Introducing The Tools & Supplies Maven...

Well Hello There!

Many of you may know me as "dulcedosa" on Ravelry and from my blog, "Sweet Knittilicious Spot". My friends, family and co-workers call me "Carmen"...among other select appellations.

Besides being an avid knitter, crocheter, seamstress, jewelry maker, card maker, full time employee at a big corporate entity, part-time employee at a gym, guild member, friend, lover and humble servant to Miss Kitty, I am the sole proprietor of GirleyPurls.

I wouldn't categorize myself as an obsessive or even compulsive organizer, but more someone who has a natural inclination to organize things to a certain degree. No my socks aren't all rolled up and organized by size or color, but my scrapbook paper is. :)

I look forward to discovering and sharing all kinds of storage solutions for all your tools & accessories. We'll explore everything from the tried and true to the latest, greatest innovations the crafting world has to offer...DIY to high end. You name it, we'll have it for you to peruse and implement.

Please don't hesitate to contact me with information on systems you encounter as you surf the web or browse your local merchants. You can never have enough choices.

The Other Jenean

Hello! My name is Jenean and I'm very much opposite of a professional organizer :) I love to organize group activity and will be getting my bachelors degree in Hospitality Management in a year's time. I'm the founder of the club and started it because I need help with organizing my 'stuff' and figured that other people need help too.

In my section I hope to share ways to organize your projects, patterns, and even a few tips that you can do along the way which will streamline your knitting process. I more than anyone HATE doing gauge swatches, but I'll show you a method to the madness of only doing your gauge swatches once per weight/per needle size.

I'm excited to have you here with us and I hope that many more will join in and make organize a fun part of our lives.

Intro from Janine

Jenean asked me to introduce myself. I'm Janine Adams, owner of Peace of Mind Organizing in St. Louis, Missouri, and an enthusiastic knitter. I'll be contributing weekly posts on organizing your yarn stash.

I began knitting in January 2005, six months before I started my organizing business. (I was a freelance writer for ten years before that.) I knit almost every day and while I'm by no means an advanced knitter, I'm sure enjoying the learning process. Right now I'm learning entrelac by making the Quant headband from Knitty. I love making felted items. The resulting fabric seems like magic to me, and it hides all sorts of mistakes. I think one of my favorite FOs is the felted intarsia Wobbly Circles tote I made last year. I blogged about it on my organizing (and sometimes knitting) blog here.

As a professional organizer, I love organizing stuff, naturally. One of the things I love organizing in my own house is my knitting stuff, including my stash, needles, notions, and patterns. It's a constant, if enjoyable, challenge.

I'm always interested in the ways people store their stashes and even more interested in how they organize them. (Sort yarn by weight? Color? Fiber? The possibilities seem virtually limitless.) I look forward to presenting some cool ideas on this blog!

Our First Challenge!

The 30-Day Organizing Challenge

Do you have an area in your home where you store your crafts that has been bothering you, which you have been wanting to get organized for awhile, and which you are tired of looking at? Over the next 30-days you'll have something to do about it and we want to help. Our intention is not to overburden or overwhelm you but to support you and have others in blogland support you. Clutter is not our friend (Mantra to repeat to yourselves over and over again).

The challenge if you choose to accept it is this:

Organize one area or room in your house and post the before (don’t be scared) and after pictures on your blog. On February 29th we will put up a Mr. Linky for you to link up to so we can all share in your success. If you feel up to it, post your before pictures now and let us know about it in the Mr. Linky below. We would love to cheer you on!

Oh, and what would a challenge be without a PRIZE?? We still have to work out the details on that but, oh yeah, we definitely have to have a prize.

If you would like to participate, please sign your name below to Mr. Linky. This way everyone in the challenge will be able to visit you and root you on to de-cluttering success! Please feel free to grab the challenge plaque and link it from your blog.

To link from your Blogger blog you need to save the image to your computer and then upload the image to a photo hosting site or to your own website server. Example photo hosting sites would be Flickr, Photobucket, or on a server.

Go to your blogger template and choose 'Add New Element' and then choose html/java script. Copy and paste the code below into the window that pops up.

Then go to where you have your image stored, and if it's through a photo hosting site, right click on the image and choose 'properties.' Highlight and copy the code where it says 'location.' Paste the code into the proper section of the code below and you should be good to go.

<center><a href="http://organizedknitting.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="ENTER THE LOCATION OF YOUR GRAPHIC HERE" /></a></center>

Prizes

1st Prize

1-Hour Organizing Consult by Janine

2nd Prize

Knitter's Almanac donated by Lynne (Durango)

3rd Prize

Project Bag donated by Carmen (Dulcedosa)

4th Prize

Stitch Markers donated by Zelphia

Welcome to the Organized Knitting Club!!

We are so glad that you stopped by to visit us!! This is a new club which originated on Ravelry. We actually take many of our tips from our Ravelry members and will be sharing the most popular methods of organizing your stash, your craft space, your supplies, and your patterns. We will be researching new ways to make our lives easier as we - inevitably - accumulate more and more 'stuff' to feed our craft-like habits. Won't you join us?

Upcoming Features

Monthly Contests & Prize Drawings
Every month we'll run a contest on our blog that will spur us on to organize just a little bit more of our lives. The contests will challenge us to organize our stash, create a pattern notebook, or just to organize our space just a little bit more.

Organized Stash
Last year Anna shared about her mother-in-laws stash. Does your stash have it's own space? Is yarn found in the strangest places in your house? Does it share space with other 'loves?' Janine will be sharing her organizational tips on how to organize your stash so that it's manageable.

Organized Tools & Supplies
Carmen will be sharing with us some ways to manage all the tools and supplies that come with our hobby (or lifestyle as it may be). She will highlight various products that might work for you and help you to store your various needles and other supplies.

Organized Space
Suzanne will be sharing with us ways to organize our space. What is the best way to organize the space in which you do most of your knitting, crocheting, or sewing? Are your tools and supplies easily reachable or do you have to move things around every time you access them? Organized closet from EasyClosets.com.

Organized Patterns & Projects
Do you download and print patterns off the web every chance you get? Do you have magazines floating around your house because their are patterns in there that you want to try out? Are your UFO's still lurking in the corners of your mind? I, Jenean, will be sharing tips on how to organize all those patterns and projects that we seem to accumulate almost daily!

Other Topics
Other topics include Organized Patterns and Fabrics. We're still looking for people to write these articles, so if you are interested or you know someone who would love to share their ideas, please have them email at bordeaux700 AT Yahoo DOT com.

Our Blog Roll
If you would like to be included in our Blog Roll leave a comment to this blog with your site url. Feel free to grab a button and link back to our site also. Let's get organized!!