aswim in knits

Friday, April 27, 2007

craft room unpacked

Earlier this week, I unpacked my craft room. I meant to open just one or two boxes, but before I knew it, I had opened up everything, and unpacked it all!

This is the view from the door:

The blue square masked off in front of the windows is where I will put my sewing table and chair. It's in my parents' basement, but Dad is in the process of a major basement clear-out, and I'll get it soon.

In the corner, I have 2 bookcases, one short and one tall. They look pretty good next to each other, though. The shorter unit has all my craft books, as well as pattern binders and magazines on top. I'll be buying some IKEA magazine holders to replace the black plastic ones.

Here's what's in the tall unit --
On top of bookcase: freezer paper and yarn-measuring thing (1 "wrap" around the posts is 1 yard of yarn)
Shelf 1: some IKEA stuff for our bedroom dresser, which we'll assemble this weekend. Then I'll have an empty shelf!
Shelves 2, 4, 5: a dozen and a half storage boxes with all sorts of craft clutter -- knitting needles, yarn labels, patterns, bead tools, adhesives, and one box labelled "craft supplies" -- clearly, this is an old label, from before my craftiness grew out of control!
Shelf 3: a basket with charity knitting
Shelf 6: 2 orange nail/screw containers that have been repurposed to hold my beads and sequins.

So, where's the yarn and fabric, you might ask? Umm, that's in the closet!

The blue chest of drawers has my yarn.
Drawer 1: sock yarn
Drawer 2: sweater yarn (3 sweaters, one of which is a UFO)
Drawer 3: misc cotton and non-animal fibers
Drawer 4: misc wools and animal fibers

On top of the bookcase is my sewing box, a plastic storage box of wooly odds and ends for charity knitting, and a metal basket with cottony scraps for the same purpose.

Leaning on the bookcase is the ironing board.

To the left, an IKEA shoe hanging bag with 4 drawers. So far, this holds my scissors/rulers/measuring tapes, ribbons and buttons, straight knitting needles, swift, plastic storage bags, swatches, plastic bags, and misc odds and ends. There are 4 or 5 empty pockets, and I also have 2 more drawer inserts I can use.

Two large plastic storage boxes of fabric and items to be recycled into craftiness (old jeans, etc.). I have a sweater hanger from IKEA, from the same line as the shoe hanger. I'll use that for the fabric, but I'll first take everything out and fold it.

On the top shelf, far right, is my WIP basket, which needs a better home. It will either go somewhere else in this room or in the living room. The middle box holds a lot of synchronized swimming paperwork, for which I need a file box, and a good purge! The little shoebox has a bunch of fabric scraps, and I need to decide how to organize/store them. The large plastic box holds my various bags (not purses, but totebags, backpacks, etc.) This is not a very convenient place to store them, so I might need to rething where they go. On top are some quilting and embroidery hoops that I inherited from my mom. Not sure where they will end up.

I've also got some clothing that is destined for charitable donation. Once that is given away, I'll have a little more room, too.

As you can see, the room needs some more organizing. Now that I have enough space for everything to be stored properly, I need to sort through everything, and put all like items together. Then, I need to see if there is anything that should be gotten rid of. Finally, I need to think about how I will use the room, and how to put items away in convenient places.

Before I get to that, I'll need to "live" in the space for a while.

Any and all ideas for storage and/or decoration are welcome. I'll be keeping the white curtains, the cool green walls and the navy/white duvet on the twin bed. Everything else is open for discussion!

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Wednesday, April 25, 2007

look out my bedroom window ...

... and this is what you shall see!



The circus has come to town!

Every year the town we live in uses the Middle School grounds for a carnival. Did I mention that our new house is right across the street from the middle school fields?

We are still unpacking, assembling IKEA furniture (8 separate pieces, baby!), and decorating. Since we moved, we have not set up phone, cable tv, or internet at home. It's kind of nice, as I am doing more housework and reading of books than ever before. There are times when I miss vegging out in front of the tv, but only a couple of evenings so far, and mostly when Thom is not home.

There will be crafty news again soon, as I managed to get my craft room unpacked last night, in a fit of inspired motivation.

In the meantime, I've been knitting socks and knitting hats for charity, as neither one requires too much mental energy. I finished Thom's boring grey socks, and am 3/4 of the way through a pair for me. I checked the charity knits collection, and I think I've added 4 hats to the pile this month. I guess it's time to make some mittens and socks, too!

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