stuff and nonsense

I have a sock problem: not enough room for my hand-knitted socks. I started knitting socks four years ago. Quick projects, small investment, not much thought required in the knitting process. That’s all great.

But.

The storage space dilemma is not the real problem. A sock yarn habit is the real problem. It’s become a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem: do I buy yarn in order to knit socks, or do I knit socks to justify the yarn collection?

I know the answer. It’s obvious. It’s the yarn. I need — well, okay, it’s more a matter of want than need, but humor me, okay? — I need the yarn. There’s so much wonderful sock yarn. It seems to jump into my hands when I walk through the sock yarn section at the local yarn shop. You might think that I make a point of walking through the sock yarn section. And you’d be right; I do think that, as a sock yarn aficionado, I have a responsibility to visit the section periodically, if for no other reason than to admire the loveliness of it all. Honestly, though, the route to the kitchenette and refrigerator stocked with cold drinks takes me past the sock yarn.

There is another path, but it’s ever so much more circuitous. And then I’d miss the new purple, teal, green, turquoise, hot pink, and other lovely-colored sock yarns.

Not that I couldn’t use a little more exercise.

(P.S. Sock yarn is very versatile. It can be knitted into scarves, sweaters, hats, baby garments, mittens… Just sayin’)

You can see a badge at the right side of my blog page that says “Follow me on Pinterest.” Click it and you’ll see my virtual pinboards for a variety of topics — five pinboards, for now. A quick look at Pinterest’s “about” page says:

Pinterest is a Virtual Pinboard.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes.

Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

To join Pinterest, you need to request an invitation — which you can do from the “about” page (http://pinterest.com/about/) or by clicking on the aforementioned “Follow me on Pinterest” badge.

Pinterest offers a variety of pre-set board topics, and you can add your own. There’s a “best of” pinboard… and you can “repin” things you find there. If you join, you can get a “Pin It” applet (or whatever the correct term) to add to your browser so that you can wander the web and pin what appeals to you right to your pinboards. I’ve been having a great time since yesterday, repinning things from other people’s boards and finding my own new pins.

Pinterest is pretty new, and it shows a little. I have 10 pinboards set up, but only 5 of them are showing for some reason, and only 5 are available to me for pinning-onto when I find something I want to pin. Occasionally I’ll get to choose from the entire list of 10 boards, but mostly I have only 5. There isn’t a “help” or “contact us” link anywhere on the site that I can find, and the FAQ page is very brief, with no “didn’t find your answer? click here” option. I’ve sent feedback to the developer(s) via their Facebook page (where there IS a feedback option).  [Note: As of June 19, I have 13 pinboards and all are visible. Yay!]

Still, the site is great! On my Miscellaneous board I’ve pinned lots of poster-type images with pithy (or not) slogans, mottos, thoughts, reminders. Some tickled me, some describe me (and not so complimentarily but I admit it) (like the book cover that says “I judge you when you use poor grammar” — yeah, I’m like that and if you know me you aren’t surprised) (and the one that says “Be Nice or Leave.” I think I’d be leaving more often than staying.) (Oh, and then the very very apt “I like having stuff.”).

I’ve pinned and repinned beautiful images of colored glass, interesting doors, a scattering of colorful postage stamps (all on the Art and Creative Stuff board). On my Makes Me Smile board, you’ll see a bright green rocking chicken, a photo of a penguin with blue shoes, a collection of cupcakes frosted to look like iPhone app icons… Gadgets, Etc., is still pretty empty, but I love the photos of the rainbow-colored computer keyboard and the whimsical egg holder.

Take a look. Get your own collection of pinboards and go crazy! I think you’ll enjoy it.

iMac…. iPhone…. Kindle…. iPod…. MacBook Pro…. iPad…. Sewing machine(s)….

I never met a gadget I didn’t like. Especially the electronic variety. There’s always another really nifty one coming along. I’m proud, though, that when the iPhone 3GS came out just a few months after I bought my iPhone 3G, I didn’t rush out and buy it. I waited for the iPhone 4. And when the iPad 2 came out about 6 months after I bought my iPad (now known as iPad 1 or the “original” iPad, and occasionally just plain iPad), I was blasé about it. Quite blasé. Camera on an iPad? Too big. A little lighter? A little thinner? A little faster? Not interested.

But wait… a clever cover for that iPad 2? Hmmmm. No, not enough of a reason to spend that much money. I’ll wait until iPad 2+ or iPad 3 or maybe even iPad 4.

The cover, though. Pretty neat. Magnets. Puts the iPad to sleep when you fold the cover over the screen. Very clever.

Which brings me to the problem that is the corollary to my gadget prone-ness. The accessories. A cover, you say? A “skin” for my iPad? For my iPhone? For my laptop? Wow. And now there are skins for sewing machines, if you can imagine that.

Cases for the gadgets? So many to choose from. Leather. Pleather. Rubber. Waterproof. Water-resistant. Keyboards. Easels.

You know, knitting and sewing have some nice accessories, too. Project bags. Tote bags (no such thing as too many tote bags, though I think my husband would disagree). Interchangeable knitting needles. Scissors, all kinds of scissors. Rotary cutters, all sizes. Rulers! Ohhhh rulers! I love rulers. All sizes. All shapes but especially the medium-sized rectangular ones.

And software. Quilt design software. I bought Electric Quilt software for the first time back in ’99, and upgraded whenever a new version was released. Then — and this was tragic. Tragic, I tell you! My computer died last summer. Tragic in that it died. Wonderful in that I had an opportunity to get — yes — another gadget! A brand new computer. I bought my iMac. A wonderful machine. The thing is (and I knew this — it wasn’t a surprise) Electric Quilt isn’t available for Macs. But wait! There is special software for the Mac that makes it possible install Windows on the Mac — and it will run quietly along with the Mac operating system. Then Electric Quilt can be installed in the Windows part of the Mac. Oh frabjous day! I’m back in business with Electric Quilt.

My gadget and accessory addiction is legend with my friends. Not long ago one of them allowed as how she doesn’t need to worry about missing out on a new app or a new gadget or a new accessory… “Lisa will tell me about it.”

That’s right.

Hello. My name is Lisa. I’m a gadget-aholic.

(I hope no one tries too hard to cure me.)

Quilting has been a passion of mine for over 20 years, but I haven’t done enough of it lately. We added two young dogs to our household awhile back, and “puppy-proofed” my sewing area. The puppy-proofing has remained, even though the dogs are now 3 and 4 years old. The sewing area is overwhelmingly in need of re-organizing, and frankly it’s been easier to ignore it.

Especially since I rediscovered knitting at about the same time as the puppy-proofing happened. No need to take care of the sewing space! I’ve been way too busy with my knitting. And yarn accumulation. And an ongoing fabric and pattern accumulation “problem.” My yarn addiction pales, though, in comparison to a friend’s collection. Said friend has calculated that the total yardage of yarn in his home would circle the globe a couple of times over and then some.

So the disorganization gets worse. And doesn’t get fixed. Because I’m quite happy, you see, knitting and buying yarn and buying some fabric now and then, and sewing when I’m with friends in a less cramped space, and knitting with friends at the local yarn shop, Needleworks (in Champaign, Illinois).

Oh, and then there’s Ravelry (www.ravelry.com), sort of like a social networking site for knitters and crocheters. Mostly I visit the forums — myriad topics, such as dogs, grammar, Kindle, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Farmville (guilty pleasure), and of course a bit of knitting here and there.

If I could ignore the siren calls of knitting, Ravelry, fabric shopping, yarn shopping, gadget-fiddling and the other things that distract me, maybe I could dig out of the mess here. Oh, and there’s my job in there somewhere, demanding my attention. It’s not exactly a siren call, but it’s insistent. I suppose I should pay attention to that.