Papercrafting supplies...

The  office finally got whipped into shape earlier this week.  Part of me wanted to wait to publish this post when I got the room more prettied up, but the bigger part of me needs to move on.  So I'm posting what's finished, and calling it day.  For now.

As I looked at the two places in this room I keep paper crafting supplies, it was quickly obvious to me that organization, per se, isn't my problem.  I guess I kind of knew that, but taking a picture helped me see more clearly what the problem was.

The worst problem was stuff piled up in a corner, in boxes next to the credenza above, just being an annoying eyesore. While I spent the last two years trying to ignore it, it stared me down every time I sat at the desk right across from it.

There was no pride in that corner. That bulletin board you see there came off the kitchen wall of the house we moved out of almost 2 1/2 years ago.  And it has sat in this corner ever since it got here, with all the same old stuff thumbtacked to it. 

The bookshelf above houses mainly art supplies, some scrapbooks and the three boxes on the bottom hold things like paper punches, stickers, and some embellishment odds and ends.  

Since I haven't used much of the craft supplies in this room in two years, I decided an inventory needed to happen.  I knew with doing an inventory, consolidation of like items would follow suit.

Before I started an inventory of stuff that would stay in this room, though, I decided I would remove everything from the office I didn't want to stay in here. Things that had either migrated into this room or were put here because it seemed as good a place as any at the time.  

Things like...

...files collected and created for settling my brother's estate after he passed three years ago.  I can't believe it's been that long...

... the old kitchen bulletin board with tired old stuff tacked to it.

...a couple of boxes of young children's science items (magnifying glasses, a bug collection container, a variety of magnets).  There was even a box of stuffed animals. 🤔

In other words, all the random stuff tucked into that embarrassing, neglected corner came out of the room. 

As I started removing these items from the office, I decided to make a rule that nothing in this room would be stored in an ugly cardboard box.  And ideally, I will also eventually whittle down the number of plastic storage containers in this space.

With everything removed that I didn't want to stay in the room, it was much easier to inventory what would be staying.  As the inventory happened, two somewhat opposite things occurred:

1)  As expected, I was able to consolidate like items and that helped me decide on some obvious things to let go of.

and

2) I realized I wasn't ready to part with as much as I first imagined.

But that isn't all bad.  Putting my hands on everything and deciding on what to get rid of and what to keep, I found I had a renewed interest in these items.  Of course, that is natural, and I might find the feeling is fleeting, but that's okay.  Sifting through one's stuff sometimes has to happen in layers.  Time has a way of making me clearer headed - usually.

And it doesn't mean I didn't part with anything.  These things are going:

In addition to a bunch of glossy photo paper we brought home from my mother-in-law's house, the above things are boxed up and waiting to be given to a young therapist in my life who sometimes incorporates art therapy in her work.  She also has an art studio and I'm pretty sure she'll make better use of these things than I am.  And if she doesn't, that's okay.  It's a relief that I've made the decision that these thing won't be my problem anymore. 

Another thing I did in this office was to tidy up all the cords that go with the computer, modem, router, and printers.  Greg and I are still pretty old school here, both of us preferring to type on a keyboard, and liking the larger size of a monitor to that of a laptop. While I'd love to be more cordless here, it doesn't appear that's happening any time soon.

Until recently, the mess of cords looked like this:

After studying some smart looking cord corralling products online, I decided none of them would work well for this situation, so I just bought some velcro zip ties, and with some command strip velcro pieces we already had, I got to work coiling cords, and tacked most of them up under the over-hanging area of the desk...

I don't exactly love it, but it's a considerable improvement.

As for the crafting supplies.  Things got consolidated, some drawers were relabeled, and I think I can now easily put my hand on anything it might occur to me to want to use.

While this room may not ever be what someone would call pretty, it's definitely more functional. I do think my paper craft supplies may get more use now, and perhaps more importantly, my mind is clearer when I'm in here.   

There are still a few boxes (that are not coming back into the office) that need sorting through - mostly they are files and pictures of my late brother's.  That sorting may not happen immediately, but it is my goal to take care of that task this year.  

I hope I've inspired you to also tackle some spot in your home that's been nagging at you for attention.  I find my mind is freer when it knows where things are, and when there is some "white space" in a room.  Empty corners and walls count as "white space" in my book.

Thanks for following along on this endeavor!

Dried tea bags waiting for an art project

The card monster...

The process of sorting through paper craft stuff has begun, but it has not been nearly as straightforward as I imagined it might be.  More on that in another post, perhaps, but for now I will talk about some success I've had.

I decided to start with cards, and card-making supplies.  And here enters the character of my fantasy self.  I trust by now everyone has heard of this concept of a fantasy self - a version of ourselves that we, perhaps, aspire to, or just wish we were.  One facet of my fantasy self is that I am a card maker, and sender of cards for any and all occasions - birthdays, holidays, get well, thinking of you...  This fantasy self pats herself on the back for being thoughtful and timely with good wishes.  And everyone who is fortunate to receive a card from her is in awe.

The truth is, I am a terrible sender of cards.  Except for my immediate family, and my sisters, I don't even TRY to remember peoples' birthdays, and long ago, we stopped sending out holiday cards.  I also got honest with myself, and admitted that while I love the idea of beautifully hand-decorated cards, I don't actually have the desire to make them.  I do sometimes like to make simple or funny or quirky cards for certain people.  Not everyone.  Just the lucky few who I trust will get my sense of humor or who have no choice but to indulge my other fantasy self who likes to imagine herself as a sort of artist (note the emphasis on sort of).  

Long before I ever collected the first card-making item, I had a small stash of store bought cards.  My original card collection started innocently enough with Current cards and a little spiral bound book that had a pocketed page for each month.  Inside the pocket I could put birthday or anniversary cards, and there was space on the front of each pocket to write special dates and names of anyone I wanted to send a card to that month.  For the longest time, this was a very handy and sufficient system. Until it wasn't.

At some point, I collected enough cards (admittedly many were blank cards purchased for thank you notes) that I needed something larger to put them in.  This pretty box was purchased for the purpose, and for another decade or so, this was a perfect container of cards.

I would sort through it it occasionally and it never got out of hand.  I have dividers to keep the cards organized by categories.  Have I already mentioned how perfect it is?

When my MIL passed in 2020, and we were clearing her house, we uncovered a massive collection of cards she had been storing.  Unlike me, she was probably a true sender of cards, even if she had too many.  Corralling them from their various hiding places, I sorted them into categories into a dozen or more boxes.  Before donating them, everyone took what they wanted.  I thought I was being selective, and not taking all that many, but when I got them home and tried to figure out where to put them, I began to realize I had more cards than I could use in what's left of my lifetime.

I'm happy to say, this week, using the container concept, I decided to get back to only having as many cards as will fit in my perfect-sized card box.  And I (mostly) succeeded. 

Sorting through them all, I packaged up a bunch of cards to donate to a thrift store in town, and a large box of Christmas cards are going to wait to be sorted through and most of them donated next winter.  The only other cards I've kept are a photograph box full of blank cards for whatever crafty card making I might be inspired to do.  It's all still too many cards, but at least they're whittled down, and more space is made in the office.  Most importantly, the cards I've kept fit us, and the scenarios we might actually send a card for. 

Most of the cards below have a new home in a local happy-to-have-them thrift store.  

The card monster has been tamed.  The other paper-crafting supplies will be addressed another day

So many thoughts at once...

 

Why do ideas come to me so many at a time?  Is it like this for you?  It seems I either drag along for days on end, not overly motivated, or the ideas for things to do are so many and varied and come so fast that I feel overwhelmed by the choices.

 
I'm going to let you inside my brain for a bit and let you see how the train of thought winds its way around in there.  Tell me if you relate.  

Things on my mind at the moment:
 
Finishing organizing this office I’m sitting in 
 
Organizing and streamlining my craft stuff 
 
Making some (maybe hard) decisions about what crafts I even want to do at this point
 
It’s occurring to me that my papercraft stuff is mostly what's left to organize in the office, and that thought gives me comfort as I realize this job shouldn't be as overwhelming as I've been allowing myself to feel about it.
 
My craft stuff, in general, is a big chunk of what is weighing me down, causing my motivation to lag.  I've known this for years.  It's time to come to terms with it.
 
Figuring out the entirety of my craft stuff is going to be a process.  I enjoy different hobbies, but having a sufficient (sometimes an abundance of) supplies to pursue those hobbies can be detrimental to the creative process.  This is going to take time.  I will do well to accept that up front.
 
It doesn’t help that even as I type, I want to craft, draw, paint, sew, crochet - just make stuff.  But I can't cull through and organize, and create the mess involved in making stuff at the same time. 
 

Things other than crafts I'm thinking about:

I also want to go through my closet and see what I will feel good about wearing for spring.  My body has changed, and much of what I wore last spring just isn't going to work well now.
 
I’m continuing to deep clean the house.  Fortunately, this doesn’t require a lot of thought, and my strength and energy seem up to the task for the most part.  Keeping up the momentum is the main thing.  With all the sunshine we’ve been having recently, dusty windows are starting to bother me, so maybe I’ll tackle some strategic ones this week.  Or not.  It’s supposed to rain tomorrow, so maybe I can just put that thought off for later.
 
I also want to plan a garden, maybe order seeds, and maybe even try to get some seedlings going.
 
And, with this crazy warm weather we’ve been having, I can't believe I'm already starting to wonder if I should uncover the strawberries and get that bed ready for spring.  The strawberries usually don’t get uncovered until late March or April.  And what about the asparagus?  Could I possibly have any coming through the soil already?  Surely not, but I should check sometime this week.
 
And none of this touches the personal disciplines I feel the need to be about, too.  Exercise, planning and cooking healthy meals, Bible study, even pleasure reading…   That list seems to go on, too.
 
And somewhere in between deciding on things I want to do, is the necessary and often mundane stuff like laundry, grocery shopping, dishes, sleeping…  I don’t find these things particularly onerous to do, but they do slow me down.
 
Earlier this month I printed out a free habit tracker from here.   I've mostly failed at habit tracking in February, but a new month (which feels like a new beginning) is right around the corner.   I love new beginnings.  I seem to live for them – wanting to cast old failures aside as soon as I can turn a calendar page.
 
Last week I began reading Atomic Habits by James Clear.  When I put it on "hold" a couple of weeks ago, I was something like 36th in line.  Even with four or five copies in our library system, I figured it would be months before I would rise to the top of the pack of people wanting to read this book.  I was shocked to get it last week, and assuming there are others behind me, I must be disciplined if I'm going to finish this book before I have to return it.  I’m in the second chapter, and I can say right from the beginning James Clear has some real gems to share. 

As I consider whether or not to publish this post, I will be the first to say I'm not sure it's worthy of publishing.  But I do know it was worth writing.   Getting my jumbled and competing thoughts in print is often the route to clearer thinking – eventually.

 
Since I've decided to go ahead and hit "Publish", and since I’m putting myself out on a limb with this post, I’ll invite you to watch this space for more posts I’m thinking may be a series as I tackle some of my organizational projects. 
 
The first project being papercraft supplies.

Don't think for one minute that this is the total of my paper crafting stash. This is just a teaser to pique your interest.  In a future post, I'll invite you into my actual process.  Dawn (The Minimal Mom) would say I'm about to embark on an inventory process, Dana White (AKA A Slob Comes Clean) would encourage me to use the container concept.  James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, would say I'm deciding on the type of person I want to be.  They would all be right.  And since this isn't my first rodeo, I'll be adding their wisdom to my lifetime of experience of, yet again, tackling my stuff.

Organizing the closet - in two parts...

As I continue to wait for sock yarn to arrive, I've been busying myself with some organizing projects.  Nothing major.  Just as the spirit strikes, I clean out a cabinet or drawer and set it to rights - eliminating some things that have just become clutter. 

I've been lately inspired by this video:

Part 1

At the moment, I have the idea that I want to finally try minimizing the stuff in my part of the closet to just stuff I actually wear.  

I don't know who "they" are, but "they" say we tend to only wear 20 percent of what is actually in our closets.  I'm pretty sure that percentage is made up, but it's certainly true for me that most of what's in my closet doesn't seem to get worn.  At least not very often.  Why does this happen?   

A few things don't get worn because they don't fit quite right, but most things that never get worn more than a few times, I'm thinking I just don't like for one reason or another.  But then again, I bought them - so I must have liked them once upon a time. 

Why I find myself once again tired of pushing an unknown number of unworn clothes out of the way as I return to the closet the same 5 or 6 t-shirts, 3 or 4 sweaters, 3 yoga pants, and 2 or 3 pairs of jeans from the laundry over the course of a week, I really don't understand.  But I'm ready for a change.  

And given the number of YouTube videos that exist on this topic, I'm not alone in feeling this way.

There are different challenges out there for tackling this problem of having more clothes than one evidently wears.  

One idea is to pull everything out of the closet, and after a week or so the only things that go back into the closet are the things that were worn. 

And there's the trick of putting things in the closet on a hanger hung backwards on the rod, turning the hanger around only after wearing and returning an item.  After a set amount of time, it becomes clear what never gets worn.  

These are clever ideas, but I think I can skip this step.  My closet is fairly organized so I already know what I not wearing.  I see the same unworn things in their same spots every day.

So it feels like the question for me is what do I want to keep, along with how much do I need or want to keep? 

In an attempt to answer this question, some people whittle their closet down to just 30 items (some people include shoes in this number) for an experiment like this.  That seems unnecessarily spartan to me, so I am going to be realistic...  Assuming I actually have a week's worth of different outfits that actually fit me, and I like enough to wear in public,  I think whittling it down to just whatever clothes make up those outfits would be completely workable.  It's all I'm wearing at the moment anyway!  

The strategy in the video above is to only take out of the closet what I like, what fits, what I can wear comfortably.   Easy enough.

Once those things are out, I'll take a hard look at everything else and make some hard decisions.  I will have two choices - 1) to donate or 2) to put items I'm not sure of in a "time will tell" box.  

Okay.   Here I go...

Part 2:

So...  the above was written on Sunday, I believe.  I'm happy to say I accomplished the job over the course of two days.  It really wasn't that hard, but life interrupted and I needed to break the whole thing down into a couple of sessions.

No before and after photos.  You're just going to have to believe me when I say the closet hasn't looked this good since we moved in about 14 months ago.  I even managed to clear out (and put away) stuff inside two boxes full of odds and ends.  Odds and ends that didn't even belong in the bedroom, let alone in the closet.  There were also some some extra blankets and throw pillows that were being stored on the floor under the clothing.  Ugh.  That said, I did follow the steps in the video, and I was so excited by the improvement, I decided to put brighter lightbulbs in the closet. I don't mind seeing everything now!

I got rid of some things, but I also stored some items in a few "time will tell" boxes (the video explains this).  What I decided I wanted to keep in the closet got sorted by season better than it had been.  Some things (some tops in particular) that weren't getting worn, I realized just don't go with long pants I wear in the winter, so of course I wasn't wearing them.  They got hung up in another section of the closet with the summer capris I wear them with, and I'm not bothered by them at all now.  

For what it's worth, we don't have a huge closet.  It's a walk-in closet, but by today's standards it probably looks a tad small for two people to share.  But even at that, I probably have a couple of weeks worth of outfits, mixing and matching pieces, and just looking at it I can say that is plenty of clothes for me.  And I can still store some out-of-season clothes in there.  Granted, those out-of-season things are kind of crammed together, but that's okay.  I don't have to be able to see or easily access them for a few months.  I imagine I'll have another reckoning come spring, though. 

My reason for talking about the size of our closet and the amount of clothes I think I can be truly happy with, is that even though it's not an impressively large closet, it's clearly large enough to hold everything I need to wear - if everything in there is something I actually do wear.  

That's the goal. To only own clothing I actually wear. It really is a pretty simple concept, isn't it?  It may take a few rounds/seasons of this kind of sorting and purging, but I have hopes to someday actually have a wardrobe that fits in my closet.   With some room to spare, ideally...

 

Kitchen organization...

Another one of my favorite rooms in the new house is the kitchen.  Even so,  it has taken some time to develop true comfortableness in.  Moving smoothly while cooking in a kitchen is something of a dance, as one moves from fridge, to counter, to oven, to sink, and any combination of back and forth between these spaces while preparing a meal.  Remembering where I placed specific dishes and utensils was a trick in the beginning, but once I figured out the right spot to store things and began to remember where things were, it was just a matter of time before movement in there started to become second nature.  

Having a different configuration of drawers and cabinets required me to come up with different ways of organizing and storing stuff.  The first thing for me to figure out were two corner "lazy-susan" type cabinets.  The first house that we bought (in 1987) had one of these cabinets and I remember storing food items in there, but having a nice sized pantry, I didn't need to use the space for that.  So I googled for ideas and came up with this:

I don't know that I would have ever come up with the idea of storing pots and pans, and other cooking equipment in these spaces, but as I'm using them this way, it feels like a perfect solution to these somewhat awkward storage spaces.  Handles of pots and pans can be tucked inside toward the middle, and everything can be stored with its lid on.  That may just be my favorite part - that I don't have to grab a lid from another location.

Then it was time to figure out some drawer storage issues.  

In our last house, we had a plastic Rubbermaid double-decker silverware divider.  We'd had it so long it was vintage - like us.  It worked well enough in the drawer we had always used it in, but it really didn't fit the drawers here very well, so I starting looking for something that would suit the space better.  After studying options online, I finally decided to give one of these bamboo adjustable drawer dividers a try.  I made a Christmas gift to myself of it, and I'm pretty happy with it.

It does slide backwards, since the drawer is about 4 inches deeper than this divider, but it's easy enough to pull it forward when I open the drawer.  I like this so much better than my double-decker silverware holder that never quite fit everything I wanted to put in the drawer.

Then I decided to rethink how I store knives.  We've always had a counter top knife block, and a wall mounted one, but both of the ones I owned had seen much better days (one was as old as our marriage).  Trying to eliminate what I can from the counter tops, I set out to find good drawer storage options for knives.   After studying different products online, I decided to go with a bamboo knife drawer "block", and I love it!

There's also room in the drawer to store other knife-y stuff beside it.    I actually have a second (smaller) drawer knife block nearer the microwave.  It holds the knives that were previously held in the wall knife holder. Does a couple need so many knives?   I'm sure not, but I've grown used to having a variety, and having them in different spots in the kitchen I can tell you... it's very handy to have options if you do a lot of cooking.

Next, I decided to tackle the toughest spot of all.  The utensil drawer.  Ugh.  This one I got a before picture of.  Anyone else have a utensil drawer that looks like this?

Honestly, before all the decluttering last year, this drawer (in our old house) looked much worse. Why it took moving for me to do something different, I'll never know.  

Online options were harder to figure out on this one, so I just kept putting off making any decisions.  And then before Christmas I was in Home Goods, and I found this Joseph Joseph drawer organizer:

I was intrigued by the many pieces, and imagining I could use any left over sections in other spaces, I ended up buying two sets - with the thought I could return these easily if they weren't what I wanted.

Well, it took me until sometime in January to pull it out and figure out how it works and how I wanted the utensil drawer divided.  I had no idea how the components fitted together, but look at this:

It's like some children's toys I've seen where pieces are made to fit together no matter what side you put up against another side.  Fantastic.  I will confess... this was the most expensive single purchase I made, but it was worth it.  Note:  I see it online for more than I paid  - which was 16.99 per set at Home Goods.  Now I like it even more!

I finally figured out what pieces would work with what I wanted to keep in this drawer, and this is what I came up with:

On my goodness!  It's almost hurts my heart thinking of how many years I shuffled through a messy kitchen drawer looking for the garlic press, or a wisk, or the kitchen shears, or those silly little flat plastic scrappers that always migrated to the back of the drawer.  All the time I spent getting exasperated...  No more!  I love this.   And I have pieces left over that will help organize some bathroom or office drawers eventually.

Full disclosure:  I also store several utensils in a holder on the counter for super easy reach:

But when all was said and done, I decided I so rarely (if ever) use these utensils, they can go:

Yay!  Decluttering too!

Okay, finally....

Another area that had me flummoxed was the bottom freezer of the refrigerator that came with the house.  I've never before had a bottom freezer and honestly... until I figured out a storage system, I was in serious dislike over mine. 

I went to the computer again to see what solutions others had come up with for storing food in what is basically a big box.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of what a mess my freezer was before I fixed it, but if you have one of these freezers, and you haven't yet tamed it, check this out:

Who knew the solution is the opposite of just throwing things on top of other things 'till the stuff on the bottom is so buried you can't possibly see what you have down there? 

I bought two taller-than-normal clear plastic bins (from Home Goods), and with the help of the sturdy white divider that came in the drawer I was able to create four separate spaces to store things.  I know it only looks like three different spaces, but let me explain what is pictured here.  From left to right, the first clear plastic bin holds meat, and slid down between the meat bin and the white divider is a slim package of naan bread, and another slim package of flat bread.  Bacon or any slim packages could also fit in this space.  Moving right, in the space between the white divider and the second clear plastic bin, I have packages of frozen fruits and nuts.  And in that last plastic bin on the right, I store packages of frozen vegetables.  

Except for the packages of fruit, I tried to fill the boxes with things stacked on their side or on end.  Marie Kondo would be proud, I think.  Doing this, means nothing has to be removed to get to something else.  Except the fruit.  For some reason my baggies of fruit didn't stand on end.  They are more floppy. 

There is also a shallow drawer above this space that holds the ice collection tray, and is where we keep coffee and several containers of ground grains, yeast, chia seeds... stuff like that.  Since all those things have stiff containers, and nothing can really get buried there, I don't have a need to divide up the space.

If you like this idea, I suggest that you look for the tallest bins that will fit in your freezer box.  To know what will fit, empty out the box, then measure the smallest part of the box - my freezer box tapers near the bottom, so I wanted to be sure to measure the bottom of the box, not the top, and buy a bin that would fit that measurement.  And of course, you can't use a bin that is taller than the box, so that measurement is important too.  Seriously, I'm making this sound this harder than it is.  Once you empty it out, just take all the right measurements and you're golden. 

Have fun if you do this.  Truly, this changed my relationship with my bottom freezer.  I almost prefer it over a top freezer now.  Actually, if I could keep ice from accidentally escaping when I scoop some into a glass, I would prefer it.  The ice situation is an irritant. If someone knows the solution to slippery rogue ice cubes, I'd love to hear it.

I'm counting all this kitchen organization (but mostly just my freezer) as one new thing added to my growing collection of new things in 2022 - for 8 new things!   

Organizing...

Today's post is an update on all the organizing I've been doing over the last week.   I made it a goal to get all of my stashed yarn into a large closet.   

I'm used to making do with a hodge podge of cardboard boxes, but after studying the situation I decided that things would not only look nicer if my containers had some uniformity to them, but things might also be more efficient.

So...   I set out to make all of my somewhat organized (if unimpressively  stashed) stash a little more neatly contained.  This is only a small portion that had taken up residence in the corner of my "yarn room":

I considered the various sizes of plastic containers I had easily available to me, and I finally settled on these nifty boxes I was able to buy at Walmart (I figured it would be easy to get more, or easy to return if I bought too many):  

The second day I had to go back and buy more.

I also made use of some containers (mostly cardboard shoe box-size boxes) I already had.  And after several shifts of reorganizing, by mid-week I finally felt like I had something to show for my efforts.  It's still not the prettiest of storage systems, but it's so much more efficient.

This:

Became this:

This: 

Became this:

And this:

Became this:

My apologies for so many dim and uncrisp pictures.  It just wasn't happening today...

Now, I have to admit...  I did not get everything in the closet.  I still have to use these zippered bags to hold quite a bit of worsted weight yarn yet:

It should also be noted that I can't get one box of crocheted threads in the closet.    And clearly, I'm still using a few cardboard boxes for some things. But still...  I'm pretty happy with what I managed to get into the closet - which isn't just yarn, but also my cross stitch/embroidery supplies as well as some other crafty bits on the shelves.

Once the room is painted and I move a bookshelf into the room, I'll be able to make some different decisions about some of what's stored on the shelves of the closet and who knows?  Maybe I'll get my thread in there afterall.   😉

~

When that big job was finished, I then set myself to accomplish another organizing chore I'd been dragging my feet over - my printed out crochet and knit patterns.  I still have way too many, but after sorting through and pitching duplicates and patterns I no longer wanted, I organized what was left into these fun binders:

I'm happy to report that after spending so much on the plastic containers, these cost nothing to put together thanks to a plethora of 3-ring binders we've recently emptied (which were mostly recycled from somewhere else to begin with), and my over abundant paper stash I also have.  I may have to work on paper crafting supplies next...

The icing on the cake about all this organizing is that it's helped me see some projects I want to start working on, and see yarn/color combinations I hadn't noticed before.  There's something about putting your hands on every single thing that makes it more real - yes, Marie Kondo, I was paying some attention when I read about your "magic".   While my yarn has always been organized, this reorganization got my brain geared up and excited to make new projects - which means using more yarn!

Speaking of using yarn...  In between all the organizing, I also managed to start a simple knitted ribbed scarf this week:

What I did here was measure how much I was able to knit in one hour.  Now this is worsted weight yarn and I think my needle is a size 8. In one hour I managed to knit three inches (on a scarf that is about 6 1/2 - 7 inches across.  I honestly have no idea if that is good speed or not, but when I calculated how long it will have taken me to knit this scarf to a length of between 60 - 75 inches, I discovered that this simple scarf will have around 24 hours of knitting invested in it.  😦  

I seriously would have rather not known that.  

But now that I do I will still plug on with it...   Thankful that I can crochet.  Because if I had to depend on knitting alone to use up my stash of yarn, it would take me several lifetimes.

As is, I shouldn't need to buy any more yarn in this lifetime.

To see what other YOPers are up to, visit their blogs in my sidebar.  👉

One more thing...  Starting on November 1st, I plan to unofficially participate in NaBloPoMo again.  I'll post later this week what my personal challenge will be, but I'll say now that I have something fun (for me) up my sleeve.  I'm curious to know if anyone else is considering doing this.  Let me know below if you are!