Since I neglected this blog for so long, I never updated on my stashbusting goals for this year.

For me, stashbusting ‘08 was largely a failure. I blame it on Ravelry, and my introduction to new and wonderful patterns and yarns. But this year, I’m making a fresh commitment. With the help of the economic downturn and the very real risk of losing what little money I have, I’ve been pretty good at not buying anything this year. I’m also happy with how much I’ve been able to use up. The knitmeter on my sidebar has been great for keeping track of it all.

I’m still in Ravelry’s Stashbusting group, which is pretty helpful. And there this year, they have a whole bunch of personal challenges. Mostly “Knit one {insert item of choice here] a month” clubs. I miss the monthly challenges we used to have, but now there’s a million of these clubs. I decided to join the sock one though, because I do have many sock yarns, and have for the most part been pretty slow at actually making socks. So in addition to the goals of simply using up as much yarn as I can, I’ve decided to do one pair of socks a month as well.

So here are my accomplishments so far:
January

• Katlyn Cardigan: 592 yds
• Llama duck (llama yarn that is) crocheted sweater: 1080 yds
• Crocheted squares for blanket: ~140 yds
• Noro Socks: 362 yds

January Total: 2174 yds (1.24 miles)

February

• Blanket as a Valentine’s Day present for Scott: 1265 yds
• Green bulky hat: 60 yds
• Purple Purse: 414 yds
• Jaywalker Socks: 347 yds
• Gave away: 480 yds

February Total: 2566 yds (1.46 miles)

March

• Orange cardigan that isn’t quite finished yet: 869yds
• Bellatrix Socks: 390 yds

March Total: 1199 yds (.59 miles)

So my total so far this year is: 6038 yds (3.43 miles)

Not bad! Averaging over a mile a month. I’m not sure how much I’ll get done this month since the end of the month coincides with the end of the semester and there is much to be done before then. But at least I know I had a good start. And as far as I can tell, I’ll be unemployed over the summer. The upside of that is more yarn time!

Finally I finished the Mariah hoodie from Knitty that I started I-won’t-even-tell-you-how-long ago. I took out the cables, because all I wanted was a simple cotton hoodie, and surprisingly I couldn’t find any basic hoodie patterns (at least not in a worsted weight). Anyway, here it is! 4ish skeins of Charcoal Lion Brand Cotton-Ease.

Considering that I first learned how to knit correctly while making this project, I think it turned out pretty well. I really like it. There are a few character [read: messed up] parts of it, and somehow the hood came out a bit short, but I spent the last two evenings sewing up the hood and sewing the zipper on, and all in all, I really like it. I’m thinking of knitting pockets for it at some point, but I’ll admit that it’s a long way off and I’m happy to be done with the thing.

Now some of you may be thinking “Marie, you live in North Carolina, and it is roughly 9,000 degrees outside. Even though your hoodie is made of cotton, you probably still will not actually wear it for some time!” Well, my friends, it may be at least 9,001 degrees outside, but inside my office, I’d say it’s more like 65–in general. More like 60 at my desk, because I have the unfortunate luck of sitting in a cube right under the air vent. (A discovery I only recently made.) I’m so proud of this item, I may even wear it to work tomorrow. (Yes, I have a casual office unless clients are in town.)

Right now, I am working on a few crochet projects. I like that I’ve become bicraftual. Especially since I have way too much yarn, and my stash needs to be stopped. I have more options now than I did before.

According to some of the WordPress information, when you post an entry, you’re supposed to be able to add things like “Mood” or “Music”…and the only place I saw that was when I was editing the “About Me” page. Strike 2 for WordPress’s so-called “usability.”

Anyway, I recently posted my total yarn usage for the month of April in the Stash Knitdown group on Ravelry, so I thought I’d share

2 skeins of Noro for a bag: 220 yds
Some Patons for the straps: ~100 yds
2 skeins of CottonEase for the beginnings of a hoodie: 414 yds
TOTAL: 734 yds

The Noro and Patons are waiting to be felted sometime soon and then sewn together for what will most likely be a knitting bag. I thought that crocheting the bag would make it sturdy enough, but I think if anything with any weight is ever going to be put in there, it should probably be felted.

I’m growing frustrated with the hoodie because I accidentally messed up on one of the sleeves really early on (I started knitting at 12 rows when I should have started at 36 rows, so one sleeve was 24 rows shorter than the other) and didn’t notice until I was done, so I had to rip out the whole thing and start over again. And I’m frustrated with the rest because it’s just going to take a long time. That’s the problem with sweaters. They’re so big. The body’s about 3″ long right now. The pattern doesn’t call for any waist shaping, so I’m improvising by adding some in myself…who knows how it will turn out?

I’m also frustrated with WEBS. They messed up my order and sent me 6 skeins instead of 9. I called last Friday and they said they’d ship it that day…instead, they shipped it on Monday and I still don’t have it yet. Not that I’m crocheting it anytime soon, but they don’t know that! And my apartment is not the best for getting packages, (they once called me to say that I “still” had a package that I was never told about sitting in the office) so I wish they’d give me a tracking # or something. Hopefully it will get here today.

And hopefully I’ll find somewhere to put it… :-/

I must say that, as a graduate student studying usability, for a site that advertises that they specialize in usability, I have absolutely no idea how to use WordPress. I do not find this blog site easy at all, and I’ve been on many blog sites in the past.

Anyway, this it my forray into the world of craft blogging. I knit mostly, but I also crochet, and occasionally sew together strange monstrosities (sewing machines and I do not get along at all). And I even cook, though lately I’ve been too tired and poor to do much with that.

I’m too poor to do a lot of things, and I don’t apologize for that. I see a lot of people on Ravelry who let others make them feel inadequate for using OMG acrylic, or for shopping at craft stores, and it drives me crazy. You can make just as nice things out of acrylic, and if it works for them, then who cares what other people do?

Anyway, I guess as this is the obligatory intro post, I should provide the obligatory intro:

I was taught to knit by a friend–technically wrongly, but I make it work. When I started grad school, I had no friends, no thesis topic and hardly any work to do, so I started knitting more seriously, and there aren’t enough containers in my house to hold the yarn I’ve purchased since then. I spent a lot of time alone on the couch knitting, and now that my boyfriend has moved away, I’m back again! I adopted crocheting this past semester as part of a skill acquisition class. (For my other class, I conducted a study on Ravelry. How sweet was that?)

I’m currently in the process of trying to knit/crochet down my stash to some reasonable amount of yarn…but I just bought a bunch at the webs anniversary sale. Small setback. But I at least know what I’m going to do with all the yarn that I bought….or at least I thought I did. I bought some Cascade 220 superwash that looked olive on the site, a nice neutral. Five days later, I have three skeins of St. Patrick’s Day, Luck of the Irish, Erin go Bragh, Kelley green. Pretty color; not the neutral I was looking for.
…In the process of writing this post, WordPress has sent me an e-mail with all sorts of potentially helpful information. Methinks some user friendly salient links to said information on the site might be a tiny bit more efficient than an e-mail.