Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Most people I know, think that I'm crazy!

Let's just start by reminding people to give blood and plasma, and that you can donate to bushfire victims by clicking this link.

Some random things about the last month:

1. All the time we were in South Australia I had cold showers. The cold water was about the same temperature as our hot showers at home.
2. I don't like hot weather - but I managed to knit on regardless - socks don't make you as hot as knitting jumpers
3. I still remember the 1967 bushfires here in Tasmania. All my extra clothes, our extra sheets and towels went to help the victims. My dad had to drive to Hobart just after and said he could never get rid of the sight and smell of all the dead farm animals.
4. The country's response to the Victorian bushfires re-affirms my belief in the basic goodness of humanity. At least most of it. There are some people around I refuse to classify as human.
5. Arsonists usually have bed wetting problems until their late teens. Many also torture animals and are sexually dysfunctional. I often wonder if this were more widely publicised whether some people would be as keen to light fires.
6. A while ago there was a great kid's book about lies. My favourite was `Wine makes mummy clever'

I am not a big dreamer. I don't remember dreams often, and tend only to remember large technicolor numbers when I am hot. Except for when I was pregnant, dreams are an occasional thing. Last night I dreamed I was engaging in a new sport called `Extreme de-stashing'. You had to hunt down the yarn which had been de-stashed in inhospitable and difficult locations, like volcano craters, on the top of mountains, deep in the rainforests and so on. I was extremely good at this and was vying with Zephyrama and Bells for the championship title.

Do you think this was a premonition?

I have decided that this year, given the state of the world economy, the general suckiness of the Australian dollar and the state of my stash, I will be attempting to use my stash more, as a source of inspiration. I am going to stash down in 09. This is not a yarn diet (we all know how diets always bring on binges) but I will try and be increasingly mindful of purchases. There is also the fact that I am a member of several sock clubs to consider.

I know there will be 2 purchases from overseas this year, but I think I would like to limit my spending to those. As far as possible, I would like to be surprised by the non-stash - and most of this years planned projects are already mated with the yarn I have. Let's see how well I do!


I just thought I'd try an update on the `Seven things' thing - given that I've fallen woefully behind. Taph is being so good, but I rather fell by the wayside. This time I'm going to combine it with Rosered's stash honesty policy.

For January:

In
2 prs trousers
1 pr bathers
4 tops
1 skirt - Yes Jejune, you were right. I had a small falling down at the TS14 sale

12 skeins of Naturally 10 ply merino angora 70/30 (but it was on a sale table for $2.50 a skein and therefore could not be denied!)
Yarn as mentioned previously from the LYS closing down sale (lots)
1 sock club kit
1 Valentines present from MadMad with a skein of DB pure cashmere (and some other gorgeous goodies like notecards and a little bag and cuticle cream and soak) Thank you so much!

Out
8 bags of clothes to Lifeline
2 boxes of toys to local childcare centre
about 300 old magazines and newspapers - recycling

Shake it all about
3 pairs of socks and 2 single socks

Total yarn in: 3.2kg
Total used: 400gr

Drat! I'll try to do better next month!

8 comments:

Bells said...

I think the SMH should print a story about point #5!
Good luck with the yarn slow down. I'm quite enjoying mine so far! If i had your stash I'd never leave the house.

MadMad said...

I think this extreme destashing idea of yours has great potential as a TV show... Well, I'd watch it, anyway!

Rose Red said...

I can't believe I wasn't in the extreme destashing dream. But then again, I never destash, so it's not really surprising!!!

It's a scary number isn't it, when you look at the yarn in and yarn out!! But it's a very sensible approach you are taking!! (but of course!)

Lynne said...

I second the SHM idea!

Alwen said...

I like to sing "In and out and shake it all about"!

For me, the main thing that makes new yarn so tempting is the potential. It's like blank canvas or blank books. Until I put that first stitch in, it could be anything!

The year I did a stash diet, I decided it was all about realizing (real-izing) some of those dreams that had floated into my head when I picked up the skein in the store.

I wasn't cutting myself off, I was connecting back to why I had wanted it in the first place.

Donyale said...

The ' destash ' is not as bad as you think.....Alwen makes a good point. It's more a case of 'ohhhh, look, clink, buy.....' rather than what would/could I make with that. Well in my case anyways.

Donna Lee said...

I love your de-stash dream. It would make a decent "road trip" kind of show where knitters are put in odd places and told to find the yarn.

I don't understand arsonists. What pleasure can you possible derive from knowing people died as a result of your actions?

Amy Lane said...

I'll sign on for that 'more mindful' idea... should we go on 'yarn watchers' together? (The extreme destashing was really very funny! I enjoyed!)

And bless you all out there--frightening frightening times!