When I was out shopping this past weekend, I saw this wonderful woven ottoman at Target. Although I was really NOT looking for anything for the house, it struck me that this would be a perfect solution for a yarn storage problem that has been on my mind of late.
When I redid the sewing/fiber room, one thing that was removed was a large blue Rubber Maid bin that contained my odd balls and leftover yarns. It sat under my old desk, which hid a lot of extra storage space – well that is not actually true as the bin was always in the way when one sat at the desk, but it seemed out of the way simply because it was under the desk.
I never moved that bin back into the fiber room. It has been sitting in the family room where I have been using it as a foot rest when I am sitting in my knitting chair. In this capacity it served a functional purpose and I learned that a footstool might be a desirable addition to the family room, but it certainly adding nothing to the family room decor from an aesthetic viewpoint.
And so, now I have a new ottoman. It fits much more nicely into the decor: rustic woven rattan goes well with my grandmother’s carved leather table and the leopard spotted ultrasuede on the knitting chair. It is also larger than the blue plastic bin. The new bin holds my various odd balls, the quantity of which I have been making a concerted effort to reduce. It also has enough extra room to hold all the yarn for any and all current projects which are on the needles. This means my knitting is actually next to the place where it is knitted! What a revolutionary concept.
My other significant purchase, knitting wise at any rate, was the current issue of Knit 1.
Now, I have known that Knit 1 was out there on the newsstands but I had never picked one up. I dismissed it out of hand without really looking…bad move really. I do try to be a little more open minded and fair than that, most of the time at least. I think I was feeling overwhelmed by knitting magazines. I subscribe to several. I don’t actually feel guilty about the subscription part as I would just buy them at the newsstand if I didn’t subscribe. But I have been battling my urge to hold onto every knitting magazine that comes into the house. As I have written before, I don’t after all save every newspaper that crosses or door, or every weekly news magazine. So recently I have given myself permission to enjoy reading the knitting magazine and allow myself to discard it if there is nothing I wish to save.
Still, I had been afraid that if I looked at Knit 1, I would like it and have to subscribe. This may be the case as I do indeed like this issue of Knit 1. But I knew I would before I bought it as I had looked at Gina’s copy at Thursday knitting two weeks ago and noted that there were a couple of sweaters I would knit. In fact I bought yarn for one of them.
And so on to Knit 1. It was quite entertaining. I like the articles. I like the way the patterns are shown in little vignettes. One thing I have always liked about Vogue Knitting in general is the way they keep up with trends in fashion; they are far better at this than any other knitting magazine I have seen. Now not everyone is interested in fashion and not every sweater is wearable or even, perhaps, knittable, but I appreciate Vogue’s perspective. This new magazine is no exception, and this issue at least was quite a pleasure. Unlike Vogue Knitting, the instruction area seems to be quite well done and is pretty informative. I suppose this is aimed at a broader knitting audience with more emphasis on new knitters.
And so, I am intrigued. I think I will buy the next issue when it hits the newsstands in September.
