My storage and organization has been a little lacking in my Knitting House. Mainly because I get so excited to move to the next project that I kind of toss and go the remnants of the old project. And I just did not know where or how I was going to store all the stuff. 

 Until I could come up with that ultimate solution my interim plan had been this…..

 yes, that is a shopping bag.

 I was just tossing all patterns in the bag. The smaller bag was keeping the yarn leftovers that had more than just a few yards.

But against the rest of my highly organized house these bags were annoying me.

The ultimate solution came with an ultimate sacrifice from himself.  He offered me a lateral file drawer in our office. This was a major win for the knitting management of the household.

But now the organizational plan needed to be put into place.

I did not want to get too detailed or I would never take the time to file anything away in the future, so I settled on something that was fast but made sense to how I would reach for a pattern in the future.

First, I sorted by groups…..Cardis, Pullovers, Mittens and Hats, Scarfs, and Designs in planning stages. Then I did one sub group in each of  knitted pattern or future knit. I like to keep patterns I have knit for the notes and techniques. Rarely do I ever knit a pattern again unless it is a basic mitten. Files were made, stuff was dropped into place and I still had space.

Needles next…….A perfect plastic basket, a simple order Zero – 17, Shortest circular at front of each size. Double points in same order after circulars.

The yarn….Why am I keeping these odd bits, when in doubt toss it out. So except for a few that I would use for test swatching, I tossed them.

A beautiful drawer, with space to grow, easy to locate items….calm again reigns in the knitting house.

I survived!!!

 Cookie Baking 

Countless fingerless gloves, hats, and scarfs

Christmas shopping and wrapping, dinners with friends, chorale performances, schola concerts, and pickup and organizing after each event. Exhausted but happy. Just a New Year’s Eve party at a neighbors house is left for this year.

So what is next, I think a little organization of the yarn is is required.  Will show you what I have in mind next time. By then I hope both you and I will be refreshed and ready to take on all those knitting projects we have planned for 2011.

Happy New Year!

We had company come for Thanksgiving week. We love this company and they are always welcome at our house. But our house was not real welcoming to them this year. First off, they are from southern california so when they come to visit us on an island in the Pacific Northwest we set the heat a little warmer in the house so they do not freeze. No Problem.

Problem!  On the Monday before Thanksgiving the snow started falling…..at the beach. We played in the snow, took pictures in the snow as everyone was excited about the snow. Until, the power went out Monday evening. We have propane fireplaces so the house stayed somewhat warm for the night.

Tuesday morning still no power and no promise we would have power at all on Tuesday. The whole island/then county was without power. Fast showers with the last of the hot water. We set-up the generator and calculated the amount of gas we had and number of hours we could run generator.

Did I mention the roads were solid ice so we could not get up our hill to get out….you can see where this is going right.

Tuesday night was really cold, even with fireplaces running house was at 5o degrees. Our friends were being good sports as they were freezing. However, we still had to build the snow gnomes on the deck and take a hike in the snow.

Wednesday still no power, but a promise of power by 10am. No hot water, running out of gas for generator, everyone cold and cranky. 10am came and went, no power. Also, lost phone lines. The good news…ice on roads had cleared and roads had been sanded.  Time to pack up our friends and send them on a ferry boat to the city where there is power, hot water, and heat. 

They are on their way to warmth. Not us, still no power, but prepping Thanksgiving dinner on the propane cooktop and praying to the power gods. Himself returned from town with full gas tanks so we could run the generator and have lights for the evening.  At midnight, the power came back on!  YEA!!!!!

Up early to prep turkey and fire up the ovens. Heat is on, hot shower…really long hot shower. Double expresso! Life back to normal. Beautiful Thankgiving dinner with family.

Now if I can just have a little time to knit all will be right in the world.

It has been a bad week and I hope the ugly karma has finally left the building.  It all started with a required corporate phone exchange. I thought I would be “hip” and “cool” and get something other than a blackberry….so. I selected something else, called rumour.  It had a bigger screen, flip out keyboard and it was the color blue. Got the phone and called our corporate call center to get the phone all set-up. Three days later was still waiting for a call back, had tried to do all the set-up on my and own and nothing was connecting.  Drove 40 miles to the nearest phone center for assistance. AND found out that the phone is just a phone and will not connect to corporate email, sync to my outlook, load up all 300+ of my contacts.  They would gladly exchange the phone for me for the full price of a new blackberry, plus $150 set-up fee.  Drove home without paying for their “exchange”.  Emailed corporate with the I am dying here please help me and finally got a response. New phone on its way….no additional charge.  Two days later got the new blackberry.  It will not set-up and connect. I have been on the line with customer support for two hours as they are walking me thru the hard set-up of my phone.

BUT!!!!!! it gets even better………During all the phone hysteria, I have been knitting a fingerless glove as I am a little behind on the Christmas gifts.  Made it to the thumb gusset and was ready to place the thumb stitches on stitch holder when I took a moment to try it on.   Thumb gusset was made on wrong needle and was sitting at the location of my index finger.  Rip, rip…………….Did I say it was time for a beverage with alcohol

It is a week of planes, trains and ferryboats for me. Yes, a little business travel from west coast to the east coast means a long plane ride. 4 1/2 hours east and 5 1/2 hours west. I find that knitting makes the time fly by , no pun intended 🙂

So what should I take along???  I have the rough draft of the Winter Wonderland Cowl printed out and this beautiful Noro Silk Garden.

That is definitely going along. But maybe I need a little something as a back-up. You can never have enough yarn in your suitcase right?  Think a pair of fingerless gloves. That should do it.

Anyone know of a really great yarn store in Washington DC?

In the corporate world, I have been called a “dragon lady”. Why?  Because I have no fear of moving forward, taking on change, trying new things, and pushing others to take a leap of faith with me.

The same is in me when it comes to knitting. I stayed away for many years because of the corporate thing. Now I have come back with the same “dragon lady” style. 

I have found I am a tailored kind of person who doesn’t like a lot of lace and ruffles and stuff. Patterns for this are hard to find so………I plan to lead you to that style of pattern.  Write some of my own patterns…….  And just share a bit of the “dragon lady” with you.  Enjoy!