In other productivity news...

Yesterday I took advantage of a warm day to paint some plant pots and pop some perennials in the ground.

The Orkney Pi continues to grow an edging: There are now 24 points (of 80), 9 of which were completed this weekend. That's about all the knitting news, except for the work on the samples for the next issue.

The 'settling in' continues: Thursday night I set up my desk in the bedroom closet (it's a BIG closet), and got my rubbermaid bins arranged around it. The area doesn't look a whole lot better, but at least I can find my yarn remnant bins, my thread rack is no longer lying on its back, and I can identify bins of clothes from bins of yarn.

All this organizing sure feels good!

A productive weekend - in more ways than one!

Today was a busy day in the office -- the weather made for an incentive to stay inside and compute!

The frustrations with the November issue live on -- it's in the hands of the printers now, but they only run the colour press on certain days of the week, and my run doesn't get on until tomorrow, so it will be Wednesday before I can get this issue into the envelopes.

So, since I could do no more with the old issue, I spent the day doing a little organizing here in the office (I found a banker's box of stuff from the move, and had to dig out my material for my creativity workshop), then settled down to input two yarn reviews and one of the projects for the next issue.

In my digging about I also found some old photographs to add to the CGK scrapbook. I began it when I started CGK, and, thanks to my new beau's daughter-in-law, we're getting together one night a month to try and get it caught up -- there've been other things ahead of it on the priority list for the past few years.

Now, I'm off to have a quick video game, then join Darling on the sofa with -- what else? -- some knitting.

A productive Sunday

Well, I spent another extended, quality day in the home office.

I started the morning by working on an archive project for Knit Together. I've been taking 2 or 3 copies of each issue for the past six years and sorting them by page/subject. For example, I have all the covers in one section, all the editorials in another, all the Canadian Knitter and Canadian Designer and LYS features in three other sections and so on. I have a section for interest pieces, one for anything that mentions the Knitting Accreditation Program, and a section for any knitting technique pieces. Before today, I had only got as far as August, 2005. Today I got most of 'the majors' right up to date. I still have to file a few technical pieces and general interest bits. This project came about from a fear of running the same editorial twice.

What set me off on this little segue was an effort to find the last listing of successful Level 1 Knitting Accreditation participants. What I found shocked me, so now, I've started a new document to track the history of the Knitting Accreditation Program. I'm telling you, there's a lot to this guild thing! You have to have systems in place to make sure you catch everything, and at the same time, you have to have systems in place to make sure you don't repeat anything!

After lunch I began marking three of the four KAP packages I have in-house. As it happened, the fourth package is actually a Level 2 test knitting package back in already! Man, you guys are keen! But, I digress.

Since the last batch of KAP announcements were made in Knit Together in May, 200seven, ten more packages have been evaluated. Eight of these participants were successful; only two had to re-examine a few of the exercises. Trivia answer: it takes just over 2 hours, on average, to mark one level package.

I am honoured to see the calibre of work coming back in through the program, and wish everyone could be in my shoes when I crack open those boxes and packages. The boxes I marked today will be mailed out with Knit Together, hopefully later in the week. I have the final draft in my hands... we're down to the odd hyphen and apostrophe fix now, but the real holdup has been the new batch of covers... they take time to dry, and the artwork needs a final OK, too.

In the front 'yard' the mergansers have been all over the nesting box. 'Tis the season! We have one hooded who has been hanging out with a female merganser. There are buffleheads, too. The photo at the right is a couple male buffies. Darling has taken over 500 photos of ducks this year, but this pic is from last year.

Darling has taken to doing water colour paintings of his beloved birds. It gives him something to do while I'm writing and marking. Yesterday morning we did get some yard work done. Right now we have the teensy 'snow flies' as Darling calls them. They're not bad to deal with, but we've got a two week window to get as much done as we can before the blackflies come out. THEY're a problem.

My new Title

I have been proclaimed the Demi-goddess of Knitterly Organization! Me! Me, who, on any given day, has a desk that looks like a bomb hit it! Me, who still has 99% of her stash in storage after a house move last year.

Yes, this is humbling news, indeed, given my own world.

How do you suppose I might have been sainted with such a title? Well, you see, I have a knack for spreadsheets. Give me a spreadsheet and I will organize data. And that, it seems is where the organizing story ends. However, I managed to create a database for one of the knit lists I belong to on yahoo groups (MMario), and MMario himself granted me this illustrious title. I've asked if this title comes with a tiara, but I haven't heard back yet... but I'm hopeful!

This weekend the proofreading continues for the next issue of Knit Together. Today I have a family gathering later on, so I posted photos of the projects in this issue on my Ravelry page (where I am "theloveofknit", for those of you who Ravel, too).

Exciting news: A fellow I met at Mile High Conference in 2007 is now working part-time at Lacis. They have a new book coming out, and I'm in line to get a review copy of it. Look for more information about it in a future issue of Knit Together!

In personal knitting, work continues on the Orkney Pi. There was some debate whether to end it with horseshoes or do a sideways-knitted edging. So I cast on 80 sts, and 'faked up' an outside edge (shown at left in photo) then tried several incarnations of a zig-zig border. The garter stitch won out, because, as could be expected, the stocking stitch (second point from bottom) curled dreadfully. I tried to orientate the rosebuds the same way as they appear in the body in the centre point, but didn't like the effect. It doesn't look bad in the photo, but it doesn't work well close-up. I wound up going with the original design from the bottom point, but I moved the rosebud one stitch to the left. Keep in mind that this sample hasn't been blocked.

The full shawl, unblocked, to the outside edge, is now 62" in diameter, roughly as wide as I am tall. The Horseshoes would have added 7 inches to that, but the edging only adds 5 inches, when measured out to the points. Heaven only knows what'll happen in the blocking. It will be very *lightly* blocked, I'm sure of that.

This morning, over my coffee, I finished the last two rounds of the body of the shawl, and got the first three repeats of the edging done. Only 77 repeats to go! How many rows in a repeat? 32! But, we're on the home stretch.

Eleven weeks!

I'm all in a flap, just like this guy! As I promised, I got the layout for the next issue of Knit Together uploaded to the printer's!

When I looked back I find that the last one was uploaded just under eleven weeks ago! I'm so excited, I had to share.

The plan this weekend was also to get all the recently-received renewals and memberships caught up and mailed as necessary, and unfortunately that hasn't happened. I promise to get to that either this week or over the Easter Weekend, when we will be preparing the mailing material and doing final proof reads for the magazine.

To those of you who are waiting, thanks for your patience and for giving me a few more days.

Just one more day

We're in the home stretch for the next issue of Knit Together. The last page of article was finished today. Tomorrow I'll layout the contents page and tidy up page 2, the upload the ftp to the printer!

This issue had the annual-ish challenge of renewing advertising for the back cover. I'm still waiting to hear from one advertiser, but I have two bookings as it stands. This *could* delay the release of this issue by an additional week, but other than that, I'm pleased that this issue will go to the printers *within* the three months it's supposed to!

Looking further ahead, the projects for February and May issues are mapped out, as are several of the features for the February issue. The goal is to have February mailed before I go to Olds. If I can achieve that, I'll be on my way to a full production schedule recovery.

The photo at the right is a glimpse of one of the techniques used in the mini project going to press tomorrow: i-cord cast on. For a written refresher, look at the May, 2008 issue of Knit Together.

I-cord cast on makes a fabulous edge for scarves, and all kinds of projects. Cast on 3 stitches and try it!