Yarn, Tupelo honey and CCD

I was a bad girl. I went to the yarn shop in Duncansville. I was going to go with Ruth but she was sick. Mom decided she wanted to ride along. What a lovely day it turned out to be!

I wasn't going to buy yarn. I really wasn't! No! REALLY!! But Carla got Louet's Gems in and she had it in lavender and one with a lavender stripe and she was gently waving them back and forth at me and I could hear them calling my name and ...

well ... I caved. Alright? I caved.

Mom was pretty good about it. The color, I mean. I could hear her mentally screaming "NOT PURPLE!" but she didn't vocalize.

Then we went next door to the tea shop. I treated mom and myself to a fresh-brewed iced tea. Heavenly. That's also when I picked up my Tupelo honey.

As it turns out, Tupelo honey is very expensive for honey. All honey has increased in price since CCD (colony collapse disorder). Even the naff stuff you get from the supermarket has gotten more expensive. Just because the bees aren't given special pollen to collect doesn't mean its any easier or that more are around to do it.

We(Penn State in general and University Relations in particular) have been putting out stories on CCD for a couple years (big surprise since several of our researchers are leading the investigations into the cause!) but out at Ag Progress I learned a couple of things: CCD isn't any closer to be solved because more possibilities for the cause keep popping up; it doesn't affect all colonies in the same area; honeybees, while being "general" pollinators, do not pollinate every flour, fruit and vegetable. The bumbles take care of the tomatoes. Now I'm sure if there was not much else to select from, a honeybee might deign to stop by a tomato plant but that's not their pollen of choice.

Of course CCD isn't affecting the other bees because they aren't the communal creatures honeybees are. By the same token honeybees are the ones with the honey.

All this talk of pesticides in the hive wax makes me wonder about burning beeswax candles. I really hate the idea of not being able to have my beeswax candles.

Back to the Tupelo. I did have a moment of guilt thinking about the hard work the bees did and the decreasing number of bees. However that moment passed rather quickly. There is also another honey I saw that I need to get then next time: rosemary and lavender! I have no idea how that will taste since the honey doesn't taste like the pollen doesn't taste like the flower.

Poor bees. No two ways about it, I'll be snapping up more of their yummy honey. They'll just have to learn to deal. After all, this is about me and not them, Uh hu. Sure.

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Second guess

Every once in a while a yarn comes along that is so wonderful you have trouble figuring out how to use it. That was the case with Blueberry Patch. So I made my own pattern.

Now I look at it and say "I think maybe the basic sock would have been really nice as well." So maybe I need to get another skein of that yarn and knit plain socks. The Yarn Harlot says that buying sock yarn isn't really adding to your stash. I don't just believe that; I LIVE that!

I really have to take the time and photograph the yarn. Then upload it to Picassa and then Ravelry. It is a must. I am working on a shawl and don't have any pictures. Worse, I finished a shawl aside from blocking and don't have pictures!

I'll be wearing the Cone of Shame if I don't correct this soonest!

Last night I watched "Lost in Austen." Very cute. I love Jemima Rooper. She was great in that and in "Hex." Christina Cole was in "Austen" and "Hex" too but this time the roles were a bit reversed. Alex Kingston played Mrs. Bennett. I recognized her as Dr. Corday on ER. Hugh Bonneville was the father. I had seen him in "Notting Hill" and "Vicar of Dibley." There were several other actors I recognized. They were all well cast except perhaps for Jane.

Now I have to go drop the DVD in the mail so I can get the next from Netflix!

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Again with the stash!

I've been thinking there has been something missing. Like most of my yarn! As I think it over, I tell myself that I don't have that much yarn out at the storage area. I can't imagine that I have put yarn where I can't readily look at it and touch it.

As it turns out I have at least five large bins, at least three small bins and a couple of boxes out there with yarn in them. Yikes! I wonder if I can get the large economy size bag of moth balls. Do they sell the stuff in 20 lb. bags?

I have to get out there and catalog the yarn I have. On the other hand I had some very pleasant surprises. I had yarn and projects that I had forgotten about in the year since I moved.

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Never say never

I got the yarn for the Christmas stockings. I'll have to start those before too long since there are to be four of them.

The woman will put the names and the embellishments on them. All I have to do is the Christmas tree and alter the pattern a bit to match pictures I've been given. That shouldn't be too difficult. It's right before the heel of the stocking.

In the meantime I have sock books coming and more sock yarn.

More! More! Stash! Stash!

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Knee socks?

No! BEE socks.

A friend of mine is a science writer and she has done several stories about the disappearing bees. I made the bee mummy for her (long story)







so for the holiday I gave her some bee socks

And no. It was not from my stash. But I ask you: how many times are you going to come across a yarn that is this perfect for a bee project?

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Why the stash?

Non-knitters sometimes ask the silliest questions! "Why do you have all this yarn?"

Lots of reasons!

1) I see the yarn in the store for a project that will be next in line. I can't be sure I'll finish (or even start) before the dye lot is sold out so maybe I should buy a few extra skeins just in case. Once the project is done and I have the leftovers (whole or partial skein doesn't matter at that point) there's nothing for it but putting it in the stash. Take the whole skeins back to the store? That's just crazy talk!

2) I see the yarn in the store and I think of a project I'd love to do so I buy the yarn for that project. But something comes up (like another project) and I don't get a chance to cast on or warp the loom. What else can I do but put it in the stash?

3) I see yarn in the store and I buy it because of the color (texture, etc.) but I don't know what I'm going to use it for quite yet. I'll know the perfect project when I see it. However if I don't buy it now the perfect project will come along and I won't be able to get that yarn. Stash now; knit later.

4) I see yarn in the store and it's on sale! I don't know what I'll use it for yet but I'm sure I'll be able to figure out something. I mean, look at it! How can it not be great for something? And the price! That's such a good price! Buy it; stash it.

5) I see the yarn in the store and I just have to have it -- hmmm, a pattern emerging? -- because I'm a hoarder of yarn and it's mine, mine, all mine!

"Once there is a stash, why buy more? Why not work from the stash?"

That's just more crazy talk! The stash is where all the ideas come from. It's the "cabbage patch" of projects, if you will. There sit all the skeins of yarn. Look at the way they can be combined and ideas will just pop into your head. A Plethora of projects. All the possibilities are right there before your eyes. Once you make a choice, all the possibilities disappear as if they were never there at all.

That idea depresses me. Excuse me. I'm going to the yarn store now. I need to buy some yarn in order to get out of this funk.

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The Plan

A'ndrea and I have decided we are going to pull together to help each other - sometime. We both have stashes in desperate need of organization. She and I have decided to get together and help each other do just that. I want to put mine in the "stash" section of Ravelry as well as in a spread sheet so maybe - just maybe - I can figure out what I have and what projects are squirreled around.

I need to turn some WIPs and UFOs into FOs, dammit!

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