Hello, my name is Karen


...and I'm an eBayaholic. I'll admit it. I buy and sell. I have an "items I'm watching" list with over 50 items on occasion. It's usually always knitting related, yarn, yarn swifts, addi turbos, a wpi tool. Although I am on the lookout for a window scarf for the dining room.

I'm always looking for a bargain. I've scored 10 skeins of Rowan Rowanspun 4 ply for $20 which included shipping from England. I'm hoping to score some more and eventually try my hand at a Fair Isle sweater. (Who are these people spending well over $100 for the Alice Starmore Fair Isle book?)

I also got some Koigu for a good price. I thought about a pair of socks, but that would leave me with one skein left over. I hate having yarn left over, because it seems that leftovers never seem to get used up. They just take up space in the stash, valuable space that could be used for well, more yarn.

Having said that, I've recently bagged some Shetland cobweb weight yarn on eBay(five 1/2 skeins) and two balls of plain old sock yarn. I've never knit lace before and have been wanting to give it a try. I'm not going to start with the cobweb weight, I've got some very old fuzzy Pingouin in the stash with which I'm going to attempt the first shawl before I move on to the cobweb weight. I do, however, have a pattern picked out for the cobweb. The problem is that I'll have leftovers. About 1/2 oz. by my calculations. So what in the dang world do you do with 1/2 oz. of cobweb weight Shetland? Luckily, it is cobweb, so less area will be used up in the stash containment system.

It's not really a "system" so much as it's those big zippered bags that slipcovers, drapes, and comforters come in that I've somehow ended up with. Odd since it's been about 5 years since I've bought any of those items.

This is the last day of summer for the kidlets!!! This is the (school)year that I will finally get the trim in the dining room painted, rehang the curtains(maybe with the new scarf I find on eBay), get the house sparkling clean and organized so it only takes a half a day to run through the house with the duster, vacuum, and mop. I will also throw this in the compost pile. I should have done it May when I bought them and saved them the indignity of dying on the front porch for the whole neighborhood to see.