Your life as it has been, is over.

(This is a text heavy post. I'll try to throw in some fibery pics just to break up the monotony.)

Well, I've been away for a bit, haven't I?

First, it's summer. I have 3 kids, one of them special needs. It's busy.

Then, there was the Harry Potter mania. Which means I did nothing but read for 2 days. When I do nothing but read for 2 days my house completely falls apart in a way that takes me 8 days to recover from. Do not try to figure that out, it doesn't make sense. But it's true anyway.

Then I fell down the rabbit hole that is Ravelry. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go, check it out. I'll wait. (BTW, it's still in beta, so you can't get on, but you can get on the waiting list and you might get in sometime, eventually. Do it cause the list will only get longer and you'll regret it later.)

Basically, it's a database for knitters. It has inside it all the yarn and patterns and projects you can imagine. Well no, really it doesn't, but it can, because if it's not there, you can put it there, and then other people can find it. And eventually every yarn ever spun and every pattern ever designed will be assimilated within the Ravelry universe and then the knitters can take over the world!

Seriously, though, it's pretty cool. You get a little virtual notebook where you can organize your projects. That's where you start. You think you don't have that many projects, but then you start entering them in. And then there's a place where you can drag and drop your pictures from Flickr into your project page. And now you have a nifty little thing that shows all the things you are knitting, and you realize how very many of those things there are. Yikes.

THEN, there's a place for you to enter all of your yarn, (called the Stash). Seriously. Ok well I'm never going to enter *all* of my yarn. But I did put in quite a bit. And then I had to take pictures of it all. And there's a lot.

So, I've been using my Ravelry time to organize everything else. I took out the yarn to photograph and sort and put it back. I sold some of the unloved stuff to someone else who will love it more. I donated some acrylic to a lady who is making bears for sick kids. I cleaned out the WIPs and figured out Just. How. Many. there are. But at least I know they're there, you know what you're up against, and where they are now. You can become one with your projects.

And THEN.... Here's the real time vortex. You get a queue. Every pattern you want to make. Or think you might want to make. Or you want to remember where it is. Or yarn you want to buy. Put it in your queue. Add in all the stuff you might want to know, what kind of yarn it needs, where the yarn for it IS (behind the curtains, under the bed...) Plus, you can go through and look at what other people are making. You can find out what the monkey socks look like in 903 different projects. You can find out that Hedera is way cooler than it looks in the really dorky pictures on Knitty. You can figure out just how much sock yarn you have and which ones would look good knit in Hedera, and even though you just found out that you have 19 WIP's, you can start Hedera anyway.

I really love them.

I have also been using this time to organize all my patterns. I have a very many patterns. I picked out several to give away because I just don't need THAT many baby sock patterns. They aren't that different. I still have very many patterns. But now I know where everything is. So that's cool.

I have 27 projects. 175 stashed yarns. 138 projects in my queue. Just in case, you know, you were wondering.

OOOOH and I forgot, I'm a *DESIGNER*. I feel all official now. I have my own special designer page. With 1 lonely pattern on it. Now I'm feeling like I really need to finish writing the other 5 or 6 patterns I have plans for. Cause, you know, it's Ravelry, and I can't resist.

Resistance is futile. **

Meanwhile....

Life has apparently continued on. My blog has sat, blogless. I have finished some pants that I haven't even mentioned starting, but, they were in my Ravelry :) I finished 1 Hedera sock and decided I had to finish the pants before I could make another one. I'm determined to cut down the number of WIPs to a more manageable number. Then I have 138 projects to make. And I'm quite sure there are things that still aren't in there.

I'll be back to regular entries here this week. Probably with fresh pictures. School starts next Wednesday (WHOOO!). I have lots of work to do between now and then.

For now, here are some Q&A from the comments.

Did Spike's sweater survive the remainder of the winter?

It did! I was thinking I should probably make another one so I can alternate them when it gets wet. He really likes it when it's snowy. I wish I could figure out how to make felted booties for his poor little feet. It's hard to think about snow when it's 100 degree heat index though!

Re: the Harry Potter knitting:

What are your thoughts after the whole experience?

I assume you meant the midnight book experience? It was fun and I'd totally do it again. C was so excited she couldn't stand it. They interviewed her on the news twice. When she actually got the book she was screaming and squealing like mad.

Also, the book was awesome. I loved it. Everything I knew would happen did, everything I thought should happen, did, but there was still a lot of stuff I couldn't have thought of, and that was cool, too. I'm kinda sad that it's over. And I need to knit a beaded bag. In a bad way. Make that 139 projects in my queue.

By the way - what exactly is a Pygmy Puff?

It's a miniature Puffskein. That clears it up, doesn't it? Basically, it's a little tribble. One of the characters has a purple one as a pet (Arnold).

Hope the Snitch washcloth turned up!

It didn't. Bummer. It only took an hour or so to make, though, so it's not a huge loss. Not like the original Spike sweater or anything.... *sniff*

** 10 points if you can spot all the geeky Borg references in this post.