Epic Sping Cleaning

I spent all day today cleaning. It was truly an undertaking. My mother came over to help me sort through some things, clean my bathroom, and steam clean my hallway. I have to say the apartment looks amazing. I never realized all the stuff that I had collected over the 3 years since I moved in here. I must have thrown away 60 pounds of junk. I know I recycled at least 2 years worth of magazines. But it is so nice to look around and see everything in its place. I'm really going to work hard to keep the clutter down. This can be hard when you spend your free time collecting yarn, but I'm going to try.

Penelope helped me by making sure the end table was ready for books.
A very thorough inspection revealed it was, indeed fit for books (and yarn jugs).
What kind of books? Why, knitting and cross-stitching books of course!
As for the knitting I did manage to cast on a more acceptable tank top. I decided just to go with a long tail cast on and hope it's not too tight.
And today I was tinkering around on the web before my mom came and got the inspiration to start these tonight:
They are thick little socks, on circulars no less (a first for me)! I get these weekly emails from Lion Brand yarn and they have been highlighting some charity knitting groups this month (I want to say it's national charity knitting month or something, or maybe everyone likes to highlight charity knitting at the same time, I have no idea) and they were featuring a group called Warm Woolies. These folks knit clothing to give to children in extreme poverty in some of the coldest places on earth. They donate to orphanages in Eastern Europe and Russia and Native American Indian reservations. This is exactly the type of thing I have been looking at getting into. There is something that really speaks to my heart about helping children, especially children who don't have a family or a place to call home or any of the luxuries that you and I live with daily. They listed a simple pattern for socks and, since I love socks, I immediately did a little stash diving to find some Classic Elite yarn and cast right on. Working on circulars is interesting. Can't tell if I love it or not but it is definitely something different. I will keep you updated on how these go.