Loopy Solid Series Archives - The Loopy Ewe Blog

Tracking Your Stash

I cleaned out my yarn stash last week. Ohhh, it was a project! And when I say “cleaned out”, I mean mostly re-arranged. I did come up with a full garbage bag of yarn for charity knitting, but other than that, I kept a lot of my stash. I like my stash. It was interesting, however, to see beautiful skeins that I had totally forgotten about. Do you keep track of what you have? There are several options for that.

1. Ravelry. You can photo and upload your stash, and it auto-fills in the details (yardage, weight, etc). I did one day of photo-ing back when I first joined Ravelry, and haven’t added to my stash page since. I didn’t like having to set aside my new yarn until I could get a photo and upload it. But I have a friend who swears by this feature on Rav and wouldn’t do anything else, so I know some people like it. (And of course I regularly use all of the other awesome features that Ravelry offfers.)

2. Electronic Lists. I’m a list person, so I did catalog a few of my favorite yarn lines in Evernote, which syncs with my phone/iPad/computer. That’s handy because I can update my list here at work or home at night. I also have my list available on my phone if I’m out shopping somewhere and need to see what I already have. There are a lot of yarn lines that I buy and use (or stash) in one or two skein batches. I don’t keep track of those on my list. But there are a few yarn lines where I do stockpile a bit (ahem) because I want to collect and use the different colors over time. These are the ones that I typed up on my lists and am glad to have.

3. Journals/Notebooks. Some people much prefer writing these things down by hand and having a hard copy. There are all kinds of wonderful blank books out there, and I do like to buy them! I just like buying them more than I end up using them. (oops). If you like more structure than a blank book offers, you can get yourself a 3-ring notebook and print out pages to make yourself a Knitting Notebook. Here is a link to a website (Kathryn Ivy) that has some great, free, downloadable pages for a knitting notebook. You just print the pages as you need them. I have to say, I wish my grandmothers had kept a hard copy knitting journal like that. They were both knitters, and I’d love to look back and see all of the wonderful things they made over their many years of knitting, detailed in their own handwriting. You just can’t get that from an e-version, can you?

Do you keep track of your stash? Do you wish you could? What system appeals to you the most?

Sheri keepingtrackhelpstopreventdouble-purchases.
NotthatIhaveunknowinglyeverdonethatbefore….

P.S. We have a winner from this blog post! Emily in PA has won 2 skeins of the Loopy Solid Series, and the book Sock Yarn Studio by Carol Sulcoski. Thanks to all who participated in the contest!

Early Mornings and a CONTEST

This is what it looks like in our back yard at 6 am. The sun isn’t quite up yet, but it’s on its way. How do I know this? Because I’ve finally decided that there is hardly ever going to be a time when I feel like exercising after I get home from work at night. I tried fooling myself into thinking that after work was the best time for me to do it (since I am so not a morning person), but it just meant that I’d come home, not exercise, and feel slightly guilty the rest of the evening.

So, I heard about the Fitbit and thought maybe that would help. If someone says I’m supposed to walk 10,000 steps a day and do 10 flights of stairs, then those are the numbers I try to hit. And since I started getting up early in the morning to walk for an hour, it has been working. I do like getting it out of the way before work. And I get to see pretty scenes like this (finally – the sun is up above the horizon.):

And this (I love seeing mountains first thing every morning.):

These things have helped me stick to this routine for a couple of months now:

1. Personally, I need to do it every single day of the week. I do take Saturdays and Sundays off, but I’m just about ready to throw at least Saturday into the mix, too. Mondays are a bugger when 6 am rolls around again.
2. I listen to audiobooks. It makes the hour of walking pass by really quickly.
3. I fool my brain. I tell myself that I’m going to walk for 30 minutes (in one direction, away from my house) and then I’ll just walk home. That equals an hour, but the last part of it is just “walking home”. 🙂

The downside? I am tired too early in the evening. It’s affecting my knitting, FPS. Somehow I need to learn to be a morning person AND a night person. Is that possible?? I need to finish my Camp Loopy Project Three this weekend. (I’m making a Derecho out of the Loopy Solid Series. So many fun colors to choose from.)

Today’s blog contest question: Are you a night person or a morning person? (And while we’re at it, do you have any tips about sticking to an exercise routine?) Leave a comment below and I’ll draw names for two more skeins of Wollmeise Lace next week.

We do have winners from last week’s blog contest! I’m sending a skein of Wollmeise Lace to Linda in IL and Amber in IN. Congratulations to you two!

Sheri 9162stepssofarfortoday.
Mustwalkbackandforthintheshopafewmoretimes….