Fresh Start

As I helped my older daughter get ready for the beginning of school last week, I was reminded about how much I used to enjoy this process myself. For me, the prospect of a new year, with new school supplies and fresh clean notebooks was so exciting! (Why yes, I am a geek. Why do you ask? LOL!)

In the spirit of fresh starts, I did a light cleaning out of my knitting bag and a little reorganization. I thought I'd share with you what my supplies look like. This bag is something my sister gave to all of us in her bridal party on the occasion of her wedding. She had a destination wedding, and when we arrived at the hotel, we got a bag filled with beach-related goodies. It has a couple of compartments inside and plenty of room, so it serves well as a knitting bag for me. I keep a project or 2 in there, and this is what I carry to my knitting group and what I pack for car rides or to bring on the plane with me when I travel.


Inside I have my Denise needle kit. Other than a pair of straight size 8's I picked up at a Michael's, these were the first needles I bought. For along time, they were the only needles I owned, and I did absolutely everything with them. I used unattached needle tips as cable needles and did magic loop when a pattern called for dpn's. I only bought more needles when I started knitting finer gauges and needed size 4 needles and smaller. These are still the only needles I have for sizes 5-17.





The fact that there are hardly any cords in the box is a testament to my inability to be monogamous with my projects. Most of the cords are in use!

And then there is this binder.


It stores photocopies of the patterns I'm working on. I prefer to use copies so I can mark them up and not have to worry about being gentle with a book or pamphlet. The patterns are in little plastic sleeves and I use highlighter tape to help me keep track of where I am. I also found these cute little pouches at an office supply store and put my supplies in them. What's in here is basically my entire collection of knitting tools (minus the books and yarn of course).


This pouch holds the odds and ends--scissors, tape measure, row counter, a couple of crochet hooks, a few tapestry needles, a bit of scrap yarn, and a film canister full of multi-purpose safety pins.


This one is for the extra-large Denise needle tips that I bought to supplement those in the original kit, along with another set of cords.


And this last pouch is for the few other circular needles I have (there are 2 more in use).


That's it! Hope you enjoyed the tour :-)

In addition to tidying up my knitting bag, I pulled out some yarn from my stash that I just don't think I will ever use. I was trying to decide what to do with the yarn, and in a bit of serendipity, I received an email yesterday alerting me to a project called Iraqi Bundles of Love. It is a way to spread some goodwill to fellow knitters in Iraq not lucky enough to have the problem of what to do with excess yarn. And for those of you who have a yarn *and* a fabric stash? They're looking for that too. I hope you'll check it out.