Crafting

[ysobel]

I have not made progress on any sort of yarncraft in November. This is mostly understandable: the puzzle ball is stalled in What If I Get It Wrong mode, the baby sweater hasn't been started, and NaNoWriMo means I am spending most of my "free" time writing, not yarning. Plus, there is a sort of inertia issue where setting up the crafting stuff takes a lot of effort, so for one thing I tend to be disinclined to do crocheting when I have a short amount of time so would spend 75% of the time setting up and 20% putting away and only 5% actually crocheting, and for another thing I am lazy and it is easier to refresh ravelry than get out crocheting supplies.

But even though my body is all inertia-y and lazy, my brain is in MAKE ALL THE THINGS mode.

Things I definitely am making:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amish-puzzle-ball-crochet-pattern (in progress)
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/patty-cake-cardi (have yarn)
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/baby-tux-illusion-blanket and/or http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/dinosaur-illusion-baby-blanket (don't have yarn yet)
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/frog-coin-purse-2 (actually something for me zomg)

The problem with the illusion knitting is that a) knitting is physically hard for me, especially with yarns thinner than worsted weight, and b) while it is easily adapted to a loom, I don't have a loom of the right size (sock looms have probably the right gauge but not enough pegs, the other looms I have are too big of a gauge *and* not enough pegs *and* I'm not quite sure where they are right now.

#

Things I want to make but do not have either pattern or yarn:
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/geishas-finest
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/gingerbread-man-14
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-name-of-the-doctor-double-knit-scarf *
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/solas-shawl **
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/south-pole-socks **
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/eloise-baby-sweater ***
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mummys-little-dalek-jumper-doctor-who ***
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/octopush
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-archer ** (ahahaha)
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/meet-in-front
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/celtic-maiden
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/sources/vbm-shawl-collection-4---elements/patterns **
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/oswin
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hera-6 [might maybe have yarns]
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/inspiration-capelet **
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/amigurumi-triceratops-dinosaur [might have yarn]
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hat-in-slip-stitch-crochet-smygmaskvirkad-mossa ***
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/autumn-leaves-shawl-3 and its friends
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mesh-lace-capelet [might have yarn]
basically lots and lots of other shawly things
and also a bunch of illusion knitting

* could plausibly be done on a knitting loom?
** requires knitting. (adaptation to loom not possible or requires more skill than I have)
*** free so technically have pattern, but not the yarn

#

So here's the think that's a bit lolsob about my yarn situation:

I have yarn. I have quite a bit of yarn. It is not a large stash by ravelry standards, because some people practically have a whole yarn store as their stash, but there is yarn in my apartment.

Here's the problem. Problems.

1) It is not very well organized. So I forget I have stuff, or I know I have something and am completely unable to find it.

2) Some of what I have -- a lot of what I have, actually -- is inherited/gifted yarn. You know, the "Oh hey you're a knitter, let me give you the yarn that's been sitting around in my closet forever" sort of thing. Some of it's unlabeled, which means I don't know fiber content. Some of it's colors I don't generally use but might someday (see also the bright yellow acrylic that suddenly turned appropriate for minion things). And quite a bit of it is partial skeins. Which leads to

3) Most of my yarn collection is one or two or maybe three skeins of each. Which is fine for, say, fingerless mitts (especially worsted weight) or maybe a hat. Socks, too: when I bought sock yarn I'd get two, so that I could definitely make a pair of socks, only I can't knit sock-weight any more, and I haven't successfully managed a heel or a toe on a loom. (So I can use looms for, say, fingerless mitts just fine, because they're basically a tube, and I just have to make sure the gauge is okay, but I have not successfully done a sock.)

4) Of the yarns that are decent, most are in hank form (see this if you don't know the difference between hanks and skeins) and therefore need to be wound first and I a) literally physically cannot wind stuff myself any more, b) feel weird about asking other people to help, especially with laceweight or tangle-prone yarns, and c) much prefer a hand-wound ball to a ball-winder-made cake, especially since the winder that I have makes cakes that are not particularly compact, but find it hard to explain to people; so I can't go "oh hey I'll use yarn X for project Y" and just start immediately.

So I have all this yarn sitting around and I can almost never use it. Because I don't have enough, or don't have the right sort (you can't use multicolored yarn for illusion knits; you can't use hand-wash-only fibers for baby things, or at least it's a very bad idea), or can't find it, or it's not in usable form.

(I do occasionally find uses for things in my collection -- see again the minion stuff with the yellow yarn, or the green and white yarns I'm using for the puzzle ball, or the red and green and white mystery acrylic that I made a (crappily seamed) christmas stocking out of. But not very often. But I can't get rid of it because zomg I might need it someday!!!11)

And I also feel weird about buying more yarn because I have lots. Which means I can't just go "well I want to make X aaaand it takes Y amount of Z-weight yarn so lemme order some yarn online".

#

I think that some of the make-all-the-things impulse is, like, the same thing that is me wanting to do cross-stitch. It's unreleased creativity that my body can't really do any more (or at least do easily) that I want to be able to do in the way that I did before. I want to do cross-stitch; I want to knit normally, using whatever size yarn and whatever size needles; I don't care about crocheting normally because I never did that and my current method works, but I want to be able to crochet objects larger than a dishcloth without having the fabric get in my way or having problems flipping at the ends of rows; I want to be able to use a yarn needle again, for weaving in ends and for sewing things.

I want to, and I can't, and my brain hasn't willingly caught up to my body's limitations.