Stashed Up

I am participating in LAL (Learn Along) from the Knitcents Podcast and Ravelry group. Basically, you have to learn something new. Even better if it helps you save money, save the environment, and any other which way you can figure out. Here was my post the LAL thread:

"Ok here is my contest entry

Non-knitting

I learned how to use dish soap, salt, vinegar, and baking soda to clean lots of things:

• For the bathtub I plug the drain then pour some baking soda all over then the vinegar. I let the fizzing do the work for a little while. I then pour some salt and start scrubbing with a brush. The vinegar and baking soda disinfect and whiten. The salt adds a lot of friction and super cleans the tub. To finish I boil some water (pleeeeeeease be careful) and pour over the tub. All the grime and oil comes right off better then any fume ridden chemical for the bathroom. Saves you money and you save the ozone layer!!! Double win!!! You can also use for the toilet.
• In a spray bottle mix 1 cup vinegar, 1tbls dish soap, and then fill the rest with water serves as a great glass cleaner and counter disinfectant. Save more money!!!!

Knitting:

I'm stash busting since I've spent too much money on yarn. Here is how:

Since summer is coming and I’ve been seeing a lot of moths and critters lately I have decided to Ziploc all my natural fibers. Don’t want a perfectly good ball of wool or alpaca to go to waste.

And to stash bust I have decided to make each bag a kit by putting all the yarn together and adding a pattern in the bag. So next time I want to start something new all I have to do is pick up a Ziploc bag and start casting on!!

Hope these tips are helpful!!"

The bathtub one I couldn't try. For some reason here in Tijuana (or most of Mexico) people don't have bathtubs, just showers. But I did use it on my friends tub lol. It worked really well!! I unfortunately didn't take pictures but it was so pretty and white. The vinegar and baking sodas fizziness disinfected (reminded me of the volcano in grade school lol). You could feel the salt really working as you scrubbed. The boiling water just melted all that grime and junk and as a plus the boiling water helps the drain from clogging up. It must have felt so nice to shower in it afterwords.

I did get a bottle and made the cleaning mix with vinegar. I just it on my giant glass coffee table and no streaks. Nice and clean. You could smell the vinegar but it went away right away. That and I looooove to light my scented candles after I clean.

For my knitting project

I have finally organized my stash!!! It's nice and pretty. I decided to "photograph" and put it all up in my Ravelry Stash. The reason I put photograph in quotations is cause I used my cell cam to do the job. I still haven't gotten around to getting a digital camera. It worked though and as long as something can do the job I need it to do I rather save the money to add to my stash (oh wait I didn't say that. Trying to de-stash). I even took all my skeins to my LYS and got them all wound into balls (all except for one straggler that got away, and thanks for the help Kathy!!!) so now I can't get discouraged on using yarn from my stash due to unwound yarn.

Anyways, it's all up. Now I have to start picking some patterns out. I had already picked out some patterns for some of my newer yarns and I wrote about it in my Confession blog entry. It was me trying justify my impulsiveness, but it's helpful now.

I went out yesterday and bought the Jumbo Ziploc bags and even XL bags. The jumbo ones are actually Hefty brand but it works just as well. I also splurged on a set of mini speakers for my Ipod to listen to podcasts as I'm getting these kits together. I hope it will help me stay focused and get the job done. Here some pics of my organized stash:





Now I'm off to find patterns and start getting those kits together!!! After I have breakfast...