Everything Old Is New Again

"When trumpets were mellow
And every gal only had one fellow
No need to remember when
'Cause everything old is new again

Dancin' at church, Long Island jazzy parties
Waiter bring us some more Bacardi
We'll order now what they ordered then
'Cause everything old is new again

Get out your white suit, your tap shoes and tails
Let's go backwards when forward fails
And movie stars you thought were alone then
Now are framed beside your bed

Don't throw the past away
You might need it some rainy day
Dreams can come true again
When everything old is new again"

-Peter Allen

I have promised DH I will spend an hour each day cleaning out closets, drawers, cabinets, and the like. The idea is to make our storage spaces look bigger by making their contents smaller. I am told this is standard house listing trickery.

Now it seems to me that if "everyone does it," potential buyers would be well aware of the tactic and not easily fooled by it, but who am I to argue with real life realtor wisdom?

So I am cleaning out, throwing away, boxing up, and getting down with the whole "let's revisit every item from the past 20 years" gig.

All I can say is, "This is what happens when you live in the same place for too long."

Actually, I can say something else...

OY!

That about covers it. If you are familiar with the former size of my stash, then you can begin to get an idea of what I am going through.

And through...

And through some more...

While it can be daunting, there are hidden treasures that come to light. I am tempted to keep them, but try to hew to the one year rule: if you haven't used it in one year, get rid of it.

Actually, DH & I started boxing things up a couple years back, before our move got postponed. We boxed up many things we thought we could live without for the year or two we thought it would take to sell this house and build the next. We weren't ready to get rid of these items, but we could put them in storage for the duration.

The sad truth is: not only have I not missed them, I don't even know what's in those boxes anymore. I think that is a convincing argument for divestiture.

We will lose many things in our long term move:

• our dining room set
• our decrepit rec room couches (Baby Boy/Family Man thought it was the "wreck" room, when we were adding it on. Truer words were never spoken.)
• our bumper pool table
• our piano
• our high maintenance yard
• our easy availability as last minute babysitters (this is a double edged sword.)
• our frustration with over-zealous suburban developers and the traffic headaches that ensue when they fail to adequately plan ahead
• our local doctors, dentists, hair stylists, dry cleaners, etc.
• and a s**tload of unessential belongings that clutter up our lives
  

Most of these things are long overdue for overhaul. Familiarity breeds complacency.

Some things, however, are worth revisiting, reworking, rehabbing, re-purposing, or re-imagining.

Like my pattern for Celestial.


Celestial was my second pattern. It was never test knitted. It had many flaws. It was a beginner's effort. Not bad, but certainly not up to my current standards.

The bead count was off, the directions were confusing, and it used a convoluted method of pre-stringing, rather than the crochet hook method I now prefer. The directions for getting the beads to line up at the center of the star were torturous, at best.

I have long meant to rewrite this pattern and last week, I did.

Anyone who has purchased the original pattern can get the re-mixed pattern free of charge. I think it is the least I can do for those of you who have purchased the pattern in good faith, based upon my other designs and been disappointed.

I would like to say I have all of your purchases on record, but the sad fact is, I think I may well have lost some of them last fall when DH dropped my old laptop. Just drop me an email. I'll send you the updated pattern. We will use the honor system.

This pattern has long been the ugly stepchild of the sunflower family. No more.

She is spiffed up, made over, and glammed out.

There is only one project on Ravelry, other than mine; this is bandknito's beaded nothern lights scarf.

Isn't she lovely?

I am assuming this is NOT a picture of the knitter...

My cat would never stand still for this! LOL...

Anyway...

Celestial is really a lovely little bit of lace and I hope this rewrite and her new availability as a Ravelry download will make her more popular with the hoi-polloi.

She deserves better. And so do you.