Free At Last!

Free
Now that's an interesting word, isn't it?  It can be "free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I'm free at last"; it can be "candy, ice cream...all free today";  It can be "...if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed".
But today, for me, free is - free from the clutter and disorganization coming from scattered skeins, balls and piles of YARN. It also means I am finally realizing that, although this is not literally true because I've already paid for it, I just may have free yarn for the rest of my life! Yes, it is time for what they call on those reality shows - The Reveal!!! If you need a refresher on where this all started - here you go.

Welcome to my home yarn shop

We'll start our tour with a full view

From My Yarn Shop

Along the top are baskets with leftover bits of yarn, 

From My Yarn Shop

odds and ends, extra needles and hooks, etc.,

From My Yarn Shop

and the swift my dad made me. It's seasonal neighbor is the "yarn ball snowman" Brendyn gave me for Christmas which I totally adore!

From My Yarn Shop

All this sets on a selection of dresser scarves my Busia (grandmother) made which I gladly took from her house after she passed away. I'm still trying to decide if I should put my yarn ball winder up on top with the swift but I've been using it a lot lately so it's not an urgent question.

Now for the detail, the organizational part that I've struggled with for years. I was given some sage advice which, when I heard it, made the most perfect, logical sense and I grabbed onto it like it was one of the Dead Sea Scrolls. "Think of how you choose your yarn for a project. Is it by color? by weight? by fiber? Organize with the end in mind." Why hadn't I ever thought of that before? All my vain attempts at organizing had failed because of this tiny nugget of wisdom had eluded me. So with that in mind and having the storage solution in hand, the rest was easy. Since I have branched out beyond acrylic and cotton I realized weight then fiber type are usually my initial thoughts for a project. Here is a walkthru of the shop. . .

First, animal fibers (wool, alpaca, camel, etc.) and animal fiber blends; bulky and worsted on the top. . .

From My Yarn Shop

moving to sport and fingering/sock weight on the bottom

From My Yarn Shop

Next is plant fibers (cotton, rayon, bamboo, etc.) and plant fiber blends. Most of these are worsted weight so I didn't see a need for further categorization. On the far right is the man made fibers section. I couldn't get a good photo of this because of the window behind it but it also uses the "heavy to light weights" organization. You get a better view of it in the first picture.  You'll also notice books scattered in as well. No real organization to those yet except maybe by height ;-)

From My Yarn Shop

And finally, the yarn waiting to be re-born....sweaters! The top left silk and silk blends, next cashmere and cashmere blends. Wool and wool blends ranging from "really soft" (i.e. merino) to "kinda scratchy" (i.e. Shetland). At the bottom are the cotton and rayon blends that either feel really nice or have a cool color.

From My Yarn Shop

Well, that's the tour of the shop. I feel very good about it being done. And although the shop is done, there is still yarn in other parts of the house. I'm doing my best to find it good, loving homes. I have a few people who have offered to take most of it but I'm prayerfully considering where it goes. I would hate for someone else to end up in the same situation and have their hobby and joy become an anchor. My hope is that it will be divvied up within a month or so.

May God Bless Your Stitches,

nance

Gaming for Knitters!

I saw a large cardboard display at Game Stop today and just HAD to share with my yarny friends!

The video clips I saw makes this look like a wonderland of knitted fabrics, crocheted snowflakes, tufts of giant wool "snowballs" and chunky yarn lassos; twisted cord and crochet chain enemies; and at one point he says, "the ground feels like.....pants!".  One reviewer said the game is geared for the younger folks, won't let you die and is more fun played with a friend. Sounds totally like my speed....maybe a gift for Sydney's birthday!

More Kirbys Epic Yarn Videos

And to follow up on the Office Party. . . I did bring knitting along and it attracted MUCH attention right off the bat! Good and bad I guess; Good because I was able to evangelize the yarn crafts and I found out our Senior Director (Martyn, from England) used to knit as a child. Even though he and I have gotten along well for years, yet another connection (yeah!). Bad because I'm uncomfortable being the center of attention for anything and I'm not a very good conversationalist....unless I'm evangelizing about yarn, so I guess overall a win-win. And the food was excellent too :)

May God Bless Your Stitches,
nance

Yarn Storage - Stage 1

The day finally came! Since I purchased the shelves to organize my yarn stash I have been so anxious to start the project.  First of all a great deal of thanks to my wonderful husband first for "encouraging" me to "do SOMETHING with all the yarn!!" and second for helping me with the huge task of moving it out of the corner and cleaning the mess that was under and behind it.  The day certainly had a few unexpected issues but what big project doesn't? I started the actual work about 10:30 after getting to sleep in a good hour and a half longer than I normally do. I hauled in the first box of shelf pieces from the garage to discover that the rip in the box was not just a rip but possibly a hole from a fork lift that also crushed one end of one of the boards. Frantic searching for the receipt left me empty...and realizing it was more than the 30 days allowed for returns and exchanges I was out of luck anyway. I was angry...not at anyone but just at the situation. I had a whole day of work planned and already a monkey wrench in it.

Exhibit A

I was able to regain my enthusiasm (just slightly dampened) by logging on to the website of the company which made these. I tried the 800 number first, no answer. So I sent them an email explaining the situation and asking if they would consider replacing this piece and possible others damaged (I still hadn't opened the box). I wandered around the website a bit longer and thought if they wouldn't replace the one piece I supposed I could just order one and pay for it. So I went to the "Replacement Parts" page, filled in all the information about the type of unit, the part number, name, address, etc. then expected to be shown how much it would cost. Nope...it just sent. Hmmm. Hoping I wouldn't receive said part in a couple of weeks with an outrageous bill I decided to just move on.
Carton #2, fine condition! WHEW! I enlisted the help of the beautiful Sydney and we spent about an hour and a half assembling the first Yarncase (yes, similar to bookcase but it's for yarn!)

Assembly

 I figured the other 2 would only take about an hour each since we have a better idea of what we're doing. It's now about lunch time so I took a break to make lunch for the kids. Meanwhile Allen was getting started on clearing out the corner. I forgot to take a picture before he started but here's what it looks like right now.  A very large part of this was in what we call "the green trunk" - this huge crate-like thing one of the Wirtz relatives made probably a couple of generations ago. The two redeeming qualities are the color (I repainted it a nice forest green about 12 years ago, it used to be LIME green!) and that it has wheels. It's incredible storage capacity is a blessing AND a curse!

Stash

While the kids were eating lunch and Allen was still mentally preparing his attack on the yarn corner, I wanted to keep moving on the shelves. This one went great! Done in under an hour. But wait, oh I did NOT do that! Ugh, the part that forms the top of the case is upside down! Instead of the shiny black it's icky particle board. I kept my cool, tried to imagine living with it that way but just couldn't. I knew what I had to do. It wasn't going to be easy, sigh. Although in about 15 minutes I had it fixed and unless you see the back of the case where I had to pop the nails thru the cardboard back and reattach them, you'd never know. I assume my secret will be safe with you ;-)

I was on a roll now, yarncase #3 should be a breeze! Oh you would think so, right? Well, we would both be wrong! Yes, I saw that it had been taped but I've seen that before. However, when I opened it I could tell this package had not only been previously opened but I am certain was purchased previously but also completely unpacked, possibly partially assembled and repacked. This didn't look anything like the way the other cartons were put together. Bag of hardware tied in a knot? C'mon! and if you look closely at the top right corner.......yep, that IS what you see!!! OH MY GOSH! I could not believe it!! So my problem-solving brain thinks, "ok, one of the two main boards in two cartons are damaged and I have little hope that the company will supply any new parts (especially since this one is clearly not their fault) I can put together a "franken-case"! Yes, use parts from both to make one good one. I'm so ingenious some times i scare myself!" Yes, you would certainly think so. But once again, we're both wrong.

Exhibit B

You have GOT to be FREAKIN kidding me!!! I was livid beyond intelligible words. Allen heard me from the other side of the house. He had no words of comfort, no one could comfort me at this moment. I needed to be alone...................................

Exhibit C

I went and laid down on the bed with the door closed but I couldn't let it go. These two wrecked cartons were not my fault yet because I bought something and wasn't able to assemble them withing the allotted 30 days, I was stuck with them. NOT FAIR! I got up and reread the return/exchange policy on the back of another Big Lots receipt. They are very strict with this policy, they even have it audibly playing in the store that you have to have a receipt and it has to be within the 30 days. But I had to try...I said a quick prayer for favor and I called the store and asked for the manager the girl said "I am". I started to explain about the damaged merchandise, that it was longer than 30 days and I didn't have a receipt. I thought recognized her voice and I could picture her (I do a lot of shopping at Big Lots!). She gave me a couple hmm's, and uh-huh's and I stopped mid sentence....."are you just going to tell me "No" at this point or should I go on?" She very nicely said "I can only exchange for exactly the same thing." I couldn't believe what I heard. I repeated it back to her, yep that's what she said. I asked if they had any in stock, I was transfered......."yes, we have a lot of them". I said I would come right over. YEAH, project NOT foiled by stupid corporate bureaucratic nonsense. I would have gracefully accepted an "I'm sorry ma'am, that's our policy." Sure, I would have been bitter, might have even boycotted the store.  But they were nice about it, I mean really decent. Ashame I have to be so surprised by that but it's the times we live in I guess. So here it is, now 3:00 the day after Thanksgiving and I'm going to a store. Not what I planned at all but I was doing it gladly. I asked Brendyn if he wanted to go to get out of the house for a bit and he agreed. Everyone at the store, especially the young man from the storage room, was extremely helpful, nice, courteous...much more than I expected since they had likely had a very long and busy day already. I tried to tip the young man from the storage room who was so helpful AND loaded the cartons into the van but he cheerfully said, "no, I can't". An experience like that has made me even more a fan of Big Lots (at least the one I shop at) than ever! And bonus, I got a $10 off my next purchase coupon!!
New carton #3 was still shrink-wrapped on the palette at the store and pristine when I opened it at home! With Sydney's help, it was together in less than an hour, about 45 minutes actually. A few quick measurements and Allen helped my move them into place. Sydney inserted all the shelves.

My Little Yarn Shop

Welcome to the beginning of my own little yarn shop!!!  Allen noticed me looking over at it and said, "you really like this, don't you?" "Yeah."

My God Bless Your Stitches,
nance

Yarn Storage

Pretty much everyone one who knows me even a little knows that I have a little problem.  Some closer to me might call it a BIG problem.  It's yarn.  OK, there it is, out in the open for everyone to see.  The first part is admitting you have a problem, right? So I've done it.  We don't need to hammer into the ground the size of the problem, let's just move on alright?

In an effort to de-clutter our home Allen and I (well mostly Allen) have a list.  Every room with the problem areas.  The overall goal is to get control over enough things to be able to get the walls of the main house painted (I'd like to get to the kids' rooms too but that might be next year's project) and get actual flooring put in.  I have three main areas to focus on -

1.  Kitchen table - This is where I work from home.  There are piles of papers and notebooks relating to work as well as mail that comes in and needs to be sorted and bills, both paid and unpaid.  I'm a total nut when it comes to NOT printing things so when I do have to deal with paper I have no method to deal with it.  Was the same when I worked in the office and was required to bring printed things to meetings.

2.  The small bathroom (aka Mom's bathroom) - Very tight space. Past attempts to organize were containers and boxes that now overflow with miscellaneous bathroom-y things and laundry.

3.  The "yarn area" in the living room - This is the big, bad boy of a mess.  It's not just one area it's roughly 1/3 of the room. Zero organization, and more fibre than anyone could use in a lifetime. This doesn't include the yarn in the bedroom and the books in the family room but I'm sure eventually that will get taken care of in this plan.

At this point I know my relatives who seem to have been born with an organizational gene are cringing at this. I'm sorry to say life often gets in the way of things and the more lives you're dealing with the more things there are to get in the way.  'nuf said.

So here's the plan....

1.  For the kitchen table, there is no [long-term] plan. I assume access to my filing cabinet could help however it is under equipment as part of the recording studio and the drawers can only be opened about 2 inches before hitting an instrument or some kind of equipment.  I can sort thru the existing papers and accumulated junk mail but the problem will continue to resurface until I have a way to manage the paper and that might take rearranging the studio....that's not on the list.  So I just need to bite the bullet, slog thru the papers for now and we'll return to this one at a later date.

2.  This is where it starts to get exciting.  Maybe it's because I get to use tools!  About 5 or so years ago I saw this thing at Value City and thought it would be a great idea for the tiny bathroom.  Money was really tight so I didn't buy it and have regretted it.  While searching for a solution to problem #3 I saw something similar in a corner.  OK, this isn't it because I couldn't find the exact picture but it's the same concept.  The one I bought is painted white tongue-in-groove wood, small shelf on the bottom with a cabinet with two doors on top.  It's beautiful and I think it will be perfect!

3.  And then there’s the subject of this whole thing – the yarn. I will post the embarrassing pictures as I tackle this project but for now lets just focus on the solution.  I was thinking of some kind of storage unit(s) with 12x12 cubes like I’ve often seen in yarn stores.  At Target one unit of 9 cubes was about $40. One of my favorite stores is Big Lots.  I don’t get there much since they closed our office last year and there’s none close to our house.  Occasionally I’ll wander up to the one near the old office and still get the weekly ad in my email.  About a week and a half ago I saw they had storage units on sale.  I really liked this 9 Cube Storage unit but I knew I would need several.  At $99.99 each, too pricey.  But they did have a 72" 5 Shelf Bookcase on sale for $27.99  Coupled with my Buzz Club Rewards “20% off your entire purchase” this came in at pennies more than $22 each.  4 of them was less than the cost of the one!  I love finding a bargain!

5 Shelf Bookcase

So my organizational shopping trip came in at roughly $120 and I’m hoping to cross the two big items off my “house list”.  Allen will be SO happy!!!

May God bless your stitches,

nance

She seeks wool and flax. . .

Those who know me are likely thinking, "ooo! she's found a great sale on yarn", or "oh no! she's found a great sale on yarn". But they would be wrong....well, not entirely wrong

Recently Updated

but that's not where I'm going today.
I do a lot of praying while I knit/crochet. I believe God gives us the desires of our hearts (Psalm 37:4), that He puts those desires there. So given the desire to be creative [with yarn], I honor that when I am able to fulfill that desire by building my relationship with Him.  So back to the subject, "She seeks wool and flax. . ." you may or may not know this is from Proverbs - She seeks wool and flax And willingly works with her hands. (Proverbs 31:13) This morning I started exploring this, a "word study" as my pastor says, and I was pleasantly amused.
First that this section of the chapter (31: 10-31) is in some translations labeled "The Virtuous Wife".  I know that in this day and age men and women, husbands and wives being considered to have different qualities and roles is thought of as antiquated and no longer relevant. I wholeheartedly disagree with that.  What was virtuous for a wife in the Old Testament is still virtuous for a wife today. Applying this section of the bible to myself I went thru it verse by verse.  Bad idea! My objective was not how, in my opinion, I fall down on many of these virtues but to understand why God pointed me to this today.
What this passage taught me is there are many things we wives do, many things we are expected to do and why. Many of them have to do with providing for and nurturing our families...this is where the wool and flax come in.

¹³ She seeks wool and flax,

And willingly works with her hands.

Besides this part, there are several other references to making and providing clothing -

²¹ She is not afraid of snow for her household,
For all her household is clothed with scarlet.
²² She makes tapestry for herself;
Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

Scarlet and purple used as nouns is unusual but I know biblically these are often mentioned as offerings. To me that means they're special, expensive, not easy to come by; so mom/wife being able to clothe her family in them must give her great joy. I certainly get great joy in making and giving using even very ordinary materials.

Another verse that set me off looking was - 

¹⁹ She stretches out her hands to the distaff,

And her hand holds the spindle

I know a spindle is a spinning tool for twisting fibers together to make the thread or yarn. But what is the distaff? Hello Wikipedia!

[a tool] to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process.

 Wow, another spinning tool reference!  But I read further. . .

As an adjective the term distaff is used to describe the female side of a family.

How interesting! The female, the WIFE!  So claiming this revelation (or just in the weird way my mind works!) I take away from all of this:

There's the literal interpretation of the making and providing. 

But,the Bible is full of word pictures and non-literal meanings of words. So looking at this in the more interpretive sense - 

(31:13) gathering wool and flax is family and she works diligently to keep things in order because unspun fibers, if not tended to, can become quite unruly and eventually useless.

(31:19) her family is the fiber placed on the distaff; unspun individual strands; as they are pulled and twisted onto the spindle they become a single usable strand

(31:21) she doesn't fear the difficulties her family may face because she knows she's covered them with the best possible materials, teaching them from the Word

(31:22) her own covering is tapestry, a woven fabric using the finest material, then stitched over with many colors (experiences) making it very thick and durable; tapestry can withstand a lot of abuse without showing much wear.  This is what a wife needs for herself in order to continue with the rest for her family.

And the chapter ends with this - 

³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands,

And let her own works praise her in the gates

Whether the fruit be a hat, a scarf, a sweater or mittens or the children she raises or the husband she supports,  all this gives glory to God and will stand before her in His Kingdom!

May God Bless Your Stitches,

nance

Hats!

In my last post I mentioned not being able to focus on anything so I made hats. . . lots of hats.  I wanted to share the joy of my inability to read a pattern for several weeks. 
First was Allen's hat, 100% wool left over from Leigh's Christmas socks

From 2010-02-04

Then Sydney's hat

From 2010-02-16

Then my headband/earwarmer

From 2010-02-04

which became another hat for Allen because of my inability to measure gauge or my pig-headedness to just NOT.....but does it really matter?  Can we just move on now?
So at this point I still have no hat.  January in the midwest requires one to have a hat, unless you're a 12 year old boy who would rather just complain about how cold it is....but I digress.  Following the completion of the mitten/gloves, it was finally time for MY hat; my thick, warm, cozy, keep-every-part-of-my-head-and-ears-warm hat.  It became my latest knitting nightmare.  Now, when I make mistakes, choose not to read a pattern, choose not to measure gauge, etc. I get frustrated but there's no sense in getting upset or angry because it's my own fault.  But when I do use a pattern, and I do measure gauge and it still comes out wrong, then I get a bit testy! Ok, the gauge thing I'll take partial blame for, I did measure but measured in seed stitch but the pattern said (see, I did read it, just not all of it) to measure in stockinette even tho the only thing done in stockinette is the earflaps, go figure.  So I have the lady at the local yarn shop order the pattern book for me.  Her website says she carries Sundae yarn so I don't bother asking her to order that.  When I went to pick up the book and buy the yarn I find out she doesn't keep it in stock, but she can order it for me. Sigh.  Long story short, I opted for three strands held together of yarn from Dollar Tree in just the right colors.  Once finally vindicated that the pattern was indeed incorrect I was able to move on and finish the hat.  But alas, as you may have guessed because my gauge being unknowingly off, it was too big...another sigh.  Now my husband can be the best maker-of-lemonade ever...he says he likes the hat and will add it to his collection and procedes to wear it around the house the rest of the evening.  I did forego the 6 inch pom-pom the pattern called for.

From 2010-02-04

Of course with all the wrinkles ironed out I just HAD to make one for Sydney!

From 2010-02-16

(bad picture from cell phone as she left for school!)
So with one final attempt I actually finished MY hat!  No, not the one I imagined for myself but I love it, it fits AND its keeping my head and ears very warm. . . :-) 

From 2010-02-16

(panda is for modeling purposes only, the hat is MINE!!!)

God bless your stitches,
nance

Thrift Store

The Marklund Thrift Store has become one of my regular stops lately. They drew me in with their 50% off sale a few weeks ago. That's when I got this bundle.
Looking for blankets/rugs to line the dog crate, I found this large, never opened, factory stapled, bag of yarn and stuff. I had no idea what the project was supposed to be because the paper enclosed was folded to the inside. There were many, many hanks of some kind of yarn,
a very large piece of burlap and some kind of hooking tool. It was marked $15 and but it was 50% off. I didn't want to buy more acrylic, I like to look for wool or unusual fibers (in sweaters) when I go there. Hmmm, so what to do. I flipped the bag around several times and then saw a hole in one of the plastic seams. The yarn felt very scratchy. Since this looked quite old, could have been some low quality acrylic. Still not satisfied, I continued to look closely. I noticed each hank was tied with a piece of string with a tag and a hand written number on it, most likely a color code for whatever this project was meant to be. Then I saw it, one of the tags was flipped to the other side and printed on it was "100% Pure Virgin Wool"...ooooo, the felting possibilities!!!

Recycled Yarn Project

So the results of my thrift store recycled yarn project are mixed. The first sweater I worked on was the jackpot. Upon dissecting it, I remembered something about looking at the seams. Some are GOOD seams, some are ICKY seams. The good ones are when a sweater is constructed by all the pieces being made to the correct shape then sewn together. The icky ones are when the sweaters are cut from a large piece of knitted "cloth" and a serger is used to keep all the loose ends from fraying. One of my bargain sweaters had good seams (the striped one) the other two have "icky" seams. From the striped sweater I got between 14 and 15 oz of yarn. It was knotted in the seam at each color change. I showed it to my daughter and we decided this is now what I would use for the "crazy blanket" because it really was crazy. I trimmed the knots but pretty much left the yarn in tact as it came off the sweater. I don't mind knots as much as some I guess and I'm going for quantity yardage. I know my daughter won't care at all.
I imagine it's not going to be very big but that's not the point. The initial point was to see if I could be successful at taking apart a thrift store sweater, the secondary point was to quickly make my daughter a blanket. Here's the progress so far....I've used about half the yarn.

Thrift Store Challenge

Last Thursday my daughter saw me working on a comfortghan for my friend's brother and decided blue was her new favorite color and I had to make her a blue blanket. So I opened up the stash and let her look for blue yarn. Being only 6 years old she doesn't understand weights and fiber contents of yarn, however she does have a very good sense of color. I directed her towards the myriad balls of Lion Brand Kitchen cotton I had picked up in the clearance bin of Michael's because they didn't have labels. I have made a couple of items out of various balls but there was still a lot left, many in navy or medium blue. She picked one of each of those as well as a lonely 2.5 oz ball of Sugar 'n Cream light blue. I could tell she already had the design in her head. She said she wanted one like I made Roxy (our 12 year old Schnoodle). I found 3 hanks of rug yarn at the thrift store and made about a 20 inch Granny Square "blanket" for her. I asked her to draw me what it looked like. She was frustrated because she didn't have the right color crayons so we just talked about which color would go in the center, then next, then next. She also apparently decided she was not quite through with her "pink" era because she wanted me to use the left over balls of pink and purple from the skirt I recently made her. I told her "this is going to be a crazy blanket." So I put everything into a project bag and planned on working on it over the weekend.

Then on Friday, on my second trip to the thrift store near work I again went looking for one of those huge bargain bags of yarn I've heard others talk about. What I found was a knitted dishrag made with Sugar 'n Cream for 50 cents. I grabbed it thinking I can take this apart and mix it into the "crazy blanket". Then I thought, "...hmm, taking things apart...." I've heard of people finding great sweaters and recycling them into yarn for something new. Since I was in a thrift store I thought I'll just browse for a sweater that doesn't cost too much so I don't feel bad if I wreck it. I saw a huge rack of them right in the middle of the store. Touched some really nice wool, cashmere, angora, etc. but couldn't bring myself to want to dissect them because they were so pretty. All the sweaters were tagged $4 so I thought that was a great deal if I could find one to take apart. For some reason I was drawn to several cotton ones. I picked three that I liked the color of. I also decided to get a really pretty light bluish gray lambswool/angora cable cardigan for my daughter (as a gift, not as yarn). So began my adventure into yarn recycling. Now as a co-worker has pointed out, "you don't NEED to do this for yarn, you have plenty of yarn!" True. I consider this just an extension of my craft. So here are the sweaters in their original form......The pink ones are 100% cotton,

stripey is a cotton/acrylic blend (VERY SOFT! and pliable).