Of chicks & stashes.

We took the greyhound bus to Portland over Memorial Day weekend to see my folks and meet the pastor & caterer for the wedding. (Wow that sounds so official. The wedding is going to be a grand total of 20 people and the caterer is just a local Indian restaurant. But it's a REALLY GOOD local Indian restaurant.) The big attraction at my parent's house this time around is that my mom bought some baby chickens to raise for eggs:

DF as the Animal Whisperer



Good thing they didn't realize what he was going to do to their very distant relations, a few days later:


On a completely unrelated note, I really hate being on a strict budget. I've been on one most of the time since I started college (I used to give nearly all my summer earnings and writing award money to my folks to help pay tuition, and just kept some of the during-the-semester money. Didn't amount to a whole lot.) except last year, when I got my stipend and relaxed to merely "on a budget" (loose not strict!). Especially when I was in college and my sister was insisting she didn't want to go, I had this horrendous fear of being solely financially responsible for her AND my parents AND all the pets. Which is total nonsense, but I'm the world's worst worrywart. I was convinced I wouldn't be able to get a good job and then my entire family would be out on the streets, eating rotting garbage out of dumpsters. (I was really happy when I got into grad school and got my stipend, and my sister showed signs of being willing to finish her batchelor's. I mean, between the two of us we could probably at least manage cat food and a cardboard shack.)

This year, DF's feckless advisor didn't keep proper track of his grants, and ran out of money. So DF has no stipend, and in fact had to pay back a quarter's worth of tuition because his advisor overdrew the account. (DF is too polite to call the advisor names, even to me, but let me tell you I've got some choice epithets for him.) That means we're living on my stipend plus our savings, which isn't exactly the end of the world, but it means we're on a really strict budget. Which means no yarn.

No yarn! I'm knitting from stash! I guess it's not all that bad, though my stash and I have a love-hate sort of relationship. Most (75%) of the yarn in it is either subpar stuff I bought as an innocent (stupid) youth before I knew what I was doing, or yarn left over from knitting other projects, or random gift yarn that I don't really have enough of to make something out of. A lot (LOT) of it is fingering weight or lace weight, because as every penniless knitter knows, you get a lot more knitting time for the buck with itsy bitsy skinny little yarns. Luckily a fair bit of the fingering weight is sock yarn that I bought last year in my sock yarn survey, and while some of that is also a bit subpar, I do have some nice stuff left. And socks take a long time to knit, so I've got a goodly amount of knitting time left before I'm totally out of yarn.

But in keeping with the spirit of the whole Knitting From Stash thing, I've decided I'm going to try and decimate my stash! Out with the old, the disliked and kinda ugly yarns! You will all be knitted up this year! Then, when DF graduates and gets his nice impressive job (pleasepleaseplease in six months like he hopes) and I get to buy yarn again, I will go on a mini yarn spree and buy Nice Yarn. The kind of yarn I used to save up for and beg my mom for at Christmas (she never wanted to get it because she said I didn't finish anything. I do, it just takes me a long time). Rowan and Fleece Artist and handspun sock yarn, yum. In the meantime, I'll ration out my beautiful yarns and knit up a lot of the ho-hum stuff in ways that make it pretty nice, and give some of the knitted stuff to charities like Afghans for Afghans (where I'm pretty sure nobody minds strange-lavender socks as long as they're nice warm wool).

So! My resolutions for the official Summer of Stash:

• I will delve into the box that holds my worsted & bulky yarns and knit up a lot of hats. I like knitting hats, and my family is always leaving them everywhere, so we always need new ones. (I'll have to ration out the lovely handspun stuff my sister gave me. TWO HATS WORTH OF HANDSPUN, people. La la la lalalal love my sister :) )
  
• But I reserve the right to buy one ball of black Shetland jumperweight wool to make my mom a replacement for the fair isle hat she lost, which she specifically asked me to remake for her. I think I've got enough left of the other colors.
• I will knit up some more fair isle tams. I feel the need for complicated knitting.
  
• I will finish the stupid three-quarters-knitting things that are laying around.
• I will knit up at least one largish baby blanket for Afghans for Afghans. Also several hats. If I can bring myself to it, maybe some socks and a couple of baby or kid sweaters. My strange-lavender and strange-blue yarns, which are kind of funny colors but really soft and cushy and nice, will be dedicated to this.
  
• Socks! Socks for all!! I'll try to make it out of this with really-not-much sock yarn left (though even if there is some left, I'll buy more when I can. Please. Sock yarn is like crack cocaine).
  
• I'm ignoring the laceweight for now since it takes an ungodly long time to knit, and a lot of attention, and besides squishes down real small. Someday, though, I'm gonna knit a really nice lace shawl for DF's gramma.
• I will knit lots of dishcloths and use up my dishcloth cotton, at least most of it. I haven't got too much, so it shouldn't be that bad.
  
• THERE WILL BE NO WORSTED/BULKY WEIGHT REMAINING except bits too small to make into anything. I only have one mediumish box of the stuff, I ought to be able to use it up. Even the acrylic (this counts "nice" acrylic only. I have a couple skeins of Red Heart which are exempt, for a little while at least).

And these will be (among) my rewards, at such a date as we can afford them:

• Another tape measure, one that rolls up so I don't drive myself crazy untangling it all the time.
• Sock yarn. Lots and lots of lovely sock yarn. Lorna's Laces in cranberry or navy or periwinkle for fancy socks, green & white yarn for Spartans socks for my grandparents, Claudia's Handpainted and Fleece Artist in multicolors for plain socks. Oh yes, and handspun Sock Hop sock yarn. Drool...
  
• Yarn for a sweater. Or maybe a couple of baby sweaters. Or whatever large project I most lust after at the demise of my stash.
• One or two skeins of some fabulous, ridiculously fancy yarn. I want to go wander a yarn shop (maybe Northwest Wools...mm...) and pick out whatever catches my eye.

Let the great Stash Depletion commence! Expect knitting photos soon (I'm stealing DF's camera as soon as I get home!).