Saturday, December 29, 2007

Favorites and Ughs

OK, I'm mesmerized by looking at favorites on Ravelry. I go to the people tab to check the "random assortment of favorites", and just keep refreshing the screen for more of those little thumbnails. (Unfortunately, this can go on for a loooong time). Sometimes I'll click on the thumbnail for more detail. Sometimes I'll even leave a comment. The ones that catch my eye most these days are stranded color work in knitting and tapestry crochet.

The "Ughs" are almost as fascinating. Why have these particular projects ended up in that category? Sometimes it's obvious, but sometimes I think "Hey, I kind of like that! Why is that an "ugh"?"

Explanations from the posters (both pro and con) range from extensive to non-existent.
Edited to add: the "ughs" are projects people have posted themselves and with the least happy of the smiley faces. No one is passing judgement on another persons work here........

The problems with knitting from stash (well, my stash, anyway):

1) My stash at this point consists largely of odd balls, sock yarn and that leftover pile of eyelash. If I want to knit anything larger than a hat I need to either buy more yarn or start getting really creative about yarn combinations. Creative is good. The fugly potential is daunting.

2) My oddballs are disorganized. This is an understatement. An extreme understatement.

3) My oddballs rarely contain the color(s) I want, in the weight I want, with the specific fiber characteristics I want, when I want them.

Possible morals to this story:

1) Only buy yarn with a specific project in mind. (Yeah, right, like that's going to happen).

2) Buy enough damn yarn at once to complete a sweater/shawl/other largish project. Buy a little extra just in case I'm off on my yardage calculations. Deal with the inevitable left over odd balls at a later date.

3) Win the lottery and buy a yarn store, so I can can have what I want on hand and maybe sell the leftover odd balls. (Why does this not sound like a workable business model?)

4) Sell the house, pack up and move next door to a yarn store so I can just run over and get what I need when I need it.

I think #4 has the most potential.
..........
Just so this post doesn't remain entirely pictureless:




This is the palm side of a mitten prototype. I'm not showing the front yet, because it's going to be a surprise. Well looky here, it's stranded color work! And it's fingering weight yarn from the stash! And it's going to be a little too small for me because it needs to be worked in sportweight, but annoyingly, I only have one color of sportweight wool in the stash and between the holidays and the snow I just haven't driven the 30 miles to the nearest LYS. But that's OK, really, because it's a first draft, and I need the practice on getting my tension even on the color work, and there is bound to be someone it will fit...

4 comments:

Elizabeth said...

Love your mitten-in-progress.

I didn't even know there was an "Ugh" function on Ravelry. That sounds like it could be full of hurt feelings.

Anonymous said...

If some of your oddballs are yarn that you are pretty sure you will never knit, you could donate them to Interim House, "...a 6-month drug and alcohol residential and outpatient program for women in Philadelphia"; one of their activities is that everyone learns to knit and/or crochet. The social worker has a blog: http://mcduf.blogspot.com/

Alternatively, you could just send your extra yarn to me. Because my stash isn't big enough. Really.

Christine said...

Cindy,
I love option #4! But I think it might be a tad expensive, don't ya think? (and I'm not even counting the cost of buying a new home!)
I envy you the stash you have. It sounds so small, compared to mine!
Can't wait to see the completed mittens. And you're right, they're sure to fit someone.

YarnThrower said...

chuckle.....