New Year, New Look...

...not for me, though! I'm perfectly happy with what I've got in that field. Nope, it's my apartment that's getting the going-over, as a New Year's Resolution and a present to myself.

It's just way too easy, especially if you're busy, to let things slide. And I do let them slide, sadly. Result? There are corners in my place that haven't had a proper cleaning and sorting since I moved in a decade ago. It bugs me, but the sorting out hasn't been a priority. I KNOW there are papers and school notes under my bed from college and undergrad, books lying around that I'll never read again, clothes in my closet I haven't worn in years, things in the kitchen that are stale-dated and haven't been opened/used in years, or equipment I don't need...

So that's what's on the slate for the next few weeks, with breaks for knitting and spinning, of course. I'm all gung-ho to get things out of here (not the stash, though - sorry, that stays), and the remainder organized and cleaned. Made a good start already - after having a quick rummage through the dresser and closet, I've got a big garbage bag half full of clothes to give away.

Oh, and on the fiber front - Knit Picks Under 100 collection is out. I've got a pattern in it - the Candy Stripes Fingerless Mitts below - and another Amanda from Ottawa has a pattern in too, which is pretty cool!

On To The Fun Part

It's been a bit crowded this past week. 5 final exams in 4 days, and finished off all but one of my commissions for people at school.

Erin's mittens

Marilyn's baby set

Marianna's fingerless mitts

But as of about 10:30 this morning, it's Christmas vacation for yours truly. Well, in a manner of speaking, anyway! I don't leave town until Tuesday, but in that space, somehow, I get to cram in the following:

- Finish the last pair of mitts commissioned by a classmate, and pass them on to her. I cast on last night, and the first mitt is over half done. They're for a Christmas gift, so definitely they get priority.

- Clean the apartment. Properly. It's been kind of neglected lately - and I've got a friend coming to stay Monday. So I will have to find places to put things besides on piles everywhere, and then see about removing the cobwebs and cat hair and whatnot...

- Dye 2 skeins with indigo, and start my Christmas knitting. It's not much (redo the feet on a pair of socks, and knit a stole) and neither piece is really 'due' until after Christmas.

- Bake cookies for a cookie exchange on Sunday. No rolled cookies this time - I'm thinking our family Holiday Oatmeal cookies, with coconut and maraschino cherries and raisins and nuts. Nice simple drop cookies, and the dough is practically addictive.

-  Finish a bit of Christmas shopping, and pick up the ingredients for the cookies. I think I can do that all in one session, and maybe work in handing off the mitts at the same time. Nothing like getting all the errands done in one shot.

- Maybe, just maybe, if I have time, put up my little Christmas tree. Didn't get to it last year. It's not as important usually since I'm out of town for the holidays, but if my friend is here, it'll be nice for her to have a bit of decoration. I'm thinking if I can find a place for my schoolbooks, the tree should fit on the dining table...

You know what? It sounds like a lot, but it's all fun stuff, really. Even the cleaning. I don't usually like it, but I feel a tidying mood coming on to fill the space where school assignments used to be. Now to roll up my sleeves and get cracking!

Spring Cleaning

My lilacs are blooming, the sand cherry is blooming, and the weather is beautiful. That usually inspires spring cleaning behaviour on my part. Which is only a good thing, really, if I think a process through first.

Yesterday I had an urge to vacuum. Later, I was looking for a sweater to wear out to knitting, and started noticing that most of the sweaters on my shelf were starting to smell a bit stale. How I didn't notice before, I don't know. But clearly they needed washing and freshening up. So, in a sudden burst of energy inspired by the lovely spring weather, I decided to start washing them then and there, and started filling the bathtub with water.

Now, the smart thing to do, seeing as I have an apartment with limited space, and quite a few sweaters of the handknit / wool / 'handwash, lay flat to dry' variety, would have been to see how many sweaters I could reasonably spread out to dry at one time, and wash only that many to begin with. However, I only thought about drying space AFTER the first batch was draining, and the second batch was soaking. Leaving me with a dozen and a half of wet sweaters to find space for.

To make life more fun, note that I couldn't even spin out the excess water in the washing machine, really. The machine in the building is a coin-operated one, and will go through the entire cycle, regardless. I wasn't going to waste money and water and hang around in order to put my sweaters in right before the spin cycle. I squeezed and pressed out what water I could, stacked the whole pile flat in the tub, and constructed a crude press to try and get more water squeezed out - meaning essentially I topped the stack with a Rubbermaid bin filled with the heaviest books I could find, and left it to drain while I had supper.
Then any sweaters that could go in the dryer went, and the rest got pressed in towels, and the various wet towels and sweaters spread out as best I could on the clothes rack and chairs, and propped on an expandable bamboo trellis under the ceiling fan.

Despite the sunny sky and open windows, I think the weather in here will be on the humid side for a couple days.

Loose Ends

In the process of going through the stash yesterday and today, I found a few incomplete projects that have been languishing for a while. I feel I really should get cracking on a few of those things and get them out of my hair - or at least to the next stage.

Tucked in between the skeins in my handspun/natural-dyed stash, there were 5 skeins of yarn which I spun into singles, dyed, and never got around to plying. Whether that was because I hadn't decided on what I was plying them with, I don't remember. However, there's the Chesterville spin-in this week, and I think I will bring these in addition to whatever's left of the pastel/grey mix stuff, and see if I can't get them plied.

In a bag under some crochet cotton and Briggs and Little yarn, I found a bag of quilt pieces. I dyed the fabric, and Mom and I started the quilt probably, oh, 4-5 years ago. And then she took up weaving and bobbin lace, and I got into Rav, and next thing you know, the quilt got pushed aside. Maybe I can finish piecing the top this year.

And in a basket, I found my first sweater. It never fit very well (besides looking like nothing so much as a calico cat, the way the colors went), and at the time, back when I was in high school, I didn't know enough about how to mess with gauge and patterns to correct it. I think I wore it all of twice before it got pushed to the back of a drawer. I had found it a while back, and figured I might as well frog it and re-use the yarn, at least. Not sure what it'll be, eventually. There won't be enough to remake a good sweater, but maybe accessories. I may even knit a swatch and see whether it felts decently.

I tackled the sweater this afternoon. Two sleeves already ripped, and I'm undoing the body seams. Feels good to be finishing some of these little things.

Doings

Wash on Monday
Iron on Tuesday
Mend on Wednesday
Churn on Thursday
Clean on Friday
Bake on Saturday
Rest on Sunday

That was how the old routine went for our foremothers. It meant you had a clean house and fresh baking for Sunday, and you got your good clothes and tablecloths washed before any stains from Sunday dinner had a chance to set.

Now, I've rearranged things a little from that. No churning to do, and the mending and ironing get done when enough stuff piles up to require it. And now that we're on time-of-use meterage for the electricity, Saturday and Sunday are when the washing and cleaning and baking preferentially get done.

Today the errands got added, since I was too lazy to do them earlier in the week. Yeah. It's suppertime, and I am not only starving, I sincerely doubt I could take a clear photograph, because my arms are so tired. Not only have I baked a batch of cookies and a batch of bread and done the dishes, but those errands? I have made three trips out, on foot, and carried home 34lb of cat litter, the groceries, including milk and sugar and Tide and catfood, and 2 bins from Canadian Tire.

The bins I went to get because they were on sale, and I'd been planning on getting a couple more, to store some stash under my bed. So when I got home with those, I started sorting through stash to see what would go in the bins and reorganizing the rest. And guess what I found. Moth cocoons. Some old, some still alive (albeit briefly). Needless to say, the sorting and cleaning became a little more thorough than planned. A good chunk of it is done, but it got dark before I finished, and it's a job I prefer to do in daylight. So that will get finished in-between doing the laundry tomorrow.

Tonight, food, tea, and maybe a movie. I think I deserve it.