How organised are you?
At work I am very organised, everything has a place, and I am quite anal about how my desk is laid out, including all the items on the desk which have to be neat and tidy and in specific places. However, at home, I can be a bit of a slob, I mean, right now, I can see two knitting projects on the other couch back (a hat for M and a baby blanket for a workmate). Behind me I can see a bag with some yarn in that I have not long got for another project (a hat for me). On the coffee table in front of me, I can see knitting magazines and food/cooking magazines as well as a few knitting patterns and a few other bits of mine. Now, if I was at work, this would never happen, so why at home do I allow myself to let things slide. At work everyone else’s desk’s are untidy, bordering on the side of chaos. My desk at home is tidy at the moment as I have not been using it since I put it into one of the spare bedrooms, however, when I was downstairs I used it as a dumping ground and invariably it had more knitting paraphernalia on it that really can be considered sane. Again, why can I not be as neat and tidy at home as I am at work?
I look in the kitchen now, as I am cooking dinner and it is tidy, again, I like my kitchen neat and tidy, but with all my gadgets to hand. It really does beggar belief why I cannot continue in this vane. So, with the thought of being organised, I decided to get my patterns, laminate them and put them in a lever arch file, all indexed to be super organised. Yes, my magazines are still in the same place, but one thing at a time people!
But, what do I do with my knitting magazine? Do I remove the patterns I want and discard the rest? or do I keep them in a tidy pile on one of the shelves next to my desk? If I remove and discard, then the question of filing comes to mind. I have digital copies of some of the magazines, but not all. I have a scanner and can scan them, but then it removes the fun out of flicking through them looking for inspiration. With regards to digital copies, I have never been a fan, I love ebooks, but then I have a Kindle Oasis made for the job. I have several tablets including an old iPad, but again I am not thrilled with them as they do not hold my attention.
So what does everyone else do? Keep magazines? Throw? Suggestions, please. I do have lots of patterns on Ravelry, but when I want to knit an item I print it out and tend to keep it rather than throwing it out when finished. Part of me thinks I need to move home and find a place with an archive and many large craft rooms etc., but we can all dream.
My yarn also needs to be sorted out as I have so much I could start a small shop and sell it, and with the funds take two weeks all expenses paid holiday in Rome. However, I am sure that most of you will relate to that as all the knitters I know are the same and have more yarn than they will ever need, and within that stash, there will be yarn that they, as have I, bought just because they liked it but its not enough to make a whole project. In one of the spare rooms, I have 6 giant plastic boxes that are full to the gunnels with yarn. These boxes are that big that they have wheels to move them about, so I am sure you now get the picture. But like an advert on the TV, “but there’s more”, so much more, I have about 20 projects that are all in bags with their respective yarn, some of them are very big bags.
I have managed to organise my circular needles with an expanding pocket file and each pocket has a different thickness of needle in various lengths. I have a box that all my straight needles are in and several small boxes that have sewing needles, stitch markers and more, all in compartments. I have even allocated a storage unit with shelves for my boxes of needles etc together with my sewing machine parts, including bobbins, thread, feet and more besides that. I feel I am winning with the organisation, so far so good, but still room for improvement.
Drop me a message and tell me what your organisational techniques are and how you deal with all the paraphernalia that goes with crafting.
Until next time…
Mr Knitter 