Tag Archive | craft rooms

Shawl Storage

Someone commented on my post yesterday, asking how I store my shawls, and it reminded me that I wanted to ask for advice on that! My skinny scarf/shawls go on hooks on my closet door and that’s great, but it’s ~~getting~~ full.

When I started making full-sized shawls, I used some scarf hangers and hung them over the top and through the loops and it was okay. But I keep making shawls because I love to make them so much, and my situation is getting out of hand.

I’ve added at least three shawls since I took this photo. I just keep layering more shawls on top, and I can’t see them all, and the hangers are getting heavier. I love having them out where I can see them, but either I need to buy more hangers or I need a different solution! How do you store your shawls??

Switching things up

Aug6

Do you like rearranging your furniture? Moving things around to make a room feel fresh and different? I do, and if I can add a new piece, all the better! Over the weekend, the boy decided he wanted the desk space a 6′ folding table provides, rather than the smaller library table he’s been using. I’ve been using a folding table for the same reason, but I love the look of the oak library table. Plus, it belonged to my dad, so there’s a lot of sentimental value too. It didn’t take long to switch out the old and bring in the new.

It was really hard to take a good photo, what with all the windows behind the desk. But I think you can get the gist. I’m quite pleased with it. It’s nice and sturdy, and doesn’t wobble when I write in my journal like the old table did. And it holds everything I need! The only drawback is that I lost my yarn winding space. But heck, I can do that downstairs, or get a small folding table for the other wall…hm, I like that idea a lot!

Whoa! Destash!

May27

I got a whim today, a whim to go through my yarn and get rid of what doesn’t bring me joy. I’ve been pondering it for a while, but kept telling myself it wasn’t hurting anything to keep it all, and I had the space, so why not keep it just in case I ever needed it?

Well, I didn’t really have a good answer but I decided I needed to go through it all anyway. This is close to where I started. (This is an older photo. I’d added more yarn between this photo and today. So imagine this plus some.)

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I pulled out a LOT of acrylic, mostly stuff I’d bought back when I was making things to sell. Also, I tend to prefer natural fibers to acrylic now, so I only kept my very favorite acrylic blends. I pulled out a lot of cotton and blends. Even now in the heat, I don’t find myself wanting to work with the mercerized cotton. I don’t tend to wear the things I have made with it. I only kept kitchen cotton in the colors that are actually in my kitchen, and the cotton blends that are soft and drapey.

Then I moved into the good yarn, the wool and blends. If it was itchy, I pulled it out. A few yarns I pulled are gorgeous; I still loved the look of it. But I’d used some of it and didn’t like knitting with it or wearing it, so there was no point keeping it. If it was a color I would never use, or a weight I’d never use (like one skein of sport weight?), I pulled it. I was ruthless but it wasn’t painful at all. This was what I had in the end:

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That’s a LOT of yarn. I mean, it’s kind of ridiculous when you see it all spread out like that! I’ll bag it up and see if I can sell it locally for a bit of money, and in the meantime, I’ll enjoy my newly organized stash. It’s gorgeous!

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Even looking at the shelves makes me happy! This is all yarn that I love, that I can see myself using. I even found a skein of Madtosh that I forgot I had! And that right there is a good reason to get rid of stuff I was keeping just for the heck of it: I can see what I have more easily, I can see the yarn I chose with intent, and I know that I could pick anything from my stash and be happy to knit with it.

p.s. yes I know it’s still a crazy big stash! I’m okay with that!

Craft Room Update

Apr29

I had a whole long Sunday without any plans, and I really thought I’d get a lot of knitting done. Instead, I cleaned up and rearranged my craft room! After my photography class last weekend, I wanted to get a photo-friendly spot in there, since it’s a north-facing room (prime light). So I was ruthless in cleaning out stuff I never use, making a donate pile and a trash pile, and then I pulled out a small rolltop desk I never used anymore. When I was done, my room felt bright and airy and big!

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I need a small table to fit in the corner there, and then I can build a light box and it will be the perfect place to take indoor photos! Here’s the other side of the room, complete with dogs.

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Oh, you want to see the yarn too? Okay! It’s an embarrassingly large but delightful stash. I’ve thought about pruning out all the acrylic (the bottom two shelves) but figure it’s not hurting anything, and maybe I’ll need it someday.

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Same dog, different spot. Now my room is lovely and I’m very tired and grungy, so I do believe that means it’s time to clean up and rest with my knitting.

Craft Room Organization: Phase II

Jan27

I couldn’t stand it any longer: I spent Sunday afternoon sorting my yarn stash so that it was all together by weight! Thank goodness for Ravelry, too. I pulled up my stash and filtered it one weight at a time so I didn’t miss any yarns, and there were several where I looked at the name and it meant absolutely nothing, but hey, I’d uploaded a photo of the skein! I got to remind myself how much gorgeous yarn I have, I got to pull out a few skeins of cheapo acrylic I’ll never use, and it looks much better than before!Last step is waiting for the husband to build the diagonal dividers for the shelves, but I can be patient on that…I think!

Craft Room Organization: Phase One

Jan24

I was hit with a little wave of inspiration today. I’m sure you’ve all seen the blog post from Repeat Crafter Me about her yarn storage. And using that type of shelving isn’t anything new; in fact my woodworker husband has been wanting to make them for me for a while now. But what struck me today was how she put her buttons into little glass jars, separated by colors. Brilliant!

Previously, I had two button boxes. One held all my loose single buttons, the other held button cards with 2 or more of the same buttons. When I need multiples of the same button for a project, I knew which box to grab. But what was frustrating was digging through the boxes looking for the right button in the right color.

So while I watched my tennis this morning, I separated all my buttons into piles. I kept most of the button cards intact, since they’d still fit into the jars that way. Then I gathered up the several empty glass containers cluttering up my craft room. Some I’d bought intending to use kind of like a yarn bowl, and some I just had because…well, because they might come in hand someday. Today, they did! I didn’t have enough, but thankfully my husband happened to have three Ball jars just taking up space in his workshop, and he donated them to me.Yay! I love my new button jars.

Now I just need to get him to make those dividers so I can make my yarn look all pretty. But I can’t help but wonder if by color is the best organization. I’ve got my yarn by fiber (alpaca, felting wool, superwash, soft/merino wool, cotton, silk, acrylic). That way when I need a certain fiber, I know what colors I have available. But it does look so much better by color. How do you organize your yarn? What do you like/not like about it?

Happiness is contagious. How many people can you infect?

Mar24

if you’ve read my previous posts, you know I had a wonderful weekend devoted to yarn and crafting. The resulting energy, as well as all my purchases, encouraged me to reorganize my craft room. I packed up my scrapbooking supplies into the large closet, which let me eliminate one of my folding tables to make room for two shelving units. I was able to take all my stash yarn out of plastic tubs and get it out where I can see it and touch it. I grouped it together by fiber for the most part, though there are a couple of project bags and a “shawl yarn” area.

The remaining table is my main workspace for when I’m planning projects, packing orders, editing manuscripts, or even working on my own writing. I’ve got my scanner and printer handy, and my head is nearby for when I need to take some photos.

Here’s my little desk area that houses my laptop, pen collection and gigantic Edward puzzle. Yes, I’m an unapologetic Twilight fan. I hope you’ll respect me anyway. If it helps, next to it is a signed letter from Dean Koontz.

Finally, I was able to bring up all my yarny books and get them together in one bookcase. Next to them are the tins holding all my buttons, so I can match buttons to yarns. I used some black modular shelving to hold random crafty supplies and my current inventory of finished items.

I had it set up by Sunday evening, and I was just puttering around in it. It’s a happy room. It’s a welcoming room full of color and imagination. The funny thing is that over an hour or so, my husband and both kids ended up in here with me. No real reason. At first they were just admiring the changes, but then they stayed, and just hung out with me. And the next morning, I was in here working on my computer, and my son wandered in after he got up. He sat in the rolling chair and started looking at the pictures and things I’ve got in here, and he was content to sit quietly in here with me until he got hungry enough for breakfast.

Apparently I have become the peacekeeper. By that, I don’t mean I mediate fights, though of course I do. I mean that I have an abundance of inner peace right now, and I think they’re hoping to absorb some of it. I’m profoundly grateful for the way we have our life set up right now. I’m grateful that I have the time and resources to practice the things that bring me joy. And if I can share my joy with them by sharing my happy craft space, I’m delighted.