Tidy Mind, Tidy Stashes2KCBWDay3

Day Three: 30th March. Tidy mind, tidy stitches.

How do you keep your yarn wrangling organised? It seems like an easy to answer question at first, but in fact organisation exists on many levels. Maybe you are truly not organised at all, in which case I am personally daring you to try and photograph your stash in whatever locations you can find the individual skeins. However, if you are organised, blog about an aspect of that organisation process, whether that be a particularly neat and tidy knitting bag, a decorative display of your crochet hooks, your organised stash or your project and stash pages on Ravelry.

I try to be organized with my knitting by using plastic containers/Rubbermaid bins for my stash of yarn.  Mind you I have bags of yarn in my closet, my spare closets beside my bed and in the office closet.  This sounds horrible as I type it (and makes me think I should think about collecting it all again and putting it back in the bins where it belongs).  My books are in a plastic bin as well again for the most part with some being in those bags I just told you about.  My needles and other tools are in a plastic bin in my living room waiting to be organized in a binder that I bought myself at the beginning of the new year.  My biggest problem is when I print a pattern off and I am finished with the pattern I tend to just fold the pattern and set it aside.  I bought this binder and a whole pile of page protectors to put my loose patterns into it so I would always have them but I haven't completed that task yet.

To be honest here it really doesn't sound like I'm all that organized after all.  I have 2 or 3 knitting bags on the go at times and sometimes still grab a plastic shopping bag to carry my knitting with me.  Why you may wonder?  Why grab a plastic bag rather than my knitting bag?  I really have no idea.

I will take some pics of my stash and post here later today then maybe when I see it here I will make that move to get MORE organized!

Skill + 1UP – 2KCBWDAY2

Skill + 1UP – 2KCBWDAY2

Look back over your last year of projects and compare where you are in terms of skill and knowledge of your craft to this time last year. Have you learned any new skills or forms of knitting/crochet (can you crochet cable stitches now where you didn’t even know such things existed last year? Have you recently put a foot in the tiled world of entrelac? Had you even picked up a pair of needles or crochet hook this time last year?.

Over the past year I have worked on baby hats (for my daughter to use as props for photography), baby cocoons, baby sweater, baby blankets, a couple snuggies for my grand daughters, a vest (as shown in previous post), barbie clothes, afghans and I'm sure there were other items as well.  Each of the items I worked on were basic made with basic stitches or close to it.  I've always picked projects that I KNEW I could do without a huge challenge just because I was afraid of starting something only to have to give up because I just couldn't do it!  I have a fear of failure I guess!  I was afraid to work with Wool because of being allergic to it...I have found out that I can knit with it and be ok. So one fear knocked off the chart!  LOL...

As for new skills and more knowledge I haven't pushed myself to learn any new skills.  For example just this past week I had a pattern picked out to work on and it entailed "intarsia" I shyed away from it when I got to the store to buy the yarn because the lady there told me she hated doing intarsia and that it was difficult if I had never done it.  Therefore, I changed patterns just like that.  I told myself though that this particular pattern I would eventually try but not right now being this was going to be a baby gift.  So I need to keep that in my head so that I do go back to it and make the item.

My daughter who is also part of this Knitting & Crochet Blg week (this is her blog) has just started knitting this past Sept and she has learned new stitches, and gained such a talent for knitting since starting that she is working with me to help me get over the fears of new things and learn to push myself when it comes to my knitting.  So this time next year I hope if asked this question I will be able to proudly tell you all the new tecniques and skills I have learned.   The one thing I want to give a try is "Entrelac"!

Here are a few pictures of things I have worked on this year....yes the hats are crocheted ( i enjoy crocheting as well)

A Tale of Two Yarns

A Tale of two Yarns - 2KCBWDay1

Part of any fiber enthusiasts hobby is an appreciation of yarn. Choose 2 yarns that you have either used or have in your stash or which you yearn after and capture what it is that you love or loathe about them.

I've been knitting for several years and have used many varieties of yarn. I have a stash that consists of Patons, Lion Brand, Bernat, Red Heart, Caron, TLC, Cascade 220 Heathers, Baby Weight, Worsted Weight, Fingering, Sock you name it. Plus I also have many, many balls of wool that used to belong to my Mother-in-Law that is from Philosophers Wool (Inverhuron, ON). Without going down and checking I'm not sure what else may be there.

Only recently have I tried the Cascade 220 and to be honest I would have to say this to date is my Favourite! I loved the way it worked with me. It didn't ball and pill like some yarns that I have used (this is frustrating when you are making a gift). It is a wonderfully soft, 100% Wool and very nice to use. Although this was a gift to me from my daughter and her family for me to knit myself something for a change (which I have) the price is very economical and the colourways are perfect for choosing just the right one. I recommend this to anyone!

As for my least favourite? Wow, I'm not even sure if I have one. Now that my daughter has gotten me more into the luxury natual fibers I would tend to choose those over other yarns if at all possible. I have found that some of the cheaper acrylic yarns pill as previously mentioned so with that in mind I would say that those would be my least favourite. As for one particular make I couldn't really say.

I'll be blogging for the....

I've been knitting and crocheting for many years and although I have enjoyed it I've never really taken any risks or challenges with my projects. My daughter has recently started knitting and has been doing projects that I have shyed away from due to the fear of difficulties in the patterns.

I'm here to be part of the 2nd Annual Knitting and Crochet Blog Week to help me ease away from those fears and blog about something that I am passionate about even though I fear it at the same time. For the week of March 28th-April 3rd bloggers within the Fine Arts Community blog together about the same topic each day. Each day brings a new topic to blog about with a brief discripton as well there is a Wild Card if you opt to use it if the topic doesn't apply to you or you just aren't into it.

If you are interested in taking part check out the post at Eskimimi knits and watch for updates.

Thank you to my daughter who brought this to my attention and with my reservations she managed to convince me that I really should give it a try and be apart of this fantastic idea. I'm looking forward to blogging next week!

Amber Necklace

I just ordeed my amber necklace and bracelet today. I'm so excited to have done this. My daughters told me about them after they had bought for their kids. It has truly been a godsend for Kandi when it comes to Everett. He had been wearing it for quite a while and then one day for whatever reason he wasn't wearing it. This little guy cried and fussed and wouldn't sleep, wouldn't even lay down for much more than 20-30 minutes at a time. Night time was not easy either, they were up with him many times. Kandi was near exhaustion and found his necklace one day and put it back on him and wow, a totally different child from then on. Is it a coincidence? I dont' think so! I now believe there is healing benefits from the Amber for teething and any discomfort that our little man was going through and I tell you I'm looking forward to seeing if it helps me with my pain level and constant discomfort as well.

I'll update here when I get mine in the mail and how I find it is working for me! Check here for more info for yourself. There is also a link near the bottom of the page for where I purchased mine in case you are interested.

meeting with some Canadian Moms

(from left to right...Debbie, Michelle, Lynda(me) and Tonya)

Yesterday I got to meet some women from an MSN group that I had joined back in 2004. I know that MSN is no longer up and running but we moved our group over to Aimoo (a lot of moms never moved over with us unfortunately) which really isn't even similar to MSN but we really didn't have much choice in the move. Anyways, yesterday 4 other moms and myself were to meet at Williams Coffee Pub. Unfortunately, 1 of the ladies was not well and wasn't able to join us. We had a great time talking and meeting. Tonya joined the year before me and the other 2 ladies joined a couple years later. It is hard to believe that we can build friendships like we do over the internet and be in different parts of the country in our case but in other peoples cases across the world. It was so nice to get together but we have several other women that we haven't met yet. The one lady I am so looking forward to meeting one day is Angie. We have a really good friendship I believe and I look forward to that opportunity one day. Angie is in Nova Scotia.

Twitter Parties

Both of my daughters enjoy twitter parties so one night I decided to stop by one and see what all the fuss was about. I had fun!!!! I learned lots of things from it and even WON! Yippee me, I won some soap nuts (actually I won the Laundry Trio and a Lip balm to go with it!) which I am so looking forward to getting so I can give them a try. I've never heard of them before this twitter party and when I started seeing others talk about them I thought...wow, I wouldn't mind trying them out. So, the win was wonderful and now I will give them a try. Here is the link to check them out. This twitter party was through Holistic Moms Network, with Yoreganics. I'll let you know what I think of the soap nuts when I start using them.

Now, the other night my daughter and I were at an IKEA Twitter party. Wow, was it busy and hard to follow. So many people there. We tried to win one of the 6 $100 gift cards but no luck. Saw some pretty awesome kitchens renos done with Ikea cabinets, appliances etc. Beautiful kitchens that is for sure.

If you haven't checked out a Twitter party maybe you should. They are fun, informative (as long as they aren't too busy and fast moving) and you can meet new people as well.