I have promised a post about an idea running around in my head since last week and here it is finally.
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As a results of meeting different knit groups and knitting, many times we end up going out to eat afterward and talk and get to know each other a little better.  I find that taking the time to break bread together and talk, you find out much more than you ever would in a normal conversation.  During several meals and conversations such as this, something hit me that I found very interesting.  In addition to the love of knitting and/or fiber, we all often have other things in common that we may not know about–that is organization or what we do with “stuff” in other parts of our life.
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I am sure there is a technical term for some of the traits I am about to list, but I find it extremely interesting.   Now, everyone may not do all of these things, but I bet there is some form of sorting or organizing that you do in your life that would qualify you for the Things in Common theme of this post. 
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(don’t forget to click on the pictures to make the bigger)
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Did you know that I am not the only person that puts their clothes in their closet by color???    
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Did you know I am not the only one that alphabetizes my spices in my cabinet?  
Spice Cabinet
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In talking with others, I know a few people that organize their pantries in alphabetical order.  While I don’t do that, I do store mine by categories…..teas in one area, snacks in another, pasta on a different shelve, etc. 
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Pantry (sorry for the blurry picture)  
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Of course, I have to list a fiber shot……not all of my fiber is sorted or organized, but my wool that feltable is stored in one place, but in a couple of different ways:  bulky weight is all in one bin, sportweight in another bin and then worsted weight (the biggest catetory) is organized by color.
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  Worsted Weight Wool in color order (I do have other colors, but couldn’t fit it all in the picture)
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Then there is my wash closet where I store things like dog crate pads, towels, etc. 
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Wash closet shelves 
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Now on to making the balance of this Post Title make sense – Balance in Life 
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While I almost cannot function without order and organization, there is chaos in certain parts of my life/house that just IS.  I can’t help it and guess that I cannot have such order in some parts of my life without having chaos in others to offer a balance so I am not totally off (read - Crazy, does anal retentive have a hyphen) in one direction, I guess.  Now, I have more than one part of my life that is in chaos (one being my checkbook), but I will share a picture of my office. 
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 Office picture (euw, can’t believe I am sharing this)   Yes, the blue striped thing floating around is a skirt.  Sigh….I guess you can tell where the priorities are in my life.  Ha 
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That leads to another fun shot that I thought I would share as it may give you some ideas.  I have an Ashford e-spinner that I use to ply my spun singles with and sometimes spin on it too.  I like to sit on the couch when I do this so I can be close to the puppers and watch tv maybe.  In order to do this, I needed some type of furniture to put the espinner on where I could spin comfortably.  I went through a couple of tea carts and ended up with a microwave cart that is just Perfect.   Poi-fect as Curly would say!    I picked this little gem up at Target.  On sale.  Yes!    
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 The top of the cart is used to sit ‘stuff’ on and also holds a lamp with a flexible neck that will let me point the light where I need it in order to see my work more closely as I spin.  The middle shelf is adjustable and can be as high or liw on the stand as you like….it also (gasp) pulls out…..that is SO awesome!  The bottom shelf holds my lazy kate and keeps the fiber that I am using to ply into yarn.  Looking at the left side of the cart, there are curved hooks to hold utensils in another life (if it were used really for a microwave).  My hooks hold the electrical cords so I can wheel the cart around without tripping over them or yanking my spinner off unceremoniously into the floor.  One of the hooks also holds a very cool little handwoven basket that sadly blogless Jan gifted me with from her trip to New Hampshire last year.  In that basket, I keep oil and whatever I can think of.   When I get ready to spin, I pull up the cart, plug the lamp and spinner into my power strip, pull out the middle shelf to get the spinner in the exact place I need it to be in and I spin away.  The nice thing about this cart too is that it puts the spinner at an angle that prevents pupper tails from being wound onto the bobbin….as Martha would say, “that is a good thing.”   
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So, thinking about it, what do you do to organize, count sort, etc., that we might all benefit or learn from?  Maybe we do something you do that makes you feel part of a community.  If you have something that is unique, how interesting!  It would be fun if you share some of those things that are unique.  It  is such an interesting journey learning from others and what they do.  Thanks for sharing!

Monday here in Nashville, TN and cold!  Car thermostat said it was 15 degrees outside this morning.  Everything looks cutting edge outside and the air just feels crisp.  The dogs really like it and they run around and play, put their nose in the air and sniff while the breeze ruffles their coat and I can almost see them smile.  Some dogs like it hot, some like it cold.  Jake likes it cold.  Jake runs very fast and you can tell he feels good when it is cold.  That is a good thing….there is a large four-day trial this weekend here near Nashville this weekend.  Hopefully he will get his MXJ title too.  Gracie will possibly get her AXJ title too.  Lots to look forward to.  You know that saying about “a bad day’s golf beats a good day’s work?” well, that saying goes for agility too.  I would much rather do agility than work.  Okay, where’s that winning lottery ticket….. 
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Progress Report. (don’t forget to click on the picture if you would like to see it bigger)
With it being so cold out and I also traveled to Kansas City (a first time trip there for me), I got quite a bit of knitting done on a SECOND sock (read—pair soon).   
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 Scrunchie sock – Ankh colorway, Twisted Fiber Arts 
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I also succumbed during Sock Night at HOY and purchased some Classic Elite Alpaca Soxx yarn.  I have so many pretty sock yarns in my stash, but the softness of this yarn cried to me to be knit into some socks.  They are very soft and rival the way the Mtn Colors Bearfoot yarn feels.  I am knitting a sweater sock. 
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If you will notice, I am working the sole in reverse stockinette (i.e., purling) the sole.  Doing this puts the smooth side of the fabric next to the bottom of your foot and is supposedly more comfortable.  We will see.  This means that I am working a funky decrease of the purl variation instead of an SSK on one side.  Little trickier, but not too bad.  I had to look it up in a book (Knitter’s Handbook) to figure out how to do it.  Great book too, by the way.
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There is even a little bit of spinning progress.  I have been spinning singles of Spinning Bunny’s Hibiscus Merino/Tencel blend for what seems like forever.  I have just not had a lot of time at one time to sit down and just spin it….plus I am spinning it pretty fine so it takes longer.  Well, I finally finished spinning the singles and began plying it last week.  I am having to do it in spurts because it is going to take awhile.  It was challenging taking a picture too because there is so much shine/sheen to it that it kept shouting out to the camera.
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I mentioned last week that an idea about a post is brewing in my head.  Well, this morning, I took a few pictures to include in that post, but there just a few more shots that I need….so, that post will happen tomorrow or sometime later this week.  While I was taking pictures, I took a picture in my fiber room of what used to be a Koigu tree….it is now a fiber hank tree.   Too cool.  I love being able to see the colors.
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Have a great day!

What you see is not always what you get….I say that because I was taking pictures of goodies that I received this week and when I put the camera in front of the items, the color was much different than to the naked eye when looking through the screen.  The only thing I can figure out is that it was overcast and not brightly lit outside.  Hmm.  At any rate, the title sounds like it might not be a good thing, but I do like what I got. 
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Okay, okay….what did I get???  I will tell you….  First of all, I met Lisa from Poppy Flower Fibers on Ravelry.  Lisa and I met on a Majacraft spinning forum list and I saw that she had some beautiful colorways that she dyes.  I patiently waited until she got some BFL up and swooped in and put a ‘sold’ sign on it.  Patiently is the key word here.  Lisa, even though she was sick, mailed my package on Christmas Eve……I promise, I told her it could wait.  Her customer service is so great and she said she was feeling better and was going to ship other things too.   Here is where the word “patiently” comes in.  I waited and I waited.  Funny, I was about to email Lisa and ask her about my package and she beat me to it….she emailed me and said she noticed when tracking that it had not delivered.  How amazing is that?!   So, yesterday, she refunded my money.  Last night I got home and had a squishy package in the my mailbox that had been sealed in a plastic bag by the USPS.  There was a preprinted message on the bag saying “They Care” and that they damaged my package and they apologized.   So are you saying “Get to the point and WHERE ARE THE PICTURES?”  Okay, okay….  I just wanted you to know about Lisa’s awesome customer service.  Now to her awesome fiber. Both colorways are Superwash BFL.   YUMM!!!
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 First off is Dance Mistress
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and then there is Not of This Earth Tone….. 
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Now this is the one that looks different to the camera than to the eye.  In the picture, it looks more burgundy and dark….in real life it is muted browns and earthy colors.  Very pretty, but the picture is not quite the same, but you get the idea. The, there is Rachel’s blog.  I posted about her stand on Holiday Knitting in December…..she is too funny!  In addition to having a wicked sense of humor, she has a wicked sense of color as well.  You can see her colorways on both her blor or her Etsy site Dyeabolical Yarns.    What did she send to me?   
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  BFL on the left and Merino in Vintage colorway on the right…   I really love the color of  Vintage! 
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I have this idea brewing in the back of my head about a post that I will be posting in the very near future.  It has to do with commonalities that we fibery people have, but may not know about.  I, for one, thought I was this person out there doing some of the things I do and no one else did things that way.  W-r-o-n-g!!!  In having dinner with some of the Sock Knit A Long and then the Not Your Normal Knitters group and discussions on Ravelry, I am not alone.  Interesting.   So, hold that thought, a post on commonalities will be forthcoming soon.  It will definitely give you cause to stop and think. Have a great weekend!

Jake, Gracie and I ran in an agility trial this weekend in

 So, this weekend, Jake DQd (qualified in two runs) both days.  This means that Jake qualified in every run and placed third in Jumpers on Sunday.  Jake was blazing fast in Jumpers on Sunday.  Jake actually did some very fast weaves.  It was such a fun run and it was great having Jake set a fire on the course.  
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Gracie got her first Q in Open Standard on Saturday and placed 3^rd.  She placed first in Excellent A Jumpers on Sunday.    Gracie did both offside and onside weaves first time without starting over.  Gracie must have thought that the idea was to run a full circle AROUND the teeter, THEN get on the teeter and move to the next obstacle.  I was amazed that I even got her to do it after she refused and did the circle, so there is definite progress.  She ran very fast and tight around turns and looked like she was having fun.Amazing and what awesome runs.  I have decided that Agility is like the slot machines….it pays off every now and then just to keep you coming back.  It was somewhat discouraging to train as much as we do and not qualify even once in a weekend’s trial in the past few months.  I did not give up and looked to see what I was doing and made sure to pay attention to my dogs and not take my eyes off of them while running (don’t take your eye off of the ball).  Having faith and making sure to do my part of the teamwork paid off and is what I think made the difference.  It is not all about the Qs, but it does make it more fun.  
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Trials are not really “competitions,” they are a “test” to see what you and your dog know.  You really don’t compete against others, you are just seeing where you and your dog are with your training and what you know and what you need to work on.  With all that said, Jake got his first 2 double Qs and 47 MACH points. 

For those of you that are not sure what MACH stands for, it is what you aspire to achieve in agility (among other things).  MACH stands for Master Agility Championship title.  In order to get a MACH, you and that particular dog have to get 20 DQs and 750 points.  How you get points by:   when you run in a trial, you get one point for every second that you run under course time.  Jake already had a few points so he is on his way to being MACH Jake.  Oh yeah….when your dog earns a title such as this, it becomes part of his name almost like Mr. Jake, but he would be MACH Jake, LOL.  Sock Knitting ContentI finished one Scrunchie sock and on the third scrunch on the second sock now.  Love this yarn and, of course, love the sock. Twister Fiber Arts – Ankh colorway

See Ma–no hands….but there are pictures!

Haus of Yarn hosted their monthly Sock Knit A Long last night and there was a great turnout!  It is so energizing to be around a group of people with a common goal – sock knitting.  We, (sock) knitters, speak the same language, understand the terms.  When someone said they got the same Noro sock yarn I did, I knew they meant color #188.  Someone else had #180.  We knew what we were talking about without explaining it.  So, when you look at a hank of yarn and immediately know the name or number of that yarn….you are NOT crazy.  There are others of us out there that can do the same thing. 

Patty from

Speaking of diets, a few of us went to Anatolia afterward.  They have really good food, really good prices and the atmosphere is low key, nice and that was a great way to top the evening off.  I will say that Florence was passing on tips about stash storage and also stealth stashing.  I never knew plastic bags were a dead give away….they make noise in the trunk.  Note to those who have to stealth stash….use cloth bags instead.  LOL 

Whew, we all love sock night, but it is a good thing it is only once a month…..we have to knit like mad so we can show our cool stuff we’ve made too and have some of that beautiful yarn made up to share with the others.  A good time was had by all!

Seems like everyone is looking for a purpose/reason/rule or something of that nature this time of year.  I do think it is a good idea to set some goals for the year and then take stock of what you accomplished about the same time the next year.  It is good to have rules, think up reasons, etc.  Sometimes it is just too much trouble though.  Maybe it is that I don’t have the energy to think about it.

 I have always remembered the saying “You will get there much quicker if you have a roadmap.”  That always does make me think about setting goals as I will come closer to reaching them if I have them.  I have always said that I am the Queen of Procrastination as well. 

Good news is that not everything is too much trouble.  About last September, I got tired of feeling like a hamster on a wheel….running as fast as I could and not feeling like I was getting anywhere.  I cut back on a few things that I was doing and actually had a little more time to live in the “now” of things.  I read on someone else’s blog that they were goign to focus this year on living in the now and not always looking to the future or what will be or needs to be done.  I don’t think that writer had the grasshopper and the ant thing going on, but was just saying that you need to slow down, if just a little bit, and do things that make you happy and give you a little feeling of relaxation.

 Sounds like a self help book, hmm?!  Actually, I have one speed and that is fast and always doing something.  Even if it is reading a book, spinning, or just petting one of my little heathens dogs.  By cutting out a few things that I really did not have or need to do, I have a little more of that time to do things that I want or need to do for me and my little family.

All that said, I am going to focus on finding more of that time, I have just not figured out the hows and wheres and whys of that yet.  I know one way that I am going to get back a little bit of time is to quit worrying about what other people think and no longer let them steal my joy.   It is easier said than done, but that is one my goals this year.

 The only other real goal this year is that I am going to try to stop procrastinating so much.  If there something I have to think about, figure out, do something else to, etc., then that thing gets put on the back burner.  I have a couple of sock patterns that I have written (in my mind and on scratch paper), but have not published yet.  I have people asking for them.  I would love to sell them.  I just need to get off my proverbial duff and do it.   The patterns is just an example, but that is one of my goals.

Blog posts without pictures are not very interesting, but I didn’t feel like taking pictures.  Instead of procrastinating about writing till I had pictures, I decided to go ahead and write anyway.  Pictures at 11….