Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Project list!

So for at least the next 4 months we are living quite close to the bone money-wise, which means that I in particular need to watch my pennies. But entertainment is rarely free, so I am having to look for ways to amuse myself around baby wrangling.

On Ravelry, I signed up for the "shop the stash" thread, so that I am committing not so much to not buying yarn (zomg! don't tell me I can't do something!!!) but that I'm going to use what I have to hand. Which is hard when I really want to knit a Rose Red beret in a bright green but instead I am knitting it in a purpley-pink because I don't have any green.

A good thing that I love dyeing yarn, and have some amazing stuff to use up still. This one in a wool/alpaca blend and is a smooshy but loosely plied yarn which will be awesome in the cable and lace pattern planned.

In an effort to be more frugal and to get some $$ on the inwards side of our ledger, I am also going to list the craft that I have things in the cupboard with which to do and haven't had the time. I have some more of that time now, so I plan on using it.

Projects on the plan:
  • Central Park Hoodie - yes, I'm amazingly far behind the 8-ball in getting excited about this. Kate at Craftastrophies gifted me some amazingly smooshie possum-merino The Knittery (sadly now defunct) yarn last year as a wedding gift and it's now going to be turned into an awesome cardigan. I actually wound a ball this morning, discovering in the process that each of the 3 smooshy skeins that I have is actually 3 skeins, so there is a lot of ball winding in my future. Will swatch today I think.
  • Rose Red beret as above.
  • Duck Soup to finish. Seriously - it's got 1 and a bit sleeves to do. It's a baby garment so that is NOT a lot of knitting. I should just finish it.
  • Moderne Baby Blanket from Mason Dixon Knitting.
  • At least 2 baby hats.
  • Plus a heap of other hats that I've traded things with other lovely mamas.
  • Quilts/play mats - 8 I think. I have tie-dyed some of the fabric and just need to get sewing. Next week. And photos of the fabric as well cause it is AWESOME.
  • Framing of various things.
  • Cards to make.
  • Beading to do.
  • Books to read.
  • Postcards (awaiting delivery) to send!
  • Sell my tshirt collection cause now that I have awesome cleavage care of breastfeeding, my tshirts don't fit. Some of them are AWESOME and it's hard to part with them*.
So it's not like I don't have things to do. But perhaps frugality comes with a dose of stepping away from the shopping and into what is to hand. This is not even touching on the cooking that I could do, the libraries to go to, the people to visit with and letters to write.

* Kate and I had a big chat about this on the weekend when we went for a long drive to see a rather underwhelming alpaca show. It's a catch-22 situation to have a lot of (things - let's say tshirts). I open my drawer and think "Wow I have a lot of tshirts I will wear this one!" and I put it on, and it's too small. Or smells odd. Or has a stain. Or the arms don't sit right. So I either wear it and fidget with it all day, or I take it off and put it back in the drawer. Because I have a lot of tshirts and it's a Good Shirt so I don't want to reject it out of hand. But if I actually tried them all on, my huge pile of shirts turns (turned actually) into a set of maybe 6 that fit and are in good condition. Which gets me thinking about why I keep the ones that don't and aren't. Some of them I adore because they're cute and funky and retro, just like me. Others I keep because I feel that I should own a black one, or a white one. But there is no point in having clutter, which is what defunct tshirts and sweaters and shoes and so on are.

3 comments:

Ness said...

I had a similar issue with tops after A was born, all my t-shirts were too damn short due to my boobs taking up so much more room! I'd recommend not doing a final cull just yet (not of your faves anyway), give it another 3-4 months as I found that I kept losing weight until bub was about 6 months old and did actually fit back into some of the shirts that had been borderline or even total losses just three months earlier.

Pyrrha said...

You need to look at this pattern, if you're feeling crafty - a way of turning those favourite t-shirts into knickers. Which, well, we all need :)

You could try trading some of your stash on Ravelry. There's a list I joined up to recently that's for Australian knitters to swap their stash or to ask for little bits and pieces.

I started my Milo today - almost finished the garter stitch section!

Pyrrha said...

D'oh, and this would be the link!

http://www.supernaturale.com/articles.html?id=70