Peace of Mind Organizing

Olympic afghan: only two squares to go!

21 August 2008

I powered through four squares of my Learn-to-Knit Afghan last weekend, in my quest to finish it before the end of the Olympics. I was aided immensely by the fact that I had two discs (six episodes) of Season Five of The Wire to keep my company. Oh, and the actual Olympics, on TV.

Sunday night, I got two-thirds of the way through Square 61: Parquet Squares, when I realized that for some reason it was going to be way too big. All 63 squares in the afghan should be roughly the same size (in the case of my afghan, 8 × 8) and I don’t know this square ended up 9 × 9, but that’s what happened. So I had to tear the whole thing out and start over.

I was out of town for two days working with a client so I wasn’t able to get back to the project until I got home (I was too tired in the hotel room to knit), but I finished Square 61 last night.

That leaves the final two squares, each worked in the round (one on circular needles, one on double-pointed needles). Then I’ll be finished knitting and facing the task of arranging the squares and seaming them together. I look forward to the day in the not-too-distant future when I’ll post a photo of the completed afghan.

In the meantime, here are the five squares I completed since I last posted about the afghan, last Friday. If you’re interested, you can see photos of Squares 51 to 53 and Squares 54 to 56. Those six are all lace squares, while today’s photos are from the section of the book called “Special Techniques.”

Square 57: Star Stitch

Square 58: Blister Stitch

Square 59: Dip-Stitch Check

Square 60: Short-Row Stripes

Square 61: Parquet Squares

IKEA hacker: Blog of the Week

20 August 2008

I’ve blogged before about products from the Swedish furniture manufacturer and retailer IKEA. I like the look and price of their products. I’ve found their furniture to be long-lasting (my husband works daily at a desk we bought at IKEA in northern Virginia back in 1988, and I bought current desk at the IKEA in Elizabeth, NJ in 1998). I don’t like having to put furniture together, but I that’s why I have friends (thank you, Sally!).

The major downside for me is that the nearest IKEA is some five hours away. Well, that and I find their stores overwhelming . But I’m very glad I made that trip earlier this summer that resulted in my new IKEA-heavy home office.

This week’s blog of the week is IKEA Hacker. It’s a website that demonstrates how to mess with customize IKEA products to make them even more useful for you. It also shows new uses for IKEA items. I find it very inspiring—it allows me to look at the IKEA catalog with news eyes.

Speaking of the IKEA catalog, the 2009 version is now available online. You can request a paper version via their website.

The intersection of high and low tech

18 August 2008

One of the things I love about knitting is that it’s so low tech. All my equipment is tangible, made of wood, metal, fiber, or plastic (unless you count the internet, where I shop, search for patterns and network with other knitters).

Yesterday, I discovered StitchMinder iPhone row counter for knitters. Be still my heart! I first saw mention of it on Mason Dixon Knitting, then my friend, organizer Lauren Halagarda of The Organizing Connection sent me a link to an entry about it on Not Martha.

Keeping track of rows and pattern rows, especially when you’re knitting cables or lace or shaped garments, can be a challenge. Here’s my decidedly low-tech row counter which I purchased on eBay a few years ago. (I believe it’s vintage.)

And here’s StitchMinder on the iPhone.

I don’t have an iPhone, but I’ve been wanting one. Believe me, this has whetted my appetite even more.

All set for a weekend of Olympic knitting

15 August 2008

I have to update you on my progress with the Knitting Olympics over at Ravelry which is officially known as the Ravelympics. The idea is that you commit to knitting something you consider a challenge during the time of the Summer Olympics. I’m very proud of what I’ve been able to achieve with some focused effort.

Yesterday, seven days into the Olympics, I crossed the (initial) finish line. My goal had been to knit all six of the lace squares of the Learn-to-Knit Afghan that I’d been working on for over two years. (The afghan is comprised of 63 8-inch by 8-inch squares, each a different stitch pattern.) With the Ravelympics, you’re supposed to knit something that’s challenging to knit in 17 days. It’s not fair for an experienced knitter to say she’ll knit a baby hat, for instance.

When I set my goal of six lace squares, I really thought it would be a challenge. I’d tried and failed to knit Square 51 over and over, to the point where I’d given up. So I thought that lace was really difficult. Turns out that it was Square 51 that was really difficult. Once I got over that (it took me some 8 hours of knitting to accomplish), things got a lot easier. Square 55 was a bit of a bear as well.

In any case, once I realized that I hadn’t set a truly challenging goal, I changed it. I’m now striving to complete all 13 squares that were remaining in my afghan. That’ll be huge. I’m on Square 57 now and I’m not enjoying it much, so I’m doing a little at a time. I’m looking forward to plowing through a few squares this weekend, specially since I’m going to be out of town at the beginning of a week, working with a client (so not much time for knitting).

It occurs to me that this little exercise really symbolizes a lot of tasks (organizing and otherwise) that we build up in our minds as huge and then hesitate to start on. I thought these lace squares would take me 17 days and I did them in 7. I need to clean out my basement, which feels like a Herculean task. Probably it’s like the lace squares (though less enjoyable). Once I get started and focus on it, it’ll be done in much less time than I anticipate.

I think the lesson of the lace squares will stick with me for some time. And the added bonus is that I’m no longer intimidated by lace! In fact, I do believe I enjoy lace knitting.

Here are the last three lace squares. I posted pictures of the first three on Monday.

Square 54: Seafoam Pattern

Square 55: Single-Strand Lace

Square 56: Elkhorn and Fleurette Panels

Let's talk hangers

14 August 2008

Over at Unclutterer today, they have a post on clothes hangers. What are the best clothes hangers? That’s an individual decision, but the Unclutterer article spells out the options.

When Jennifer Williams, the owner of Saint. Louis Closet Company, spoke to our NAPO chapter last year, she said it doesn’t matter what kind of hangers you use (as long as they’re not wire), but, if you want an attractive closet, you should use only one type of hanger.

My friend, Geralin Thomas, swears by the slim, flocked hangers. She does wardrobe organizing and uses them in her work. She also uses them in her own exceedingly well-organized closet. Based on Geralin’s recommendation, I tried an experiment with a client who had more clothes (even after weeding) than comfortably fit into her small closet. I measured the amount of space 10 garments took up on the white plastic hangers she was using, put those 10 garments on 10 of the slim hangers and measured again. They saved a significant amount of space—though her closet space wasn’t doubled as I’ve seen advertised.

Here’s the version available at Bed Bath and Beyond. They come in a variety of colors for about $1 each (before the 20 percent discount):

I have a client who loves them and purchases them the Home Shopping Network. I’ve purchased the same “Huggable Hangers” brand at Target, but I don’t see it on Target’s website.

I use wooden hangers because I like the way they look. But I’m considering making the switch, so my (small) clothes closet will be less cramped. If it’s good enough for Geralin, it’s certainly good enough for me!

Life Remix: Blog of the Week

13 August 2008

This week’s Blog of the Week is actually a blog network. Every day Life Remix provides a brief summary of the day’s entries from each of the great blogs that make up their network.

By checking out Life Remix (whose member blogs are listed here I can quickly ascertain whether I want to check out an entry from a blog that isn’t always on my radar. Included in the network are financial, productivity, environmental, organizing (one of my favorites, Unclutterer) and one on the art of manliness (who knew?).

In addition, Life Remix has its own blog, with entries written by network-member bloggers.

If you like to dabble in reading about frugal and simple living and the like, give Life Remix a try!

Commitments

12 August 2008

Deadlines used to rule my life. When I was making my living as a writer, deadlines were absolutely everything. I didn’t start a story earlier than necessary to make my deadline. I don’t think in 12 years (and well over a hundred articles, along with eight books) I turned anything in early.

This is nothing to brag about. It was just a fact of life for me as a writer. So now that I don’t have the deadlines in my life that I once did, how do I get anything done?

When I was a writer, deadlines were how I kept my commitment to others. Now, as a business owner, I need to make commitments to myself in order to make things happen. Occasionally, I’ll use my blog to make them publicly. But essentially, deadlines have been replaced by commitments, which I think is a healthy shift.

Case in point: the Knitting Olympics. I set up the challenge and commitment to myself to knit the remaining six lace squares in my Learn-to-Knit Afghan during the time of the 2008 Summer Olympics. It doesn’t sound like that much, but these squares were so challenging they’d brought progress on my afghan to a screeching halt. I knew getting over the hump of the lace squares would not only help me learn to knit lace, they’d get me to the point where I’d finish this large project, which I began back in February 2006.

I trained by knitting the Branching Out scarf and starting on the Estonian Garden Wrap in the week or two prior to the Olympics. I think that was essential because I got used to the rhythm and challenges of lace.

And guess what? I’m racing through my challenge. I’ve completed four of the six lace squares and am 25 percent of the way through the fifth. It’s very clear I’ll have no problem finishing what I set out to do, so I’m going to up the ante: Right here and now I’m moving the finish line. I will now consider the Knitting Olympics a success when I finish all the squares of the afghan by the end of the Olympics (that will be a total of 13 squares). What a thrill that will be!

Another way that making a commitment has paid dividends is in the frequency of my blog posting. Back on March 22, 2007, I blogged about how hard it was for me to post because I lacked a deadline. In that entry, I committed to posting twice a week. That lasted about two weeks. I don’t know if it’s because twice a week wasn’t frequent enough or if I just didn’t believe the commitment.

Fast forward 12 months. On March 18, 2008, after hearing Michael Neill state on his podcast that he’s found it’s easier to write on a daily basis than a weekly basis, I decided to give it a try. I committed to blogging five days a week.

I haven’t always kept that commitment, but since then I’ve almost always posted at least four days in a week. Here’s my Don’t Break the Chain chain for blog posting:

The purple squares indicate the days I blogged

And you know what? It really has been easier for me to post daily than it was when I didn’t have any real commitment to frequency. I’ve noticed that blog traffic has certainly increased since I started doing this.

My challenge to you is to identify something important, but not urgent, that you’ve been wanting to do. Then make a commitment to yourself to make it happen in a certain period of time. See what a difference a serious commitment to yourself can make!