Often times I think that when I move into a new place things will get better. I’ll actually find time and energy to do all the projects I want to. So far it hasn’t been working out that way. Not until now.
I haven’t started doing any crafts yet. I have done a few projects over the last year that I need to share and post. But it’s not a steady thing right now. I’m working on sorting out what it is that I want to do.
When my grandfather died at the beginning of the year I ended up taking a 4 day trip to go visit my mother and go to his military funeral. I decide to start on one of the many projects I’ve wanted to do. I made a kitchen towel. I had plans to make a second. I didn’t end up finishing the second one until I had surgery in May and was stuck at home for a week. I also started working on my hooded shawl again since an extra skein of the yarn used was found in my mother’s stash. I have about a row and a half plus the cable style bind off to finish still. I think that’ll be my project for August. I really don’t have much need for it till the fall anyway.
I found my dragonwing scarf, but still need to figure out where the second skein of yarn is hiding. Hopefully I’ll find it tomorrow. Monday is the day I’ve set aside to go through my yarn. Since I keep getting more and more yarn from my mother each year and I haven’t been doing any projects.
I haven’t decided yet if I’m going to get rid of any of it yet. I’ll have to make that decision tomorrow. But I feel like it’ll do me some good to at least see what I have and start making plans for some of it.
So far I’ve gone through most of my beading supplies. I’m getting rid of a good chunk. I’ve decided that I just don’t have time for it. I’m keeping colors that really speak to me and beads that are big enough to also be used with yarn. So the next thing I need to do is start looking at projects that use beads. I also think I might try using some in cross stitch projects since I am keeping a few of the seed beads.
I’ve also purged my kitchen items. I did one purge back when I moved into my last apartment. But to be honest, I regret purging a lot of the items I did. At the time I said, I haven’t used these in forever and I don’t have room for them. I loved them though. This time I’m purging the extras. I’ve received a lot of my dishes from my mother. But as I get older I want to get things that fit my style. So a while back I had bought a new set of plates and bowls. So now this time all the old ones are going. As well as most of the silverware. I don’t really need 20+ forks. I’ve paired it down to the most complete set. I’ve also gotten rid of duplicate utensils. And I’m getting rid of the china. It’s not a family set or anything. But I’m never going to end up living a “traditional” lifestyle. And I don’t really have a use for it. I don’t plan on throwing fancy parties or having all my family over for holiday meals. The dishes I have now will work just fine for the parties I will have.
The latest purge was the clothing. I’m still thinking I’ll go back and do another round. The job I’m working now allows me to wear my regular clothes. So I don’t really need my dressier items and since I don’t have to wear the uniform anymore, I can toss all those shirts. I emptied a whole drawer full of pants. Got rid of an armload of shirts. Took a look at my leggings and got rid of the duplicate colors. I think I still have some tops that could probably go, but I’ll probably give it another week or two before I look at them again.
Other things I’ve done since moving, include actually baking again. I even did a little writing. And over the last month I’ve listened to 125 hours of audiobooks and about 20 hours of podcasts. And probably most importantly, I’ve started exercising again. I’m slowly ramping it up. Up until this week I was walking 3 days and running 3 days (I just finished C25k W3D3). This week I’ve added a second walk to my days off. And the goal is to do whatever walking is necessary on the days I do work to get my step count up to my goal of 10k a day. I want to add weights and bands to my routine at some point. As well as yoga before bed. But right now I’m trying to do things slowly so I don’t burn myself out as I have done in the past.
So what can you expect to be happening here? At some point I’ll start drafting up some posts of my finished projects. I’ll start posting some WIP pictures. I might even blog a little about my running. I’ll probably share pictures of my craft purges. I might even share a little about how the writing is going.
When will it start happening? I don’t know yet. Summer usually means more time off work for me. So I do have extra days off. I’m usually off for the weekends, so that’s when I’m doing most of my side projects. In addition I’ve been getting Mondays off most weeks. And I’ll occasionally get a second extra day. Some of those days I might try and pick up extra hours at work in another department. Others I might decide to devote to doing other things, like blogging, writing, crafting and organizing my new apartment. So, hopefully you’ll be hearing from me again soon.
This bowl is the only one that didn’t felt nearly as much as I wanted. I can still see the stitches pretty well, but it has definitely shrunk a fair amount.
In college I used to wear crocheted flowers in my hair. It was my little bit of uniqueness. Flowers also only take a few minutes to bust out if you’ve got a rhythm going. I still have most of the flowers I made and a lot of them still have bobby pins attached, even though I don’t wear them anymore. Now, if I wear them it’s probably because I’m doing some sort of Halloween event and I’m dressed up as a fairy.
She also had a collection of tatting thread, but she never ended up actually doing any tatting. Tatting is also something I haven’t done, but it is on my list of things I liked to learn (along with Tunisian crochet and needle felting). I have some plans to make some crocheted lace bowls with the thread. And hopefully I will start tatting. I’m not sure what I’ll do with the thread I used to make flowers, so it might sit around for a while and be used to embroider any amigurumi I make. But before I really do anything with the thread I’m going to have to invest in a set of steel hooks and a tatting shuttle since I have neither.
I have a lot of yarn, maybe not as much as some people. But for someone who, on average, has only been completing about one project a year, I have way too much. I have already improved on this figure having finished two new projects and completing an old one. I mostly crochet these days, but I’ve also done a few knitting projects in the past. I didn’t actually learn to knit until my 20’s. I had tried as a kid when my mother first taught me how to crochet, but it was beyond my ability. It was probably in large part due to the fact that I have a tendency to knit pretty tightly so it was difficult to squeeze a needle in.
At the beginning of this year I knew that at some point in the coming months I would be moving into a much smaller space. I would no longer have room for what probably accounted for 3 large tubs of yarn. I have since whittled it down to two tubs with a few baskets with projects in them. At the moment I have two projects I’m actively working on and about 3 old projects I need to assess and decide if I want to finish them or do something different with the yarn.
All this yarn is of course still too much. I don’t have room for it. The yarn all hides under my bed which is sitting on risers so that the tubs will actually fit underneath. The yarn is also only one portion of my craft hoard. I have several containers full of beads and beading materials. I have a few boxes of scrapbooking supplies. I have a smaller tub with fabric inside. And I also have a hat box full of crochet and tatting thread (not that I actually know how to tat at this point in time). All of these things are also scattered, unorganized and haven’t been seriously looked at in years. At some point in the future I will share pictures of these after I’ve sorted, organized and gathered all related materials together. But for now I’ve shared a few different angles of my yarn hoard sitting on my extra large chair, which happens to be the first piece of furniture I ever bought for myself.
Packrat Crafter 