Tuesday, May 22, 2007

You know you have knit too many socks when...

1. Every member of your family wears hand knit socks. (Made by you of course)
2. The immediate family has only hand knit socks in their drawers.
3. All of your friends wear hand knit socks and expect you to give them more on their special days (b-day, Christmas or other December celebrations--Solstice etc, mother's day, their anniversary, etc.)
4. Your children's teachers have at least one pair of your hand knit socks.
5. Your pet's veterinarian has at least one pair of your hand knit socks.
6. Various aquaintances, such as the postman, bus driver, cashier at the grocery store, etc, all have at least one pair of your hand knit socks.
7. People you knew when you lived in another state 10 years ago still call and order more hand knit socks.
8. People you work with have at least one pair of your hand knit socks.
9. When trying to decide what to give someone who has everything you always end up giving them a pair of your hand knit socks.

Yes! I have made literally hundreds of pairs of socks in the last 13 years. I honestly quit counting when I got to 150 pairs. I have knit everything from the dull and mundane to a pair of turkish socks that used 12 different colors. I give them away or sell them.

I alway warn anyone that expresses an interest in the socks I have on, "once you wear a pair of hand knit socks you will want more and eventually only own hand knit socks"!!!!

I can't wait! I have enough sock yarn on order right now to make 25 new pairs! It should be here this week. Heaven knows I need to make a few more pair!

Happy knitting!!ALWAYS!!!

Thursday, May 17, 2007

May book review and stashes!

(Haneke's lovely boucle in Midnight)

When I cannot knit (like when I am at work), or while I am knitting I love to read about knitting. I am not very particular either. It can be anything from a pattern book to a novel about knitting to just pictures of knitting. So lately I have been reading Stephanie Pearl-McPhee's book Stephanie Pearl-McPhee Casts Off The Yarn Harlot's Guide to the Land of Knitting. It is very good! I am just about finished. I would definitely recommend it for anyone who knits--new or old. The section that discusses the geography of The Land of Knitting (aka Stashes) is so funny!!!! I couldn't resist reading it to my hubby. Of course all he did is roll his eyes and point at me when she was discussing "mature stashes" and their "stashlets" as if this was a problem in our house and our lives. Can you imagine that? ME? An over-run stash problem? I quickly pointed out that not one time has he put on a coat or long sleeved shirt and found yarn stored in the sleeves. Then he had the nerve to point at the shelving system that covers two walls (that are full of clear plastic boxes containing lovely yarn) and remind me that one of our two storage sheds (the 10 feet by 10 feet one) is more than half full of yarn and fiber. Then he actually said that he'd better not ever find yarn stored in his sleeves or I was in trouble. Well, he never looks in the cupboards or drawers in the kitchen so I don't need sleeves for storage at this point.


I love my yarn stash! It makes me feel so good to just sit in my chair knitting and look at all the pretty yarn and day dream about all the wonderful projects I could make with it. Some day I am going to open a yarn store (in a building other than my house) just so I can be surrounded by an enormous stash everyday.

So, how big is your stash? Are you proud of it or are you still in the denial stage?

Happy knitting!

Thursday, May 10, 2007


I have come to the unfortunate, yet inevitable, conclusion that I really only like to do two things in life.

The first is, OF COURSE, anything that has to do with yarn. Making yarn, selling yarn, knitting yarn, crocheting yarn, buying yarn, shopping for yarn, petting yarn, thinking about yarn. (Does that count as ONE thing?)

The second is being outside. I don't care if it's rainy, cold, hot, sunny, cloudy, snowing. The only time I do not like to be outside is when the wind is blowing. In fact, if we have a day where the wind blows fairly hard for the entire day I find myself feeling irritable even if I haven't had to be outside in the wind.


So, you can imagine that my perfect life would involve living outside (camping), and knitting or spinning every day. Does anyone know of a job out there that would pay me to do this? I promise that I would be VERY good at it. I would be willing to work overtime at no extra charge everyday. Weekends? Not a problem! In fact you could depend on me to cover anyones shift if they needed the day off, I would work holidays and everything. For some reason my local job classifieds and work force centers do not have any listings for "Nature-loving, yarn lunitics". I have even gone to the trouble to search some of the on-line job listers and they don't have anything either. Can you believe it? I guess I will have to give up on getting paid to do what I like. (sigh)


This all came forth last week as I lay on my bed (under a gorgeous hand-knit afghan I made for my husband) crying because I was depressed and terribly unhappy with all of life. (what was really wrong was that I hadn't been outside or done any knitting for like two weeks). Once I received the epiphany as to what was wrong I imediately picked up the nearest project (there is ALWAYS something within arms reach of where ever I am no matter what) and started knitting. I honestly knitted for 3 days only stopping to eat and sleep. When my husband asked if I'd like to go with him to town (I think he was hoping I might be sick of knitting and need a break) I said yes and continued to knit while we shopped. I can't tell you how much better I felt by the time Sunday evening hit. I knit so much that I have actually made it through the week without getting depressed one time.

Unfortunately, I don't think I will get away with this every weekend. Someone will have to clean the house and do the dishes and laundry at some point. My daughter is beginning to insist I call her Cinderella. I don't know why. Maybe she should take up knitting.