And now, a finished knit!

Back in November, when my son was in the hospital, and the Sanguine Gryphon was splitting up and selling off their yarn, I bout a skein of Mayhem in Bugga. I had plans to make my mother a gift, as she likes red and black.  After searching Ravelry for something that fit her style, I came across the Brass and Steam pattern.  And it was perfect. (and free!) I was hoping to get it done by mother's day, and for once, I beat the deadline! :)

I hope to get some better pictures after I give it to her. I wasn't feeling like modeling it yesterday.

So the yarn count is as stands
Knitted -1
Sold 0
Bought +2 ( a destash of bugga from ravelry)
Past Total -34
New Total -33

Hey, I'm still doing well. :)  This weekend is YarnOver in the cities, and I'm going. I can't wait! I would like to buy some yarn, but I have no plans.  I can tell you I won't be getting very much if I do, maybe enought for a sweater for my son, or something I can't pass up. :)

the one where I talk about nothing.

Not too much going on here that's newsworthy.  Same old same old. :)

I finished a baby quilt for a friend of mine, and I have yet to mail it. I need to take some photos then send it off.  I also whipped together a quilt top that I'm planning on donating to J's school fundraiser in April.  I just have to pick a backing fabric and then I can quilt it up.  I did a plus quilt design. So easy and yet so cute. I did use almost all scrap fabric on that top. I just had to buy 1/3 of a yard of KONA Olive cotton to finish it. Which really isn't so bad. I've also picked up a few bits and pieces off the sale table at work. But, I have a whole baby quilt out! So I think I'm still even-ish.

As far as yarn goes, I had a couple of older yarn destashs pop up, so that's 10 skeins out! (2 destashes, 5 each) I haven't bought yarn, or finished anything since my last post.

Old Yarn Total  -24
Destash - 10
New Total -34

I decided instead of holding onto the money, which is too easily spent in my paypal account, I'd send it off to a credit card bill this month. yea! Now I'm making that total shrink too.

I'm also working on shrinking my waistline.  To be completely honest, I've put on some weight this past year, and it's making me unhappy.  I found out after a trip to the doctor that I weight the same now as when I was 9 months pregnant with my son. So not cool.  A friend told me about the app My Fitness Pal, and I'm going to track what I eat and when I exercise.  It's helped with yarn, why not my weight?  I think just knowing the amount of calories I'm ingesting will help me think about things a little more.  Like this morning, they were giving away donuts at J's school. I grabbed one, and took a bite.  Well, it was a  plain, dry, cake donut. Not yummy at all. In the past I would have just eaten it. But today I thought, "It's not worth the calories". And tossed it aside. I'm counting it as a win! Ive also tried to cut down on my Mt dew intake.  I had one yesterday, and one today. The only reason I've had one today is the headache! ugh!  But I waited until after lunch to have one, so that's rather good for me.

Yea. I got a whole lot of nothing exciting. Sorry guys. :) I work tonight, so I best go and get ready.

Busy Saturday

J had his first preschool birthday party today. It went rather well! You'd think he's be passed out, but he's sitting next to me just talking and talking and talking about how I make him pick up his toys and he doesn't like that.

Kids. They're weird man.

I almost fell off the yarn wagon this week.  Verdant Gryphon had an update that included the colorway Osiris, and well, I had to have it.  And I bought some naked bugga for a project I'm collecting. I did have $$ in paypal from destash so I wasn't feeling too badly, but when I logged into Ravelry after buying the yarn, there was someone wanting to buy a older destash of mine. So, that totally worked out.  Then I picked up some of the special edition yarn from Sharon at 3 Irish Girls, and suddenly, again, there was a request for some of my older destash yarn. I think it's a sign I was meant to buy the yarn. I'm still ahead for the yarn out/yarn in money wise. :)

And! And there's more! I finished my teal sweater I've been knitting, so that's 4 skeins of cascade out. I'm pretty sure I bought that the first summer I worked at CD, so that's over 3 years old!

 I'm hoping it'll be dry by morning, I want to wear it to work tomorrow.  I've got it under the fan, with it on high. *fingers crossed*

I'm only going to count the yarn that has been paid for as of right now.

Yarn Knitted -4
Yarn In- +4
Yarn Out  -10

 Last Total -14

New Total -24!!

Holy cow! I'm rocking the destash! 

I also cast on some new socks today. It's some 3IG. Watermelon Chiffon. Loving it so far, I hope it's not going to be too small. I cast on 60 stitches.  I think the next size up was 72 stitches, and that seems a little big. We'll see.

Knitting, Knitting.

So last night was my first time teaching a class at work.  My BFF Rose was there to help me, and thank god for her! I has 7 students, and holy cow! It was a lot of work, but fun. I hope they all had fun too and learned! :)

Yarn Tally!

Yarn out destash - 5 skeins
Yarn out knitting - 2 skeins (really, 2.25 but I'm only going to count whole skeins)
Yarn in - 4 skeins (only a buck each at work. But still. Gotta count them all)

Total from last time -10

New Total =   -13

Not bad! Still more out then in! :)
I'm only counting the yarn as knitted out after the project is finished.  I've cast on 3 new projects this month, but finished only one. Counting when I'm done will hopefully keep me honest, and that way I don't count it as out, to end up frogging it later. :)

Fabric tally still sits at zero/zero.

And, just because I haven't shown any pictures in forever, here is my son modeling my new hat.  They yarn is a cheap-o mix from work.  A buck a skein! But it looked a little hand spun, and the colors sucked me in.

Thoughts about Stash.

Since I don't have photo editing software on this thing yet, there are no pictures to share today. Sorry. Instead, I've cracked my skull a little, to let the crazy out and you guys (okay. You guy. My one faithful reader) in.

So I've been thinking about my stash, and stashing habits lately. Why I stash, what I stash. You know. Deep Thoughts. I have come to a realization that I am a collector. A hoarder if you will. My thoughts are along the lines of "I love it. I must own it all. If I use it up it will be gone forever." So, it sits. Lovely yarn or fabric just sits and waits. Which, after further thought, seems really dumb. Because if I USE it, I get to enjoy it while I'm knitting. Or put it into a quilt and then have a finished quilt that I or someone else will love and see all day. Instead of sitting in my craft room. Waiting for their full potential to be met.

While my hubby was away, I re-did my craft room and now I can see what I have. I pulled out 3 garbage bags of fabric that I no longer love, and won't use. People. That is just crazy. Now, granted I bought alot of this stuff years ago, before I had a husband, a kid and a house. But really. How long should I keep holding on to this stuff that I'm never going to use? So I was honest with myself, and got rid of a bunch. I also made it so I could see what I have, instead of hiding it away in rubbermaid tubs. If I can see it, I can use it. If I see it, I won't buy new stuff that I don't need. Well, that's the hope anyway.

A good example is fabric I'm cutting for a quilt. I bought a bunch of black and white fabric, wanting to "someday" make a black and white quilt. I bought that fabric before I starting dating my hubby. 7 years ago. I think 'someday' has come. I starting cutting into it last night. I didn't break out into a sweat. It didn't kill me. Hell, there is nothing special about that fabric. It's just fabric. I'm even throwing tiny pieces away, instead of saving them. Shocker!

When I was in college, I learned that once people went from a hunter gather society to a more settled lifestyle, they didn't need to hunt to live. But people still do. Those are the people that hunt for toys from their childhood. Baseball cards. Stripey Sock yarn. Whatever floats your boat. They hunt, they find, they collect. No reason really, except to fill some deep seated instinctual urge. Well, I'm breaking that habit. Mostly because I don't want to turn into my Grandmother, who couldn't throw anything out. She was a child of the depression, and saved everything. When she died and they cleaned out her house, she had 3 garbage bags of the waistband from men's' underwear. 3 bags. Of worn out elastic from Grandpa's skivies.

So. In my rambling way, I guess I'm saying this. I am going to start USING what I have. Knitting up that pretty sock yarn, instead of petting it and dreaming about the socks it will make. I will make those socks. I will cut that fabric. I will make a quilt. I will keep it and love it, or give it away and be happy it's making someone else happy. There will always be new yarn to love and pet. New fabric that is just the right shade of pink. Why am I saving all of the goodies? Wouldn't it suck if I died tomorrow, and my husband just sent it off to the salvation army? (Don't worry. My BFF Rose has strict instructions as to what her job is when I kick)

Use it or Get rid of it. Then get new stuff. That's my new motto. :)

Thoughts? Comments? Hints and tips?