Today at lunch time I went here and bought some of this in purple to knit up into this.
I just went for a look, honest. I wasn’t going to buy any wool, but it was on sale and it would be perfect for that pattern.
I think I need a wool intervention…
I arrived home last night to find that this, this and this had arrived from my ebay purchases. It was a bit like an early birthday.
There’s been a bit of extended family news going on too. My eldest nephew Simon is engaged. My first thought was so young!! And then I remembered that he’s 28 - not so young. His sister Gabby got into Architecture at Melbourne Uni. She got 95.something in her VCE so it’s not terribly surprising. And my Aunty (by marriage) Margaret died last week. I feel both a bit sad and a bit relieved for my Uncle Lindsay. Margaret had been ill for many years and he had been her carer. It had isolated him somewhat from his brothers and, since our family are not the most social of people, I imagine that, like my dad and Jeff, he probably never had heaps of friends. With any luck he might join Dad & Jeff’s weekly golf game. It’d be nice to see the 3 of them playing together, speaking in dry oneliners and sniffing constantly (it’s one of those odd family things…).
In the first instalment of my plan last night I put most of my knitting patterns into plastic pocket display books (which are 45c each at Office Works at the moment) and started cleaning out my wardrobe. I think the only telly I watched was when Finn woke up and wouldn’t settle - it was some thing about Churchill being a drunk.
For the wardrobe cleanout I have 2 bags, one marked ‘charity’ and the other marked ‘ebay’. Everything that I think might be worth selling will go on ebay for a bit and then go to the op shop if it doesn’t sell. It’s mostly stuff that I’ve only worn once or twice because it either doesn’t fit or I don’t really like it all that much. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes.
Mark has kind of outted my plan, so I feel I should explain its origins somewhat.
It probably comes as no surprise to anyone when I say that for a while now I have not been the happiest of campers. There are a million and one reasons I could give for it, but at the end of the day its origins are largely irrelevant. It just is what it is.
I’ve considered and, very briefly tried, medication, but it freaked me out far too much and the idea now scares the hell out of me, so it’s not an option for me right now.
I got some professional assistance late last year, which was good, but I realised that everything this person was telling me was stuff I already knew about how to deal with this and that talking to him wasn’t making me do any of it.
So I was having a kind of a mexican standoff with myself. I wouldn’t take the pills and I wouldn’t make any of the behavioural changes that are supposed to help, so things weren’t really going anywhere much. I realised this the other day and decided that I had to do something to break it and start taking it all much more seriously. Make it so important that I simply had to do it. And it needs to be reasonably simple.
I decided simply to be busy. No lying in bed after the alarm has gone off, no veging in front of the telly. Have list of little things and make an effort to do one or two of them in the evenings after work and a few more of them on the weekends.
The aim is gradually to build a sense of accomplishment and control from these little tasks and have that flow on to the rest of my life. I expect it will be slow and that it won’t always work, but I figure that, even if it never goes any further than this, having a plan is better than not.
I knitted this for Foozley, but it’s too big (it’s actually too small for Mark and fits me perfectly but I hate having my photo taken). I’m now planning a smaller one for Foozley and a bigger one for Mark.
It’s part of my stash reduction strategy - lots of small things that I can do in a day or two that will whittle away the one or two balls of various colours and types. I also have a teddy bear planned in blue & grey, or maybe blue and lemon, or grey and lemon…
Just look at the previous entry.
It’s 25 to 1 in the morning.
If I’m getting melodramatic about yarn it must be time for me to go to bed.
For ages I’d been keeping my yarn in a collection of plastic bags, baskets and plastic crates. All fine and dandy up to a point, but it’s difficult to tell what you’ve actually got and how much of it and things tend to get rather tangled as you rummage for that last ball which has worked its way to the bottom.
When I decided to get serious about my knitting I also decided that the stash needed a better place to live. Ideally, something with drawers so that I could divide yarn by colour, or type, or brand, or weight, or all of those, if I so desired. Most options of this type are, however, somewhat pricey, so I checked out what Ikea had to offer.
Lots of their options seemed pricey too, until I came across the Antonius range. For $55 I was able to get a frame and 6 baskets which held everything beautifully - until today.
After today’s trip to Lincraft I have too much yarn for my baskets! I can’t open one without another being pulled open by the yarn overflowing from the first.
I plan to reduce the load as quickly as I can. I’m trying to finish the loud rug, but it’s taking ages. And I’ve started a cotton jumper for Finn. And I’ve got other stuff planned. But I’ve bought more yarn online which will start turning up early next week and it may have to go in one of the plastic crates.
That may not seem all that bad to you, but I like have all that yarn stored where I can look at it all. It fires my imagination. Rummaging in a plastic crate just annoys me.
I wonder if I can justify another trip to Ikea…
I trotted off to Lincraft today and spent my farkenace vouchers.
The yarn selection there is getting rather thin and it looks like they are going to move it all any minute, but I still managed to find some good stuff.
I got 12 balls of Patons Dreamtime 4ply in shade 4506. That might become something for me.
5 balls of Katia Himalaya Print in a pale blue/lemon/white mix - not sure what this will be.
And 12 balls of Katia Twist in shade 10, which may also become something for me. They also had it in what I think was shade 8, but I thought it might be a bit organgey for me. It might also have been shade 13, which would be better - there’s still the Christmas voucher to go…
Thank you, Helen & Viv. I had fun spending your money (and a little of my own…)
I think it’s fair to say that, since I’ve been feeling ill, I’ve become an ebay addict. I had a bit of flirtation with it early in my pregnancy, but this time is much more serious. I’ve constantly got a list of more than 10 things I’m watching and 3 or 4 things I’m either bidding on or have won and need to send feedback on and I’ve even started selling.
I have an embryonic plan in mind to sell everything around here that either doesn’t get used, or that I don’t like and make a huge pile of money from suckers. So far though I’ve only made back about a third of what I’ve spent, so there’s a way to go. I’m also wondering whether knitting a few small baby things and selling them might be a good way to reduce my stash and fund rebuilding it…
Well, I’m at home again today. I saw the doctor yesterday and she gave me a certificate for the rest of the week, but I’m thinking of going into the office tomorrow - if only to say ‘bon voyage’ to my colleague who’s going to Africa for 5 weeks on a drumming intensive. Lucky bastard.
I still feel kind of bad about how much time I’ve taken off - until I realise just how tired and crappy I feel. My head’s clearer but I still can’t seem to manage to think about anything even vaguely complex. Trying to change my bank account details on ebay earlier nearly had me in tears.
ho hum
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