Mindfulness in the Craft Room

Thanks everyone so much for all the lovely, mindful comments!  I'm afraid life has gotten away from me again from responding to them as I would have liked, I'm a little (lot) busy at work, and with another work trip coming up, MIL visiting for 3 weeks and a variety of other stuff I don't want to discuss here things are not slowing down anytime soon! =)  Every one of your items is a inspiration to me, and I'm filled with all sorts of lovely, mindful ideas that I can't wait to try out!

In the meantime I've been "decluttering" my craft room *sigh*.  It's exhausting.  What I did was pull everything out, everything from the closet went on the floor.  All my yarn and fiber went on the guest bed.  I cleaned everything and scrubbed all the cabinets, shelves and desks and then only allowed items back in the room that I really enjoy or had a plan for using.  Yarn, fabric and fiber went back in pretty fast.  I did have about 3 boxes of yarn that I didn't have plans for and wasn't speaking to me so I'm going to pass them on to new owners.(Angelika, check your mailbox!) =) ;)

When I was done I was still left with that giant pile in the middle of the room.  Everything in the closet was mostly "misc" crafts.  You know, the other crafts that you've tried and then abandoned?  Beads, calligraphy, 15 pillow forms, 3 bags of polyfill, extra, old fabric in patterns I would never wear.  Rubber stamps, embossing powder, glitter glue, markers and paper (I can't draw to save my life), 3 boxes of ink pens, tracing paper, coloring books, half-done projects stuffed in a drawer, etc, etc, etc. 

Plus the magazines, oh the magazines!  I like to tear out pages to save ideas for later and then I stuff them in a drawer if I don't get around to cutting them out and gluing them in my inspiration book.  Needless to say they pile up quickly.

Cleaning out my craft room is hard.  I have a hard time letting it go.  Every little bit of it is a part of my craft history which was changed and evolved to bring me to the type of crafter I am today.  I know now I love fiber and yarn, I adore knitting and can't picture my life without it.  I love spinning.  I love dyeing fiber and carding fiber and making battlets. I love sewing.  It's important to me to be able to sew with a machine and by hand.  I enjoy embroidery, even though I'm not very good at it yet.

But when I started, I didn't know any of those things.  My mom got me started early, ever since I can remember we crafted together but we didn't do any of the things I do now.  We painted, traced, beaded, rubber stamped (a lot!), glued, and paper mache'd our way to fun stuff.  I baby sat other children as soon as I was old enough and I always brought a backpack full of crafty fun from my craft room to play with them and they loved it!  I was always a favorite babysitter. 

I've been moving and carrying this stuff around for so long and I realized it's time to just let it go. 

Declutter.

It's time to give it to a new generation of crafters so they can find something they enjoy doing.  What I did was pile up boxes and boxes of stuff and let my nieces pick through. 

Those bags and bags of stamps?  On to a happy new home!  The bead loom, beading kits, markers, pens and misc stuff that helped me find my inner crafter?  Gone!  I hope it will help them find their own creative muses and find the right crafts for them.  And hey - if it's knitting I'll be there in a heartbeat to teach them! ;)

My craft room is almost finished and it feels so light and airy in there now, stepping in there makes me happy.  I'm so happy I cleaned it out.

Aside from decluttering I've been busy.  I spun up some beautiful (if I do say so myself!) yarn from my Deep End of the Ocean battlets.  This is a dk/sportweight, 260 yards, 3.7 oz and very, very soft and oh so pretty! I love this colorway!  If you are interested in this colorway I have just enough on my worktable to make another set and I'm happy to custom card it for you.

I also am part of the May Day sock swap.  I haven't talked much about my sock here,  I ran into some issues when I ordered yarn (3 colors of dream in color smooshy).  The colors that arrived were NOT what I was expecting so I had to let it marinate for awhile until I could decide what it wanted to be.  Happily I'm making progress.  This is the embossed leaves socks.  I love knitting this - it's beautiful, fun and best of all knits up quickly!  These are going to be some cushy socks!

Happy Monday!

Comments

[Beth]

Good for you! I know that getting rid of things can be hard. For me, the deciding part the hardest. Decluttering my craft room is on my "to do list" for this week. You'll be my inspiration! :)

[Karen]

I have been trying to declutter my house house, little by little. It's hard but so much better afterwards. As soon as it warms up a little more, I am going to tackle my attic. Boy is it a mess up there!

Your May Day socks is really pretty. I love the colorway. Marinating worked well for you.

[babyface]

I love your socks and I love the color. I
was wondering if that was one of the colors
that you disappointed you. They look
lovely. I also love the yarn that you
showed. That is my favorite color, but I
just can't use it right now.

[nuttnbunny]

So SO beautiful

And so industrious! I'm off to take a nap!!! :-)

[gina]

Sounds like you have been busy. Have to do the declutter thing here as well. Too many things that have been carried around for too long. I love the yarn that you spun, the color is beautiful!! Take care!

[Angelika]

Wow, you have been busy. I guess I need a bigger mailbox? It seems to be raining yarn these days. When you are on you next road trip, you know who to call. And we leave the packing of the craftroom on my house to the next movers. :) They'll hate me.

[Qutecowgirl]

You go Keri!!! I just have a craft closet that the pass 2 weekends I have gone thru and purged. I found stuff from when I was little (single digits) I know now where everything is and what I have. so much nicer. Now for the rest of the house!

=)

Love the yarn very pretty!!

[Qutecowgirl]

You go Keri!!! I just have a craft closet that the pass 2 weekends I have gone thru and purged. I found stuff from when I was little (single digits) I know now where everything is and what I have. so much nicer. Now for the rest of the house!

=)

Love the yarn very pretty!!

[Jennifer]

the sock is beautiful and way to go on cleaning out the craft room - i need to do the same w/ my spare bedroom to turn it into a nursery, but so far haven't done a thing. maybe your hard work will inspire me!

[Becky]

I love that sock pattern. Very pretty.

I have old hobbies that I don't do anymore, too. I was big into rubberstamping and beading and I have LOTS of stuff. I'm not quite ready to get rid of the stamping stuff but I'm getting there. I'd love to see your "empty" craft room.

[Stacey]

As hard as it is to part with the past crafts - it is liberating to move on, and I personally wonder what I was thinking - all of that DMC floss? - egads.;) Your handspun is absolutely gorgeous - the depth - beautiful!

[Felicia]

I have a very hard time keeping my craft room tidy. Impossible even. So I feel your pain.

[Katie]

The yarn is absolutely gorgeous, as well as the socks. You are very talented, Keri. I need to go through my craft "closet" soon--right now it's in my son's room, which isn't a good place since he's starting to get around more...thanks for the inspiration.

[Debby]

After reading your previous post, I finally took the plunge and bought some eco-cat litter. It is a slow transition process but I'm looking forward to being free of the plastic bags. I already use the cloth ones to shop, so this will be a final liberation of sorts. Thank you!

Now on to your current post, can I ask what you did with any half-started projects you knew you weren't going to finish? I have a crewel embroidery kit that I started at least 10 years ago. I'd like the finished project but hate working with such a tiny needle. Maybe I should accept I'm not going to finish it and move on. And to your comments on magazines -- paper is the worst thing for me to sort and file, the hardest to keep under control.

[Lynne]

The socks are so pretty, Keri. I am remembering when I moved from my other house, when I had a whole basement craft area, tons of storage, and years of accumulation, and how hard it was to determine what had to go. It's so funny to me that now I'm contained in such a small space, with much less clutter, yet I seem to have everything I need!

[Anne]

sigh . . . I'm a chucker and he's a pack rat so since every little thing has to have a committee review before I can get rid of it, declutter is not our best thing. I'm enjoying yours vicariously. love the embossed leaves pattern!

[tiennie]

Beautiful sock! Way to declutter and pass on the craftiness. :)

[A Homely Heroine]

The decluttering sounds quite emotionally cleansing, I love those socks nice pattern, cool colours : )

[Tam]

Great sock! Love that colorway and the mindful posts too! Things have been so crazy in my world lately that I really haven't been mindful enough, I'm afraid.