I think having an archivist daughter is starting to rub off on me. Having (sort of) finished my new room of requirement / craft room, it bothered me that it still wasn't quite right. Apart from obvious things like the lack of curtains (I want to make patchwork ones which means it's all very complicated), I was still having trouble finding things.
So, I spent several weeks working round the room, checking what was where, re-sorting if necessary and then adding lots and lots of labels. I started with the fabric store, just adding little printed labels to the bottom of each shelf so that I knew what was in each of the baskets.
This immediately made me feel much happier. Even though I don't need to know what's in the baskets until I go to the them, just the fact that I can see the labels when I glance that way makes my brain feel much more comfortable. I was really surprised by how much difference those little labels made.
Most of this fabric was inherited from my Mum who was a wonderful quilter. Hence this sign ...
We were saying how the fabric shelves could be used like a free shop for either of the grandchildren to take stuff from as needed so my daughter made me this sign. Isn't it nice?
I'm nothing like the quilter Mum was but I have been stretching myself this year by making the biggest quilt I've ever attempted. I normally only make small quilts but I wanted to make one for my son's coffee table in his new house. He inherited the table from his Grandma and it's a big one so the quilt needed to be big too. I'm pleased with how well I'm getting on with it; I had to use a hoop for the quilting which I hardly ever do but I'm nearing the end now. I'm quilting the border and then I just have to bind and label it.
Anyway, back to the labelling. My big Knitting Kallax was already labelled so that just needed a quick tidy and clean in passing.
In the corner next to it is my knitting bookcase which houses all my patterns - 17 files of them and that's not counting the Christmas specials - as well as some old knitting books and patterns (in the suitcases).
That shelf full of files holds the 17 main files while the rest are either on the shelf above or on top of the bookcase. The collection of notebooks on the second shelf from the top is my hotchpotch of pattern notebooks where I scribble down notes as I work on designs. They are numbered in order but are really quite a mess. One day I'll add dates and things to the pages.
Next to this bookcase is my little fireplace which still has my Rainbow Gnomes on the mantelpiece. I've added a lovely wooden magnetic puzzle from Myriad Toys that my son gave me years ago as I think it goes well with the gnomes.
The wall opposite the big Kallax shelves is the window wall where I have two of my three tables. One is an old Regency card table which I can open up to make a big square table; this was very useful when I needed to pin Jack's quilt earlier this year. The other table is our old kitchen table with the top painted white.
You can just about make out the Ten Stitch Rectangle on the card table, one of several samples I'm knitting for a pattern. Next to it is my very, very useful (and now tidy) craft trolley. I can really recommend this; it's sturdy, comes on wheels and you can get various attachments for it. The only extra I've added so far is that lid.
I know, it looks like I've got curtains but these are just the old net curtains from my son's house tied to the curtain rail for the summer so that I could keep the worst of the heat out on hot days. I use the big white table all the time; those granny squares are some of my samples from my How to Knit a Granny Square pattern. I came across them yesterday and thought I might have another play with them.
On the other side of the white table is another set of cube storage. The tall 1 x 4 unit is from IKEA but the 2 x 3 unit next to it is from Habitat. Their 'Squares Plus' range is a perfect match for the IKEA Kallax (the 'plus' is important as they do a slightly smaller range too) - useful when you want a combination that IKEA don't do.
You can't see the bottom row of cubes in this photo as they're hidden by the table but they're all full of WIPs. There are knitting and crochet projects as well as weaving and various needlecrafts - some I definitely will finish and some I'm not sure about. Before I labelled and sorted this unit, it was a real mess. Everything I didn't know where to put ended up stacked in those two empty cubes or piled on top. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago and it's still tidy. Today there are just some flowers and a mini weaving loom on the top and an empty little basket underneath.
The next two sets of shelves are the ones that took the longest to sort and label. These are two of the deep Billy bookcases from IKEA which house a huge mixture of craft supplies and books.
The bottom shelves on both are taken up with quilting books and supplies (with my badge making machines tucked in behind them). The next shelf up on the left is for cross stitch while there's more quilting on the right hand bookcase, as well as my 3D beading stuff. The third shelf up on the left is for weaving while hardanger, blackwork and needlepoint are on the right.
It gets increasingly bitty as you go further up the shelves. From left to right on the third shelf from the top are loom knitting, my Sizzix machine and dies and weaving books. Then come the tatting supplies and embroidery. The next shelf up on the left has all my miniature making things; you can see the little house that I wrote about here a couple of years ago. Since then I have made some furniture for it but there's still more to do.
On the right hand shelf are my button making supplies - I love making buttons - and then all the bits and bobs for toy making. The top shelves have felt, fimo, resin and lino printing things (have you noticed that I can't resist a new craft?) and then anything else that wouldn't fit is on top of the bookcases.
For those of you still awake, you'll be glad to know we've nearly finished going round the room. The last bit of sorting and labelling was my desk drawers.
I used to have what I loosely call papercraft supplies all over the place and they took up a surprising amount of space. Not any more. All sorted, labelled and put away.
These are just a couple of the drawers. The boxes are smaller versions of the big IKEA Kuggis boxes that I've used in other parts of the room. These are brilliant. They come with lids that double up as trays which is a real bonus and the different sizes can be stacked together too.
Not all the desk drawers are full of little boxes. There are drawers of card and paper and one with my sketchbooks, pens and paints in too. It's amazing how much can be fitted into ten not especially big drawers.
I have to say that having my craft things organised like this has made a huge difference to how I work but it's also meant that I'm doing different crafts again. I keep being tempted to make another button, work on my latest little beaded Christmas house or tat another gift tag. It's also really good to be able to tidy up properly. My Long Covid brain can't cope with muddle so being able to put things away is very important. As my Granny would have said "a place for everything and everything in its place".
So yes, I am still able to make things as well as label my supplies. In recent months I've crocheted another Lazy Vee blanket for a new baby (baby Esther, born last month) ...
... and knitted a re-worked version of my old Raggy Doll pattern for another, slightly older baby.
This is one of the many patterns that I want to update with current yarns and much better instructions and pictures. I shall have to knit another doll to do that.
Having crocheted the Lazy Vee blanket I was inspired to turn the same basic idea into a triangular shawl so that's waiting to be written up now. Like the blanket, it uses two colours in single row stripes but with no need to cut the yarn.
The variegated yarn is King Cole Bramble DK, a yarn that I absolutely love working with. I used it in a different shade for Esther's blanket too.
A little while ago I sewed a couple of Japanese knot bags, just to see how they worked. I had great trouble with the instructions that I found so worked out my own way in the end. You thread the long handle through the short one and then the little bag can hang from your wrist.
I saw some lovely versions online with flat bases but these would have made the sewing even trickier. Of course, this isn't true with knitting ...
This will be my next published pattern. Two sizes of knot bags, knitted in fabric / linen stitch so they don't need lining and with flat bottoms, stiffened with plastic or buckram. They're knitted in the round until you get to the handles which have to be worked back and forth. Just so as you know, taking a photo of a bag on your own wrist is very very difficult.
I hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my room and are inspired to add labels to everything you own! Next time I'll show you some 'before' pictures of the next room that we're working on. Oh yes, there's another one ...
