Grey, grey, the world is grey

Grey, grey, grey.

It’s one of those raw, grey days today. I think of them as being indecisive winter days. It doesn’t have enough commitment to rain, there’s no wind and everything is sort of bleak and blah.

‘A perfect day for knitting’, you might think. Well, yes, if you don’t have small children. I have managed to engage in some knitting related activities. Some time ago, I gave my stepmother (a totally wonderful woman who both spins and knits – but not socks) some rainbow dyed Lincoln wool and taught her to do a twisted German cast on (my preferred sock cast on). I gave her a copy of a basic sock pattern, coached her through heel turning and gusset picking up, introduced her to Kitchener stitch and set her loose on the world.

She has finished her first sock, but looks as if she will run out of wool before reaching the end of the second sock. Luckily, I had another skein of the rainbow Lincoln (which I didn’t really want to give up – but that’s the way the world goes sometimes).

In the process of digging out the Lincoln, I decided to tidy up my sock yarn stash.

Now, I think I mentioned that I had enough yarn for at least 50 pairs of socks. Better revise that well upward!

This is part of my pre-tidy sock yarn stash.

This is the same stash after finding the yarn and tidying it.

This is only part of my sock yarn stash – it may be grounds for a sock yarn diet. Although not yet at SABLE proportions, I’m certainly working on it!

In addition to the tidying of part of the stash, I also updated my knitting journal (yes yes – I keep a record of each project, bands of the yarn – if they have any, details of yarn and a sample, any modifications I made to the pattern, and recently I added start and finish dates. I also run a ledger of new techniques and stitches, display books for patterns – 2 for socks, 2 for jumpers and cardis, one for kid’s stuff, one for shawls, one for hats, scarves and mittens and so on – that does not include knit magazines, but downloaded patterns and gift patterns – I also have a folder with plastic sleeves where I store DPNs and Circs, each sleeve marked with the size of its contents and an index card detailing what I have in each size), and got the heavy duty document holder ziplock ready for the Squatty sidekick – (Pattern, yarn and needles)


How come I can be so organised with my stash, and so crap at keeping my house clean and tidy and clutter free. They invented the term ‘engaging squalor’ for my house. There are piles of books, papers and mail on most flat surfaces – either awaiting reading, awaiting action or awaiting filing (or recycling).

I keep promising to dust and then vacuum, but haven’t done it for a few weeks. – I must do it before the birthday party on Saturday. Bathrooms get cleaned, and the kitchen is always clean, but the rest bores me rigid.

My best non-dusting story is that after we were burgled when we lived in Queensland, I could show the insurance assessor the dust free areas where the TV, video and stereo etc had been – and he believed our loss because no-one could fake those!

Mind you, it rather backfired – the police can’t get fingerprints from dusty surfaces!

So, off to give away yarn – and a pattern for the Voodoo wristwarmers!