An organizer bag for portable knits

A portable knitting basket is a must for me these days, and thanks to the miracle of Packing, I found the perfect solution in this Cherry Bag Organizer.

I've been so busy, I haven't even taken time to clip the tag off! yeesh.

There are other bag organizers out there - the idea is to load them up, then slip them into and out of whichever bag you want to use or just used - but this is what I bought to try about five years ago but didn't, because I forgot I mostly carry a narrow messenger bag.  I then promptly forgot about the organizer until I found it in the back of a closet during the aforementioned Packing episode, and a lightbulb went off.

It turns out, what it's particularly great for is knitting gear!  There are tons of pockets all along the inside and the outside.  Lots of dedicated space for pens and pencils and index cards for making notes,

and a camera and camera charger and earbuds, for those times when my audiobook is likely to annoy somebody else (or when somebody else's activities are something I'd like to tune out),

and scissors and crochet hooks and - of course - knitting needles.

Plus, my bag is so sturdy, I can fit my knitting bowl in it, as you can see.  This isn't a proper yarn bowl with a gap in the side for running yarn through, but it's deep enough to hold a cake of yarn and a sock in progress, not to mention the lovely pattern it's got on the side, so it's perfect for me.

I can fit three or four small projects in my Cherry bag, and a few more in the tote bag I slip the Cherry into.  And then I carry the lot to wherever I'm knitting.  Because the tools and note-taking bits are stored vertically, it's much easier to find everything quickly than with my previous solutions (a basket full of loose bits, a tray full of loose bits, a solitary knitting bag that never includes scissors or a ruler.)


Much as I love the Cherry solution and can highly recommend it, I have fond memories of my stationary organizer... I wrote about it some time ago but I can't seem to find the post, now. It's a basket that tucks into the bottom shelf of my coffee table, next to my seat on the sofa.  I took a picture of it for Hugs, full of ready-to-go project bags all neatly lined up like addresses in an index box.  Time was, I'd sit down to watch a movie, pull the basket out like a drawer, pick up whichever project bag was filed in front, and get to work.  Oh, were those the days.

Now, of course, I'm lucky to carve out a couple of hours to knit once a week.  If I'd known this is what renovating would come to, I'm not sure I would have taken it all on.  I might just have run screaming (with my knitting in tow.)  But the good thing about renovation is that you ease into it with lots of planning, so that when you get to the really crazy part we're in now, you hardly notice the difference.

(ha.)

Seriously though, I think we might have turned the corner.  The condo is done except for two small nonessential bathroom things for which we need parts.  The house plans are very close to done, and I've almost run out of big things to panic about and ask to change (like a couple of weeks ago when we decided to switch over the entire heating system to something else, which affected everything) and smaller things to add (bigger windows here and there) and tiny things to tweak (medicine cabinet vs wall mirror.)

Also the movers are coming in less than two weeks.  True, I will be a headless chicken trying to pack it all up in anticipation of this event, but when that part's over, we will be living in just one place again.  With, hopefully, a lot less stuff between me and my knitting chair.


Speaking of knitting chairs:

I have ordered slipcovers.  It occurred to me that the furniture we had already is not going to play nicely with the new stuff at the condo, and I'm more likely to see a fresh start to life if the ink stains on the cushions are hidden.  So: yay?  I'll keep you posted.


I'm not even going to pretend to myself that I'll make it back in here this week - it's serious crunch time on the packing front, especially since I lost five days last week to a cold and then vertigo.  I did actually get the migraine this time, too.  Bonus!

So think good thoughts for me if you have a moment, and I'll be back as soon as I can to show you how the amazing  patchwork socks came out.  They only have about two more hours in them and I really, really love them now, in spite of the green legs.  Mmmm, green legs.

Meanwhile: take care, and I'll see you when I see you.