Tag: cleaning

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The Forest For the Trees

Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees. But sometimes, looking at a tree doesn’t let you appreciate the majesty of the entire forest. I think I can explain what I mean. See that? That is a dresser in my craft room. That dresser looks pretty neat. And it is. But it wasn’t always. A few scant hours ago, it was cluttered and dusty. I decided to clean it and dust it as part of Lent.

We usually give up something for Lent like chocolate or coffee. But then, the day after Easter, we have chocolate and coffee. I don’t have coffee; don’t drink it. Haven’t had chocolate in a minute, either. You get the point. We pause something; we don’t actually give it up.

That makes Lent kind of a game. I wonder if God has that kind of humor. We certainly aren’t fooling him. In the past, I didn’t give anything up for Lent. Even if it was a game, it was one I didn’t play. But this year, I want to be more mindful. So I gave up being cluttered and untidy. Not for me. But for Mr. Honey who likes neatness. I am working on a lot of things about myself for myself. This thing I am working on me for him. I didn’t tell him because that would seem braggadocious. I’m just doing it. Starting with the dresser.

In knitting news, look what I’m working on. This is Robin’s poncho and it’s being worked with that big cake of yarn known as the Caron Anniversary Cake. Now, as far as I know, these are all out of stock and they don’t have any new ones coming down the pike. But I have a couple of these to make this poncho because the client wants it big and squishy. There’s 1000+ yards in these balls and I want to use all of it to make it.

I am enjoying it. I will write a review on it just in case it comes back. (hope it comes back with some great colors.) I have a ball – maybe two – of it somewhere in the free range stash. 

This has spoiled me for chunky knits. I will turn to James C Brett and hope the Marble Chunky that I’ve been keeping for pets will suffice.

 

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I’ll Try Something New

I didn’t know what I was going to show you in this post. I had to go to the Google because I thought ‘I’ll try something new’ then had to see if I had actually done it.

There was this:

Lasagna. I haven’t made lasagna in years and it was tasty. I’ve made it twice and the second was better than the first. This does take some time to prepare. The sauce is sooooo good. I did only a small variation. I don’t like ricotta cheese so eliminated that. The recipe is here. 

And then there was this:Doesn’t look like it’s finished but it is: except for the pom-pom. Couldn’t put that on there because the pom-pom maker is at the condo. But as soon as I’m over there, this will a completed hat.

 

 

But wait…there’s more: I started and finished a mask. Pattern was pretty simple and I even wrote it down on paper. I haven’t lined it yet because the cotton and thread and needle are all at the condo. (We move a week from tomorrow.)

There’s more. I finished the Shale Cowl in gray. There’s a few thing sitting in my bag waiting to go over and hang out with the rest of the finished projects and they all need to have their photos taken. I will be over there tomorrow or the next day to get that done.

I made a pork roast using a new recipe. It was good but I cooked the pork too long. My dutch oven really gets things done fast. I will use a meat thermometer next time. All in all, a very good week.

I have a new hat on the needles made with Ice Yarns Tweeds in two colors. I’ve got a toy turtle or tortoise started. The week will be busy and there’s no telling yet but the next post may be from new place! Now, that would be something new.

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I Don’t Even Know

I’m sure there should be some kind of photo here. But I don’t even know what that picture should be. The news in Knitsville; the news from the yarn room redux is a bit confusing. For certain and ‘in progress’ photo of the actual space is not gonna happen. Because it cannot be agreed upon, this will have to do:

On the one hand, the yarn sorting is going well. There are big Hefty storage bags filled with yarns sorted by types. The problem is there aren’t enough bags. The yarn sorted so far is the yarn that is still in the yarn room. Not the bags that have been in the hallway and the bedroom for the past couple of weeks. 

There will be more bags needed. Maybe not as many as nine but probably more than three. I’m thinking we should do six. Mr. Honey came downstairs the other day and asked why I have more yarn in the yarn room than when I started the sorting. I assured him I had not. I had to think about it a little. Maybe I did a sneak of some yarn in the room while I was sleep shopping walking. Don’t look at me that way; it’s a thing. There was an episode of Criminal Minds where a guy killed people while sleep walking. Sleep shopping doesn’t involve the breaking of the law or any of the commandments. Nope, I didn’t do any of that. I had to explain to him that we couldn’t see all that was in there when it was all a jumble but now that there is some kind of controlled chaos, it looks like there’s more. But I was really surprised there wasn’t more. I also had to admit I was surprised the bags filled up and we’re gonna need more bags.

The good citizens of Knitsville have resolved that I will not have one of those pristine ‘studio’ kinds of yarn room. I have the spare bedroom that is still painted bachelor beige from Mr. Honey’s bachelor days and is small and dark yarn room. They will love me anyway.

In more knitting like knitting news, I am on 6/10 – yes with just two days to go. I am not going to make it. Nor is the afghan for my niece’s wedding going to be done. Though, I did have the idea of creating a new pattern for the afghan and that can go as one of my items this month – because I am clever like that. I am challenging myself to get the afghan done. The wedding is next Friday at 6 in the evening. Why the heck not? Stay tuned. Let’s see how this turns out.

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Is That a Light?

The yarn room decluttering continues. Mr. Honey is a much better housekeeper than I. It made sense to me to ask him how I should start to tackle the free range yarn but then I remembered who I was married to.

Mr. Honey, when asked his opinion, never has one. He will either stare at you blankly or go into a dissertation on something that has nothing to do with the question. On the other hand, when you don’t need, desire or even thinking about asking his opinion, he is right there to tell you what to do. 

So when I deferred to his domestic skills and asked how he thinks I should go about tackling the free range with the stipulation I wasn’t going to buy more containers; his reply was: “You have to clear it out.” Ahhhh. 

But then he does his other Mr. Honey thing. He will come back 12, 24, 36 hours later and say “I’ve been thinking about your question.” He then proceeded to tell me about the idea of getting those big storage bags and some Velcro. I sort the yarn, I attach Velcro to each bag and attach the bags to each other and that way they will all be together. 

Don’t mind the idea about the bags. They will take up way less space than the containers and will be more convenient. The Velcro idea is out because they don’t need to hang out together. Though I admit the thought of creating a yarn bag Stonehenge did occur to me.

He then took his idea way too far. “You can write down each thing you put in the bag and make two copies: one on the bag and one for you to keep.”

He forgot who he was married to. It’s like he doesn’t know me at all.

He bought me nine of those 20 gallon Ziploc big bags – because he’s an optimist and thinks that will be enough. The sort is being done by brand/type. So far, I have a bag for all the cake yarn and one pound skeins. One bag for yarn that comes from Hobby Lobby, a bag holding Red Heart yarn. I haven’t decided who else will share that bag but someone will and a bag with Lion Brand and Hayfield.

I’ve made myself a little giddy: i found some of my large yarn bobbins, a set of Chibi needles. I thought I had all of them and I vacuumed a space where bags of yarn used to be. Yes, I got giddy or vacuuming a small space. Be happy for me.

I thought I would take a photo the EDS – Elizabeth’s Daughter’s Sweater. I am on the section where I am putting in the increases and because I don’t understand what the designer is asking for, I am doing the increases my way. Acknowledging the written instructions are probably easier in the end.

The afghan is also coming along. I am adding five leaves a day and that should have me cruising end before we get on the plane. I am also on item 5/10. I finished the 

pattern. OK, you can get a taste. It’s the lace and cable beanie. 

As long as I keep myself on task this first hour of the day, the sweater and the yarn room will advance. Is that a light? It’s an extremely long tunnel but I see something flickering. It’s not a train. It could be daylight. Let’s hope for the best.

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The Diurnal Tide

Lest you think there is really nothing going on here in Knitsville, let me assure you the citizens of our fair village are keeping an eye on me. At least one eye each. I have several projects going on with the idea of finishing each of them by the end of September.

  1. The Do You Collection. I am on item 4/10. It’s a pattern. A cable and lace hat. It’s already on the needles. I’m on the ribbing and that leaves me a minute to think about how the rest of it is going to go. Slouchy or beanie? Slouchy. Big increases or small? Just enough.
  2. The Elizabeth sweater. It is going along and I look at the calendar and look at the fact that I started over and I’m still on the first part of the first part and I think maybe I need to work on it for more than part of an hour a day. On the other hand, knit math has been very good to me and I don’t want to make the knit gods angry by appearing greedy. Besides, there’s other knitting to be done. (See 1 above and 4 below.)
  3. The decluttering of the yarn room. This is where the diurnal tide has hit me. One the one hand, the high is there because I am doing the cleaning and decluttering and it really looks good. On the other hand, man, how the heck did it get so out of hand and now I understand why Mr. Honey said he had to create a work around rather than nag me constantly. I appreciate it. I appreciate what he has suffered. That’s the low tide.

4. The wedding afghan is going on as well. Now that, I did take a photo of.This is where it was when last I worked on it. It was looking promising. The photo below is where it is now.

I counted the squares and calculated how many I have left to get it to square off. This is going to have me tearing my hair out which makes me grateful I have a very short hair cut to begin with. No one will really notice anything is amiss. 

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s really pretty. It’s stunning. And again, the diurnal tide plays with me. I started this on purpose and now that’s there’s a finite amount of time to get it done, I will have to resolve myself to watching episodes of Criminal Minds while working on it followed by watching the 1965 version of Cinderella to keep me from losing my criminal mind.

There has to be more progress made before the weekend. We are headed to San Antonio. We are going for a memorial service for a cousin I played with as a child. It’s a quick turnaround and then shortly after, we (and the afghan) will be headed to Phoenix for the wedding.

Tides.

 

 

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I Got Nuthin’

Nuthin’. I got nuthin’. Well, that’s not exactly true. Another shelf has been cleared and fourth one almost cleared. There are some more books to add to the stack that will be going to Economy Shop and they may be books someone is actually interested in. There’s books on gardening and graphic design (tools from an earlier life.) And photography. It was written when cameras still had film but I’m sure it’s more technique than material.

There’s also more than an inch more to the sweater. I know I should take a photo but the camera and the sweater aren’t in the same place. But I was working on it this morning when there was noticeable length. It was just a little over an inch yesterday and when I measured today, it was almost three inches. Knit math working positively for me. I think the cleaning gods are putting in good words with the knitting gods. I wanted to vacuum that place in front of the bookcase which made them happy but they whispered for me to calm down and finish the bookcase and then the next step would be to clean that area of carpet between the bookcase and the first desk. I am actually looking forward to it.

The cleaning folk also want to know what I am going to do with that Celtic suncatcher I’ve done nothing with since I purchased it more than 20 years ago. I don’t know but I’m keeping it. We aren’t anywhere near Irish but I do like it.

10/10 is almost done. I took it to lunch with me yesterday with Ellen, Melissa and Laeh. We all bought our knitting with us but we decided to eat instead. Imagine that. It was past two in the morning when I decided I wasn’t going to finish it. But the decreases have started and I can get it finished before September rolls in. That would be a great accomplishment. I did the video for the stash dive on August 2nd and nothing was made then. C’mon, you have to be kinda impressed I did it all in under 30 considering we were on the road. Right?

Laeh might have gotten me some yarn from Herrschners. She works at a summer camp every year and she passes by this mecca on her way to and from. She is kind enough to drop me a note and ask if I want something. I’ve been very good in the past and said no – in between the years when I’ve said yes. And this year she may have bought me back something. I will take a photo of that and perhaps do a mini yarn haul video. It was just five skeins but a little bit of heaven goes a long way. I need to go finish a hat so I can pull some yarn and start the ordered mayhem all over again.

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Work the Plan

Plan the work then work the plan. That is a key to success on many fronts. Where my brain was all a scramble just yesterday; there is hope today.

No amount of money or love of readers will move me to post a before photo of my office. It is a wreck. The producers of Hoarders – Yarn Addition have called – twice. However, today I was thinking of the after photo.

That in itself is progress because it speaks of me believing there will be an after. There will be a time when it is all done and worthy of a photo. What has me in such a positive spirit? Two of the bookshelves were emptied and are now neatly filled with books. Well, nearly filled with books. Can’t be full of books because there are fewer books. The culling has produced space. That means the big pile of books on the floor are no longer on the floor. They are on the shelves. Considering how long most of them have been on the floor, that is improvement. It means I can get the little vacuum and clean that part of the floor.

Yes, there are three more shelves to clear and those books haven’t even been culled yet. But we need to take our victories where we find them. I am already eyeing that third shelf and it doesn’t seem as if it will be a big deal. There are very few books on the shelf and I will have to deal with a couple of supplies and the other shelves have books which will be leaving. A few will stay. I think I will have this first part wrapped up in short order.

There’s also improvement on the sweater front. I decided on the rib pattern and started knitting and I’ve already got more than an inch done on that. Only 13 more to go but I feel like a warrior so I don’t see worries on that front.

I’ve even started the last of the items for the current collection. So the new collection may be started on time. I am hoping to get the last hat off the needles tomorrow so I can do the video and then pick the new yarns. Fun times!

I am hoping the cleaning and knitting gods and goddesses see this as being excited at being kissed on the forehead by them and not being arrogant. I need them to keep this going for me so I can get stuff done. Don’t tell me to look at all that’s left. I know it. I just need this moment. This moment is good.