Ready, Steady ...

...GO!!!

Well, here I am, feeling as if I'm at an amateur dramatic night and I've just been pushed out through the curtains to do my act. I don't really want to be a "world-famous" blogger, but I do want to document my crafting activities, mainly to keep myself focussed on works in progress (WIPs), UnFinished Objects (UFOs) and maybe insert annoyingly cute pics of 2 kids and 2 cats ... annoyingly cute pics of DH may be a little harder to come by ...

I shocked myself last week by emptying out one rather large basket in the corner of my loungeroom and rediscovering the yarn and fibre stash contained there. Maybe when I've clued up on blogging a little more, I'll be able to "flash my stash" but at the moment denial is a much comfier place to be.

This basket is - hang on while I find a tape measure - 72cm (28 inches) high and is filled to 100cm (39 inches) high, and it is 188cm (74 inches) around. In other words, my stash runneth over! This basket, in turn, represents roughly 20 to 25 per cent of my total stash, which ranges from fibre for spinning, through yarn (handspun and commercial) and half-done projects, to fabrics for sewing, mostly long on inspiration and short on activation.

I don't know if I actually want to admit to the exact size of my problem. I keep giving myself a strict talking-to about stash diets and the like, but somehow the scent of fresh yarn undoes all of my good intentions, even more so if it's seasoned with a discount pricetag. Take the Handknitters' Expo two weekends ago. I was really only going along to see what was there and say hi to a few sister s'n'b-ers who may or may not have been there. Besides, "A" could use a lift and she lives in a direct line from my place to Coburg, right? Good enough for me!

Well, I happened to see Wendy Dennis there, who has some Polwarth top to die for. I spun a sample of this in April at our Guild's Sharing Day and it plied at 34 wraps per inch. It almost spun itself! So it was just as well I went, as I could pick up a couple hundred grams of that without having to pay postage, right?

Then I found an older Cleckheaton Angora Supreme booklet I'd seen a year or so ago and hadn't seen since, so that came home with me, along with some Cleckheaton Machinewash 8 ply in three yummy colours at $11.00 for 11 balls. Simply Irresistible, sang Robert Palmer, and I was lost. I also found some older pattern books for my sister's MIL, who had asked me to find some plain-English, good quality patterns for her. A couple of Patons multi-patterns did the job: you know the type, choose your neckline, choose your sleeve/armhole, choose 5, 8 or 12 ply and off you go. I narrowly escaped succumbing to the siren song of Sarah Durrant's Colinette stand, settling for a quick fondle while I pretended to help Sarah untangle a couple of errant skeins.

I also ran into a new student in the Weaving class at Guild and was able to help her with some suitable yarn choices for her first project. So not a wasted effort after all. However, I may need to help the Army out with a master class in camouflage and subterfuge. When the lovely girl at the Busy Bee stand offered me a plastic bag for my yarn purchases, I had to say "You must be joking, I can't sneak a see-through bag past my husband!" Not that he'd notice unless I cluttered up his PC keyboard with it or substitued a skein for his mouse! I'd say we're about even on the obsessive hobby/passion and stash fronts!

Right, that'll do for now, maybe next post I'll admit to exact number of spinning wheels/spinners/drop spindles in my possession ... hmm, wonder if I have to admit to the Ashford Traveller on loan to "A"?