The biggest perk

The biggest perk of moving in with the love of my life is that I am going to have a sewing room again!

Well, ok. The biggest perk is probably having him around all the time, and getting to snuggle on the sofa in the evening, and having more than one bathroom in the house for the first time in years (we have FOUR!). But besides that, the best of all is having a sewing room.

I have had a room of my own for crafting a few times since moving out of my parents (where I did not have my own craft room, but Mom sure did- and she shared). In Bloomington I had a second bedroom, which was used as both a study for writing during the semester, and a craft room when school was out of session. I made my cosplay costume there, sewing into the wee hours of my summer vacation. I had a sewing machine, my Rocketeer, and we purred through school breaks with internet radio blasting from my desktop computer and my crappy computer speakers.

When I moved back to Maryland, I had a two bedroom apartment in Rockville. And again, it was a combined study/craft room. But for some reason I didn't sew much in that apartment. I had an incredibly long commute, and hardly any money to waste, so I cooked dinner and ate while watching a movie most nights. I did knit quite a bit throughout that time period. And I was heavily in the throes of my World of Warcraft addiction then, so I was in the second bedroom all the time on weekends and late at night, but I was mostly playing on the computer. It wasn't a fully functional craft room, I suppose.

Once I had a roommate again, I lost my "free" second bedroom, and had to go back to crafting in a smaller space. I did have my sewing machine set up in our large living room area, near the kitchen table, and I sewed a few gifts there. But again, I was mostly knitting on the sofa while watching tv and videos. You don't need nearly as much space for knitting as you do for sewing and paper crafts. And then of course I moved to Arlington... to an efficiency apartment. It's a bit entertaining to me that I got much more into quilting ONLY after I lived in a teensy space where in order to quilt I had to clear away the kitchen table- and then I had to put it away again in order to cook dinner!

Now, finally, I have the best of all worlds. I live in a house, with the sweetest man I know. We have FOUR BATHROOMS- seriously people, that's amazing. And the biggest perk is definitely having a room to craft. I can't wait to get it set up and take some photos, to show off the new space. My furniture is moving in next Sunday! In the meantime, I've been spending loads of time thinking about how to organize my space. I need to fit a sofa, my computer desk (to be used as a sewing machine desk, actually), my large cube storage-bookcase thing, and a few more bookcases. I also have a bunch of plastic bins and other random things that need to fit in somehow. It's not a tiny room, but that's a lot! I've been checking out a bunch of blogs to get ideas on how to make the space most effective, and most inspiring for my various crafts. I have hardly any fabric stash yet, but I foresee that will change as I continue on the quilting path. And I still have more yarn than Stitch DC Georgetown. Hmm. Here's some of the inspiration I've been finding!

Thoughts on relative difficulty and multi-crafting

I have not been working on my fair isle sweaters. Shame on me. Not even a gauge swatch. I've done this, though:



It's really quite large. I've already completed the first "V" section. The pattern is pretty simple, and this is my second time doing it- and my third baby blanket covered in Vs. I just love the "Victory" going through my fingers, I guess- there's something so natural about double crochet, chain, double crochet repeated.

I went to the "Un-Craft Fair" in Bethesda, held by the DC Craft Mafia. That was a blast- I was sad not to pick up a pirate onesie, but my cousin would probably not appreciate the admonition to eat one's "arrr peas and carrots." I did get a cute little pin (boyfriend purchased it for me), and I picked up a bunch of handmade soaps from a local crafter.

I also have spent a lot of time thinking about sewing. This is, in part, because I picked up a book at Border's after my knitting group last week and fell in love. It's this: Last Minute Patchwork and Quilted Gifts. Most of the projects are very simple, but completely elegant. Some look insanely easy, and some make me cringe at the thought of all that hand-quilting (this is the girl who STILL has not really begun quilting the wall hanging I made this summer, on vacation with my mom). And the more I think about these projects, and the ones I would really like to make, the more I think I'm going about certain things the wrong way.

I tend to buy pretty patterns, the more complicated the better, because they work with how I envision the end product looking. Which is fine, but realistically? I am a relative sewing novice. I may scoff at the super-simple projects I see on occasion, but the people who are making those very same simple projects are actually MAKING them. I have nifty patterns, some cool fabrics- even some of them cut and ready to sew- and yet I don't. I'm not saying I'm incapable of doing them- my RenFest skirt (two years in the making) is surely not difficult. It's a matter of setting the sewing as a priority, and knowing I can do it and do it quickly. I need some confidence builder projects, to remind me that I do know my way around a sewing machine, and the basic tips and tricks of the trade. My mother has probably been saying this to me all along- I surprised her by being pretty good at piecework right off, but she was right in general about me being too ambitious with my projects and my time tables. So here's the new goals. I'm talking sewing here, but they really apply to knitting, too.

1- Set reasonable time limits- or better yet, set none at all. Does it really matter whether I get that wallhanging to my friend this winter, or next fall? I may feel a bit sheepish about it, but frankly he doesn't know it's coming anyways. No harm done. Holiday gifts don't need to be done for this holiday season- there's always next year. This year? Just buy them a book or a cute handmade thing on Etsy. Who cares?

1a- The corollary to Rule 1 is, not to promise things unless they're actually finished. Seriously.

2- Pick the simple project, and only ONE simple project at a time, and it should be SMALL. That means I may actually get to it, make it a priority, and finish it.

3- Nice fabric is worth it. Again, something I learned on the wall hanging. The border green fabric was cheap- it felt cheap, it didn't hold its shape well, and it was very difficult to piece nicely. If you're doing the simple and small project, the fabric cost really won't be an issue. You can make an ornament out of a quarter yard of fabric- in fact, a flock of them. So 8 bucks a yard for decent fabric isn't really that big an issue- that comes down to less than two dollars, even if you only make one!

4- Be inspired. Read Dallas's blog for project ideas (after all, Dallas- you are probably my inspiration for getting back to sewing at all). Read LOTS of blogs for project ideas. If I can look at hundreds of knitting blog posts, surely a few quality sewing blogs wouldn't go amiss.

5- Don't get too tempted by quilting. Some projects that would be really great to do? A simple skirt. An apron. They don't require any hand quilting, and would be functional. Wouldn't it be nice to wear a hand-knitted sweater and handmade skirt to work next spring?

6- Explore color. Lately, oranges and turquoise have been really jumping out at me. Why not play with them? There's nothing wrong with pink and blue and black, but that's hardly the full spectrum.

In other crafting news, my boyfriend is a crafty dude himself. Check out his new toy:

You can read a bit more about it from him here: Electrographic Beacon Projector