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!

I found more glass jars for yarn balls yesterday. Do you have a HomeGoods store near you? That’s where these came from. I found this one first and love how it sits on a pedestal and has a pretty top. (In my mind, I’m wondering how long that pretty top is going to last. I’ll have to put it somewhere safe, where it won’t get hit by a flying ball or anything.) My other yarn ball jar was much smaller and full, so I haven’t been too motivated to make more balls. However, this one has LOTS of space to fill up and I just love it. I emptied the other jar into it and will turn that first jar into …. something else. The second jar is so big, that it’s perfect for yarn cakes! (How will I keep track of which cake is what yarn? I took photos of them before dumping them in here.) I don’t wind too many of my yarns up ahead of time, but I do have enough wound up to fill up this jar. When you cake your yarn, it can stretch it a bit, so that’s why you don’t want to cake too far ahead of your knitting. But isn’t the jar cool? WH’s first question when he saw it: “Nice. Where are you going to put it?” Did anyone else start Yarn Ball Jar collections since the last post? I also saw some great wooden bowls at HomeGood, too.

Another new thing – check out the shoes that Dr. Jackie told me I “had” to buy. She was right. I clicked over on the link she sent and knew I had to have Sheep Birks. I mean, they’re RED for pete’s sake. How could I turn them down? (Can I write that off to advertising??) They did have other cute animals in different colors, but the sheep were definitely meant for me.

Speaking of sheep, look what my friend Sharon sent me for our Loopy anniversary – a sheep weathervane! I posted it in the “garden corner” by our back porch. Now, granted, the garden corner is severely lacking this year. But just because the weathervane is so pretty, I’m going to make sure there are plenty of beautiful things growing around it next year. (That’s why you’re not getting a photo standing back from it, with beautiful flowers growing all around the base. Next year. Surely.)

I did get some knitting done over the weekend. I finished my Sockina Cotton socks (both of them – yay!) and finished my first Monkey out of Dream in Color Some Summer Sky. I was all set to cast on the second Monkey but got distracted by a case of yarn that was delivered today. Case #1 (of 3) of this next Wollmeise order. I haven’t cast on yet, but I have the skeins here next to my computer, just for admiring. Then I got to thinking, wouldn’t a whole big jar full of Wollmeise be a gorgeous decoration? But of course you’d never be able to leave it alone. You’d want to knit it all up. (And yes, I’d definitely take all of the tags off it I were going to have these on display.) That also got me to thinking – wouldn’t it be pretty to have a glass jar or wooden bowl out on display filled with yarns that go with the season? Reds/oranges/yellows/burgundys/browns for fall, blues/purples/whites for the winter, pastels or bright pinks/limes/greens/yellows for the spring, aquas/sun yellows/oranges for the summer? I just may have to try that when I “Fall up” the house in the next week or two. Fall is my very favorite season!

I know you’re wondering about the next Sneak Up. It’s looking like it will have to be next week. We really don’t have enough shipping boxes for a Sneak Up. We have visited 4 post office branches to beg and borrow as many cases of boxes as they could spare, to take care of regular orders this week. (We order them online from usps.com and they take 7-10 business days to get here, so that’s the holdup. Usually we manage to successfully stay ahead of the game on that but last week did us in. I’m sorry that means you’ll have to wait!) Hopefully the latest order of boxes will arrive by the weekend, and we’ll Sneak Up next week. It’s very weird to be out of boxes. But on a brighter note, there is beautiful yarn going up next week! I’ll give you a “for sure” list next Monday, but as long as the other 2 cases of Wollmeise arrive this week, you can count on that for next week. In the meantime, we’ll probably do a few re-stocks this week yet. More Fiesta Boomerang has arrived, along with more Dream in Color, and another whole batch of Wendy’s patterns. There’s always something fun arriving here.

Sheri didanyonemaketheSpecialKBars?And
didanyonegetsomegoodknittingtimeinovertheweekend?