These days we hear a lot about the state of our economy and there are not many people I know that have not been affected by it in some way or another. As hard as it is to believe for some of us, yarn is not considered a necessity. I will give you all a moment to take that statement in.



We can not eat yarn, it does not typically keep your lights on, and cannot be knit in to money we can spend. But lately I have thought a lot about the benefits of knitting and other semi-free pleasures that make day to day life a little more bearable. If you allow yourself a yarn budget, depending on the amount of time each day you squeeze some knitting in, you could afford yourself hours of free joy!

1. Let's say you spend $60 on enough yarn to make a sweater(which is definitely possible) All you need to do is skip a $5 lunch out 15 days this month.

2. The free joy will begin.. 2 hours of fun choosing the pattern, scoping the internet for your favorite new free pattern or perusing you favorite local yarn shops books and individual patterns.

3. Then there is the actually knitting-you yarn is bought and paid for so this pleasure is also now free!
Let's say you allow yourself 1 hour of uninterrupted knitting every night-that would be in my dream land but maybe your reality if a little better than mine. Now you know some days your one hour of knitting will be replaced by work, a soccer game, an obligation, a headache, a phone call or any number of life's little events. So on a relaxing Saturday afternoon you may knit for 3 hours to make up the time! I am simply guessing it will take you 30 hours of knitting to complete the entire project-knit, blocked, and put together. That means for the entire month you have the joy of knitting that you have already paid for.

4. Then the sweater is complete and you are so proud of your new addition to your wardrobe. You can spend at least 30 minutes trying it on, modeling it for your family and patting yourself on the back..AT LEAST 30 MINUTES. I am a big on the back patter!

5.Then the wearing begins, depending upon how often you wear this garment, it not only can keep you clothed but you every time you wear it you have that inner warmth of pride and if you receive a compliment if is just another 10 minutes of free joy!



$60=Smile after smile after smile....

To Do List

Do you think it is bad that I am now putting "knit" on the To Do list? My knitting has remined untouched for 5 days! Changing my priorities right now...moving knitting to the top of the list. (Blogging may even find a space  on this list as well...

Let the Games Begin!

Don't forget...if you are a knitting athlete and participating in Ravelympics or In the Loopympics or both I have a free training kit for you today! Get ready to cast on during the Opening Ceremony!

One click away from a breakdown!

How often do you use your computer in an average day? My answer is TOO MANY! My computer went to techno heaven on Thursday and I have been in mourning! First of all, I reach for my computer approximately 88 times a day-just to help a customer, send an email, type up the class schedule, look up an address or a phone number(yes, I know there is a phone book) or even the occasional glance at facebook! That is a lot of "reaching" when there is no computer there. I have debated running In the Loop with a ledger and an abacus. Who thinks my accountant would love that? I mostly just wanted to apologize if I have been out of loop-which I obviously never want to be. If you are emailing me @knitintheloop.com, please know that is still a problem to be solved. The Febuary class schedule is on the blog and I have tried to contact most of you loyal knitters with my personal email! I have spent four days trying to determine what exactly was lost in with the beloved laptop. My insanity might be at the top of that list!

Don't forget In the Loop is turning 3 and we are celebrating on Friday the 5th-have a cupcake and a discount price! Cupcakes and yarn=heaven!

So far, so (pretty) good

18 days since my resolution...

10 days at the gym-okay

4 trips to the grocery,3 out of 4 trips with reusable bags- I would call that progress.

No idea if I have said no to anything. ..

Oops, pizza and a cupcake for dinner but it is my birthday!

Definitely not as resolved as I had hoped - giving myself a B - for now.

A New Year

So it is that time again, resolution time. I recently heard you should write down all of your resolutions and then choose one to hyper focus on. Here comes the list, I am going to give them all a valiant effort. Kinda like the throw spaghetti at the wall some of it has to stick. (for some reason, I do not think that is how that saying goes but you get my drift)
Here are my 2010 resolutions.
1. Always carry reusable bags to the grocery store. This is simple. Being married to Mr. In the Loop, a tried and true greenie, this should be an obvious habit. I have have even bought myself cute bags to carry to encourage the environmentally friendly diva in me but it is still a challenge.
2. Learn to say no. This may seem like a little two letter word but for some reason that one syllable often gets stuck in my throat. Mr. In the Loop and I both love to go and do. We have wonderful friends and excellent families. That being said I sometimes feel spread so thin that if my appearance reflected my feelings. I would be a waif thin model. (will definitely blog about this more at a later date)
3. Workout more...duh.
4. Eat better. Seriously, eat healthy. Got it? This is only the 14th year of this resolution.
5. Save more dough. I am not much of a shopper but I can get into a Target Hypnosis where I have no idea what I "neeeded" but it will be $100 or more, I know there are a lot of you out there that have found yourself in this zone. Just cutting a shopping trip like that out and maybe bringing my lunch more than 3 days to work would really give me more money in the bank.
So 5 ideas seem like a manageable number.

The most I can hope for is... if you see me in Target I will be wearing work out clothes, snacking on carrot sticks, and carrying a FEW small purchases in my reusable bag.
Wanna come closer to keeping New Year's resolutions? Put them out there on the worldwide web. Add your resolutions to the comments and I will try to hold you accountable, as I hope you do for me!