Catching Up

 I honestly did not realize that getting rid of 60% of my yarn and about 30 % of my spinning fiber with cause so much backend work. Now all my spaces need to be re-organized. I am doing it in 15 minute increments. I still have not gotten back all my energy from earlier in the year. But I can definitely see progress.

This is also leading to more knitting and Tunisian crochet projects getting completed. I have finished more projects in the past month than I have finished in the previous four months.

The Word of the Day is….

 I spent a lot of time doing the very hard work of what I call organizing/cleaning.  This means that while I am throwing away old magazines and papers ( 3 recycling bags full today ), I am also putting things away and filling bags for Bookman’s ( 2 bags today ).  I also dusted some shelves.  Put books away in the bookcases to fill up the space created by books going to Bookman’s.  Also organizing the current space to make better use of the space at hand.  

I have more empty space in some areas and more clutter in other areas. I matched up newly found patterns with the yarn for knitting.  I wish it was in my nature to be more organized, that way I would not have found duplicate books in different areas of the house.  

Honestly I can only do so much of this type of cleaning before I want to cry from exhaustion.  I do know that a lot of progress was made today, but enough is enough cleaning in one day.  I am too tired to spin any new yarn.  I an also to tired to read.  I may find a quiet place to knit. 

The word of the day is exhaustion.  

Filling the Car with DeStashed Yarn

 This morning I got into the garage very early, still in my pajamas to begin the last phase of my current de stash of yarn.  Included are novelty yarn, hand spun yarn and cones of yarn.  I filled 3 large plastic tote boxes to give to a friend to share with her family. Also one of the 3 tote boxes is newly emptied of yarn only to be filled up with yarn to give to my friend. I got to the garage a little after 6 am. By 7 am the garage was already in the 80’s and since it is monsoon season the humidity level is at 65% making the feel like temperature at least 5 degrees warmer.  

I had another small victory this morning  I landed up with an extra empty tote box. I set it to the side for later use.  The boxes in the garage are no longer in piles taller than me.  This takes a burden off me too wondering how I am going to use up all this yarn. It also gives access to fiber artists who have to normally drive miles and hours to get a very limited selection of yarn. This is a lovely win for everyone involved. 

I am normally a summer person who loves the hot weather.  However since I got sick earlier this year I have seemed to lost my tolerance for the heat.  I am hoping that it is just the medicine that I am currently taking.  I am doing my best to stay hydrated.  I am already at the 30 ounce of water mark for the day.  This is normal for summertime in the desert southwest. I don’t do sports drinks, but just plain water. For a treat I will add some fresh squeezed lemon juice.  I digressed a bit here.  

John loaded my car for me this morning.  As you can see from the pictures below my little pyramid of boxes did not all fit into the back of my car. I had to cover the back seat with a towel for the 3 rd box. I did say that they were the large tote boxes. They hold a whole lot of yarn. 

My plan to the rest of the day is to rest. Organize the house a bit.  Maybe do a load of laundry  or 2. Then do some knitting and spinning. 

As the days get shorter, I hope everyone is finishing up their holiday knitting projects. Also be sure to make something for yourself too. 

TTFN.  If you are not sure what TTFN means I would suggest a light summer time read of Winnie The Pooh. There is a 4 book series that were published between 1924 and 1928. They now come in a complete box set too. This would also be a good summer break from activities and just read with your children. 

Can You Solve a Mystery?

 What does me cleaning out my knitting room? Taking out 3 bags of trash. Putting things away. Cleaning up the clutter that is not art related.  Have to do with the picture in this blog? 

 Come back tomorrow for more clues.  

A Busy and Good Day

 Since I cannot knit, spin or weave right now I have moved into a major cleaning mode again. Today I started working on my jewelry making supplies.  Since I am no longer doing fund raising, I am no longer making earrings or bracelets those beads and supplies have to leave.  I am only about 60% finished, but I have almost filled a medium USPS medium flat rate box. To be weighed and listed on E Bay for gem show pricing.  

I am also taking the opportunity to switch out my storage space for my jewelry making supplies.  I have two new storage boxes in an effort to downsize from over a dozen containers.  I still have to go through a few more boxes.  I went through the beads first because there were just so many of them in so many boxes they were in.  I can say the beads have all been sorted.  I just have to decide how many findings to keep.  For those that do not make jewelry the findings are the pieces that keep the beads together.  

I made more progress in other areas too.  Yesterday I went through the coat closet. I just wanted to see if anything I stored in there because it was two small for me to wear at the time.  The good news is that I fit into 2/3 of them.  Only one did not survive the time in the closet. That particular year did not wear well.  Four pieces need to be hand washed, the others are now waiting their turn in the washer then the clothes line for drying.  So this round of new clothes is a continuation of shopping from my closet.  There are a few pieces that still have a few more inches to go.   I found this to be my personal happy dance time.   

Just a little peak of the beads I went through today.  This is only one of the drawers that I went through today.  

The Alternative to Knitting

 There is an alternative to knitting.  It’s is called cleaning house.  I did not do any heavy duty lifting. Most of the carrying and lifting was done with my left arm. Most of my current works in progress and the next up to knit have been put away. All I ask is that you refrain from looking into certain closets.  They just might resemble something akin to Fibber McGee and Molly’s closet.  No things really will not fall down on you, but they are a little more full than normal. Each project has its own bag.  I will pull them out one by one when my arm is better. 

I spent part of the day looking for a larger flax seed filled heating pad.  Most claimed to be all natural.  I have yet to figure out how polyester, fleece and the various fillings are natural. Granted that cotton and flannel have to be woven into fabric but I do consider them natural fibers because than decompose in about a year if buried in your flower bed. I am not even sure what the half life of polyester and fleece are but I am sure that it is longer than a year and puts nothing good back into the garden.  

I will try one more place tomorrow to find a larger heating pad. If they do not have what I am looking for, I will buy some food grade flax seed. Take some muslin from my fabric stash. Measure, cut and sew the inside piece. Then fill it with the flax seed.  Sew it closed. Make the outer cover so that I can take it off to wash as necessary. Most of the ones that fit my criteria had a delivery date of 2 to 3 weeks out.  My time to make will be less than 2 hours. 

My arm felt better in the morning. As the day went on the pain got worse. Every time I put the heat on my arm, I  fell asleep. To that end I am going to microwave the small heating pad that I have and go to sleep.  

I Feel Really Silly

 Today I pick up a knitting project that I have not worked on in 2 weeks. What did I find inside? My “lost” notions bag.  Which leads me to my nearly unattainable goal of having less works in progress, currently standing with least 12 in progress projects. No wonder I miss place things like a notion bag. 

My goal for 2024 is to have less knitting projects going at the same time.  To try to finish smaller projects within the week that they were started.  I will exempt weaving, and spinning projects, because by definition they do take longer.  Wish me luck.  

I will also try to get new knitting patterns out faster.  Meaning from concept to finish pattern in a more reasonable and realistic time frame.  

I find it hard not to start a new project on a whim.  Maybe starting a notebook to keep track of things might not be a bad idea.  Finish multiple projects before I start a new project. It would help me keep track of things.  This is another baby step on the way to being more organized and productive.  Wish me luck.  

Below is the project bag that was hiding my notions bag   

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.  

The 5 Minute Rule

 I used the 5 minute rule in my knitting room today. I can say that I went for an extra 10 minutes and organized my roving basket. Put a few things away too. John even opened the sticky note package for me. I even managed to get on full bag of hand spun yarn off the floor  the stool cleared of everything but shawls   That is another 5 minute project.  

I also managed to wash and air dry my 2 pairs of sleeping mittens. John moved them to a sunny spot outside to dry faster   They were dry by dinner time.  

I think I need some knitting time too. I have a few patterns in progress that really need to be finished.  

 Tomorrow I will try to spend 5 minutes on another shelf.  

Send more energy please.  

One Project Finally Finished

 The bookcase in the den is finally finished.  Even dusted.  Before you ask the cookbooks are not in any order. It still shows that I am missing one of Julia Childs cookbooks.  The cookbooks are not organized in any way. Not by region, country or regional style. They would not pass the library test.  

What it is about is being dusted. No books stacked on top of others.  Junk removed.  Parts of audio books tossed if the other parts could not be found.  In general neater.  

That being said the fiber arts books are organized.  John’s shelf was camera shy.  

Getting Scrappy

 After a busy day of organizing yet again.  Some day I will finally be organized, I hope.  Then listing things no longer needed on eBay, Raverly, Facebook and Instagram.  Then selling and packing the boat shuttles that I just listed. It was time to listen to a book and knit.  I am currently listening to Glass Houses by Louise Penny. I am not listening to the books in order from the library, I just get them when I can.  They are very good books. There is also a Television series on Amazon Prime called Three Pines which I highly recommend.  

You know if you have been reading my blog for a while that I am obsessed with knitting The Stash Dive Scarf by Summer Lee Designs.  So I have mid sized basket of smaller skeins and bits.  Single skeins too. Since I am using 2 strands of yarn I am making the newest one as colorful as possible by blending colors.  Letting one yarn go through several smaller colors.  The central portion of the scarf will be longer color ways.  The ends will be very colorful to say the least.  This is from the last 2 days of knitting.  I think I am going to break it down into 2, 24 inch segments at the beginning and end with the center section being 26 inches.  These are more or less measurements depending on the yarn in my basket.  

Not to Plan

 The day did not going according to my plan.  I got up early to go to an out doors artist market and museum activity.  By the time I was finished with breakfast, it was raining. So on to plan B.  I went through my fiber closet and decided want I no longer wanted to spin.  This will be divided between two friends. The extra empty bags will go to the knitting guild. 

Well one thing lead to another and I decided to go through the rest of my inside yarn stash. The net result is more craft bags leaving the house for other people to knit charity projects.  One empty 36 quart tub. I also managed to get both larger suitcases in the cleaned out spot.  The smaller one is stashed in the larger one and tucked into the corner of my closet.  This took one thing off John’s to do list.  

Did I mention the best part yet? I guess not.  I will be having a stash down sale in different areas of Ravelry.  There will be books, weaving shuttles, 2 Turkish drop spindles, knitting kits and yarn.  Most will be priced to sell fast.  These are things not suitable for Bookman’s or Goodwill.  I hope to start listing things tomorrow.   My excuse for today is the antibiotic wiped me out.  After this morning’s cleaning spree and lunch I took a nap.  

Done with Coasters for 2022

 I wove the last coaster for the year.  So after dinner I cleaned off my work table.  Packaged all the random yarn into bags by color. Then reorganized the weaving cart.  I have 1 3/4 trays filled with bags of yarn.  One loom and all the smaller weaving tools on 1/4 of the second tray. The top tray had the larger small loom and the warp.  I was told if I put everything thing away in an organized fashion, I would be more productive in the long run   

You might remember that before I started this small weaving binge for the mudd rugs aka coasters I had all 3 trays overflowing with small skeins of hand spun yarn.  This is a good thing.  Coasters are leaving the house as gifts. Well almost all of the coasters.  I did fall in love with 2 that I will be keeping.  

I also tinked a summer top that I had started.  With the rate I was knitting compared to how fast the inches and weight are leaving.  It would have been too large to wear before I even finished the back.  So after tinking the sweater, I cleaned out the bag.  I replaced the yarn with a skein of yarn to make a shawl.  I choose a pattern that will look good no mater how much weight I lose.  Even losing a few more sizes it will still look good.  

So this is how I left my small weaving cart. The small carrier bag is for yarn scraps that will go into future dog pillows.  No I have not organized the entire room yet.  I project at a time.  

To Clean or Not to Clean is a Silly Question

 Will the deep cleaning ever stop?  That is a question that I have been asking myself a lot lately. It seems the more I organize and the more I get rid of the more there is to organize and get rid of. It seems like when I get one layer removed another layer pops up.

I was very clever in my organizing today. I managed to combine 2 boxes of quilting supplies into one box. That gave me a free box to bring sewing supplies to the garage.  I also combined all my fabric into one box that already had a space in the house.  That leaves the odds and ends to land in the right shoe box storage containers.  Then I can find a place for them. I also started a new box for Goodwill.  No new boxes were needed today which is a very good thing. Less boxes equals less stuff. Which equals more organization. Which equals more progress. Which equals more time to make and creat more donations and new patterns.     

For the other room, I have ordered 2 storage chests with 3 huge drawers each.  That will give me room for my spinning supplies and other loose fiber related items.  One is almost a direct transfer, the other will hold additional items.  I hope by Friday I can have both rooms finished.  

I am 1/3  of the way Into  a new scarf and have already used 6 skeins of yarn.  I must admit that 2 of those skeins were started tonight  so I still have at least 6 skeins more to finish this scarf. Hopefully it will be finished soon   

Then maybe I can take an online course Saturday and play with some beads after I put other rooms in order.  

Starting to Feel Better

 I am just starting to feel better.  I found getting things done 30 minutes at a time helped a lot. 2 plants got new pots and John planted a cactus out front for me.  My new sheets got washed replacing a set that I wore out.  I also started but did not finish a new organizing project, I have finally found a place to put all the masks and stuff. I think COVID19 will be here for a while. 

 I did start a new scarf today, so far I am liking that it is a stash buster.  I am 20 inches in and have almost used up 1 skein of sock yarn.  Yes, at one time I thought I would be knitting a lot of my own socks, not so much.  So I am always happy to find a pattern that uses sock yarn up.  I have also used up 1 1/4 skeins of worsted weight cotton yarn.  The cotton yarn is good for 17 inches between color changes so I think 5 skeins should just about finish the scarf. After I finish the skein of sock yarn I will start on partial skeins to change things up.  I will have to finish weaving in the ends of the scarf I finished yesterday so I can drop it off for a friend to take to guild for me.  

Day 3

 I spent most of the day feeling awful.  This however is no excuse not to get things done.  So when I had energy I managed to do a little picking up around the house. 3 loads of laundry,  put away most of today’s deliveries. I almost finished a never ending scarf, it is just over 5 feet long, good for the northern Arizona winter.  I have enough yarn for 2 more, but they will be delivered next fall.  After dinner I started feeling better.  John brought in Japanese food for dinner. I had my favorite cold tofu for dinner.  

I will have to see how tomorrow goes. I am planning another light scheduled.  

10,000 Plus Steps Again

 Despite waking up to a bad body day, things went as smoothly as could be expected.  I fought with my body all day long.  I still managed to get laundry done, go through my craft books to decide which books need to go, I had some duplicates too.  When I got to tired to move I had an 18 inch pile of books to go. I Will try to get them listed tomorrow. I managed to get the 12 inch pile of new knitting books off my dresser too.  I also started organizing the books.  That will take more time.  I will probably destash more books through this process. 

We went out to lunch today.  Then shopping at Bryn Walkers 70% off sale.  If you have not tried their clothing line everything is made for comfort and made in The U.S.A.   So I go 2 pair of pants in a smaller size, 1 skirt, 1 top and 1 jacket for less than $200.  I love a good Ganga.  

I said I was going to save my knitting for after dinner. Boy did that backfire on me.  By the time I was ready to knit and watch television, my hands were to tired to move.  Well there is always tomorrow.  

Early December

Eric is just getting over the cold that he has had since last Thursday. John and I are very tired and trying to get too many things done at once. Can someone invent a 48 hour day for me please?

Holiday presents are going slower than I would like. I wanted to be done with a few more than none by this point. It did not help that my body needed rest today. Hopefully I will make progress tomorrow.

Deep cleaning has kicked up to high gear again. It's not like I have the time, but with itemized deductions disappearing next year it has to be done by December 31st. We filled the recycle bin to the point that it needed to be stuffed down yesterday. So that is some slow progress.  All the quilting batts have left the house and freed up some much needed room. Fifty percent of that is filled already. I also need to clean up a desk to turn it into an electronic work station for John. You did not think that I was going to play with the electronics did you? The electronic equipment has started to arrive. So I guess that I am way behind on that too.. I wonder how many drawers will need to be emptied?

Well tomorrow is almost here so it is time to call it a day.

Haircuts

We have decided that we will no longer give Eric advance warning for haircuts. He does any number of the following things and more to avoid haircuts. Stays up all night so we will be too tired to go.  Makes mountains of laundry that make the laundry room hard to ignore. Yes, when the laundry room hits knee deep, I will stop to do laundry. Yes Eric has been known to fill the laundry room knee high by himself over night, as he did last night.  Also by looking or acting sick until it is too late to head out for a haircut. That is the bad thing when he knows his schedule so well.

So besides laundry today, I zenned another drawer in my dresser. This leaves 1 empty dresser drawer.  Decided that yarn for a fussy blanket would go into hats instead.  We definitely do not need another fussy blanket around here. The yarn still needs to be wound into cakes. Worked on a knitting UFO. Organized my shirts by type, I am thinking that cardigan sets will be a separate group. Last but not least found more than a few hours to relax and nap.

Instead of heading to Goodwill as planned for today, John and I kept adding things to go to our ever growing pile of donations. I hope to have that out of the house this week.

Buttons

I love buttons. I have lots of buttons. I have been just throwing them in quart size jars without regard of size, shape, style or materials for years. This meant that every time I needed buttons for a project I had to sort through at least a gallon of buttons to find the ones I needed.

That ended today today when I was looking for four buttons to finish a scarf that I finished knitting yesterday. Because of a few decades of looking for the right button set, the buttons were spread over six different jars. So today I decided to sort all most all the buttons. Now I only sorted the loose buttons in the jars, not the ones in the boxes. I think I might just have a lifetime supply of men's dress shirt buttons. I have less children's buttons than I thought I had. I really should have done this years ago. I still have a few more buttons to sort. I am hoping that this will speed up the button find process for me.