Laume's Studio

With the BIG STORM (see news coverage of your choice for Northern California) and all the power outages we've been having, I've got a hankering to do me some knitting the last few days. I mean, one can only read by candlelight for so many hours. Knitting by candlelight isn't completely easy either but I figured as long as I didn't attempt anything with a pattern, it wouldn't matter.

So, a scarf. I've discovered I'm lacking a few colors in my scarf wardrobe - purple (although since I rarely wear purple, this is probably not a problem - although now that I've said it outloud I think it will bother me that I don't have a purple scarf - damn), beige and/or browns, and white. Yellow too, now that I think about it. Double dang. Moving on. I had a skein of fluffy white yarn I'd bought a couple winter's ago to make a scarf and hat (I know, I can't make both a scarf and hat from one skein - I was going to make the scarf and go back for more yarn for the hat) as a gift for someone. But then that someone went and bought themselves a matching white scarf and hat set so that blew that idea out of the water. I kept the skein anyway because it wasn't worth the trouble to find the receipt to bring it back for a couple of bucks. I decided to find this skein of white yarn and make a scarf for me.

Looking through a monster pile of craft supplies for ONE white skein of yarn in the dark with only the pale, low battery light of a cheap flashlight isn't a particularly useful way to find anything. (Note - one of my 2008 resolutions is to get all my craft supplies organized) I didn't find the white skein but I did find a bag of beautiful mohair yarn I bought in assorted colors to make all the girls ponchos a few years back when ponchos were in style. Of course I never got around to making all of them and now ponchos seems to have gone back to the style archives where things like shoulder pads and midriff shirts are lurking (and waiting - shudder) - although surprisingly enough, leg warmers seem to have come out of hiding again. Anyway, what was I saying? Oh yeah, so I didn't make the ponchos. Well, I did finish one and then my mom said "If you're pretending you made this for Lisa and you're saying we're about the same size so you can measure me for her but you really are making it for me, well, I'm sorry honey but I wouldn't wear something like that." So. Uhm. Yeah. And I've got one started for myself and halfway through hit a point where I could take a left or right turn and make a shawl or scarf instead of plowing straight ahead and making a poncho and I can't decide and so there it sits at the intersection of indecision. But ANYWAY, I have all these other lovely colors, including three multi-color skeins in a white/gray/black palette. I don't have a gray scarf either. I pulled it out, found myself a pair of pretty wooden needles and started a scarf.

I've started it twice now. First time I realized after several rows that it was wider than I wanted it. Ripped it out and started over. Now I'm about five inches into it and think that it's a looser weave than I'd like. I'll probably start it over again tonight on smaller needles. Or maybe... now that I think about it, maybe I did eventually return the white yarn and maybe I'll go back to Walmart (only place in town that sells yarn, sorry to say) and buy myself some fuzzy white yarn and make a white scarf after all. It will be easier to see in the dark if, knock on wood, the lights go out again.

I just did another daylight dig through my supplies, both in the studio and garage, and I'm pretty certain that I did return that yarn. What a mess. What a lot of stuff. This leads me to the uncomfortable thought that maybe another resolution for this year should be not to buy any new supplies until I've used all the stuff I already own - a noble idea that I know to be doomed even as I type this, and which I would pretend to start after going and buying a skein of white yarn anyway, but which might still be a good resolution to make with the understanding that the objective is to see how few times I can break it rather than trying not to break it at all. Hmmmm.

Well, anyway. I'm off to Walmart to buy some white yarn.