30 June, 2009

Yardage post for June 2009

It's that time again: yardage tally for the month. My yarn used for June was rather low, the lowest yardage I've had all year, but it was entirely worsted and aran weight. Had I done any fingering weight projects, or some lace, it would have been much higher.
Yardage totals for 2009:
January: 937 yds
February: 1286 yds
March: 1466 yds
April: 1093 yds
May: 909 yds
June: 759 yds
Year to date: 6450 yds or 3.67 miles
So all in all, I really can't complain. I hope to get back to doing 1000 yds+ in July. I had been secretly hoping to knit a mile's worth of yarn a month, but at this point, I'd be happy to average over a half mile. Eventually I want to keep track of the yardage of yarn acquired as well and work on a system of being able to buy only half of what I knit. Looking at these numbers here, I can buy a skein of sock yarn a month, maybe a small skein of lace, or else a couple of skeins of worsted. Things aren't looking so good for my buying if I implement that system. Or else I'd have to bank yardage for larger purchases, which is sort of similar to what I do now.

When I'm not yarn bingeing.
And my birthday is the 20th of July which will indeed cause me to want to binge and spend any birthday money I get on yarn. I'm trying to stay strong and make myself buy non-yarn items instead, like maybe a set of metal interchangeable needles, or a shiny new DS lite since my current one is having some issues. I guess we shall see if birthday money comes my way. As it is, I've been having a hard time resisting KnitPicks new city tweed lines, especially the DK in Orca. The second I saw it, it screamed, "TANGLED YOKE CARDIGAN!!" at me and I've been thinking about it ever since. It's been since before I went back home to Wisconsin...so at least two months now. I've been wanting to do a Tangled Yoke cardigan since the pattern came out in IK's Fall 2007 issue, but haven't gotten around to it yet. At the time, the thought of spending $80 on yarn for a sweater was appalling to me, though I spend way more then that now. The other reason I never did it was that all the colors of Felted Tweed--the pattern's yarn--didn't appeal to me. But the Orca? *Swoon* Seriously, it's a fantastic grey color and I have yet to work with tweed. I've been wanting to make some more neutral colored knits and this yarn with that pattern seems to fit the bill.
Trying to resist, but if I do give in, well, it is my birthday and why not buy something that would make me happy?!
Other then that, making slow but steady progress on the waist tie for my shell sweater. I had to knit an 18" tie, then 9.75" for the back waist band, then 21.75" for the front waist band, then another 9.75" , and then finish off with the other 18" tie. Tonight I finished the second back waist band section and am several inches into the second 18" tie section. If I can keep at it and focus tomorrow, I should be able to finish the waist band completely and then start on the bottom section of the sweater. I know I want that to be as-written, but I'm still unsure of what I want to do about the lace upper body. At this moment, I'm thinking I may do them as-written but a couple of needle sizes smaller. I really should read ahead and make up my mind on that. At the rate I'm knitting though, I probably have a good week before I need to worry.

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