State of the Stash - 2010

I have a tradition. Every year, I go through all of my crafting supplies on the first of the year. I empty out the tubs, take note of what I have, reorganize, wind up partial skeins that have gotten tangled, wipe down all of the containers storing yarn, check for damage, that sort of stuff. And I take pictures.

I've done this every year since 2007, but only posted to the blog in 2008.

Every year, it gets a little easier, and I get a little more organized. This year, it included organizing my craft room/guest room.



The spinning wheel sits in the corner, next to my craft bookcase.



Do you see the yarn? No? It's neatly packaged away in the blue boxes.

And then there's the bookcase.



This is where I store all of my UFO's. Every last one of them. Knitting, crochet, spinning, the braided rug I started in 2005, all of it. Several of these are more than a year old.

Here's a better look.



My goal for 2010 is to clean this up considerably, so I can use it for other things. Like books.

Anyways, my sewing table, blocking board, and ironing board all fit in the closet, although in reality they don't spend much time there. The important part is that they can!

Having a guest room, with furniture, painted walls and pictures makes me feel oddly grown up.


But surely that can't be all of my crafting supplies, right? Right. The giant tower of craft remains in my hubbies office.



I did organize everything on here.

There's a shelf for sewing supplies



and one for fiber



and the other shelves are organized by how much I'll use them.

But what about the yarn stash?

Well, here is my handspun



and here is my collection of all the little bits and bobs.



It may seem odd to keep all of these little scraps, but they are surprisingly useful. I'm never without stuffing or stitchmarkers.

Here is all of the partial balls



and the source of all my guilt, the yarns which I haven't used at all.



Indy and I investigated and



The oldest: a ball of GGH Apart I bought in 2006, for the Rockstar scarf I never made.

This seems like a reasonable amount of stash to me. It hasn't grown too much since last year.

My only crafting resolution this year is to finish every UFO I have now by the end of the year. And to keep my guest room looking like a guest room.

Zombies? Zombies!

This little dude was a birthday present for Charlotte. I took a basic human amigirumi pattern and zombi-fied it. He's a corporate zombie, complete with fake blood and one eye that is falling out. Details at my Ravelry page. Some of the inspiration comes from Mur Lafferty's The Takeover, which is so funny I laughed until I cried at work when listening to it.

It is so awesome that I have a friend that would appreciate a stuffed zombie. Her daughter likes it too, and tried to steal it. She also tried to fix the eye, too cute!

Stepping Outside of the Yarn Aisle

I've been crazy busy. Every time I take one of my certification exams, I put off all of the things I want to do, and just study for a few months before the test. Then, in the last few weeks before the test, I start making lists in my head of all the things I want to do. Here is a selection from the last May

* Get back into playing piano
* Practice my Spanish
* Learn Latin
* Learn Mandarin Chinese
* Learn French
(There are a few more languages there just for kicks)
* Sew some more
* Learn embriodery
* Actually update my blog.

Obviously I'm failing at that last one. I've made baby steps with the piano, and learned a few words of Latin. But I've made some progress on the craft front. Done a little embroidery, and some sewing.



These are some burpcloths made for Jackson, my new nephew.

There are two that are made from cloth diapers, using this Chickpea studio tutorial. There's a Thomas the train one, and one with this cute yellow bee fabric that I thought my sister-in-law would love.



There is a modified version of this Homemade by Jill tutorial. I added a layer of batting in between, although that made it a little too thick. The back is some blue felt.





There are more burp cloths and some bibs in the works for the little one.

Don't worry though, there is still knitting going on here at Casa de Nerd. And a joint effort between hubby and I to make a light box, which will greatly improve my picture taking... and hopefully the blogging.

Still Alive

Hello? Does this thing still work?

If you can't tell, I've had another exam. And I'm pretty sure I rocked their world.

I've also been busy doing other things, a lot of firsts.

My first nephew arrived. His name is Jackson and he is cute.



My first trip to NYC, or anywhere in the Northeast, really.



Which also happened to be my first real vacation with my husband



My (and Jen and Brenda's) first triathlon relay



I've also been crafting.

The hat in that first picture is the only thing that I've knit for Jackson so far. I've started on a blanket for him, and sewn a few burpcloths.

I've also made socks for my Nerd, but they're not pirate socks. He needs to quit his bitchin'.



That's really all I've been to recently. Well, that and learning some Latin (using Rosetta stone) and playing a little Portal.

Look at me still talking when there's Science to do...

Happy President's Day

This is the perfect occasion to post this little gem:



Jonathan Coulton is an indie artist with some seriously cool songs. He's the evil genius behind Code Monkey, the folk version of Baby Got Back and the closing credits of Portal. Some of his stuff is sweet, some is strange, all of it is funny.

Organized Chaos

Everybody has a place to put all their junk. In some homes, it's a drawer. Sometimes it's a closet. Since we moved, we have had a whole room for this. Which also happened to be my craft room.

Everything had a place, and I could usually find anything I was looking for, but it looks like a disaster zone.

These graphic images are not the for the feint of heart, or for neat freaks.



These are most of our books. These piles are organized by size, which was actually a really good way to organize them.



This is my craft/study bookcase, and some boxes in the middle of the room.



Desk covered in junk, and more junk.



Even more junk.



And the closet. Notice how it's nearly empty. That desk was supposed to be my sewing desk. I never used it for that.

The room looked like this from the time we moved in until my sister moved in almost a year later. When she moved in, we had to combine my husband's office and mine.

Now, the room looks more like this



Now the junk is contained to a closet. The blue boxes are my stash, and the board next to it is my blocking board.



and I have a desk to study on



husband has a desk for his computer



and all of my craft supplies are in this awesome shelf that hubby got me. I had a smaller shelf before, but it kept falling apart. This one is supposed to hold 900 pounds. It should be able to hold all of my supplies.

Christmas Crafting

Yes, I know it's late. I've been busy recently, to say the least.

I have been pretty productive with crafting though.

Even though I swore I wouldn't I did do some Christmas crafting. Since I had not planned any gifts, they were all really last minute.

This year, Christmas was with the inlaws. Nerdy Husband's mom got a Snappy Hat from Picnic Knits. It was definitely fast, made in less than a week. Corrina is a very talented designer, and a fun person to be around.

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the hat, but I used this: Aracunia Azapa, a wool, silk, mohair blend.



During Christmas, I finished three things:



A doily for my grandmother

It is actually a bit big, but I'm sure she'll love it anyways. Haven't had a chance to get it to her yet.





This is a crocheted grocery sack for my mom. My family uses them. The yarn for this was actually given to me by my mom, so this bag has been recycled in more ways than one.

Sorry for the awful picture. Apparently the spinning wheel isn't a very good model.







An Everlasting Bagstopper for Katie (future sister-in-law). Her favorite color is yellow, hence the yellow stripe. She is so sweet, she seemed to really like it, and I think she will really use it (as a tote bag), so she is definitely on the "knit-worthy" list for the future.

That's all for now. Next week (or whenever)- stash toss and I clean my room...