The Twisted World of Fiber, Hooks, Needles, Wheels and Dating after Widowhood

This is my story, and I'm sticking to it. Warts and all. I wanted to call it 'Seriously? WTF?', but that doesn't quite explain it all. Or does it?

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Craft Room Redux


My book club is coming over on Monday night, so instead of just cleaning the house, I was obsessing over re-doing my crafting room.  I couldn’t do anything else until that was done.  I found a cabinet for cheap at Ikea.  It was 50.00, and it is huge.  The only problem was, the store in Elizabeth was out of them, so I had to go to the Brooklyn store.  The BF had to work, and he really didn’t like the idea of me going to Brooklyn by myself, but I was on a mission, and was going come hell or high water!  Luckily, my pal Kathy was good enough to take the ride with me.  She’s a trooper.  The weekend before, we went to MDS&W together, so this adventure was a piece of cake!

 We made it there and back with no problem, and shopped for all manner of cool  cheap crap while there.  We even had awesome Swedish Meatballs for lunch.  How can you pass up Ikea Swedish Meatballs?  lol  The only problem we had was driving the damned flat cart with the 2 giant boxes.  The carts have those ‘fuck you-I will go in any direction I please’ wheels on them.  It wanted to pull to the right, and then would over-correct to the left.  Or into the curb.  Or a parked Audi.  Oh, we also had a hell of a time loading the boxes into the car.  Again, VW wagon Clown Car across the Verrazano & Goethals.  If I had to stop short, we would have been decapitated.  :-)

The putting together of the cabinet was a nightmare.  My house is furnished in mostly ‘put it together with this weird wrench we give you in the box’ type furniture.  My daughter’s whole bedroom set is from Ikea.  I can put that kind of shit together with my eyes closed.  EXCEPT this cabinet.  They stopped marking the pieces with letters, so you had to guess which piece was the bottom, and go from there.  It is put together with it’s back facing up, then lifted upright to install the doors.  When I man-handled the whole 7 feet of it upright, I realized the top and bottom were in the wrong places, which would keep the shelves and hanging bar from attaching.  Also, (and I know better with this shit) the cardboard back that you nail to it chipped the whole interior.  Good thing I was going to pack the shit out of it with yarn.  :-) I finally got it together correctly, loaded it with my stash, moved the stereo into the closet, and set up the rest of the room the way I want it.  It should look nice for about 4 days, and then I will have to keep the door closed to avoid scaring guests.
 
 
This is the Ikea cabinet from Hell.  It has 3 doors and tons of space for my stash and crafting crap. 

 This is the single side.  From top to bottom- Wool, sock yarn, superwash wool, cotton.  I tried to put the cotton on a higher shelf, but the weight of it collapsed the shelf.  sigh......


The double side holds my hemp, silk, yarn for projects on the needles, my swift & ball winder, cross stitch stuff, distilled water for the iron, extra project bags, and a bag of crochet squares from a swap I have no desire to put together right now.

The top cabinet came from Overstock.  It is supposed to be for a bathroom.  I left the shelf out of it and use it for my sewing thread.  The Barrister bookcase holds all my antique books-many of them signed by the author, and I have a journal from a woman from Philadelphia from the 1800's.  Ignore the shit to the left.  It's recycling crap.

From the left- HUGE bag of washed Romney x waiting to be carded.  My sewing table, with boxes of material underneath, sewing machine and carder on top. To the right is my bookcase of craft books.  The top of the bookcase holds my DPN's in a wooden clamming scoop and my straights in a felted tall thing.

My Majacraft Rose, named Myrtle, (long, stupid story) sits in front of the bookcase, next to the antique ceramic stove, which is full of fiber.  How full, you ask?  look, there's some spilling out as I type this.  lol



See?


This is the coolest table!  It was my Grandmother's dining room table.  It fold out to like 96 inches, but I just open one side when I need to cut patterns or when carding fiber.  The obligatory cat is lying in a basket of blanket makings- an unfinished University of Michigan crocheted monstrosity, 20-odd cream colored knit and crocheted squares, and a Coming Home poncho that I must have been drunk and high to have even started. In the background is my rotary cutting mats and my blocking board.

 The last 2 cabinets hold sewing supplies, bobbins and more yarn.  MOST of my Rowan is in the cabinet on the right.  Above the cabinets is an ironing board cabinet.  It is one of the coolest things I own.  I am a dork.


The whole fucking mess, as seen from the doorway.  And yes, that's a Japanese Wedding kimono hanging on the wall, and a camel bell hanging at the window.








1 comment:

  1. You are so awesomely funny...I'm glad it worked out in the end, it looks really good!! Glad I took the trip to IKEA with you too...I want to go back! LOL!!

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