Curse of the Economy Plan

Remember the Economy Plan? To recap, this is how Dirtbunny avoids spending money so she can pay for the 1.8 billion dollar yard she bought a while back. In yarn terms, the Economy Plan means knitting from stash rather than acquiring new stash. Sometimes this doesn't work very well. This week, it has worked atrociously.


As you all know, this week, we started carting Kirby out beyond the beltway every day for his radiation treatments. This has been upsetting and stressful, especially on the day that the vet tech called me all freaked out because Kirby was not making eye contact and trembling so they decided to keep him longer. She understands now that not making eye contact and trembling is what Kirby does. That day sure did suck, though, and a LYS is on the way to the vet, so I stopped there to see if they had a little somethin purty to make Bunny feel better. And they did:

What you see here is the beginnings of a scarf/stole from the leftover purple yarn whence came the purple cardigan from days of yore. Leftover yarn makes Bunny anxious. Using leftover yarn makes Bunny feel thrifty. But this leftover yarn is bulky weight and very tweedy. There's probably enough for a scarf, an extremely boring scarf, but not enough for a stole. What in the hell complements tweedy purple bulky weight yarn? What indeed. Dirtbunny hit the motherlode with this one. The LYS proprietor was determined to help Bunny out and before she knew it, two skeins of discontinued eyelash yarn in a matching shade of purple were located and purchased. Tweed and fake fur, baby. I can hardly wait.

And here is the felted dog bed:

It turned out OK, I guess. The sides are not stiff enough to stay up, but they fold over nicely. It looks pretty cute, but it's a little shallower than I wanted. Tiki shuns it. Kirby has tried it out, but he is not convinced. And--oh no!--you can see that I did not use up all of the emerald-green Manos. Therefore, I was forced, forced I tell you, to do this:

Two more skeins of Manos in complementary colors so I can use up the last of the green Manos, plus three skeins of sock yarn, because that's just what happens when you go to the yarn store. It's not like I could have avoided it. (I also got a size 4 needle that I need for my pink sweater:

which has been swatched and will be started imminently, and a size 13 needle that I'm sure I had a purpose for at the time, but the reasons have now become obscure to me. I really don't fancy working with the big needles. What on earth did I get that for?)

Speaking of socks, here is the current batch:

There's the November sock club on the left.

The Man: That's nice.

Dirtbunny: Thanks. It's a sock club sock.

TM: Who's it for?

Dirtbunny: I dunno. [I really don't, but I do know that these colors are Not For Dirtbunny (tm)]

TM: [side-eyes the sock covetously, but says nothing]

Dirtbunny: Do you have something to ask me?

TM: Huh? [he heard me]

Dirtbunny: I said, do you have something you want to say?

TM: Whaddaya mean? [being weasely]

Dirtbunny: If you want these socks, you are going to have to ask for them.

TM: What? [I've known him for 20 years. I know what he's thinking. Just spit it out for the love of Mike. I don't feel like playing games.]

Dirtbunny: IF YOU WANT THE SOCKS, YOU HAVE TO SAY SO. [Was there yelling? I don't remember]

TM: OK! I WANT THE SOCKS! CAN I HAVE THEM? [He was definitely yelling. That I remember.]

Dirtbunny: Of course you can, sweetie.

--end scene

There are also yet more stripey socks, this time in a blue-based self-striping yarn. I hate this yarn, and I am on a mission from God to get rid of it. Plus, I need mindless commuting knitting for the next three weeks of the Vet Shuttle Service. And there's the newest set of minis.



What else?

Oh yeah. Lace.

Behold, the nearly-finished potholder:

I have ten more rows of pattern, then twelve rows of edging, then a bind off. Each rows takes me about 30 minutes at this point--we are approaching 400 stitches per row--and requires my complete attention. I am almost willing to concede that, in the future, this will not look like ass. But right now, it looks like ass. Plus, the pattern said I was going to need something like 1500 meters of laceweight, so I bought accordingly, and I am probably going to finish it at under 1000, so I am adding to my stash of leftover laceweight, and that can't lead to anything good.

Bianconeri play the worst team in Serie A today, which means it's a good time to choke. I accidentally saw a live score that had them in a draw with Chievo Verona, but that wasn't a final, so maybe something good happened in the end. We''ll see. Futbol and lace do not mix, so I think we're looking at futbol, Soave, a mini-sock, and then some tweedy purple bulky weight.

Thanks for joining Dirtbunny. See ya next time.

Did you enjoy "Curse of the Economy Plan"? Then check out our Special Feature, "Behind the Scenes at 'Curse of the Economy Plan'":

Step one: pile up all the crap

Step two: contemplate magnitude of pile and wonder "why?" "What, if anything, is the point of all this?"

Step three: confirm that beagle has not run off

Nope. He hasn't, and he looks unlikely to move from that spot without the proper food-based incentive.

Step four: sort through pile and take photos

Step five: relocate crap to....

Have you been paying attention? Where does Bunny pile up all her crap?

[theme from "Jeopardy"]

Did you say "the dining room table"? If you did, you are correct.

True Confessions

So the Old Folks came up for the day last Saturday and I suggested that we go to the vegetarian restaurant for lunch because--Yum--and besides, it was near the yarn store.



"Yarn Store? Hmmmm" sez the old woman, and that was all Bunny needed to hear, so we all went to the yarn store. The old woman poked around the stuff and had a grand and glorious time but





are you sitting down?

She didn't buy anything!

I almost couldn't believe it. What a weirdo! No Bunny, it's just different, not wrong. Bunny is the kind of yarn lover who buys yarn just because it's nice and then later has to figure out what to do with it. The old woman is the kind of knitter who decides what to knit first and then buys the yarn. Isn't that odd?



So Bunny has this in the stash:

Yup. Mohair. Bunny knows from experience that there is not enough mohair there to make the hat she has in mind. In order to be frugal and use yarn she already has, she was forced by the terms of the Economy Plan to buy more yarn. And so that led to this:

Listen. I don't know what you want me to say. It's not like I forsaw this sort of consequence when I went on the Economy Plan and, well, rules is rules, cuz Bunny's no rebel.

OK. I lied. In addition to the purchases documented above, I also bought a skein of sock yarn. As punishment, I hereby sentence myself to show you my sock yarn stash:

Because I don't want to mislead anyone, here it is from another angle so you can really see:

There are four skeins of Opal Tiger and two skeins of Opal Peacock (I think it's peacock) in the giant Ziploc bag over there. I think I counted 55 total. I will not discount the possibility that there are up to 10 more skeins stowed away in other places in the house that I haven't accounted for. Probably only 2 or 3, but I'm being brutally honest, so maybe, maybe, it could be as many as 10. I am not ashamed.

Here are the completed Mulberry knee socks:

And here is the Bud Collins sweater:

So sometimes I use up yarn.

And here is the bent needle I lost. I found it, clearly.

It's no good for socks now, but I can still use it to make cables.

Poppy's Sweater

Heh, heh, heh. In all its glory, Dirtbunny.net presents....

Poppy's Sweater

'Tis a thing o' beauty, if I do say so myself. I love it because it is soft and cuddly. I love it because it is well-constructed. I love it because it is made entirely of leftover yarn and cost me a mere $4 and that was for the buttons. I love the buttons.

Also, check out this seam:

YOU CAN'T EVEN SEE IT! Ha! Because it is perfectly done. I sat down with my books and charts and diagrams and my three pairs of glasses and I taught myself how to do it correctly and voila!

Fear not the sweater. The impatient Bunny Slob has learned to seam neatly. It can be done.

Sloppy

Here are Bunny’s April knitting goals:


1. Knit one ball on the muppet stole.
2. Knit six repeats on the lace scarf.

1 and 2 are both done.

Yeah, not much to look at. The lace continues to look like ass, and it is probably going to take me several more months to finish. I’m using metal needles, size 2. The thing about lace is, if you drop a stitch, it’s hard to fix the mistake without it showing pretty obviously. The metal needles are really too slippery and make it more likely I’ll drop a stitch. I was resisting the urge to buy new wood needles on account of the Economy Plan, but my resolve waned on Sucky Wednesday, and I got some new wood needles. Also, it’s not so easy to tink if I get the pattern wrong, and frogging is out of the question. So, it requires more concentration than usual, which means I can work it while listening to music, but not while watching TV or listening to books on tape. So it’s going to take a while. However, when it is done, if that ever happens, I will just have to buy a fancy set of blocking wires, Economy Plan be damned, so that’s a plus.

3. Finish the ribbed mirror image socks. Check out this live-action photography:

That's a yawn, not a scream. See how nicely his hair is growing back? I don’t think I’m going to make it with this goal. Maybe. It’s simple knitting, but boring and tedious. They look pretty good, though, and I only have about three inches plus toe to go.

4. Finish the January sock club socks.

Done, packed, and going in the mail as soon as I feel like going to the post office. Off they go to someone who probably regrets not being able to think of a kinder synonym for “sloppy” to describe the fit of the socks I have been knitting for her. Perhaps if she had told me the first time I asked “How do they fit?” that they were a little loose on her narrow feet, then we could have avoided the whole “sloppy” incident. But she didn’t, so I have been sending her multiple pairs of socks in the same “sloppy” size because she told me they were fine.


This lovely purple lace weight was an impulse buy on Sucky Wednesday.

Unlike most of my impulse buys, I know exactly what I'm going to do with this. Also, I have bought yarn for a sweater. Naturally, the yarn I want is discontinued. Naturally. But I found it online.

Old Friends, New Rules

We are moving on here Chez Nous to exciting new knitting projects, because the lame, boring ones are finished.

Here are some Man Mittens fashioned from leftover yarn. No they are not the same size. Custom-fit mittens for custom-designed Man hands.



Here is the purple cardigan. Plain stockinette stitch, saddle shoulders, and a plain garter stitch neckband. No buttons. Nice and heavy and warm. Of course, now that it's done, it's 70 degrees outside. It figures.

Beagle blanket. Some of that white stuff is lint from the dog beds, where the wubbie (as we now call it) has been enjoyed for two nights now. Some of that white stuff is the mattress peeking through lace.

I have only one project active now. Grey Man socks from leftover yarn. There is satisfaction to be obtained from using up leftovers. I get to feel frugal, and I get to free up space otherwise occupied by leftover yarn. The thing is, I have plenty of beautiful new yarn in the stash. Old yarn is boring, and I've been focused too much on it. New rule: only one leftover yarn project at a time. Because I am working the Grey Man Socks, that means my next project is a new yarn project.

No problem. Remember this? The October sock club sock. I have wound the yarn and read the lengthy advice about gauge and sizing (which has me quite confused about what I should do). I also have the December sock club sock and the January sock club sock to do. I am compulsive enough to have a need to work them in order. FIFO and all that. But, one of my knitting circle buddies is new to the sock club and is working the January sock. I am competitive enough to want to finish mine before she finishes hers. (Don't change what you're doing, Mel. This is my issue, not yours.)

This poses quite a dilemma for the Bunny. I am trying to be more flexible and less neurotic. Working October first means succumbing to the compulsive FIFO-ness side of me. Working January first means succumbing to the Memememememe! side of me. Both are neurotic. Perhaps the thing to do here is neither: start the December sock first. Of course, making a conscious decision after attaching so much importance and meaning to the various choices is in itself neurotic. I can't win.

By the way, when my December sock arrived, The Man mistook it for a Christmas present he ordered for me. Yup, it's yarn, I must have ordered this for her. He wrapped it and put it under the tree for me. It never occurred to him to actually look at it and notice that it wasn't the yarn he ordered, it wasn't from the yarn company he ordered from, and it had all sorts of sock club instructions and documentation accompanying it. Yarn is yarn. Muggle.