Zenning

Nothing but Zenning got done today.  All my knitting books fit on the allotted shelf space.  Now I just have to sort them by knitting,spinning ,weaving,crochet and quilting. I found another foot of knitting books that are ready to go to Bookman’s.  If they take most them I should be able to trade them for socks for my pet charity project.  They liked the last dozen pairs that I brought in.  Who knew that you could trade knitting booksthat are no longer needed for socks and make it a win for everyone. I also went through the rest of my Molly magazines. I decided that I did not need most of them.  So I will be sharing them.  I also managed to get my to read books all lined up.  No wonder I was too tired and too sore to knit today.

Delving Deeper - Less is Really More

Today I hit another level of deep cleaning. I started going through the note books that I started making 12 years ago as a new knitter. I tore out and saved everything the new knitter in me thought was important. Things like how to do certain stitch patterns. Patterns that I was going to knit. Patterns that other people thought that I should knit. To the very old knitting magazines that I just could not let go of. Things that were just plain neat to a brand new knitter.

Fast forward 12 years and the notebooks are a bit dusty. Some of the stitch patterns that I thought were so difficult that I knew I would need written instructions for if I was ever going to knit them. Now most of what got tossed I can do without thinking. They are also in knitting stitch dictionaries or on the web. Patterns for triangular shawls that were and still are so pretty, that do not look good on my body type, my shoulders are just too broad. Yes the boring rectangular shawls look much better on me.  To the very lacy patterns that 12 years later I can now knit, but do not fit into my knitting life style. To the hat and scarf patterns that I can knit while I am half asleep or busy talking, yes they got tossed too.

I still have piles of old knitting magazines to go through and decide which ones I want to keep. If there is an old or vintage knitting magazine you are looking for just let me know very soon. I might just have a copy.

I am keeping it very simple. I go through one notebook at a time or one pile of papers 6 to 12 inches in height. If I finish that and still have energy I go onto the next pile or notebook. Depending on the age of the notebook or pile of knitting magazines I toss between 30 to 70% of what I have. Now everything else can be condensed in an orderly fashion without having to buy or find more storage. This will be the third week in a row for an over full recycle bin too. I am going at my own pace, but I feel that some people want me to go faster and just toss without looking at everything. I am not quite able to do that yet. I know that in the end that I will have more room for fluff and yarn. That's not what my minions really want to hear, but I still have bins full of yarn and fluff in the garage that I would like to someday soon move back into the house.

So the short term plan is more tossing, gifting, knitting, weaving and spinning things in the house. The long term plan is to go through the things in the garage. So that in forty years or so whom ever is going to do the last cleaning of the house will not have to call yarn hoarder's anonymous to haul everything off to sell to other fiber people.

The Kitchen and Craft Room Remodel

The morning started sorting out spinning and knitting magazines and putting them in workable order.  By 10 am I finished with the spinning magazines and put the duplicates in one of the Bookman's boxes. I have more magazines than I thought.  The box that was suppose to hold all the magazines is just about full with the spinning magazines.  This is going to turn into one of those "If you give a mouse a cookie" projects. Now I have to rearrange more boxes so that I don't have to buy more storage contIners. I am also going through patterns right now.  I think that should take a day or so.  

While finding more containers, I found more knitting books. They just barely fit into the allotted spaces. After the major work is finished I need to find time to reread the books to decide which books are really wanted now. I have some that I bought as a brand new knitter that might not be as useful to me now.  

On the remodel front some walls were patched. A kitchen light was installed. And a little more painting was done, the rest of the painting will be done on Monday. I also took a picture of the inside of the new light fixture. Look how small the transformer is.  We also said goodby to our old fridge.  

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by Laura Numeroff is a delightful children's book that both of my children enjoyed. You will also enjoy the illustration by Felicia BondIf you have not read this book to your children or grandchildren please take time to do so.  

A Milestone

Today at knitting I was able to track down a pattern everyone was sharing from a supposedly out of print magazine.  I did not have the name of the pattern, only the designers name.  I then went to Raverly to find the name of the pattern and to see if I could buy a copy. The pattern was not available for purchase on Raverly, but it gave me the name of the 2012 knitting magazine it was in. 

So off to the publishers web site to find the pattern.  I first check under the free patterns, but no such luck.  So I went under the tab for old magazines. I did not find a hard copy but was able to find a digital copy for $1.75. So I bought a digital copy of the magazine. I got the pattern I wanted plus 19 other patterns for less than the cost of most patterns without denying a designer and a publisher of their money. 

In this age of the digital magazine, I would like to urge all my readers to check with reliable resources when looking for old patterns.  Please use places where you know if a designer chooses to try to earn a living selling patterns, that they have a chance. Not everything in life is free.  They have bills to pay too. 

This was accomplished all from my cell phone. A first for me.  It only took 10 minutes for all the research. Then another 5 to figure out their check out cart. I want to assure my readers that I was not hooked into the malls wifi, so I am hopeful none of my personal information was stored on the mall server. 

When John is available, I will down load the magazine to the computer and possiably the pattern to my I-pad.  By the way I also finished 2 hand knit items today.  It is time to put the last load of laundry I the dryer and head to bed.