How to Get on Top of the WIPs/UFOs, Plus Flotsam and Jetsam

A bouquet to LizzieK8!

A bit of a dialogue was going on this week on Knitting Novices (a Yahoo group) regarding how many UFOs people had and how they bring the numbers down. LizzieK8, whose "Lizzie's Loose Ends" is one of my favorites reads in blogland, said several things that I want to quote here:

"Another thing to help with finishing is to dedicate a specific amount of time to each project. Say work on the top one of your list for four hours. Then work on the next one for four hours and work on down
the list. Keep track of the time on note pad or with an electric analog clock set at 12:00. Just unplug the clock when you get up from working on your project.

"When you've finished a given number of projects, say, two, then reward yourself with CO a new one. Put the new one in the rotation and give it four hours every time it comes around till another two have been finished. It allows everything to get worked on and keeps boredom at bay.

"Also give yourself permission to frog a project if you really don't want to finish it. No sense punishing yourself by being forced to work on something you don't like anymore. Contrary to what our teachers told us, it's not a sign of bad character to quit on a project, it's a sign of good character to realize you don't want to finish it and recycle the yarn for something you do want to work on."

Having spent a fair amount of time while cleaning up and organizing the stash, and discovering all the WIPs I had amassed, feeling sheepish [heheh], I loved both Lizzie's suggestions and her reminder to accept ourselves as we are as knitters--everyone has her/his own style and needn't apologize for it. Thanks, Dearie. Now where did I put that old plug-in clock?

In other news, I wanted to show you this:



which makes these:

















and enjoin you to find a solar-powered suncatcher that throws rainbow spots in the room to magic up your crib. (OK, I'll stop that now. It's too weird.) When the crystals start spinning on the two we have in the kitchen, where we get lots of late afternoon sun, I can cook dinner in the happiest of environments, almost a fantasyland. I hear that cats love to chase the spots but apparently our four haven't gotten that memo. 8^(

Here is a gadget that I got on a whim and have found indispensible ever since! It's sort of a mini rug-hooking thing, sold as a snag fixer, and it's part of my finishing process on anything I knit. Now I see that one can be purchased that is lighted! Even bettah.















Saturday the Vegan Girl made her friends a pineapple-upside-down cake that was just too pretty not to photograph. I guess even vegans eat cherries preserved in red food dye. ;^) Word is that it was tasty. We never got to find out.

And my study, sometimes known as A Work in Progress, is gradually becoming organified--here is the latest effort, compliments of a sale at Target, some self-reliance in the assembly department (while DH was up camping with his guy friends) finding tools, reading directions, and executing the assemblage. Then--voila!-- perfectly located on my desk return. I have heavily distributed cedar blocks among the skeins too, since it's not sealed away. Somehow having my yarn out as beautification all its own seems just right to me.





And here is a lovely gift from DMIL for both DH's birthday and our 29th anniversary:

Isn't it something truly unique? Apparently the artist uses a saw to cut it into pieces but it is not actually disassemblable (OK I KNOW that's not a word!). The parts articulate though and that gives it an almost realistic vibe. We loved it and the girls are also in awe--everyone picks it up and plays with it, tries to find out how it "works," etc.

Too much time playing ketchup. Now for some knitting!

About Mel's Contest

Crazy Catlady Mel has agreed to add another prize to her already cool offerings! I've got a few unused ravelry goodies that need an appreciative home, so if you enter her contest, not only are you in the running for two skeins of knock-your-socks-off sock yarn, or an emergency knitting kit (love this concept!), but you could also choose the ravelry tote bag, t-shirt, and buttons! T-shirt size medium (and not wrinkled!), and there are actually two buttons, the second of which says, "A daily dose of fiber--ravelry." So scroll down and find out more about Mel's contest, and then, get crackin'! (PS: I 'm sure you realize, but JIC, the "Hello My Name is--" button does not say "frecklegirl." I borrowed the photo from the ravelry store, and "frecklegirl" is Jess, who with hubby Casey, makes up the amazing ravelry creative team. This button is blank, waiting for YOUR name. 8^)

Spring Cleaning (in Summer)

I've been attempting the near impossible over the past several days, when I could get in there to continue the attempt. Cleaning the study and organizing the "overstocked warehouse," that is. Who knew I had so dang much yarn? [Ahem, DH knew! All my PayPal transactions cross his email desk, so to speak, and he is a strong, strong man for saying nothing more than--"Wow! That was expensive! What did you buy--half a sheep?"]

Which leads me to one of my ulterior motives, of which I always have a few. That, and nefarious plans [shifty eyes and Mr. Burns' hand wringing].

Mel, one of my favorite crafteristas, has been holding her birthday contest, which runs until--surprise!--her birthday, August 8. I once WON this contest and still have the nifty lighted knitting needles, a handmade needle roll, and some other fancies to remember her (and her favorite charity) by. All the contest details are here on her blog, but basically here's the lowdown: Before August 8, if you send a donation of yarn or other knitting/crocheting items to the ladies at Interim House, in Philly, and email to tell Mel what you have sent, she will add your name to her random prize generator (for one of two amazing prizes). She has the appropriate addy on her blog entry, so no worries about where the yarn should be sent.

Your donation helps make the following wonderful things happen:
1. Women who are recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and learning different ways to be productive and stay calm in our crazy world have all the yarn and needles needed to become skilled tricoteuses. ["That's knitters for all ya's what don't speak Eye-talian!"] Kathy and a heap of volunteers at Interim House provide the materials, the lessons, the encouragement, and the photo gallery publication that gives women in transition something much better than those previous addictions.
2. Your donation helps you reorganize and tidy up what is probably a somewhat optimistic stash of knittables, right? That's the theory I'm operating on, and there is no doubt that things are looking more organized and more sensible in my knitter's workshop.
3. You get a chance at some gasp-worthy surprises. Look! See what I mean? Who wouldn't want to be the new mother/father of these babies?

So, your mission, NOT impossible, is to look through what you have, see what you can live without, and pass it on to a worthwhile program. I have searched in my neck of the woods for anything similar to donate to, to feel as if I am doing something for my own community of women in similar circumstances, and . . . there's just nothing. Nothing knitting/crocheting oriented, that is. What they have is something special.

All the pertinent details are on Mel's blog, so get to it!

I have been donating to IH for at least three years, since I first heard of them through Mel's blog, and stay in touch with Kathy, the social worker who runs this program. She is inspiring for having gotten the knitting/crocheting efforts underway there and for always updating the IH blog with the newest creations the women have come up with. The women are way into felting! And also making blankets that they can take with them when they leave after their six month stints there (so symbolic, to an English teacher). As for my study-cleaning efforts, I have gathered together a goodly number of whole skeins and a few nearly full ones, as well as some knitting needles I don't use, and I am about to hunt down the right box for this donation and get it into the mail. Much of this yarn comes to me from my mom and her own overstocked warehouse, but is in colors or types that I just don't use. It is lovely, but not my style.

While attempting to clean up the den o' creativity, I found this! LOL moment:


The conclusion to be drawn is painfully obvious. I think we can all guess how the authors have made their fortunes--while all the homes in the English-speaking world remain clutter traps. I think a better subtitle would be: Which is Almost an Insurmountable Goal, But Buy the Book and Maybe You'll Read the First Chapter.








With all this non-reading and serious cleaning, I have not actually done as much knitting as I would prefer. But I guess that's for the greater good (I can find things now! I don't need to buy cream-colored yarn anymore! etc.). I will have no lack of things to keep me busy when I get the last of it tidied up, since I have now collected in one place all the bags that I use for my individual projects , and there are thirteen. "What did you say, Stacie?" Um, thirteen UFOs. But I'm about to frog one of them, so it will be twelve really.


Oh, well, in that case . . .








And now, brace yourselves please. When DH was supposedly feeling a bit under the weather after a high fever that has since resolved, when I was giving him cups of peppermint tea and bringing him uncounted glasses of water, not to mention making his favorite things for dinner, he repaid me for all my kindness. We had both seen an arresting advertisement in Entertainment Weekly this past week that I asked him to scan for me, to send to DD#1 (for nefarious purposes, I admit it). I had not been able to find the ad on the net, even after searching for a while, so I thought it would be easier to just have him scan it and send me the image. INSTEAD, he found the advertiser's site, had some fun, and created this hideous 'shopped monstrosity.

I may never sleep again.

I had told him if he found the original picture on the internet, I'd give him a prize, since I'd looked so very thoroughly.

Which I did, yesterday, on his birthday. ;^) For the record, he is now divisible by 12 and 16, not to mention 6, 8, 2, 3 and 4. His biggest goal these days, he says, is to celebrate his 50th, 60th, etc. birthdays.

Here, here!