A Knitting Assessment

I am leaving for Virginia tomorrow and have spent the day packing up all the knitting projects I'll need to last through Christmas. My mom has had a small stroke and I don't know how long I will be there. I've spent the last week making the final decision on my Christmas knitting and then gathering everything I need. (And then some!) I will also be turning in my charity knitting to From the Heart in Richmond. Going through this process is very revealing. The first thing I noticed was that I have enough needles for myself and 3 more very active knitters! Why do I have so many needles?

Reason #1 I got some needles on eBay and they contained the needles I wanted and a whole lot more! It was like Christmas when they came. I was looking for some very small but long double point needles and at the time, they were very hard to find. What I bought was some knitter's stash of needles and tools. It was so exciting when the package finally arrived. Along with the needles were all sorts of tools from the UK which we don't have here. That was about 15 years ago and a few months ago I finally figured out what one of the last tools was for...a knitting machine.

Reason #2 I have been working on UFOs for the last 3-5 years. As each project is finished, I collect the stitch markers, the needles and the stitch holders. I had NO idea how many needles and such that I had tied up in UFOs! It's very gratifying, but what am I to do with all these needles? I gave some of them to a young knitter in my group, but she is moving to Seattle in a few days and won't be settled for a while. I need to sit down on the floor and take inventory and then cull, cull, cull.  When that is done, I need to find another new knitter and and make her very happy!!

I've been going through my projects on Ravelry to see what I am going to knit for Christmas presents.  I have a fairly large stash and I have been working through it..  Here's what I've done.  First, I brought down about 16 plastic see through storage bins...about the size two shoe boxes, and put them along the wall that I face when I am on the computer.  Next, I pulled up my queue in Ravelry and started deciding what I already had yarn for.  I couldn't believe how much easier it was to do it that way.  Usually, I either see a pattern and then go upstairs to find some yarn.  Of course, that usually means I will get distracted and spend hours up there and finally come down stairs having forgotten why I went up there.

After I paired the yarn with the pattern, I put them in a bag to start to swatch.  Decisions, decisions.  After going back and forth a few times, I finally decided to get the yarn first and see what other people in Ravelry had made from it.  That was a whole lot easier.  I settled for some patterns that would work on my yarn and then started swatching.  When I got what I liked, I made up a project in my notebook (on Ravelry) and put them first in a bag, and then back in the plastic boxes so I could see what I had lined up.  This was much better.

About 10 days ago, my mother had a small stroke.  I have the idea that I will need to go to Virginia and be with her.  My two sisters are in VA and have been taking turns being with her, but I am the only one free enough to go up there and stay.  She has made a remarkable recovery, but she isn't ready to be on her own.
I was just there for several months and I enjoy just sitting and knitting with her.  She has handed down a love of knitting to three generations and I feel very blessed.