What midlife is for

Five or six years ago, I started learning continental-style knitting, where the yarn is held in the hand that holds the needle that is being knitted from. It only works for the knit stitch, not for purl (don't ask me what they do on the Continent for purling), but it is much more efficient than the way that is usually taught (which I also taught myself at that time, having had up until then a let-go-of-the-needle-and-move-the-whole-hand-around technique; effective but very slow).

I am now working on a lap blanket, all in garter stitch (knit stitch only), and it is a good project for practicing my continental knitting. Now I have acquired some muscle memory in making the stitch. I've also been working on moving more efficiently from one stitch and the next, and from one row to the next.

With those skills, I can now knit more than twice as fast as I could just a few years ago, and probably more like three times the speed that I was knitting at ten years ago. It is very exciting to see my blanket being completed so quickly. And when I estimate the dwindling number of years that I have left to knit in, I think I'm going to need that ability.

The night before the night before Christmas

I've been sick almost all month, and have had few opportunities to do my Christmas shopping. My favorite thrift store closed earlier this year, so I've had to find other places to shop. Still, I did manage to get it done, with some help from God putting the right things in the right places at the right times, and enabling me to spot them. Mostly I'm giving books this year; either new or used.

Of course I have a couple of last-minute crafting projects going...one is a quilt project and the other a quick embroidery project. I don't recommend making a quilt at the last minute; I am hurting today after tying the whole thing yesterday.  (Both the top and the bottom are sheets; I didn't piece the top together.)

I also did a quick chocolate-pudding-mix-in-a-jar gift, based on the recipe here.

Big progress on the fabric stash

I spent most of yesterday reorganizing my fabric stash and sewing-projects-in-progress. It had gotten into a horrible muddle, and I was getting very little sewing done.

I brought it all--some of it was in the basement--up to our school room, threw it into a huge pile, and slowly sorted it out.

Some pieces I didn't want or need, so I cut them up for use as disposable kitchen wipes, and stuffed them into quart jars.  Now I have four jars full of them.

I realized, as I was cutting the fabrics, that I was, in a way, "canning" them. Some people can food, but I can bits of fabric.

With the price of paper towels being over $2 per roll these days, it is not such a bad idea.  A quart of fabric wipes will last us a week, or two, or three.  Big spills we wipe up with washable towels; these wipes are for cleaning greasy pans and smaller and messier drips.

I started doing this with the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Our health insurance cost is going up another nine percent next year, so I will keep on doing so. Kimberley-Clark really should get their lobbyists to work on this; there's a whole generation here growing up without paper towels.

The down side of doing so much fabric cutting is the dust that is created; tiny bits of fiber all over.

Another benefit of the sorting is that I found several mending projects that only needed a few minutes each; a series of quick wins. I also found several items that just needed to go into our to-donate box.

With those things taken care of, now my fabrics and projects fit into the space that I have to store them in.

Interesting

One of the children discovered--by accident--that a combination of urine, heat, and time will soften wood glue (carpenters' glue)...enough to get the glue almost halfway back to how it was when it came out of the bottle. This may come in handy someday.