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Thursday, May 15, 2008

More Sugar and Cream

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Lily Sugar & Cream yarn, Super Size 4 oz balls.

Does this happen to you? You walk into a store with the intention of buying A, but end up walking out with a bunch of B? Well this is what happened to me recently. I somehow ended up with a few balls of kitchen cotton yarn I really did not need. I mean, I have about 100 (2 oz) balls worth of kitchen cotton yarn (Lily Sugar & Cream, Elmore-Pisgah Peaches & Creme) which I bought years ago and am still slowly working through these. But I was weak and couldn't pass up these Super Size 4 oz. balls of yarn at 97 cents each. 97 cents!!! Would you be able to?

There are 6 balls of blue (Hot Blue color, I think), 4 different dye lots. If I look carefully I can almost discern the shade difference between lot numbers. I could have come away with 7 balls, but decided it was not right to do so, so I left one lonely ball of blue on the shelf. I mean, it would have been like taking the last cookie! Couldn't do it. I think the pink is called Hot Pink.

So now I have more Sugar & Cream, and nowhere to put it. The bag is sitting on top of a box in my closet. I have no more box space for yarn. (I even have some yarn tucked on a shelf on a small table which happens to be in the dining room right now (what do you call that piece of furniture that would usually go next to the sofa?). Nobody would really notice it for now, since the room isn't really being used for its intended purpose.

Anyhow, don't be too surprised if you see a lot of blue wash cloths in the future ... ;-)

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DH is funny. I'm lounging on the sofa trying to work on this 7 things meme which Claudia tagged me for aeons ago. These memes are difficult for me because there isn't much interesting going on in my life. As a stay at home mom with a 3 yr old, I could spend hours boring you with how we passed our day. Anyhow, back to what I meant to talk about. DH walks up to me, points to all the bags sitting on the back of our sofa, and asks what is the deal with all the bags and whether I need real bags. The bags were all my knitting WIPs, which each reside in their own little bag, some paper, some more sturdy canvas/fabric type bags. I currently have 7 bags perched up there on the sofa and leaning against the back wall. He wasn't just limiting this question to the bags in sight. He was also referring to the other bags that reside elsewhere in the house. No, I won't tell you how many there are. It's bad enough that I am admitting to 7 WIP bags.

I should explain that many of my bags are just the small shopping bags you get in stores. Think small Bath & Body Works bag or small Macy's bag (well, back when they did give out paper shopping bags), where the handle loops stick up. I love that they're the perfect size for small projects, and they're easy to pick up since the handles are up (as opposed to flopped over). When my WIPs aren't in these types of paper bags, I have other little bags/totes in various sizes too, but nothing I'd call the perfect all-purpose size bag. I guess I should mention one more reason I like these little paper bags. I can leave them in the car, and with their wide opening, passersby can see that they merely contain knitting and hopefully won't be tempted to break into my car for that. I'm afraid that a pretty or more expensive looknig bag would attract more attention and tempt more people to break into my car.

So DH hints that perhaps I should get some "real" bags, meaning replacing the paper bags with more permanent bags. Now don't get all excited here, I'm pretty sure he didn't mean it as a green light for tote bag shopping. I think it was more his bewilderment than anything else. Perhaps I should quietly move a few of these bags off the sofa and have one or two hanging out in the living room...

It's a good thing he hasn't noticed that I sometimes stuff 2 projects into one bag. I really have more WIPs than number of visible bags in the house.


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It's way too hot to knit anything today (or yesterday for that matter). It's 98ºF (37ºC) outside. Thank goodness it's around 75ºF (24ºC) inside the house. Having lived in San Francisco for decades, I am really not accustomed to this much heat! Despite the relatively cooler temperature indoors, I still have no desire to cover myself with wool regardless of how small it may be.

The challenge on these hot days is getting Miss M to take in more liquids. We didn't do too well yesterday. Today I introduced ice cubes to her and let her put them in the new water bottle (the pink one with straw) we got last week. I filled the bottle to the brim with water before hand, so I told her she needed to drink some water to make room for the ice cubes. I helped her with that this morning and we managed to make enough space for her to drop 8 ice cubes into the bottle! I tried this trick again after lunch today, this time she drank the water on her own (without my help), and managed to drop in 4 ice cubes. I don't know how long this trick will last. The newness of anything wears off pretty quickly when it comes to toddlers. I'm just glad she hasn't yet figured out that she can merely pour the contents of the water bottle to make space for ice cubes!

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5 stitch(es):

Chris said...

I completely understand--I would have bought the cotton too, even though I don't need it. I usually have 3 or 4 wips going at a time--try to keep it to that. Thanks for the tip on the bags--never thought of usint those. Good luck with the water.

Rachel said...

Maybe you could use some of your cotton to knit bags? That'd solve two problems at once!

You know, with my toddlers, I put a little slice of lemon or fruit (like strawberry) in the water to give it some flavor, and then they drink it right up. For some reason, plain water is too "boring" for their sophisticated taste buds, lol! Just a suggestion!

Cactusneedles said...

I would have bought them too!
You could try those frozen fruit bars (or make them yourself with more water added) to try and keep her hydrated. Mine are old enough to know when to drink, but they still don't. I have to use those toddler tricks on them too! Take care.

Anonymous said...

I agree, it would have been very hard to pass up such bargains, even with all the other cotton in your stash!

DH calls me the 'Imelda Marcos' of tote bags; I have all sizes, all shapes, all materials, from paper 'fabric' that I've received at Stitch n Pitch Dodgers nights to lovely tapestry bags. I tend to keep my WIPs in bags, too, though smaller projects or those with lacier work or yarn often have a plastic ziptop or zipper bag as well, but it's nice to be able to keep extra skeins and the project and notes/patterns all together in one easy-to-grab tote.

I forgot to thank you for the info on safe water bottles. I got a couple of the simple screw-top CamelBak ones and they work well, though in re-reading your earlier post I've just realized that the slightly-flavored Propel water I sometimes get (in cases) at Costco come in heavyish #1PETE bottles. They're apparently without harmful chemicals and are a good size for re-use.

Good luck keeping cool! It's 96F here and going higher over the weekend.

hakucho said...

I couldn't pass up a deal like that either....I'm sure you'll put it to good use :)