Only a seamstress or person who sews ALOT can understand this situation. I have a method when I am deep into a sewing project and one of my time savers is throwing clipped strings on the floor. Yes, I know it sounds crazy, messy, not organized and so on. See, I used to be a machininst in the Aerospace world and also in the Navy. When I was in the Navy we would have to stop machining constantly just to clean up the metal chips from the floors, sweep, mop and keep them spit shine clean just in case an Admiral dropped in. It would take me forever to get my work done but boy, those floors shined! When I got out of the Navy and started working in the civilian world one of my jobs was a machinist in a local aerospace company. It was completely opposite with the metal chips. My old boss was strangely addicted to seeing piles and piles of metal chips all over the place, on the floors, machines, in our hair, clothes, shoes and so on. I swear, I left a trail from work to home on a daily basis. His theory was that stopping to clean the floors was wasting his precious money, i.e. our hourly rates which were better spent running parts and not sweeping. We would clean up about once a week. Well, needless to say, that wasn't my favorite way of doing things since I'm mildly OCD about stepping all over stuff on floors but when I started my sewing business, I learned really quickly that trying to drop my stings directly in the trash can was eating up extra seconds that, over the course of hours of sewing a day, was just killing my schedule. This is one of my husband's pet peeves. I know this because once and only once, he mentioned to me "why don't you just put your strings in the trash can". After I explained, he shrugged his shoulders as if to say, "you're crazy but ok" and off he went. Over the years, he's learned to just ignore or at least try to ignore the strings. My strings represent my day. At the end of the day I do clean them up, I promise....ok sometimes I wait until the next morning but I surely don't wait a week like with the metal chips. The only drawback, the occasional rogue string that won't seem to unstick itself from my pants, my shirt, Sascha's (my hubby) uniform or the kid's school clothes. I know it probably bugs them but it doesn't really bug me. Every time I have to go somewhere outside the house and I have a little string party happening on my clothing, someone usually asks me "what have you been sewing" and it gives me an excuse to talk about my latest project. This is directly linked to one of my Sascha's other curiosities about me...my desire to talk to every person I pass in the store...but we'll save that for another day. Long story short, I love my carpet full of strings. They are my lovely little colors of accomplishment.
