Smarty-pants

NYEAH!

See--here's the thing. My stashing declaration says nothing about knitting accessories or knitting books. So I go online, shop all I want, remind myself it's not yarn, and then buy like crazy. I think this tendency may be where the suppressed yarn desires go to die.

Exhibit A:

The goody box I received from Knitpicks.com today. THREE BOOKS! And two of them don't really even have patterns in them--I'm reading them just for knitting fun. The Vogue book in particular is full of great pictures of great sweaters with NO patterns. Argh. That's ok, though, because there's lots of other useful stuff in the book. And, c'mon they're having a 40% off all books sale! What can a girl do.

Then there's the plastic space bags to handle my stash. I know my stash is not extensive, but it includes yarn for whole sweaters and an afghan, so it's a little out of control right now. I got a yarn cutter because I nearly ripped my hands up trying to break the Wick yarn when I was doing scissorless airline travel.

And then notice how there's THREE Knitpicks color cards? Those evil Knitpicks folks are trying to get me to break my stashing vow. I only ordered ONE color card for Shine Sport. Why did they also send me cards for Telemark and Palette, then? Hmm. pure evil. I already have one for Wool of the Andes....

Exhibit B: Some time two weeks ago, on my NC vacation, Interweave Knits was offering back issues for 5 for the price of 4. I think I got like 10. Ok, maybe 5. That box of shame hasn't come yet.

I'm outta control. I've got to come up with some sort of means of self-discipline when it comes to books and accessories.

In the meanwhile, I'm also feeling like a smarty-pants because I managed to negotitate my way through beginning this entrelac beret/cap. It was full of newish and BRAND-new techniques for me.

1. Tubular cast on? Yessiree bob! I got a tutorial that I love for that.

2. Excel spreadsheet to figure out the right amount of stitches to cast on and work into the base triangles for the entrelac? Check. But I haven't really figured out if the numbers I got for the decreasing in the spreadsheet actually make sense. I felt so, well, math-y, putting things into Excel!

3. Entrelac in the round? With two colors? Uh...I tried a the IK-Eunny Jang tutorial. Didn't get it. I tried following the directions in the pattern. Didn't get it. Finally after getting past the base triangles, I just took two triangles off the main needles and put it 'em on one double pointed needle and looked and fiddled until I taught myself entrelac. Go me!

4. Knitting backwards? YES! I don't know if I'm doing it properly or even in the most efficient way possible, but the resulting stockinette is convincing. Yay! After knitting backwards in entrelac while riding a exercise bike this morning (so proud of myself...like an extra-smart hamster or something), I decided to look at a tutorial for knitting backwards, and it makes my head spin. I figure if it's working, I'm not going to mess with my ill-gotten technique, right?

Lastly, before you all throw knitting needles at me for my flying FOs, know that I'm about to embark on endless projects, and I may never have an FO again for a long time. I have friends getting married in August and October (sadly, during Rhinebeck...jeez. It's a good thing I really like them.) and I have wedding afghans as presents lined up as projects. I know I know, there's always the Bloomie's registry...