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In which I close my posts on Organization

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By Librarian by Day

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been talking about organization and thinking a lot about it too.  I even went to Ravelry and asked some of the people in the Designers forum how they stay organized.  I’ve been mining Pinterest, and even came across this great graphic.

I wanted to share some of what I’ve learned:

  • Ruth, of http://www.rockandpurl.com/, pointed out that “dormant projects” is much better than “rejected projects”.
  • I really love RescueTime to keep me accountable about how much time I’m spending on “fun” things, and how much I’m spending on “work.”
  • Stephannie of SunsetCat, pointed out how important it is to organize your stash, especially when you have yarns for designing and personal yarns.
  • Others have found Asana, StoryTracker, and Eternity  helpful in tracking workflow, design projects, and how much time you spend on different tasks.  I can’t vouch for all of them, as some of them are app-based (and I don’t have a smartphone) but they’re worth checking out.
  • I learned about IFTT, a website that automates tasks you do over and over again.  I’ve set my account up to automatically tweet and post on facebook when I make a blog post.  I’ve also got it set up to notify me anytime someone finishes one of my projects on Ravelry.  It’s got a bit of a learning curve, but if you can overcome it, the website is quite powerful and customize-able.
  • If you don’t like IFTT, HootSuite takes care of cross-posting to Linkin, Facebook, Twitter, and several other websites.

Over and over again I’ve heard that it doesn’t really matter what your system is, if it works for you. Just make sure you have some system.  If you are designing as a career, treat it like one.  Act professional.  Stay organized so you can meet deadlines on time.

September Monthly Pattern Update

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Every month I do a pattern update, making note of what’s in the docket, what has been turned in, and what has been published.  Someday someone (probably me) will aggregate all this information and come to some conclusions someday.

Totem (working title) – Sock Pattern
Totem was kinda crazy – I had to do three socks in three weeks.  It’s been turned in to Sockupied in Sep., and you should see the fruits of my efforts in the Spring Issue.

Totoro (working title) – Sock Pattern
Pattern turned into Three Irish Girls, and pattern tester has knitted it.  Final draft turned in Sep.  Should be published sometime in the Winter.

Isis Wings (working title) – Sock Pattern
Pattern turned into Three Irish Girls, and pattern tester has knitted it.  Final draft turned in Sep.  Should be published sometime in the Winter.

Crochet Top (working title) – Crochet Short Sleeved Pullover
Pattern turned into Classic Elite Yarns in August.  Should be published in the Spring.

Crochet Meets in Middle (working title) – Crochet Pullover
All but last pattern done.

Proposals turned in this month: 2 (shameful – I had a lot going on this month though)

Classes Taught: none

Classes Coming Up: none

Quilting Update

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It’s been a while since I last talked about Michael’s Train Quilt, aside from an odd mention here or there.  I’ve been in the process of machine quilting it, which turned out to be more of a project than I anticipated.  I thought I was going to freeform quilt it, but it became very clear very early on that it wasn’t going to work well.  So then, after much deliberation, I ended up basting it with spray-on basting, pinning it in places, and just running random lines across the quilt.  It looked really bad when I first started.  The more lines I get going across it, the better it is starting to look.  I’m hoping I might get the quilting done this weekend.

By Lucy Knisley

Then I can think about doing the binding, god help me.

The point is, I’m close.  Very close.

And it got me thinking.  While I don’t think I really like sewing or quilting as a hobby, and while there is a lot to learn from sewing a garment that can apply to knitting – I’m thinking about doing another quilt.

Bear with me.  I’ve always really liked apple posters that show all the different varieties of apples.  Like this, this or this.  Then, earlier this week I saw a picture by Lucy Knisley, pictured at right.

Now let me say – I think the best art inspires you yourself.  It might mean it creates some strong emotion in you, but it also might just mean that it speaks to you and inspires you yourself.  This is what happened to me.

And I thought to myself, “That’s nice.”  Then, “She got the Red Delicious wrong.  And I prefer calling a Crispin and Mutzu.  I can’t believe she didn’t include Pink Lady or Winesap or Johnathan.”

Which just shows you how much of an apple snob I am.  But then I thought – I wish I could paint like that.  I’d make a better poster.  And then I realized that it’d make the perfect little/not so little quilt.  I could take white or cream squares, draw out the apples.  Color them with crayon, iron them, and then embroider on them.  It’d be so cool.  And then I could make it into a quilt.

So I’m thinking I gotta get my apple mojo going.

What apples would you have to include on an apple quilt?

Keeping Things Moving

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I’ve been thinking a lot about making the most of my time and getting things done.  It’s not a surprise, since the beginning of Fall is much more about new beginnings than the New Year’s ever is.

the corkboard of doom, looking bare because
 it was just put together after the cats tore it up.

One of my favorite authors, Seanan McGuire, describes herself as a pumpkin girl – a child of autumn as you will (her letters to the great pumpkin are worth reading).  That resonates strongly with me – for there’s a whole lot of potential in the fall – school (the portal of learning) starting, seeds (which will grow into things) dropping, food ripening and being stored for winters, Halloween (where you can be ANYTHING your brain and creativity can come up with) – there’s so much stored energy in the Fall.

So it makes sense that I’d start looking at how I organize myself and my life.  One of the best tools I use right now to organize my designing is a set of two cork-boards.  They work like this: The first cork board has four categories: calls for proposal, pending proposals, submitted proposals and pending contracts. I try to keep at least two items in each of the first three categories, and hopefully at least one in the fourth.

My other board is my project board. It has: not started, in progress, sent, and pending payment. This helps me keep track of what I need to get done. When I find a call for proposal that fits me, it starts on the first board with date and details, and then hopefully moves to the second board, adding more notes to each piece of paper as it goes. At a glance, I can see what’s in the pipeline and when it’s due.
How do you keep track of tasks that need to get done?  Do you have a planner?  Calendar?  Something else?  I’m looking for a way of organizing when my pattern’s rights revert back to myself, and I’d be interested in any suggestions ya’ll have.

Getting Things Done

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I’ve always been an Autumn girl.  Something about the colors changing, Halloween (which is my favorite holiday, hands down – over my birthday and Christmas), the crispness in the hair, apples, cider, pumpkins, changing leaves, mums and frost just strikes a chord in me.  It’s when school starts and things happen.  So it makes sense that I sympathize with starting the year in the Autumn.

Fall is the beginning of the year, and nobody call tell me likewise.

A small sampling of lists.

Which means that Fall is when I clean out closets, put on my jeans and get ready for the long haul.  When I went to school each year, it was the time of setting up my organizational system that would carry me through the schoolyear.

It seems I really can’t break that habit.  Over the weekend I cleaned out my closet, and committed a bunch of clothes to be donated.  I re-organized my remaining clothing (it needed it, the old system needed maintenance almost every other weekend, and it just wasn’t happening).

I also made lists.

Now, for those of you who don’t know, Michael and I have become big lists makers.  There’s solid proof that writing down your goals (ie making lists concrete lists) increases your likelihood to achieve desired outcomes.  Having someone to check up on you?  Makes it even more effective.  We have lists for everything.  A casual perusal around the apartment (I wasn’t even trying!) turns up lists for:

  • themed meal weeks
  • things for our apartment
  • wedding registry ideas
  • times to leave for work
  • places to go when driving to the farm
  • short term travel places
  • long term travel places
  • medium term travel places
  • designing monthly goals
  • designing quaterly goals
  • shopping list
  • shopping sub-list: wants for next week
  • meal plan list
  • weekly list Jen
  • weekly list Michael
  • Jen’s daily list
  • Weight Watchers Metrics List
  • Recipe Idea List

And best of all: a list for a list.  We decided, much like our weekly meal plan list (which we print out each week and fill out) we needed a packing list, of things we need to remember to do and to pack when we travel.  We also have a list of lists we need to make for this week.

Why all the lists?  Well, Michael and I hold each other accountable.  When we write things down, we are more likely to do them.  And if I’m going to be juggling a wedding and a business, I need to make sure certain things get done by the end of each week.

So what do you do to stay organized?  How do you make sure that things get done?

Time-Saving Technique When Designing

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Since knitting and crochet are both time intensive, anything I can do to save time or make my time count double is worth the time it takes for me to come up with a system.  I watch TV and knit, read and crochet.

When I create swatches for design proposals – specifically for socks, I want to save time.  So I do a provisional cast on and cast off, and work the knitting in between as normal.

What this does is twofold – if the design is accepted for a proposal, great.  Sometime later down the road I can pull out the swatch and be well on the way to creating a pair of my own, that won’t have to go back to the magazine when I’m done.

If the design isn’t accepted, then I can take the work I’ve already done, and work off of it to finish the sock and make it into a design that I’ll self publish.  This way the hours I spend working on a swatch serve double duty – and I’m not left with a swatch that I don’t know what to do with or how to store.

Do you have tricks that save you time?  I’d love to hear them, and they don’t have to be just about knitting or crochet.  After all, any minute I save in other places, I can put towards creating designs!

We Made out Like Bandits, I Tell ‘Ya

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Michael and I belong to a CSA, Spiral Path, which we pick up once a week from the Silver Spring Farmer’s Market.  Every once and a while Spiral Path will have an open farm day for its members.  It’s a cross between a harvest festival and a good backyard party, and we’ve been wanting to go for a while.  The only drawback is that the farm is 3 hrs away in PA.

However, this last weekend Michael and I had Ray visiting (who has a car that gets double the miles to the gallon that our car does). Coincidentally, there was an open farm day.  We decided to make a day of it, and got up REALLY early (before the sun rose) and drove to Spiral Path.

The drive was well worth it.  There was a fabulous pot-luck, tours of the farm, heyrides and other wonderful events.  Michael and I hadn’t quite realized how big Spiral Path is – they service 2250 members.  Just for perspective, most CSA’s have around 200 members.  Spiral Path is huge, but still very down to earth.  All the growing they do is organic, and you can see the values they hold in every choice they made about how the food is grown and prepared for shipment.  Michael and I feel very passionately about supporting efforts like this, and it’s great to know that we not only are getting great value for our food, but that it is going to a solid business model.

The most lovely part of the open farm day is the goodies that you get for free.  Spiral Path has a chunk of produce that it grows that for whatever reason isn’t considered sell-able – either it has blemishes, is too small, or has something else wrong with it.  Normally they donate the “reject food” to the local food shelter, but when they have the open farm days, they make this extra produce available to the members for free.

Our bounty from Spiral Path (the veggies) and Rock Hill (the apples)

Take a look at our haul:

We took home: 2 pumpkins, 2 butternut squash, 2 spaghetti squash, yellow squash, green beans, eggplant, summer squash, and a whole bunch of peppers, of various sweet and spicy flavors.

Finally, Spiral Path also had a herb garden where members could cut their own herbs.  We brought home mint, sage, and lots and lots of basil (for making pesto).

The event ended at 3, and by that time I was pretty tuckered out.  But we weren’t done yet.  On the way home, we stopped by Rock Hill Orchard, and picked up some Empire and Jonathan apples.  Just because it’s the beginning of fall, and that’s what you got to do.  Go apple picking.

Summer Travels

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Our Amtrak train coming to pick us up.

So I promised that I would tell about the rest of Michael’s birthday trip, and I’m keeping my promise – though it’s a little late.

You can refresh yourself by going here – I’ll wait for you.

After finishing up a couple of relaxing days in Ashland, NC, we proceeded to board another Amtrak train, this time taking us to Richmond, VA.  We had a layover there for a couple of hours, which wouldn’t have been of note, except Michael’s grandmother lives in Richmond.  So she met up with us and we all went out to lunch.

Richmond train station has a lovely outdoor seating area.

Michael’s grandmother, called by him Oma, is a wonderful lady, and I use the word lady in the truest sense.  She’s 92 years old, and has aged with grace and poise.  Her brain is as sharp as a whip, and she’s one of the best people I know at cutting Michael down to size when he’s getting a little bit too full of himself.  There’s such obvious love and affection between the two of them, and I always love watching them together.  One of the big moments I’m looking forward to is introducing my two grandmothers to Oma, and I think all three women have aged with grace – and I think they’ll all get along very well.

After having lunch with Oma, we proceeded to board the train again (do you sense a theme?) and head on to Cary (as Michael calls it, Containment Area for Relocated Yankees), where his parents proceeded to pick us up.

Random Mantis.  It was cool. Hard to get a picture of, though.

What commenced was a whirlwind of activity.  We visited with our friends Ray and Alison, ranged around Carborro trying wines at trendy grocery stores and investigating railroad tracks.  We tried Mexican food and played with interactive art.  Then we went home, celebrated Michael’s birthday with friends, played games, went to bed, woke up and came home.

It was a lovely trip, and a good balance of quiet and rest with family and activity.  It was also a nice way to say goodbye to summer, as it seems that just after we came home, the weather began to change.

Crab Dip Recipe

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I made this crab dip recipe a while back, and I wanted to share with you guys, since I like the way it turned out.

By Glory Foods

Hot crab dip recipe
2 eight ounce blocks of cream cheese, softened
1 eight ounce carton of sour cream
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
2 tablespoons of worcester sauce
2 cups grated mild cheddar cheese
4 tablespoons of mayonnaise
8 shakes of garlic salt
1 pound of crab meat
Blend everything except crab meat with electric mixer until smooth.  Fold crab meat in mixing by hand as to not break up crab meat.  
Bake in a buttered/greased dish, uncovered for 35-45 minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown around edges.
Serve warm or at room temperature with crackers.

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