Saturday, February 9, 2008

Organized Knitting Club 30 Day Challenge

I've been feeling overwhelmed with all of my responsibilities, Most of it comes from not using a planing system. My school gives us lesson plan books that also has space for personal planning. I tried to use it for school & personal but it just wasn't enough. I just received my Julie Morgenstern Franklin Covey Planning System. I'm starting to feel the effects already. I've transferred my school calendar & family calendar into my planner. I've started to make lists. I'm a big list person. My brain was cluttered & now I feel I can relax.

I'm also taking care of the clutter in my house. I'm taking the Organized Knitting Club 30 Day Challenge of organizing my knitting space or room. Since I don't have a knitting room, I'm organizing my bedroom which is where I store my knitting stuff.

Here is where I keep my knitting stuff. There was quite a bit of non-knitting stuff in there too. You can't even begin to see how crammed & messy the drawers are but they are packed very full.



I completely emptied all of my stuff on my bed. It covers half of the king sized bed.



Here's how it looks now:



I have my needles and stitch markers on the top shelf. I use the highlighters to color code charts. The second row has WIP and sock blockers. My books are on the bottom shelf. In the back you can see my Tom Clancy collection & my colored pencils that I'm keeping out of my kids' hands. These are the only two non-knitting things in the top part of the cabinet. I still keep pants in the larger bottom two drawers.

The side drawers have more supplies. The top one has lace yarn & beads. The next one has other knitting notions.

The bottom three drawers have most of my sock yarn.



I haven't tackled the top of the cabinet yet.

I also dejunked another side of the room. All in all I threw out 5 grocery bags of trash & have 3 kitchen trash bags of stuff to donate. Armed with my lists, I'll tackle other parts of my room over time.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Knitting Update

It has been forever since I posted. I just haven't felt like writing. I've had the blahs.

I have two socks that I'm currently working on. One is The Master Coriolis sock by Cat Bordhi. I've had her book for months now but didn't take the time to sit down & start on any of the socks. But the Sock Knitters Anonymous group on Ravelry challenge this month was to knit a sock using a new to you heel. So, I took the challenge & cast-on Feb. 1. I finished the first sock yesterday.

I learned several new construction techniques with this sock. She begins with a garter stitch toe . . .



. . . and continues with the gusset increases going around the leg.



The sock has a traditional heel turn & toe-up heel flap. The sock ends with a seed stitch and 4-strand bind-off.



The second sock spirals in the opposite direction. It was a quick knit - I think the first sock took less than 9 hours which is really fast for me. Of course, using 2 strands of fingering weight yarn speeds it up too. Here's the completed sock.


Pattern: Master Coriolis by Cat Bordhi
Yarn: Regia Design Line Kaffe Fassett in the Mirage Storm Colorway
Needles: Knit Picks Harmony, US Size 5, magic loop

I'm working on a pair of intarsia socks - my first color work. This pair of socks is for my BFF, T.



The main color is Knit Picks Bare (75% superwash, 25% nylon) with a strand of Zephyr (50% wool, 50% silk). The contrasting color is Fleece Artist Somoko in Blue Lagoon. The blue semi-circles are two halves of a heart 'cause I want her to know that I love her. There are lace hearts on the instep as well.

I do have some other stuff to blog about but will close for now.

TTFN