Sarah and I just finished a big project and — to my
personal amazement — I found myself actually tidying up!  I put all the design notes and left-over yarn
in a big box.  I put all the needles away
(where they belong – not just in a box “to be sorted later”).  And then I started straightening up my studio
space – putting away the remnants of other recent projects, putting needles
away (where they belong), shelving books. 
It was pretty awesome!  I find
that when the spirit moves me to tidy up, I had best take advantage (it does
not happen all that often).  Even if I
were to wake up in the middle of the night and feel the urge to start cleaning
out knitting bags, I think I would hop out of bed and do it (it has never
happened, so I cannot say for sure….). 
Anyhow, I am giving myself a “Good Job!” pat on the back!

On to the promised Helpful Hint.

This one actually comes from Sarah.  She was changing yarn colors and stitch
patterns on said big project, but found she would have to work an undesired
wrong-side row in order to be ready to start the new stitch pattern (which
began on a right-side row).  So, she
simply cut her yarn, slid all the stitches onto the other needle (so the
right-side was facing her), attached the new yarn, and commenced with the new
pattern.  One could do this without
changing yarns, of course, by just cutting and re-attaching the same ball of
yarn.  It is even easier if one happens
to be using circular needles – just turn the work to the right-side and
go.  Kind of blows the mind – working two
right-side rows back-to-back!

And finally, A Wish.

I wish yarn manufacturers would mark the center of every
skein and ball of yarn. 

I thought of this while I was winding a skein today – I
wanted 2 fairly equal balls out of the skein and had to guess (not very
accurately, as it turned out) when to stop the one and start the other.  If only there had been a nice little half-way
mark!  It would help when estimating the
rate of yarn-using-up on a project and any time one is wondering if there is
indeed enough of the yarn one is using (the last of the dye-lot, of course) to
make two full-length sweater sleeves – or if one should make ¾ sleeves.  How often have I sat squeezing a
partially-used ball of yarn trying to determine if I have passed the half-way
point! 

I sat there winding my second (puny) ball of yarn and
thought up about a dozen scenarios where a half-way mark come in handy.