I spent every weekend of this past month going over to my old apartment to pack things up and throw things out. It's amazing just how much stuff I moved into that apartment from my old apartment in the city and how much more I accumulated over the past six years. Needless to say I got through it all. It was very liberating to just throw things out. I had a girlfriend helping me for a couple of the first weekends and I think she was amazed and proud of me for just pitching stuff. The last few weeks Manny came over and helped with the big stuff. While I was sick this whole past weekend, he and I managed to clean out the apartment and get items moved into a modest storage unit and the stuff I can't live without into our apartment. As of this past Monday, I returned the keys, got my deposit and said goodbye to that place. It feels totally awesome to be away from that unhealthy environment.
So now that I have been living in a better place, my mind is also in a better place when it comes to working on my crafts. I spent one Sunday afternoon in January taking another sewing class. This one was expanding upon the actual quilting I learned from the intro seven week class I took in the Fall. This four hour class focused on quilting using the Walking Foot. I learned a few tips and tricks that will come in handy when I work on my quilts. I also took a 2 week evening Binding class in January. I felt the overview we got in the seven week class was not enough. So in this 4 hour class, I learned quite a bit more about different types of binding and created some Bias Binding. Pretty cool stuff.
There has also been some productive knitting happening around here too. As ya'll know I finished a pair of socks. Woo Hoo to FO January!!! I was real good in that I immediately casted on for another pair of socks. I also made great progress on my Effortless Cardigan, which I started at the end of December. At the end of January it looked like this:
The body is completely done. I finished the bottom ribbing up this past Monday while I was home sick. As you can see in the photo, there was a big contrast in the two skeins of yarn. At first I was a bit taken back by it and was surprised that the two skeins were so drastically different. I know that with hand dyed yarns, no two skeins are alike, but at least with what I have worked with in the past, there hasn't been such a dramatic difference.I currently have half of the second skein left and know I will need to go into the third skein. I have no idea if that skein is like either of these two or if it is totally different. Since I don't know, my plan is to use the rest of the second skein to do the collar and front bands. Hopefully I have enough to do that and then can do both arms in the third skein. It will be interesting to see when it's all done, which hopefully will be by the end of February.
It's the beginning of February, so it's time to give out my Stash Down update for January. Here is what my chart looks like:
| Month | Yards of Yarn In Stash | Monthly Δ Yards | Monthly Δ % | Total Δ Yards | Total Δ % |
| 1-Jan-12 | 33,611 | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | 0.0% |
| 1-Feb-12 | 32,771 | (840) | -2.6% | (840) | -2.6% |
My stash has gone down 840 yards and it's all in my cardigan. Even though I started two other projects in January with stash, I won't count that yardage in the minus column until I have used the skein up. I think it will just be easier on me when figuring out the numbers. I am happy and this is a good start for me.