Wednesday, January 30, 2013

New Year's Organizing: Knitting Needles and the Rest!

It's January 30th, incredibly, and our month-long organizing spree is nearly complete. 

So, what's left to do?

If you haven't organized your knitting needles in the course of organizing everything else, that should be a top priority.

As I sorted through WIPs and UFOs, I reclaimed quite a number of needles, and promptly put them in their rightful places, before they got lost in the abyss. I have a few cute organizers that I've been lucky enough to collect over the years, some gifted to me through swaps.

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Yes, that's Beatles fabric, with Yellow Submarine illustrations! I die. 

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Owls!

What I didn't do--what I've never done--is update my needle inventory on Ravelry.

This is because, well . . . I have them all.

I have DPNs in every size from 0 to 10.5, including an extra set of sock-sized bamboo DPNs, sizes 0 - 2. I have 2 sets of interchangeable needles (after Santa's generosity), with at least one set of tips in every size from 3 - 13, and at least 1 set of duplicates from sizes 3-8. I have 24" circulars in sizes 1, 1.5 and 2, for socks. I have 16" circulars in sizes 3-8 for hats and sleeves.

I am a needle hoarder.

The result being that I don't really need an inventory, because I know I have the needles necessary for any given project.

They might be in use, or have fallen to the bottom of a WIP basket, or become a cat toy, but I have them.

Somewhere.

If you aren't compelled to collect an absurd and unnecessary number of knitting needles, though, I encourage you to go ahead and keep track of your inventory on Ravelry, or via some other method--it is pretty handy to know if you have the right needles on hand when considering a new project. WEBS offers a number of suggestions for needle tracking programs in this post.


So, with our yarn, needles, knitting tools, WIPs, UFOs, and books and patterns organized, the last thing to do is tidy up our actual crafting spaces.

I have a combo office/craft room that I think is going to get quite a bit of use as I work to expand my home-based businesses during 2013. It is in serious--desperate--need of a paint job, but blah blah blah, paint fumes, pregnancy, etc. So I'm not ready to tackle that yet. But I did straighten up and declutter.


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I can feel the creativity flowing already.


And with that, our New Year's organizing comes to an end. How did you fare?

2 comments :

Angela @ Cottage Magpie said...

Hey! We're both fixing up our combo office/craft rooms at the same time! Fun!

I think I've decided to start calling my combo office/craft room my "workshop," because "combo office/craft room" is just toooo cumbersome, and I can't say "studio" with a straight face! :-) A reader suggested "atelier" but I couldn't say that with a straight face either.

Are you going to name your space or stick with the combo title?

I can't wait to see what you do in here!

~Angela~

Sava said...

That looks like a very promising space! I am also a needle hoarder. I tend to buy needles thinking I don't have that particular size, then I get home and realize I had them the entire time!