Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Where I've Been in the US of A



Again, I'm only including places where I actually did something more than drove through (even if I spent a night), which explains the Oregon and Indiana holes (and the later I drove through a lot when I lived in Wisconsin!). Looking at this, I seem to treat the US a bit like a grocery store - only going around the edges.

Where I've Been in the Big Old World



I suspect that this is more than a lot of people, but all I see when I look at it is all the places I've never been! I only include places I've actually spend time. Not for example, Germany, where I transfer planes on almost every trip to Europe but never visited. And I actually feel a little bad about that! When I went Argentina and Brazil a couple years ago it occurred to me that I'd been to 4 of 7 continents, so I'd really like to go to all of them at this point!

Monday, September 08, 2008

Trying to Get a Grip on Things

Okay, so I was right, I didn't do any better in August in either stash reduction or WIP reduction.

The WIP count stayed exactly the same - nothing finished, but nothing started either.

The stash count, well that went up by 4365 yards. Guess it never really recovered from finding over 5000 yards in the unopened mail that week!

This month won't do well for stash either I suspect. First, even though I was finally seeing the end for so many of my clubs I joined two more! The first was The Color Coop. I linked to it since you can still join. I'm familiar with a couple of the dyers, and intrigued by the idea of seeing how the different dyers will interpret the same inspiration. You rotate through the six dyers, plus you have the chance to buy from the ones you don't get in any shipment. Anyone think I won't be tempted to do that at least once? The second is the Wollmeise sock club. I couldn't resisted entering the lottery for that one, and of course the fates said I should join!

Second, a lot of clubs are shipping this month - Year of Lace, I Wool Dye for You, Seven Deadly S[p]ins, A Change of Seasons Lace, Webs Skein of the Month, No Two Snowflakes Laceweight, and the first Wollmeise.

Third, I was tempted by the The Knitter's Review into purchasing a couple skeins of yarn from Sunday Knits.

On the other hand, I do have hope for the WIP count even though I started something new. I've reached the point with the old WIPs that nothing is portable. Since I was trying hard not to start anything new, it meant I was wasting my largest chunk of knitting time - my commute. Plus I think it was leading me to resenting the other knitting and not working on it at home.

So I decided to try and follow along with Socknitters Anonymous Sockdown on Ravelry. I'll allow myself to start a new project for this, which will give me something to do on the train, and hopefully break the other malaise. As you can see, I've gone with the "orange" challenge for this month!

Oh, and this reminds me. I theoretically finished the Arctic Diamonds Stole during the Olympics. (Another Ravelry link, but you should really join if you haven't already!) I knit enough that I could have been done. But I decided that I had enough yarn to lengthen it, and really wanted it longer than the 48" the pattern specified.

So how does starting something new translate into hope that I'll reduce the WIP list? I'm hosting a finishing day for my friends on the 27th. Felting the Cat Fez, sewing up the Aran sweater, and finishing the stole are all on my list. These days tend to be good for motivating some finishing so I'm hopeful.