Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The Call to be Frugal

In the May 2010 edition of The Reader's Digest, they feature an article highlighting some of the most frugal people in the United States and the difference between being frugal and being a cheapskate.  This made me think about myself and where I would fit on this scale of frugality.  I've been raised by parents who shop the sales and the thrift shops and my mother's prowess with the art of sale shopping is unparalleled.

Now, as you all probably know, I'm a college student.  I need every spare penny I can get.  I save change and look for the highest possible re-selling price on my used textbooks.  When it comes to knitting, is it wrong of me to go for the free patterns?  I save the links of patterns too pretty to be lost, but too expensive to be bought in addition to the already expensive yarn.  In the end, I always go for the free pattern that may not be exactly what I wanted, but close enough.  It's not for a lack of desire to support designers.  If I won a million dollars, I'd probably run to the yarn store after I finished paying for college, a car, and some savings.  (and for the record, the car would still be cheap.  I still need money for yarn!)

On a somewhat-related note, I'm almost done the lace part of my second sweater sleeve.  Hopefully, I'll have pictures soon.  We're moving into the warm-weather season where no one wants to be anywhere near worsted-weight wool.  I'm also planning to embark on several smaller projects.  I've realized that I really don't have any fun accessories for those rare days when I want to dress up.  More on that later, though.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

And It's Come to an End

Classes are done as of two weeks ago.  After being in a dorm room for an entire school year, I'm still trying to adjust to being home.  I'm still trying to figure out how to fit everything in the room I share with my sister.  I managed to make the pile slightly smaller, but there are still two massive piles of stuff: one in front of the closet, and one in front of my desk.  The one in front of the closet involves my luggage and the crates I used for books, decorations, and dishes and cleaning products.  The other pile is a bunch of random stuff and my knitting supplies.  Speaking of knitting, I understand that this was meant to be a knitting blog, but I honestly haven't been doing that much knitting lately.  Most of my time in the last two weeks have been spent cleaning, sleeping, doing laundry, watching little siblings, and reworking a story I've been writing on and off since 6th or 7th grade.

However, while thinking about knitting, I stumbled upon a knitting kit on KnitPicks.  And it looks kind of amazing.  No, it looks really amazing.  KnitPick's Sock Cocktails.  Lately, I've been in the mood to knit a pair of socks.  There's just one problem:  I don't have sock yarn. This must be remedied.

Peace out, people.  Have a nice summer.