March 2, 2018
Dear Everyone:
When I’m working on a
crochet Project, I tend to allow the tools to spread out a bit.
There’s the crochet
hook, of
course. Maybe several if
there’s a reason to change hook size from time to time.
And yarn, naturally.
If the yarn is in a ball, it needs to sit in the special wooden yarn
bowl. If the yarn is in a
skein, that generally sits on the table by itself.
Of course, if the project calls for more than one color of yarn,
there will be multiple balls or skeins to consider.
A dragon, for instance, takes five different colors to complete.
And then there are all the other indispensables, like
stitch
markers. Markers in two
colors, so I need two containers, one for each color.
And a third containing even more specialized markers for even
more special reasons. And
yarn needles. And a
needle threader
specially made to accommodate thick yarn.
And scissors,
to cut the yarn when it’s called for.
And a
measuring tape for whenever I need to measure something.
Not to mention the instructions, or pattern, to show me what to do with
all these tools. For a lot
of patterns, I “translate” the original instructions into a “quick
reference” chart that I can print out and have in front of me as I go
along. So there has to be a
pencil to mark off each row, or round, or section, as it is completed,
depending on what, exactly, I think I’m doing.
Sometimes, there’s a magnifying ruler to identify which row, or
round, or section, on the page, I should be following.
Did I mention a table to hold all this stuff?
Also, the chair next to the one I’m sitting in tends to “catch” a
lot of items that are not in immediate use, but may be needed at a
moment’s notice.
In other words: A Project,
like a gas, tends to expand to fill the space available.
However. Sometimes it is
necessary to contain a Project.
Or even take it with me.
So, the Project typically goes into a Bag.
There is a specialized bag called a “Yarn Drum”.
It is actually shaped like a drum and is large enough to
accommodate numerous large skeins of yarn.
It even has slits in the top, to allow a person to pull yarn
through from more than one skein.
It also has an outside pocket, to hold small items, and a small
pouch that can contain even more small items, and can clip onto the
handle, or the additional shoulder strap, if necessary.
I have several of these “drums”, in various colors.
Then there are the usual “recyclable” shopping bags that have become
prevalent in recent years.
They tend to be sturdier than the
plastic bags that used to come from grocery stores and the like.
(For the record, I started using these reusable bags years before
they became mandatory.)
One can even designate which bag goes with which Project, since I tend
to work on more than one Project at any given time.
But more often than not, everything for a particular Project
tends to get shoved, willy-nilly, into any old bag that happens to be
handy.
In fact, I have one bag that I obtained at the last
ARMA International Conference held in
San Francisco
in 2010. It’s a very sturdy
bag. In over seven years,
I’ve only had to repair the stitching on the zipper once.
Plus it stands up all on its own, due to some reinforced material
on the inside. So I’ve
tended to use it a lot in recent years.
There’s never any question of whose bag it is.
No one else would claim an ARMA bag as their own.
However. One day a few weeks
ago, I was dragging the ARMA bag with me, plus another bag holding some
just-finished-stuffed-toys, plus another bag for some reason or other,
and I thought to myself:
“Why am I loaded down like a pack mule?”
So last week, I stopped in at a national chain sewing and craft supply
store, with a coupon worth 40% off, and started looking for a
general-purpose rolling bag.
They had many bags, of course.
Bogs specially designed to hold a
sewing machine.
(I have one of those.)
Bags specially designed for
scrapbooking.
(I hadn’t realized that “scrapbook” was now a verb.
When did that happen?)
Nevertheless, I found a general-purpose bag, which simply consisted of a
large box-on-wheels, with
Velcro-fastened pockets on the outside, plus a clear plastic pouch
attached to the inside of the lid.
Roughly 14X10X14 inches, with a collapsing handle.
Big enough to throw all of a Project into, and roll to the
Library, or the Senior Center, or even into the second bedroom, should I
need to get it out of sight in a hurry for some reason.
And it was on Sale!
Problem solved.
In fact, when “Jeannie” and I went to the Stitches West Conference in
Santa Clara last Saturday, it came in handy a number of times.
Having visited this conference in the past, we knew to bring our
own lunch with us. While I
reserved seating at a table on the second floor, “Jeannie” loped back to
the car and filled the roller bag with lunch and brought it back for us.
That was a lot easier than wrestling through the lines at the
concession stand.
And later, when “Jeannie” found a vendor selling a particular kind of
yarn that she really appreciates, she bought a dozen balls in each of
three different colors. I
won’t say how much she spent, but she saved over $260.
And hauling them all back to the car in the rolling bag was a snap.
Love, as always,
Pete
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