#ScrappySundays

I finished the socks for Aunt Nancy yesterday; it took just about a month. Now I need to get them shipped off to her, preferably before her next chemo treatment.

Knowing I was going to be finished with the socks was making me giddy with the idea of starting a new project! I've been searching on Ravelry and "favoriting" and queuing lots of patterns, but nothing was really making my heart beat faster. I have had a hankering lately for some simple, mindless knitting, so I searched the KnitPicks website hoping for a washcloth kit that would come with yarn and patterns. They had a few, but I was wanting some autumnal colors, and of course, those kits were sold out. I REALLY, REALLY want to make a sweater that I could pull on everyday - so something lightweight and neutral colored. Over the summer I was fixated on doing so with stash yarn, but I've accepted that I don't have enough yarn of any one color to accomplish the task. So I have a few patterns in mind, the latest one I've found uses KnitPicks yarn, so at least that would be affordable : )

But before I start anything, I made the decision to keep my knitting promises to myself. I headed to the yarn room (the spare bedroom) to clean out my project bags and do some general yarn organization so that I can start fresh. That basic organizing transformed into a multi-hour complete yarn stash re-organization, but it was well worth the time.

Last summer, in an effort to pare down my stash, I chose about half of the skeins and put them up for sale on Ravelry. Unfortunately, Ravelry meesages don't come to your email, so I had to log into Ravelry daily to see if anyone was interested. After two months of checking I gave up. The next time I checked was during March 2020. There were two "bites", but there was no way I was going to risk going to the post office to mail my yarn to strangers.

Then during stay-at-home orders this Spring, I became obsessed with trying to knit through my whole stash including the skeins I had set aside to sell. So today I recombined and re-inventoried every skein I own. All of my yarn is in the same container and is up-to-date in Ravelry! I'm glad I took the time to do this because now I don't feel the need to buy new yarn; I'm going to knit what I have : )

I organized all partially-used skeins into bags by their yarn weight.

These are the two biggest bags. I've started the "Coziest Memories" blanket with the fingering weight yarn, and now I am on the look out for a project for the aran weights. 

The great things about scrap projects is it will use up ALL of the yarn and gives me something to knit when I'm between projects. 

First of the Month

I've been looking forward to and dreading today: August 1. I have a couple of rituals that take place on the first of the month: some fun, some necessary. Since I have so few readers, I will admit here that I only wash our bed linens once a month 😣. I will qualify that statement by saying that I do wash our pillow cases weekly and most nights, we shower before bed. Still, maybe I could increase my sheet-washing...

The first of the month also means new household scents! 

I'm not sure why, but I derive a significant amount of pleasure from selecting scents for each month. And the pleasure doesn't stop there: you know I have a spreadsheet where I organize all the scents!

I also use that spreadsheet to organize other home decor. 

Despite being home non-stop for the pandemic, I still wasn't able to use all of the July scents within the month.

But, not to fear: I have a plan for using every last ounce. I'm placing the unfinished "Endless Weekend" plug-in in the hall bathroom where I normally don't have a plug-in, along with the "Coconut Colada" soap. I typically have an "off" soap (ie. Method) in the hall bath, so this will be a nice way to use up a July soap while also getting to start a new August soap in our master bathroom.

The "Palo Santo" candle is too low to burn, but I dug out a candle warmer, and I'm going to get the last bits of that beautiful scent going in our bedroom. "Palo Santo" has to be one of my all-time favorite Bath & BodyWorks scents. 

At the other end of the spectrum, this day also brings an impending sense of doom as the summer is drawing to a close. 

Usually at this point in the season, I'm growing tired of summer and looking forward to the new school year. This year I have such mixed emotions though. For one thing: it hasn't felt like summer: no pool, no trips, no Barton Springs, no yoga, no walking at Brushy Creek. Even though all I do is "take it easy" on my couch, I haven't truly rested; my mind is always on COVID-19. 

I'm looking forward to meeting my new students, seeing my co-workers, using our new LMS, Schoology, and having nine-week grading periods (something I've wanted for a long time). However, I am terrified at the idea of having to re-enter the school building and be around other people during a pandemic with no vaccine. I'm a rule-follower, and when Mayor Adler said, stay home: we did! I haven't been inside a building (with the exception of cleaning out my classroom) since March 15. No restaurants, breweries, HEBs, friends' houses: I haven't even been in my dad's house! So now the idea of eschewing all of those rules and spending 8 hours a day in a building with way more than 10 people is boggling my mind!