Mission: Complete

Behold! Organization!


During a recent trip to Target, I poked through the office supplies, and found everything my little organization project would need: one heavy duty 3" binder, 200 sheet protectors, and a total of 21 index dividers. I also got 4 magazine holder-things, since they were a bit out of control as well.

My original method of organization wasn't working for a few reasons. First, there was no actual organization. I had a 1.5" binder with some sheet protectors in it. That's it. Second, the sheet protectors were the wrong kind- they only worked if your paper also had holes punched in it (see below). None of my patterns did, so I would just fold them in half and slip them in. Third, I only had 25 sheet protectors, so there were several patterns crammed in each one.


Yesterday I gathered all of my loose patterns, supplies, and a couple podcasts. It took me almost an hour to pull out all the patterns and put them into preliminary categories- socks, hats, tops, etc. Then I could really see what I had and decide how many indexed categories I would need. In the end, I had 17 (and these were largely influenced by Ravelry's pattern categories):

Baby
Bag
Blanket
Cardigan
Hat
Home
Jacket
Men
Mitten/Glove
Pet
Pullover
Scarf
Shawl/Wrap
Sock
Tank/Tee
Top-Other
Toy


There were a couple duplicate patterns, and I did end up trashing a few because they were things I don't really need a pattern for anymore, like plain ribbed socks. I wound up with just over 100 patterns in all. It was sort of exciting to see this massive pile of unruly papers become this neat, little collection. I know, I need to get out more.

I still have 4 extra index dividers, in case I want to add more categories, and I have lots of sheet protectors left for future patterns (plus, obviously, I can always buy more). The binder won't hold too much more, but I have a plan for that: When I run out of room, I will move the largest category (probably socks) to it's own binder. In theory, this could be repeated until each category has its own binder. Then each binder could also be replaced with larger binders, if need be. That's a fun thought- 17 giant binders filled with patterns, collected over a lifetime.

The magazines' previous home was now available for yarn storage, along with another basket I had lying about.



After hanging out in it all evening, it occurred to me that my knitting room lacks shelves. I'm going to keep an eye out for small bookcases and shelves, and maybe start combing the local antique stores. Also, my old Singer sewing machine base is still lacking a proper top... Maybe it's time to get on top of that too!

I Hope I Don't Wind Up On Hoarders...

Last week I mentioned that knitting while at work was sort of difficult for me. So obviously, the next best thing to do is knitting-related things. Sometimes I listen to knitting podcasts, and sometimes I peruse the forums on Ravelry, but my favorite thing to do is check out new patterns. Ravelry makes this easy by listing the newest 50 pages of patterns added to the site right on the Patterns tab. I also check out the newly added patterns on Knitting Pattern Central every Monday and Thursday morning. As I come across patterns that appeal to me, I hit the handy little print button, and stick that sucker in my backpack to bring home for my collection. But it turns out that doing this leads to piles and piles of patterns. A normal person would just add these patterns to her Ravelry Queue, instead of killing trees. But I'm not normal, and there are two reasons that I find this difficult:

1. For reasons unknown to myself, I have the same instinct regarding my queue as I have with my email inboxes... and that is to clean it out. Keep only what is needed. And it turns out that when you're mentally all over the place all the time, "what is needed" varies on an hourly basis, at best. That means I have a tendency to delete a lot of things, and regret it later. Instinctively, I print out patterns knowing that it is harder for my to throw away a tangible object than a representation of said object. Funny side note: Almost everything in my queue was added from my home computer, which (until recently) was a real bitch to print from (bring laptop upstairs, wait for slow printer to warm up, listen to horrible noises from old printer, watch as pattern emerges full of streaks, disconnect, return laptop to comfy living room). Now we have a super awesome, fast, and quiet printer/copier/scanner with wireless technology!!1!

2. The queue is pretty much just a fancy way of bookmarking something. A lot of the patterns I get are found free online, usually either on a yarn manufacturer's website or somebody's blog. There is no guarantee that a pattern in my queue is still going to be there a year from now when I finally decide to knit it. Sometimes things get deleted, websites disappear, servers go down... there are a whole lot of things that could make that pattern unavailable. Or what if I want to start knitting a pattern from my queue during a power outage? But I think the only thing that would make my printouts disappear is a house fire, in which case I'll have bigger problems to worry about.

So here I am, with a crapload of patterns. Work has been slow for most of the past year, and I've been keeping the laser printer busy all along. This leads to my 2010 dilemma. Last year I felt I had too much yarn, and worked to keep the stash under control. This year it's patterns. Don't get me wrong- I don't think one can have too many patterns, and my goal is not to whittle them down by any means. The dilemma is that I no longer know what I have, and everything (magazines included) is divided amongst several piles in my knitting room. My goal over the next few days/weeks/months is going to be getting them organized. I need to get them arranged for easier browsing and searching. I'm thinking this will involve a system of binders and those clear insert thingies.

I actually just thought that I'd run off to Staples right now and get started, but then I looked out the window. It's rainy and gray and icky- definitely sit inside and knit weather. Maybe tomorrow.

Happy Amanda: Now With More Productivity

Ok, so my weekdays haven't been super productive, but that's mostly because work is so slow. Having nothing to do all day at work is slowly sucking the life out of me. My options for keeping myself occupied are sort of limited since it is work, and I'm stuck in a little office. In a cruel twist of fate, there is something about knitting at work that I find difficult. I can't put my finger on it, but I'll try knitting for a few minutes, then stop. I think there is something keeping me from getting in the right frame of mind.

However, I have read through the last two (in the series of three) of Kate Jacobs' books- Knit Two, and Knit the Season. Both were Christmas gifts from Scott's Dad & Step-mom, who also gave me her first one, Friday Night Knitting Club. I enjoyed reading them, overall. It seems like a lot of people either love or hate her series (or at least her first book), and I can sort of see why. They are not literary masterpieces, but I've also read a LOT worse. The stories are interesting, but you need a healthy suspension of disbelief- I kept wondering where all these people were getting their endless supply of money, especially with such carefree attitudes about spending it all. I also had to roll my eyes a little at the number of happy coincidences, especially in the last two books. The series reminded me of most movies that are aimed at a teenage audience- things tend to work out just so, the character development leaves a little to be desired... You know they're never going to get an Oscar, but they're not really meant to. They're fun, but you might want to wait for the rental.

My weekends however, continue to be somewhat productive! I went to knit night last night, but left early due to a troubling rumble in my belly. Luckily it turned out to be a false alarm, but better safe than sorry. At home I cleaned the house a bit, and later (once I was sure I was fine) drove down the street and rinsed the salt off the Jeep. The Jeep, by the way, has been running just fine. Scott waved me off when I told him that I had gotten the oil changed in an effort to appease it after the last incident, but I think it worked.

This morning I did all my errands, and picked up the ingredients for both turkey salad and pulled pork. I've had a hankering for tuna salad sandwiches, except not with tuna. I don't eat seafood, but as I child I could occasionally be convinced to eat tuna if it was mixed with lots of other things. I first thought of chicken salad, but I like turkey a lot more! So I got some turkey breast cutlets, and made it this afternoon. Mmmm, it is so good! Especially with my sister's home-made pickles. And somewhere on Ravelry, there has been some discussion of pulled pork. So now I want that too! I read that you should use a pork shoulder roast, so that's what I got. I don't know a lot about meat (or cooking, or anything like that really) so I was pleasantly surprised to see that the ginormous shoulder roasts are cheaper than the smaller pork loin roasts. Good to know! I just hope the bottle of BBQ sauce I got is enough.

Later this afternoon, I made more chocolate chip cookies. My friend Sandy from knit night found out that adding a little extra flour might help the cookies thicken up. I also heard that chilling the dough might help. So I did both! I also used the hand mixer, fearing that perhaps I had over-mixed with the stand mixer. The cookies turned out better than last week, but still not as thick as I'd like. Further research tells me that substituting shortening for half of the butter might work, since it has a higher melting point. I'm going to try that next time (in addition to extra flour and chilled dough), and hope that it doesn't affect the taste too much.

I also got a little surprise for Scott today- jersey sheets for the bed. He loves them, and when we first met he even had a jersey comforter. Sadly, it was old and raggedy and we eventually replaced it with a hideous freebie from my aunt (bright yellow with lighthouses all over it- I wish I had a picture, it was so terrible). Anywho, I walked past them at Target, and thought, "What the hell. We only have one set of sheets, and it would be nice to have a second." Plus they were only $20 for the queen set! Who can pass that up?

Speaking of which, the dryer just dinged. Time to go make the bed before Scott gets home!

Dead Highway Cat Update

Well, for starters he's not dead. Surprise!! For the past week I've been looking at that cat, curled up in the same spot every day, and feeling horrible. Then as I drove past yesterday, he was sitting up. Decidedly not dead. Looking right at me. I could not for the life of me figure out how he was still alive, having been lying in the same spot in freezing temps for over a week.

I thought about calling Animal Control again, but they didn't do anything last time I called, so I figured I would just swing by and see what was up. I decided that I would leave early this morning, and pull off the road to see if I could approach him. I picked up a small package of tuna as a bribe on the way, and brought my leather motorcycle gloves just in case.

I drove down to Germantown, got off 270, then got right back on the entrance ramp where he was. And what do I see trotting along the curb on the ramp? The little grey cat. His gait was perfect- no limp to indicate an injury. Apparently, he is a (relatively) healthy cat that just likes to take naps on the side of the highway. In the same spot. Everyday.

It was a huge relief to know the little guy isn't starving or freezing to death all alone, though he may be a bit nutty. He was back in his usual spot when I drove by after work, watching the cars go by on the ramp. To each his own, I suppose.

Off To A Good Start

Well, mostly. Last night's cookies, while tasty, just don't look too great. I don't know what it is, but my cookies always come out super thin. I follow the Nestle Tollhouse recipe on the chocolate chip bag, and I think I'm doing everything right, but they always look like this:


Notice that this cookie is approximately half the height of the chocolate chips inside it. Pathetic. So if anyone out there has the secret to making thicker cookies, please TELL ME. I'm dying here.

I did make it to the knitting meet-up this morning, and enjoyed seeing everyone. But note to self: stick to decaf. My delicious cafe mocha made me twitchy for at least 5 hours after it had been consumed. Hell, I'm still a little jittery, 7 hours later.

After knitting, I went for a haircut! It was 21 months since my last trim, and back then my hair was pixie short. I kept meaning to get it trimmed, but loved how long it was getting. Unfortunately going so long without a trim made it look like crap- all dead ends and super uneven. So I swung by the Hair Cuttery near my house, where I was told it would be a 15-20 minute wait. Noticing that all the chairs were full, I figured it would probably end up being 30-40 min. Psshht. I should be so lucky. I wound up waiting a full hour and a half before they called me. Sure, there were only 2 walk-ins ahead of me, but there were at least 4 more people that had appointments, which the woman failed to mention. Boo. I stuck it out because I didn't really have anywhere to be, and assumed it would take just as long if I started from scratch somewhere else. Next time I'll make an appointment (I did really like the woman who cut my hair).


Back at home, I was watering the plants and realized it's been one whole year since I planted my little pine tree. It hasn't grown very much, and I'm not sure why, but at least it's still alive. It's only four inches tall, but maybe it will be up to eight inches by this time next year.


Now I'm off to continue to be productive! I'm feeling a bit saucy... maybe I'll bust out my bohus sweater!

2010. Blargh.

Me and 2010 didn't get off to a great start. Nothing super tragic happened, it's just a vague feeling of malaise and some little things piling up. Like the Jeep. We brought it to the dealer, but they have no idea what went wrong. They said it could have been ice in the wheel messing with the sensors, but I don't really believe that.

Then there's the realization that a billing snafu that's been irritating us for months was due to my own ass-faced mistake. Nothing like having to eat crow!

Then there's the cat I saw near the highway. He was just sitting there in the grass, watching the cars go by. I assumed he was just a stray and didn't think much of it. But I saw him again the next day in the same area but about 10 feet down the road, and curled up like he was sleeping. Only I was pretty sure he wasn't sleeping. The poor thing had probably been hit by a car and couldn't go anywhere (keep in mind that it has been near or below freezing outside for the past several days). I called the humane society, and they sent someone out just in case, but it was too late. That poor cat froze to death. I know it's not really my fault, but I've felt really terrible ever since. If I'd called the day before, that cat might still be alive.

Then there's also a personal issue that I don't really want to get into on the innerwebs, but I will say that it's the sort of issue that injects a lot of depression and doubt into one's life. Incidentally, this issue is also the reason I haven't been blogging much the past few months- whiny, sad blogs aren't much fun to follow. Or write. So anywho, all these things rolled together did not make for a happy Amanda. This needs to change.

Say goodbye to Sad Amanda. She sorta sucks. Happy Amanda is going to take her place. Happy Amanda is not going to dwell on the things she can't change. Happy Amanda is going to make a real attempt at being slightly more productive with her days. Happy Amanda is not going to worry about the Jeep for the next 2 years and 9 months because if anything else goes wrong, the warranty will cover it. And most importantly, Happy Amanda is gonna knit the shit outta some good yarn, and make herself something nice!

I had a good start yesterday. I dismantled all of our Christmas stuff and cleaned the house in one evening. Very productive! And tonight I am going to bake cookies. Productive, and tasty! Starting tomorrow, I am going to start going to the Saturday morning knitting meet-ups. I usually don't go only because I am too lazy to get up before 9 on a weekend. But Happy Amanda is going to try to be less lazy.

The one great thing about this year so far was the big annual sale at Eleganza. It was awesome to see everyone, and I had a great time at the coffee shop afterwards. I'm super excited to try out the Kumara... it's soooo soft!



Well I guess I better get to bakin' if I want to get to bed at a reasonable time!