Head in the clouds, nose to the knitting grindstone

The dining room table is creaking from the weight of patterns.  Six looseleaf notebooks consolidate pages of knitting instructions in page-protectors.  Spread them out, sort them, stack them, insert them, file them.

Scarves and shawls.  Baby and home knits.  Sweaters/tops.  Gloves/mittens/hats.  Socks.  There is even a notebook for "socks I will probably never knit but which looked good at the time I printed the pattern out from the Web".  That notebook will probably have a short existence.  (I can hear the Knitigator telling me to dump that NOW.)

The evolution of my knitting tastes is evident from this exercise in organization.  I've been saving my special yarns, waiting for the right pattern for cashmere, or quviut, or Foxfire yarn.  Precious knitting and spinning time is burned going through stitch dictionaries, Ravelry queues and pattern searches, while holding the Jade Sapphire cashmere in mind (color, gauge, fuzzy factors). 

It is a stymied approach.  It is also a short-sighted approach.  Mr. Etherknitter will be left figuring out what to do with my best fibers after he eulogizes me some day in the (hopefully) far future.

I stumbled upon Paula's Corrugator pattern in the piles.  Lights flashed, bells rang.  Foxfire Farm, cormo/silk/alpaca in Northwoods colorway has been sitting in limbo for several months.  I swatched several stitch patterns, and immediately frogged them as unsuitable.  I didn't want to put the yarn back in the stash, but I also didn't want to cast its purls before swine.  (Marcia may forgive me for this blatant knitting plagiarism.) 

The colors are perfect in this pattern.  It will make good mindless airplane knitting, car knitting, knitting when fatigued beyond reason.  Serendipity marks a new plan for stashbusting:  sorting through patterns until I find something that asks nicely to be knitted, and THEN figure out which yarn will please such a polite pattern. 

I have become a convert to cloud computing.  Hating Micros0ft is fashionable.  But handcuffing the user to programs on a specific desktop has been obsolete for some duration.   Virtual leashes were clipped with gmail, then with Google documents.  I know I'm not an early adopter, but I haven't been left behind, either.  (My Gourmet magazines sit around for weeks to months before I read them, but my Wired magazines are read immediately.  I probably should have saved that fact for a '10 Random Things You Don't Know About Me' post.)  All my stash lists are accessible from any computer in any location. 

Next up:  more stashbusting, and a scarf for Mr. Etherknitter in the FO pile.

Comments

[Marcia]

That's pretty much how my patterns are "organized", too, and mine need some serious weeding at this point, especially some of the internet ones!

[Anne]

Whatever method works, I say. And besides, that sounds like a really good use of a dining room table.

[minnie]

i've taken to uploading any patterns i have as pdf's to google docs, as i lost about $50 worthof patterns in teh great crash of '08. made me very happy to find i can do that.

take THAT, microsoft word

[Paula]

Oooo. That scarf is going to be sumptuous. Very nice indeed.

[Manise]

Luscious scarf grrlfriend. Trying to get my patterns into some sort of order too. Binders stuffed with loose patterns sliding every which way, some in sleeves. Doesn't bode well when said binder hits the floor spewing its contents all over the floor. Mine will soon look like the Knitigator's. Hers are wonderful.

[Teyani]

love love love that corrugator.
looks like an all time keeper pattern to me. (and the kind I keep stashed in my car for those times I am stuck somewhere unexpected)
I can't believe how organized you are. my patterns/books are all on one bookshelf, but can be a bit willy-nilly.

as far a the eulogy-stash-memories type thing, I figure that every good fiber artist should have a line in her will about who gets the "stash " heh heh... but I plan on living for a long long time, and have been very delightfully please to have such a grand stash during our recent snow storm fiascos. :-)

[Caroline M]

I recognise the perfectionist at work. Matching the perfect yarn to the perfect pattern for it, then the indecisiveness, would yarn X work better? Been there, done that.

[Carole]

My patterns haven't quite hit that stage yet but I should do something with them now - before they get there. As for the special yarns, what are you waiting for? You can't take it with you, sweetie.

[margene]

Having patterns sorted into binders saves one from frustration. Gmail and google docs are a life saver for the knitter. The scarf will be great travel knitting.

[bev]

My patterns are in a notebook as well. Somehow swatches ended up in there too. Those must go because they were an effort in futile time saving.
Have you ever been diagnosed with OCD? LOL Your organizing is making me feel the need to do the same.

[Danielle]

I'm trying to remember to knit with the stuff that pleases me FIRST. I'm doing a pretty good job of that. Not everything is a luxury knit, but I also get great enjoyment out of a workhorse wool.

[Lynn]

So, if you get everything organized and lose ten pounds by March 1st, what are you going to do the rest of the year? (besides exercise every day) Will you get to play at anything you want, free of hovering smogs of guilt?

[Kim]

Oooohhh...that yarn from Barb is scrumptious!! That is going to feel so nice surrounding your ears on a cold day. :)

[Kathy]

I'm good with the "sometime sock" notebook -- as long as it's organized! :-)

LOVE the pattern/yarn match you got going there!

[Judy]

Didn't know there was a name for it.. cloud.. I like it. I think it interesting that I get so much tech stuff from and because of my interest in the "old" ways. I do, however, keep a shelf of black notebooks. Scarves. Shawls. Hats. Sweaters. Socks. Nothing like a hard copy.

[elizabeth]

It never even occurred to me that by saving my "special yarns", someone else may get to knit them! Or worse - if SB and I were to die unexpectedly together - what if they were thrown away?!?! life's too short for that!!!

[Lucia]

OMG, those greens are spectacular. Is that handspun?

I have a different problem: yarn that knows exactly what it wants to be, and is waiting for me to **sit down and work out the pattern dammit**.

[gayle]

I find so many patterns out there that I like that I could never afford paper and ink to print them all. I save them to folders on the hard drive, and periodically back-up to disk. (Ouch, must remember to do that with photos, too...)
It does keep me from printing duplicates, too. Which I would do - I frequently, when saving a fabulous *new* pattern, get the message that I already have a copy of that one.
I haven't investigated Google Docs - looks like I should.
Youngest daughter (the computer science major) had a hard drive crash last fall. Total loss of data. Scared the bejabbers out of me...

[diane]

Got my patterns all in "looseleafed" waitng to be matched with stash too. A recent success, the Julia 5 hour sweater. I like not always having to turn on an appliance. Beautiful yarn/pattern, nice needles!

[Barb]

Since chaos will reign once again at the farm in a few short weeks (lambing), I've been working on reducing clutter and re-organizing. Patterns, books, magazines, assorted fiber tools, stash.

Scarf is pretty - but isn't the color Blue Meadow?

Thanks for the name suggestion for my lambs!