a room of my own.

...I've been talking about doing this for months (the original concept was a "retirement room") and yesterday, with Beth's help, it finally happened. I now have a room of my own! it feels like a lifetime since I last had a room to myself - 1983 was a lifetime ago, right? And I'm sure it will take all of us a while to stop calling it "Katie's room", but it definitely looks like "Mary's room" now!

Fortunately, Katie last painted the walls a fabulous bright blue and her furniture has worked well for my various yarn and knitting pursuits. When she moved to New York last summer, I cleared out the desk and the armoire and I've been slowly filling them with handknits, yarn, books and all the other stuff serious knitters need. And the bed was great for blocking (I'm sure you'll recognize the orange sheets). But I got a little lazy about organization...I think because it was a room I would visit for a quick purpose - like to wind a skein of yarn, or find a pattern or needles - but not one where I could stay a while. The only place to sit was on the bed - or the floor (but that got difficult, too!)

Here's how it looked earlier this week, when I decided to get serious about redoing the space:

the bed with the famous orange sheets

the desk. simply a mess

And thanks to Beth (fellow bloggers are very good about identifying perfect photo opportunities!), here's one photo from the move itself:

yes that's me with a power tool - the black chair is huge (and heavy!) and we had to remove the feet to get it up the two flights of stairs (I am not going to whine here about the TWO trips we had to make to Lowe's to get the right "piece" to actually remove the screws, but trust me, it was their fault, not ours)

....and then a few hours later I had the furniture arranged, ALL my yarn moved from the basement, removed from the various bins and bags and organized, books sorted and arranged, pictures (and yarn!) hung. ready for the "after" photos:

the biggest change was replacing the bed with a chair & ottoman (and cleaning up!)

the desk cubbies are perfect for displaying yarn (and it's also good to keep yarn exposed to the sun - discourages "critters" from living in it); the tray on the right holds yarn that's next up to be knit

the wire baskets hold sock yarn - colorful leftovers from socks and shawls I've already knit, or balls waiting for their turn to become something (before I got my swift and ballwinder, I always got yarn wound when I bought it - now I don't have to do that!)

the big wall is decorated with skeins of yarn (I have a lot of socks and shawls to knit!)

I am in love with the final result. and looking forward to spending time here. plenty of knitting. and room to be me. (I'm thinking Marc will like that all my knitting "clutter" will be confined to one room, too!)