Entry, the First

I've been toying with the idea of a strictly knitting blog for a while now, and I say strictly knitting because it's fairly obvious that every twenty-something out there already has a blog set up for ranting about daily grievances. I'm a procrastinator though, and generally full of self-doubt ("Who the heck would read my knitting blog when there's a Yarn Harlot out there?!").

I have to admit it though. Ravelry pushed me over the edge. I'd put it off for such a long time, I think because initially I was put off by having to apply for an invitation and wait (in addition to procrastinating, I'm also fairly impatient)...but I must say. Wow. I was completely blown away by everything on that site--the first day I think I just stared and clicked stupidly for hours, scrolling through things without actually doing anything with it. Amazing.

The best thing to come of it so far (aside from linking up my little sister in Virginia and having her bookmark patterns she likes in my account) has been a trade. Oh yes, all you unenlightened knitty folk out there. I said it. Stash Trade.

To start from the beginning...

I found the Notwoven Fingerless Mitts and began knitting them up for Harlan (teh Husbeast, for future reference) in Wool of the Andes firecracker heather. I'd invented a hat for him in the same, with a strand of AlpacaWare held throughout because he wanted the thing "really, really warm". I also liked how the dark brown quieted the red, because really, he's not a big red person. The hat, complete with ear flaps, turned out well enough for all intents and purposes. I'd like to grab it and frog it just so I could try and get the sizing a little better (not having done a gauge swatch, I have no room to gripe about it being a bit large), but despite the fact that he only wears it when prompted he refuses to let me have at the thing.

But I digress. I began the Notwoven mitts with the same two yarns, plucking happily along and without much concern as far as the status of the stash. I have an inordinate amount of WoTA hanging around, because let's face it, for $3 a skein I'm allowed to hoard and love it. I also wasn't concerned with the alpaca, since there's about a bajillion yards in each of those little skeins--I know, I wind all my balls by hand.

So there I was one day, knitting along while reading something or other, and I hit the end of the red. No problem, I think, and head upstairs to dive into the trunk (cedar-lined baby! Take that, moths!) to dig some more out.

Nada. Stricken, I started flinging old WIPs around, including the horribly failed sweater attempt that's being frogged for the umpteenth time (why don't I just find a damn pattern?).
Nothing.

I was out of the stupid yarn. After berating myself soundly for the better part of an hour while stomping around the house looking around and under every unlikely object I could find (hey, maybe Bailey thought it'd be fun to hide some of Mommy's yarn. Not that she ever has before, but I was desperate), I gave up, and sat down at the computer to brood.

Then the beauty of Ravelry struck. LauraMate, 6 skeins of WoTA in firecracker heather, will trade or sell. Due to lots of hiccups and stumbling blocks on my end, a few of those skeins went to other homes, but for 4 bucks and the cost of an apologetic "You. Are. Awesome!" greeting card to send with the money, I now have two lovely new skeins just waiting to be knit up.

Anyone on Ravelry who's looking to trade, know that Laura is amazingly awesome and totally worth doing bidniz with. I even got a spiffy little yarn card with a scarf pattern on it. ^.^

Joy.