I acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the ACT, the Ngunnawal people. I acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region.

Friday, December 26, 2008

Control or How I Plan to Do More in the Time Available Without Actually Cloning

A little while ago I spreadsheeted (not really a word) the birthday knitting for next year to try and keep me focussed (stop laughing). Then I realised that all my craftiness needs to be time-managed so to try and shoehorn a bit more in, I have added sewing projects as well.


INTELLECTUAL ARRANGEMENT


My column headings are
  • :date due:
  • :craft type:
  • :portability: (because time at home and awake and able to concentrate on craft = about an hour a day but I can usually squeeze another hour or two in by having portable projects with me at all times)
  • :recipient:
  • :item:
  • :materials (what to use and if I had to acquire anything else):
  • :date to be given:
  • :notes: (I find it useful to record if I need to blog the project and on which blog - helps me remember to take photos etc)

PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENT - KNITTING


In the madness of the days before Christmas I needed to feel in control of something so I invested 3 hours uploading (newly acquired) boodle to Ravelry, searching for and queuing patterns, annotating both the queue and the stash record with the pattern info and printing out the patterns. Another few hours here and there were invested in gathering together yarn, pattern, needles and notions and popping them all into project bags (this is where having waaaaay too many needles etc. comes in really handy). I attached a tag to each project bag with a sample of yarn. The tag lists pattern information, due date etc. and contents of bag. Bags were then divided into portable and home projects with some of the portables stashed in a box in the boot of my car. On the sewing list is extra project bags!

PHYSICAL ARRANGEMENT - SEWING.


Fabric and notions stored with pattern (or at least the scrap of paper with my idea sketched on) and either put in a bag with a label, or pinned to the garment with a label with details of date due, notions and work needed. If I haven't finished something, or it's something I can do in stages, I leave a note of where I'm up to. Trust me, you can sew on several buttons between putting dinner on and turing the chops.

I'll let you know how it all works, but at least I feel organised and potentially super-productive.

Do you have a favourite craft organisation or time-management tip?

7 comments:

Janet McKinney said...

Wow - I am so impressed. Love to know if it works.

My only little hint is to every now and then (pity it is not more often), give my work space a thorough organisation, and then I get totally inspired ... and make a mess again...

Janet McK

Denise said...

Wow, super impressed! What a brilliant system :D

TinkingBell said...

You are utterly amazing! I can't believe how organised you are!

I have a huge shopping bag of sock yarn and pattern matched together so I can grab and run and always try to have mindless knitting (stocking stitch or garter stitch) to take with me to circus school or playgroup. Than I have vanilla socks which live in the car and the category known as `everything else'

I am in awe at your organisedness (also not really a word!)

Merry Christmas!

Donna Lee said...

Wow. I hope this works out. I can't see how it could fail unless you totall ignore all your well thought out plans. I'm feeling inspired. I already put yarn into bags with patterns and needles (if available) so I have a project ready to be started but I never thought far enough in advance to attempt something like this.

catsmum said...

your archivist side is definitely showing Taph !
I thought that I was super organised but shee-it girl, you are fantastic.

Anonymous said...

Oh I think you are the Queen of Organisedness(which I think is definitely a word now!!)

Michelle said...

This appeals to my inner control freak. I have labelled fabric before with the length and the anticipated use, but not to the extent you have.

Great ideas! Thanks!