Organizing for the New Year
Today I organized my yarn stash. I have seven clear plastic bins, and I put all sockweight yarns in one, all thicker yarns in small quantities (for sox or hats) in another, large projects like sweaters, felted (fulled) slippers and felted bags in another, etc.
I have enough sockyarn to make 27 pair of sox, filling one box to the brim. I think I’m appalled, except I love every single skein. I remind myself that I did knit 37 pair in 2002, so it’s not even a year’s supply… never mind that I also have some fatter yarns wanting to be sox as well.
However, it is out of balance that I have two boxes of fiber for either spinning or feltmaking. At one time I did a lot of feltmaking (which takes a lot of fiber all at once) but now I’m spinning more than making felt, and that does not use up wool very fast at all. The problem is that I also knit much more than I spin! It is going to take me a long time to spin that wool, or I need to do a feltmaking project this year! I did spin a small amount again today, which made me feel a little better. (The picture is my first-ever handspun two-ply yarn. I dyed the wool myself before spinning it.)
After organizing the wool, I then organized my patterns by putting the ones that I could into plastic pocket protectors and into a 2″ binder The binder is now pretty full. How did I get so many so fast? (OK, they were mostly free from the Internet but I’ve only been knitting again since May 2001.) I often end up knitting without a pattern, but they do inspire me.
Finally (thank goodness) I cleared off my desk, because this is going to be a big work week for me in the computer business. It feels good to start the week with a desk in reasonable order. Too much clutter (my normal state) can eventually make it so my mind gets distracted. I can do emails with clutter, but client projects require and deserve a good clean desk.