More Organized

 The 3 boxes that I washed yesterday were put to good use today.  The boxes held just shy of 4 roving braids. The area used to be crammed to the bottom of the closet shelf and I was not always sure when I opened the closet door if everything would fall down.  As you can see the bottom of the closet shelf is not even visible.  I will count that as a win.  As I get more projects done I will be able to tackle more of the closet, 1/4 down 3/4 to go.  Just taking baby steps with my 5 minute Zenning style. I give myself 5 minutes, then choose to stop or work more.  I find myself working more now than when I started 5 minute Zenning.    I will be passing the vinyl bags to a friend of mine who doesn’t have to worry about things falling down, she has lots of space.  

As you can see the boxes look a lot neater with the added bonus of holding more.  I thought it would take me a couple of hours to do. I was done in 45 minutes. So after I see if I can order food to cook for dinner or will have to run out, I will just have to find something else to deep clean or craft.  

Another Way to Measure My Stash

 Another way my family measures my destash challenge is to count the empty storage tubs.  Between using stash inside the house and doing a whole lot of knitting, spinning and carding of batts I managed to empty these 3 boxes so far this month. I emptied 2 more boxes in June so I have 5 less boxes in the garage. They will be put to use in my Fibber McGee fiber stash closet.  In order to reuse them in the house I washed them inside and out.  The insides were really clean, but the outsides were dirty, with the one being in the garage the longest being a little muddy. They are now drying in Eric’s old shower, which was a great place to wash them too  

Starting many projects at a time and finishing one at a time, will mostly empty all the boxes outside.  The boxes inside will be pared down in time too. I can not see my self as a finish one project buy yarn for the next kind of knitter. So there will always be stash yarn in the house, just not a store full  

My mantra through this whole process has been “The one with the smallest stash wins in the end.” Plus it makes they family happier. 

70% Done

 I set a goal of finishing 100 projects by December 31, 2021.  Today I finished project number 70. Another charity Hat.  The only question now is when I will reach 100 projects, but how many over that I will complete. I am only counting knitting and weaving for this challenge.  No spinning or sewing, although I am still doing those too. You can peek at my Raverly projects page to see all the completed projects.  

The Baskets

 

These are the 2 baskets I was talking about last night.  The one on the left is mainly filled with small samples of yarn spun on one of my herd of drop spindles.  The one one the right is filled with odds and ends of warp from years of weaving.  Between the 2 baskets I am hoping to weave a lot of one of a kind scarfs. My hope is that none will be exactly alike.  By the end of summer I hope that both these baskets will be empty.  

I originally got these baskets for knitting projects because they are so roomy.  With a whole lot of weaving and a lot of luck that will happen again. You may also notice that the basket on the left has color coordinated  bags of yarn. If I have just a little yarn left after a scarf or 2 is finished, I can just add the next color pack to my working bowl of yarn.  

Scarf number one is finished and in the to go to the clothing bank bag.  I am almost finished weaving scarf number two.  Of course I am using weaving to break up my knitting, spinning, carding and chores.  I am hopeful that this will prevent body from burning out.  

Following My Hands

 I let my hands lead the way today. When they were tired I stopped and rested them.  I did manage to finish one more hat. Hot water treat and was a new handwoven scarf. The bonus of the day was warping the loom and starting another scarf. I have a basket of yarn and a basket of warp that I want to empty by the end of August.  That is if my body agrees with my plan.  It’s been a real roller coaster.  

Off the Loom

 This is my first scarf off the loom this year.  I am hoping to make a few dozen more for the clothing bank. 

Now you need to look at the fab.  See how nice the fabric is with the variegated warp verses the plan gray warp.  I think someone should be happy with it.   Now to tie the end wash in hot water with agitation, thwack, dry and trim.  Then wrap in tissue paper and put it in a box.  Repeat until my weaving baskets are empty.  

Arthritis Pain

 Some nights no matter how much I want to sleep, sleep does not come. Every toss and turn just brings a little more pain. I try to distract my brain with music or sleeping with the lights on.  Sometimes all that brings relief is more aspirin.  So I am hoping it will kick in soon as I have a busy day tomorrow.  

So I will just try to relax while I wait for the asp to kick in.  I will probably fall asleep on the couch, which is not goood for me but I will take sleep wherever I can find it at this point.  Wish me luck.  

Just Puttering Around

 Today was spent doing errands and puttering around the house.  Nothing massive got done unless you count an overflowing basket of hand spun yarn sorted into bags by color to add to the scarfs I am weaving with 1 off and partial skeins of yarn.  The ideal is to make the scarfs as color cohesive as possible and still be one of a kind works of art.  The mini hand spun skeins add a pop of color between larger skeins of yarn.  These should make nice presents for the kids   The clothing bank usually skims off my hand woven scarfs for holiday gifts. Since I know it will be the only gift some kids receive I try to make them special   

I have started a new hat today and am almost finished with the brim   

I still can’t figure out this COVID19 mask thing.  There are so many different numbers floating around and cases are up in our state.  So when out in public, I will continue to mask up even though I am fully vaccinated.  In matters of health and people being sick in public, is that if I had a nickel for every time someone got sick at home from an allergy, I would be rich.  

10 Inches

 I have noticed that whenever I warp any of my looms that I always stop at 10 inches of weaving the first day.  I also found that the British show The Great Pottery Throw Down, on HBO Max is a great show to watch while warping my loom.  So here is the beginning of my latest scarf which is going to the Flowing Wells SD Clothing Bank.  This is another of my great stash busting projects this year   I wonder how many scarfs that I can weave   

Winter is Coming

 After yesterday’s food debacle when the restaurant deemed that 11% fat was a low fat item, By the way my body says it’s not.  All I had the energy to do was 2 loads of hand wash and 2 washer and dryer loads.  Then it was a day of rehydration and knitting. 

 I am hoping to enough energy to spin some of my new mini batts tomorrow.  I would also like to do some more drum carding of fiber.  I also want to warp the loom and get some scarfs started.  As long as we stay home with the temperature heading upwards of 109, maybe higher. I will be staying inside. I hope I have enough energy for everything   

The hats pictured below are the 2 hats that I finished today.  Don’t worry the knitting needles are not lonely as I started another hat and a scarf   

Hyper Drive Knitting

 I have moved into my hyper drive knitting for the summer.  I am knitting with 2 strands of worsted weight cotton held together.  I use US size 13 knitting needles, so these go super fast.   I can finish between 1 and 3 hats a day.  These usually go to the younger children.  I hope by the time I finish this spree I will have one more empty storage box.   This one is 48 quarts and almost empty.   I do get a little crazy with the colors, the kids like bright and colorful hats. 

I usually use some cone yarn with the scraps of yarn from these hats going into regular hats for older kids. By the way, this is the 37th hat of the year.  I also have a full tub of 4 to 6 ounce skeins that I will use to add variety of these hats. 

Would You Believe?

 Would you believe that carding batts is this weeks strategy for cutting down my fiber stash. If it is not ready to spin it is harder to use up. Today I spent enough time to card a dozen batts using bits and pieces of fiber to make many one of a kind batts. I also did two bundles with 3 batts each that can be spun together for more yardage.  I have a feeling that I will be changing up my Louet Victoria to accommodate the smaller bobbins for the one of a kind batts. These batts will be spun up and used in scarfs for the clothing bank.  My carder needed a short break so I took a picture of some of the action.  

This is a batt of mohair.  The mohair might not go into the scarfs.  
 

Two Visitors

 Yesterday we had our first in the house visitors since last year.  My older sister and brother-in-law came by for a visit.  We had a nice chat, a couple of meals out. We also did a lot of knitting, the girls only.  The guys just talked.  All in all it was a very good visit. 

My Drum Carder

 I had to clean my Ashford Drum Carder after dinner.  I usually use a needle nose pliers, however tonight we used some of John’s 3D printer tools. I must say that they worked very good. So next time you need to clean your carder find someone with a 3D printers tools.  They made the job faster.  It is so much nicer using a clean drum carder.  

The End of an Era

 I have just finished emptying the plastic box I used to carry all my supplies for craft sales.  I will no longer be spending months of my time crafting for a solo charity fundraiser or taking part in fund raisers for charity. This is not to say that I am giving up all my charity work, just the shows. The shows take up 100’s of hours of preparation and a few hundred dollars or more in supplies, all to spend a whole day selling the items to make somewhere between a few dollars  to a few thousand for the charity. If asked and I have the time I might make a few items.  All the charity work was supposed to lead to a part time crafting career, but I found people only bought from me at charity events and would even call me to see if I would be willing to sell a high ticket item after the event was over and give all the money to charity.  They would even ask when my next show would be so they could get what they needed.  When I offered to sell it to them they would always say that they would wait for the charity event. This diminishes my work as an artist, to tell me that my work is only good enough for charity events and not to buy at other times.   

So I will be doing art for me. Doing what I love. I do have a very wonderful children’s clothing bank that takes what ever I make and finds a new home for my creations. This gives me greater joy than charity sales events.  I am making 1 child at a time happy and warmer.  

I will still teach knitting, spinning and weaving, because this also brings me joy. I will still be designing new patterns, as I like sharing.   I like to see people learn new things. Again this will be on a limited basis.  

The past 32 years has been hard on my body and soul.  I still have some issues that I am working through. I am tired. I have more issues with my body as I get older that need to be taken care of, I am moving slower than I was 3 decades ago and I don’t like that.  So this is the beginning of the me era until my family needs me.  

Ta Dah

 Charity blanket number 6 of the year.  

And the bowl of ends.  

Now off to do more knitting, spinning, weaving, sewing and deep cleaning.  

Done

 The never ending blanket was finished tonight, although I promised a picture it was too late and dark. I did spend 2 full hours weaving in the ends. I filled my tiny scrap fiber bowl up. I will take pictures tomorrow.  After washing I might be able to skip blocking because it looks good and all the edges are straight. 

I found the the blocks for the next blanket are so hap hazard that I will instead use one block for the beginning square of several different blankets. This is the “1” blanket someone left in my knitting basket at guild.  By the way this is a big no no.    I am using very small knitting needles for the next batch a US size 4 or 5. Much to small for a solid blanket. If you are a newer knitter please don’t consider any blanket with knitting needles smaller than an 8.  The yarn is so thin that I am using weaving warp yarn for the next series of blankets.  Thank goodness the squares are cotton.  

It’s time to call it a night.  

The Last Row

 I am finally on the last row of the never ending blanket.  The edging is 3 rows of Crocheted through the back loop.  After that I have a Googleplex of ends to weave in.   After washing and blocking it will go to a charity project.  Here is a small section of the blanket. 

110 Degrees Today

 Today it reached 110f at our house with 1% humidity.  It was way to hot to knit on the front porch or knit outside for that matter.  So instead I went to day 2 of the multi purpose room.  I am getting rid of stuff right and left.  I did not realize that I had 3 similar boxes for hand sewing, 1 for quilting, 1 for stuffed toys and one for repairs.  That was too organized for my own good.  I suspect the hand quilting box was started in 1985.  The stuffed animal box around the time Teri was little and 1983 for the repair box, because it was a prize for something.  

Well needless to say I am going through everything.  This all started because some of my 20+ year old plastic boxes began to break.  I thought that they were good for at least my life time because plastic takes 1,000 years to break down. So I am reorganizing everything.  Some going to Goodwill, a lot to trash and recycling and some to Bookman’s.  With what’s left behind being set up to be useful for me.  I did also find a lot of 12 inch rulers, at least a dozen, I am not sure what’s up with that.  Although I believe a crafter can not have too many rulers.  I will show pictures when I am done.  

I also plyed 2 skeins of super wash wool for summer hat knitting.  . I am trying to keep busy and get organized.  Wish me luck. 

51

 As of today I have completed 51 knitting projects this year. I think I am well ahead of my project 8.3 projects completed per month I projected in January. I am disappointed that I have not used more of my stash yarn up. Well there is always June.  This hat marks my 51st knitting project of the year.  This is also my 28th hat for the year. I should reach my yearly goal of 5 dozen hats knit for the clothing bank in no time.  I have been know to knit more hats in any given year. 

Bye-Bye Bibs

 Today I decided that I am no longer making special needs bibs.  All the supplies are heading to Goodwill with the exception of the cut up bandannas which landed in a dog pillow.  I have been trying to get myself to use up the supplies for charity donations.  After 1 1/2 years of trying John and I talked it over and decided it was time to let go.  Unfortunately for John that means another trip to Goodwill since he brought in a car full yesterday. 

!!! News Flash !!!

 There may be some hope for me.  I am actually knitting a summer top for me. My weight and inches lost is some what stable for now.  I started it this afternoon and have 3 inches of the front knit on the first day.  Shocking, I know.  How long has it been.  At lest a hundred projects ago.  At least a year.  I tend to knit fast.  I am at 47 completed knitting projects for 2021 so far.  My goal is a hundred projects, so I think I can quite possibly reach my goal.  

I have to admit that I still have 1 hat, scarf and blanket on the knitting needles as works in progress for charity. So I did not go completely to the selfish knitting side.  

Still Flared Up

 11 days later I am still dealing with my flare up. I probably won’t get all 14 scarfs done in 21 days. I have managed to complete 10. Which is 10 more than I had before.  I know that they will be needed and loved. 

I have had a few really bad days of just sitting or sleeping.  My body just to tired to move.  The brain fog is mind numbing. I really hope that I have turned the corner.  I have a syllabus to write on spinning silk. Think art yarn.   I hope enough people get the vaccine so we can get past COVID19.  I want to share my knowledge.  

Mother’s Day was fun.  It was full of eating, popcorn, chocolate and a couple of new outfits that we went into the store to try on.  I also have to find time to get my new glasses. They are ready.  I am hoping for a better day, one day at a time.