Dangerous equation
Bipolar disorder + sudden manic urge to try knitting & crocheting again = humongous spree at Smiley's.
And I do mean humongous. "How the hell does a person spend that much on YARN?!" the non-fiber artist asks. "How the hell does a person spend that much at SMILEY's?!" the out-of-the-acrylic ghetto fiber artist asks. (For those not afflicted with my tastes & desires, Smiley's is an online deep discount yarn outlet that carries mostly lower end yarn, most of it $1.00 - $2.99 per ball. Kind of the Pic N Save of yarn.) So humongous that I'm embarrassed to say just how humongous, and I don't get embarrassed over things like that. At least I was responsible about it: it didn't put me into debt and I won't have to feed my Pug deep discount dog food for the next year. He'll get a sweater out of it eventually.
The problem is of course that my yarn won't be here for a week or two. What do I do till then?! If I don't start knitting NOW, the urge is likely to go away. I know this from too many years' experience of getting excited about doing something, then spending far too much time (not to mention money) reading about it and buying supplies, rather than actually DOING it. I am a believer in reading instructions -- that's how my brain works best anyway -- but I already know how to knit, and a little refresher with some online instructions and a clean plastic pair of chopsticks was all I needed to remember the basics (which were all I ever knew in the first place).
Wait a minute... where did the yarn to do the chopstick knitting come from? Um... well... some of it was in Wal-Mart bags tucked in corners of my living room and "storage room", a few with WIPs (works in progress) attached. Some was in... abigboxinmygaragefromSmiley'swithaninvoicedatedJanuary2004.
See, I needed knitting needles. My WIPs are all crochet, and I really want to knit, since it's more versatile, and I really want to make legwear. Legwarmers. Thigh-high socks. Slippers for the hub (we've been married 17 years, but I ain't risking anything by making him upper body wear).
A trip to Wal-Mart for knitting needles is a nonfeasible option for me, as I have arthritis in hips and knees and thus great difficulty walking. Sending the hub would put huge stress on the poor man, even if I told him EXACTLY what to get, including size, material, and brand, AND showed him pictures of the packages from online shopping sites. Doing that kind of shopping is just not one of his skills. I'm exceedingly grateful that he does the grocery shopping, so I don't push it.
A dear friend (also a fiber artist [and almost every other kind of artist, too] ) offered to get me the needed items at her local store and send them to me via Priority Mail, thus keeping me from the perilous peril of the Temptation of Yarn. A very sweet gesture, but she's sort of the one who got me thinking of fiber again, partly by showing me the Most Adorable Rainbow-y Tiny Baby Socks in the world, and also a baby cap made of big thick chenille. TINY COLORFUL SOCKS!!! Who wouldn't be tempted, I ask you?
In the meantime, I have nearly finished a large scarf that was 3/4s of the way done when I uncovered it the other day ... and also found many MANY online yarn stores and websites and blogs, oh my! I was saved by the same friend from buying new knitting books on Amazon, since she just bought the main one I was thinking of buying (Big Girl Knits), so I will wait for her review before buying books. Besides, even though I really do prefer Real Live Books to reading things onscreen (such tree-hating, inflexible Philistine-Luddite, I know), things like Knitty and yarnharlot and yarnboy are just so cool that they'll keep me busy for awhile. I had no clue that today's knitters were all so witty, and such good writers! Damn! Now I have to envy that about them, too.
It's getting cold in this room, which means it's a good time to get up and close the window and grab the scarf to finish working on it, then wrap it around my shoulders.
And I do mean humongous. "How the hell does a person spend that much on YARN?!" the non-fiber artist asks. "How the hell does a person spend that much at SMILEY's?!" the out-of-the-acrylic ghetto fiber artist asks. (For those not afflicted with my tastes & desires, Smiley's is an online deep discount yarn outlet that carries mostly lower end yarn, most of it $1.00 - $2.99 per ball. Kind of the Pic N Save of yarn.) So humongous that I'm embarrassed to say just how humongous, and I don't get embarrassed over things like that. At least I was responsible about it: it didn't put me into debt and I won't have to feed my Pug deep discount dog food for the next year. He'll get a sweater out of it eventually.
The problem is of course that my yarn won't be here for a week or two. What do I do till then?! If I don't start knitting NOW, the urge is likely to go away. I know this from too many years' experience of getting excited about doing something, then spending far too much time (not to mention money) reading about it and buying supplies, rather than actually DOING it. I am a believer in reading instructions -- that's how my brain works best anyway -- but I already know how to knit, and a little refresher with some online instructions and a clean plastic pair of chopsticks was all I needed to remember the basics (which were all I ever knew in the first place).
Wait a minute... where did the yarn to do the chopstick knitting come from? Um... well... some of it was in Wal-Mart bags tucked in corners of my living room and "storage room", a few with WIPs (works in progress) attached. Some was in... abigboxinmygaragefromSmiley'swithaninvoicedatedJanuary2004.
See, I needed knitting needles. My WIPs are all crochet, and I really want to knit, since it's more versatile, and I really want to make legwear. Legwarmers. Thigh-high socks. Slippers for the hub (we've been married 17 years, but I ain't risking anything by making him upper body wear).
A trip to Wal-Mart for knitting needles is a nonfeasible option for me, as I have arthritis in hips and knees and thus great difficulty walking. Sending the hub would put huge stress on the poor man, even if I told him EXACTLY what to get, including size, material, and brand, AND showed him pictures of the packages from online shopping sites. Doing that kind of shopping is just not one of his skills. I'm exceedingly grateful that he does the grocery shopping, so I don't push it.
A dear friend (also a fiber artist [and almost every other kind of artist, too] ) offered to get me the needed items at her local store and send them to me via Priority Mail, thus keeping me from the perilous peril of the Temptation of Yarn. A very sweet gesture, but she's sort of the one who got me thinking of fiber again, partly by showing me the Most Adorable Rainbow-y Tiny Baby Socks in the world, and also a baby cap made of big thick chenille. TINY COLORFUL SOCKS!!! Who wouldn't be tempted, I ask you?
In the meantime, I have nearly finished a large scarf that was 3/4s of the way done when I uncovered it the other day ... and also found many MANY online yarn stores and websites and blogs, oh my! I was saved by the same friend from buying new knitting books on Amazon, since she just bought the main one I was thinking of buying (Big Girl Knits), so I will wait for her review before buying books. Besides, even though I really do prefer Real Live Books to reading things onscreen (such tree-hating, inflexible Philistine-Luddite, I know), things like Knitty and yarnharlot and yarnboy are just so cool that they'll keep me busy for awhile. I had no clue that today's knitters were all so witty, and such good writers! Damn! Now I have to envy that about them, too.
It's getting cold in this room, which means it's a good time to get up and close the window and grab the scarf to finish working on it, then wrap it around my shoulders.