The more time I spend as a Knitter, the more … stuff … I collect. Stuff = Yarn, patterns, needles, project bags, knitting books, etc. I’m always looking for ways to maximize my knitting storage space, while keeping it organized enough to find things. I had all of my knitting things in this room in our basement (note – this is also the little corner where The Loopy Ewe started out in the beginning!). I have since moved everything upstairs to the main floor. My current knitting/spinning room was intended to be a living room when our house was built, but instead we’ve used it as a home office up until now. Now – it’s a fiber room and that’s my favorite use for this room so far. I’m still working on the perfect “look” and organization of it, but here are a few storage ideas that I use:

This closet is full of shelves. This closet holds some of my books and loose patterns (in 3 ring notebooks), most of my project bags (you know I love bags), my current projects on the needles, and all of my needle inventory. There are some skeins of yarn in there, and all of the yarn for the pairs to all of the single socks that I own. Note, I did not take the time to straighten this all up for the photo, so you get to see it as it usually looks.

Also in my fiber room, I have this cabinet that I bought just for holding yarn. I love the pretty colors of the yarn showing through the glass. I do go through this and switch the yarn around a few times a year, just to prevent fading. I also have pieces of cedar on each shelf (from here) so that the inside of the cabinet is cedar-scented to deter moths, since it’s not airtight. (I’ve never seen a moth in there, but I never want to, either.) And lest you worry about me, no, that is not all the yarn in my stash. Not by a long shot. I gave up on keeping my stash photoed and organized on my Ravelry account, but I have a new plan for keeping track of it all. I’ll show you that eventually, too.

Next to my knitting chair, I have this bin. Since I like switching up the projects I work on, you can see 4 different project bags. I really like these bags. (Note: we have new 3 AM Bags going up on the website sometime today. See the Lemons and the Owls? I snagged both of those out of this new batch. The Elephants bag was a gift from my friend Michelle in MO, and the Sheep bag was a gift from my friend Michele in Maine, who also has her cute bags on Etsy.) Currently in those bags: Wollmeise Socks, Spirit Trail Fiberworks Socks, Numma Numma Challenge Socks, and a Shibui Wrap that will have to be transferred to a larger bag as it grows. The red and blue things hold the patterns that I’m currently working on. I use these all over the place, not just for knitting patterns (for important phone lists, for reference lists here at Loopy, etc.) They’re like a super heavyweight page protector – 9 x 12 -  and I get them from Uline.

Back to the Fiber Room – I have pottery like this holding misc. needles. Since I also do that with needles here at Loopy (old needles that I have collected), I just took a photo of the ones here. (Red flower pot – bought cheap somewhere. Sheep Vase from Jennie the Potter.  The needle vase I use at home came from from my favorite Etsy pottery people.)

As I said, it’s all a work in progress. I don’t re-arrange it often (it takes away from knitting time) but it helps me to have things organized because I’m less likely to duplicate things that way. To see some other photos of knitting corners and storage ideas, check out our photo gallery. (If you have some photos of your area that you’d like to add to that gallery, we’d love to see them!)

Do you a separate area for your knitting things? Do you have any fun storage ideas you’d like to share with us?

Sheri todaythefloorofmyfiberroomiscoveredwithablockingGirasole-Yay!

How many abbreviations can you use in a blog title? Thanks for all of the emails about the Girasole KAL. I’m happy that so many of you are jumping in! I thought I’d answer some of the questions that you all are emailing about, because I’m sure others are wondering the same things.

How do you pronounce that? I called it “Geer – a- sole” (hard G) for a long time, but the actual pronunciation is “Jeer-a-SO-lay”.  Or “jeed-a-SO-lay” as the online “listen to the pronunciation” guide states. As Heather mentioned in the comments on Wednesday, that is Italian for Sunflower. So hopefully we’ll have a whole field of different-sized, different-colored sunflowers by the fall!

Is this pattern difficult? It does look like it might be, doesn’t it? Anything that beautiful when it’s done, surely must be intricate to knit up. The good news is that it is not hard. When I said that I thought of it as a perfect first lace project (or first chart-reading project), I meant it.  There aren’t very many different symbols per line on the charts. That’s always easy to handle. Did you see Wendy’s blog post on chart reading this week? The first chart she shows reminds me of most of the Girasole charts. The second one she shows is much more complicated than the ones you’ll be doing on this KAL. And did I already mention that pretty much every other row is a plain ‘ol Knit row? Yep, a pretty easy knit. But we’re the only ones who have to know that. When you get yours done and are showing it around to people, you can totally let them believe that it was extremely difficult to produce.

What length of circular needles will I need? I see on the Girasole Rav board that some people have used a 60″ needle for the worsted weight. There is a point on one chart where you go from 320 stitches to 640 stitches, and I knit it onto a 60″ cable for that, expecting to need the extra space. The cable was waaaay too long for my knitting. I switched it back and I think I did the whole thing on a 40″ or 47″ cable. (Now I can’t remember.) I DO like all of my stitches bunched up because I find it easier to scoot them along to knit. It was definitely FULL on that size cable, knitting with size 9 needles. If you like things more spread out, then maybe you’ll need the longer cable. If you’re doing a lace or fingering weight version, the 40″ length (with size 6-7 needles in that weight) should be fine.

I’d like to do it, but I have too many other things on the needles at the moment. Ok, so that wasn’t a question. But I do want to point out that you don’t need to finish this until Oct. 1st, so there is plenty of time to join in later, if you want to.

I’m bad at starting and stopping projects. I’m not sure I’d stick with a project this big. Again, not a question, but I want to say that it is well documented that I’m the Queen of the Second Sock Syndrome. I probably have close to 40 single socks, with no matching partner. I also may be the Queen of UFO’s, because I’m constantly starting new things. (Of course I blame all of this on needing to try many different new/potential yarn lines here at The Loopy Ewe. I wonder what I’ll blame it on when I retire one day?) If I can stick with this pattern to the end AND want to cast on another one right away, doesn’t that say something? It really is fun to watch it unfold from your needles.

Does this have to be done in a solid/semi-solid? Not at all. In fact, the photo of Claire’s first Girasole is what made me decide to finally jump in and give this pattern a try, and she made it out of Araucania Aysen, a multi-colorway. It’s gorgeous.

I’d like to make a blanket-sized one that I can also toss in the washer. What yarn should I use? Dream in Color Classy is a worsted superwash that would be wonderful knit up in this pattern. (DC Smooshy and Starry would be beautiful for shawl-sized versions. We have a bunch more Smooshy going up early next week.) Keep in mind that you do need to block this pattern after you wash it, so a lot of people have knit it up in regular (non-superwash) worsted weight yarn – like Cascade 220 and Malabrigo. But for those who still want to throw it in the washer, even though they know they’ll have to lay it flat to dry, the DC Classy is an excellent choice.

Remember the offer – you can pick any yarn here at The Loopy Ewe that you want to use for this Girasole KAL, and we’ll give you that yarn for 20% off. (One discount per person, offer expires 6/15, and you must notate in the order notes that you are participating in the KAL and tell us which yarn in the order you will be using for your Girasole.)

I’m hoping to get my first one finished up over the weekend. Photos as soon as I can get it washed and blocked. I think that may end up being more difficult than the actual knitting…

Sheri whothinkssheepcanbekindofamottleybunch
buttheydoaddinteresttoanotherwisephoto-lessblogpost

You know that I have been spending most of my knitting time on making a blanket-sized Girasole. (I’m making it in Cascade Eco-Alpaca. I love this yarn. Mine is going to look very similar to the one James did.) I am done with all of the charts (yay!!) and am working on the 214 edging points. Really, I ought not to have figured out that total. As of last night, I had 54 edge-points done. This pattern has turned me into a chart reader and I couldn’t be happier about that. I need to be a chart reader – it’s faster than reading instructions line by line, and it opens up a lot more pattern options. It was a perfect first BIG chart project to knit. And believe it or not, I want to make another Girasole, this time in laceweight. I happen to know quite a few people who have made more than one. That ought to tell you what a great knit it is. (Edit – a few of you have asked in the comments if this is a difficult knit. The answer is no. That’s one of the beautiful things about it. It’s mostly K, K2tog, SSK, and YO. Maybe some of you who have made one can jump in on the comments below to share your experience with it. I find it relaxing to knit because each line of the chart is easily memorized – and I’m bad at memorizing – and it just goes so smoothly. That’s why I’m wanting to make another right away.)

I decided that I’d like company in this project, and am turning it into an official Loopy Knit-A-Long. Come join me! You can start now. Or if you’re in the middle of one already, join in with that one. Let’s say (for Knit-A-Long purposes) that it needs to be finished and photo-ed and up in the Loopy Photo Gallery by Oct. 1st. I predict many of you will be done in 3 weeks, because it’s addictive.  But we’ll say Oct. 1st, officially. And that’s not all. We’re going to offer you a 20% discount on the yarn to KAL with us! The discount is good on whatever yarn you want to pick out to use for your Girasole project. It’s only good on one colorway/one yarn type, so make sure that you decide on the weight/color you want to use, before you put an order in. Since Web Guy is still out of the country and can’t doodle up an automatic code thing-y for us, we will have to manually deduct the 20% discount, after you have put your order in. (We don’t collect any funds from you until your order is packed up and is shipping out, so we’ll only collect the correct, discounted amount. When you get your “shipped” email, you can log into your Loopy account and click on that order to see what the final total ended up being.) Important note: if you want free shipping on this order, be sure to mentally figure your subtotal after discount to be sure that the discount doesn’t take you under the $75 threshold when we adjust the price. If the adjusted discount drops you below that $75 amount, we’ll add the regular $5.95 shipping charge back in. (And did anyone want to ask me how I feel about the post office continuing to raise postal prices? Because I’m happy to go on and on about it….)

To take advantage of this offer, you must add an order note to your order, telling us that 1) you are joining the KAL and 2) which yarn you are planning to use for it, so we know which one to apply the discount to. Like this:

“I’ll KAL with you! I’m making my Girasole out of the 9 skeins of Cascade 220 in blue that I just bought.”

or

“I’ll KAL with you! I’m making my Girasole out of the skein of Perchance to Knit Lace in Berry Sorbet that I just bought.”

The “20% off your Girasole KAL yarn” offer is good from now until June 15th. One discount per person. Good on in-stock yarns only. (No special orders for this.) We’re keeping a list of everyone who signs up and will look forward to seeing all of the finished photos. I hope that a lot of you join me in this KAL. We’ll start two threads on the Ravelry Loopy Groupie board – one for those making a lace/fingering/dk shawl-sized version and one for those making it in the worsted blanket-sized version. (And if you already have something in your stash that will make the perfect Girasole, just hop in and join us, too.) Yardage-wise, the pattern mentions using 1150 – 1800 yds, depending on the weight. I think I will end up using 8 skeins of Cascade Eco-Alpaca for mine, with a size 9 needle. That’s 1760 yds, so that falls right where it’s supposed to be for the worsted version.

You can buy the Girasole pattern here on Ravelry, or here on Jared Flood’s blog.

Sheri sowho’supforKALingwithme?

I admit that I’m weird and I admit that I’m an animal lover. When you put those two things together, you get a person who comes up with names for the animals that frequent their backyard. (I feel that I know you all well enough to admit that.) The Cardinal Pair that have lived in our backyard for 6-7 years are Fred and Ethel. (Fred had to be the name of the Cardinal. If you’re a St. Louis Cardinals fan, you will totally understand that.) The duck pair are Gus and Mary. Now we have two cute chipmunks. I named the first one Charlie, and then Knitting Daughter came home for the summer and told me that there are two chipmunks, not one, and she named the other one “Chip”.  (Apparently this naming-thing is hereditary.) I guess Charlie is going to be short for Charlene, which happens to be my mother-in-law’s name. It’s a good name.

The interesting thing about Chip and Charlie, is that they have taken full advantage of the fact that our trees need to be pruned. They now climb the huge bush outside the corner of our screen porch, and get themselves onto the “squirrel-proof” birdfeeders. These feeders close up when the weight of a squirrel gets on them. Chipmunks aren’t that heavy. (Although both Chip and Charlie ARE going to be that heavy pretty soon, if we don’t get that bush trimmed up.) They sit there and feast and feast and feast. They have also learned that our cats, Gracie and Zoe, won’t bother them. Well, Zoe (the smaller cat, looking at the camera) would take them out in a second if she could get at them, but since they’re outside and she’s not, she appears to be a safe bet from the chipmunks point of view. Most afternoons and early evenings, the cats can be found sitting right there, watching the excitement unfold beneath their noses. This is their favorite time of year, when it’s cool enough for them to be out on the porch, watching the birds and the ducks.

Zoe’s other favorite place to be is curled up on my lap, whenever I sit down to knit. You’d think that having a lap of cat and a lap of Alpaca would be too hot, but so far it has been very tolerable. For those of you without cats (or lap dogs), this probably looks like a cumbersome way to knit. But you get used to it, if you’re an animal person. This is the Girasole that I’m working on – more news about that in Wednesday’s post.

Sheri goodSneakUpwentuptonight-didyouseeit?