Knitting Closet Improvements...

 When our family was definitely coming to visit I needed to make a few changes.  Well, I thought it would be a good idea to make a few changes.  One of them was that I needed to stop knitting on our daughter's Elizabeth Zimmerman Yoked Cardigan sweater.  I was spending a lot of time on it and really, it was in a great place to stop: the body was complete up to the yoke, the left arm was completed and the right arm had only a few more rounds to go before the sleeves and body could be joined together.  Though now that I think of it, I might have finished that up to the yoke, too.  Will have to check...

Because of the disorderly way I knit: all the different yarn cakes, all the different needles, and all the instructions I have printed out for myself, are all spread out before me in my lap, on my metal music stand, and definitely all over the floor on my right, there was no way that could continue when we have family coming.  Especially grandchildren who were planning to sleep on the floor.  There was very little floor space.  SO...I had to do something.

The fiber closet needed to be fixed.  When I opened the door there were bins and tubs and bags of all kinds of fiber-y things chest high and all the way out to the door.  It was very difficult to get what I wanted.  Heck, it was even hard to know where what I wanted was located.

What to do...?  The first thing I did was pull everything out of the closet into the workroom.  Now it was impossible to move in the workroom but the lovely thing was that I found some bags of yarn I was willing to let go.  So I gave them away.  

The next thing I did was to pull out the huge bin and the smaller bins of roving and combed top that was ready for spinning and other bins of fiber needing cleaning and combing.  Everything that I wanted to keep I found a place for in my closet in the bedroom.  Well, I did not throw anything away.  At least not yet.

Finally I packed up our daughter's sweater and all the yarn to be used in it, or even to POTENTIALLY use in the yoke (I have not totally committed myself to the design for the yoke at this point) into a big gray bin.  I put the gauge-swatch-sweater on top of the bin-thinking that would remind me where DD's sweater was if it took a while to get back to it...--, replaced all the other knitting yarns in their bins into the closet then stacked the gray "daughter bin" on top where I could easily get to it.

NOW THE CLOSET WAS ACCESSIBLE!!! 

When you look at the carpet there you can see that there is an indentation where other tubs were stored.  Since they were chest high and came all the way out to the door, you will understand that the closet really was just this side of unusable.

With that empty space on the floor, I can tell you that it gives me joy and peace to open the closet door now and know that I can get to whatever I need.  I am happy.

In the interest in full disclosure, to the left of the doorway there are bins and tubs that go all the way up to the rack so it isn't THAT great in there, but at least I can get to them.  Also there are zip bags of many started projects hanging on the rack...easy to get to now.

You can see that I have enough yarn to complete any project I want to make.  Getting the used Brother KX350 knitting machine (very old, missing accessories, but still usable) was an effort to  be able to use up yarn faster.  My goal is to use up all the yarn in the closet in the next year.  Well, maybe two years.  Or even three years.  THEN and only then, will I buy more yarn...I hope.  Stay strong, Girl. Stay strong.