Well, I made it back to Boston from a whirlwind weekend of binge fabric shopping and yarn-y goodness in New York City with my sister. I’ll put it this way: I’m stocked up on fabric for the next few…months, ahem. We had a great time at the Vogue Knitting Live show as well, which I’ll post more about this week.
Now to get all of that fabric washed! How was your crafty weekend?
I have to say that I’m much relieved that my move is over and I’ve settled into my new place in the past week. Get this: in the past four years I’ve moved five times. Crazy, right? I plan to stay for quite awhile now – it’s been a long time coming, but I finally have my own place. A first ever!
So with that being said, I have all the closet space I could ever want all to myself. Oh the possibilities for fabric storage! Which got me curious – how do you store your fabric?
I found ideas online for how to store fabric like quilting cottons, etc. I do love this idea of using a filing cabinet to organize such fabrics, but that’s not really what my stash consists of (yet…I want to seriously get into quilting this winter). I have a lot of knits (surprise), lightweight cottons, some wool suiting, and poly dress weight fabric. Hanging them up over a hanger is an option but it would get wrinkles. I could ask for some leftover bolts at the fabric store or buy plastic ones, but I don’t have shelving to store them on. My boyfriend’s mom suggested wrapping them around wrapping paper tubes (I would probably use PVC piping instead, there’s acid in cardboard) and storing them in a big wrapping paper container, an idea I like best so far from what I’ve found.
Well, I’ve got time on my side, I’m in no rush to get my crafting space organized by any means. I even created a Pinterest board awhile ago with neat ideas I’ve found from other crafters and stitchers that I’m planning on implementing in my bedroom/craft studio (what a combination!).
What are your favorite organization ideas for sewing and crafting?
Twitter Bird Printable Valentines from Ellen Luckett at The Long Thread
Freja Mittens by Emily Petersson on Knitty
Valentine Light Bulb by Kate Pruitt featured on Design Sponge
Wool Felt Heart Pins from Purl Bee
Sweet Fruit Stickers from Twig and Thistle
If you’re in the Boston area this Friday and are looking for some crafty fun, come to Ignite Craft! I’ll be giving a five-minute presentation on my sewing background and philosophies, a more extensive elaboration of this post from 2009. If you’re not familiar with Ignite Craft, here’s a little blurb from the site:
“Ignite Craft Boston 2 is an Ignite event with a crafty crowd. If you had five minutes on stage to talk about your crafty passion in Boston, what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world folks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.
Come join the Boston area crafting community for Ignite Craft Boston 2 onFriday, January 13th, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm32 Vassar Street, room 123 (MIT Campus)Cambridge, MA 02140Doors open at 6:30 and presentations begin at 7:00pm.The event is free; however, due to limited space at the venue you must RSVP.”
You can read more about the event and RSVP at the Ignite Craft website. You can also see the lineup of speakers; it looks like a pretty awesome night for the crafting community. Videos of each presentation will be posted online afterwards so don’t worry, I’ll be linking that up on the blog.
Now to prepare myself for my speech and for sharing embarrassing pictures of myself from high school!
I’m not exactly a big Christmas person. I work in retail, where it’s perpetually Christmas from the beginning of October until the end of December, so I get my dose of “holiday cheer” in a big way each year. But I still like to have a little tree at home, twinkle lights, and some She & Him Christmas playing in the background. This year, my tree has a knitting theme, and yours can too with these easy-peasy yarn ball ornaments. I can see smaller ones as decorations on gift boxes, big ones in a glass vase on the mantel, a couple attached to a wreath…the ideas go on and on!
Materials:
Styrofoam balls in assorted sizes
Scrap yarn
Aleene’s Tacky Glue or other craft glue
Yarn needle
Scissors
Directions:
Step 1: Place a dot of glue in the middle of a Styrofoam ball. Place the end of yarn in the middle of glue dot to secure and wrap the yarn around the Styrofoam ball several times through glue dot.
The beauty about working with yarn and Styrofoam is that the yarn “clings” to the Styrofoam texture, making it easy to wrap the yarn around the ball and not worry about the yarn slipping from place.
Step 2: Wrap yarn around Styrofoam ball several times in the same direction, then switch directions. Keep wrapping yarn around ball in alternating directions to get a “yarn ball” effect, as seen above.
Keep wrapping yarn around until Styrofoam no longer shows through. Doesn’t that look pretty?
Step 3: When the ball is wrapped to your liking, place a dot of glue next to the most recently wrapped area of yarn. Continue to wrap yarn over glue dot to secure yarn in place.
The yarn ball should look like this afterwards, the glue is covered by yarn wrapped over it.
Cut yarn, leaving a long tail for weaving in the end.
Step 4: Thread a needle with the yarn end and pass needle underneath several sections of wrapped yarn. Repeat a few times to secure, then trim yarn end close to ball.
Step 5: To make a hanger for the ornament, use a needle and thread a length of yarn underneath a section of wrapped yarn. Tie ends into a knot at desired length and hide knot underneath wrapped yarn section.
Repeat for lots of yarn ball goodness to hang on your tree this year! So much cuter than store-bought ornaments.