Organizing Kinda Weekend

A little bit of this . . . a little fit of that.

This weekend was long and relaxing. We accomplished a lot around the house. Cleaned it. Did the organizing I wanted to do - or at least got started on it. Had the oil changed in both cars, plus the tires rotated (discovered a nail in one) - did a lot of errands and needed catch up.

We even cleaned our sink traps. Organized the bathrooms. Washed the floors and thoroughly vacuumed, cleaned out some cluttered drawers - many of the boring but necessary chores that we normally don't have hours to do.

I also knitted some. Didn't accomplish as much knitting-wise as I'd hoped, but I never do get as much done on the needles as I'd like. Sometimes I understand why some people turn to knitting machines . . . but that would defeat the purpose of helping me relax. Messing with a machine would NOT relax me. Nor would I feel the pride I feel in knitting something with my very own hands.

Started both the Icelanic shawl as well as the Freeform jacket sleeves. Pictured are the yarns I'm using for this project. Here's what I've done so far. Not much - but a start nevertheless.



Also got a bunch of projects and photos entered into Ravelry. I can see that becoming more useful as I build a library of projects and future projects as well as (eventually) catalog my yarn stash. I haven't gotten that far yet, but I'm beginning to learn my way around Ravelry and see the possibilities. Intriguing.

Over the weekend, I organized, filed and punched my huge stack of unfiled patterns into notebooks - I have notebooks for Sweaters, Scarves, Shawls, Socks (3 volumes of those!), Baby gifts, Vests and don't forget "Miscellaneous." The projects I really want to do SOON (meaning sometime in the next year) I store in a special binder called "Hot Projects."

One thing I'm doing is by having a more organized list of projects - both those done and those to do - plus those put aside that I need to eventually pick up again - is that I'm figuring out that I have a real wealth of knitting projects and yarn. Luckily, over the past year, I've gotten rid of most yarn that I don't have a specific purpose for - those impulse yarn buys are gone now. What I have left are yarns matched with specific projects that I'm excited about. In most cases, I even have the yarn bagged with the pattern and needles needed. Now I just need about 70 years of full-time knitting hours to accomplish all that I wish to do!

P.S. Late last night: I tried to forge ahead two more rows on the shawl and ended up tired and goofing it up. It's disappointing when you mess up a shawl with 339 stitches across each row - just goes to show that you shouldn't work on said shawl when you're tired. Bad idea. Also goes to show that it's a good idea to have some "dumb knitting" projects so that when the smart ones outsmart you, you still have something to work on that makes you feel less outsmarted. Grrrrr.