Refresh

Hi friends!  How’s your week going?

I’m not sure if it’s the budding snowdrops, the extra half hour of sun in the evening,  or just my retreating cold, but I’ve been thinking about fresh starts the past few days. You may have noticed that fiber and sustenance now has a new home, it’s very own domain!  (You should still be redirected from fiberandsustenance.wordpress.com, but now fiberandsustenance.com is mine, all mine!)  I’ve been thinking of refreshing the blog’s theme and format — it’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly two years since I started writing here, and I’ve made very few updates to the look of the site since I started.  (And while we’re on the subject: is there anything you particularly like to see in blogs’ layouts? I’d love to hear from you as I think about how the look of fiber and sustenance will and won’t change!)

As we’ve approached six months in our new place, Mr. N and I have also been … I guess not so much refreshing rooms (I don’t think we’ve been living here long enough for refrehses!) but moving into a second phase of trying to get our little home functional and pleasing. A big part of that involved traipsing to IKEA last weekend and getting some sort of furniture that could hold my yarn stash — it had been parked in plastic tubs in the dining room for far too long!

I’d decided that, as part of getting my stash out of bins and into something more permanent, I was also going to do a bit of paring down.  Perhaps I should have done that before we, ahem, moved all of my yarn across an ocean.  But I didn’t really feel ready to take that on while we prepared to move, and now I feel able to take a step back from my yarn and make some decisions.  I don’t think I’ll ever be a knitter who only buys yarn for specific project as needed — I like having yarn on hand when inspiration strikes — but my stash had gotten to a point where it was stressing me out, rather than bringing me joy.  So Sunday, as Mr. N built my new yarn cabinet, I did a thorough sorting, making piles of yarn to stay, yarn to donate, yarn to sell, and yarn that fell into some sort of maybe category.  By the end of the day, I was able to look at the “maybe” pile and decide it could all go (well, maybe one or two skeins hopped back into the stash).  I’ve been updating my Ravelry stash page with new pictures and prices — if you’re in the market for any yarn (and I know many of you, like me, are trying to reduce rather than enhance stash!), here’s the link to my updated destash page, with more to come.  Sorting out the stash and especially UFOs will be a project that extends over the next few weeks, but I am very excited that what I’ve decided to keep fits rather neatly into my new little yarn cupboard — and I find what I have left inspiring, rather than some sort of weight:

For now, I’m storing the yarn out of plastic, dotted with Yardley’s Lavender soap as a moth deterrent (my mom and I first started putting these with our yarns years and years ago, when our local grocery had a closeout sale on the soap — the smell of Yardley mixed with wool now reminds me so much of my mom and home), and we’ve also put a lavender plant in the neighboring window sill.  I don’t know if it’s risky to have the yarn “exposed” in the cabinet — how do you store your wool?  (I have plenty of hearty plastic bags that I usually use for wool storage, but it was easier to stack the wool out of bags).

And I’ve got a few palate cleansing projects on the needles … last week, while I wasn’t feeling well, I found Stasis too much to work on.  I ran out of yarn for my Carbeth (which a knitting friend has now kindly supplied me with!)  and just felt I needed a new project.  I cast on a Nuuk, in some very special Jacobs wool that I’ve been saving nearly a decade, and haven’t looked back:

Sure, it means that I probably won’t get everything I wanted done before EYF, but the yarn and patter were like balms while I was sick, so soothing to knit, and I think Nuuk will be a great wardrobe staple that will see me into spring.

And today, inspired by sun and green and all things spring, I’ve cast on for a little English Rose sock with one of West Yorkshire Spinners’ new colors, which will eventually be a shop sample for Northern Yarn, which has the whole new range in stock:

After months of knitting mostly neutrals (which I do love!), watching the little pink splotches and specks appear has been refreshing indeed.

And I’ve also been trying to refresh the soul a bit by soaking up some sun — we’ve had three days in a row with nary a drop of rain: while my outings haven’t matched Tuesday’s walk up Nicky Nook with Kate from Northern Yarn, I made sure to get out in the sun yesterday and today and enjoy some rays … a bit of sun can make a world of difference.

I’m not one to wish winter away — I love cozy nights and woolly weather — but I have to say there’s seemed to be a certain excitement in the air this week as spring begins to peek out.

I hope, wherever you are, you’re enjoying a bit of sun and some refreshing knitting.  More soon

xo K