What Next?

By Sweetie, Chronicler of all things Grammy and Mischief Extraordinaire

You all must know by now that our Grammy is a knitter.  If you didn't this is where you can get more than you'll ever want to know about it.  *giggles* 

First off, Grammy tends to go overboard with things.  These 'things' started when she was young. For example. First was it was books and classical records.  and those would be books by a particular author or on a specific subject.  Music was mostly Tchaikovsky and Beethoven, Chopin and Haydn. Music she could do homework with or study.  Oh my!  She had quite the collection.  Over last 25 years she has downsized considerably but even so she still has a sizable library of books and CDs... more suited for her small condo.  Has she read all these books.  Well, probably not all, but a good many.  The music is listened to regularly... though when she is lazy she puts the classical radio station on and let's them do the work.

Then, she got into fostering kitties, starting with 2 rescued kitties which over time grew to a maximum of 11 fosters at any one time.  From there she started writing biographies for the rescue organization after which she was pulled into doing interviews of prospective adopters and making decisions on who could or couldn't adopt based on the rescue's policies.  Well, let's say this... The final result was us!  A little overprotective when she couldn't give us up to other adopters. 

Well, she's done something similar ... this time with knitting.  Grammy watched her own Grammy knit when she was a child but started crocheting and knitting as a young adult. This was put on hold for years at a time to allow for university years, career,  aging parents.  Then in the early 2000s out came the hooks and needles and those on-hold items were finished off and donated to charity. 

Having gotten the bug again and wanting to supplement her soon-to-be pension she made the decision to open an Etsy shop - since closed. What orders come in actually  are by word of mouth now.  Yes, we kitties are expensive and a little extra income would really  help with food and vet bills.  BUT, then things got crazy or should we say, Grammy went crazy?

She found a few patterns she liked, knitted them up and during the first few years put them into the shop.  Sales came in slowly but steadily and for the first year or two she did okay. No fortune but a little extra.

Yarns Grammy liked weren't necessarily what customers liked so Grammy started visiting yarn shops - both on-line and in the neighbourhood to add variety to her 'stash'... acrylics, alpaca, silk, linen, bamboo, merino, highland wool, baby llama, cashmere, combinations of same and the list goes on.  Why, you ask?  Because everyone has likes and preferences and what Grammy liked a client might not whether colour, weight, yarn type.  Variety would give more options and hopefully more clientele.  But note this - the only thing she refuses to knit is cotton.

The old girl has an absolute love of multicoloured yarns too so a plethora of solids, tweeds, self-striping, colour blends (aka colourways), variegated, and so much more found their way to Grammy Ds Knitting Bag.  Well, bottom line before you know it she had bins - yes, 20 bins of yarn.  

She did the same with her accessories.  She added to what she already had - needles in all sizes: bamboo, steel, aluminium, double-pointed, straight (not a favourite), circulars, interchangeables.  Then there were the open markers, ring markers, cable needles, working yarn holders, measuring tape, blocking mats and pins, a yarn swift and yarn winder and a hamper to hold the current project(s).  Oh, and buttons - yes, all kinds of buttons for the various sweaters and other projects in her plans. The woman went nuts.  

You might ask, Does she use all of these and the answer is a resounding YES! Over time she is using them. Of course she has her favourites: the interchangeable circulars - both in steel and in wood - wood for slippery yarn and steel for textures and the others all have their purposes which we won't bore you with today.  But trust us, she uses them.  We steal them and she scolds us.  *giggles*

Over these dozen years and more, yarn has come in, been used, projects have been started and completed, a few started and put on hold.  Some were sold, others donated and others given away..  And then there is the yarn that has come and sat and a few projects have been started and left partially finished and still more yarn coming in leaving Grammy and her knitting in a mess.

Yes, a major mess.  Yarn was tossed willynilly into bins.  - OH, and then there were two large donations of yarns for her volunteer knitting projects - another BIG Bin  and another BIG Obsession! 

So, where has that left us?  In a major jumble. 

Thus, while we have all been in quarantine or lockdown or whatever you want to call it Grammy has decided to use the time to get herself organized or at least somewhat. 

Anyone know about Ravelry?  It's a knitting site where you can organize yourself, save patterns you like, keep track of yarn, meet up with other like-minded crafters, see what others are making, and match patterns to yarns and ORGANIZE your own 'stuff'.

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 There are multiple pages - one for yarn (called STASH)- we love the name.  Another for projects - where you can track yarn in use to an appropriate pattern and track your progress through to completion along with photos.  Another for accessories - to keep track of the needles, hooks, etc.   You can make friends, join like-minded groups and so much more.  AND many of the patterns are free - another bonus.

Well, Grammy has finished setting up her NOTEBOOK with the pages for STASH and PROJECTS.  That is, projects completed, others started but unfinished and those in snooze-mode while she catches up with the ones partially done.   AND the designated yarns for these snoozed and future planned projects are organized in designated bins with their patterns while unassigned yarns are organized by type in other bins.  Still to go are the pages for PATTERNS, QUEUE and LIBRARY.   As we said - somewhat organized - for now.

So where does that leave Grammy?  Well, she has about 300 projects completed (each listed once but anywhere between 1 and 100 items of the same type knitted eg. scarves, slippers, hats), 5 projects in the works, 6 more designated to start as soon as these are done and 6 snoozed projects to follow those.  That's 17 projects lined up... at anywhere from 70% completed to identified but not started as yet.  THEN there is the 5 plus kilometers of yarn waiting in the wings for projects yet to be determined.    At least now she knows what, when, and where. All she needs now is the how! 

How is she ever going to complete everything?  And HOW are we going to keep her from buying more yarn?  Well, the knitting is up to her and since she knits every day we think she'll finish those listed ones.  But we've confiscated the credit card and 'Stashed' it. *giggles* And we aren't telling her where. 

The problem is that she keeps finding new patterns she'd like to make and they get downloaded and filed in a binder or added to her QUEUE page to be made when everything else is completed... and the list is long.  AND no, we don't think she'll ever get through all those.

Oh, and the plan to supplement her income to pay for our care?  OUT the WINDOW!  If anything, she's spent more than she has made on her knitting supplies.   Why?  Because she doesn't like to charge people, prefers to make things she chooses to work on and then ends up giving away a lot of what she knits.  Silly Grammy!

And in all these years of knitting what has she made for us?  One knitted mouse, two crocheted blankets, and two goofy hats.

For those interested click here for a video of what she's completed and for future go to her Facebook page GrammyDsKnittingBag.

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