Not the Harlot

I'm suffering from lack of Yarn Harlot posts, so here's 10 reasons why I'm no substitute for the Harlot.

She has a following, she gets almost 100 comments after each post sometimes more. Me I get 0, big goose egg, although I do know one person who regularly reads my blog besides me -- at least she says so -- hi, Cris!

She's funny. Maybe because she just dives in when she knits she's more prone to "funny" things happening. Me, I'm not nearly as adventurous, but funny and not so funny things do happen -- just not as much.

She's prolific. It seems she casts on and finishes something nearly everyday. I just toil over my measley 5-6 projects. Plus she gets in way more blog entries -- how she can knit all that stuff AND write about it is beyond me.

She has 3 daughters. I have 2. Although mine are younger, however they are of school age and they can feed and clothe themselves. I did teach them to knit at 5, but it really didn't stick until 7. They don't knit regularly but when handed knitting needles they pretty much know what to do (well there was the time they used them as weapons for their Barbies -- this after seeing the movie Charlies Angels -- not good).

She's got (at least) 2 jobs. I have one.

She's actually designed stuff. I've modified a pattern or two.

She's published. I have yet to write full sentences in my own journal.

And the last 3 things I think I have on her...

She's younger and thinner, but I'm taller -- that should count for something. Okay, maybe not. How about this. I'm way more organized -- all my stash is stored in a database. It's kept in plastic tubs with a spreadsheet listing what's inside, all in a stash room that contains what I'm not currently working on. The room itself is 10'x14' and was built by my hubby and his dad in our 3 (now 2 - okay well 1) car garage. My friends and family think I'm nuts.

She spins and knits. I weave, make bobbin lace, and jewelery/beads besides spin and knit. I'm not sure this is a net positive, maybe I'm just spread way too thin.

I don't do laundry. The trick is I'm far more unpleasant if I have to do laundry -- so unpleasant my hubby just does it. There's a downside to this but I'm just not that particular about wrinkled, spotted clothing.

Why the comparison? Not because I aspire to *be* her. I just want to come close.

It's not all Pink

While I do tend to buy (and knit!) lots of pink -- not all my yarn has pink in it.



Okay, well so my stash is mostly pink. -- but hey at least anything I make from it will match the stuff in my closet -- which if it isn't pink it goes really well with pink!

Meanwhile I am working on finishing the fairisle -- the last of the 2001 projects. You hafta wonder why these guys got left behind. There were 3 altogether. A pair of socks, the Ironstone Cardigan and the Debbie Bliss fairisle. I looked back at my various knitting journals and found that nothing, well just about nothing, got done in 2002. I'm not sure I even started anything in 2002. I'm willing to bet I didn't buy much yarn in 2002. Why? That's the year we moved. That's the year my stash was packed away and kept at a storage site along with furniture and whatever else we needed to put away to show the old house and later even more stuff that didn't fit in the apartment we rented in between homes. It was moved into the new house only to return to a smaller storage site when dd#2 wanted her own room. :O It finally came back to the new house later that year? -- I think, or was it the next year...into it's own storage room built specifically for it. And yes, the interior of the "stash" room is painted pink -- well more lilac with mauve trim.

Socks at Work

Actually they are at rest, waiting patiently for me to kitchner the heel -- these are the Mermaid Socks from Cool Socks Warm Feet -- the heel is a turkish heel done in garter stitch. This morning I woke up, did the last few rounds of the heel and left it just as you see here to begin my day. I work from home and each time I passed the socks I wanted so badly to finish them. But my job doesn't pay me to knit so they sat. All day. Just like this.

Yarn Harlot @ Berkeley

Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, aka The Yarn Harlot, author of At Knit's End made a stop at a not so local (to me) yarn store in Berkeley, Stash. My friends and I made the hour long drive up -- it was great, I laughed so hard at times I could barely breathe. Here I am w/ Stephanie and the bookbookbook, I'm modeling a capelet designed and knit by my friend Alison.
Here she's sporting a Spiderman finger puppet to take back to Hank!
Stephanie (also wearing one of Alison's creations -- a gift, no less) with Alison.
And here with Cris. Coming away from this talk you'd think I'd have "the" answer to why I knit -- why I buy (so much) yarn -- why I'd travel (w/ my knitbuds) an hour in traffic to a yarn store to see/hear the author of a knitting "meditations" book and just connect. I can't explain it. Either you get it or you don't.