Wine, Wool and Whoppers: February 2011

I often link to this blog. I check it at least once a day. I often laugh when I read it and sometimes I cry. There are times when I "ooooo" and "awwww". There are the, "I MUST HAVE THAT TOO!!" moments.
Today? Today as I fondly scrolled down the page to enjoy some time with one of our favourite knitters, I muttered something resembling the phrase that any upstanding muggle would utter.

Oh My God!

And once again, I was given an excellent blog entry opportunity.

Here are my needles. I combine my straights and DPN's so that all the needles that are the same size are in the same slot/divider. It looked and worked better when I first set it up before the cardboard had time to slouch. I've thought about reinforcing the dividers...maybe I will someday.

Here's something interesting. I barely, rarely, hardly ever, use straight needles anymore. I have at least one pair of each size. You know, just in case. I too have inherited, been gifted and just plain accumulated a fair number of them and a couple of years ago did indeed do a purge and I know the people that I gave them to were very appreciative.

Actually, if anybody is looking for ideas of where to donate needles...mine went to a local Wellspring group and a few hospitals have knitting centres set up in waiting rooms; so that would be a place to look into. I know that a number of public schools have asked for some as well; they often send the kids to the dollar store, but if you have some needles looking for a home, why not try your local school! They take yarn too. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
Anyway, back to me having straights that I barely use; this is because I usually knit on circulars. Most of my circulars are stored in their original cases.

I put this together using an empty baby-wipe container (that's how old it is!). I've entered it in fairs as a recycled item and won prizes! I'm quite pleased with my invention and every now and then I reorganize it. Addi's in front, sorted by size, smallest to largest, next Inox, sorted similarly and then whatever else there is, at the back. My Signature circulars don't fit in here, but they deserve a special place of their own anyway.

Speaking of Signatures needing a special place of their own...
This is where I keep the Signature DPN's in their tubes. (Some were otherwise engaged and therefore unavailable for the photo-op). Behind my Signatures is my pail of crochet hooks. It's a token ode to crochet; I'm not a fan, but the needle roll/hook roll is neat!

This is a shot that I've had in my mind to show you for almost two years. In the spring of 2009 I went through my stash and found these (and more) needles and knitting accessories. Since that time some of been rescued and put into use, but these have remained waiting for the photo op that was promised them.

You'll note that there is one set of interchangeable needles there; they weren't in the stash, but they ended up in the basket. I have two other sets of interchangeable needles. (My shoulder's are beginning to slump with the reality of putting this out there for all to see.) And have, on more than one occasion, considered buying more.

Therein lies the story of my needle inventory. I looked around, quite pleased with myself, that save, for all the needles that have projects on them...

WHOLE OTHER BLOG ENTRY PEOPLE!!!

...I was able to quickly locate all my needles. And I still had room for one more photo on my post. Should I maybe post a picture of my buttons that I hadn't shared, but meant to? How about an update on the knitting I've been doing this past week? Maybe show you just what my basement looks like right now and explain how the nice electrician that's coming tomorrow gave me enough notice to move everything away from all the outlets, so that he can make sure that our house won't burn down after all the other people told us they knew what they were doing when they did our renovations...and I did it! Made the outlets accessible, that is.
Maybe I could show you the scarf that I started because one of my knitters asked me why I wasn't wearing one of my many scarves that I have. I started it and I'm using a straight needle. I'm using one of my fancy needles.
FANCY NEEDLES!?!
That's one more photo op.