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Room for More

corkboard

I’m not tidy, but I’m organised. These images have been carefully framed to illustrate my organisation & craftily evade the piles and deluges of mess as-yet-unorganised-matter. I like having layers of clothes and yarns lying around, because they are a constant source of inspiration, suggesting new colour-combinations, and textures. At the same time I love being organised, because then I can find out what is unnecessary or what doesn’t belong, and I can (hopefully) become more efficient. Efficiency is closely related to grace and elegance for me, two values I strive towards.

Luckily, I’ve recently come to notice that I have a very good visual memory when it comes to putting things in places; I rarely ever lose anything. Unfortunately this applies to biscuits as much as it does to keys. It also applies to other people’s biscuits…

files

Anyway, yarn! I mentioned on Monday’s post that I recently moved house, and this was a great opportunity to re-organise. I have been going through a bit of a pink phase / pink haze, so I covered my files in stripey pink, to match some old sheets I found, and decided to arrange some of my yarn to match. These shelves divide my sleep area from my “work area” & can be accessed from both sides, which is very handy. At the top is a plastic wig-stand that I recently spray-painted; it used to be a very obnoxious green. Right now it holds my penultimate Minty (I really need to blog about my Minty obsession); my other hats are artfully scattered and layered on available furniture.

shelvesyarnstashminty

I have a pop-up laundry basket that holds my “bundles” of yarn. These are all in their own plastic bags, which look ugly, so I leave a few odd balls on top. Another plastic laundry basket has a few bags of random yarn, and two needle-boxes on top. There’s also an old copy-paper box under my desk that has some old WIPs. Any current knitting is usually on top of my desk. Unfortunately, pretty much everything is on top of my desk, so sometimes I pin things to my corkboard, just so I can see them.

oddballs

I also have four crates, which hold odd-balls (the bottom one has my stamp collection). I must mention that a good deal of my stash is still in the UK. I travel around a lot & have no idea where I will “settle”, so some elements of my knitting paraphernalia reflect this. For example, I still use an old Graze box to keep my notions, needles, bits & bobs, because it’s light & won’t break. I almost exclusively use circular needles, because they’re easier to squash into a suitcase. I really need to get a bag to store them though, or invest in some interchangeable circulars. DPNs are in jars on my desk. I’ll show you those when I get around to knitting some of those cute cabled covers for them. I’ve scanned the interesting bits from most of my knitting magazines / books. Books are the worst to carry, so this is really worth doing! Vacuum bags are great for storing / transporting yarn too. Of course, all knitters know that the most space-efficient way to store yarn is to knit it! :)

P.S. My summer work space is pretty dreamy, and always tidy. ;)

30th March, 2011  // Life, Yarn // tags: , , , , , , , , .

Lambswool – Free Printable Nursery Art

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Printable Nursery ArtNursery Art PrintCraft Room Wall Art

These would look darling in a nursery or a craft studio. I know, because I have them up on my wall right now! They depict a sort of “water cycle” for knitting. :) It’s raining outside > you make yourself a nice hot cup of tea or coffee > and then it’s time to knit!

If you don’t have any room on your own walls, they’d make a great last-minute gift for a baby shower (pun intended) or a knitting friend. You could print them out & frame them before you gift them, or for the more tech-savvy, how about putting the files on a pretty flash drive / USB stick? I think that would make such a cool present! The prints come in blue, pink, and green (in case the baby’s sex isn’t known yet), and I’ve included the original SVG file, so you can actually make them any colour you like!


The ZIP download includes:

  • PDF file for prints in Blueberry
  • PDF file for prints in Raspberry
  • PDF file for prints in Green Tea
  • SVG file of all prints + alternative colours & frames
  • All prints are 5″ x 7″ to fit a standard photo frame (2 fit on an A4 sheet)
  • All prints are vector & can be scaled as desired

Honestly, I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve promised to knit for a baby, only to find that they were suddenly racing towards their 2nd birthday. Oops! Have you done this? Or if you’re one of the amazingly organised knitters who haven’t, please tell us, how do you manage it? Luckily, printing these out is 100% faster than knitting anything. I’m glad I’ll have some backup from now on. :)

Looking at the lamb, I’m reminded of this poem, which was one of my favourites when I was little (and still is, actually):

There Were Three Little Sheep

There were two little sheep,
And three little sheep,
Came to see why baby
Wouldn’t go to sleep.

They peeped in the window,
And they entered at the door,
And their hard little hoofs
Tap-tapped on the floor.

Said the first little sheep,
‘O hush-a-bye-bye!
You will waken all the lambs
In the fold if you cry!’

But the third little sheep
Never said a word,
For baby cuddled up
Like a tired little bird.

Then the three little sheep,
In the turning of a pin,
Tap-tapped out,
As they tap-tapped in.

Hush-a-bye baby,
Hush-a-bye-bye!
Hush-a-bye baby,
Bye-bye-bye…

–Mary Gilmore


Aww. I wish I could be in Wales over the spring; it was one of my greatest delights to take the train from Shrewsbury to Aberystwyth, and watch the new lambs hopping away to their mothers. Have a great weekend, knitters! Time to Knit!


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