Pattern Organization

Friday Night I went through my stash.  Part of that included going through books & notions.  While going through the closet I found stacks of printed patterns.  Stacks of them.  For two years I've been meaning to take care of those stacks, to organize them.  Mission accomplished.  I took two nights and about three hours to complete the project - much less time than I thought.

Here is how I accomplished this organizational undertaking.

Step One. Pull everything out of the closet.

Step Two. Stare at the amount of patterns sitting on the table.

Step Three.  Feel appropriately overwhelmed.

Step Four. Empty two binders.

Step Five. Put some patterns in the recycle box.

Step Six. Put paper patterns not in sheet protectors into sheet protectors.

Step Seven. Mentally thank Carla for picking me up a huge box of sheet protectors at CostCo for cheap.

Step Eight. Look at the huge number of patterns left (I actually got rid of HALF the patterns I had) and go through them again to get rid of even more.

Step Nine. Make a huge mess on the kitchen counters while sorting piles of patterns in to smaller catograized patterns.

Step Ten. Laugh (out loud) at my husband who comes in and tells me he needs to use the stove while I have it covered with patterns.

Step Eleven. Remind my husband that he doesn't know what a stove is (lovingly of course, he has never enjoyed cooking & only has a kitchen because it came with the house).

Step Twelve. Alphabetize the patterns within each category.

Step Thirteen. Continually say parts of the alphabet out loud to assist with alphabetizing.

Step Fourteen. Fill four binders with neatly organized patterns.

Step Fifteen. Have my darling husband carry four full binders upstairs.

Step Sixteen. Write a blog post about how crazy I am.

Step Seventeen. Feel sense of accomplishment and knit for the rest of the night.

Step Eighteen. Realize how much pressure I've put on myself by having this many patterns in the closet up stairs.

Step Nineteen. Start knitting like a fiend.

Step Twenty. Finally, continue to ignore the mess of electronic pattern files on my personal & work computer.  That organization will happen some other day.

PS.  And since I've written this post (I love being able to schedule posts for the future) I have actually organized my electronic patterns & they are safely backed up in 3 places!