The Yarnarian Has Words with the Hubbo!

Lots of words. We word-play all the time. Nope, these are serious words. Come, read my tale of woe:

Scene 1: The Hubbo is what we would politely call a "collector". He collects articles that range from lovely to odd to beyond odd to really weird to junk. He collects lots of stuff, more stuff than you can imagine.

Scene 2: The Yarnarian collects books on knitting (borrows all the rest from the library), yarn, patterns, more yarn, more patterns, more yarn.

Scene 3: He collects the bad stuff; I clearly collect the good stuff.

Scene 4: He has stuff all over the place; way too much stuff. We are inundated with junk in every room of the house. I have yarn stuff in every room of the house. My yarn is lovely and decorative.

Scene 5: I never was neat, but he has brought me down to his level, which is a step above being condemned.

Scene 6: He has started to clean his junk up, move it out, pack it up, get rid of it!

Scene 7: He's upped the ante here. If he gets rid of junk, I should organize mine and get it off every flat surface we own, including tables, floor, and an occasional chair.

Scene 8: I'm having words with him over this new avocation of his. Now the unspoken pressure is on me to become neat. Not fair, simply not fair. We are now going to have to compete in the neatness division.

I ask you: Is this not a reason to call the Hubbo a few choice words? So today, I feel compelled to clean up my stuff.

I don't know how we are going to deal with "our" stuff, as in the Passover Haggadahs that are still hanging around in the dining room. Given that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are around the corner, it might be time to put away the Passover stuff.

Tea of the morning: Scottish Tea: "Dark and Rich". Strong and almost done. I won't replace it because there is so much tea in this house that I need to finish up a few tins. Then I can get more. And, my teas are organized and NOT all over the house. Phew!

Knitting News: no knitting news except that my left wrist is not happy with life. I think I overdid it. So we shall rest the wrist today and see if I can knit in tiny bits tomorrow as we drive up to NH.

What I'm reading: Franklin, Ariana - The Serpent's Tale

Shortoldlady - I'm way past shelves! I have an awesome collection of knitting and stitching books. We bought an entertainment center from the Door Store, and it has lots of shelves, now all filled up with books. I'm going to have to move to a mansion with a large library! The not-in-use yarn (i.e. the stuff that's not in dyeing mode) is happily stored in plastic tubs and lives in the basement. I need to figure out how to store my vast collection of project bags, each of which contains a worthy project. I like to be able to just go through them quickly and pick out what I want. Plus they're pretty. Today's task is to file all the patterns for lace shawls that I've downloaded. And file away the needles and such. Then I'll feel much better. I'm thinking of listing the books that I really don't use on the blog with a reasonable price and see if anyone wants them, or put them on Ravelry.

JennaKate - Our house is relatively clean, but slobby, really slobby. My son-in-law told me that pretty soon we would have paths between the piles of stuff on the floor. I've gotta get my act together and clear away the piles. After a while I don't even see the piles. Sigh. Neatness is not my thing. I wish it were, but it's not.

The Yarnarian Has Post Partum Blues! And knows just what to do about it!

I'm almost finished with the Mystery Shawl dyeing, and all the craziness that went with getting messages in 3 different places, and now it's kind of quiet here. So I have the perfect solution:

Heigh Ho, heigh ho, it's off to Hershey we go! Yes indeed, when the going gets quiet, the Hubbo and Hubbette go on his business trip to Hershey, PA. He has morning and evening meetings, so I have lots of time to knit and read and plan new colorways. The last time I was at Hershey was at least 25 years ago. I remember liking it. Anyhow, what's not to like with reading and knitting, huh?

I'm working slowly on my pokey shawl. No new pics, because there's not much change; just the lace part getting longer.

Speaking of shawls, I have to dye up my yarn for MS 9. Renee has promised a faroe shawl, and those are my favorite shaped shawls. They actually stay on your shoulder and don't bunch up at the neck.

Thoughts on sock patterns and such: I've been releasing a lot of patterns, and I'm finding that people favorite them or queue them, but are not buying. I think I'm throwing too many new ones into the hopper, so I've decided to retrench a bit. My problem is that I like designing them. What's a person to do?

I had some thoughts about doing a "Sock Pattern Palooza" whatever that means, but haven't the foggiest idea on how to do this. Kind of like issuing a group of patterns at once. Any ideas would be helpful.

In the meantime, my summer goal is to try different heel patterns other than the usual reinforced heel and heel turn. I've started with a lovely short-row heel that I learned from Sock Wizard (the latest edition). And the other goal is to figure out how to design toe-up socks with nice heels. I can do this for myself, but I'd like to figure out how to do it in a standard way so that I could design socks like this.

We saw the Benster yesterday. He is so funny and cute! I love 2 1/2 year olds.

That's it for tonight. Gotta go to sleep because certain useless Hubbo people are insisting that we leave by 7:45 AM. I am not happy about that and have told him so. His response was: So? Bad, bad Hubbo. I've threatened to paint his toe nails with lots of different nail polishes while he's sleeping.

Good night! Dream of soft, lovely yarn and pretty socks and shawls.

Holly - We are checking out some yarn shop someplace near here, but not the Mannings. Went there a couple of years ago and got that out of my system.

Nestra - Any ideas on how i could do this? Any ideas would be appreciated.

Today I am a Birthday Girl, ok a Birthday Woman!

Yup, it's the annual natal day. I've moved one year further into Old Broad status. I think I see the beginning of a very tiny wrinkle. But compared to the Mommie, I'm a young chippie.

My sweet Hubbo got me the pair of earrings that I picked out (see some earlier post), a card, a cute mug that he found at a thrift shop, a box of teas that I know he found either on significant sale at some store or at a garage sale, and, best of all, one of those little pocket calendars that you get for free at the stationery store. I needed one of those so badly and all that I found that were left were big calendars. Yay, Hubbo! And, he wrapped the tea box up in Chanukah wrapping paper.

I love the weird and wonderful Hubbo gifts. I'm at the point where I can buy anything (within reason) that I want. I used to buy a lot of yarn, but now that I'm dyeing it, I hardly buy any. And my clothing needs are way down, so that expense is almost non-existent. So, I don't need much and consequently don't buy much. But the Hubbo always finds these interesting things at his thrifting moments. So it's always fun to get gifts from him. I never know what they will be.

We visited the Benster and his parents yesterday. He is the cutest 2 year old in the universe. I'm madly in love with him. What a sunny disposition! He gets it from his parents, who are just wonderful people. I have nice step kids.

And speaking of kids, Minneapolis DD, SIL, and Miss P are coming for part of Passover. And NYC DD and her guy and coming for seder too. So in April I'll have the whole gang here. Plus the Mommie and everyone else. I think I said this already. See, the mind is going south.

Today we're going for lunch at a place in Stockton that serves home-made marshmallows in their hot chocolate. I never, ever remember the name of the restaurant, but it is not the Stockton Inn.

Knitting news: I finally finished the Ripples and Waves Socks. I'm now planning the next one. Will post pics when I have something to post. All I've done is cast on.

Hi, Kay, Emily and Pamudom - Thanks for your birthday wishes. I really had a pleasant quiet birthday.

Holly - That is so true. When you're young, you want presents. When you're on the downward slide from middle age, giggles and a present are just wonderful!

Grace - The name of the restaurant in Stockton is Meil's. Let me tell you about their almond crescent french toast. Whoo Hoo!