Finished Objects

I can't claim to huge success with my resolutions this year, but if you read my last blog post, you'll see I am making progress on all 3:  Eat Less/Exercise More/Get Rid of Stuff.

Um, OK, maybe the Freecycle bounty could be the opposite of the last one, but since joining, I *have* been getting rid of stuff.  And I just posted more tonight, so there!

DH has downloaded an app to count calories, and in my sympathy diet, I am down 4 pounds in the last 10 days, and that was even before getting back to the gym.  So, Yay me!

One of my big goals this year, to help move things out of the house, is to work through my WIP (Work in Progress), aka UFO (Un-Finished Object), aka PIGS (Projects In Grocery Sacks).

I am pleased to report completing 2 that I will post here.  I inherited lots of UFOs from my mother, who has been gone 10 years now.  I can't throw any of them away, since my mother started them (OK, I may have thrown out some ugly needlepoints that she had barely started, but shhhhh....)  One of the UFOs was a sack of 200+ crocheted bedspread squares.  They were lovely, but the ends had not been woven in, and they had to be sewn together.  And who uses bedspreads these days anyway?  They are only seen in museums, I think.

I decided to turn them into 2 tablecloths for my married nephews.  And it took over a year, but they are BOTH done, and delivered.  I was able to deliver on in person over the summer, and got this picture to remember the project by:

The second was mailed out in October, and safe arrival has been confirmed.  Phew! 

Wait--that counts as TWO Finished Objects, doesn't it?  This is an important point, as I have a new rule that I must complete TWO UFOs before I start a new one.  This way, the total number of UFOs must eventually decrease, right?  And finished socks are excluded from the count either way, as once I complete one pair, I always start another, so that will always be a count of 1.

What?  How many UFOs so I currently have?  My, what remarkable weather we've been having, haven't we?

Here is my other Finished Object--the green cable sweater that went into hibernation while I worked on the tablecloths:

This was born out of envy when I finished my brother's sweater, and its crewneck twin for DH who wanted one as soon as he modeled my brother's for me.  There will be another sweater on the needles soon, but not sure if it will be for DH or me.  The boys say they don't want one.  Fine, more for me and DH!

I just checked the date on my brother's sweater--it was finished in March, 2011!  That  means I have knit TWO cable sweaters AND finished 2 tablecloths in a year and a half.  Maybe I'm doing better than I thought!

Adventures in Freecycling

So, I lost most of October being sick (cough/fever, but not apparently flu), or recovering, or not quite recovering as fast as I thought I should.  I am glad to say I am most of the way back again!

I even made it back to the gym this week, and I am not sure if it is the endorphins kicking in after 3 weeks away, or the run of amazing luck I have had, but I've been in a wonderful mood all week.

Monday started with meeting a friend who is clearing out her knitting magazine stash.  I met her for lunch, transferred a box from her trunk to mine and closed the lid.  Then she smiled at me and said, "Um, there's more.  That was only part of it."  Sheepishly,  I loaded the rest, and did an happy dance inside for all the ideas and patterns I was going to peruse and share with some other friends.

Tuesday, I went to the gym, and did NOT pass out or suffer an immediate relapse.

I also decided to go for something posted on Freecycle the day before. (Never heard of Freecycle?  Check out this amazing resource here)  Someone posted a quilt frame--this is a huge set of rails to hold quilt layers for machine quilting.  I may have to buy a new sewing machine to go with it, but this is a huge savings!  I'd been thinking about getting one of these "someday", and then realized, that day was going to be TODAY.  I will have to clear out the garage for it, but well worth it to be able to finish my own quilts!

Tuesday night, I brought the bounty of knitting magazines to share with friends, and one of them then gifted me with a spare crockpot--replacing the one that died on us last week.  I had emailed for opinions on brands, and programmable vs. not, so she knew I needed one.  I jokingly asked her if she also had a spare vacuum cleaner, as that also died on us last week.  But seriously, what a nice surprise and savings!

Did I mention I had also picked up a stack of Architectural Digests from someone else on Freecycle that evening?  I was feeling replete with the generosity of the universe.  I also was feeling damn lucky so I bought a lottery ticket.  No match.  Oh well.

Wednesday, the string of luck continued!  I was telling a coworker about what an amazing week I had been having, and when I got to the comment about the vacuum cleaner, she grinned at me.  "I just bought a new vacuum cleaner, and decided after a few months it is too heavy to carry up and down the stairs.  Can I give it to you?"

DH says I should hint around for a Jaguar.  I don't think I should push my luck, but I am very, very grateful for all the blessings this past week.  And overall indeed.  No storms, still healthy, employment  so solid that I am recruiting friends to apply so I can get a referral bonus.  God Bless us all.

T-shirt Napkins

So, September just flew by, didn't it?

Back to school, work trips, school placement drama for both boys---yada yada yada.

On a completely unrelated topic, I've been thinking how much I hate our cloth napkins these days.  They are really raggedy looking, and the new denim material I used to make the last batch of cloth napkins didn't work so good.  They are wrinkled like crazy out of the wash, and danged if I am going to iron *napkins*.  The older napkins are nice and soft, but they look like something you'd pull out of a rag bag to polish your shoes.  Also, I used too narrow hems on them, and they flip up annoyingly.  This could be fixed if I ironed them, but, as I said...

So, I took a pile of old T-shirts which had been threatening to eat my bed--it was bigger than this petite stack:

And turned them into this much more useful stack:

Nice wide 1" hems, and thank goodness my machine has decorative stitches on it.  I use the feather stitch almost exclusively, despite all the choices.  I find a 12-14 finished size (so cut 14-16" square) makes a nice handful.  I ditched the white and black T-shirts immediately for recycling or donation to the pet shelter (I think they use it for bedding?).  I may fish the black ones back out, having realized the scraps can be cut into 1" strips for the crocheted rug weaving I keep planning to do.  Old white T-shirts are only useful for cleaning rags, and I have plenty of these, thanks!  So, I inventoried my ginormous pile of T's, and realized I have 3 bankers boxes full!  I guess we won't be running out of napkins anytime soon!

I have tried making other things--like shopping bags out of them.  The bags came out cute, and were easy, but turned out to be too stretchy/flimsy for groceries.  My solution the to the local plastic bag ban did not pan out.  The T-shirt bags are perfect for carrying yarn around, of which I do have a lot....but that's another problem for another day! 

Recycled Resolutions

Nothing original this year.  3 simple remixes from last year:

Eat Less/Exercise More/Get rid of Crap from the house

I made some progress on the diet/exercise thing last year, but have slid backward again after August with work stress and holiday binging.  Will try to fix both now.  I have been testing out a new pedometer from a friend.  I walk much less when I am working--didn't expect as big a difference as I have seen, though:  3000 steps vs. 300!  I wonder if it doesn't work as well clipped to my waistband (work clothes) vs. in my pocket (jeans at home).

The 3rd is motivated by my longstanding history as a hoarder, which I learned at my mother's knee as a child. This link posted by a friend on FB reminded me why I want to clear some of that stuff out of my life.

We had a productive weekend as Barley invited me to help him clean up his room, which included getting rid of lots of toys from his closet.  We also cleared out space in the garage for the Foosball table and the punching bag.  Now we need lamps and heaters for this newly usable space. (more stuff to buy!)