Anyone who knows me will know that clutter and I go way back. I am not one of those people who jumped on the Marie Kondo bandwagon, or who Instagrams photos of my pantry and storage systems. Minimalism and I are not friends. But last June, when Doug and I got Covid and were very sick, I had a scare and, among all of the other scary thoughts I was thinking, was this one: “What if something happens to Doug and I? How will the girls cope with all of this stuff?”

I concocted a de-cluttering plan. The plan was simple. I would focus on one source of clutter at a time, and I would work on it at a pace which I could manage. I decided that the first step to de-cluttering the house was to sort through the books. Leah and Emma came home last September, while we were still quite sick, and stayed for a month. I announced my plan: the four of us would go through every book in the house. We would hold up each book individually and decide if it was a keeper or if we could gently let it go. Any book that any one of us wanted would stay, all of the other books would go. My friends (mostly drowning in books like we are) scoffed at this and said it couldn’t be done. “There is no way that will work,” they said. “At least one of you will vote to keep every book.” They tried to encourage me to retain veto power. But, I was determined on this very equitable and fair process as a first step in my grand de-cluttering plan.

I can report that the plan did work to some degree, although it must be said that it worked very slowly. It took us a month with the girls to go through all of the bookcases, shelf by shelf. Sick people can only tolerate so much book culling, not to mention dust. By the time the girls left, we had sorted all of the shelves and piled up all of the books to get rid of in boxes. It then took Doug and I another 4 months to get rid of the books. It turns out that no one wants to take books! After much searching, we discovered that the British Heart Foundation charity shop near us would take a box of books, but only one or two at a time. Every time we went into town, we dropped off another box of books. This was painstakingly slow, but also about the only speed we had energy for.

We gave away 15 boxes, totaling around 600 books. I did a count, and we have 1400 books remaining. (These of course don’t include any of the books in our offices on campus.) This means that we were able to get rid of 1/3 of our books! And it only took 5 months! I am super happy about this. I will note that I have not yet begun to start Step 2 of my grand de-cluttering plan. I think, at this rate, it will be years before I get to “Step 6: Yarn!” (Note how clever I am to make yarn step 6.)

Now (at long last, you say!) for some knitting content: How do you justify buying more knitting books when you have just ruthlessly culled 600 books from your shelves? I am afraid I don’t have an answer for this. Years ago, I switched to buying most books in e-formats (I have well over a thousand books in that format – imagine if they were on my shelves!) and most knitting patterns as downloaded files. But knitting books are pretty hard to resist, and don’t work well in e-formats. Also, have you noticed that after many years of selling patterns individually on-line, the big knitting book is back in vogue? Currently, I am coveting any number of knitting books and am trying valiantly to resist. Here are the ones at the top of my list right now:

Traditions revisited: Modern Estonian Knits by Aleks Byrd

Neons & Neutrals – A Knitwear Collection Curated by Aimée Gille of La Bien Aimée

The Joy of Colour by Janine Bajus

The Knitted Fabric: Colourwok Projects for you and your Home by Dee Hardwick

Twisted Stitch Sourcebook by Norah Gaughan

How about you: do you keep buying knitting books?

I have been struggling to find time to post the past few weeks. I usually try to write a post every weekend. This past weekend, I was busy teaching. The weekend before, I was in South Africa, also teaching. Lots of teaching, combined with big travel commitments, makes for a tired Kelly.

Here is a very unusual shot of me knitting (unusual because I was at work; thanks to my colleague, Chris, for the photo):

I don’t usually knit at work but in the workshop this weekend there was a section involving art and craft, and while the students were busy crafting, I decided to join in. I am working on the (endless) Koko shawl. Someday I may actually finish the thing.

When packing for South Africa, it was clear that the Koko shawl had to stay home. It is just too big and bulky to carry around and to fuss with on a plane. Obviously, I needed to cast on a new project. (This is my story and I am sticking with it. Besides, it’s a law.) I have a few mitten projects ready to start, with the yarn wound and ready, but I decided that mittens were too fiddly. I knew that the trip would be tiring and I needed a stress-free project. I had a moment of inspiration. I have some lovely skeins of Garthenor Preseli wool in shades of red, pink and orange, which Doug gave me for Christmas:

I suddenly remembered a shawl which I had saved into my favorites many years ago, Stole by Theresa Gaffey. It is knitted lengthwise and consists merely of long stripes of wide rib, which are knitted at a loose gauge.

It seemed like perfect travel knitting. I was mostly busy teaching while in South Africa, but I did have a free Saturday, which I spent exploring and knitting. Here I am in front of the Union Buildings (Parliament) in Pretoria:

And this is where I got some knitting done:

I almost feel guilty sharing these photos because it was snowing here at home at the time. Then again, I needed that sunshine so much!

Knitting stripes is addictive. You keep wanting to get to the next stripe, so it speeds you along. This shawl is going much faster than Koko.

I hope you’ve had a bit of sunshine and a lot of knitting these past few weeks!

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the restorative power of knitting (or playing music, walking in the countryside, baking bread, etc). Knitters often class themselves as either process versus product knitters, in which the former is all about the act of knitting itself as a creative/relaxing/meditative pursuit, and the latter is all about making (and completing) knitted garments and accessories to wear and gift and enjoy. We all recognize that it is not a dichotomy, but rather a continuum that we move along, sometimes tilting more to one side, and sometimes to the other. Lately, as I have been recovering from illness, I find that I have moved back towards the process side of the continuum, as I need the knitting to relax and re-center myself. Also, I am finding it hard to spend my spare time concentrating on reading patterns, getting measurements right, doing the math, etc; my focus only goes so far these days, and I need it for my day job!

However it happens and whatever the outcome, I think the important thing is to to acknowledge the importance of doing. That might be why today’s column of First Dog on the Moon in the Guardian really resonated with me. The cartoon is called “Everyone is anxious, exhausted, in a flap. How can we help ourselves to get by?” As always with First Dog on the Moon, it manages to be both charming and snarky, while making an important point. Here is the panel which fellow knitters may relate to:

Yes, it is the doing that matters. Take a deep breath.

Happy Friday, all!