Confessions of a Yarn-aholic

I love my yarn. I love playing with it and coming up with neat projects for it and envisioning what it can BE, instead of just a cute little ball of string...I absolutely love my yarn. So why, oh why have I been storing it in a big Rubbermaid box in a closet underneath sleeping bags and shoes for all of these years?

The answer used to be something about lack of decent storage in this old house, but I decided to take it out anyway*. It seems to make much more sense to me to have it out so I:

1.) remember what I have before I just go buy more, and
2.) actually use it up!

This cabinet is in our bedroom so it's the last thing I see before going to sleep (well, that or my darling husband...). Yarn dreams! (Here comes the "confessions" part: I still have a plastic box in my closet! It didn't all fit on the shelves. But at least it's a smaller box now!)

Knitting will always be my chosen craft. I've been so hooked on it since my Community Ed. class five years ago that I can't imagine a time when I'm not toting "sticks and string" along with me, "just in case there's time to knit." (There's always time to knit!) But...I've been bitten by a new crafty bug recently: quilting.

Enter MaryJanesFarm Farmgirls and the Charm Square Swap. I had no idea what a "charm square" was until I read the post about the swap and then...well...it sounded like so much fun! You just go out and buy a few yards of fabric in three different designs that you like, cut them into 12" squares and then ship them off to the swap coordinator. She then collects everyone's squares, dishes them out to your SASE you provided and ships them back to you. Christmas in August! Oh joy! Rapture! The mail is here! So much fun to tear into this package...

I'm thinking the quilt will have to wait just a bit more because I'm still not done with those stripey pants (finished the actual knitting last night and now just have to do the surgical work...). Seriously, I said this before, but if I don't get those done for the Boy soon, he'll have outgrown them before ever trying them on!**

Tonight I leave you with this: A close-up of the coolest charm square to start off my first quilt.

-- and this --

This is what happens when I spend more time with the digital camera than with my husband. He starts to leave me little "love notes" on the camera. Guess I better get back to life!
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*The decision to move the yarn coincided with the decision to remove the CDs from the old CD cabinet. The iPod made the CDs obsolete and, therefore, they were banished to the basement. This decision also coincided with the Boy's new ability to scootch around - we realized that we'd have to remove the CDs anyway.

**I spent yesterday morning cleaning out his dresser of all of his infant clothes to make room for the bigger sizes. How is it that the outfit that carried him home from the hospital just seven short months ago - that used to be too big - is now seven inches too short?! And how is it that this little seven-month-old-cutie is wearing 12month-sized clothes?! Hold on Mom, this ride goes fast...