Catching Up

I'm feeling so much better this week! Ahhhh! Now, with how crazy/busy the past couple months have been, then a week off from being sick, I have a lot of catching up to do. So, that's what I started on yesterday. I have so much I need to do and want to do that I can easily feel overwhelmed. I'm trying to have narrow vision and just look at a few things at a time and keep moving, hoping that I'll make significant progress. Trouble is, the more I do, the more I find to do. Life never gets boring that way! :-)

Speaking of catching up... I'm not a person that likes to have a lot of stuff sitting around. That goes for a stash too. Don't get me wrong...I lovvvvve yarn! But, I would prefer to buy it when I need it. That way, when I finish a project, I get a double reward...a finished item and a chance to go shopping and plan a new project. I'm also a very careful and frugal shopper and it's very common for me to shop and come home with nothing. That really helps keep the stash down. But, somehow, I still have a stash...small, but I have one. I've been trying to work through as much of it as I can over this past year and I think I've made quite a dent, especially with Christmas gifts. But, I still have yarn for more projects and I'm trying not to let it weigh me down along with all the other things I have to do. Marie, at Sel and Poivre , has been talking this week about organizing her projects and not being overwhelmed too. I love how she said that a "stash gives me a rash". lol She's been organizing her projects into a small, manageable, realistic list. I've been kind of doing the same thing with my Ravelry queue and removing things as soon as they're done. And, I don't let the list get too long. Marie's posts have been inspiring me to plan some upcoming projects from my stash and put them on my queue. I think that if I organize them and have a plan, these stash yarns will once again be exciting like when I bought them and not an overwhelming (but beautiful) pile of yarn. And, I can catch up on some of those projects I've dreamt of doing.

One ball of yarn at a time...

Last week, while I was sick, I finished a pair of socks. I so enjoyed working on a quick and simple project that I wanted to start on another pair. So, I pulled some yarn out of my stash that I bought at the Knitting Olympics(click and scroll to the bottom to see the yarn) and got started. I'm knitting them in a simple 2x2 rib and carrying the rib down the top of the foot. I thought the yarn was pretty in the ball but I always enjoy seeing how the colors look and change as it's knitted up. This one is no exception. The colors remind me of the desert with all the browns, terra cotta, and orange colors, with a few sagey green plants here and there. So, I'm calling them my "Mesa Socks". This yarn is incredibly soft too! They're working up pretty quickly as I finished the cuff (about 6 1/2 inches) and the heal in one day. It doesn't look as great in pictures as it does in real life, but here's one anyway... Hopefully, they'll look great in a picture when they're done...on a pair of feet! That'll be one less ball of yarn in my stash.


Well, back to work on catching up. Then, tonight, a relaxing evening of simple sock knitting. Mmmmm...life is good!