Oh, Snap!

Someone out there is shaking her fist at this picture right now. Heh. We're not racing or anything, but I know she wants to finish her Catherine Parr sleeves, too. So we'll call this photo extra motivation.

I'm really glad to have these sleeves done. Cascade 220 is a dependable, reliable yarn, but it isn't all that glamourous. Now that the sleeves are done, I'm going to knit something softer for a while to break up all that Peruvian crunch. The skin on my fingers needs a rest. I'm starting to develop a callous on my index finger from the yarn, and no amount of lotion seems to help with the dryness.

Still churning along in my no-new-projects groove. I left for San Francisco on July 29, and that's also the last day I cast on something new, a pair of plain socks perfect for the airplane. The embargo is in effect until September 29, two months later.

And I feel like this is a worthwhile experiment. I'm making progress on outstanding projects despite not having a lot of knitting time. I think I'm down to 6 projects OTN, which is as low as it's been in quite a while. And of those projects, I have two pairs of socks, both of which are on the second sock now, and neither of which is all that exciting. Catherine Parr, which now just needs a yoke and some reknitting on the hem. Fulmar, a forever project, and the cabled cardigan which has been in almost perpetual time-out. And the felted bag, which is rough felting wool, irritating to the touch, which I almost have to bribe myself to work on.

In other words, I'm not feeling that any of the current projects are at the top of the queue, yearning for my attention, for various reasons. But I will chug onward until the 29th, because these are all projects I'd like to finish.

And then on the 29th? I have something planned for that gorgeous Kyoto. 'Nuff said.

Holy. Crap.

I haven't counted up all the yarn yet. I've merely counted up everything I can reach -- minus the organic hand-dyed homespun that was a gift from author Nathalie Gray, which I can't count properly because I don't know the yardage.

There are at least two more boxes of yarn that I can't reach. As far as I can remember, anyway. I know I have some raspberry pink boucle that's in there somewhere, and some natural aran wool -- I'm dead sure they're not packed together, which means at least two more boxes of yarn yet to count.

And without those two boxes, my current yardage total stands at

::drumroll::
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92,519 yards

FO: Dale Olive Socks

I kind of like this new focus on finishing things. I like it that I now only have two pairs of socks OTN. Really, one is enough. But I can live with two.

Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in Olive Green
Needles: Crystal Palace 1.5US double points
Pattern: One of my favorites, the ribbed baby cable from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks.

Notes:
Not much to say that I haven't already said. This yarn is wonderful. One of my perennial favorites for socks -- durable, colorfast, washable, and incredibly comfortable to wear.

The Stash Logging Project

I've photographed every bit of yarn in this house. I've made notes about all of it. I've uploaded maybe a third of it into Ravelry. It's a start.

I don't know how much more yarn I have in storage, but I'd guesstimate that I've processed about three-quarters of the stash so far. The rest is in unreachable boxes and will have to wait until it's time to move. My plan is to pull out the yarn and set it aside as I'm loading the truck to move. I have a couple of boxes of wool sweaters that are too small for me now, and I think I ought to pull those aside, too. I just want to bag all the wool with sachets to protect against insects. You know how those storage places can be.

I have to start repacking the yarn tomorrow, or maybe tonight. It's EVERYWHERE. The hard part will be deciding what to keep close to hand, and what to send to storage. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around that decision now! It's like freaking Sophie's Choice!

A Peek Inside Pandora's Boxes

Ahem. This is so unexpected. I don't have a speech prepared. Thank you to the members of the academy, to --

Oops. Wait. Different award. ;)

Thanks, Knit and Run. It was a surprise to pop over to your blog this morning and see that you'd nominated me! I also love your blog!









In Other News





















I pulled out a few bins of yarn from my storage room at the family business. We sold that building, as some of you know, and I have to make other storage arrangements now. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. We haven't found a new property to move into yet -- we had a deal in place last week, but it flamed out in rather spectacular fashion earlier this week. So I've been trying to cobble together alternate arrangements. It's not going well.

In the meantime, I have to figure out what is in that storage room, exactly, in preparation for moving. I know I have several thousand books. An old couch and a desk. And, of course, my knitting stash.

That picture up there represents about half my stash, about 20,000 grams of yarn strewn across the corner of my living room. I'm documenting it as I go through it and bag it for storage. (Most of it was just tossed in the bins without much thought to proper storage.) This is partly an exercise in futilty because I can't even get to all the boxes with yarn in them. But I figured I could take a stab at it as long as I have to sort through the stash anyway.

I don't have time for this project now, but I also don't have a choice. The clock is ticking. We have to be out of the building by a certain date, and it's not negotiable. There are a lot of problems I can't solve now -- or, I should say, can work on endlessly without solving -- but this particular project has the advantage of being measurable and finite. It needs to get done at some point in the next month, and it at least gives me the illusion of progress.

By the way, in case you're trying to work it out, there's enough yarn in that photo alone for 14 sweaters, one afghan, and various scarves/hats/etc. There's only one skein of sock yarn in the lot -- my sock yarn is stored separately. In any event, this might help explain why lately I've been mentioning that I have enough yarn now. Even by my standards, it's enough.

Status Report: Sockotta Ribbed Socks

This is the problem with having too many projects on the needles and not enough knitting time. It takes forever to complete something, even something simple like socks. If I just knit a pair of socks, I can finish the pair in ten days to two weeks. But when I knit four pairs at once, plus three sweaters and a bag, well, I can go ten days without even touching a particular item.

And then it starts to feel as though I've been knitting the same thing forever.

This was brought home to me again on Friday. We were knitting at Nana's around the back table, and a woman came in who I've met once or twice before. She's nice. I like her a lot. Even though she said, "Oh, you're still knitting that?" when she saw my Catherine Parr.

Not her fault. Mine. All mine.

My September decision to not cast on anything new is starting to look like a decision of rare genius!

PS. Nope. Still haven't found the missing needles.

Status Report: Olive Baby Ull Socks

Sometimes I forget how much I love the Dale Baby Ull. Then I pick it up again to knit with it, and fall in love all over again. It's springy, round, soft, and durable. The colors are marvelous and stitch definition is fantastic. I swear, I could knit a whole wardrobe out of this stuff. Including underpants.

I don't think we'll need to talk about politics any more. I watched both conventions, did my due diligence on the candidates, and made my decision. I will watch the debates, but barring any huge revelations of importance in the next two months, I won't be changing my mind.

The new Knitter's magazine arrived at Nana's today while I was there for the Catherine Parr/ knit-your-own KAL. (That's the KAL that started off as a Catherine Parr KAL, but quickly expanded when some folks wanted to knit other Starmores, other sweaters, other items.) I thought this was the best issue we've seen in a long time. Too long. There were several decent, knittable patterns. Yes, there was still the insane moment when they started doing something for no better reason than someone figured out that it was possible -- the "party trick" knitting that is all flash and no substance -- "OMG, you guys, look what happens when you knit upside down and backwards!"

This month's party trick was knitting intarsia using two balls of the same yarn. Ooooookay. There was also a cowl/yoked/tank/heftybag thing that could be worn right side up or upside down, a most excellent choice for drunk chicks trying to scramble away from their one night stands. Dude, who cares if it's inside out. Just get dressed and get a cab. Fast.

But I'm glad to say that for those of us interested in actual knitting, there were several good patterns in this issue. Dare we hope that this represents a rebirth of Knitters? The cover sweater is good. At least two other sweaters had me thinking about which yarn I might use. All in all, a marked improvement, and one which I am glad to see.

Status Report: Catherine Parr

This is the first sleeve for Catherine Parr. Another two inches or so, and I will shape the sleeve cap. I've already cast on the second sleeve but haven't started the colorwork yet. That won't happen until I wind off another skein of yarn.

The Catherine Parr knitters are starting back on our informal KAL this week. We're meeting Friday to tackle the sleeve shaping. The pattern is written with standard drop shoulders, but I'm doing a modified drop, and I'm going to show the others how to make this absurdly easy modification.

I suspect the first sleeve will be off the needles within a week. We'll see. A lot depends on work and other issues, and how much knitting time is available to me.

Back on the politics thing. I don't often talk about politics, but you should probably know that I'm what pollsters call an independent or a swing voter. (And believe me, once the pollsters identify you as such, your phone tends to ring a lot during election season. I've already been surveyed a half-dozen or so times in this election cycle.) I have in the past voted for Republicans and Democrats for president. And for other offices.

In any event, I make it a practice of watching both conventions and watching the debates, as much as possible of all of it. I generally know who I intend to vote for before all that coverage starts, but I have changed my mind in past elections based on things I learned during the election season. So my scrutiny of both conventions is nothing unusual.

I was very interested in knowing who McCain would pick for VP, because this was one of the factors I knew might sway my vote. Plus, let's be real here. McCain's getting up there in years. I wish him a long and fruitful life, but still. His VP pick matters more that it might otherwise matter with a younger candidate. Right now, I'm listening for evidence that Palin deviates from her party platform on any particulars. And I'm not hearing it, but it's a little hard to hear real politics at the moment when all anyone wants to talk about is the unwed teen mother thing.

It's not easy being a swing voter. I have to listen to a lot of rabid outrage from both ends. I do listen to it, but frequently from an abstract rhetorician's mindset. Spin is fascinating stuff.

And as long as we're on the topic of full disclosure here, I worked in the government long enough to gain a good understanding of the way things really work. I worked for both Republican and Democratic administrations. The two sides have very different approaches to managing a government office, but I must say I met good people and bad people on both sides.

So I'm going to do my best to drop the topic now, even though this is going to be a hot topic for the next two months. But just in case I do start waxing political, I thought it made sense to lay this foundation now so that people might understand where I'm coming from.