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.  

Over Done

 Today I tackled some deep cleaning, tossing and redoing a bathroom to make it less cluttered.  Gone is the magazine rack that held magazines and wash cloths.  I used to go through about 50 wash clothes a week with Eric, now that I am only using them to dry my hands I don’t need that many out anymore.  All the wash cloths are either in a drawer or have been reassigned to other uses.  The counter is far nicer to look at. 

At lunch I was able to open a fresh jar of peanut butter for the first time since January. I am not sure how much of that is contributing to my current level of hand pain. 

I had so much recycling going to the bin that I asked John to carry it all out. By the way he was more than happy to help carry it out.  I wanted to do more cleaning and tossing. My body said it was nap time. My hand said “what did you do to me?” Yep, I might have been too gung-ho on the cleaning front today.  

We also went dryer shopping today.  We tried to shop local first, they said it would be about 10 months to get a gas dryer I wanted.  Then we went to a big box store and got the same dryer to be delivered this week.  Guess which store we bought from?

I also filled one box for Goodwill for good measure.  

A Home Run

 I think I am keeping my local department store in business.  I bought 3 more pairs of pants in a smaller size today.  They were sitting at center waist today.  I expect that in 6 to 8 weeks they will be at the base of my rib cage. If this trend continues once spring arrives, you will see me in almost nothing but dresses.  I can wear a shift type dress down through at least a couple of sizes.  Although since I bought all but one of my dresses before I started losing weight I will have to try them all on to see if they still work  That should be at the end of next month. 

I am still trying to figure out how I got my step count for the day over 8,500 steps.  I have not seen a number like that in a long time.  

The stitches came out today.  I will have to start physical therapy at home in earnest tomorrow.  My hand is still sore. I did not try knitting yet.  I did a bit of spinning though.  

John did the tall person thing today. We cleared half a shelf of books that we no longer need.  I even found a 1st edition on Goldwater from the 1960’s in good shape.  I will see where it belongs next.  We even found my day planners from 1994 and 1995.  I will shred them.  Since almost everything is so last century, I don’t think anything will be useful.  

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.  

A Good Day

 I am starting to feel human again after my hand surgery on Friday.  I was a little more active today.

I did some very light deep organizing.  I filled 2 bags with books for Goodwill and 1 bag for recycling.  By the way I am now at 3 bags of books leaving the house with a few more places to go through this week.  Since Goodwill will no longer get the things out of the car John will take the Goodwill load in.  

I was able to do a very little bit of spinning on a small Turkish spindle.  I am very anxious to start creating again, however, I will take it very slowly until the stitches come out.  

John went with me for the fruit and vegetable run.  It went very smoothly.  

Knitting Magazines

 I wish that I had discovered sooner in my knitting career that I don’t like to knit fussy knitting projects.  I am almost at the end of going through 8 feet of knitting magazines. I am honestly keeping less than half.  I am afraid that I many have more than one copy of some magazines, because friends gave them to me saying that I would look cute in a certain creation.  With the very odd hours and long days spent taking care of my wonderful children, husband, elderly family members, volunteering in the community and running a house I did not have the leftover brain power for anything fancy.  Sleeping was a luxury back then.  

Now that I have the time.  My hands are tired and wonky.  I don’t knit socks anymore.  I really don’t use small knitting needles much anymore except to get knots out of yarn.  I am also changing sizes so often that once I finish one part of a big project it will be to big for me.  I have a couple of sweaters on the back burner when my body gets to the size it wants to be.  

So for now it is shawls for me in smaller sizes. Spinning yarn on drop spindles.  Scarfs and hats for charity projects for kids once I can manage smaller knitting needles.  We find out about the next hand surgery this week.  Then it is physical therapy at home and gradually starting knitting again with lots of breaks.  

By the way, if you are looking for an older knitting, crochet or spinning magazine just ask. I might have it.  They are going for 50% off the list price except for the ones that sold for less than $5.00 from so last century which go for the original sale price. Yes I even have some of those.

Surprisingly, once the space is cleared and a bit of reorganization later the space is filled.  Things are looking neater every day.  

Busy

 I was on a roll this afternoon.  I managed to free up a lot of shelf space. I am dropping a few books off at our little free library this weekend. I listed more books on my Ravelry library destash page.  I have about a foot stacked of magazines and books to list tomorrow. I am also organizing by craft and author. This has lead to finding a few duplicates in my collection.  Not a good thing.  I know after this wild first cut that I will be able to winnow my collection down some more.  I also have sock knitting DVDs that I will try to list somewhere, as my hands no longer like smaller knitting needles. 

I will be going through all my cd’s this weekend. If Bookman’s no longer takes them they will be going to Goodwill.  

I think all this extra energy is coming from losing a bunch of weight.  

Moving Forward

 I had the energy to do a mini cleaning spree this afternoon.  So I can say 4 storage tubs are gone. Well actually 3. One dropped and cracked and since it had no recycling number on it we threw it away.  So I guess it is actually 4. I have 2 more bags of quilting material, mostly kids fabric going to a friend who works with 3 different church quilting for charity groups.  Spinning fiber going to 2 friends.  Yarn going to a bunch of people.  Also 2 more boxes are ready to go to Goodwill.

It feels good to share. I want to get my projects down to a reasonable level. The arthritis in my hands is not getting better. So I will make the transition to work on only things that I want to do. Yes, I will still knit charity hats and scarfs because they bring me joy.  I get to create pretty things and send them into the world.  What could be more joyous than that?

I found a tub of yarn for my charity scarf project too.  Knitting will have to wait a bit longer though.  The stitches got infected.  I did go to the doctor and have to take antibiotics until the bottle is gone.  We caught it early before much harm was done.  My hand is a little more sore this afternoon.  

I am also going to de stash 2 more spindles.  These are pretty Turkish spindles in layered wood.  They are going to be looking for a new home too.  They have been lightly used. They are pretty and spin well.  They just don’t fit in to my herd anymore.  I just have to figure out where to sell them and determine the price.  

Just Spinning

 Today was definitely a spinning day for me.  By the numbers. One bobbin skeined, washed and thwacked.   One very heavy bottom whorl spindles project was finished. I could not spin more than 6 inches before it stopped spinning or the weight was too much for the yarn.  I need to research this type of spindle more.  By the way the yarn was skeined, washed and thwacked.  One skein of cashmere was plyed, skeined, washed and thwacked.  

This evening I went on a spinning basket hunt.  I found 5.  Yes 5 spinning baskets.  One small basket was left with a project and multiple spindles. The other four baskets were brought to the den to empty and sort out.  I landed up with 2 empty baskets.  Then I went on a hunt for sampler roving and batts. I found 4 bags which were all put into a bigger empty basket.  My plan for this fiber is to pull out different colors that will go together and make one of a kind skeins of yarn.  My first one is yellow, pink and green. I should be amazing.  The fiber that is not spin able will go to do pillows.  Life is to short to spin crappy fiber.  I also landed up with 4 more empty bags.  

I also did more spinning to night. I have just a little more fiber to add to this before I ply it, skein it, wash it and thwack it   

The empty project bags better be careful or I might just fill them up with yarn and send them to new homes.  I am not kidding about this.  

The picture below is the heaviest of my drop spindles. I mentioned it in the first paragraph.  If you know anything about the maker or spinning on a spindle like this let me know.  

More Zenning

 If it is all possible, I am doing more Zenning around the house. It’s a good way to end the year. I figured that the first day back from vacation was the best day to start.  At breakfast I made my to do list, which was not comprehensive.  I started with the den fireplace and removed all my spinning and weaving projects and supplies. Everything has a new home.  Even the skein of yarn that went to the Goodwill box  

This lead to needing more shelf space in the knitting room. So I went on a Sugar and Cream hunt. I almost filled a 32 quart box. I decided not to finish the 2 blankets in the bag so they went into dog pillow stuffing.   They were not even a complete block of a 9 block pattern.  Sometimes to move forward I need to let go of things that are not in the least bit useful.  I have learned that it is not necessary to keep or complete every project, or reuse the yarn.  I even put the knitting needles and accessories in their proper homes. 

I came up with an absolutely brilliant idea for a color combination for my next pounder scarf.  So I went on a hunt for black worsted weight yarn. The black combined with a very bright and bold variegated yarn will make a nice one of a kind scarf.  I will be winding additional skeins of black worsted weight yarn tomorrow. The scarfs after that will either be black and white or a scrappy scarf of many colors. I have the first 2 1/2 rows knit and I am in love with the combination of yarns.  I also finished one hat and another pounder scarf tonight. I call them pounders because each weighs in at at least 17 ounces. They are also 6 feet long, which is good for a cold climate.  Pictures are going to happen tomorrow. 

The most interesting part of the day was watching John.  When I finished cleaning up the fire place, he had to do more dusting and tie up the cables to make things look even better. He then went on to his own cleaning agenda.  I can’t wait to see where this leads us.  

Well my typing hand is getting really cranky so I will call an end to this post.

Helping Younger Artists

As an artist I know how a fabric store, big box craft store, local yarn shop, local bead shop, you can fill in your favorite shop if I failed to list it can be like a Candy or Toy store to a kid.  I really get that. Finding projects to do is an art project in it self. Completing that purchased project is another project in it self.  Which leads to the beginning of a conversation with artists over the age of 60. Yes I did say 60.  

Now is the time to evaluate all your art supplies. You need to start asking rational questions like am I going to finish this project? Do I still love the project? Was this project a splurge because you weren’t feeling well? Did you buy the project when your kids were little and you knew you’d find time to make it for them? Do I still want to do the project? Does your kid want the completed project now that they are adults? That fabric was lovely and I know I can find something to go with it, but never did. I love the yarn, but I’ve torn out that sweater three times. I am not teaching that anymore, do I still need to keep the supplies. You can add whatever questions you want here. I know everybody’s will be different. The item was on sale for a really good price.

I don’t expect you to do it in a day, after all it took decades to accumulate all these supplies. However, you aren’t getting any younger. Your spouse and kids are hoping that you’ll get rid of a lot of it. My humble suggestion is to divide your art into different areas. Focusing only on one drawer or one tub at a time will make the job easier. I have a 5 minute Zenning rule that I go by. I set the timer to 5 minutes.  If at the end of 5 minutes I am frustrated, I stop. If at the end of 5 minutes, I am into it I keep going.  I know I’ve been doing this for a couple years now, so I feel like in talk about it. This is an evolving process. You might look at some thing 10 or 12 times before you decide to either finish it or it Has to leave the house or the studio. 

When it leaves you have many options. You can amass stuff and having a yard sale, I did not find this very successful. What I did find successful was gifting to friends. Gifting to mothers with young kids who wanted to learn a craft but had no money to buy supplies, Be sure to try to doing this when we are not on holiday surge postage it will save you about 20%. You can give some of the simpler items to adult day programs.  You can send upscale supplies to younger artists who have no money for supplies. You can Donate to Goodwill. I have a friend who I know I can give lots of yarn to for other weavers.  You can use yarn or material as package padding if you are sending a gift to a crafter. You can donate to church quilt groups, material is so expensive right now. I got rid of 2 car loads this way and the church ladies loved the fabric. 

I know that everyone one will have a different route.  However you choose to go on this journey is fine.  This is a journey that can be gut wrenching at times. Don’t beat yourself up for past purchases. Don’t beat yourself up because your eyes were bigger and faster than your hands. Don’t feel you have to do this in a day. I have been on this journey for almost 3 years. Remember to give bins away so you won’t have the urge to refill them. Redesign your work space. 

This will clear a lot of mental weight off your shoulders. You will start creating more when you know where everything is. You will have less UFO’s. You will feel better about you. You will have more time to create.  This will make you very happy. If it doesn’t, at least your spouse and kids will be happy. 

Sunday

 The day was spent doing a little cleaning, laundry,and knitting.  A lot of time was spent Zenning.  We also went to a store that claimed that they just got a shipment of Tilly hats and had one in John’s size.  A knock of is not a Tilly hat with proper ventilation.  A tiring but productive day.  

Less is More

 Getting rid of 2 car fulls of unwanted stuff combined with the yard sale has freed up space in the house and my head.  I now find myself wondering around the house putting things away or in the appropriate trash or recycling place.  

 Have also done some more fiber arts. Tonight I spun a little yarn, about a 1/2 ounce.  Finished project 14 for the year.  And worked on a hat.  

I am becoming a firm believer in less is more.  It’s just so hard to look at all the new spring yarn colors or look at the holiday Boxes for December and not order more yarn.  So I am in make more buy less mode.  It is so hard.  

I think I will drag the sewing machine out and bring it to the knitting room to make some dog pillows this week.  That should fill up my car one more time.  An free up more space.  

Going,Going,Gone

 I promised myself that what did not sell at the yard sale would be leaving the house on Monday. Well I was exhausted yesterday. So I organized the things to go today.  John graciously load up my car so I could drop everything off at Goodwill.  At Goodwill the very nice employee unloaded my car.  It looks like I was not the only one doing spring cleaning.  There was a constant stream of cars  

Because it was the beginning of rush hour, a misnomer in Tucson.  Rush hour starts at 3:00pm and ends around dinner time.  I decided to turn right instead of left.  It was a good choice in the end.  I took Glen to Stone and went north on Stone.  Right at Prince a couple of fire trucks and an ambulance started turning on to Prince.  My guess there was an accident at 1st Avenue and Prince.  This is because the fire station is at 1st and River.  The accident must have messed up southbound traffic too.  I was so glad that everyone pulled over and we all let each other back into traffic.  This is rare in Tucson.  

I came home and vacuumed the back of my car. John loaded the back of my car for tomorrow’s charity drop off.  I am too tired to do much.  I hope that there will be knitting tonight.

Here is the picture from today.  The car is a lot smaller than the van, but I still got a full load in.  

A Fantastic Day

 Today I had my 1 1/2 hour targeted back yard sale. It was one day by appointment only.  I sold out of grab bags.  No additional discounts were necessary.  I sold a few cones and house hold items.  To make it easier on me, I will not be running around Tucson to try to get extra cash out.  I will divide it between 2 Charities, and either John or I will drop it off.  The house already seems emptier without the yarn grab bags.  

This is so freeing to get useful clutter out of the house.  Yes, the items are still very useful.  No, I don’t need them anymore.  So off it goes back out into the world.  

Yes 80% of that pile is gone and off to new homes   Hooray for us!!!!!

The Minutia

 I am getting down to the minutia off the cleaning and stash busting project. I went through the last tub of yarn that was in the house.  I am actually going through stitch markers and getting rid of the ones that I don’t like. I will pass them on.  I am now actively searching out bags that I keep my knitting accessories in.  With the exception of the hat knitting bags, I am going to try to have one multi purpose roll.  Wish me luck on that.   

I lost one plastic tub do to the fact that  a bag of yarn I had in a tub was exposed to moth balls.  I threw away the offending 4 skeins of yarn.  I am going to try to remove the moth ball chemicals. There ere several methods to try. I have the first one going right now. I am trying to neutralize the chemicals with baking soda.  If that does not work I will try vinegar.  It takes about a week. What I was most surprised about was that I had de stashed so much yarn that losing the use of one tub did not make a difference. I did not have to go buy a replacement.  Since the offending tub was less expensive than the yarn we are more inclined not to get the chemicals of the moth balls out of the plastic and just toss the tub.  

In more exciting news I was able to move all of my hidden yarn into tubs. I moved it into other places that I can see it.  No longer have a larger wicker chest filled with yarn. It is also leaving the house.  I did forget one area of projects but I will finish that after the table is finished.  

Now even more exciting news I walked for over 10,000 steps while cleaning house today.  Since I have a room to finish tomorrow I think it’s time to call it a day.  

More Cleaning and Organizing- It Never Ends

 I was in the mood to clean today. So I am filling up a few trash and recycling bags.  I also included 2 loads of hand wash and 3 machine loads of laundry. I am still not 100% so I took breaks for knitting.  I also found my box of stitch markers to repair, so that will be added to my to do list.  I also put a few things away, but more is leaving than staying.  

Since we are not on a busy street I made 50 Halloween gift bags and have the candy ready to put out.  We are doing a no contact trick or treat again this year.  John will decorate in the morning.  I have decided that John will bring all the left over candy to work with him to leave by the coffee pot.  I just have not told him yet.  I am sure it won’t be a problem.  

Unintended Cleaning

 I was so tired that all I wanted to do was take a nap.  Instead I organized my tea cups and tea.  I wonder if I could really justify a couple of me Pawley tea cup in the 30 ounce size? This is just a thought.  I gave the plants some of the expired tea. Plants that are not native to the Sonoran Desert need a boost of caffeine a couple times a year,  I am sure that there are other things that they like in the tea too.  By the way coffee works just as well if you don’t drink tea.  I was left with 2 bags of recycling, 2 bags of trash, 1 1/2 shelfs of newly freed space, no tea cups on the counter, tins for an art project and a lot of happy plants. 

On the me side I got 3,000 steps while cleaning. If I thought I was tired before I started, we’ll after I finished I was just to tired to move.  I still feel it hours later.  I hope tomorrow is a good body day, I could really use one about now.  

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. 

More Zenning

 I spent 2 hours going through all my knitting needles.  I now have 2 full vases less of straight needles. They are now organized by height and size.  I have a dozen less circular knitting needles too.  I also filed the ones I have used since Teri’s last visit and she does not even have a trip planned.  I must have earned bonus points for that.

Next on the list is pairing down my double pointed knitting needles.  I am sure I have a few too many of those too.  As for today I am way to tired to start.  When one reaches a certain age, one, namely me should not sit kris cross applesauce for as long as I did today. I did manage to stretch out my hip muscles and tendons though.  

After dinner I will work on Tinker.  This version will not be the final version.  Since it’s not the final version I will show pictures when it is finished. I am almost halfway through, so I will finish the blanket then send it off to a good home once I have a couple of boxes of hand knit blankets.  It might be a while because it takes mr 6 or 7 days to knit a blanket.  

Below are my knitting needles already for a project.  It is much more organized