I’ve been putting things away lately, my craft supplies amongst the things that are now stored mostly out of sight. I removed my yarn and fabric shelf from the wall, and actually moved my big craft desk out to Jonny’s office, swapping it for a plain table. The boys are using that table to do school work. They have outgrown being able to all fit at the kitchen table with their books. Next I need to repaint the walls, and maybe that table as well (You can see a bit of it in the photo from yesterday of Gabe and Job. The white spots on the wall are where the shelf was hanging before.) I tried the pale oak paint that I mentioned last week, but have decided against it. The walls will just get coated in beach glass again.
As much as I love seeing photographs of other people’s craft rooms with all their beautiful fabric and yarn on display, having my little bit out ultimately stressed me. I loved it at first, but eventually it began to look like clutter on some days, and on others, like everything I don’t have time to do. The projects that I hope to work on soon are tucked under my bed in a clear box along with supplies that I use most often (which lately, isn’t often at all).
I’ve got the yarn wound for Larkspur’s Leksak (Photos of Bea’s later this week!), a baby cardigan (this one, maybe?), and then that blue yarn…I bought it for the color, for a friend’s mom who likes blue. I haven’t settled on a pattern. A shawl I think, one that I can focus on during the day with kids, so not too complex. One skein of tosh merino light. Any suggestions? Oh, and the same day that yarn arrived in the mail, a copy of Flight Behavior
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Could you tell where you got the fabric with the mice ? So cute!
Thanks, Jackie
It’s been awhile since I’ve knit anything and I need to pick up the knitting needles again 🙂 :)….and blog about it, too 🙂 🙂
I met with a friend the other day at our local Whole Foods for coffee, knitting, girl talk etc….and needless to say the only knitting we managed to get done was to bring our projects to the store…hahahaha 😉 🙂 🙂
I don’t have a craft room, but my craft stuff is all over the house. I do need to condense it. I have a long, clear storage box under my bed, too….for quilt supplies and fabric 🙂
Love and hugs from the ocean shores of California,
Heather 😉 🙂 🙂
I loved Flight Behaviour! A lot of people are slamming the beginning, but her writing is always so honest & spot on…sometimes life is ugly.
Not a shawl, but similar–I’m making a Chickadee Cowl following this example: http://www.ravelry.com/projects/kirsten1/chickadee-cowl. It doesn’t really get simpler than that, because you don’t even have to place a marker or count rows!
I haven’t read that book yet but I’ve read nearly all of hers and love her writing style. I like unclutter and my “stuff” is tucked strategically in places that do not create visual “noise”.
I found you a few months ago and thoroughly enjoy the Wednesday blog. My question is where did you get your swift. Mine broke and I like the idea of a swift like yours.
I have this swift, and highly recommend it! https://www.knittingnotions.com/tools/yarn-swift
Oh, Flight Behavior is next on my reading list as well! I picked it up at a really lovely indie bookstore a few weeks ago to cheer myself up during a period of bad health, but unfortunately I packed it almost immediately (I’ve been moving around a lot lately, basically wherever I can find a place to stay), so as soon as I get settled down again in a couple of weeks I will start reading it.
All those colors of yarn look lovely. I think they would look lovely together, in the same project, too.
I’ve e-mailed myself a reminder to check out the Beach Glass paint. We’re thinking of painting my husband’s office and it looks like a nice, restful colour.
I’ve gone through phases of having all of my craft stuff out on display. It seems to be nicer in theory than in practice. Most of the time I find that my beautifully organized displays of pencils, knitting needles, etc. last about two days before it just starts looking messy. And then I get the double whammy of feeling guilty about my poor housekeeping as well as for my failure to complete my projects! Or I just feel frustrated that so much of my “real” life (meals, laundry, dishes, errands) gets in the way of what I’d rather be doing. And then I compare myself to those women (who I haven’t actually met) who make doing the dishes a glorious and fulfilling craft and post about it on Pinterest 😛
Lately I’ve been happy with a few pretty baskets holding/hiding the supplies for my current projects. Everything else is in Rubbermaid bins in the basement.
Thank you for sharing your beautiful home. I love the colors you use, and am so excited about “beach glass”! I have been looking for a new living room color and this looks just like what I have in mind. Shopping for paint this weekend!
I really liked the book, Not the forest chapter or two, but then it gets better. It’s worth reading, Barbara Kingsolver writes so beautifully and is very thought provoking in a non judgement all way, in my opinion.
You are still in my prayers. Thank you for still blogging, you bring me peace and joy when I read your blog. Your honesty is always really helpful to me.
Grace and peace Ginny.
That electric blue is stunning! I’m with the group who loved Flight Behavior. It isn’t an easy read (and I found the beginning slow, too). It has a lot to do with hard mothering seasons and being stuck with life circumstances that seem impossible. But overall I found it a hopeful and encouraging story. Not without heartbreak, though.
I’m an out-of-sight-out-of-mind sort of person, so I have to have my craft projects where I can see them, but not too many of them or I get overwhelmed. I liked that idea of one long shelf with things in picnic baskets someone described! I have a bookshelf with baskets, but everything is overfull and in need of culling and sorting.
I just love your photographs–these are especially rich and lovely for the eyes. I am much like you–keeping all my supplies out seems to stress me out (but I also have OCD, so that’s probably the main issues with me). This past weekend I put all my yarn in a giant plastic quilt tote (the type in which linens are sold in at department stores) and shoved it under the bed. Thanks for all the eye candy in this post! If you decide on a project for your lone skein of Tosh, please share as I have the same problem here. 🙂
I knit a Hitchhiker shawl by Martina Behm with a skein of Tosh Merino Light and it turned out beautifully! It’s a good, uncomplicated pattern, too. Bonus!
good book, great ‘craft supply plan’!!! Out of sight doesn’t mean out of mind….it’s much more soothing on the craft-nerves!!!
I enjoyed “flight behavior.” I really liked “animal, vegetable, miracle” also. I am like you, out of sight, out of mind is better then more clutter!
I haven’t read it, but I love Barbara Kingsolver so I’ve been meaning to. I’ll have to check it out.
I know what you mean about having your craft supplies out. It sounds nice, but then I’ll just look at it and be sad that I can’t make anything when I’m busy.
It is so nice to hear you write about this. I often wish I could be more like Amanda Soule and have a lovely sewing and knitting room, crafting cabinet for kids, apothecary cabinet for soap making… but it just isn’t going to happen. Especially now that we’ve just moved from South Dakota to Puerto Rico. From dry to extremely humid. Everything is ziplocked and stored in plastic bins to avoid mold. Not very pretty, but that is the way it has to be.
I remember my Mom kept her project things in a wicker trunk and a few baskets with lids. I have one of the baskets in which I keep all of my goodies. Months go by and then I open it up and I feel a rush happiness that I have the goods to make that project I almost forgot about.
I love Barbara Kingsolver and I did read the book. It is very good and I believe you will like the book.
That’s an adorable baby sweater. After spending too much time looking through Ravelry last night, I finally decided to knit a Henslowe shawl with my stash of Malabrigo Silk Merino (It is such lovely-feeling yarn AND I got it on sale!).
I store my craft items (mostly yarn, embroidery thread, acrylic paints) on a high 6-foot long shelf in my bedroom. I’ve collected some old picnic baskets and keep things organized in them. I recently added another shelf above my closet for baskets of small fabric pieces, laces and trim. I keep those in those old woven-type sewing boxes. I found a vintage, rectangular, hard shelled suitcase and store larger pieces of fabric in that in an out-of-the-way corner (I can tote it around to wherever I need it). Another old suitcase also came in handy for storing the kids’ Lincoln Logs. My eldest son thought the suitcase looked so cool he wanted to take it with him to college, but he quickly realized that a modern suitcase on wheels was more practical in airports.
I listened to Flight Behaviour on CD, and Kingsolver read it. I loved it, but I love anything Kingsolver. Her central characters are always women who grew up in less than perfect circumstances, usually from a depressed area of the country. But they always evolve, and that, for me is the best part of her books. I also am usually enlightened by the factual info that always peaks my interest.
I adored the voice she used for the professor in this book on the CD version.
I think Henslowe would look lovely in the Madelinetosh Merino Light! It’s a fast and easy pattern.
I wanted to like Flight Behavior. She writes the attitudes, sentiments, dialect of the area very well (I fully recognize the town she is talking about, even if she doesn’t name it!- we’re from the same area of NW Va). But it’s pretty…ugh…it’s true- I saw it happen a lot there, families like that… but it’s pretty sad and depressing over all.
I forgot to say- I’m definitely one of those who makes big messes, cleans them up, makes big messes again, organizes type of crafter in my space. I used to fight it- I wanted things to be clean and neat…and now it rarely looks ‘neat’ while I’m working. It gets to a point and then I clean and organize again. And the cleaning up inspires me. Because it’s in my bedroom, I can close the door on the mess during the day and it doesn’t bother me visually so much anymore. I kept finding with closed/hidden storage I kept forgetting what I had and could use.
I also wanted to like Flight Behavior, but just couldn’t… I love Kingsolver but it was a difficult time in my life when I was trying to read it, with many of the same struggles in the book happening all around me, it was just too much and I could not finish. I rarely leave a book unfinished. Someday down the road maybe I will be able to pick it up again…
I love the blue! I am doing the Boneyard Shawl in a shade of blue a bit lighter… so pretty!
Oh my goodness. That blue tosh merino light just looks heavenly. I think anything would look wonderful in that yarn (and it’s one of my favorites to knit with!).
I just made two shawls by verybusymonkey (olympic national park & metallurgy) and I LOVE them. She has a ton of interesting patterns with cute and nerdy names (shawls inspired by minerals? check. outer space? check) and most of them take just one skein of fingering weight yarn.
Your Leksak looks great. I finished my first one and cast on another also. I really liked the simplicity of the pattern. I like the single color look. It makes a great knit during baseball practice.
Oh, that madelinetosh is just gorgeous! Both the blue and the purple.
I’m a huge fan of cupboards that close. No matter how neatly I try to keep my craft supplies, they don’t look neat at a distance. When I can close the door and see the empty space instead, it feels peaceful. That blue yarn is incredible. Enjoy!
I hear ya. I’m in the process of moving my whole art studio into storage and turning the room into a homeschooling/computer/play room. I’m sad to see my space go, but we’ve entered a new chapter in our lives and having an entire room dedicated to storing craft and art supplies just isn’t realistic anymore. That-and it was turning into a storage room for everything else in the house that we weren’t sure what to do with. Someday i’ll have my own space again but i’m at peace with letting it go for the time being.
I find that clearing a space actually inspires me more. It just feels good to rearrange doesn’t it?
I am weird like that, also 🙂
Also: that vivid blue yarn is so delicious! May I ask what it is?
Also: Flight Behavior. Read it last year. Fell into it, long and deep. The main character is utterly unlike me, makes choices I would never make in a million years. And yet, and this is Kingsolver’s gift, one cannot feel deeply, fiercely empathetic. (I’ve yet to read a Kingsolver book I haven’t adored. Recommend the whole list.)
xo,
Molly
tosh merino light in fathom 🙂
bad news, guys. flight behavior ends terribly!
I am the same – fabric and yarn sitting out stress me so I only keep out the one (or two) projects that I’m currently working on. Everything else is tucked in the closet where I try not to remember how many things are on my “to do” list! 🙂
The book starts off very badly but thankfully I stuck with it and it’s get’s much better – more like Kingsolver’s other books. Not sure where that beginning she wrote came from. So unlike her!
I’m glad to hear this. I started it and thought it was horrible and gave up. I was so disappointed, because I’m a BIG fan. But, maybe I’ll give in another try and just try to get through the beginning. Thanks.
Yes, I started it right after I got it and was irritated and gave up pretty fast. Later I picked it up again and trucked through to find a wonderful book after the first bit.
Love that soft purple — so feminine. And Bea’s sweater — gorgeous!
How do you like your yarn swift? I’m looking to purchase one and I think that the style you have would work for me because of the amount of space it takes up…..
I love it! It breaks down and stores very easily. I have this swift, and highly recommend it! https://www.knittingnotions.com/tools/yarn-swift
I tried Flight Behavior, and I wasn’t able to finish it either. I love Kingsolver’s nonfiction, particularly her two collections of essays, but I have yet to be able to read one of her novels in its entirety.
Being able to make plans is a good sign you are feeling better! I pray for you daily:)
That little cardigan is precious. I love feather and fan….my favorite lace pattern!
i started it, found it discouraging (@ a time when i needed no more of such;) so I didnt finish it… maybe it ends hopefully? i do love kingsolver’s prose, but don’t share her worldview…
Thanks for letting me know your thoughts! I think I better save it for later!