Hooked on Comfort

My little brother is in film school at Drexel University. One of his friends is looking for a house to film her final. She came by this past weekend to take pictures. Of course, my brother thought to ask me as I bought my house a little over a year ago AND remember what it is like to be a struggling art student. So today I made it my mission to organize and clean up my craft room. Believe me-- it needed it. The real problem is that I just let everything pile up until it is a 3 day project to dig out of. Story of my life, people. Lucky for everyone involved, I had the day off. I spent 10 hours cleaning. I'd say it is about halfway put together.

Anyway, all that time spent in the craft room storing my hooks and needles made me remember that I wanted to search for an ergonomic option. I have carpal tunnel and tendonitis in both my wrists. I don't let that stop me from enjoying crafts, trust me. I do, however, try to find a way to make it less impactful on me the day after a marathon of creating.

At first, I came across this tutorial. This site teaches you how to take something that is the right basic size and shape of the handle you desire and modify the hook and the object together. Two more homemade removable solutions were offered on Craft Stylish.com. The site suggests modifying your hooks using tennis racket grip tape or a combination or masking tape and pencil grips like the ones used in grade school.

Polymer Crochet Hooks offers a tutorial with video on baking permanent grips onto your aluminium and steel hooks. The process seems easy enough. The only catch is that you have to make note of the size hook you are covering before wrapping it in the clay. You will want to etch the letter/number in the handle or find some other decorative way to designate the size. Now, I know that there are hook sizers available for purchase at stores like Joann's but really-- it is much more convenient if your hook simply says what size it is without all that hassle.

Instructions on how to carve your own wooden crochet hooks can be found at the Gourmet Crochet. I am going to ask for this book for Christmas as I have been trying to restrain myself considering the recent amount of crochet pattern purchasing I have been doing. If you are so fortunate to pick up this book, I also suggest that you check out the My Work With Crafts blog. Lady Skye Frye offers her own experiences and lessons learned having utilized this book and craft.Terrific insight.

The Stash Monster...

I will start this post by disclosing that my family has always had a "collecting" problem. Example-- Pictures of Mom's craft room.

As you see here she has packed her craft room to the seams with primarily cross stitch supplies, though there are a few other crafting pursuits in there. She has literally tons of linen, fabrics, patterns, buttons, fibers, and supplies. To be fair, she only recently had a free room open up in her house to allow her to attempt to organize her craft items so the mess is understandable. It is always messiest before total order graces a project.

So, the point that I am attempting to make is that I am humbly following in her somewhat disorganized, collecting, crafting footsteps, though with several other crafting focuses.

I have had a pleasant yet dramatic influx of yarn supplies recently. My boyfriend has pointed out to me on more than one occasion that I need to stop purchasing and acquiring and get to using or at the very least storing my supplies properly.

My organizing plan is... I don't really have one? I am buying the vacuum-sucking Space Saver bags to sort, package, and protect my yarn in some nice, convenient see-through packaging.

I'll... let you know what I come up with...

Studio? -- Check!

I am so excited. It took a bit of time to get everything arranged just so for me this weekend, but I got my studio all set up. I took bits and pieces from all over the place to make it happen. I made use of some of the wood and the saw horses that were left behind by the previous owner.

Following that, I made a list of the items I both needed and wanted in order to make stained glass. I purchased the basic tools from my class teacher earlier last month. I went shopping in my parent's garage and found most of what you see here before you in terms of furniture. Mom gave me that potter's table on the left which I think will be amazing for holding my works in progress as well as tools. The two round stools were also my mom's -- garage sale finds! I have cusions fo both of them if I want a padded seat. The milk crates where my glass is stored was from dad. He also found those hiddieous lamps that are on either side of the table. They used to be my grandfather's before he moved in with my aunt. The funny little trash can in the corner was actually a pail that my mom got at my sister's baby shower in 1979. (Yay, recycling!)