Stuff in, stuff out

I’ve been thinking about stuff (and stash) for quite some time. What’s enough, what’s too much, what do I need, what do I want? This house move has encouraged me to come down on the side of LESS. I love our new flat – the windows, the airy space, the lack of clutter. Oh, I have to make the lack of clutter happen myself!

So, I spent most of April getting rid of stuff. And this time, it felt easy. I don’t need paper books, I love my kindle Voyage. I don’t seed 8 sets of bed linen, two perfect ones are perfect. I don’t need my two childhood dolls, my niece can have them. I don’t need four sets of interchangeable needles. Right? And bizarrely, that became the hardest part of the project. I had the old Addi Clicks, a set of lace Clicks, a set of wooden knitpros, with common sizes in metal and a set of small sized Karbonz. Which I love best. So, I decided I had to choose, and I set the Addis free.

Or rather I gave them to Chris and Alice. I’m not selling any of the things I get rid of, but Chris asked if she could give me something, and I thought – Hmm, Rachey has asked me for Endless Rainbow – a Martina Behm shawl which needs a lovely contrast colour. Chris found this is her stash:

Which is both perfect for the project, and my definition of perfection.

And then she made me a project bag that is large enough for a small jumper – a size I was sorely lacking. And it’s perfection. Not just pretty on the outside, although it is very pretty on the outside,

But look: it's lined with elephant fabric!

And it’s monogrammed.

Utter perfection. And now I’ve let go of things that were not serving me and have things that I will use. This is the life I am trying to craft. Clutter free and full of things I not only like, but use.

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The yarn along is back!

Ginny is now doing yarnalong monthly, and I am so excited! Pop over there to see what everyone is up to this month:

It's actually good, because my reading has been all over the place. After finishing Royal Assassin I read a trilogy of Christmas stories set in Rachael Herron's Darling Bay. these were, of course, delightful. Then I started a review copy for a book called

Eventually I settled down into The Sultan's Wife by Jane Johnson. I'm enjoying it - set in Morocco, so far it seems like a sort of romance between a eunuch and a captured English woman.

The knitting is going well. After finishing Stasis jumper, I decided to make a pair of socks using the same yarn and motif: pretty, straightforward and simple. Loving it so far.

In the absence of the Yarnalong, I've taken to linking up with "It's Monday, what are you reading" over at The Book Date. There is a marked absence of knitting, but it's a good place to see what other people are reading.

Moving on UP

So, last week Leon and I bought a house! Well, actually a perfectly sized flat. The thing about our perfectly sized flat is that it’s a bit smaller than our current rather home – where we live now is a giant flat built in the 1960s. We’ve got loads of space, a dining room, a garage and a storage room. Unfortunately, not too much maintenance has been done on the place in the last three decades. The place we’ve bought is lovely – 15 years old, with a new kitchen, views to forever and nothing is falling apart. But it’s got a carspot, and room for a dining table in the living room. So, I’ve had a look at my stuff and I’m getting rid of things like a crazy lady! Also, it turns out I’d rather get rid of everything than move it. I'm destashing as if we are moving into the carspot, rather than the flat! All our CDs –GONE. All the DVDs –given away, books - bye bye...

It’s been really interesting, especially in relation to my crafting things. I’ve got quite a lot of spinning fibre, and I’m…

Yarnalong - the one where Scotland begins

As I may have mentioned once or twice, I'm going to Edinburgh Yarn Festival, and the walking the West Highland Way. As I like to theme everything, I have a Scottish reading list (which can be found here.) I just started reading A Big Boy Did it and Ran Awayby Christopher Brookmyre. Leon read it first, and did warn me that it contains aeroplane terrorism, which is helping with my generally relaxed attitude about flying... It's a good rollicking read though.

I'm knitting a blanket square from Kate Davies' latest club, which is walking us down the West Highland Way - a serendipitous coincidence. I probably won't knit the blanket, I'm doing this as a swatch, and as a way to test her new yarn Millorachy Tweed. The pattern is based on the markers on the West Highland Way, so I'm feeling very themed and in the mindset for this holiday.

I'm linking up with Ginny's monthly Yarnalong, which can be found here

What I made, by Sharon

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