Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Best Laid Plans....

Once upon a time, back in June to be more exact, I got brilliant idea. I had a trip planned to OK at the end of June and I thought that if I ordered a Kindle, I could bring it back with me and avoid the shipping charges and the Duty charges that would be added if I had it sent here.

I logged into the Amazon site and ordered my Kindle. They were in stock and with more than a week before my plane landed in OK, there was lots of time for it to arrive. There were a few other things on my wish-list that my daughter had placed there. I thought I might as well order them too. I was sure that they were all very important items or she wouldn't have added them to my wish-list.

A week later, I arrived to find that the kid's golf game was waiting for me. Annie's Kindle that she ordered after I ordered mine was there.

Two days later, the Tyrannosaurus hand puppet arrived.

My Kindle was nowhere to be seen.

It arrived two days after I left. So much for brilliant plans.

Why did it take so long? There was one more item on the wish list.

My Chia pet golf ball head. I'm sure it will look much less ridiculous once it has a full head of green grass hair.

And my Kindle arrived safely too.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

How Many Is Too Many?


I have been contemplating my knitting life and have come to the conclusion that I am surrounded by my knitting. When I pulled down the bin of finished socks, I wondered if I should knit any more for perhaps I already have too many pair. And that's not counting the six or maybe seven pair that are still on the needles. I will need a bigger bin when they get finished.*


Which leads me to my next question. How many WIP are too many? Last year, my knitting guild sponsored a friendly competition in which we attempted to complete many of our dusty UFO's . I finished 10 projects, which was fewer than half of my uncompleted projects. I have added to that number since then. Have I exceeded the maximum number of projects to still be considered sane and normal?**

In a previous post, I admitted to having a few too many shawls, stoles and scarves. I haven't stopped knitting them, but instead have found several more that I wish to knit. I have restrained myself from casting on more only because I don't want to add to the pile of projects in the basket.

How many is too many?

And can you really belong to too many sock, shawl and yarn clubs? I've been told that perhaps, just perhaps, I signed up for a few too many. Since that last intervention, I have dropped some club memberships. Which leads me to this.

I was asked a few weeks ago how many skeins of Wollmeise did I have. I took a wild guess and was wrong. I needed to double my answer.
My yarn stash is growing at a faster rate than I thought. Do I have too much? I don't think so especially since I know several people who have far more yarn than I do. (I won't name my fellow collectors. We all know who they are)

I have seriously thought about destashing but then I begin to fear that If I don't have the will power to stop buying yarn, I also might not have the will power to stop selling it. The mere thought that I could sell all my yarn and come home to empty shelves gives me slight panic attack.

So fellow knitters, the questions have been asked.

*Since most of my yarn stash is sock yarn, It is quite likely that I will be knitting more socks. A bigger sock bin is definitely in my future.

**It's a vicious circle. If I finish all my UFOs, I will then realize that my needle collection has outgrown the cases that they used to fit in. Extra question for bonus points. How many Needles are too many?