Organizing

I'm trying to reorganize my craft room, yet again. On a swing through Michael's I found two of these magazine cabinets in the 50% off bin. Although meant for scrapbooking, I think they'll work just fine for organizing my tons (literally) of craft magazines, including my latest passion - vintage issues of Magic Crochet. The cabinets are amazingly sturdy and well made, with great directions for putting all the pieces together. And yes, I assembled this all by myself. Wellllll, almost. Two of the drawers gave me fits, so hubby broke out the power drill and showed 'em who was boss. Can't wait to replace the piles of clutter on my counters with these little beauties.

Done and Done

The third wedding shawl is done and blocking. The bride didn't want the sides coming to a point, so I modified the pattern a bit before starting the decreases. All three shawls get delivered tomorrow night. Sure hope the bride likes them. My craft room redesign is also done - a good thing since Rachel and Addy are sleeping out here while they visit for the next 3 days. With the counter gone, I have lots more floor space - plus my new weaving corner, complete with Baby Wolf, comfy chair, and a hanging rack for coned yarn and project bags. And yes, I have a lot of bags. Some women collect shoes, something that's never interested me. But I just can't say 'no' to a project bag.

Lucky Me

Two days ago I talked to hubby about maybe taking out an unused counter in my craft room so I could use it for a weaving corner. I was thinking some day, in the future, when his other projects weren't pressing.

Today - two days later mind you - I came home to this - the counter is gone and I have my weaving corner. And as if that wasn't enough, he also made me a rack for hanging my in-progress project bags (no surprise, I have a bunch) and cones of weaving yarn. I LOVE it. The glue has to dry overnight but you can bet I'll have this sucker loaded down by this time tomorrow!

Snickers is back from the vet and recovering well. The vet took out the infected tooth we knew about, but also removed a molar that had the root and nerve exposed, along with 4 other roots where the tooth had completely dissolved, probably from untreated cavities. Snick is on antibiotics for the next week or so, but she's already looking and feeling better. I love my vet but I hope I don't have to visit again soon. These trips are painful to the cat and to the wallet.

I heart Messy

It drives Dick crazy but I really do like clutter. I know some of it is laziness; it's easier to pile than to file. But if I have too much open space, it makes me feel like I need to buy things to fill it up. So, mess = economy.

Every now and then I get the bug to clean and straighten. This time it was brought on by the need for room to store the 30 or so boxes of Guild books I'm picking up on Sunday. Some fool generous soul volunteered to be librarian until elections in October. I'm planning to put all the books on LibraryThing so our members can see what we have, then farm boxes of books out to members until we get a permanent Guild home. I'm really looking forward to the challenge. (Question - does anyone know of an online tracking system for magazines, similar to LibraryThing? Still trying to work out a plan for our years and years worth of spinning, weaving, crafting mags.)

So this - is now this. Pretty impressive, in a short-lived sort of way. (And all the yarn is listed in my Ravelry stash. Just need photos of 4 things and it's up-to-date.)

Towers of Power, Redux

The original Towers of Power - and Ravelry's organizational tools - inspired me to reorganize my spinning stash as well as my yarn pile. I think this may be a system I can stick with. The old system was to shove it into big bins, stick a label on the outside, and basically forget about it.

Now I'm photographing everything, logging it on Ravelry (my spinning fiber is going in as 'handspun' so it will be separate from my yarns), and putting it in a labeled drawer. Ravelry lets me track which drawer a specific item is in so I can actually find it again.And this is different how, you ask? With the drawers, I can get to the fiber without having to unstack everything, dig through it, and then try to restack the bins. And with it on Ravelry, I can shop my stash through photos and searches, rather than taking the previously easier (and more expensive) route of shopping the innernets.

I've gotten most of the yarns done - including most of my cones of weaving yarn - but I still have a little bit to go on the spinning stuff . . . Just a little bit.

Towers of Power - and an FO

I'm organizing my stash - yet again - but thanks to Ravelry, I think it might work this time. I've got about 2/3 of it photographed and listed. I'm a little embarrassed by how much I have and how much of it I'd forgotten about. But did that stop me from buying a sweater's worth of yarn last night? Or placing an order for 2 sweaters-worth at Webs? Noooooo, of course not.

Now that I can see what I have all in one place - with pictures! - I think I'll use it more efficiently. That's the plan anyway. One of Ravelry's niftiest stash features is a line to list where the yarn is stored. Introducing the Towers of Power - stackable yarn bins lining my fireplace. (Pictures are severely cropped so you can't see the mess in my studio. I'm organizing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.) Dick brought the stack above home from T*rget and they were such a good fit that the next day he brought home more. (Think he's trying to tell me something? Nah, me neither.) I have fresh batteries in my label gun and I'm ready to fill these puppies. I finished my first scarf on the Ashford Knitter's Loom in time for tonight's last class - and a second scarf is warped and partially woven. This one's a 50/50 blend of alpaca and acrylic (Thanks, Carolyn!) It must look okay since Dick has already claimed it for himself. And yes, I'm hooked on rigid heddle weaving. It's so fast - and I can use stash yarns (see above). Guess what I'm getting for my birthday?