Small(er) Space Crafting

As you might imagine, impending parenthood has brought with it a variety of changes, and more to follow. One such change was the need to change my guest room/craft space into a Kid room. In the end, I decided not to move out, instead I just moved into the closet. Luckily for me and all my stuff, it’s a very large, deep nice closet. Behold:

In the following photographs you will see what a miracle of tidy organization that small closet has become. It has so many kinds of storage that it puts the Container Store to shame. You can’t go into it anymore, what I do is use a bar stool and sit at the tables behind the doors. I can access anything I need from that vantage point. The only real downside is that I can only have one side open at a time, since it is outfitted with sliding doors. But it’s only a minor inconvenience, and overall, I really love this amazing space.

When I started, though, I didn’t love it. I was deeply divided about this whole plan. Losing my crafting space to the baby was hard, in a symbolic way, and hard work, in a literal way. It was really the thing that brought home to me that I was actually going to magically produce a child in a few months. The trouble is that I am not a young chicken. I have been an adult for quite a while, and I am comfortable in my habits and identity. “What am I doing?!” I thought to myself as I worked. “Am I literally in the process of exchanging my identity for that of MOM?!” It was a panic-inducing thought.

Before you say, “Oh, that’s ridiculous” you should read this post from Kim Werker’s blog, in which she is scolded by a reader who thinks it’s terrible she doesn’t have “Mommy” in her blog blurb. Lots of times women do intentionally subsume their identities into Mom-hood, or prioritize motherhood above all other aspects of their identities. And there are women who can get quite nasty/condescending/scolding when that’s not your choice, as if it makes you a crappy parent. As for me, there are lots of private, personal reasons I chose to be a mother, but subsuming my identity into that role wasn’t one of them. In fact, it was one thing I really did not want to do.

So, no. Moving into the closet didn’t mean I was exchanging my identity, it just meant I was making room for a new aspect of it.Does that mean I’ll be a crap parent, or not care about my kid, as some might imply? No. It means I’m a reasonably happy, well-rounded, complicated individual, so it’s unlikely that any one aspect of who I am will ever completely subsume the rest of it. In the same way, the Kid won’t absorb all my writing here, either, because I would be bored senseless if all I ever made and talked about was baby stuff. It’s just  rather new at this point and therefore interesting, and also I’m under the influence of Nesting Hormones.

I imagine everyone approaches these things differently. I don’t think there’s a right or wrong answer to how you make room for parenting in your life, but as a rather independent feminist with a career I don’t intend to give up, this is how I approach it. With caution and thoughtfulness, and the knowledge that I am perfectly able to go to Ikea and outfit a closet as an awesomesauce sewing lab.

And you thought I was just going to talk about my crafting closet.

Lazlo Hollyfeld, cyclocross, etc.

Sunday was a super busy day. I can’t quite remember what I did Saturday (something about blueberry pancakes and sewing) but Sunday was pretty darn packed.  I got up at 5:30 to go with my brother to Monterey to see him in a cyclocross race. No, really, while I will readily admit I am not a morning person, I did actually get up at that time, drive 2 hours to Monterey, and stand out in the rain and the cold and stand witness to five rounds of bike race. I really love my family, and my brother’s my best friend. Thus I do unlikely things for them. He looks mad, eh? Mad at the race! I think I took about 50 pictures of him.

Actually, I do remember some of Saturday. I spent an inordinate amount of time fixing up my craft room. It’s just been a giant mess, and I had to sit down and finish a Christmas gift (which I can’t show you now). I had to clean up enough to actually do some sewing, and plug in a few wires. I’m not going to lie to you. It was painful, and it’s not done. I had five boxes of crafting stuff to unpack, lights to install, things to hang up, etc. I barely had that many clothes to unpack! My obsessions are taking over my life.

It seems that I am definitely going to have enough space to craft. However, since my brother comes to my house a lot, I want him to feel at home, not like he’s camping out in my studio. So the goal is to have a crafting space I can close off and make “disappear” (I do like dual purpose rooms, anyway). The room has a big closet and a giant second closet with shelving, so I have both a sewing workspace (the closet) and storage (shelving) I can close off. Plus I’m stealing the dining table (all six feet of it) for a project-work table. There’s also a lovely bed in it that I’ve wanted for four years, and there will be a bookshelf and actual decorations at some future point. Maybe. It seems like a lot to organize right now.

All this is necessary because I’ve determined that next year I’m going to sit down and really do a lot of sewing in the artistic sense. I also plan to finish 2 big crochet projects and a couple small ones. I have a notebook CHOCK FULL of ideas, and I really want to make some of them come to life. So much has happened in the past couple of years that it feels as if it’s gotten in the way of my ability to make stuff. Now that something has really happened, I want to stop thinking about the direction of my life for a while, and do some craft and art instead. Lord knows I’ve got enough projects-in-progress and ideas-in-progress to keep me busy for 10 years.

In honor of the fact that I’ve once again decided to put my sewing machine desk in a [rather big] closet, my brother has decided I need a name tag that says Lazlo Hollyfeld on the sewing room/closet. I am slightly mortified, yet I do understand. If this reference baffles you, it’s the name of the 1970s genius/nerd who went insane and lives in the dorm’s steam tunnels in the movie Real Genius. Real Genius is my favorite movie, being a nerd and all. I’d rather be Chris Knight (my 2009 Halloween costume), but I’ll settle for Lazlo for now. I’ll leave you tonight with a few quotes from the movie …

Mitch: Did you know there’s a guy living in our closet?
Chris Knight: You’ve seen him too?
Mitch: Who is he?
Chris Knight: Hollyfeld.
Mitch: Why does he keep going into our closet?
Chris Knight: Why do you keep going into our closet?
Mitch: To get my clothes – but that’s not why he goes in there.
Chris Knight: Of course not, he’s twice your size – your clothes would never fit him.
Mitch: Yeah…
Chris Knight: Think before you ask these questions, Mitch. Twenty points higher than me? Thinks a big guy like that can wear his clothes?

[EIGHTIES MONTAGE!!!]

I love that movie.

Grand Freaking Finale

Comments from the cheap seats:

My mother-in-law said, “Soon you’ll be so organized you won’t be able to find anything.”

My brother Jeremy, when writing about the sewing machine pad, asked “Where is the snack drawer?”

Clever, clever folks.

This is actually my last post about all the organizational items I’ve been making, because I finished the LAST 3 ITEMS. Have I bored you to tears yet with my quest for organization? Did I do enough sewing? I promise, there is a reason I’m doing all of this. One day it will make sense! Eventually you will all look back and say ohhh, yes, I see what amazing forethought she had.

If that’s not foreshadowing I don’t know what is.

So this is 2 small pockets for Stuff. The green one is for crocheting and holds things like my gauge measure, stitch counter, stitch holders, plastic and metal needles, that sort of thing.  The purple one is for embroidery & hand-sewing, and has things like a seam ripper, adjustable measure, measuring tape, chalk, thimble, etc.  Each has two outside pockets and one main pocket. I haven’t decided whether to put a button close on or not. I think not.

I made myself a needle book, designed from the initial issue of Stitch in 2008. There are 8 felt pages for all sizes of needles and you know what? I own a lot of needles. And many of them are huge. Why do I own so many dagger-type needles?! Well anyway – each felt page features a sewn piece of bias tape written on with a fabric marker.

There you have a bit of detail. On the back of the purple pocket is elastic for holding whatever spools of thread I might be using at the time. Nice, right?  It will also hold embroidery bobbins. Then there’s the needle book stitching, there, I was happy about that – there’s a piece of fabric in between each felt page of needles.

Finally, THE BAG. The bag that holds all this stuff I’ve been making lately. The bag that holds every last little fiddly notion, tool and do-dad that I could possibly want whether I’m sitting on the couch or sitting in a car. Fact is, I do more handwork than anything else, and I HATE continually getting up to get things, and I also HATE losing things.

The bag has a top zipper in a very nice casing. But it’s the lining that makes this bag. It’s got three compartments.

YES THREE. Now, all you sewers out there, please take a second and try to imagine exactly how you would make a T-shaped three-compartment inner lining for a bag. It isn’t exactly easy. But I insisted. One pocket is for crochet, the other for sewing, and the end one for general STUFF like eyeglasses and pens.

And you know what? I’m not great at visualization or anything, but I am quite pleased with this.

Before and after. Haha!

I should mention I got the yen to make a chatelaine in the midst of this craziness, but I think I’m done for now.