Knitting Project Update

Since I took a long break. . I thought I'd better catch you up on my knitting projects ;)

Silver Gin Fizz Cowl in Bernat Alpaca; knit for a co-worker.

Pine Forest Baby Blanket in Lion Brand Wool-ease for a friend of mine who's baby is close to a year old now. . . . it's the thought that counts. . . 

Time Turner Shawl in Knit Picks Gloss Fingering.  This blue yarn was purchased with the intent of knitting up a Dr. Who related item but. . I decided that a Harry Potter related item that has something to do with time travel was good enough for me. . .

I LOVE THIS YARN!!

Broad Spiral Rib Socks... I know. . I cast these suckers on over 6 months ago. . but that baby blanket took up a lot of time AND I really only wanted to work on the sock during traveling and I haven't been doing a lot of traveling.

I have another WIP but it's a Christmas present for hubby so I can't go about flashing pictures of it. . but the yarn looks like this :)

Meanwhile In Manhattan

 First of all, it is the 5th of May AND it flooded here last night so. . . thought this would be appropriate:

 

Intersection of North Manhattan and Anderson via City of Manhattan Traffic Camera

 

Ditch near Tuttle Creek and Anderson Via Manhattan Mercury's twitter account

Ok, so the first one is just silly, but the other two pictures are from Manhattan Kansas on 5/4/15.  I left work around 3:45ish.  It had already started raining by then.  Glad I left when I did, otherwise I would have been driving through this. 

Another Dye Day

Started out as black but turned a bit red/purple

Same skein after a second dye bath, lowered pH

Not sure what to call this one, "The Green Fairy" or "Grandma Smith"

Started out with neon pink and blue.  I decided there was to much white so I made a dye bath if purple

Thanking of calling it "Tutti Fruiti"

This one is still drying. . .  So not a good picture of it yet.  Maybe next time.

All is quiet

I know, it's been a while since I've visited my lonely little blog. . .  Don't let the title fool you, it has not actually been quiet, but at the moment it is.

Let's see, where to pick this thing back up at. . oh yeah, de-stashing and re-organizing the craft supplies. . .

Well, I got rid of the table in my craft area, which was a big goal of mine.  I now have this lovely little bookshelf. . .

It's cute but not big enough, which I knew that when I got it.  The plan is to get another one just like it and put it side by side.  This photo was taken shortly after setting it up, but not filling it up.  I still have lots of yarn in plastic bins.

After I got the shelves, I started de-stashing again.  One cubby hole is just dishcloth cotton.  Most of the remaining space is taken up by knitting books and patterns.  Hopefully a secondary one will hold the rest of my yarn. . .  probably not, but we'll see.

My knitting books and other non-yarn related knitting supplies used to be stored elsewhere in the house, but recently we had to rearrange our living room to make room for more furniture.  So all of my knitting stuff is now stored in the bedroom.  I'm a little sad by this, because I have less space (even through the de-stashings and general crafts supply give away items) but I can't be sad for long because the furniture we made room for was an upright piano. 

It belonged to my husbands grandmother.  She recently moved into an apartment so most of her furniture has been given to other family members.  But she specifically wanted my husband to have her piano.  And I'm very happy to have it even if that means I have less space.  My husband (for those of you reading this that don't know) is a jazz musician and teaches private guitar lessons.  He's played piano since he was a kid.  It's nice to knit and listen to him practicing. 

A little bit of history, Husband's Grandma told me that she bought the piano when her husband died.  That with out that piano, she wouldn't have moved on with her life.  She said that she would stay up well past midnight playing, because playing piano felt better then crying.  I told her that I'd take really good care of it.  

<3 H U G S <3

Once we got the piano in the house, I decided that we needed a nice knitted table runner to go on top of it.  I don't have a clue what pattern I want but I did find the right yarn.

I got this yarn at The Shivering Sheep in Abilene Ks.  It's Overberg by Fleece Artist.  The color is called "smoke" but it looks more like gray yarn that someone spilled coffee on.  And I LOVE coffee and yarn so. . it just seemed kinda perfect. 

In other news: Unwind

During my little blogging hiatus, Manhattan Ks got a new Yarn Store!

Unwind, a Yarn Store Without All the Tangles

I went on opening weekend and got some of this:

Knit One Crochet Two Elfin Tweed

I already had six skeins of Cara Cinnamon at home and I thought these colors would make a good Color Affection Shawl but after getting my knitting groups opinion, I've decided that these colors would do better as a sock weight sweater.  I probably have enough yarn to make two sweaters. . .

Craft stuff finds a new home

Talk about an emotional roller coaster.  Since my last post several exciting, but not necessary good things have happened.  First, the craft area is looking MUCH nicer.  My yarn and patterns are easier to access and the bedroom looks neat, tidy, and more comfortable. 

During my cleaning I decided that I didn't have the time or space to learn to sew, so there was no need for me to own TWO sewing machines.  One I gave one to a nice lady in my knitting group.  I told her that I'd take $25 or she could sew the ends into 25 WIP's.  She chose the non-monetary exchange and I'm loving it.  Wow, talk about killing two birds with one stone!  She has been dutifully working on the WIPs ever since, and each week I have several finished items that I can use as Christmas gifts. 

The other sewing macheine was given to a friend of mine from work.  She is a very generous and sweet lady who does all kinds of sewing and quilting projects.  She's also the kind of lady at work where everyone sees her as some sort of motherly figure.  You do what she says, because breaking her heart would hurt way to much.  Over this last summer she fell in the freezer at work (I work at a very large grocery store) and hurt her shoulder, arm, and hand.  So she's been limited on what she can do at work.  Despite her injuries, almost every day, she can be found sitting in the break room during lunch, hand sewing or cutting out bits of fabric for her Christmas gifts this year.  She is determined to get them done regardless of how much it hurts to use her injured hand, arm, and shoulder.  One day we started talking about sewing and she told me that when the electricity goes out during a storm, she uses her incredibly old, non electric sewing machine.  But that her current electric was having issues so she's been using the old non electric one more often.  So I offered her my other sewing machine for free.  It will save me space and I know that she will love and care for that machine.  Also, I know that it will be put to good use, where at my house, it was under the craft table collecting dust. 

Second amazing thing that happened over the past few months is that my husband found an awesome house for us!  Three bedroom, two bath, unfinished basement, wood floors, garage. . .  All the things we were looking for.  Most exciting thing for me is being able to put my craft stuff in it's very on room.  I'm also pretty excited about having a basement for storage.  We currently have a shed for storage, and nasty little things like bugs, bees, and muddobbers like to live in the shed.  So we don't use it for anything other then gardening supplies.  It's a rental house, so the bad news is that it's available for move in on Jan 2.  That will give us less then a month to pay the deposit, first months rent, and the pet deposit to ensure that the house was ours, AND less then a month to pack up our current home.  So, my amazing family helped out with the needed funds and I started bringing home large boxes from work and diligently packing up all the non-necessities.  Books, nick-knacks, pictures and artwork were taken down. . .  Lego displays were taken apart and packed. . .  Then the rental agent emailed us, telling us that they were denying us. 

Since then I have had friends and coworkers come to me with horror stories about this rental agent.  We are so thankful that we didn't get the house based off of the stories that I've heard.  My opinion of them didn't improve when I realized that they had actually declined us the same day we submitted our paperwork, but didn't bother telling us until all three checks I wrote them had cleared the bank.  Then they waited over a week before reimbursing us.  Really?  If we had been looking at multiple locations, holding on to that money would have kept us from securing another place.  And if they knew they were going to deny us, why bother even cashing the checks in the first place?  Why didn't they just return them to me?  

So I've been spending what little free time I have unpacking the boxes that had taken over the house and trying to finish Christmas knitting.  Besides not having to deal with a bad rental agency, the other bit of silver lining is that when I was in "we're moving" mode, I threw out so much stuff.  Our new goal is to look for a place that will be ready for us this summer.  Lets hope the "we're moving", lets throw stuff away feelings don't go away anytime soon. 

Three Day De-Stash

I recently was able to get three days off in a row from work.  I have vacation hours that have to be used up before the end of the year or I lose them.  So I'm using my "vacation" to de-stash my yarn collection and clean up my craft area.  I currently have a long folding table in my bedroom that has boxes and totes of yarn, knitting supplies, mixed in with other craft endeavors like cross-stitch stuff, beading/jewelry supplies, and scrap-booking stuff.  I would like to get rid of the table all together.  It attracts more clutter, things that aren't related to my crafting stuff.  And that has to stop. I also have a five drawer dresser full of projects that needed the ends sewn in and blocked, plus more yarn.  A while back my mom boasted that she bought a plastic storage bin to store all her yarn in, then she came over to see my stash.  She couldn't close her mouth due to shock.  My little sister is way worse off (or better, depending on how you look at it).  My sister took her stash out of storage and laid the yarn end to end and it covered her entire basement floor.  And that was just the red heart brand of yarn!  My home is smaller then both of theirs, at a little less then 1000 sq ft, so my stash has out grown the space.  If you have been following the blog, you'll know that I've starting selling some of my hand dyed yarn creations on Etsy.  Well, my stash is so big that I don't have room to order more blank yarn to dye for the shop.  So my goal is to make room.  This means getting rid of some yarn as well as other craft supplies.  Honestly, it's been kind of hard to make some decisions, but it feels good to see the space coming together. 

Day one I accomplished:

1. Filled the back of my SUV with boxes and garbage bags of stuff to take to Goodwill.

2. Sorted yarn by size and put it in plastic storage totes.

3. Made a WIP space to store (obviously) WIPs.  It's kind of like an "IN" box that one might put on their desk.  I gave my husband permission to put any knitting item he finds around the house in this space.  The idea is that this space will encourage me to finish projects before starting new ones and keep the rest of the house WIP free.

Day Two I Accomplished:

1. Emptied the dresser and sorted that yarn in to the already established bins (I'm totally running out of space in the bins. . the lids won't fit. . . ).

2. Completely cleaned the dresser and the drawers with wood cleaner.

3. swapped the table and dresser so there there is more floor space next to my bed.

4. Sorted/tossed/reorganized all the random "other" craft stuff.  I now have a box of fabric, beads, paint, colored pencils, pastel chalks, and other art supplies that I've collected over the years that I'm going to give away at my next KIP.

*totally ran out of trash bags. . .  Making a trip to Target in the morning*

Day three I Accomplished:

1. Sorted the "not sure" yarn pile and added what I didn't want to the give away box.  The very same box that I'm taking to my next KIP.  Whatever is still in the box by the end of the night. . goes to Goodwill.

2. Went to various places around town, pricing shelving/organizing furniture.  I found what I was looking for at Bed Bath & Beyond. The 9 cube storage unit by Real Simple.  I know that one wont be enough, but it's a start.  There are shelves and drawers that I can add to it.  Plus other units that I can get to match it.  I didn't buy anything yet, I'd like to get rid of the table first.

3. Starting going though other parts of the bedroom, getting rid of stuff.  Sorted and organized my clothing dresser.  Ended up with a bag of clothes to add to the Goodwill pile.  Also discovered that the bottom drawer was full of more knitting projects that need the ends sewn in and blocked. Most of those projects where from when I first started knitting so most of those projects when into the trash.  I know, I know! What a waste! But the projects were things I'd made for myself that I know I'll never use and they were so roughly put together that I know that I'd never give them away as gifts. 

So over all, I don't have enough space yet to order more yarn.  However, I have a plan in place and a goal.  I'm also really enjoying the extra floor space in the bedroom. :)