Every January one of my "resolutions" is to clean up my crafty stash and organize, donate, sell, or trash stuff. This year is especially important, because in March/April we are packing up all this stuff and moving back to Oregon.

This year I’m participating in a group-effort organize-along and ufo-along with some of my dear internet friends. (For those of you unfamiliar with the term ufo, in the craft world it is an UnFinished Object.) Our goal is to motivate each other to finish up all those projects lurking in the dark recesses of our homes, freeing ourselves of the associated guilt, and releasing a bit of storage space for the coming year’s projects. It’s also a time to take stock of what we have, make decisions on what to keep, and put things away neatly so we might actually be able to find all that great stuff again in the coming year, when we are actually looking for it.

Since tomorrow is the official kickoff of the "organizalong" I’ll start by posting photos of the current state of my stash. Yes, you’ll be privy to the dark, secret, embarrasing truth of how much fabric/lace/yarn/etcetera I really have. I know you don’t want to miss out on my dirty laundry, so check in regularly on my progress, and post comments to encourage me. And while you’re at it, check into my shop and help me out.

When I saw that "Rob from Brooklyn" had chosen MY fuzzy toddler sweater as a featured item, I crowed and crowed about it, and then I forgot to tell you! Oops!

I’m nearly finished with my gift-making. Miss O is pretty well covered. Big E is a little trickier (I know he spent money on me this year, and I didn’t spend any on him). I have a few knit things for him, and the last one is nearly finished. I just need about an hour on Saturday night and it will be ready to stuff into his stocking. I got a package off to the family last week, with a handmade thing for everyone except Dad. Erik got him something cool, so I’ll save my handmade thing for his birthday in March. Haven’t started a gift for Mom, but she’s not coming down until January, probably, so I have a little more time. By the way, if I seem to be a bit vague, it is because I don’t want my family to know what they’re getting by reading this. That would be bad, mkay? Knit a hat for etsy the other day, and crocheted a couple giant flowers to go with it. Hat turned out too big, but I’m calling a design detail, folding up the brim, and pinning the flowers to it. Viola! It really looks pretty swell. I want to get a styrofoam head to model it for the pictures. Checked ebay the other day, and mannequin parts are pretty cheap. I’m going to get a head or two, a few torsos, and a foot. But they’ll have to wait until February at least (except maybe the head… that’s pretty small). I need to clean up the craft stash and implement this year’s Stash Reduction Challenge. I’m going to offer some sort of special in my shop for things made entirely from my stash. I don’t know what sort of deal yet. Maybe free shipping, maybe $ off to correspond with how many points I earned for using up the stuff. I’ll think about that more next week.