Once upon a time, in another life, my 3rd floor, raw attic space was finished off with Sheetrock and carpeting and became a bedroom. Then when it was no longer needed as such it became storage space for things that wouldn’t be happy stored in the damp basement, especially the craft supplies. There were vague thoughts of making it a crafting space but nothing definite. It was more of a case of lets put all these associated things in one place and we’ll eventually figure out what to actually do with them.
Paints and other liquids are in the former kid crafting drawer in the kitchen to keep them from drying out or exploding but everything else found it way up two flights of stairs and got dumped on the floor, in drawers, in piles and boxes.
There were things from the basement next door where we used to live. Things from my years of creating in this house that were found literally all over the house from the dining room table, to a dresser in my bedroom, bags and bins in the basement and everywhere in between. There were supplies the eldest left behind, things from my mother’s horde and items that found their way to us from the girls Bonus Mom and from her mother.
As the crafting items came together in one place, it became obvious that there would need to be a serious effort undertaken to get them organized. The eldest helped out with a pre-sort of the supplies before she fled back to her life across the pond but the bulk of the work was left undone. I worked in the space con crunching last year late into the night (it’s slightly cooler in the evening after the sun is off the roof) but it was a chaotic work space that annoyed me to no end. When I was done I unplugged and drained the iron, shut the door behind me and walked away for 10 months except for occasional trips up the stairs for something in particular for a small project or repair.
Early spring of this year, the youngling asked if she and a friend could do their con crunching in the crafting aerie. They’re cosplaying two characters from the same universe and wanted to work together. We have the space so why not? My only condition was that we organize and clean it up first. Not everyone is as comfortable creating in chaos as I am.
So we spent several weekends up there, sorting, storing, organizing and trying to figure out where to put what. Should the pliers go with the jewelry making items since that’s what I use them for or is it better to just put all the tools together? Should the yarn be sorted by color, fiber or weight? Why do I have two boxes of 500 glue sticks each? Where did this, whatever the hell it is, come from? So on and so forth. Decision fatigue was an ever present foe to conquer.
Eventually it was done enough that items could be found again and like was with like. The youngling even vacuumed the floor.
The last two things to be done were organizing all the thread/floss not sewing (all the sewing stuff is in the red desk under the sewing machine) and the buttons.
I took on the thread/floss as I’m more patient untangling thread. There was a fair amount to be sorted through and now all the items of a similar size are together. We also needed to incorporate the floss collection from Bonus Mom’s mother. Most of it was already wound up on bobbins with the DMC number attached.
I’ve only heard good things about Zoomie. My girls never met her as she passed before Bonus Mom and their father married but she’s still fondly remembered in a way that’s incomprehensible to a person with my particular flavor of upbringing.
I was happy to add a bit of her craft horde to ours. Loved the way she was tidy and organized. Even if the thread is decades old, as long as the thread has its DMC number attached it can be used with a pattern that was just created.
We have these handy dandy floss winders to help move the floss from the hank it’s purchased in to the bobbins where we box and store them. While working with Zoomie’s floss I realized that if I used the floss winder I couldn’t put the numbers on the bobbins like she did.
So I hand wound it just like her. It seemed right to take the hanks she passed down and prep them the same way she did.
For several nights I sat on the couch watching movies, imagining Zoomie doing the same thing in her time. It was a surprisingly sweet thought. I’m not used to those when thinking about the past.
Craft hordes and creating as a way of contact and connection with those who came before.
I’m guessing she wasn’t watching alien invasion apocalypse movies though. We all have to put our own spin on things after all.
