This is my stairway to heaven otherwise known as the knitting room. It is cleaned, organized and ready for company. I would like to interrupt my "50 Things You Didn't Have 50 Years Ago" and take you on a little tour of my place of solace.
One day five years ago, Dick decided he wanted to use our third bedroom for something other than a depository for my yarn. His solution was to build a room over our garage for me. Our ideas were very modest, then the architect got involved. I love architects! We have a beautiful open stairway off our foyer leading to heaven. I have a wonderfull 20x22 space that is all mine. I have alluded to the size of my yarn stash, now you can check it out for yourself. Besides being a great place to knit and keep yarn, it is fabulous during Christmas season for keeping the gift and wrapping clutter out of the public part of the house.
Well, here we go!
Welcome to my little piece of heaven. Of course, I have a table and comfortable chairs for social knitting. The chairs were once our deck chairs but I claimed them as soon as the room was finished because they are perfect for knitting. They rock a bit and you feel suspended. The lighting makes taking pictures a little difficult from a glare but you get the idea. I have two sky lights that brighten the room and make it fabulously relaxing on rainy days.
This is my library. I love knitting books. If you could see the titles you would discover that I have them grouped by category (color, techniques, baby, men, scarves and wraps, felted, etc) and the authors are alphabetized within each category. I hope you don't think I'm too anal but I want to be able to find a book when I want it! The picture above the bookcase and the one to the left are very special to me. Fiberworks and Wonders Knitting and Weaving was one of my very favorite yarn shops in Toledo. It was owned by two guys who loved color as much as I do. When the shop went out of business 😥 I bought the two panorama pictures of the shop. I love looking at the pictures and remembering the great times I had there. It was at Fiberworks and Wonders that I first discovered the wonderful Nashua. I made the afghan for Donn of Nashua. I added much color to my stash from Fiberworks and Wonders.
This is Lydia my dress form. I really wished I had taken Lydia to Lawrence so my pictures of the vests would have been better. Lydia is wearing the Survivor Shawl that will be featured in the HomeStyle article.
When I am working on a project, I keep the yarn I need in my cradle which was also my dad's cradles which was also my dad's grandfather's cradle. It is over 130 years old. The yarn currently making residence is the pink for Survivor's Shawls.
The top shelf contains single patterns organized in notebooks and knitting magazines. The middle shelf is all about buttons. Hundreds and hundreds of buttons. Old, new, wooden, glass, handmade, jet: you call it I probably have it. The bottom shelf is accessories.
This is where I wind my yarn. I love to wind yarn. It relaxes me like nothing else. I can wind small balls and large balls. I can wind partial balls and discover how many yards I have with a digital counter.
Last but certainly not least, this is what made this room possible--my yarn stash. I should reorganize my stash every few months. When I organize, I always scare myself with what I have and I don't add to it for a while. I think I could never buy another skein, knit until I die and still have enough yarn to knit a scarf that circles the equator. I love every skein. When I moved my tubs upstairs, one woman said,"I bet you found yarn you forgot you had." My response was, "Have you ever found children you forgot you had?" She looked at me puzzled. Did you notice that my tubs are labeled? I also have all of my many tubs of Noro together, the Nashua together, the Magic Ball yarn together, etc.
It has been exciting to take you on a tour of my yarn room. I hope you enjoyed it.