Preoccupied Sensei

I haven't been reading much lately, and I regret that sometimes. But no matter how hard I stare at a book each night, it never seems to produce socks.

So, how do you get a newly-fixated knitter to put down her needles and pick up a book? Write a book about knitting. So I'm knee-deep in Yarn Harlot's Knitting Rules!. As noted in today's title, I've learned so far that my level of obsession is "preoccupied", my style is "Sensei" (I'd put Mom in the "Organic" category), and I don't have enough stash by a LOT. Travis will be dismayed and disheartened to hear this last bit, as I think he'd hoped I would be running out of steam soon. (My birthday wish of a Jordana Paige Knitter's Purse and umbrella swift has done nothing to ease his apprehension.)

The beautiful thing about having a knitting room in the new house is that when, someday, he accidentally stumbles in there instead of into his office as he'd intended, he'll think all that yarn just appeared over time, not in a few weak moments of Internet trolling. This is fortified by my possession of a PO box. If he doesn't SEE the yarn coming in, I must have had it all along. Huh.

But it's a wee little stash for now...a few drawers...and a trunk. Whatever. The trunk is almost full....but, I mean, there's a blanket in there too. So it's not ALL yarn.


Currently the prize of my stash - I could afford one skein and I have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it. I'm thinking hat, because it's the only thing I could make with just one skein that I'll get a decent amount of use from. I do have a tendency to fixate on one colour scheme for myself. Jessi once informed our friend Bekah and me that we "dress like dead trees." That was in high school, and it's still true. I buy blues/greys/blacks for Travis and greens/browns/neutrals for me. I'm attempting to branch out, really...it just takes time.


Balls of mohair have to be the least attractive thing in the world - this is my hoodie yarn, and I will not be the least bit surprised when, eight years from now and with a bewildered look in my eyes, I pull a big wad of something exactly like this from a drain in my young son's bathtub. But I'm sure it will knit up beautifully. Um, the yarn, not the stuff from the drain. And that's assuming I ever find the end of the yarn so I can wind it......


I'm so so so excited about this yarn. (In a stretch, I've branched out to dead cranberry tree colours. If cranberries grew on trees. Which they don't. They grow in bogs. And I'd rather not think that I purchased colours that belong in a cranberry bog......but they do, and I did.) 80/20 baby alpaca/silk blend that's so yummy and I have NO IDEA what to do with. At least one pair of fingerless gloves. Beyond that....but I'm going to have to come up with something. Don't you judge me - at $2.50 a skein, I think I controlled myself rather nicely.

If I keep buying at these levels (there has been at least one box in the mail on its way to me at all times for about a month) I think I'm going to need Travis' office closet too. And a tub in at least one of the spare bathrooms. And I may need to hollow out some mattresses and stuff yarn in there. (No one would ever have to know...until a guest rolls over in the middle of the night to find me with my hand crammed under his or her butt, digging around for that yummy Cashcotton I just pictured in a dream and awoke NEEDING an Aran lap blanket by morning....)