Yarn like improvisational jazz

For my recent birthday,  I self-indulgently bought myself two kinds of really cool specialty yarns:

Habu Textile’s Wool Stainless Steel A-148

Habu Textiles Wool Stainless Steel

It’s a thread-thin yarn which feels soft like wool, but has a memory.  You can essentially finger-block it on the needles to whatever 3-d shape that you want.  It’s very cool, and it’s a natural for making jewelry and other artsy accessories, but I’ll post more on my adventures with it another time.

Today I want to talk more about the other specialty yarn that I bought myself:

When in doubt, make it a tea cozy

I think I’m going to adopt this as my new knitting motto:  ‘When in doubt, make it a tea cozy’.

Once upon a time, I bought a bunch of a favorite yarn when it was on sale.  I think we’ve all been there, where the prospect of great yarn overwhelms all rational decision-making and prudent project-planning.

Mystery swatches

Back in June sometime, which was the last time I worked on the Master Hand-Knitter Level I swatches, I finished swatches 7-12 (3 decrease swatches, 1 yo’s swatch, 2 eyelets swatches) and half of 16 (colorwork swatch).  The trouble is I didn’t wash or label any of them, and apparently thought I would remember what my system of knots and stitch markers meant in terms of which numbered swatch was which.  (stupid. stupid. stupid.)  Now I have to sort out 7-9 and 11-12; the swatches within those two sets look distressingly similar to one another.  Please don’t tell me I have to reknit just to identify them!?!?!

Dye Day

This Saturday, the lovely ladies of the Spinning/Weaving Guild  that my Mom belongs to (name withheld because I didn’t think to ask if they were ok with me name-dropping them online) held their annual Dye Day.

One of the members volunteered her garage (located on a lovely 12 acre farm with sheep), and set up tables and tents.  They had a very cool 12- or 16-burner pot-boiling contraption that was ideal for a dyeing extravaganza, but it’s a mystery to me what the normal purpose of such a device would be.

Dye Day Pot Burners

Various guild member had charge of different pots and recipes, and all I had to do was show up with some 50-yard skeins for myself. 

One less albatross

I often overcommit myself.  This was one of my concerns when starting the TKGA Master Hand-Knitter program.  I tried to clear a few gift-making projects (that were gravely overdue) early in January before I got my Level I instructions.  But as I have gotten into the heart of the Level I tasks, I have started getting more involved with Ravelry as it is a great resource for TKGA discussions and information.  I have also been using Raverly to organize my stash and get serious about a queue of projects that should help me through some extreme stash-busting.  There are a lot of vests and shrugs on my queue because it seems I almost never get a whole sweater’s worth of yarn.

But this queuing has lead to some extreme stash-guilt.  I hadn’t realized how much stash I had collected that was intended for some project or another.  I hadn’t realized how much stash I really had until I moved last year!  Now all of the craft resources are in one place, and rather than inspiring me, I feel like they are all mocking me.  I am being taunted by my foolish good intentions.