Wow

Look at this.

Yellow in the foot.  Whodda thunk it?

I wanted to mention cowls.  Last year when I knit a sweater using Siler Thaw, an old Noro yarn, I ended up with one entire ball left. My goal was to use up all the yarn.  I decided to knit a simple cowl just to get that lovely yarn out of my stash.  

BEST THING EVER.  I wear it all the time with the matching sweater and it is like having a turtleneck without having a turtleneck all the time.  

I encourage everyone to do this.  And to wear them.  It's fiercely cold out there today.  -32 C when I got up today.  It is definitely a cowl wearing sort of day.  If not a cowl, put on a lacy shawl and wrap it around your neck a few times.  Even the thinnest, finest layers of wool chases away the chill.  

It's a day to pull out the wool and layer up.  Bake today.  The warmth of your oven  will add to your seasonal cheer.  

Sock 2

Sock two and it was 10 days in.  Not as fast as Mijn Wolden on her youtube channel, where in Socktober, she knit 8 random socks.  My one sock this month is not so epic but I am good with it.

The first roll was orange.  I laughed because the first roll on sock one after the toe was also orange.  Such is random.  

I have a problem.  It's not a bad problem and it is one I have known would come.  My sweater chest is overflowing.  I have been stuffing sweaters in for many moons but the last 6 months have been chaos.  I routinely have sweaters bags on the floor or my bed or in a wash basket.  I have always known that there would be a point where my need for sweater storage would take over from my need for stash storage.  That is not quite what has happened because sweaters do wear and you get tired of them but even though they are carefully curated, they no longer all fit in my sweater chest.  

In part, it is because of the mid season sweaters.  There are more of them now that are great for cold summer days and spring and fall but they are not what I wear in winter.  They still take up room. It is almost that I have a wardrobe for warm and a winter wardrobe.  

I have finally decided to bring in a bin from the shed.  I am not certain if these interseasonal garments will be in the bin or if my inspiration cabinet will emptied and be put to sweater storage.   I do have room in the yarn closet.  The stash is shrinking as I work and is considerably smaller now than when I moved here. 

It's a great problem to have and I am lucky to have it.  I lost a lot along the way to get to this point, and I am glad that at least I have the stupidly large stash to keep company with.    So on to socks.  It will be a good day.

  

There is light

It is always darkest before the dawn they say.  Though just who 'they' are is yet to be seen.  That's how this sock is making me feel.  But today is the dawn and there is light.

Sock one is done.  I decided that heels cuffs and toes ought to match because otherwise I won't recognize them as a pair as I sort laundry.  Sock two gets started today.  It too will have a green toe, heel and cuff.  

Does this break my random thing?  No.  Because I say so and because the green was picked randomly when I started. It should also be noted that I did not let random go too far. If a colour came up twice in a row, I rolled again.  I guess these were my only two random rules. 

So here is to Sock two and slow knitting.  

***Check out Cecilia Blomdahl's YouTube video today.  I love watching how they celebrate the season all around the world!

Inconceivable

Can I be honest?  I am just the teensiest bit bored with this sock.  Not with the way I am knitting these socks, random dice as it is but that it is taking so long.  It's a good thing I am doing an afterthought heel or this pair would be very short. 

I'm looking forward to a heavier pair of socks on bigger needles.  This is all so inconceivable to me.

A weekend!

It was a very light knitting weekend.  My brain was filled with the final weekend of the season of F1 Racing.  I really enjoyed it but my knitting gauge changes when I feel tense.  Knitting was best paused.  

Outside of racing,  my weekend was sorting out the things I have for miniature making.  Tools and supplies and ready to go pieces were mashed unsorted, in several boxes and with Cassie and I stirring the pot, disaster was at hand.  It was tidy and sort or the mini things were going to take over the world.  It took one good afternoon.  

Then with my part in Cassies project more or less over, I worked on the recycle corner and readied it for recycle day.  Side bar:  never ever clear out your recycle corner before you do miniatures.  Many many things for minis can be made from those materials.  Cardboard, some tins cans, those things that pastries come in, empty vitamin bottles, plastic dairy containers and so on. I took time to mash the various cardboards into a single big box and sorted a big bag of tins, plastics, and the rest of the recyclable materials.  

I also cooked this weekend. I don't do it often since I fear burning myself yet again, or spilling boiling water on myself. I do soups and oven casseroles when I can, and this weekend, made a nice big dish of ham and scalloped potatoes.  That fed us all weekend and it was lovely.  Keith is working a lot at the moment, and is pretty tired when he gets home so it was nice to give him a weekend off.  

The knitting I did do was this.

I had a few short colour rounds and it seems this socks random wants the top to have a good dose of yellow and orange.  

The sock will continue today, and I do hope to getting to a sweater again.  At the same time, I have a weird desire to work on a blanket.  It has come because this does seem to be the season of blankets.  I do have a couple of blankets happening, all of which need much more work, but I would like to deal with my other Wips just a bit more before I get to those.  Till then socks, because I need those.

Random

And there it is.

Yellow!

And next up is a second yellow for 11 rows.

And that is how random works.

Of socks and blankets

I spent the afternoon yesterday working on Amy's blanket.  It was interesting.  You know how they get to the point where the inside batting lets go and clumps up.  That is where this blanket was.  I opened one side to take that out.  It was attached on 2 places and I had to leave some batting attached so that the outer fabric stayed whole. The stuffing is free and out of the bag so to speak. 

Today I have to get the new inside ready.  I got a polyester duvet to go back inside and oddly enough, it is slightly larger than this vintage blanket.  I have to cut off a few inches from one side and about 10 inches from the other.  In some ways, this is going to be the most challenging part of this project.  

In knitting, I had some fun, but still no yellow.

I was kind of hoping for some yellow, but randomness does not yet include yellow.  Yet.  It is entirely possible that the next sock could be all yellow.  There is also a starling sameness to the number of rows.  There are only 2 thin stripes with most being between 7 and 12 rows.  

It a weird sort of fun but fun all the same.  There will be more socks and blanket work today.  Time to get some tea and get moving with the day.

Letting go

I was starting to worry that 4 of my colours were just going to repeat and that the last two were not going to make it in.  True randomness let's this happen.  

It's a bit hard to see but I am working with my darkest yarn, Gentry Grey in Kroy.  The colour it is next to is the dark green.  This is the smallest contrast of all the yarns.  The only colour that has not made it into the sock is yellow.  

I am really enjoying knitting this way.  It is a bit challenging to let go and just let things happen but it's a good time of year to to practice accepting what ever comes.  

Have a great knitting day.  I plan to.

The Adventure Begins

Advent socks are begun!

I picked my yarns 

and am aware of some 'holes' in my sock yarn collection.  I could have used a purple or a royal blue to replace the dark grey black and I wish my green had been a brighter teal.  I did think about using a multi colour but my multis in those colours are striping multis and that just didn't feel right.  These are all commercial yarns so that I can wash and dry my socks in machines.  If I was using hand dyed yarns there would be so many more options but that defeats the dryer drying.  These yarns may not be spectacular but I already have them, and they are all good quality yarns.

Since I couldn't  find a regular dice, and since Keith was at work and couldn't give me his 12 sided dice, I used a random number generator to begin.  I numbered my colours, from 1 to 6, yellow, green, turquoise, red, black, orange.  First roll of the dice said 2, so toe number 1 is green.  I meant to only do the toe, but it felt kind of fun.  Roll 2 gave me 6 and 7, so orange, yarn 6,  for 7 rows.  I still felt like knitting so on to another roll. That gave me 4 and 9 so red for 9 rows.  

And so on.  You should try this.  It's a fun way to approach knitting a pair of socks.  I am going to keep good track on my Ravelry page as the rows and numbers grow and change.  

I am knitting for a bit this morning and then I will get to work on my other advent project.  So many things to do.  I love Christmas.

 

Advent Adventures

This morning, to accompany my tea, I am digging in yarn.  I can't think of anything more delightful than this except possibly for knitting.  

I am planning to do some advent knitting to make some socks.  Mijn Wolden did some chaos socks for Socktober where she shook a dice to choose the colour of yarn and then shook again to choose the number of rows to knit in that colour.  It was fun to watch so I thought I would do that for my Advent socks. 

And that is why I am digging in the sock yarn today.  

This is my entire sock yarn stash  except for this.

This is what I kept close at hand in case I needed to knit socks and didn't want to dig for some.

I am a wee bit picky about socks.  I love strong contrast and have a very clear idea of colours as I like them to be put together.  YMMV.  It is a thing that I think is pretty individual to each of us, so your way of putting colours together may be quite different to mine.  The idea of using a dice to make the choices for me, is the tiniest bit scary.  Still, I learned a lot about colours as I knit the Flea sweater this year. Letting go can be fun.  

Step one is to pick 6 yarns. Or maybe it should be 6 pairs of yarns.  If I do pairs, there should be a strong contrast between the two yarns.  If I do 6 single skeins, there should be good contrast between all of them.  Then I have to number the yarns or pairs of yarns from one to six for a regular dice.

Next, I have to talk to Keith.  He has a bunch of dice, the fancy gaming kind.   I am going to use a 12 sided dice for my row counting dice.  

And then I have to knit.  Today the goal is two garter toe squares.  

I do have another advent goal.  Amy gave me a blanket to fix in the spring and December is the time to focus on it so I can give it back to her at Christmas.  Knitting for me may take a back seat for a bit except for the sock knitting.  So it goes.

Back to sweaters

Well, here we are.  Another day, more yarn! Ain't it grand?!!!

I knit a very little bit on socks.  It seems my hands have decided that it's enough of that for right now.  I worked on a sweater off and on for most of the day.

I am making good progress and I really can't wait to see this sweater complete.  It's nice and loose with plenty of space for this coned yarn to bloom once the spinning oils are washed out.  

That's it for today.  On to my day and knitting , knitting, knitting!

Ps  Every time I pick up yarn, I think how lucky I am to knit.  I have plenty of yarns to choose from, I have needles at hand and it is just the nicest thing.  I clothe myself in handmade and I feel huge satisfaction that I am able to do that.

Socks and Ends

Socks happened!

I am wearing them right now and they are great.  The few gusset stitches make a nice difference.  I am not sure why I didn't do this before on short row heel socks.  It really does make them easier to get on.  

I pulled out these when the first were done.

This is the next pair I am going to focus on.  Plain Kroy socks made out of the yarn as it comes off the ball.  I haven't done that for a while.  Also, note the change of toes.  I actually regret this now, but I am not going to rip back for a toe.  I am almost at the heel now and am debating a short row heel versus a heel flap, bottom up.  

Beyond all that, I am weaving in ends on my Lusk.  All the body ends are done so there is only one sleeve and a few neck ends to go.  I am determined to wear that sweater today.  

So on to tea.  Sigh.  Coffee oh coffee, why, why, why?   The tea is nice though and sipping is a fine thing when you are working with yarn.

And done.  

Lots of knitting

You may have noticed yesterday that I mentioned having tea.  It is not that I don't like tea.  It's just that I love coffee.  However the powers that be, aka, the debil, say I have to have tea.  I won't get over this fast.  

I did a good bit of knitting yesterday and am pretty pleased. I tried to knit sweaters, just could not get into them.  I pulled out socks and that seems to have worked. I was midway on the sole of sock two when I started.

I have 5 or 6 rows to do in the multi coloured Fiesta.  I am really glad that I stopped it when I did on sock one.  There is not going to be much left when I go to the green.  I am currently debating how much of the green I want to use up.  As in, do I want to make the cuff longer on sock one and work on sock two till the green is gone.  

The one thing stopping me from doing that is it means just a bit longer till I have a pair of completed socks.  Maybe that's what I am feeling.  That I just wanted to have a completed thing.  I am still working on weaving in ends on my Lusk sweater so it is not wearable but the socks?  The socks would be wearable right after finishing.  I routinely weave ends in on socks as I work, so, look, ma.  No danglers.  

Time for tea, I suppose.  It's very weak plain English breakfast tea at the moment.  And so it goes.  Tea goes well with knitting and I am going to keep telling myself that.  And knitting.  Lots and lots of knitting.

Good Morning

Good morning.  Maybe.  That is a conversation we have here most morning, but it is generally a jest because most mornings are pretty darn good.  Even when it is not a jest, talking about it, goofing around with it makes a grumpy morning feels better.

I did get some knitting time in this weekend but I may have used it foolishly.  I did not do huge amounts of work even though I had the time.  

A bit of progress but not much.

A bit of progress but not much.

I should have been working on socks.  My sock drawer seems to be filled with shortie socks and it is winter now.  I need regular socks.  Sometime very soon I am going to have to seriously focus on sock knitting.

I do have a plan for advent knitting this year.  I did that a few years ago and got a delightful pair of striped socks that remain a personal favourite sock.  This year, I am thinking of doing something similar to what Mjin Wolden did for Socktober.  If you watch her on YouTube you will already know what she did, and for the rest of you, you will have to wait for a surprise.  Her friend Etienne, also a youtuber, did the same thing with a twist.  

Anyway, time to get knitting to make some progress on something or other.  Tea time for now.  Coffee later when I can appreciate it more.  

Danglers of the World

Keith calls them ' danglers'

It's a lot of ends.  I will work on that this morning.  This is all that is stopping me from wearing this sweater.  It is the closest to pattern thing I have ever knit and it fits really nicely.  The yarns also feel really nice to wear.  

I also might redo for the third time, the bind off on one of the sleeves.  I have no idea why but it is tight.  

Once the knitting was done on this sweater, I pulled out my blue sweater.  

I debated about doing the London Fog sweater but this sweater is a bit harder to knit.  The yarn, in its weaving yarn state, is crisper in hand.  The  whole point of this sweater is going to be the wearing of it.  It is a product sort of knit rather than being a process knit.  All in all, less fun to work on.  The yarn has been in my stash almost forever.  The London Fog has been around a good while too but the younger yarn will give way to the elder.  

The London Fog is in the running for my weekend knitting but so are some of my longer standing projects.  There are socks to be knit and a hat that could be worked on as well as some colourwork I could work on.  In truth, there may not be too much time to knit. Cassie is coming over to play.  There will be miniature work being done.  That's all good fun but maybe, in hidden corners of time, I will sneak in some time to knit.

In the land of Almost

I am still in the land of almost.  

I have about 6 rows left, unless I decide on a folded collar.  I may yet do that.  My thinking is that a folded collar might be a bit less floppy over time.  

The sleeves are both complete and I am thrilled to say, they match!  It's possible that no one but myself, finds that such a thrill, but there is always a chance that my tension may have changed, that I miscounted something ot other.  It is particularly thrilling when I am finishing the sleeve with a new sort of sleeve treatment.

That slight puff before the cuff is something I never thought I would do.  It is there because my rate of decreases were wrong and I had far too many stitches left by the time my sleeves needed to finish.  The slightly dropped sleeves muddled my sleeve length calculation.  I just plain messed up.  Still the sleeves look okay and they will do.  And I will continue celebrating that they match.

Darn Things

Almost  finished a sleeve yesterday.  So close.  

There is one decrease row plus a few other rows before the cuff to finish.  Today it will be done.  

This is where I really, really wish I had woven in my ends as I went along.  With the stripes, there are a lot of ends.  It was really quite ridiculous that I did not weave in ends.  I am sure there was a reason.  I don't recall what it was though, so... I will quietly sit and weave the darn things in.  

Harumphhhhhh

Sleeve Island

I set down to work on sleeves yesterday and I did.  I should get close to finishing today.  I hope.  

It doesn't look like much.  It really isn't much.  I let my hands do the leading and I stopped about midday.  

My head really needed to keep knitting.  I thought I might knit to the end of the ribbing on the London Fog Tolsta.  I meant it too.  I want to keep my hands healthy and strong.

And then it went on to a bit more.  I decided to do to the end of the short rows.  And then a few more rows happened.

I think sometimes tired hands are in my head.

Obviously, I am kind of bored with sleeves.  It feels as if it has been an ocean of sleeves lately.  Not an ocean but maybe sleeve island.  Cassie's sleeves and this sweaters sleeves so close together have become a 'thing' in my head.  To defeat that feeling of being overwhelmed by sleeves, I am focusing on the evidence.  

Sleeve 1 has three blue stripes.  On sleeve 2, I have already completed two blue stripes.  I am on the third white stripe so there is only 1 more full white stripe left.  And a cuff.

It is only a small bit of knitting and I will have a completed sweater.  That's pretty great isn't it?  I am going to keep focused on that almost finished sweater.  I don't shop for my clothes.  I make them so getting something new is fun.  

Looking at what is on my needles and how little remains to do will get me through.

Dealing with Anxiety in my own way.

It is always so quiet when the kids go home but it is clear that I can't really do that anymore.  I love it but even though they are growing so fast, and only need the smallest bit of monitoring, I get so tired.  Ah well.  Cassie's art project is a lot of fun and she will come back next weekend to do some more as well as her time in class.  I can't wait to see what she creates.

I had some good knitting time on Sunday.  

I love how this sweater is turning out.  It is everything I hoped it would be.  The stripes keep it moving as stripes always do.  It is so near completion that I am just bursting, waiting to wear this.  

At the same time, I found myself slightly...bored.  I needed something but I did not know what.  It was anxiety inducing.  I felt skittery and antsy and jumpy.  

I dug through all the yarns in the WIPs bin and went through the stuff beside it.  I did not feel like socks or a hat and yet I had an itch I really needed to scratch.  

I came to the bag with the London Fog yarn that has been two sweaters already.  My hands kept going to it because it is so lovely to knit with.  In the blink of an eye, 

A sweater is begun.  Just a simple Tolsta this time.  It will show off the gorgeous yarn.  And then somehow, I could settle down to rest.

Reasons

There are kids here though I should probably nor call Cassie a kid anymore.  She has crossed the line to teenager.  We are doing this.

The start of furniture.

Floors going in the room.  I am helping Her with a project for art class.  

I am doing very little of the work as it should be but I have all the things.

There was a reason I collected all this stuff.

Do and redo.

I have been struggling this year with time change.  I have woken all week at 3 and 4 o'clock and been wide awake and ready to start the day.  It has been frustrating.  I was watching a QI clip yesterday where they happened to discuss setting an internal alarm to wake at a certain time.  I have done this all my life as I needed to or wanted to and was always surprised at how well it works for me.  I thought "hey, I should try that ".  So, I told myself that I needed to get up and 5:30 and no later.  You know what?  It worked.  I woke at 5:30 and not before! I am doing it again tonight.  

It was an interesting day yesterday.  Knitting went good and not so good.  I sorted out how I was going to have to deal with the sleeve.  I decreased severely on the last couple rows of the white stripe.  The plan was to knit a ribbed cuff so I did that.  And then...

 I took it off.  I had forgotten to change needle sizes and it was looking loose and floppy.  On a loose and floppy sleeve this is not a good look.  

I reknit it on a much smaller needle.  

 

The result?  A very very nice slightly belled sleeve.  Sleeve 2 starts today.

On a weekend

My lovely Cassie came for a visit and took her sweater home.

I am really pleased and so is she.  Once she washes the sweater, it's going to look even better.  

Otherwise it was a really quiet weekend.  I was pondering my Lusk sweater and have a small problem.  I planned to finish the sleeve with a white rib.  However, due to the length of my arms, it is going to have to be a blue rib.  Even with the blue rib, it will probably be a bit long in the sleeve for my taste.  Oh well, that's the way it is I suppose.  I will get over it.  

While thinking, I pulled out a sock to knit on.  

This is Drops Fiesta and all I can tell you is I LOVE THIS YARN.  I hope it washes like Fabel and if it does, it is going go get a big 100 percent yes from me.  I have tons of sock yarns at hand to knit, before I can order large amounts of this good yarn.

Otherwise today is chores and knitting and coffee.  Not a bad way to spend a day.  

Here There and Everywhere

Cassie's sweater is done but for weaving in the ends.  

I am really pleased with it.  It is basically an out of gauge Lusk sweater with sleeves akin to the Cloud sweater and Cloud edge finishes.  It works and I am looking forward to seeing it on her.  

In the afternoon I picked up the sweater I put down to make Cassie's sweater, my own version of Lusk.  

It is midway through sleeve one.  It is a proper full Lusk sleeve with the patterns sleeve top shaping.  I managed about a stripe and a half so I hope for good progress today.  

I am not certain if this Lusk is going to be my weekend knitting or if I will pick up something else.  

I should report one firm decision for my blue sweater.  

It is firmly a Tolsta but I am absolutely going to put the little pockets in it from the  Mayhemma sweater.  I have decided on a purple, a bright yellow and a nice clear red.

A teeny tiny touch of these colours will be just the thing to set this umpteenth Tolsta sweater apart.  

There ought to be music

There ought to be music, a triumphal score of some kind.

I am so happy.  I am so happy to be done with sleeves.  I am so happy with the way it looks.  I am so happy that all that is left is the collar.  A very wee bit of the collar.  Four rows and the bind off. It was a great knitting day.

Cassie is really thrilled too.  She texted me yesterday and she has an art project to do.  She has to create a miniature room.  She asked for help and I am thrilled.  I am looking forward to a good weekend.  

In other news, 

It's here.  I have sweaters.  I have cocoa and coffee and tea.  It's warm and cozy here.  What more can I really need.  

Counts

Two more decreases.  That's all I need.

I am at the point where I have to count and make certain my stitch counts are the same.  I am sure they are, but I always count to be sure.  

I don't know if anyone else does this sort of compulsive counting and not counting.  Remember, my recently finished Flea sweater did not fit me. It fits my sister.  

I counted and mathed for that one but I counted or mathed wrong. 

Counting is vital in knitting.  Math is less important and does not go beyond simple arithmetic.  However counting...counts. You get the numbers wrong and sleeves won't match.

I will get really close to finishing the sleeve today unless my hands give out early and only the day will tell me that.  It's a weather thing as much as a knitting thing, I think.  Weather will be what it will be.

Time for that second cup of coffee and some good knitting.

Rambling Thoughts

Sleeve work continues.  And it is going well too.  I could finish it today if I didn't care about my hands.  I will likely get close but since there is also the neckline to do as well , I will just keep paying attention to my hands.  

I am wearing my green Tolsta with the broken rib stripes today.  I just have to say how much I like this sweater.  I knew this yarn was something special and would be very cozy to wear, way back when I bought it pre 2010.  Doubled, it is just perfectly warm and dense and incredibly comfy.  It is going to be the perfect winter sweater.  

Now it does have short sleeves and that is fine by me.  It is part of why it is getting such heavy wear.  It is super practical for inside daily wear.  It extends this into a sweater that will get all season wear but for the hottest summer days.  

I have been thinking about my stash lately. I purchased lots when I could.  It was a tad obsessive I suppose, but it seems to have been a good thing.  Without it my knitting would be few and far between. It remains goofy large even after all these years.  There are starting to be some holes in it, yarn weights where the choices are getting skimpy.  Well, skimpy of thing that I wanted for a specific project, that is.  This means that there will be more combining of yarns.  More blending laces and doubling up weights.  More mixing and marking of colours.  That means a lot of thinking about yarns in my stash, a very good thing.  

I have also been thinking a lot about what I like to wear, and what appeals to me.  I love lace. I was thinking about lace when I was putting my shawls away.  I haven't knit lace lately.  Plain seems to appeal to me more than anything right now.  I have simple basic sweaters in my plans.  

I have also been going through my sweater favourites on Ravelry.  I saved things for many different reasons.  Style, would knit, patterning ot a garment, design details and so on.  Some of the things I saved will never be knit and no longer inspire, so it's time to sort through them.  

It is also time to look at my books again, and search for inspiration and maybe even knit the things that do inspire.  Lots to go through there.

I do have plans for The Creabea's Staffin sweater and for a summery tee with some sort of lace at the hem.  I do have plans for more colourwork but not until the 2 colourwork projects that are in the WIPs bin are done.  I have simple garments planned for those lush Midknit Cravings yarns. They have new colours I desire, but I must knit what I have before I buy new.  The London Fog sweater is calling my name.  

So much to do, so much fun to have, not nearly enough hours in the day.  Rambling thoughts while knitting sleeves was fun.

For a Change (or not.)

For a change, I knit on the same thing this weekend as I knit on during the week.  Changing out projects for weekends has been working.  My interest in the WIPs bin is staying high and finishing projects is always in mind.  This weekend, my hands just wanted to keep  working on Cassie's sweater.  

I didn't get quite as far as I hoped but I am still pleased with it.  

I am just past the first decrease so from here on in, it is all downhill.  I should get a big chunk done today.

I didn't get as much done as I hoped because I was doing some big chores.  I cleaned and tidied the WIPs bin and I cleaned and sorted where I keep all my shawls and cowls.  

The main thing I was looking for in the WIPs bin cleanout, was this pair of socks.  They are good, plain knitting and I want them handy for race weekends.  They had slipped to the wrong side of the bin, where all the sweater projects are and were well hidden under and between everything else.

The other job was bigger.  It was time to clean out the bins  I keep shawls and cowls in.

For years I have kept these items in ziplocs inside these bins but when I started using cotton bags for sweater storage, I started to switch these ot to smaller cotton bags.  I ran out midway through the switch and it stopped there, leaving half a job to do.  Eventually I got more small drawstring bags and the project sat longer.  Finally, I found the gumption to dig in and finish the whole thing.  All my pretty things are in nice cotton bags. I cleaned and dusted out the inside of the bins too, so this storage is good for the season.  

I may not have done a ton of knitting, but I found plenty of yarn fun to play around with.  I tried not to create new projects in my mind, to obsess about and was more or less, successful.  It was one of those weekends that can best be wrapped up by saying a good time was had by all.  Okay, by me.