Organization

The one nice thing about having to go through everything for moving to Japan is that I have to go through EVERYTHING. Like sorting my stash, choosing which yarns will go and which will stay, and actually, really, fully, cataloguing it. As you can see in the sidebar, I've rearranged the stats. I have every single one of my WIPs in the progress panel. This is everything that I'm taking to Japan with me that's already been started. As I'm looking at what I'm taking, what's started versus what's not, and packing it all, I'm really not bringing much. All of my sock yarn and all of my laceweight is going. What's not going is some yarn for a couple of broomstick lace blankets and some earflap hats, along with my extra Classic Merino for Pocket Creatures and a cross stitch of Santa Ornaments I forgot I left in a bag. I kind of wish I had brought all the rest of it. Or at least the stuff mentioned here, the stuff for actual projects. I was going to bring all project things, but then in the end started pareing. Shouldn't have done that. It would have totally fit in the car to get here, and now we're space bag-ing everything! My stash looks so very small all sitting on the table. I'm only bringing all of my sock yarn (enough for 17 pairs) all of my laceweight (enough for quite a few pieces of all shapes and sizes) and yarn for an aran afghan I'm planning to knit. I have yarn for 4 BYOBs (just started one), another sweater and will be buying yarn for another soon, but I'm hoping to finish both before I leave. I do have, not counting the laceweight, enough for 46 other projects (and I just made a Knit Picks order, so I actually have the yarn for another five pairs of socks). 46 sounds like a heck of a lot, and it is, but the vast majority of those projects, all but 22, are cross stitches. Mostly small ornaments. A lot of that 22 is socks. Socks don't take very long.

Also I love Space Bags. The yarn is between 1/2 and 2/3 the size it originally was. Lovely for shipping overseas!

I think I probably have enough to keep me busy for the whole 3 years, but not to keep me knitting. The goal is no yarn purchases, except for presents, until the student loans are paid off. Then a couple of months of using that money for only yarn purchases, and a meal at the most ritzy, expensive restaurant we can find. We figure we can live on half of one of our salaries, so student loans should take just under two years. We're planning on 2-3, because come on, are we really going to live as frugally as we can? No way. Also we'll be needing to buy furniture and putting some away for an emergency fund, at least enough for last-minute tickets to the States. If we can actually do this and then I can put the money we were putting towards the loans to a two-month yarn spree, I will have been able to get so much of whatever I want that it will all be worth it in the end. Debt-free and all the yarn I want, I can totally live with what I have until then. Maybe I'll have my mom ship me what I didn't bring about a year into it so it feels like new yarn...