A Small Step to Organizing

Yesterday I added to my stash causing me to feel guilty about the clutter I create by not managing it. The sun was out today and the view from the living room window was more beautiful than it has been for several days. I took this as a sign to do something and not just think about doing something. (Why, you might ask? The sun makes me feel like moving and the rain makes me feel like I should hunker down.)

The sunny view today from my living room

So it was time to do something around my "work area." (Note the avoidance of the stash. I'll tackle that bigger task later. Hold me to that, OK?) Paul is very tolerant about my knitting obsession, but there are times when this fastidious supporter gets a bit frustrated. So before that happens I moved to organize my stuff in the living space we share. (Thankfully my stash is a mess in a separate room with a door that closes behind it.)

Where the magic happens as well as the mess

Tah dah! Amazing isn't it, yeah I agree. See the thread on the table I used to sew up the ruffly scarves and sparkly white beads on the doughnuts. The baby sweater I'm working on is drooped over the arm on the left, plus my trusty Wisconsin coaster sits anchoring the sweater pattern. Opposite is the yarn in blue and white I intend to use for either another baby sweater or bibs and in the plastic bag on the arm is the sweater I just dismantled since its front and back didn't line up because I had used two different types of yarn. (What was I thinking?) Another ruffly scarf is in the bag snuggled by the pillow that somehow doesn't get crushed with me in the chair.

You can't see the collection of leftovers in a rather large bag between the table and the chair or the books and other knitting accessories on the other side. Paul is a saint to put up with this; he has to look at it every day. I, on the other hand, leave the house 5 days out of 7. (By the way, I love that pink pillow. It doesn't match the decor anywhere in the room, but it does suit my back, thus the emotional attachment.)

Mid-cleanup

(Note the sun is shining, I should be outside but, no, I'm cleaning inside! Perhaps I could have checked the weather forecast yesterday before I washed my car.) Like every cleaning I get around to doing, I manage to make a bigger mess at the start. Here's the migration of my stuff from the "work area" to the kitchen table. There are 4 scarves here in varying degrees of completion, my new stash from yesterday and a plastic bag of knitted kabobs and sushi pieces in process. (Can one actually mix these two cuisines together in one bag? Well I do.) Most of this was in an ottoman with a top not shown in any of the photos. The coffee thermos lost in the middle is for motivational support; the caffeine kick was a must for this job.

After a relatively short time, this

Cleaned up??

You might say, this is it? Well, yes it is. What you can't see is the bag is gone from between the table and chair , the accessory mess is straightened (not gone though) and the kitchen table can again be used for eating. A minor success is still a success in my book.

Now I can continue thinking about arranging that stash, a task better done next week, don't you think? Thanks Paul for tolerating this constant clutter and for motivating me to organize without saying a single word about it.

Ode to the Cat

It has been six months since Mike, the cat's, passing. I think of him every day and miss him especially when Paul is away. Mike was a being in the house with me and we were close. Grieving his death has been muddled with my Dad's passing and sometimes I feel guilty about that happening. As time passes the ache becomes less hurtful for both and I am starting to get mostly good memories in its place. Recently I helped celebrate Pablo Neruda's birthday with Jami, my poet and overall very creative friend. Guests were asked to select one poem written by Neruda to read to the small group who gathered for the celebration. I picked this one: Ode To The Cat -- Pablo Neruda There was something wrong with the animals: their tails were too long, and they had unfortunate heads. Then they started coming together, little by little fitting together to make a landscape, developing birthmarks, grace, flight. But the cat, only the cat turned out finished, and

Anatomy of a Sock

I've been knitting socks for a relatively short time. One of the disconcerting things for me as I started following patterns for socks is the pattern designer assumes the knitter (in this case that would be me) knows all the parts of a sock. So I thought I'd devote a post to improve my own knowledge about the anatomy of a sock and maybe some of you will learn something about the humble yet necessary sock as well. Here's the names of the parts of the foot as I know them. #49 ankle, #50 heel, #51, instep, #52 ball, #53 big toe, #54 toe, #55 little toe, #56 toenail. There are some parts more important for this discussion; first the heel of a foot is generally used to refer to the entire C-shape from the ankle to the instep. Speaking of the instep, it refers to that curve near the bottom of the foot. And what seems to be missing in the design above is the sole which generally refers to the bottom of the foot in total or plantar aspect in more technical terms. (BTW

Yarn Barf

It's back to quirkiness and time to step away again from the cuteness for a while. But as you see I'm someone who slips from one to the other without much effort so anticipate this back and forth to be my new normal. A dramatization of me in the midst of my startitist frenzy Yarn barf . I'm willing to bet you hadn't thought of putting those two words together, had you? It just so happens yarn barf can be a reoccurring pain for those of us who use yarns that come in a skein instead of a hank. (No pun intended regarding the current Noro virus, well maybe a little pun.) Skeins of yarn wound by the manufacturer These are hanks which need to be wound into balls If you look closely at the picture on the right you'll see the start on the millet yellow skein at the centre right of the photo. Its start can easily be seen coming from the centre of the skein onto the violet skein to the left. Easy to find, right! Sure but what about the remaining 4

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