Organized Yarn Closet

I organized my yarn closet this winter. I'm thinking I did this back in January, but I hadn't gotten around to posting the picture until now. Inspired by my local yarn shop's yarn displays, I bought a bunch of black metal cubes at Target. Although they have recommendations on the box, you cal really arrange the cubes in any way you see fit or in any way that will make them fit! The other part of the system is a black metal shelving unit that I think I bought at Menards. I'd used it to store plants at our previous home. I sorted the yarn mostly by color, and the projects are in bags on the black shelving unit. The two yellow suitcases are filled with afghan projects that I inherited. There are other non-yarn things in here too such as my jewelry-making supplies. I like this system because it makes it easy to find what I'm looking for and to see what I've got at a glance.


The second picture is of one of my new toys that I also bought this winter. It's a ball winder and yarn swift. I don't like umbrella swifts, so I got something a bit different. I ordered it on ETSY from a carpenter in IL, and I love it!

The rest of the crafting things you see on and around my drafting table are my scrapbooking/rubber stamping supplies.

Falcoon brushes his teeth

Maine Coon cats are particularly susceptible to gingivitis, so it's good to brush their teeth. I know that in humans, there is a connection between gingivitis and heart disease. My husband's dentist explained this to him when he was diagnosed with gingivitis. He had his special extra-painful deep cleanings and has been flossing 2x daily. He's almost entirely reversed his gingavitis. With the cat, though, I figured we'd just try to prevent it in the first place as much as possible.

I decided to train Falcoon to put up with having his teeth brushed, and I honestly anticipated bloodied hands from the attempt. However, the training went a lot easier than I anticipated, namely because Falcoon had already been brushing his teeth. I just didn't know about it until I caught him using my husband's soniccare toothbrush!!!

One day, I went to Walgreens for something else and saw that they were having a sale of buy one get one free on toothbrushes, so I bought Falcoon his very own toothbrush so he'd stop using my husband's! I did replace Craig's toothbrush btw. We don't use toothpaste, but Falcoon just loves brushing his teeth. He sits on the cat tree, and I hold the toothbrush for him while he brushes it around his mouth. He's a very oral (read bitey) cat anyway, so for him this is just great fun. It's his special game that he gets to play with me. And he gets cleaner teeth in the process!

I finally managed to snap a picture of Falcoon brushing his teeth this morning! At our last checkup, the vet said that his teeth and gums looked very nice.

Green Socks

This is my first pair of lace socks. I'm quite pleased with them. :) I made these from Lanette sock yarn. It's tough to find a good, solid color sock yarn, but this stuff is great, very soft. Also I have been wanting to make a pair of green socks for a long time now but had been having trouble finding a yarn that I liked. I used a pattern from the book, Socks, Socks, Socks that I reviewed over at Universal Book Reviews.

Fair Isle Socks

These are one of the pairs of socks that I am working on currently. My first Fair Isle socks was a pair of slipper socks that I made for my mom for Christmas. They have hearts on the heels. These are a lot tougher though because the pattern is more complex. I'm enjoying making these socks, but they are definitely challenging.

Perking the Office

Yay! Craig gave me flowers. I brought them to work so that my cat, Doc, wouldn't eat them or knock them over. Plus, I wanted to look at them while I was at work. The plant in the foreground is a grafted cactus.

Knitting Bags

I was at my friend's place yesterday, and she saw that I was using a zippered bag that curtains come in to store my current sock project. She said that she uses the same thing! I like zippered bags such as those for curtains, pillowcases, and for bigger projects, comforters or blankets. Some other bags that work great are the inexpensive "green" bags that are being sold all over town as a replacement for paper or plastic bags at the grocery store. Of course, I find myself using tote bags as well to store knitting projects. At garage sales, you can find a ton of tote bags really cheap. People go to conferences where they are given these bags they will never use again. I don't personally care what the bags say or where they come from because they make great project bags.

Craig Peterson & Beyond Compare

Pictured to the left is my husband, Craig Peterson. He's the lead developer of a shareware utility called Beyond Compare. Recently, he was interviewed by Successful Software. A couple of months ago, he participated in the Podcast at Delphi.org where he also discussed the development of Beyond Compare version 3.

One of the things they were trying to ascertain in the Successful Software interview is why Beyond Compare succeeded despite the developers ignoring conventional wisdom and making some unusual decisions. I think it is precisely for these reasons that Beyond Compare is so successful. You cannot succeed if you just do what everybody else does. They buck the trends, and it works for them.