait to pick it up. I was careful to choose a setting that wouldn't snag on yarn too much. (I am old fashioned and got yellow gold, because I LIKE it, and a small dainty one, not a big retro style one--this should be in style the rest of my life, I hope.)