So if he’s got a work space and a craft space, I’d like one too – for fairness, of course. The back room in the basement is almost exactly perfect for what I’m thinking of, too. It’s our laundry room, and our storage closet for our SCA gear is there. There’s an inset space in which we’d like to put a second freezer for food storage, but for the most part the room is going completely unused.

There’s already water to the room for the laundry, so it shouldn’t be too hard to split off the line and install a slop sink. Drainage might be a little more complicated, but I bet it could be done. With a sink, I could wash fleece and mix dyes, though I’d still have to bring dyed fibre or yarn upstairs to simmer on the stove. Hrrm, unless I got a little propane-powered burner. That’s a possibility, and would keep dyes out of our food-prep kitchen.

I’d like to run a workbench down the entire back wall of the room, attaching it into the wall so that it wouldn’t wobble. It wouldn’t be too high, because I’m shortish. There I would be able to keep my drum carder and sewing machine. I’ve even been thinking about getting a wool picker, perhaps bench-style rather than the torture-chamber-esque cradle picker style. I don’t think I could support myself on a fibre-y business income, but I bet I could make some reasonable pocket change selling carded batts and handspun yarn on Etsy.

Underneath the workbench, I would have shelves and drawers for storage space, except at the end I’d leave a bit of an overhang so that I’d have a place to sit and use the sewing machine. I don’t sew very often, but I’m drawn to the idea more and more – if only I had a good workspace! The first things I’d sew would be quilted covers for the carder, picker, and sewing machine, to keep them safe and dust-free.

The room itself needs some work. The laundry closet is in desperate need of new doors, and the walls could use a coat of paint. I’d install good lighting in the ceiling and scissor-arm lights along the walls, so that I’d always have enough light – that room has but one small window and doesn’t get much sun. Then I’d hang inspirational artwork everywhere!

What would your perfect crafting space look like?

I keep saying I want to sell handspun yarns, but now that it’s come down to it, I find that I’m a little more hesitant than I’d planned to be. I get attached to the yarns I spin! And will people really want to buy them? Can I spin enough yarn well and fast enough to stock an Etsy shop? Will spinning start to feel like a chore instead of a favored hobby?

I thought about all of those things last night as I cast on for the second of the handspun socks. I made it through the toe increases before I went to bed, and now it’s boring ol’ stockinette from here to the heel. This is going to accompany me on the airplane tomorrow; stockinette in the round is perfect airport and airplane knitting.

This might end up being the first yarn to be listed in my Etsy shop. It’s pretty, but I’m not in love with it. Of course, I might completely change my mind a few ounces in the future. One never knows! If I do want to sell handspun, I’m going to have to spin with production in mind, rather than “what can I knit with this?” It’s just a matter of changing my mindset.

Because it’s really unlikely that the second half of the merino-silk blend is so much more well-behaved than the first, I’m going to guess that I went up a level in Spinning Skill between bobbins. I fought with the first half; the second half seems to draft more easily, has fewer nepps and sticky bits, and is generally spinning up much more smoothly. The finished yarn should be interesting, with a very slight thick and thin texture to it. I am considering making a pair of gloves, armwarmers or mittens from it. It probably won’t be smooth enough for socks, but I can’t totally rule that out.

I think I want to spin something lively, next. Perhaps the Finn/Mohair batts that I carded should make a floofy textured yarn. There’s eight ounces of the stuff (probably more like 6.5 after discarding all the short bits and dirt) and I’m thinking that a light worsted weight would be perfect to show off the character of the fiber. I have a bunch of batts which were sorted out by color and progress from this pinky-orange through to the greens. Perhaps I will tear each of them in half and spin a two-ply where the colors will mostly match up. Except for one failed attempt at the alpaca batts, I haven’t spun from batts before. I’ve certainly never spun anything so textured. It will be a fun challenge!

Yesterday I told a non-fibery friend that my eventual goal is to sell handspun yarns on Etsy. I think I’m almost good enough to get started with that; now my problem might be that I get so attached to the yarn I spin, I don’t want to let it go! Maybe I should start spinning in colors I don’t like, in yarn sizes that I won’t use? Ahh, a sunny yellow three-ply worsted weight would be easy to put up in the shop.

I looked up some patterns on Ravelry and found one that had the sort of neckline I am thinking of. It’s in a book that my library system has, so I put it on reserve. Hopefully that will help me get some idea of how this thing goes together! Fortunately, I have at least a year to come up with something. Baby clothes are so adorable; I’m glad that there will be another little one to knit for! Maybe I will crank out a bunch of small sweaters… but probably not.

Someone suggested to me that I could sell my ‘practice knittings’ to make a little extra money, much like a pen-and-paper artist might sell sketches. I am running out of ways to say that I don’t have any ‘practice knitting’ and that my hourly rate would be prohibitively high or I’d be cheating myself. Selling PDF versions of patterns seems like a much better idea; I only have to do the work once, and Ravelry has a nifty way of handling sales. That, and handspun – I think I could speed up my spinning to the point where I could get a reasonable rate for it on Etsy.

I had a moment of weakness yesterday and bought three braids of fiber from someone who was destashing at super-reasonable prices. She will be mailing them out today. Maybe I will get them before Pennsic!

Laceweight takes a long time to spin. Longer than I’d thought. I’m not very fast at this, and I’m glad I decided to try the spindle with just a half-ounce of wool. I have no idea how much laceweight yarn I’ll get from this, but hopefully it will be enough to knit something small. Meanwhile, it’s really good practice at drafting finely. The fiber is dyed in a rainbowish progression. I split it in half down the middle, weighing to be sure I got it right. I’ll spin each half in the same direction, then ply them together. Hopefully the colors match up somewhere!

This year I want to try dyeing my own yarn and fiber. I would love to experiment with my own colors, and possibly even sell some of my work on Etsy. I’ve had the shop set up for a while, and it’s been empty since day one. Maybe if I get really good, I could sell some of my handspun yarn. I have some ideas for other things to sell, too. 2009 is looking to be a creative year!

Inevitably I end up picking up one more stitch on the second side of the heel flap. I figure it’s no big deal; the last decrease round will only decrease on that one side. I wonder why it happens, though. I pick up stitches through every slipped heel flap stitch, and always there’s one extra. Maybe that’s a natural extension of knitting in the round, the second side has to be one row taller than the first.

While I really want to get this sock done (so I can start on the next one) I’ve also been wanting to spin lately. I spun up half the BFL roving that I bought at MD Sheep and Wool this year, and I should probably do the other half in a similar weight. …and then both skeins will go on the Etsy store, I think. That is my eventual goal – to spin sock yarn for myself, and other yarn to sell. I don’t expect to get rich, but if I can make the hobby pay for itself, that’ll be enough for me.

I went through all the new sock patterns I’ve queued up and assigned most of my sock yarns to the future projects. There are a few I left unassigned, so I can do whatever I like with them, muahaha! Okay, it’s the short-yardage multi-colored yarns that I love but have no plans for yet, other than being sure to weigh and split the skein before starting, and working toe-up.

This week I got a skein of the new Noro Sock Yarn, in colorway 188 – greens and purples. Because green and purple have always been “my colors,” I’ve made a conscious effort to avoid buying too much green and purple yarn. This stuff was irresistable.

Next week I’m driving (again) with a friend up to Canada, and this time we’re going to actually stop at WEBS instead of just talking about it. I plan to buy the yarn to make Revolution from the Fall 2005 issue of Knitty. I’m thinking a warm brown for the body of the coat, and maybe a sage green for the accent color?

Tomorrow we’re closing on the house. While this project has severely impacted my knitting time, I’m so. freaking. excited. about this. In the fairly near future I will have much more time on my hands and much less spending money… but I’ve got a serious yarn stash that should keep me occupied for quite some time to come. I’m also going to buy some fiber with my birthday money, so I’ve kept up on scouting Etsy for beautiful roving. I have a mental image of myself, spinning by the fire, deer cavorting in the yard, a 50-mile view laid out to the east… it’s a nice daydream which will be a reality soon!

This purchase pushes the basket to overflow level. I’m such an addict!