Project: Jumpstart

This is what the Green Woman and I did yesterday after reading my letter together and hugging it out.

I've always found that a good bout of cleaning, reorganization, and purging is good for the soul and can help get the old creative juices flowing again.  Here are my instructions to a happy office/studio/corner. 

1. Clean out your bookshelves
1. Be sure to get rid of any and all books (gasp!) that you don't want anymore.  Seriously.  Yes, I did say to get rid of books.  There are a few that can go out the door.  (If you have to stop and read them all.....)
2. Purge paper patterns.  Maybe 1/3 of them are purchased patterns that you should keep.  The rest are copies of stuff you can find online.  Recycle them, baby!
3. Pack up random office supplies and find someplace to store them.
4. Consider the magazines....oh, the magazines....10 years of knitting mags that you NEVER go back and look through again.  Might be time to purge.  Feel free to take your time with this.  You will have to go through each. individual. magazine. 
2. Sort and Organize the chest of drawers.  Again.
1. You had forgotten you had so many bags, hadn't you.  Whoops.  Anything damaged or nasty needs to go.  (Yeah, that skunk bag....the smell may be gone, but you can't forget.)
2. Cool.  The rest isn't so bad at all.
3. Actually touch all of your yarn.  Makes a difference.  Remember the stash naps of old?  From when the stash lived under the bed?  Yeah, do as much of that as you can.
3. Go through all handspun yarns. 
1. Just as with the storebought, touch it! 
2. Pull out the stupid yarn balance and figure out your yardage.  You need clothes?  You have at least two massive skeins in there that are surely big enough for SOMETHING. 
3. Alternatively, measure one time around the skein and count the # of wraps.  Either way is annoying...but you do need to have an estimate of yardage.
4. Stop and Watch General Hospital.  You deserve it.
5. Dig through fiber stash
1. OK, there is some older fleece from our sheep that could be passed along.  You have a gazillion sheep to choose from now, and you've not touched any of it since you finished the parental sweaters.
2. While you are at it, you can photograph all of it and enter it into your Ravelry stash page. 
3. Dratted cameras....stop and take some time to experiment with the new phone to figure out which device gives you better pictures and color. 
4. Pick something to put on the wheel.  ANYTHING.  You really need to use this lovely stuff.
6. Get back to those magazines.  (You didn't think I was done, did you?) 
1. Call Mom to see if she wants any.
2. Start a give away/recycle bag.
7. Take those pins out of the wall.  The lovely shawl they once helped displayed has gone on to a new home (which makes you very, very happy) and until you figure out what you want to hang in that spot the pins are an eyesore.
8. Put away the handspun.  Today is NOT about starting a new project.  Don't bury it, though. 
9. Um...you've had that latch hook cat kit since you were about 8.  I don't think it's ever going to be finished, do you?  You can keep the basket it's in.  After all, that's from Haiti and is special.
10. Remind yourself that you've given yourself a deadline of dinner time tonight to get this done....and get back to work!
11. Send a PM to a friend to see if she wants a bit of your stuff.  Do a happy dance when she says yes.
12. You need a picture of your fairy godmother on your board. 
13. Consider the clutter on your desk
1. Is there anything you can get rid of?
2. Do you really need four of the exact same beanie baby dragons?  (The ONLY beanie babies you ever had, thank GOD.) 
3. Clean out that drawer of random paperwork.  It's been in there for so long that you have no idea what it's all about.  Might be a good idea to figure that out.Once all is well, dust, vacuum and clean the glass.   
14. Now that you are done, you can have fun!