Airing of all things Stash...and a Shooting Star!!

I saw a shooting star! 4:40 a.m., clear black sky, and 36 degrees will do that, I s'pose. Sammy and I made our wishes and no, I'm not gonna tell you!

Speaking of 36 degrees, it must be the cool crisp air of a Minnesota October that gets me in the mood to air all things Stash, yarn or otherwise. I don't get into spring cleaning half as much as I get into fall cleaning. Realizing that the house is going to be shut up for the next 6 months will do that, I s'pose.

The airing of the yarn stash happened last Friday. Though I've been a knitter/crocheter for many years, I've been cheap for my entire life and until recently had a hard time purchasing anything other than Red Heart Super Saver. Then a couple of years ago when I bought a Knifty Knitter, I also bought a lot of novelty yarn (have I ever mentioned the Scarf/Hat Extravaganza of 2005?) I pulled out my underbed plastic boxes and found a horrendously large number of hideous partial balls of acrylic and glittery disgusting boucle/furry novelty yarns.

I have no plans to partake in another Scarf/Hat Extravaganza and I know no one, charity cases included, who would benefit from a scratchy acrylic hat that turns into a wet snowball come December. There are better acrylics out there and heck, there are inexpensive wool blends - so what was stopping me?

Nothing! I went through all the boxes, consolidated what I wanted and tossed what I never planned to touch again. This led to the cleaning of my closet (shudder) and the decision to frog Breezy Cables . I had a little heart palpitation there...but I think it's something that has to be done. The back is done, one front side is almost done, and one sleeve is about a third done, but I really have a hard time thinking I'll ever get back into it. Firstly, it's acrylic (TLC Essentials). Secondly, it's robin's egg blue acrylic. After having knit a few things with 100% merino, I look at this project and frown. It's just not working. There, I've said it. I took the remaining two new balls and cast on for the Uma Sweater from The Natural Knitter and I'll use those up before I commence frogging. I'm sure I'll be ready by then. Talk about going from one extreme to the other: all over cables and box stitch to garter stitch. Couldn't we all use a little truly mindless knitting?

Back to airing. Stash airing led to closet cleaning, which led to bedroom and hallway cleaning. Then I had to look at the guest room that my darling Ben has turned into Star Wars Playstation Annihilation Central - sprinkled with plastic faceted beads and puzzle pieces with a few outgrown clothes thrown in - so I hit that one too. I vacuumed the stairs even! Downstairs wasn't nearly as bad, just had to remove the top layer of Golden Retriever fur and everything looked bright and shiny again.

Another stash I set out to air yesterday was my plastic food storage container and bakeware collection. We all have them, don't try to hide cuz I can see you - you right there behind the cooling racks! My plastics reside in a black hole-like upper corner cabinet, are never nested properly by other members of my household, and invariably go on the attack whenever the cupboard is opened. My bakeware is much the same except it lives in my island. I emptied both cupboard and island, wiped down the insides, and tossed everything that I hadn't touched in the last week. That might seem extreme, but I was nearing mutinous levels of take n' toss plastic containers, gallon ice cream bucket lids (where the heck did the buckets go?), and one cake pan with the nonstick coating flaking off. I don't need that in my life, so I tossed it all! Now I have at least two bright and shiny cabinets! The spice cabinet is whispering it's taunts...

Fruit flies led to my thorough disinfection of the entire kitchen (I told Tony not to buy the bananas!) which wasn't complete until I'd baking soda and vinegar'd the drains. Bleeeeaaaahhh! All better now.

My infernal job has been getting in the way of my knitting...silly office had to go and move...AGAIN...so I'm stuck with the job of changing every phone number and address everywhere it occurs in documents, database, and on the website. Icky. I needed a break, hence this post.

Now I'd better get back to it. There's no preschool today, thus no reason to leave the house, so I'd better be able to get in some knitting time. That is if the 6 baskets of clean laundry waiting to be folded would SHUT UP ALREADY!!!