I Think This May Stick

I decided to straighten out my office...pause while you laugh and try to get out "What..again?" without disrupting your respiratory system too much...done? I actually made some progress...pause while you pick yourself up off the floor.

I moved all the yarn bags, boxes and totes to one side of the room. They literally almost reach the ceiling. You know I am not going to show you that. But when I look at the other side of the room, I can actually see the carpeting. (This is not necessarily a blessing.) There were boxes that did not hold yarn, that I remember, and I decided that each morning from now until Doomsday I would go in and take care of just one thing. This morning was a box and I didn't think it had much in it so I went in the office with the idea of just picking up the box and taking it to the trash.

I should have taken a picture of what was in there: besides the copies of three movie DVDs I didn't even know were not sitting with the rest of the DVDs were some knitted items: a child's poncho, an adult sweater (small), a baby sweater (thought I sold it) a scarf - garter stitch, must have made that one a long time ago - and a book with patterns I didn't realize was missing from my shelf.

You know you are really into something when you have stuff you didn't know you should be missing. As it turns out, it was a good thing I went through the box and just didn't throw it out. One day I would have remembered something - probably the book - and would have made myself crazier wondering where it was. So, i guess I'm really into this knitting/crochet thing if I have so much stuff I'm surprised to see some of it.

I completed another square and it looks nothing like the photo - I mean nothing. The designer would have me drawn and quartered for wrecking their design. I do not have a sense of - whatever sense you need to be able to make flower petals in chain stitch. I do not have that kind of talent. It took me most of the day to learn how to chain stitch let alone try and get it to make flower petals. The square is cute in a 'this has no meaning or resemblance to anything that has a meaning ' kind of way.

It's not a flaw - it's a design feature.

Can You Believe It?

Before I even start, let me just say I know there were other alternatives. I know there were other things that could have been done. They would have delayed action and action is what I needed to take...even so, I am not at sure many (or any) of you will understand what I've done. But here goes.

Remember when I told how Mr. Honey emptied everything that was in my trunk into my back seat? I had a lot of stuff in the trunk including some newly purchased yarn and pillow forms. Well, I am not going to just put it all back into the trunk and I am taking Mr. Honey's advice to 'go through the junk in my trunk.' Every time I've had to go to the car, I take out something from the backseat and decide to keep it or toss it. When I got home from church, I took out a big paper grocery bag. It had a plastic bag inside of it and inside of the plastic bag was yarn.

Ugly yarn
Old, ugly yarn.
Old, ugly, 'who the hell thought that would be a good color, yarn
Old, ugly, who the hell thought that would be a good color, made of the roughest ply of wool ever to come off a sheep, yarn.

My mind ran through a myriad of ways I could use this yarn and I couldn't come up with anything that appealed to me and then I heard myself say out loud: "I don't want this."

Me.
Who would steal yarn from a knitting baby.

I took the bag and closed the car door and started down the walk to my house. Now I had two options:

Keep straight, go through the gate, walk through the backyard to the gate and place the bag on the garbage can.

Go straight, turn right when I get to the side door and go in the house and place the yarn in the basement until I run across a pattern calling for an old, ugly yarn in the stupidest colors ever thought up, in which case I would be set.

The Bears played a really good game today. They started off a little rough and then realized they were playing Cleveland and then started playing smarter. We were watching the scoreboard to see if any team would remain undefe....what?

Which option did I take?

I placed the bag on top of the garbage can in the hope that one of our nosy (and they are) neighbors who walk in the alley (and they do) will look in the bag, find the yarn, take it and excitedly run home to tell their spouse or significant other: "You won't believe it! Someone put this yarn in the alley. Look how soft it is - and what wonderful colors! Can you believe it?"

042904

Invincible! - Well, Almost

Excited, that's what I am. I had two sales this week. I sold two purses that were a special order..that's two wonderful things in one sweet package.

Two of the five bling purses I had for sale are gone off to someone who wants them..asked for them..requested them.

Two sales is good and when someone asks you to do something specific for them that raises you to the level of couture: you will so have to make an appointment to speak with me in the future - unless you become one of my posse, my crew, my entourage.

Even if you don't sell your stuff, it's really nice to have people ask you to make something for them. Especially if you're a knitter and you're going to have a stockpile of things - because that's what happens when you knit: things get made. It's good to have a place other than your own to put them. It is that much sweeter when someone is really to give you some legal tender.

Of course, that comes with responsibility - I will soon be posting an interview I did with someone on Etsy who - get this - has had multiple sales every day for more than a month. You read right, EVERY DAY, multiple sales - as in more than one, more than two. Looking at her shop and reading her interview has given me some ideas to help boost my sales as well as promote the handmade movement. (You know i multi-task whenever I can!)

The interview will be up on this site in short order and I am sure you will find Leanna just as inspiring, creative and modest as I do. In the meantime, my day is pretty clear except I am going to tackle the stash in my office. It's down to three boxes - remember it was about six - I am going to try and get it down to (gulp) zero to one and that one box will go in the basement with the rest of the stash. I know, I dream big.

It's So Easy

NOT!

I know, it's been more than a week. And what a week it's been. I started the new writing gig and truth to tell, it was more of a rough start than I'm used to - mainly because Handmade News is big news and I didn't map out the internal resources I needed to in order to do it all justice. So, I spent several restless, sleepless nights causing myself stress before beginning to calm myself down and put it all back into perspective.

Add to that, my online knitting group StitchCraft on meetup.com is growing! The last time I really looked, we had about 40 or so members - we are now over 70! So somewhere between stressing out over the new job and making myself crazy are plans to get that group together for a fun night. It has to be at night and it has to be planned right so I'm thinking somewhere in September when folks are done with summer and will want to pick up the needles to do the holiday knitting that will be just around the corner. This is a good problem to have but sometimes it's hard to balance the bad stress with the good stress. At some point, it's just stress.

But wait...there's more.

I think I told you our bazaar was successful. We had over $400 in sales. That's the good part. The not really bad but has to be dealt with part is that our supply of prayer shawls and afghans were seriously depleted. Baby blankets we have, but afghans and prayer shawls are practically sold out. Which means the group (of which I am a leader) has to have one or the other on their needles for the foreseeable future. And I do have one on my needles, but it's going into the shop. There's an afghan that's an expired listing that's going to the group.

There's good news...

My office is 95% organized. I can step into it and not have to step over a clutter bomb. The only boxes left are my stash boxes (now down to two!!) and the boxes of craft goodies I inherited from my mother in law. Not much left to do but vacuum the carpet, put the new speaker wires into the speakers and let Joe clean the carpet. Alas, it looks like an office instead of a craft room - but I smile every time I walk into it. Yes, when it's all done, I'll take a photo.

I will also take a photo of the beautiful afghan on my needles. It should be done sometime this weekend - I'm hoping for tomorrow. I would take a pic now, but it's 2 in the morning and the light isn't good. Besides, if I finish it tomorrow, I can take the shop photos and blog photo during the same session.

Forgive me for being away so long - I have missed you - but sometimes you have to ride the breakdown so you know when to get off.

Gracias a la Vida

Sometimes you just have to go by faith. I know God has a sense of humor. I know he knows my thoughts and has said: "I knew you were gonna think that a thousand years ago...still funny!"

I have a new goal. Sorry to say the sock phase has moved from my life. However, I will not just casually flip over a sock pattern in the future. I will now look at it can consider it the way I do other patterns and decide if I wish to do them or not. I believe this to be progress.

No, this new goal is something which will please me, please my hubby and provide me with increased efficiency and peace of mind.

I am going to clean my office. I mean really clean my office. Someone in one of the Etsy forums was so proud of their cleaning their space they posted a picture of it on line - for the entire world to see.

I want some of that madness. (No, I'm not competitive - what a thing to suggest.)

She asked to see what our spaces looked like - hear that, God is laughing again. I would like to be able to comply with her request but in order to do so, I need to get busy. So this is my new goal - and your job, dear friends, is to hold me to it. It is for my own good and the good of the community.

When Karma Taps You On the Shoulder

I can't go downstairs to get the camera because when I came upstairs, I told Joe I was coming upstairs to clean my office (which is a serious clutter bomb) and I was cleaning the office. I started in the corner that has the upstairs stash (that is no longer a stash.) These boxes here:
Well, oddly enough, I decided to go through the boxes to see what could be consolidated now that it wasn't a stash and therefore didn't need to be organized I am more willing to take a look at it.
You see in the photograph five garment boxes and a big storage box. If I had a camera upstairs (note to self, stick a digital camera upstairs) and if I took a photo and placed it here - you would see only three garment boxes and a big storage box.

The stash that is not a stash has shrunk!

I have comfortably consolidated yarn that it left me with two empty boxes! This is the cosmos taking immense pity on me and saying: "Dear child, we know you are trying your best so we will give you a hand here."

I know what you're thinking, but no, I am not going to fill these boxes with new yarn procurements. There are enough loose skeins on the other floor that can fill them, but I am not going to fill them with yarn at all. These boxes are going to find themselves over at Marilyn's house where I am certain she can use them (and I don't really care if she can't cuz they'll be out of my house!)

Now wasn't that worth stopping the work and telling you about?

I Don't Have A Stash

Imagine my utter amazement to discover I no longer have a yarn stash. I mean, if you've followed me even for a little bit, you know I have yarn bombs all over the house. There's yarn, in some degree, in every room of the house. I wouldn't be surprised to find yarn in the garage - I mean everything else but a car is in there.

However, this afternoon, I have it on good authority that I don't have a yarn stash.

A 'stash' according to Dictionary.com is something put away or hidden.

This - and the other twelve boxes or containers are neither hidden or put away. Therefore, not a stash.

No stash. Nothing to organize.

My work here is done.

In The New Era of Hope

I went to my office early this morning (all of a five second commute) so I didn't come downstairs at all until it was almost noon. I came downstairs to this:









The carpet needs to have the biannual carpet cleaning, and I really need to knit Duke a new bed, but that's not the amazing thing. The amazing thing is yesterday when I came down.

this and






this








and this







along with this







and also this







was all over this









I wish I could say it was all put in nice little cubby holes that would make Martha Stewart declare my house a 'good thing.' But it is not so. There are now little piles of things in the perimeter. The good new is there is a path so I can shampoo the carpet. And the better news is I can tackle one little pile at a time. The bad part (but which could be a good part because it involves inventiveness) is I need to create a space for my goods to be nicely stowed while they wait for me. My office is incredibly small. So the only space is to be found in the basement where my little gym is. I will not be sacrificing fitness because I now work out upstairs since my little VCR stopped working down there. And also with good weather comes walking. I see a box system in my future since there is a semblance of one already down there.

On to step two: prepping the new space!

Less is Less

There should be a photograph of something to the left. Alas, there are no new photos to show. Oh, there's a lot to take pictures of. Like the scarf I knitted up in a day.
Or the progress I'm making on the cable afghan (which is haunting me) or
the little preemie hats I made or
the WIP cotton place mats.

Or how my yarn stash has grown even larger than before I had the contest that gave away dozens of skeins ( I replaced those with just what I bought yesterday.)

But I cannot bring myself to share my shame with you. Less is not more. Less is less and more is way more than should be allowed in such close quarters. Poor Joe. I believe he is overwhelmed with it all. And now I feel his pain.

Today is a pretty free day as far as any work going on. I only have some church and garden work on - the rest of the schedule is filled with colored blocks (which means nothing planned.) I usually knit during those times and I suspect I will again. But I will put down the needles and attempt to do something that even remotely resembles.....organization.

I am a complete goober when it comes to this stuff. My mother never really forced me to clean my room as a child and now that I can really get away with stuff, I have on blinders until one day when I walk into a room and say "What the he--?" Then I clean it. But I don't like it. Now, the living room is in dire need of an intervention because whatever is going on in there can't be called 'living' so I need to organize. I googled 'how to organize stuff' and up popped 'howtoorganizestuff.com. (Google is great! In fact, I wonder if anyone has tried to google Osama Bin Laden to see if his secret Facebook profile would come up.)

The site has a ton of articles that talk you through how to organize people, places and things. Alas, it does not have 'how to organize a yarn stash that has gotten so out of hand that only people who actually live in the house will come in the house and even the dog is considering moving."

So I had to settle to how to organize the bedroom and garage.
Wish me luck - I'm going in!!

The Main Floor Stash

Yes, the yarn is climbing out of the box trying to escape.
This is the main floor stash - this is most of the main floor stash because some of it has escaped and is running around the living room.

Is it any wonder why the HB wanted me to give away more yarn? To the left of the box is a big carry on bag the HB got me to hold my FOs to the right is a bag with yarn scraplets -that's right, I formed a word.

You can't see the bottom of the box, but it is a big box and it is filled to the brim with yarn. I admit it, I tend to be compulsive when I am in to something and I'm into knitting. Which is why I won't show you my needle collection.

It's not as neat as the upstairs stash because the upstairs stash and the basement stash are feeder stashes for the main floor stash because this is where I do most of my knitting - heck, it's the only place I knit now - and with as many as eight projects going, there was a lot of yarn that needed to be fed - and now the beast is gorging and threatening to eat the dog.

I am doing my best to get through the box. I have two afghans which are made of blocks and I am using some main colors but the rest are a hodge-podge and I'm using as many colors as I can. - Which reminds me, I have to tell you the books I got for my birthday present. Later.

The Craze Phase

So, what's up with me having seven projects on the needles? This is what used to happen then I switched to working on one project at a time and now I have come back to multiple projects.

There is a method to the madness....

I have a ton of tote bags - I love tote bags. Don't ask why; I've learned to accept it. I went to a library convention last year and collected about 15 tote bags and I've received three from people in my sister's Baha'i choir this year and last year, plus all the others.

Here comes the logic....

I have two tons of yarn all through the house. The only rooms in the house that do not have yarn is the kitchen and the bathroom. And that's because the hubby-bubby moved the yarn out of the kitchen last night.

Do you see it coming.....

I have two sales coming up. One day in November and a week in December. I always worry that we won't have enough even though we do sell a great deal, we always come back with boxes of stuff, but the fear gets the needles clacking.

Now it all comes together.

Yarn in tote bags are WIPs which means less yarn cluttering around. The project goes into a tote bag which goes into a newly cleared shelf in the lawyers bookcase. The projects won't all be done for the sale in November, but there should be 1/3 to 1/2 of the seven done in time for the December sale.

So to conclude the logic end of our journey...

The house is less cluttered. More items are available for the sale. I actually use the tote bag collection and I have variety and diversity in knitting.

See?

On the other hand, I usually have more than one project going when I feel things are a little out of control. Now that the funk is clearing away, I will probably work on one project a day and alternate the WIPs. But it's good to have an explanation ready.