I am head-over-needles in love with this curvy cabled cardigan from this pattern book.

I might be very sad if I can't make a cardigan like this one.  It's been beguiling me since I first laid eyes on it a few weeks ago during a stroll through late summer postings on Brynne’s blog as she was knitting up a shop sample for Yarntopia: you can see her modeling it here. I may have to get it online - my LYS said there’s no distributor for these in Canada.

This really is the only pattern from the book that’s making me drool, so maybe I don't need the pattern. I just need that curvy cabled shaping. Maybe I can use it as inspiration and re-invent one of my own on similar principles?... I want to modify it anyway for a more open neckline, probably a V-neck, and for an appropriate gauge with whatever yarn I choose from the stash.

That's right. You heard me. I said: "from the stash". I'm not buying new yarn for this one. It's tough, and we'll see how my willpower holds out, but I'm trying to cut back on yarn acquisition, at least briefly. (Sob!) I need to be more responsible and leave the wallet at home when I go to S&B - I can't seem to exit my LYS something fiberlicious following me home. It's not just a question of cashflow. I'm having serious yarn overflow issues in the house and if I don’t start using significant quantities of the stash ASAP I’m going to have to start keeping it with the root vegetables or in the freezer. Maybe the microwave...?

To be totally honest, yarn is not the only thing overflowing around these parts. 2D Girl posted that she has been industriously uncluttering her nest. I'm simultaneously impressed and envious. Maybe I can convince her to bring some of that healthy clearing up energy over to my 3-D house of stuff? I could use a good push to purge this place, if only to make room for orderly storage of my stash!

Actually, we've got so much stuff (how much stuff do you have?) our stuff has stuff, and it's parked three deep in every room. We have stuff in the living room and kitchen, the bedroom, "spare" room and the basement, everywhere. There are books, papers, clothing, shoes, electronic devices, magazines, more shoes, collectibles, art supplies and half finished projects, still more shoes, and of course the yarn and the comic book collections.

You know the drill: Bend, lift, carry, sort, sneeze, purge, argue, clean, reorganize, vacuum, etc... It's a good idea but the process means the house is a much greater mess than usual, as I move things from one room to another to get at what lurks behind/beneath. Maybe George Carlin was right and we just need a bigger house for our stuff to live in. And if we're nice to it, maybe it'll let us visit.

"That's all your house is: a place to keep your stuff... Sometimes you gotta move, gotta get a bigger house. Why? No room for your stuff anymore." — George Carlin (1937-) U.S. actor and comedian - Quote from A Place for My Stuff (1981).