So of course, I took most of a day away from knitting to work on re-structuring my home work environment!
I have had a hutch on my desk for as long as I have had this desk, which is a pretty long time now! I love all my cubby holes and stash places on it. I could put things on top of it and still have room on the actual desk part for my trusty ball winder to be out of my way but right there when I needed it.
What I didn't have was enough space to have two monitors side by side for when I am running test knits or going through edits, or even responding to those people that I "freelance" coach in my off time.
Yes I could have multiple tabs and documents open at the same time, or I could print things and have those right in front of me (which seemed like such a waste of paper when you are doing things weekly and the document is being adjusted and adapted to work for each individual) but really, I wanted two monitors.
What I didn't want was to lose the cubby holes in my hutch or to buy a whole new desk. I had a spare monitor from when mine was upgraded a year or so ago, so that wasn't going to cost me, but I really wanted to keep whatever I did end up doing to make the set up work, very, very, frugal!
Recently we had put shelves up in TDQ's room, and as luck would have it, we still had an entire shelf left over. (She changed her mind about how many she wanted on one wall.) We also had the brackets to hold it up so technically, I could have rearranged things without spending a dime, but one more, slightly less wide and shorter, shelf board would give me even more cubby space!
To make it work I had to move a cupboard that was above my desk from lining up visually with the ones in the kitchen (open plan house, with my work area between the kitchen and living areas) to hugging the ceiling.
Upon removing it I remembered that the last time I decorated I didn't take it down and wall paper behind it..oops....I wasn't going to waste more knitting time by putting up new wall paper and waiting for it to dry (remember at this point I have no desk to work at) so I went ahead and put up the shelf where the hutch could stand on it and still be below the cabinet, but high enough above my desk for my two monitors to scoot all the way back now!
Several well placed screws actually attach that "floating" hutch to the shelf, which with the three brackets and some very heavy duty molly bolts is not going anywhere, and an "earthquake" strap at the top attaching the hutch to the wall, all is safe and secure until at least the middle of the zombie apocalypse. (If you look really closely you can barely see the old wallpaper still there behind the top row of cubbies.
With the way it worked out, not only did I get to keep my existing cubby holes, the narrower shelf in the middle of what had been the monitor spot between them has provided a much better location for things like my hole punch, I get my two monitor set up that I desired and as an added bonus my desk feels so much bigger without the hutch actually sitting right on it!
Of course I have changed it up a little bit more since I took that photo and spread the monitors a little further apart with a touch less of an angle to them, made reaching the light switch a lot easier!
To celebrate how much I liked what I had done, this pretty little orchid plant followed me home from the store! I don't have much of a green thumb for houseplants, but I am hoping I can keep it alive!
The only downside is now I have to stand on my chair to get things out of the cupboard way up at the ceiling, but I think that was a trade off that I am more than happy to make!
The shawl that needed to be finished for mailing yesterday, was. It was even blocked and had finished object pictures taken for the Indie Gift Along on Ravelry. (More about that on Friday!)
I finished up the last of the little hats I wanted for gift tags.
The patterns are all from Icy Seas by Hunter Hammerson. Check this post for pattern link.
There is one more pattern in that little hat collection, maybe I should make one for me?
I think, that if I stopped knitting right now I would be set for gift knitting....but I still have days left!
What do you think I should cast on next?
~M
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