Thinking in Threes

I have threes on the brain. Why? Because I finished up THREE of my WOOPs!!! (see – three exclamation points. Threes on the brain.) That’s right – my WOOPs list from last week is down by three projects and I’m celebrating. Remember – College Boy went back to school over the weekend. Knitting is therapy. My WOOPs have benefitted. So I think we ought to have a contest. You try to decide which three projects I finished out of the list in this blog entry, and I will award a prize to the one who guesses right (or gets closest. If more than one person guesses right, I’ll draw a name from the list.) If you win, you tell me your favorite color, and I will pick out a wonderful skein of yarn that has your favorite color in it, and send it to you so that it can become a WOOPs for you for your next pair of socks. I’ll pick a winner on Monday of next week and will post pictures of the completed WOOPs.

Going along with today’s topic, I thought I’d fill you in on a few other “threes” in my life.

Here are three knitting pattern purchases that I regret. I don’t regret the first copy. It’s that duplicate copy of each one that I’m regretting. Keep in mind, this happened because I have way too many books and magazines about knitting had had too much caffeine and my brain was running faster than was safe and productive. The book is almost understandable, right? I could have bought one copy last summer, and another one this summer without realizing that I already had this one. Ages and ages apart. But buying two of the same magazine? The same issue? I can’t even believe that I’d admit that to you.

I once gave my husband two of the same framed photos for Christmas. Same caffeine problem. I had copies made of a picture that I loved, bought a frame, wrapped it up (easily a month early. That is part of the problem. The lesson there – do not be efficient and get your shopping/wrapping done early. Either that, or pay attention. I’m not sure which.) When I came across another copy of the picture right before Christmas, I thought, “Hmm. I could’ve sworn that I had framed that already. Oh well.” I went off to Target for a frame and then I wrapped that one up. In my slight defense, I had also framed and wrapped that same picture for both sets of grandparents, so there were multiple framing/wrapping situations for that same picture. I had one left over and figured it must be Paul’s. (Does that help explain my loopiness?) On Christmas morning, he opened one, loved it, opened a few more gifts in between, then opened another. Same picture. Different frame. To show you how well-matched we are – he had to sit and think about it for a minute. “Didn’t I already open this picture? Or did I just see this photo in our scrapbook already? Seems familiar….” But I digress. Back to my knitting pattern purchases – I could just tell you that I liked these so much that I bought double of them. (I also could admit to you that I found two of the same issue of Vogue Knitting in my files just now. Three double-buys is just ridiculous a little over the top, but if I admit to doing this a fourth time, well that’s just plain stupid loopy. No doubt about it.)

Three yarn purchases that I regret. What is the purple-pink string blob? Well, it was supposed to be one of those ruffle scarves. I downloaded the pattern, purchased the exact yarn that it called for, and then knit it exactly like I was supposed to. I hate it. It’s too short, it’s itchy, and it’s too hairy to even see that it’s ruffled. Instead, it just looks like a big long string of ….. blob. I have hidden the yarn label, so as not to cast undue blame on the yarn. I know it must’ve been the goofy yarn and the ridiculous pattern my fault. I think enough time has passed since knitting it, that I can now toss it without undue sadness.

Another scarf bomb – the blue and the white. I have artfully arranged it into “Baseball on a Nest” for your viewing pleasure. I thought they might be kind of cute knit up together – the blue Squiggle and the white bobble-y thing. I was really wrong. I frogged it after 10 rows. It looked silly. Now what do I do with the yarn?

The third yarn – also for a scarf – was supposed to knit up into a one skein eyelet scarf of some kind. This was before I knew how to do yarnovers very well at all. I kept frogging it, thinking my YO’s were wrong. The yarn started breaking from all the frogging, I started crying yelling, and I stuffed it inside a ziploc bag and buried it deep in the stash. Maybe I’ll try it again someday.

Interesting that all of my yarn regrets were for scarves. I have never bought a sock yarn that I regretted. (Although someday I may regret how many sock yarns I have in my Personal Sock Buffet. But not yet.)

Ending on a happy note – here are the next three yarns that will be turned into socks at my house. The one on the right – Claudia Hand Painted in Blue Terra Cotta. There are great spring colors in this colorway, and I love that Claudia yarn is “springy” in texture. The green/blue/tan ones is Lorna’s Laces in Baltic Sea. This one seems like a wonderful winter sock. I love the greens in there. The purple and pink one on the bottom? It’s a new yarn line that I just ordered for us. Anyone care to guess what it is? I haven’t even added it to the “Coming Soon” section on our homepage, so you won’t get any clues there. I have been having fun playing with this yarn, and can’t wait to start a sock out of it. (Once again, there are several colorways coming that I think I will have to have for myself. Why does that always happen? I’m going to need more hours in my day to get all of this sock knitting done. Where does one sign up for more hours in the day?) This new line should be here by mid-October, if not before.

Sheri don’tforgettoweighinonyourthreeWOOPsguessesforachancetowinfreesockyarn!