Today’s post is a bit of a grab bag—I’m sharing my current works-in-progress, a tidy-up of my knitting room, a new way to fold blankets that I'm sure you'll love, a few summer yarn stash additions,  homemade limeade and some book recommendations. Nothing too fancy, just a handful of small things that made my week. Come along with me.

My knitting/guest room only moonlights as a guest room a few times a year, so it’s far more practical to use it mainly as my knitting room the rest of the time—though I still like to keep a little space set aside for guests.

Since the spaces in the IKEA unit are completely full of knitting supplies, I try to reserve some free space for visitors in the wee closet. I store extra blankets in there, and I recently learned an ingenious way to fold them into perfect pillow-shaped bundles so they can stand on their own and save space.

When we have guests, I remove all the small pieces from the floor and stash them in my closet to give friends a little more breathing room.

The drawers are divided into cubbies for my oddballs of worsted, DK, and fingering weight yarns. One small drawer holds my Brooklyn Tweed, and two of the smaller drawers are dedicated to mohair. The baskets on the shelves are filled with sweater-quantity yarns or WIPs—though one basket is newly empty after I frogged a sweater.

Even though I know what’s in each basket and drawer, I still find it helpful to empty everything out once a year. Even if nothing ends up in the donation pile, it’s a good way to reacquaint myself with my stash. Often, when I see a skein year after year and put it back with no real interest in using it, I finally feel ready to let it go.

I found this blanket folding method on YouTube and I adapted it to work for my larger blankets. It saves an amazing amount of space and looks so tidy. Don't they look decorative? The closet is tiny but I’ve learned that guests don’t need much at all—just some hanging space, two empty shelves, and a single free drawer in the bathroom.

Fold a blanket into a pillow shape:

• Lay Flat: Spread the blanket on a flat surface.
• Fold Thirds: Fold the blanket into thirds (or more) lengthwise to create a long, thin rectangle. 
• Create Pocket: Fold one end of the rectangle over about 10–15 inches to form a pocket
• Fold/Roll: Fold the rest of the blanket tightly from the opposite end toward the pocket.
• Tuck: Tuck the rolled-up blanket into the pocket, securing it to create a thick pillow.

        

I showed you Sunbonnet Sue yesterday. Did you know she has a brother named Overall Sam? I made this applique quilt for my son's "big boy" bed when he turned two, forty years ago. He has held up well and is used on the guest bed or for making forts.

OK, now let’s move on to what I found in the baskets and drawers. There were no real surprises, but I did finally make two long-overdue decisions:

My Ravelry Project Page.

Tokyo (above) by Danish designer Marianne Isager was purchased as a kit at the Ally Pally Knitting & Yarn Show during a London trip a decade ago. I knit quite a lot of inches back then, hated the loose fabric, and promptly set it aside for many years. I recently frogged it and restarted on smaller needles, US 5, and now I’m happy. This one should gain some traction once I finish one of the scarves.

from the designer's web page

The last of the WIPs is Tursa, above, a coat by the wonderful Dutch designer, Natasha Hornsby. I love it and honestly don’t know why it’s languishing. I'm hoping that once a scarf comes off the needles, I’ll be right back at it.

From our tiny lime tree this year we had an abundance of super juicy limes. With the first harvest last month—two full buckets—we made limeade concentrate. With the second batch a few days ago, we went with plain lime juice, both are in the freezer to use later. I make limeade a few times a month, even in winter. It's so refreshing and makes a great Arnold Palmer.

I haven’t shared book recommendations in a while, so I thought it was time to round up a few recent reads I really enjoyed.

Raising Hare. I couldn't love this book more. I'll be reading it again soon.

Look Closer. If you like murder mysteries, you'll love this one.

Tokyo Express, a twisty turny murder mystery written in the early 50s but only recently translated to English. Considered to be the author's masterpiece, and you'll see why.

What Have You Done? A murder mystery! Can you tell I love them? But I only recommend the best!

Buckeye. A sweeping story with wonderfully developed characters— one that reminded me of an Amor Towles novel.

Such Quiet Girls. A thriller that kept me me turning each page.

White Ivy, another page turner ending with the ultimate karma.

I didn't add Theo of Golden and The Correspondent because I thought you would already know about them. But they're great reads if you haven't! I'm always on the look out for recommendations so send any my way. Thanks!

This post has grown longer than I planned—and I haven’t even shown you my newest needlepoint projects yet. I’ll save those for another day, but judging by this post and yesterday's post, my 2026 crafty hours are already fully booked. 😉

Best wishes to you all,

Kristen

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