On Monday, I was chatting online with my friends, who are also conservative knitters. We like to bounce ideas off of each other and encourage each other. After some discussion, I was encouraged to frog a project that had been hibernating for a year. It was a top-down raglan v-neck cardigan, with columns of cables all around the waist. I still love the design, and intend to remake it sometime, but with better yarn. You see, I had bought this yarn before I really knew the difference between inexpensive(cheap) acrylic, and good wool. I hate working with acrylic now, which is why this has been languishing in my hibernating-projects bin for over a year. Also, it wouldn't quite fit me now anyway. After some debating with myself and my friends, I decided I wasn't going to finish it in this yarn. So I took a picture, so I'd remember how it looked, then I took out the needles and began frogging. (For any non-knitters who may be reading, "frogging" refers to the ripping-out mantra: "rip-it, rip-it") Here's the "before" picture...
Sorry, I didn't take an after picture, but when I was done, I ended up with three liberated needles, and two balls of red acrylic yarn. It would have been three balls, but the third one got all tangled up when I was taking it off the winder, and after wrestling with it for a little while, I gave up and chucked it. I didn't need that third ball anyway. I gave the yarn to Angel, who promptly asked me to cast on 18 stitches for her. Then she knit one row and got bored and ran off to do something else. Go figure.
Anyway, I decided that the other five skeins of this yarn, which were unused, would go on Ebay. Then, having made that decision, I went and dug through my stash for more yarn I could sell, giving my friends fits of giggles in the process. You see, I found a huge bag of yarn I'd picked up at a thrift shop, when I was a brand-new knitter. It was also acrylic, and not very soft. There were 32 skeins of this yarn, all one color, all the same dyelot. I don't know what I was thinking, buying that yarn. So it went into the put-on-ebay bin, separated into two smaller bags of 16 skeins each. Then I asked my friends if they wanted to hear the really funny part. Between LOLs and hahahas, they said yes, so I told them: I have 16 skeins of this yarn in another color! What was I thinking?!? Anyway, all of that icky acrylic went into the bin, and I found a few other yarns that I was tired of, so they went into the bin as well. I got pictures taken, and the listings written up, but didn't put them on ebay last night. This morning, I got an email saying that listing fees were 50% off just today! Woohoo! So I'm off to put all that yarn on ebay now.
Maybe I'll get some knitting time today...
I got this from Dawn. She sent six skeins of "Spa", a bamboo/acrylic blend. It is soooo silky! I'm going to use it for Christmas gifts for my girls. She also sent a magazine filled with baking recipes! I love to bake, and I intend to try out almost all of the recipes. ☺ We're going to have some bake-alongs; me in Texas and her in Florida. Thank you, Dawn!
And this package is from Christine. I participated in a coaster/warm beverage swap, and she's the one who got my name. She sent me two kinds of loose-leaf tea(they smell wonderful, and I'll be trying them out tonight), and a tea ball. Some dark chocolate from Ghirardelli...YUM! And a lovely cabled mug cozy and a felted coaster, both in my favorite color: burgundy! And the patterns for the coaster and cozy, and one for a lacy shawl called "Peacock Plumes"; it was one I had looked at recently, but hadn't printed yet. And, to top it all off, a book of "Portals of Prayer"! ☺ Thank you, Christine!