Thanksgiving

I'm thankful that I have the time to spend on thoughtfully reducing the clutter. I've slowly been chipping away-- books that didn't sell through Amazon online, I took to Powells books here in Portland. What a treasure we have there! So the stack there has been reduced quite a bit.

I've sold more yarn through Ravelry-- at a loss monetarily, but I know it goes to good homes and each sale gives me just a few more square inches of space back. It seems a win-win.

I've started a project for a friend and all the yarn is from the stash-- so that's great too. My son wanted to re-learn to knit and so started a scarf also from the stash. So it feels that things are finally going in the right direction.

I rearranged the studio/sun room again and for a couple of days, some of the plastic bins and bags of yarn and fabric stayed in the garage. The result was beautiful and calming. An inspiration. You could actually see the tools-- the loom and the knitting machines. All set up and "at the ready".

One thing I found is that the fabric has been left untended for so long and mostly hidden away. I think over the Christmas Holidays I'll spend some time going through and re-organizing that and I think it should all fit in better and feel more supportive of my creativity rather than overwhelming it.

I've also been dreaming of studio space that is more appropriately sized for the tools. Real room around the loom to work, real room around the knitting machines to work. Real working storage areas. More room for storing a variety of yarns for the business. So that's something else I will plan for my retirement from my "day job". A real working studio.

Books and Yarn Sale

Book Sale
Since the garage sale finished, I've had the extra books and some of the yarn sitting in the home office and the studio. I've recently re-arranged the home office, and took the opportunity to post the books onto Amazon for sale. I'm pleased to note that three of them sold in the first week. It was interesting to me that many of the books are listed on Amazon.com as 1 or 3 cents per book. I'm not sure how anyone can make any money doing this. I assume they save money in shipping from what Amazon charges.. and then they must have a huge volume.

At any rate, for personal sales, it was easy to do and effective so far. I figure after a month, if the book still hasn't sold, then I'm not out any $ and I can try another avenue.

My books are listed under "FiberDawn", I don't think there is a way to find just the ones I listed, but if you see the name, thats me!

Yarn Sale
For the yarn left over from the garage sale, I'm slowly photographing and listing on Ravelry. It seems to be the best solution. A great community and you know the yarn will get a good home.

I'm not planning on trying another venue for the yarn yet. I expect I just need to keep posting and with enough activity it will get noticed...

I do have in the back of my mind for yarn that doesn't get sold or traded through Ravelry, I'll use the knitting machines to make afghans. Most of the yarn that hasn't sold to date, is out of manufacture. So it isn't being made any more and wouldn't be worth spending time designing a pattern for it.

Also, FiberDawn on ravelry if you are looking for some yarn to buy!

Yard Sale attempt

Thought I'd post some photos from the yard sale. I had put out ALL of my personal stash for sale. We also had a lot of toys from the boys-- in preparation for painting their rooms.

We did have a problem that the weather was a bit to hot for Portlanders-- so the number of people there in the morning greatly out-weighed the numbers showing up in the afternoon.

Now that the yard sale is done... I'll be posting the yarn stash on ravelry. In the process of that now and its kind of nice. I've taken photos of all of them and it seems to be a great place to keep track (up to now I've kept a spreadsheet-- which I really did to decide which yarns should belong to Fiber Rhythm Craft & Design, and which I would keep for personal use).

As I mentioned before, it was fun to sell the yarn-- more than I expected-- mainly because the people who came were so nice, and appreciated the deals, and had good plans to use the yarn. In short, they went to good homes!

Yard Sale Complete!

Well- we held the yard sale today. Most of the leftovers went to Good will. Some of the legos went to a grade-school Lego club. The weather wasn't as hot as it has been-- but still hot enough that we didn't get much traffic between 11:30 and 2:30. Best hour was 10 to 11am.

It was fun to sell what yarn I did. Everyone seemed to appreciate the choices and the prices! I still have quite a bit left and will take my time with the rest.

In the process of gathering it up, I found that I have organized it a bit better now. I had lots of small organizer boxes before. Now, they are grouped by type and in plastic sacks, which are in turn in larger boxes-- similar to the storage for the business.

I'll be able to re-organize a bit in the home office and have some more room.

This vacation has been tiring though! Looking forward to a "real" vacation later this month.

De-stashing

Its been quite a while since I've posted here. The mailroom idea has worked out wonderfully!

We're in the process now of cleaning out the boy's rooms and having a yard sale with all of the toys they no longer want (they're in high school and college now). They get to keep the cash thats generated. We'll see how that goes. Then we'll paint the bedrooms and I know they are looking forward to a bit more clutter-free space.

In that same vein, I've decided to add yarn to the sale. I'll let the couple of local yahoo-list groups know and advertise a bit on Ravelry. Then whatever doesn't go in the yard sale, I'll put up on ravelry in the de-stashing area.

So-- forward progress on the whole reclaiming space idea! Regardless if it is once a day, once a week or once a month... progress does feel good.

Progress!

I took the planning from Saturday's post and worked Sunday on re-organizing the "mail room" portion of the studio/sun room. Not sure if the before/after pictures show improvement to many people besides myself, but there really is an improvement.

Before:

After. One of the benefits of moving the mailing supplies upstairs, was that this allowed me to "unearth" the floor loom which had piles of fabric and packing boxes on top of it. I've started hanging some of the fabrics along the back wall, and will do that with more of my fabric as I continue to organize. I also put back on shelves any of the Bambu 7 I had gotten down when I was choosing colors for my QCC sweater.

All of the "mail room" stuff was moved out of the way and put up in the attic space along with the portable desks. I also moved all product that is ready for shipping up there as well.

This way, when an order comes in, I go to the "mail room" and fill the order. Boxes, packing supplies and product storage are all there. I was able to put together a shipment in much less time soon after.

I have a few minor supplies to add to the mail room area. A cutting board so that I can easily cut cardboard down to size when I need a special size and scales for postage calculations. I want to leave my current scale in the studio for the winding station.

So all in all, I'm happy with the weekend's activities. I reclaimed the space where the portable desks were stored (bedroom, basement and garage), I reclaimed some space from the studio/sun room where the mail supplies were scattered about, organized it and placed it upstairs where it is more accessible and available when I need it. A better flow for shipping and progress in the studio.

I still have a lot of fabric to organize and a lot of work to do to use all of the supplies I have accumulated over the years. But it feels like a good working space again, and that helps tremendously.

My how time flies!

I did finish the Rose Bag. I thought at first after it was done that it was just too big. It felt a bit awkward. I do like the color and the design. But there it sat... for weeks...

I considered cutting it down to a more reasonable size and figuring out what to do with the resulting scraps.... but hadn't the heart.

Then, last weekend, I had to teach another knitting class. I needed a bag to load up the books, samples, supplies in. I tried the Rose Bag, and it was PERFECT!! I was able to put the books at the bottom, samples and supplies on top of the books, name tags and tools in the outer pockets. It was all easily accessible and with the load inside the bag, and it over my shoulder it just worked! So much easier carrying everything from car to classroom. The construction is sturdy with two layers of fabric, so I didn't worry about the weight.

I'm very happy, and it now has a purpose and a place in the studio. I still have enough of the same fabric to make a bag of identical size, but considering what I have left, I think I'll design two smaller bags instead.

All of this has taken longer than I originally thought. I realize that the goal of "one project a week" is too much. It adds pressure without benefit. Slow and steady wins the race, but I also need contemplation time to determine the best path. So during the time between finishing the bag and actually using it (resulting in the idea that the bag really is finished), I was able to do some additional de-cluttering / cleaning up in the home office. I now have caught up on the home finances and any papers sorted into in and out bins. So when I have a few minutes at the computer, I can process new paperwork or file old. Its working better.

I also finished some projects for Fiber Rhythm, updating the website, finishing an afghan pattern for a client, and more filling of yarn orders. Now I'm realizing that it would be very nice to have space for a "mail room" area that is separate from my design/sewing/weaving/knitting space. Right now, the "mail room" portion of the studio expands as I'm working on an order, then is hard to contract back down when I need to reuse that space for my knitting/design work.

So I've decided to move my portable tables (table tops with detachable/adjustable legs) up to the garage attic and set up a "mailroom" up there. I can leave things setup there and they will be out of the design area. Thus, decluttering the design/studio. This also cleans up several spots where the table tops and legs are currently stored!

For Fiber Rhythm, there are several tasks that require space:

1. Winding the "Double Bambu", winding off custom cones/balls of Bambu 7 and Bambu 12, winding off yardage of the Retro Glo yarn. All of these take slightly different equipment that needs to stay set up. Currently I could use perhaps another 3-4 feet of "winding station".


2. Cutting board/sewing prep. I have a good area for this right now, but it does double duty as the mailing prep area as well


3. Weaving floor loom. This currently holds empty boxes on top that can be used for mailing (these get to move upstairs)


4. Knitting machine. Right now I have one machine set up and two still in boxes. This won't change until I have a lot more space.


5. Sewing machine/Serger. I have these on a desk my grandfather made. This will likely stay the same.


6. Storage of Already wound product (Double Bambu, Double Bambu Sampler Kits), printed patterns. These could move up to the attic area as well, as usually when an order comes in for them, we would move them right into mailing.


7. Storage of raw supplies (fabric, cone yarn, other yarn). These are now everywhere... just need to be chipped away at.


8. Books and sitting space. Pretty much need to be "unearthed" from underneath piles of product.

I guess there is still a lot to do!!!

But progress is not only in action, it is also in planning. One must be able to envision change before change can happen.