Busy Times! Plus, the Great Destash

Hello everyone! 

It's been a mad couple of weeks here, and things are finally starting to settle down. The weather has also been freezing cold - I am trying to be glad of that so that when I am sweaty and miserable in the height of summer I can honestly say I wish it was wintet ;)

New Job

On July 1 I started a new job, as Secretary to our local Rotary District Youth Exchange Committee. I've had to hit the ground running on that, as there are two big events coming up at the end of July! It has been a steep, steep learning curve, but I'm starting to feel like I might know what I'm doing. Incidentally, if you know anyone who is in year 8 this year and might be interested in a year away at school in another country in 2017, learning another language, let me know! I can put you in touch with the right people ;)

As part of that, I really needed a place to work and store all of the associated paperwork in our apartment. Kiah heroically sacrificed (and tidied and cleaned!!) part of his mancave for me, and we borrowed a desk and a chair from my parents. It's taken several days to organise, but now I have a desk and a printer and easy access to the files, as well as a designated spot for me to go and work. This is as much for my brain as anything else - it is easier to physically go and sit somewhere to do a specific task, than to mentally have to change gears, or feel that I'm always on duty. 

New Patterns

It was a total headache trying to get our new patterns up for sale! Based on my Flame Motif, Anne designed the Bonfire Beanie and I designed the Moroccan Doorways Mini Clutch - you probably saw the blog post about these last week :) Of course, in this crazy, fast-moving world, it's impossible to know what is going to be popular or not... If you have a few moments on Ravelry this week, could you visit our patterns and give it a favourite or a queue, even if you don't want to buy? 

DeStashInator!!!

My biggest achievement this week has definitely been weeding over 9kg of un-needed yarn out of my stash! I always buy more yarn than I need, even for specific projects, and the excess has just been getting more and more out of control.

I first shared with my close Aussie yarnie friends on Facebook and shifted about 5kg through them, then listed on a yarn selling Facebook group and by 11:30pm last night it was all sold! Now we are making the post office very happy (and rich), posting yarn all over the country! 

It's hard to say goodbye to yarn, especially yarn I wanted so much and bought for special projects. However, realistically I'm not going to use this stuff, and if I want more I can always go to the shops or the online yarn warehouses and buy more! Better money in the pocket than too much yarn spilling off the shelves, right? 


New Project

And, just because I'm never busy enough, I'm starting a new project soon - the Around the Bases CAL by KeitoPalette! It looks like heaps of fun, and a good way to use up my scraps and bits of Stylecraft Special DK. I'm still looking for a good centre square though - do you have any ideas for me? 

Hugs,

Michelle