Archives for May 2011

The Great Condo Clear-Out of 2011 went very well. I accomplished far more than I anticipated being able to do and am, I estimate, 90% done. Just a bit more left to do, and I can probably get it done over the next couple of weekends.

Look: a writing desk with no junk on it!

I have the yarn earmarked for charity ready to go (thank you for commenting/emailing/messaging me with your suggestions of where to send it — I already have a destination for it) and the yarn I plan to sell is separated out from the rest of the stash. I’m not sure when I’ll get around to listing it for sale. I’m a little sick of looking at it right now. 😉

I had a little time for a bit of knitting yesterday and have made some more progress on my Estonian Pi. Though you can’t tell much from this photo:

I’ve got 10 rounds or so before I start the last pattern — the edging pattern, and that is 16 rounds plus a bind-off. Given that each round is 576 stitches, I still have a way to go.

And on Thursday, June 2, the final clue for the Summer Mystery Shawlette will be released here. 4:30 pm-ish.

Lucy sez:

“This little chair looks so much better with me on it!”

On May 23, 1994  I bought my condo, so I have lived in the same place for 17 years. It’s a fairly large condo and I’ve done a good job over the years of getting rid of “stuff” I no longer want or need, but lately the stuff has been gathering up. I hate mess and clutter (though you’d never know this from looking at my office at work) so I’ve been getting a little twitchy lately.

I took Thursday and Friday of last week off from work so that I could embark on The Great Condo Clear-Out of 2011. I wasn’t sure how far I’d be able to get this weekend given the state of my back and spine.  I decided that if I managed to sort through my books and get rid of the ones I no longer wanted, I’d be happy.

So on Thursday morning, after two cups of strong coffee, I started pulling books out of bookcases. Rather, all the books out of all the bookcases. It took me most of the day, but at the end of it I had all my knitting books in one set of bookcases (the magazines, pattern booklets, and single patterns are in another location). I even have all the knitting books organized by topic.

And I had a lot of books bagged up, ready to donate to the “Friends of the Library” organization of a local public library for their used books sales.

I spent the remainder of Thursday de-cluttering the living room, moving some of the smaller pieces of furniture.

When I got out of bed on Friday I realized that my back was not happy with all the bending and lifting I did on Thursday and I couldn’t stand up straight, but after copious application of very hot water in the shower and some Aleve (all hail the Mighty Aleve), I straightened out. But I had to take things a little easier on Friday. I did some de-cluttering in the master bedroom, the bathrooms, kitchen, and the linen closet.

Saturday was my “day off.” The King of All Remote Controls helped me schlep all the books to the library for donation and the rest of the day was spent lying on the couch, watching the Doctor Who marathon on BBC America, and doing a little knitting.

Today I am going to attempt something very scary: I will go into the stash room and attempt to weed out yarn.

Dramatic pause . . .

I have lots and lots of yarn stored in my guest room/stash room — so much so that it has gotten out of hand. So much of it I know I’ll never use. My plan is to donate the cheaper stuff to charity. I’m not sure how I will dispose of the “good” stuff. I’ve got lots of Colinette, Rowan, Koigu, Dale of Norway, a lot of handpainted sock yarn, etc. that I will never knit up. I’d like to make a little money off it, so I’m thinking of offering it up for sale (at greatly reduced prices of course) on my blog here, or possibly through Ravelry. I have no stash listed at all on Ravelry — so it would involved the same amount of work either way — photographing it, writing descriptions, etc. I dunno . . . maybe I’ll put a bit up on Ravelry and see what happens.

Anyway.

Even though I’m not done yet, I am so much happier with the state of my living area. It’s so much more pleasant to sit on my couch and knit without having to look at extraneous “stuff” shoved into corners. Here’s hoping that I can keep up the trend.

All of this is a very roundabout way of saying that I have not done very much knitting over this long weekend. But there’s still tomorrow.

And if you’ve read this far, you get rewarded with a picture of Miss Lucy, who is blissfully drowsy, probably unaware of the feng shui in my newly neat living room.

But you never know.

Happy Memorial Day! Hug a veteran! 😀

The results are in — Timmie and Judy aka lamazeteacher are the winners in the Sheepish book giveaway. I have emailed each of you. Thanks to everyone who left a comment

Estonian Pi

I am working along on my pi shawl, which, as I mentioned a couple of blog posts ago, I have dubbed “Estonian Pi” because the lace motifs are more or less based on Estonian lace patterns.

Because this is a pi shawl, it doubles in size every time you do an increase round (which is not all that often).

Over the weekend I diligently knit the entire 288-stitch-per round section, so was pretty pleased with my progress. I did a sort of razor-shell lace thingie with extra-large holes created by double yarn overs in that section.

Yesterday I did an increase round, so I now have 576 stitches on my needle. That’s a whole heckuva lot of pi!

And although I am in the second-to-last pattern chart, I still have miles to knit on this thing since it takes just short of forever to knit a round. But it is an enjoyable knit – love the yarn, love the color, love the pattern, love the needles. It’s a veritable lovefest, I tell ya!

Summer Mystery Shawlette KAL

Don’t forget — the next clue to the KAL (which is the second to last clue) will be posted here on Thursday, around 4:30 pm-ish, EDT.

Lucy Sez:

“Now where did I leave my fuzzy rat?”