Visible Progress

 The floor of the knitting room is now cleared of all but one basket.  The baskets all have shelve space.  The one basket that does not has my Navajo spindle in it.  I currently do not have any shelve space in the entire house that could possibly accommodate it.  There are also No project bags on the floor. All the project bags are either empty and placed in storage, hanging on a hanger, or last but not least on a shelf.  

Rumor has it that a certain robot is willing to vacuum the entire knitting room floor for me tomorrow.  

Don’t get me wrong there is still work to do in the knitting room.  While cleaning I opened various project bags.  For each bag I went through the matrix below. 

1. Keep the yarn and pattern together. Then try to find time to finish it.  

2. Keep the yarn for another project.  Give the pattern away.  

3. Prepping the yarn for woven or knit charity scarves (non Superwash wool). Prepare the yarn for knitting charity hats ( Superwash wool or cotton). Some of my hand spun yarn is going into both sets of projects. 

4. Put the yarn into the Goodwill box.  

I have not gone through all my project bags yet so there is still more work to do.  I have enough yarn for almost a dozen hand knit scarves prepared.  Also enough for at least a dozen shades of blue and green woven scarfs.  Yes while I was organizing things I put the yarn in color palettes for weaving.  

Did I mention that I have a huge pile of circular knitting needles to put away too.  That should take a couple of hours at a later date. Most likely when I need a certain circular knitting needle and can not find the right size. 

I even found time to work on a new knitting design and a few rows of weaving. I was not cleaning all day because I am recovering from the latest sinus infection and the beginning of the….wait for it….post getting sick arthritis flare up.  

TTFN. It’s time to call it a day.  

Project Bags

It is my very humble opinion that project bags need to be washed when the start to look dirty. If you are anything like me, you put your project of the day, notes snacks and a whole lot of other stuff.  When I finish a big project I usually empty the bag. Hat bags are emptied when I switch from cotton to wool or wool to cotton. If it looks dirty, I empty out the bag and wash it.

By the way the same should go for grocery bags too.  My rule of thumb there is if meat or raw fruits and vegetables  are put in the shopping bags it goes in the wash as soon as I get home.  I tend to like bags that go into the dryer too.  Your grocery clerks will like you for doing this too.  Did you know that your bags will last longer if you keep them clean? They will have less germs too.

At least several times a month grocery clerks ask me where I got the shopping bag if they don’t recognize the print.

Most of the time I have to say that I got it so last century when my daughter was a toddler or for a few in the early 1980’s.

The next question is why are they so clean? Don’t you use them?

My answer is that I use them a lot. I just wash them when they have, meat vegetables or look dirty.

So keep America clean. Wash your project and  grocery bags when they look dirty.  Make everyone happy.

Surprise!!!!

Today Eric has me up at 5:30am. What else was there to do but clean the craft room. So I finished winding so yarn and the went on to try to organize some craft bags. I put all the weaving projects together in on bag. Then it was time to organize the UFO’s of knitting projects. I found a lot of lace and sock weight yarn projects which were put in to a project bag together. I also found 2 more hats in progress, in separate knitting bags, which explains the shortage of 16 inch circular knitting needles earlier this year. The yarn has the equivalent of at least 5 more hats. So instead of sixty hats it looks like it’s going to be more like seventy hats or 6 dozen hats with the yarn currently in my hat knitting bags.

I really think that I need to trim that down to just one bag with hat knitting supplies instead of 3. In some cases I think 1 is better than 3. So the Zenning of the craft room continues.

Zenning Again

This week with the encouragement of my friend Vicky, I am taking zenning to a whole new level. I have started going through my craft bags looking for unfinished objects. Henceforth to be called UFO's. So far I have emptied one bag completely. Finished three scarfs. Did I mention create more small balls of yarn for hats? Found a lot of knitting needles. In my defense in the past when I had too many empty knitting needles I just cast on a few more projects. Stash them away in a craft bag until I was bored and needed a new challenge. This is why I have so many bags filled with UFO's.

I am going to try to eliminate the extra craft bags.  There are no guarantees here though. I have so many beautiful project bags. I now have a lifetime supply of large tote bags and project bags. Some I will pass on to new knitters that I teach. Some will be used for shopping, although since the zenning project began a few years ago, I am less likely just to go shopping if I am bored. I am more aware of what I bring into the house. I just don't buy more stuff. The exception here seems to be yarn, roving and tissue paper. After all I have spinning wheels, looms and knitting needles to keep busy, not to mention my idle hands.

Eric is having less bad nights since we discover that his vitamin D was contaminated. Last night was an exception. I was up with him until 4 am. Got a little sleep when he settled in. We both took naps this morning. I am still at the point where my energy reserves are completely gone. So I need to slow down a bit until they are back. A perfect time to sit and knit.

Now what to make for dinner.

More Progress

Today I figured out that I can have too many large bags to store small craft project bags. I emptied a whole bunch of bags and found at least 5 projects per bag.  John put he smaller projects on the shelf. I should have the craft room finished this week.  I also found more yarn for cotton hats while I was cleaning today, enough for at least 8 more hats.  I figure that if I complete at least 1 project per week, I should be finished in just a few years with the bulk of my projects and a few more tubs of yarn.  Did I mention that I also found 1 bag with at least 4 hats in progress.  Below is a picture of the 5 bags that I emptied this weekend.  

Help Needed

With the next phase of deep cleaning, I am going to need every ones help. If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that I am constantly creating new things. I have been hiding all the finished work in bags. In closets and drawers all over the house. Well John found just some of them. He was not to happy with all my "clutter". After a very gentle conversation it was decided that I need to fill up my Etsy shop with everything.

I will be putting as many finished objects a day in my shop as possible. I will have hand spun yarn. Hand sewn project bags and bibs, both regular and special needs. A lot of hand knit items not suitable for donation to charity. Some hand woven scarfs, my newest obsession. So if you can visit my shop and share my shop with your friends maybe we can have this next phase of cleaning done by the end of the month.

I will also have a de-stash section with yarn that I was in love with and now that I know a lot more about knitting can't really see myself using. I just love lace knitting, but with my current lifestyle I can not see myself knitting lace. So that is some of the first yarn to go. There will be other yarns and things as the month progresses.

What you will get are some very nice presents and useful everyday objects. Did I mention that the holidays are just around the corner. You can shop in your P.J.'s and have everything dropped off at your door.  What I will get is a very happy husband and a lot of closet space back..hum more closet space to store things...well maybe not so much.

So here is where the sale will be, https://www.etsy.com/shop/skaro964 . Please feel free to pass this on to everyone.

Empty Project Bags

Instead of finding places to stash UFO's it is time to get some projects finished. Today I managed to empty 2 project bags, 1 large one and 1 small one. I finished 2 blankets that are already spoken for and 1 kerchief.  It is now time to clean out the big bag and reload it with projects. 

I know that this is not exactly stash busting, but when most of the projects are done it will be time to start more. After all I will have lots of empty bags and knitting needles. 

Eric is having a bit of a rough night so it is time to turn my attention to him.  Have a great day.  

Being Creative Without Spending Money

My challenge this month for knitting guild was to come up with a very nice gift for our speaker without spending any money. To that end I cut up 2 pairs of worn out jeans, one from each of my kids. I then went on a fabric hunt through my quilting material to find larger scrapes of fabric that were the right color and size.  Then the pinning and sewing commenced. 

I have created 8 unique project bags for knitting, spinning or crochet projects. I also found 6 other larger pieces of fabric that could stand alone and made them into project bags too. 

Then it was off to the ribbon box to find the right ribbon or cording to finish the bags off. So after 2 days of sewing I have 13 bags for the speaker to choose from without spending any money. The rest will be sold off on a first come first serve basis. The project bags are all one of a kind. No 2 are exactly alike.  I like the fact that I could be creative with the bags. They are more artistry than production line ones too. 

The sad news from this is that I did not make a dent in my fabric stash. I only finished 1 spool of cording and only bits of ribbon. No spools of thread got finished either. I will have to work on that stash getting smaller too. 

Yes I know that 6 + 8 = 14, but I decided to keep one of the bags for myself. Here is a picture of mine at the top of the post. 

Project Bags

The thought occurred to me today that I do not have to many projects. Ok I see you all laughing. Now get up off the floor and finish reading this post. I have to many project bags. Yes that's right to many project bags. I don't want my project bags to get lonely,so I pick a pattern and some yarn. Then I cast on. I work steadily on the project until Tje next project bag says it lonely. So being the social butterfly that I am I just have to find some suitable yarn, a pattern and some needles. This is just to make the bag feel better I cast on yet another project. The cycle repeats it self dozens of times a year. This is why I have so many ufo's. Today I did get some work on various projects done, but nothing was completed. I am going on another UFO hunt tommrow to find more unfinished projects. Now if I can just find a way to make all those empty bags less lonely.