Free at last! I'm free at last!

I've spent the last two weeks cleaning out closets, taking bags of clothes and boxes of books to Goodwill, and looking forward to moving on to the next closet or file cabinet to purge.

I could have sworn I did a thorough culling last year, but from the looks of my closets and other storage areas, I was wrong.

This year, though, I'm doing it the way it needs to be done. Gone are dresses I haven't worn in at least ten years, gone are outworn sweaters, gone is my beloved LL Bean toggle coat that hadn't seen the light of day for a good 20 years, I bet.

I spent one entire morning sorting through pantyhose and tights. I must've checked 50 pairs, one by one, to see if the elasticized tops are still good (most weren't) and if there were any runs. I threw away at least half of the stockings and wonder why I even kept the other half. Probably four good pair is all I need, given my new retired lifestyle and, ahem, casual daily outfits.

Parting with books is always hard for me, but this year I'm doing that, too. I'm keeping my very favorites, the ones I can't live without, but now at Goodwill are novels I read once, liked fine, but never intend to read again. I even convinced Ken to relieve his bookshelves of several books today. He didn't do as thorough a job as I would have done, but he's new at this business of de-cluttering so I'm cutting him some slack.

I claimed, last year, that I'd finally parted with my teaching materials. That was only half true. I did throw out the student projects stored in a large bin upstairs in the huge closet behind the bathroom,...but I still hadn't thrown out the files and files and files of teaching materials, lesson plans, AP English practice tests....
Today I finally found the courage and mind-set to get rid of all of that stuff. It was taking up so much space, and why on earth was I hanging onto it?

My hanging files in the drawer here beside me are now, for the most part, empty. I'll soon fill them with my knitting patterns, sewing patterns, and the like.

Even harder than parting with my teaching materials is parting with my quilt magazines. I have two huge boxes of Quilt, Quilt World, Quilters' Newsletter, and every other quilting magazine published during my quilting phase, late '70s to late '80s. I hate like the dickens to throw them out, because they contain wonderful photos of beautiful quilts and many quilting patterns. I checked out eBay yesterday to see if there seems to be a market for them, and there doesn't. Dilemma. But they're not taking up space in my closet any longer. No sirree.

I discovered a secret cache of Christmas magazines in one box, so secret that even I didn't realize they were there. I don't need them. I quickly thumbed through each one to see if there might be a pattern I couldn't live without. I found a pattern for a little cloth doll, so I tore it out but will probably never make it.

I'm not sure how much longer my cleaning/decluttering binge will last, but I'm on a high and I'm not eager to come down from it.

Mother Nature, meanwhile, has thrown us a curve ball today. I guess it's a curve ball. I know nothing about baseball and wouldn't know a curve ball if it were coming straight at me, but today's heavy snowstorm has put us back into the middle of winter in one fell swoop. Here we'd been enjoying signs of spring, despite the cold temperatures. Spring birds were returning and singing about their winters in the tropics, the sun is giving us longer hours of daylight, but a foot of new snow, with the storm showing no signs of letting up, is what I see outside the window at the moment.

I'd better keep my mind on my sorting-and-throwing and let Mother Nature take care of the goings-on outside, I guess. Eventually she'll come around and give us the spring we're wanting so desperately.

Christchurch

Ken and I have been keeping a close eye on the news out of Christchurch, New Zealand today, following yesterday's earthquake.

Right now the number of fatalities is given as 65, but I'm afraid the number will climb dramatically. The 'quake struck at 1:00 p.m. there, when city buildings were occupied.

The slideshow of the 'quake at MSNBC is very shocking.

Christchurch is a pretty little city on New Zealand's South Island. We spent one night there in 2008 and got up before dawn the next morning to do some sightseeing before boarding the plane to Australia. We especially wanted to see the city's cathedral, illuminated so beautifully in the dark.

Today the news report says the cathedral's tower, on the left, has been destroyed by the 'quake. I went to the cathedral's website this morning and read about the "clean-up from the earthquake." For a second I thought the reference was to yesterday's disaster, but then I realized it was talking about the earthquake in 2010. The stained glass window replacement was nearing completion, and now this.

A few days late

I meant to post the photo of the Valentine hearts on Monday. That was my plan for the past 2-3 weeks. Somehow my plan failed, so here's the photo now, early for next Valentine's Day.

My reason for posting the photo was to show you this. I'd already started knitting the little hearts and tossing them into my square glass vase (my very favorite vase, by the way), so I was a bit shocked to see that "A Friend to Knit With" had had the same idea. Not earth-shattering, just interesting.

And before I proceed, I must brag that the temperature here in southern Maine at this moment is 52°. That's right, 52°. And that's outdoors, not inside! Give Mainers a little hint of spring this time of year and we go nuts. Ken and I were out doing errands this afternoon when we drove by a couple sitting on their front steps, basking in the sun, with only short-sleeved t-shirts on. (Pants, too, of course, but no jackets. Not even sweaters! Just t-shirts.) I felt their joy.

I'm still knitting. I haven't shared any knitting in awhile, so I thought I'd start by sharing the knitting journal I kept last year. I consider it a little gold mine of information. I decided to keep a journal after realizing that I often never again see a knitting project that has taken me days, sometimes weeks, to produce, once I give it away to the intended recipient. This journal is my way of keeping at least a little token of my efforts as well as valuable information in case I knit the same pattern again...which I often do. I've taken photos of each 2010 knitting project and pasted them in the little journal with information about the pattern, the yarn used, needle size, etc.

Here's the bride's sachet I made for a dear friend's daughter-in-law last spring. This same friend will be acquiring a second daughter-in-law this coming summer, so I need to start a second bride's sachet before long.

Here is a Fair Isle hat, or a very simple version of a Fair Isle hat. I've never knit true Fair Isle and I probably never will. Carrying all of those various colors of yarn throughout the entire project sounds like a lot of work to me.

I love the woolen clogs. In fact, I'm wearing them at this very moment. They're my first choice for slippers during the winter months because they're so warm and cozy. I've made about 10 pairs of these clogs and the elf slippers.

My latest knitting project, finished just this morning when I sewed on the buttons, is this child's size 8 Aran cardigan. I love to knit Aran designs. This sweater gave me some problems although I've used this pattern for four previous Aran sweaters ranging in size from one year to adult medium: I made the sleeves too short, so I had to go back to them and add a few more rows; the buttonholes, which I can usually make at least half-decently, came out awful. I was devastated when I took a good, hard look at them and told myself I'd need to ravel the entire right front section and re-knit the thing in order to make tolerable buttonholes. I dreaded getting to this part of the project. I hate redoing something I've already done because I was too careless to do it well the first time.

But then, lo and behold, I decided to try doing a buttonhole stitch, by hand, with yarn and sewing needle, over the crappy buttonholes. Voila! It worked. Only the most discerning eye would ever guess the "handstitched" buttonholes are actually hiding little knitting disasters.

And now...now I'm ready for spring. We've had a good winter, and the snow is still about two feet deep on our lawns, but I'm ready to see the spring flowers and the summer birds. There's talk of cold temperatures returning this weekend, though.

Another Bucket List item crossed off

I've always wanted to make some heart windowpane cookies.

And now I've done it.

These are for the big Valentine's party tomorrow at a local nursing home. I bought seedless strawberry jam in honor of the occasion. I know, but not from personal experience, that seeds and dentures are not a good combination.

Let's hope the residents at the facility enjoy them.

As you can see from my header photo, Mother Nature (or Martha Stewart) sneaked into our yard one recent night and dipped all of the trees in silver. I love it when she (or She) does that.

We had a couple of days above freezing recently, and that brought joy to my heart. Maybe this snow will melt someday after all. Right now it seems to be pretty comfortable just where it is, though.

Oh, well. I wanted snow, and snow is what I got.

Snow, again

Ken and the snowblower have an almost inseparable relationship lately. Here are a few photos from yesterday, at the height of the storm, and this morning, with a beautiful clear-blue sky.

And the weather forecast? Three-to-six inches of new snow on Saturday; chance of another snowstorm next Tuesday.

Molly and I just got back from a nice walk. I do love to look at the landscape after a beautiful snowstorm. Everything is white, as if Martha Stewart herself had done the decorating.