Being Creative

I don’t consider myself to be a creative person but some of my friends disagree because they point out all my knitting projects. Yes, I can knit, crochet and spin but knitting a garment entails reading a pattern and I have a logical and ordered mind (most of the time 🙂 ); this is reflected in the work I do: administration and budgets. But I don’t write patterns or knit freeform. I still stick rigidly to following a pattern. I admire people who can create such wonderful patterns for me (and others) to knit. Now they are really creative. One thing that I have discovered is that I do have a knack for using the spaces in my home quite ‘creatively’. Warning: this is a long post so you’d best settle in with a cuppa!

It started a few years ago with this little area under my internal stairs which I call the Book Nook. This is usually a difficult space to utilise because of the slope of the stairs but I have made it into a functional space.

And then it progressed to this area that is directly under the overlapping kitchen shelf and quite hidden away.

The shelves now home all my CDs and DVDs. They’re out of the way but more importantly, I can see all of them!

My biggest challenge recently has been to try and bring some sort of order to my growing fibre and yarn stash as I was slowly (or should I say quickly) running out of room. So after a lot of ‘creative’ thinking I realised I actually had one room in my home that I didn’t even use!! So I moved a few items into this room and it’s the new place where I can comb wool during summer (as my outside back courtyard is simply too humid). I have even moved some of my fibre into this room. It has a tiled floor so it’ll be easy to sweep up the dirt from any fleece. Okay, enough teasing; here’s the room I’m talking about.

Yes, it’s my bathroom of all rooms!! I only use the ensuite so this room is really wasted. Here’s where I’ve stored some of my stash.

How cool is that idea? The polystyrene box (which holds some alpaca) just rests nicely on the inside ledges of the bath. Perfect!

I bought this old telephone table (which also came with a chair) for $20 and it’s perfect for clamping on my two sets of wool combs. These ones are Alvin Ramer combs made in Canada which I bought recently from a member of the Australian Handspinners and Knitters group on Facebook. And of course, there’s also my Valkyrie wool combs that I bought from Karen Severn. Karen is the Australian distributor. (The combs are in the bag on the bathroom vanity and the block is clamped to the table.) You know me, I can’t just have one of anything 🙂

The chair that came with the table was quite yukky – dirty vinyl on the top and the chip board base was very flaky.

So I thought ‘creatively’ and bought myself this bread board for $8..

And screwed it to the chair frame and voila I now have a new chair which can also be used as a small table!!!

It will be easy enough to get a small cushion, sew on some ties and tie each one to a leg to make the seat a bit more comfortable. I won’t be doing much sitting in this room as wool combing lends itself to standing.

The seat still sits right under the table despite the bread board being slightly larger than the original base. I have considered buying two more of these bread boards and making a new table top as this one is also chip board underneath and it keeps flaking and dropping onto the floor.

I even have a small vacuum cleaner which will be ideal to quickly vacuum up those bits of dirt once I start combing.

Now to my new craft room. I actually have two spare bedrooms and they were both being used as storage rooms for my stash. I really needed a working craft room rather than using the dining room downstairs which was fast becoming overrun and unsightly. So I got my thinking cap on. The main thing that I needed to change in one of the rooms was to get rid of the single bed which was being used as a large shelf and it took up a lot of space in the room.

And to replace it with some type of table. So one day while I was looking on Ebay for a table (as you do), I came across this one.

How perfect is that? A table that I can fold up if ever I need to and it’s easy to store. Here’s my new table which I absolutely love!!

That’s my sewing machine on the left hand side. I can actually use it now!! Every bit of space has been utilised even under the table. And you know the single bed I was talking about? Well I put the mattress up against the wall as well as the bed frame. As I looked at the bed frame I had another ‘creative’ thought and came up with this idea.

Lots of hanging baskets to pop little bits and pieces into 🙂

I was on a roll! My next idea which I copied from someone on the Addi King Loomers and Knits Facebook group was to purchase this workbench from Bunnings for $25 to put my two Addi knitting machines on. It’s fantastic as I just turn it around depending on which machine I want to use. And the space directly under the workbench is not wasted as this is where I store the yarn I’m using to make my hats.

The rest of this craft room is stacked with stash.

What I love about this room is that in summer it’s on the shaded part of my home, there’s a large window and the breeze pours through it. I spent most of yesterday in my craft room and even settled in with a pot of tea! Utter bliss I must say.

This picture gives you an idea of the size of the window.

My other stash room is looking neater now that I’ve tidied it up a bit.

I’ve even managed to clear this little table so I have a small workspace here too if I need it.

I don’t live in a house but rather a townhouse but I am blessed to have three bedrooms all to myself 🙂

You could say I am quite pleased with the ‘creative’ ways I’ve found to use my limited space. Now the trick is to stop buying any more yarn and fibre!!!

Until next time…

Melanie