Da-da-dah! The After photos!

I did it, internet!  I let the shame of having terrible Before pictures of a horribly messy sewing/yarn room motivate me to clean up and achieve a perfect(-ish) After state!  And I did it within the month, too.

Take a tour:

I organized and stored all my fabric into tubs, and I put all my patterns in the basket.  They're not really organized, but they're all in one spot, and fairly easy to flip through.  The yarn on top is Stylecraft acrylic that I'm slowly using for a blanket. 

I pulled out all my yarn and organized it as I put it back, bulky on the left to lace weight on the right.  I threw out a few old things, and weeded out. 

I pulled out a little side table I got from goodwill a few months ago and set up a winding station!  No more taking the swift down and putting it up on the ironing board, shaking everything off it while I'm winding.  Speaking of the ironing board, look what's on it!  Just the iron!  Aha!  Now, the key of organization is Know Thyself, and I know that stuff will pile up eventually.  But I can pile it up on the winding table, not the ironing board.

For months, I've been ripping things out of magazines and saving special cards, wanting to put them on my bulletin board.  For some unexplainable reason, instead of pinning them up, I've been storing them in a box below my table.  What?  How long does it take to pin something up?  That's the whole point of a bulletin board--easy access to items you want before you.  So I pinned them up.

And if you're thinking that looks like a brand new sewing machine, you're right!  My parents very generously bought me a new Janome for my birthday.  More on that later.

There's one thing you will not see: the closet.  No one will see it.  If you open it, you will be buried.  But whatever.  The rest of the room is spectacular.  I'm ready to go!  Bring it, 2013. 

Holy Complete Mess, Batman!

I'm doing something very brave.  I'm posting before pictures on the internet without any after pictures to immediately counterbalance their horribleness.  I'm doing this for the accountability, people.  So here it is: the modern world's messiest sewing room.

Please, stick with me!  Don't click away in disgust and horror!

You know when you're on vacation and you see a gorgeous vista and you try to take a picture to capture it all and the grandeur is reduced to something sort of uninspiring?  The same thing is happening in these pictures.  Trust me, in person, it feels like this room is going to eat you before you'll ever be able to fight your way out. 

I blame 75% of this mess on Christmas.  In addition to extra-intense sewing and crafting, we used the sewing room as a catch all for random stuff as we were cleaning the rest of the house.  This is not my normal, acceptable level of slightly creative clutter.  This is code red craziness. 

This is clearly fabric abuse. 

I had a thought that I should take pictures before cleaning this up, so I could do a before and after post.  But I've done that before, and you know what happens?  Things get better, but I never really get to a beautiful "after" point.  At best, I get to the "in progress" stage.  So I had a brainflash.  I should post the before pictures to motivate me into actually getting to the after pictures.

My game plan is to make the timer on my phone my new best friend.  Since this is all so overwhelming, I'm breaking it down into 25 minute cleaning sessions.  Twenty-five minutes isn't even half an hour!  Less than half an hour is totally doable.  (See the mind games at work?) 

I've already started by going through all my fabric, refolding it, and stashing it into three bins: big cuts, small cuts/garment left-overs, and quilting/crafting fabric.  I also have a bag of muslin fabric.  So I'm headed toward that after picture!  Watch this space. 

FO: Rory's striped scarf

Ahem.  I wrote this post a long time ago.  March, I think.  And now I'm posting it.  Don't judge.  You have things hanging over your head, too, right?
 
As part of Stash Down 2012, I've used up some scrap yarn!  Since Downtown Abbey is over (sad face), I've started re-watching Gilmore Girls for the 78th time.  In Season 1, Rory wears this stripey scarf, and I found myself thinking, "I could make something like that!"  I realized I had a ton of worsted weight wool scraps, so I gathered it all up and got to work.

Pattern: I wanted the stripes to be very clear, not affected by purl bumps, so I used the Noro striped scarf pattern.  It's a 1x1 rib, which ends up looking like stockinette on both sides.  I used each color for 15 rows.

Process: This was so speedy!  I hate making scarves because of the boredom factor, but this wasn't boring at all.  I should tackle the Noro striped scarf!

Product: It's a cushy, basic, sporty, very warm scarf.  For free!  Score!

Yarn:  This was like a sampler for different worsted weight wool.  Out of the 15 colors, 8 were Wool of the Andes, one was Cascade 220, one was Cascade 220 Superwash, one was Patons Wool, and one was Merino Style, which is now sadly discontinued.  It really is very soft.  It's listed as a DK weight, but it knit up at exactly the same gauge and hand as all the worsted weights.

What I learned:  This was a super simple project, but I still learned something!  When it comes to binding off a 1x1 rib, it will flare out and look sort of crummy.  So I used the kitchener stitch!  I put all the knit stitches on one needle and all the purl stitches on another needle, and then grafted them to each other!  It worked perfectly and made me happy.

Ravelry project page: ta-da!

Stash Down 2012 strikes again!  Maybe I'll use the scraps to make some Sundance-inspired mitts?

yarn diets don't work

They say that diets don't work.  If you refuse yourself your favorite things to eat--say, chocolate--eventually you end up feeling deprived.  And when you're deprived, you feel hungry and sorry for yourself and like you deserve a little treat.  So then you end up eating a bunch of stuff--say, pretzels and cheese and popcorn and ice cream and PBJs--trying to compensate for missing out on a little bit of chocolate.

Guess what?  It works the same way with yarn, too.


Two weeks ago, I had this interpersonal struggle about whether or not I should by some good yarn at an extraordinary price.  It was on sale for three days and I had the perfect project for it--Angostura from Little Red in the City.  It was a serious craving.  But I knew that I had plenty of yarn and projects waiting for me.  I made a list of my stash and my queue, and that sobered me up a bit.  I didn't buy the yarn.

So I should feel virtuous, right?  All righteous and proud of myself?  Nope.  I feel sorry for myself.  Poor little me without a new vest for fall.  C will have a new vest (I'm about 95% finished with his Skye Tweed Vest), but not me.  Sob sob. 

Guess how I comforted myself?  I bought some yarn.

I got some Berroco Vintage, which I've been wanting to try for a while.  It's not as nice as the merino/alpaca might have been, and it was more expensive.  But I do think it will make a lovely vest, and I'm glad (relieved?) that I can start on a new fall vest for myself.



And guess what?  I got a few more things, too.  I went shopping with my mom, one of the only knitter friends I have, so she bought me a couple of things.

This is Cascade Baby Alpaca Chunky, and it is amazing!  This is for a Shawl Collared Cowl, a pattern I purchased in Never Not Knitting's fall sale.

Mom also bought some for me to make her the same cowl.

So I missed out on one sale, which would have given me a merino/alpaca vest for $18, and I ended up with three projects of yarn, worth about $60.  The moral of the story?  Yarn diets don't work. 

Denial

I have a problem.  But not really.  It's not like a serious problem.  It's more of a characteristic than a problem.  A personality trait.  You could perhaps call it a habit, if you must.  I like to buy yarn.

Cascade 220 (from sale!) for February Lady, Bliss, and Evendim

Ooh, just typing out that admission sent a pang of guilt through me.  But really, where is the harm in buying yarn?  I use it.  I use it quickly.  Perhaps not as quickly as I buy it, but still.  Plenty of other people buy yarn, and a lot of people buy way more than I do.  And it's relatively inexpensive, especially compared to other pastimes, such as, say, golf, or antique car collecting.  So it's really not anything to be concerned about, right?

Palette for Ivy League Vest, Telemark for Ida's Kitchen Hat, Cascade 220 for C's vest, random sock

I buy most of my yarn online, since I've only recently moved to a town where I can actually get to an LYS in under an hour.  I bought several skeins last month from WEBS.  The price of Cascade was going up, and I had to make my purchase before the price increase.  (My mom said, "It's an investment.")  I had projects in mind for each group of skeins I bought.  But when the box arrived, my giddy feelings were matched by feelings of burden.  When was I going to be able to get to these projects?  How long would it take me to knit through the WIPs and things already in my queue?  Why was I obsessively stock piling more yarn, when I already had lots of lovely things I can't wait to get to?

Even as I was admiring my purchases, I said to my husband, "Honey, please don't let me buy any more yarn.  I know I'll want to, and I need you to hold me back."  He rolled his eyes.

Cascade Eco + for Alderbrook, Cascade Eco for Hemlock Ring, Deerfield for Cedar Leaf Shawl and hat, Berroco Alpaca for shawl, Malabrigo silky wool for Branching Out

Well.  Yesterday, WEBS announced that their deal of the day (and weekend) is Stockbridge, a 50% merino, 50% alpaca, 109 yards for $2.59!  My mind started spinning, planning what I could make and imagining the soft and the warmth and the color.  And how inexpensive it would be!  I mean, a vest of merino and alpaca for only $18!

I found my husband.  "I want to buy this.  You're not supposed to let me."

"No way."  More eye rolling.  "You're not putting that decision on me.  That is entirely up to you." 

Cascade Superwash for Abby's Blanket, vacation souvenir sock, 40 year old handspun wool gifted from aunt via mom for I Heart Aran

Well.  What am I going to do?  Add to my stash and my burden?  Buy some lovely yarn at a fantastic price that I will love knitting and will eventually become a beautiful garment worth 4 times the cost?  What a problem!  Well, not really a problem ...