Picking Favorites

And the sorting and packing has begun in earnest.  Things will be traveling over seas by two methods, slow freight and air freight, or they will be put into storage for our return in three years.  This has become a very hard decision on where things go in respect to one main area of my life:  My Stash.

Some yarn will be packed up and sent Air Freight which should take a few weeks.  There is less chance that this yarn will be subject to the elements.  So what should I pack in here?  Yarn that I have queued up to use in the next 2-3 months seems like a good starting place.  I should note that I am being brutally honest with myself about my queue and what will reallistically be used.  Air Freight has a weight limit and I also need to pack the Fed's clothes, shoes, basic baby stuff and household necessities like towells and sheets.  So just yarn that I will use.  And foreign yarn.  My sock yarn stash from Germany and my scarf yarn from Turkey.  And my luxury yarn.   Because really, the more expensive stuff would kill me if it got ruined sitting on a barge for a few months.  And I admit that I have a few skeins of pricier yarn (don't tell the Fed, he thinks that all yarn is $4 a skein).  I have some cashmere, baby alpaca that is butter soft, some premium and unusual fiber, and 4 skeins of Blue Heron Metallic in Old Gold (I think these 4 alone are around $180 and I really should find a new pattern to knit it into).  Really just too pricey to leave to moths, rats, pirates and sea air.

But some yarn is going to have to be shipped by way of the slow boat.  I can only pack about 25 pounds of yarn in air freight.  Does that mean that I love this yarn any less than the shiny silks and soft merinos?  No.  In fact, some of that yarn is my favorite and I have faith that it will survive the journey.  Skeins of minimally processed New Zealand wool that will one day turn into a classic Guernsey with cables and bobbles and diamonds.  This yarn is made to last through hurricanes and years at sea.  So I look at it as pre-seasoning.  Like you do with a new skillet.   All of my roving and my wheel will also be shipped across the ocean.  I am taking all the wool I can, as I have heard that natural fibers can be hard to come by in my new home.  (I guess they haven't heard of knitpicks.com)

The last group is yarn that will be going into storage.  Now, this yarn and fiber should really be destashed.  And if I had more time, I just might give them up.  But I am out of time so into storage they go.  Some of these yarns are perfectly good.  Lamb's Pride which is a great yarn, unless you are me and discovered after buying 20 skeins that I can't stand the mohair in them.  So a destash is in order when returning to the states and I have to unpack the house.  Again.

And while all this seems like a good plan on dividing my stash, it is still really difficult to do.   Look at your stash and see if you could divide it up so easily.

Moving

I am sitting in my house, the night before the movers come. Tomorrow they will be packing everything up to take to our new home.

I have taken some broken furniture to the dump. I have cleaned out under the sinks (trust me, that is scary). The litter box is empty and clean, the fridge is just empty. I admit that cleaning that is a little scarier than the litter-box. I have organized my yarn for the movers. And by that, I mean that I have sorted yarns into different areas to be boxed together by importance and when it is scheduled to be used for a project. ( I can lie to myself )

The house already looks empty. As I sit here and have my dinner of stale triscuits, coke and top ramen, I am pondering where everything will go in the new house.

And wondering if for the new house, I will actually get around to unpacking everything.

One Day more..

One day more..
One day more and I will be able to start moving somethings over to the new house.
One day more and I will have no more excuse to leave out yarn and roving for petting.
One day more and I will be drawing out schematics for the yarn lab.
One day more and I will have a thermostat-climate controlled environment.
One day more and I will have more than 1 bathroom for guests.
One day more and I will have a dish-washer.
One day more and I will have room for my stash.
One day more and I will have to face the fact of packing the basement.
One day more and I will be officially broke but will have a yard to stay-cation in.
One day more and I will have a ton of work to do with will take up all my time and energy.
One day more and I will have to put away my spinning and knitting for a while.
One day more...

Put not today. I think I'll knit.

Packing for a move

I am moving into a house. My own house.

While being prequalified, I took a friend to hold my hand and sat down with a mortgage broker. He was asking the normal questions, budgets, what i would feel comfortable with as payments, etc.. He said make a quick guess at your costs for a month. My friend and I stated running it down: food, gas, electric, entertainment, yarn & roving, phone... The mortgage broker laughed and said" that's funny! yarn?!" He didn't understand that we were being completely serious. I mean, I knew I would have to cut back my yarn budget a bit to buy a house, but it is still important to my well-being!

One of the things I looked for while touring various locations, was how yarn and fiber friendly was the house it's self? The winner was the one with the "half" kitchen downstairs by the family/rec room. It had enough room for my yarn stash, and the extra kitchen will be perfect for washing fleece, dying yarns and rovings, drying and various other experiments. The rec room is large enough to hold a full blown spinning and knitting party and since the extra kitchen is down there, we wouldn't have to keep going up and down for more coffee and tea. I really feel that this house suites my woolly needs.

When I began packing this week, I discovered 2 things. One, is I had to carefully select what projects I'll be working on in the next few weeks and pull them aside. I also had to reach for emotional strength that I didn't realize I would need to put the rest of the yarn and roving into boxes and tape them shut. To be untouched for up to 4 weeks. No petting, wistful glances or just a quick snuggle. Nope, it was going to be off limits. Who knew that would be so tough?

Second thing i discovered is that yarn and roving save you on packing materials. delicate knick-knacks and glass? Pack it in roving and yarn! Saves multiple trees. Stuff some yarn in a vase and wrap it in roving. Perfect!

So the packing continues and my yarn wait patiently for it's new home. I'm just not as patient as the yarn seems to be.