Destashing

I'm pretty attached to my stash. I don't like to get rid of my knitting-related stuff. I love my yarn. I love my needles. I really love my books. But, it's time to do a bit of destashing. Not of yarn, but needles. This is what my stash of needles looks like:

Before I delve into my destash process, let's look at my totally awesome organizer. Yes, I made it myself. I love it. I love the little mushroom print fabric and the twill-tape size label down the center. I love the perfectly-sized pocket at the bottom for a needle gauge. I love the way it hangs in my project cabinet, just waiting for me to cast on something new!

Okay, back to the actual needles. Do I really need that many needles. Um....probably not. I've been knitting for more than 14 years, and one just accumulates needles.

Last weekend, I pulled out all of my metal needles. Addi Turbo, Inox Express, Susan Bates Silvalume and HiyaHiya all came out.

That's a lot of needles. Why the metal needles? Don't get me wrong! I love metal needles. Addi Turbos are slick and fast and wonderful. But, a couple of years ago, we learned that I'm extremely allergic to nickel. My allergist told me he'd never seen anyone react as strongly to it as I had. So, what's a girl to do? I ignored him. Completely. I continued knitting with nickel-plated needles for more than a year. After all, my hands weren't reacting to them. And there's no way skin reactions on other parts of my body could possibly be related to the nickel, right?

Wrong.

Several months ago, I discovered the wonderful Knitter's Pride Symphonie Dreamz circular needles. And the angels sang. I wanted to use these fabulous things for every project I started, so I bought more needles. After a while of not using metal needles, I realized some of my other skin issues were clearing up. If you are a dermatologist or an allergist, you probably aren't surprised by this at all. But I was shocked. How could something that I'm holding in my hands cause a reaction on my shins? I don't know what kind of magic or witchcraft this is, but I'm fully convinced.

So, all of my metal needles got bagged and tagged and ready to sell at the River Knits Customer Garage Sale (which was on May 25)! Now my needle collection looks like this:

Sad, isn't it? Well, not too sad. What you don't see are the two sets of Knitter's Pride Interchangeable circulars that are in their own little case and go with me everywhere.I spent most of Memorial Day sewing, and ended up with this little beauty to hold my interchangeable needles:

Plenty of space for both the full set and the "special" 16" set plus 4 pockets for 4 different cable lengths.

See the zipper pocket in the flap? Perfect for all the little bits and pieces--stoppers, tags, and keys. Love it!

I also spent some time this weekend organizing my yarn a bit. The last great airing of the stash was in November, and I've certainly made some acquisitions since then. So, I updated my inventory with new things and deleted anything I knew was used and gone. I didn't do a full stash airing, just added things that hadn't yet been incorporated. Mileage update: 105 miles of yarn. Tonight, I'm teaching a class on stash organization and stash busting. I think I'm definitely qualified.

Did I just say that?

Over the last month or so, my lovely daughter and I have been working toward a new adventure. We feel that we have a very good relationship. My authority is clearly defined, but we have a comfortable relationship that maintains open communication. I want her to feel like she can come to me and talk to me about anything. I don't ever want her to be afraid to tell me something. Yes, she's only 15 years old, but I feel like I've been pretty successful so far.

So, what's this new adventure? We wanted to find a way to show other moms and teenagers what a good relationship looks like. We decided the best way to that would be through a podcast. We recorded our first episode on Mother's Day and posted it to our new website tonight! I've submitted our feed to iTunes, so hopefully you'll be able to subscribe to us that way soon!  We're planning to record weekly, but we'll see if we can keep that up.

We'd love for you to give us a listen and let us know what you think. Be forewarned that we are a pretty liberal pair. In our first episode, our topic of the week is about body image, but we wander off topic a bit into gender roles--including the difficulties faced by transgender individuals--before bringing it back together at the end.

Our podcast is called Did I just say that?, and we'd love it if you'd join us!!

Vacation Knitting

We're planning an awesome vacation this summer: a 4-night Disney Cruise to the Bahamas. I. Can't. Wait. Which is sort of weird because I don't do hot weather, and I don't really enjoy beaches. But, I'm so excited about this cruise, I'm just about beside myself.  I intent to keep my extremely pale self well-protected, with a big sun hat and loads of sunblock. Maybe even an umbrella. Oh! I could get a really lovely parasol. That would be cute, right?

What I've been contemplating the most, though, is vacation knitting. I love vacation knitting. We do a lot of road trips, and my husband prefers to drive. Plus, our kids are old enough to keep themselves well entertained in the car. This means tons of knitting time for me. Past vacation projects have included shawls, sweaters, a Moebius scarf, and more. This year feels a little different, though. I know we're going someplace hot. It's highly unlikely I'll have the time or inclination to knit while on the ship, but I still don't want to be unprepared if the urge strikes!

So, I've been looking around Ravelry for inspiration. I'm seriously considering the Bigger On the Inside shawl, inspired by The Doctor's Tardis. This would actually look great with a couple of Tori's dresses, so maybe it's destined to be hers. I've had Sivia Harding's Shetland Garden Faroese Shawl in my queue for a long time, and I have some Malabrigo Sock yarn that would be quite nice with that pattern. But I wonder if it's not a little ambitious for vacation knitting. It's big and will require some level of concentration. But it's so lovely... Same goes for the Morning Glory Wrap; I think the Briar Rose Sea Pearl that I talked about in my last post would be perfect for this! Or, I could go the easy route and work on socks. Lord knows I have plenty of stashed sock yarn to choose from.

I just don't know. What kinds of things do you like to knit while on vacation? Do you like to challenge yourself because you know you'll actually have the time and brain power to put into learning something new? Or do you prefer to go with something easy and mindless to make your vacation more relaxing?

Fiber Event

Sorry for the long absence. No excuses, just life. And Tomb Raider. And kids' school projects/homework. And. And. And.

But, I'm back now!  And I don't have a ton of tangible accomplishments to report. I finished Tomb Raider to 100% completion. I'm pretty proud of that. I also made those music bags that I mentioned in my last post. Oh! The Fiber Event was in April. It's my second-favorite day of the year (Christmas is #1). I always spend an exorbitant amount of money at the Briar Rose booth, and this year was no exception. I also purchased yarn from Robin Edmundson, who has an amazing sense of color. Tori picked some sock yarn from A Good Yarn. And there was jewelry made from recycled knitting needles. Observe:

This Briar Rose Wistful, which is an alpaca/merino/silk blend. LOVE!

This is Briar Rose Fourth of July, 100% merino. Again, I love this stuff. I can't photograph the color accurately, no matter how many different ways I try. This photo is the closest of all those I took, but it's still not perfect. This yarn is the color of fall. Green, brown, orange, gold. Gorgeous!

This is a special edition sport-weight superwash merino. It's really soft and wonderful. Both pics are of the same skein, just flipped over. So many colors in one skein! I can't decide what to do with it, but it needs something really special.

The final Briar Rose purchase is Sea Pearl, a fingering weight merino/tencel blend. I love this yarn so much, there aren't even words! Every year, I buy at least a shawl's worth of this yarn, usually in greens or purples. I changed it up a little bit this year by going with blue.

Now for the yarn I bought from Robin J. Edmundson. I really like Robin. I've taken a couple of color classes from her in the past, and she's just amazing. She always chooses wonderful base yarns for dyeing, which just makes them that much better!  This one is a worsted weight bamboo/cotton blend. I've already cast on a project with this yarn (Lamb's Lace Cardi), and I'm loving it! I think it will be perfect for my office this summer, which is perpetually chilly.

The final yarn purchase was chosen by Tori. She's a total Batman fangirl, and Harley Quinn is her favorite character. I'm fairly certain that's why she chose this yarn. It's a merino sock yarn from A Good Yarn.

And, finally, the jewelry from Bur Oak Studio. I love these pieces, and am seriously considering emailing the designer/creator to see if she can do a necklace to match the earring/bracelet set.

So, that was my Fiber Event haul. I sat down to write this post with lots of other things in my mind, but I'll save those for another day. There's a lot of exciting stuff going on, including an awesome collaborative project with Tori. More on this in the next few days, I promise!

Bread and bags

I keep expecting life to slow down, and it never happens. Am I the only one who feels this way? I'm always saying to myself, "Okay, this weekend, we don't have anything planned, so I'm going to [insert hobby here]." But something always comes up. Activities with the kids, visiting family, cleaning the house, school projects, etc. It's always something.

Fortunately, I have hobbies that can be done during little bits of stolen time between other activities. Sometimes even DURING other activities. Basketball game? I can knit in the stands. Parent meeting for the marching band trip? I can knit something simple while still paying attention. Cleaning the house? I can bake bread and take little breaks from cleaning when it's time to knead or divide the dough or whatever.

A couple of weekends ago, I went on a bread-making frenzy. I made five loaves of bread. One long-rise no-knead bread that is absolutely delicious! And four loaves of multi-grain whole-grain bread that requires a bit more attention.

First, the no-knead bread. 

So good! And so easy! Excellent warm from the oven, slathered with real butter. Also, it makes an amazing grilled cheese sandwich. My husband, who isn't really a "bread" person, even loved it! This is the kind of bread that, even though you have to start putting it together the day before, really requires very little work.

Next, four loaves of the multi-grain whole-grain bread.

This bread is also really yummy. It starts with a multi-grain hot cereal, is sweetened with honey, and offers options for the addition of sunflower or pumpkin seeds. I couldn't find the 7-grain cereal called for, so I used a 5-grain rolled hot cereal mix. I've since discovered a  source for the 7-grain cereal, which isn't rolled, and I can't wait to try it! If you look closely at the bottom picture, you can see that I added sunflower seeds. I like this bread toasted with butter and cinnamon or jam. It also makes a good sandwich if you slice it thin enough. Yum!

As good as this bread is, it really requires quite a bit of work. Soaking the cereal, mixing the dough, letting it rest, adding the salt, resting again, adding the seeds. let it rise, divide into pans, let it rise again, then bake. But, it's totally worth it. I just set the timer on my phone to remind me when to go back and do the next step. I'm hoping to mix up a couple of batches of this soon so I can freeze the dough for future use, for those days when I don't have time to do all the fiddly bits.

In other news, my son Aaron, who is 11 years old, started taking piano lessons a couple of weeks ago. He seems to really enjoy it, but he doesn't have a bag in which to carry his music. And, as much as I *love* bags, I don't own any non-girly-looking bags. What's a boy to do? Go with his mom to JoAnn's and pick out fabric for a custom-made music tote. I thought he'd want "licensed" fabric with Thor or Mario or some other video game character or super hero. But he surprised me and chose this, which is extremely appropriate:

I'm planning to line it with black fabric, and I think I got enough to make a tote for Tori, who plays flute in the band. Maybe I'll even ask Aaron if he wants to use this opportunity to learn how to sew. He's on spring break next week, so that might be a great activity for one day.

Lunchtime goodness

I had a very productive (but still relaxing!) weekend. I spent a lot of time with my sewing machine. This is what I made on Saturday:

It's a lunchbox! I have a really great lunch container that is perfect for salad and a couple of small sides--like sliced cucumbers and cottage cheese. But it's quite a big container and doesn't fit in any lunchboxes/bags I've ever seen at Walmart or Target or TJ Maxx. So, I figured I'd make my own!

I made it up as I went along. I mean, I measured my lunch container and used that as a starting point, but otherwise, I just flew by the seat of my pants. And I couldn't be happier! I used a great cotton home decor fabric, insulated it with InsulBright, and lined it with ripstop nylon. If ripstop nylon sounds like a weird choice, consider this: it's water resistant, easily wipes clean, and is machine washable.

On Sunday, I made some coordinating accessories. I made two snack bags, following Mauby's Ultimate Reusable Snack Bag instructions.

Mauby used PUL fabric to line hers, but I went with ripstop nylon again. I don't plan on putting wet things in these bags, so I didn't need mine to be really really waterproof. I'm thinking crackers, pretzels, grapes, carrots. Easy stuff. I also made a reusable sandwich wrapper (using ripstop nylon instead of fused plastic bags), but didn't use it today so didn't have it with me for pictures. I'm not really a sandwich person, but I like to bake bread, so I can see myself using it to transport a couple slices of homemade bread to accompany my salad and soup.

Here's what it all looks like put together:

What isn't in the picture is my cup of soup (Crockpot Chicken Taco Chili, which is a HUGE hit at my house) because it was in the microwave at the time.

I'm so pleased with these projects! I don't have to use a plastic shopping bag as a lunch bag anymore. I love the reusable snack bags because not only will I save money not having to buy plastic baggies, but I can't even imagine how many baggies it will save from the landfills!

Digital Hoarding

I'm not afraid to get rid of stuff. I watch Hoarders and can't even begin to understand why they do what they do. (Yes, I realize that in most cases it's a mental illness.) I'm happy to throw things away, send stuff to Goodwill, whatever. In general, I honestly do not develop emotional attachments to Stuff. Do I have my hangups? Sure. I like yarn. I like having a lot of yarn. But, it's organized, inventoried, and frequently used. It isn't taking over the house or preventing me from living a good life.

Another, maybe more serious, hangup for me is information. I love information. When I was a teenager, I had a few magazine subscriptions (anyone remember YM?), and I would tear out the articles and keep them in file folders by subject, in case I ever needed to reference them again (I never needed to reference them again.). As I grew up, I did the same with other magazines. I even created an accordion file of home decor and craft ideas. Needless to say, I no longer have the articles I painstakingly curated when I was a teenager. However, I do still have a milk crate full of hanging files with those home decor and craft ideas. I think I'm about ready to let most of those go and just need to make the time to sort through them.

Then I learned how to knit and discovered knitting magazines. At one point, I had literally hundreds of knitting magazines on my bookshelf. I also had hundreds of knitting patterns in binders--some printed from online sources, and other purchased at yarn shops. A couple of years ago, the idea hit me to "destructively digitize" my knitting magazines. At work, I have access to a top-feed scanner that will automatically scan both sides at a fairly high resolution. I used a paper cutter to remove the bindings and used personal time (not work time) to scan in all of my magazines. I have a redundant storage system in place--all digital copies are on Box.com, on my hard drive at home, and on discs (though I will admit that the discs haven't been updated in some time). I keep all current issues in paper, and when a new issue comes out, the old one gets scanned and recycled. It's a beautiful system that allows me to keep all my "information" without taking up physical space in my environment. I've filled nearly 22GB of virtual space on Box.com with knitting magazines and patterns.

There are two more sources of information that I can't resist. Ravelry and Pinterest. Let's talk about Ravelry first. It allows me to keep track of all of my projects, inventory my yarn, enter my magazines, books and patterns in the library, AND purchase additional patterns and ebooks to add to my library. It is a knitting information-lover's paradise! I can see what patterns have been knit with particular yarns. I can see what yarns were used in a particular pattern. I can read about another knitter's experience with both yarns and patterns. Everything is cross-referenced and beautifully organized. If you are a knitter (or crocheter!) and you aren't on Ravelry, go now. Join. Seriously. Now. Do it. (My username is gaeacreations, if you want to check out what I've been up to on Ravelry.) Where I get in trouble is with the ability to Queue and Favorite various things. I currently have a very reasonable 41 projects in my Queue. That means I want to knit them soon-ish. I say this is reasonable because at one point, I had nearly 200 things in my Queue. That was just crazy. That's when I decided that anything I liked but wasn't sure I'd ever actually knit would go in my Favorites. There are 840 things in my favorites, all tagged, so I can sort by yarn weight, type of project, etc. 

Now let's talk about Pinterest. When I joined Pinterest, I knew no one else who was on it. There were a few people I followed, but for the most part, I used it to Pin things I found on other websites. Then Pinterest exploded in popularity, and a whole world of Information became available--mostly because it was stuff I wouldn't have thought to search for on the internet. When I look at my boards on Pinterest, I start to wonder if maybe I have a little problem with Digital Hoarding. I have 58 boards and more than 3,600 pins. Pinterest has totally taken the place of my files of magazine articles and pictures. Do I ever go back and look at those Pins? Actually, yes. I have them sorted in a way that makes lots of sense to me, and when I need a piece of information or inspiration, I know right where to look.

I don't feel bad or guilty about my hoarding. All of the information I hoard is well-organized and referenced fairly frequently. But I have to admit that sometimes I wonder if it's psychologically related in any way to the hoarding of physical stuff, and it's just more acceptable because no one can see it. What are your thoughts?