Virtual Design board – My Virtual Quilt

Space Cadet Creations Mini Skeins Club

Check out my Instagram for photos of the jumper project!

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Facebook: Quilt Block N Swap
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
www.champagneandsocks.com

Mentioned in this episode:

Quilting Lessons: Notes from the Scrap Bag of a Writer and Quilter by Janet Catherine Berlo

Brenda Dayne:  Cast On

Sock Clubs:
Rocking Sock Club by Blue Moon Fiber Arts
Cookie A Sock Club

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Facebook: Quilt Block N Swap
Instagram: girliejonesadventures
www.champagneandsocks.com

I’m back after illness and a serious case of podcast block.

Some things I mentioned this episode:

Dear Jane Quilt – and my Dear Jane Pinterest board

Farmer’s Wife Quilt

My Mug Rug Pinterest board

Closed Facebook group – Quilt Block N Swap

My Instagram: girliejonesadventures

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com
Facebook: Quilt Block N’ Swap

The crowdfunding project I refer to is – Defying Doomsday.

What did I say I would pack?

– fingerless gloves project

– hot air balloon quilt project

– Twelfth Planet Press scarf

– Rainbow bear blanket

Deadlines tea cosy (for The Blackmail Blend prelaunch):

Bit wonky but logo on tea cosy

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 27, 2015 at 8:45am PDT

Current WIPs in focus

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:50pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Biggan Design

White for blanket borders. And Deadlines logo colours for a tea cosy?

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 19, 2015 at 2:53am PDT

Space Cadet  

Mini skein club from Space Cadet

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 19, 2015 at 2:56am PDT

One of a kinds from Space Cadet

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 19, 2015 at 2:55am PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Current WIPs in focus

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 10, 2015 at 11:50pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Biggan Design

Bear’s Rainbow Blanket

Current status. Running out of white

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on May 5, 2015 at 8:44pm PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Orixa by Andrea Rangel

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 22, 2015 at 2:44am PDT

  Hitofude Here is the yarn that arrived just as I finished recording – the darkest skeins are for the Hitofude, the other two were because you can get a discount after a certain $ amount ordered

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 22, 2015 at 12:36am PDT

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 22, 2015 at 12:40am PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 14, 2015 at 2:50am PDT

Fifi’s Fabricology

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 14, 2015 at 2:52am PDT

Farmer’s Wife Quilt – my Pinterest board

Baby Sweater – Fisherman’s Pullover in 60 Quick Baby Knits by Sixth and Spring Books.

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 14, 2015 at 2:54am PDT

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 14, 2015 at 2:54am PDT

Loani Prior Tea Cosy books:
How Tea Cosies Changed the World
Pretty Funny Tea Cosies
Wild Tea Cosies
Really Wild Tea Cosies

My finished Tea Cosy:

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Apr 13, 2015 at 1:30am PDT

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Craft Circle Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Loop – 15 Camden Passage, Islington
(The coffee shop I mention is – The Coffeeworks Project and was my best cup of coffee in London – 96-98 Islington High Street)

Fisherman’s Pullover from 60 Quick Baby Knits – I’m using Cascade 220 Superwash

Space Cadet Creations Mini Skeins Club

Space Cadet Creations Mini Skeins Pinterest

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones, Champagne and Socks Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Downton Abbey shawl is the MKAL by Jimmy Beans Wool hosted through Ravelry

Mini sweater pattern from greensandjeans.blogspot.com

Artisan Corner: Peppermint Bay shawl by Mitenae at knitty.com

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones, Champagne and Socks Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Yarnbox Luxe

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Mar 10, 2015 at 4:59am PDT

Edith’s Secret Lorna Laces Yarn – Jimmy Beans Wool

My version on Ravelry

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

A photo posted by Alisa (@girliejonesadventures) on Feb 14, 2015 at 11:29pm PST

Bears Rainbow Blanket

KnitCrate Mini Skeins

Space Cadet Mini Skeins Suggestions Pinterest Board

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones and Champagne and Socks Group
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
Subscribe through iTunes – leave a review!
www.champagneandsocks.com

My blog posts from 2014 about New Years resolutions and craft organisation:
The List 2015
Planning And Meltdown Panic Freakout
Craft Space Organised
An Unexpected Lesson

Yarn Clubs and Subscriptions services mentioned:

Rocking Sock Club
The Cookie A Sock Club
Space Cadet Creations
Mad Tosh Sweater Club
KnitCrate
Yarnbox

Dream in Color Shrug – Ravelry

Join my craft circle:
Email: champagneandsocks@gmail.com
Ravelry: girliejones
Twitter: @champagnesocks or @krasnostein
www.champagneandsocks.com

Listeners to Galactic Suburbia Podcast can support us through our Patreon page which we started late in 2014. The podcast is free to download for everyone but those who choose to can nominate a per podcast amount they’d like to contribute through Patreon. Basically offering a tip jar for those who wish we had one. We have several levels of perks and all the contributions go towards covering our running costs. We have some milestones which would enable us to grow the podcast (making regular spoilerific episodes a thing, voting on what those episodes will be about, maybe one day doing more live recordings) and the top level supporters get an actual paper fanzine – Galactic Suburbia Papyrus – in which we each write stuff and publish irregularly.

I knew I wanted to include something handmade for our end of year/new year packet. Just to show how much I appreciate the support for what we do. It blows my mind that people are willing to pay for each podcast – thank you to all our amazing patrons, at every level!

I made two separate patterns of mug hugs. And used very cherished leftovers from (mostly) my mini skeins I’ve been collecting all year. I didn’t really know what to do with the extra length after crocheting one granny square out of each mini skein but the yarn is too lovely to not save for something special. And I worked out, by the end of knitting these, how much fun it is to make a completely new colour way by mixing a bunch of colours. The ones with buttons ended up being knit double stranded with three stripes (of the double strands) at a time til I ran out of yarn and then subbed in a new double strand. That made the edges a bit rough, so I knit I-cord edging (I free formed that myself). And the buttons are from my precious button stash. The other three mug hugs were knit in the round. The patterns are in my Ravelry if you’re after those. I modified the striped ones knit in the round for the yarn I was using.

When I started, I only had to make 5 but by the time the end of the year came round that ballooned out to a wow of 8! And I’d like to think that they might be wrapped and keeping warm a nice cuppa, sitting next to some GS inspired cake, out there in the galactic suburbs during 2015.
Alex puts together the mail outs and she used her discretion for the colours and owners. It was lovely to see the pics on Instagram and Twitter this week as they finally got to where they were going.

Today’s drink: Latte dot art!
Today’s total word count: 1068
Year Total running word tally from (Nov 24): 25 579
Progress on: Year’s Best YA 2013, Garden Project (Operation Cobra) has commenced!!! backyard has been stripped off weed grass and is prepped for patio construction next week, bathroom cabinet culled and organised, pantry culled and tidied, handbag cleaned out. Baby meals and snacks cooked and baked and frozen in the oven.

Related blog posts:

Craft Space Organised
First Finished Object
Finished Object Scarf Gift
Finished Object Hoek Shawl

The Hoek Shawl. Sigh. The Hoek Shawl. This is actually my second knitted Hoek Shawl – pattern by Stephen West. The pattern is a lovely one, complicated enough to keep you interested but straightforward enough so that you can relax and do something else at the same time. I actually cast on two at once, one for me using All for the Love of Yarn Luminosity in Fingering which came in a KnitCrate last year, and one for my sister in law in 4 colours of Blue Moon Fibre Arts sock yarn from a Winter Wonder grab bag I grabbed in Plum during some random sale.

Different yarns, different stickiness. The BMFA knitted up a dream and was a very quick knit. The All for Love Yarn was slippery on my wooden needles which made knitting fast a problem – every now and then I’d push the stitches up the needle and they’d slide off the end. Sometimes I could pick them up. Sometimes not. I ended up ripping or carefully tinking back several times before I ended up having to start over again because I lost my place or stitch count. I finished the second Hoek easily and sent it off to my SIL for her birthday. And then I just couldn’t face fighting with the slippery All for Love Yarn so it sat, WIP ing, in my stash for a while.

And then I was looking for something completely selfish to knit at Christmas. I’d been working to finish off all kinds of commitments and things in time for Christmas and wanted to spend Christmas Eve on the couch, with a nice hot chocolate, something nice on the TV and just knit quietly on something for me. And when Christmas Eve came around, I pulled out a project and it was a scarf! After I’d just finished that black scarf. And I thought, “Come on! MORE plain knitting? Hell no!” and pulled out the lace knitting to be a bit more complicated for a cozy night in. And then I just knit on it til it was done. And it took maybe a fortnight of solid knitting and it was done.

If I were to ever run into this problem again, I would switch to a different kind of needle that would play more nicely with the yarn (though you’d have to think wood would be the best option, which was what I was using).

I hate the colour. But after fighting so hard with this yarn, and the pattern, I feel like I conquered and tamed this beast of a project and I intend to wear it on my back as though I hunted and slayed the dragon. I’d mount its head on my wall if I could.

Here are some pics of it, anyhow.

Today’s drink: Pinot Grigio – Boy Meets Girl
Today’s total word count: 3115
Year Total running word tally from (Nov 24): 25 511
Progress on: Garden project, shawl knitting, Phd writing, Phd data collation, work planning, email organisation, reading.

Related posts:

Craft Space Organised
First Finished Object
Finished Object Scarf Gift

My mini freak out basically was – look how big *my* stash is, look how much money I must have invested in it over the last ten years, *what* am I going to be get for Alex? But beyond that, it finally dawned on my that a yarn stash (any stash) requires time, curating and investment. If you only buy craft supplies for the project at hand, you’re subject to the price of the product on the day you need it. When you curate a stash (ok, fine, collection) you take the opportunity to buy things when they are on sale, or in bulk, or when there is free postage. You grab limited editions and one of a kind supplies that may never be available again (I have a thing for indie hand dyed sock yarn, you might have noticed). And if you decide on a whim on a rainy Sunday that you want to take part in a KnitALong that’s starting that day or the next, you can stash dive and find something that will work – or you can play around with various choices, even cast on and unpick, before committing to your colour or yarn weight choice. And truthfully, I’m mostly a spontaneous crafter.

These thoughts made me second guess my 2015 Resolutions list – why was I aiming to Reduce This Stash then as though it was a bad thing to have? And what would happen when I did start working through the stash and ran out of things – like, mostly recently, anything neutral grey? Would buying yarn unattached to a specific project be bad? Be undoing the goal? Was I saying I’d never buy yarn without an already specified purpose? What was my intended outcome?

And, in a similar, but not immediately obvious, story, yesterday I procrastinating an hour and half by organising my tea stash. As you do. I went looking for a different tea for my tea pic of the day and discovered I had a bunch of really interesting and different teas that I’d completely forgotten about and therefore, was not drinking. Cue impromtu tea organisation which even involved David Allen style labelling, and decluttering of Other Alisa’s tea stash (She drinks chai. I can’t stand it. She bought like 5 different kinds). Now I can see what I have and am excited to try a few of these too:

This is my tea chest wedding gift from Helen and Stewart (I left her really cute post it note on it). All kinds of interesting teas had been neatly filed away by Past!Me.

I realised whilst labelling and decluttering my teas that I’m actually a tea drinker. Or, that I am a tea drinker  (again) *now* after spending the last month or so getting back into the habit of drinking tea everyday (and cutting back on instant coffee). At one point in the tidying, I accidentally upended one canister of loose leaf tea and spilled it on the floor (my hands still not fully recovered post pregnancy *glares at the liars*) and C said, “Well that’s one way to use up the tea stash faster”, and that comment made me a bit annoyed. I realised I didn’t want to “use up the stash” ie to get rid of it so we didn’t have it anymore. I realised that I didn’t want to then feel bad about buying more tea when I empty out of some of those drawers. I didn’t want the idea of “stash” to constantly have a negative implication; I wanted to continue being a tea drinker with a nice range of teas in the cupboard (or in pretty canisters across my kitchen bench *pokes out tongue*).

Both these incidents reminded me of a thought I’d started in a comment on Ben’s blog last week about how New Years Resolutions shouldn’t feel, or be about, a goal that only when you reach it you will be happy. That if you want them to stick, they should be about the journey and that the taking of this journey is what will make you happy. And less focus on the destination. You know, habit changes, where the goal/destination redirects the journey but otherwise is more or less irrelevant by the time you get there. The resolution should be about helping get you to that change in lifestyle, not about some thing that you can only tick off at the end of the year.

But where does this leave me????

“Reducing my tea stash” was about drinking a cup of tea every day to get me back into enjoying tea drinking again. Taking a photo every day of the cup was to make that goal accountable, and it’s helped me learn a bit about taking photos.

“Reducing my yarn stash/WIPs” was about kickstarting me back into loving knitting again, finishing off stale projects so I had things to enjoy from what I’d spent my time working on made. And to reduce guilt about buying more yarn – if the stash turns over (even on a 5 year turnaround), then I’m a knitter and have supplies. If it just continues to grow over time (as it has done in the last year to 3), then I have a yarn shopping addiction problem. But at the same time, I should not feel like I’m eyeing off a mountain of already assigned future time and project debt aka burden. My yarn stash is not a To Do List I am a behind on.

So much food for thought. I’m going to look at reworking/redefining/repositioning my 2015 list.

Thanks James for the new perspective!

Note: For those wondering BUT WHAT ABOUT ALEX’S STASH? On the Sunday, I got an email about a closeout yarn sale at a discount supplier and I managed to get her a pretty good start on a few of her colours and some neutrals in fingering weight. I also managed to save her some postage by getting myself some of that neutral greys I was needing (I got it on sale for me, and also reduced postage as I shared it with her stash) – total WIN WIN and the trigger for the above blog post. Now the Aussie dollar is at an all time low so I am going to need to be smart and stealthy with how I spend the rest. And whether I post it to her one skein at a time (fun, but obviously $$) or give it to her as one big bulk stash (would her brain explode?).

Today’s drink: Black tea (pic here using a Noir filter because pretending you are a private detective in a noir novel is more fun that first Monday back at work at your regular day job)

Today’s total word count: 3535

Year Total running word tally from (Nov 24): 22 396

Progress on: Wrote 2000 word piece for the Galactic Suburbia Papyrus fanzine, signed off on final edits for Years Best YA 2013 proofs, quote sorted for Garden Project, recast on Catkin shawl, knit the first clue on Edith’s Secret, cast on for Quicksilver shawl.

When we were in Sydney last June, I spotted a ball of yarn in Morris & Sons that I thought looked exactly like my brother-in-law and grabbed it to make him a scarf for Christmas. See that? That’s a 6 month lead time. Guess when I cast on for it? I really need to get better at pacing gift knitting.

I cast on at the beginning of December and managed to finish it a day or two in time for Christmas lunch. It’s a Schoppel-Wolle Crazy Zauberball – this yarn is so interesting. It’s balled in a way that you can see when the next colour change is coming. And none of the patterns were repeated so you didn’t quite know how it was going to knit up. It made for an interesting knit. This is a sock yarn and I knit it on 3.5mm needles. And my BIL was pleased with it, even if it came a year after he was in Paris (this would totally suit him in Paris).

I had a lot of fun taking pictures of this finished project – how do you make a scarf look interesting? I’m subscribed to a bunch of knitting/yarn related newsletters a) because, hello! and b) I think there are some really creatively presented newsletters and I’m always keen to learn stuff about marketing and promotion. One that I’m finding especially interesting is Space Cadet Creations – her yarn is just gorgeous. She has a very active and appealling Pinterest page where she pairs up patterns with her yarn. Additionally, she’s been doing a series of articles in her newsletter about how to take better photos for your Ravelry projects page. I’ve been trying out some of her ideas …

Today’s drink: Mango and chilli black tea from Pine Tea and Coffee by way of Monstrositea (pic here)

Today’s total word count: 346

Year Total running word tally from (Nov 24): 18 520

Progress on: Completed and passed mandatory uni online course by deadline, cast on Catkin, blocked finished shawl. Read Sex Criminals Vol 1

Yarn Stash Reduction related posts:

Craft Space Organised
First Finished Object

Here is the very first finished knitted object – Izzie Cloche hat in Zen Gardens Serenity which was the first project for my KnitCrate subscription.

KnitCrate is a very cool knitting/crochet subscription service. You can sign up for about 6 or 7 different options. They used to have a baby crate when I signed up so I initially subscribed to the indie crate with add ons of the baby crate and the mini skeins (add ons allowed you to get the yarn and pattern for a second or third crate for a lower additional cost to your main subscription). Earlier this year they dropped the baby crate and I moved to an int/advanced crate but I hear they’ve since dropped the option of add ons (except maybe sock and mini skein). As well as the yarn and pattern, you also get a cool knitting extra (like a stitch counter or needles holder) and a sweets extra (cool things like hot chocolate or biscuits etc).

My deal with myself was that KnitCrate was not going to be a stashing exercise. I had to knit the projects as they came in and in that way, I would be knitting along with Deb, whom I’d coordinated to subscribe on the same bimonthly schedule.

I knitted this cloche at the same time as Deb and um, I totally just never actually sewed the button on so it could be considered “finished”, and, you know, worn. I’m not a hat person so after this photo, it went on the hat rack but hey, I might get to a World Fantasy Con again and need a hat. If you care about pattern details, I’m attempting to be better at keeping my Ravelry projects current – come find me there as “girliejones”.

It was a quick and easy knit. And I like the yarn and the finished project. I think I ended up with close to one full ball of yarn leftover that did get added to my stash.

And that’s one knitting WIP done and finished. May the tally roll.

Related posts: Craft Space Organised

Today’s drink: Santo Antonio Estates – Brazil by Five Senses

Today’s total word count: 0

Year Total running word tally from (Nov 24): 17 594

Progress on: Completed knitting of Hoek Shawl, Entourage S5

In order to be able to do an inventory of what projects I have in progress (aka WIPs) and what projects I would like to get to or am excited about starting or having invested money in and completely forgotten about, I had to pull everything out and look at it.

GTD requires you to figure out the next action for every project you have on your radar. Without a next action you can’t actually progress something. And most of the time, when you don’t have a next action, it’s because you need to do some thinking around it, or some emotional development in relation to it. If you don’t have a next action and you aren’t planning on figuring out one, that project should not really be on your current projects list – you aren’t working on it, and you’re overloading your lists by having it there.

Getting reinvigorated with my GTD systems from the ground up, I decided to start with my craft projects (at some point I’ll move onto scarier things like thesis, and publishing). I started a new section in Omnifocus that is my current working space (at some point I’ll deal with all the other abandoned bits in that program) and I took inventory of everything in my craft life. I pulled out everything in my craft room, I fossicked for all the other stashed WIPs all round the house. Everything was accounted for and logged. And everything got a next action. If I didn’t want a next action for the project, I queried if I was really wanting to finish it. Sometimes the next action was – toss out, frog or unpick, – and those ones I did on the spot. A bunch of knitting projects that were stalled cause I hated how they were going got unpicked, the yarn restashed. Every other project got it’s own project bag and prepped to be grabbed to be worked on next.

And then I prioritised all my WIPs into what I will currently work on, what I will work on next (in an On Hold folder) and then Someday Maybe has projects I would like to start or would like to do. And the idea is, things On Hold get to be brought into WIPs one at a time as I finish one of the current active projects. Some of the current projects just needed buttons sewn on or ends finished up. Those went to the top of the pile and I already have some finished objects to blog about later. Here’s a screenshot of what the projects look like in Omnifocus:

A couple of shots of what some of these folders break down into:

Everything is dated 2014 for when it entered the system. New things that come in will get dated 2015 so that I can assess progress at the end of the year, assuming their is a constant number of projects but some turnover.

I really really enjoyed the process of GTDing the WIPs (ooh look at all those fancy abbreviations!). It helped me to see that putting something in On Hold is about being honest with myself about what I can realistically work on at the same time and what is splintering my attention too much. And that putting something On Hold til I have space is not forgetting about it, or not being committed to it, it’s time management. And I get to be excited about having space/time freed up by finishing something to grab a project from On Hold to work on. That excitement turns into a positive energy injection into finishing things that have become boring or tedious. I’m hoping this will help me when I face my scary study and work projects and next actions.

For my sewing projects, I located a bunch that just require me to buy batting so that I can baste and quilt the quilts. And a few that haven’t worked that I need to admit and just unpick. I also found that a few project kits I’d bought and put away as being too complicated for my skill level are now not so. I queued up a few and did things like cut templates and cut out all the pieces and pinned ready for sewing etc. And I located supplies that needed to be bought before I could proceed. And then I reorganised all my fun fat quarters and other fabric stash and put away all the rest of my supplies into a space that has already been proven to be much more fun to approach and work out of. It replaces a space that always required sorting through mess to find things, so progress was put off when locating the next supply was needed. The space was stressful because approaching it always called out it needed to be tidied or decisions made on abandoned things. I now have a craft cupboard that looks like this:

On the top shelf, my most prized part of my fabric stash. I stood and ironed all my fat quarters, and other pieces, and then made mini bolts to wrap them (see tutorial here). So much nicer to look at and also to take out and then put back on the shelf. The second shelf has quilt WIPs. Those on the left are finished tops with their paired backing just waiting for batting etc. (Underneath them is another Jinny Beyer kit project waiting to be started.) The middle has current piecing quilt WIPs. And the jars are my sorted scraps.

More jars of my scraps sorted by colour. Ages ago I bought some books on scrap projects and sorted all my piles (bags) of random scraps from other projects in preparation for some scrap quilts I want to make (like Sunday Morning Quilts). I’ve since realised these scraps are likely best for string scrap quilts and the fabric that is the rest of my stash (which is elsewhere to this cupboard) might actually be considered scrap. Knitting supplies to the right on that shelf. And below more quilt WIPs, jars of scrap fabric, and supplies in the boxes.

Not shown is the bottom shelf which has a basket with a whole bunch of knitting WIPs in bags ready to go.

This means that now my craft space is a place I can work out of rather than avoid. C is always annoyed because I leave craft all over the place and it’s usually because I’ve got nowhere to base myself for crafting. I also leave everything out in order, as I was working on it, to be able to pick it up and work on it again later. That is turning out to be a fallacy. I’ve discovered that packing away my current project at the end of the day doesn’t mean I will forget I was working on it the next day. It does though mean that my living spaces are clear and uplifting, and that all the things I need are always back where I expect them when I go looking for them. And if the “away” place is organised, I can actually work out of that organised storage space rather than co opt another one. So I can put the next stage of say a quilting project (the next pieces after the ones I am piecing) away and then go and get them when I’m up to them. It’s life changing! So much so that this one small act has flowed over for me to the rest of my life where I’m trying to put things back where they belong as soon as I’m done with them. Turns out maintenance is much easier than tidying up from first principles. (Honestly, I used to be a very neat and organised person. I think you never notice the habits of that kind of a life til you end up in the other extreme and have no idea how to get back.)

Today’s drink: La Pastora, Natural Catuai by Five Senses

Today’s total word count: 1596

Year Total running word tally from (Nov 24): 17 594

Progress on: More end of the year relaxing and knitting. Writing.