Twinkie Chan's Craft Room

We take a tour of the bright and colorful craft space of our favorite food crocheter Twinkie Chan in San Francisco, California.

"I always knew I wanted my craft room to have yellow walls. I picked a yolk-y, extremely warm yellow with a lot of orangey-red undertones. I wanted my room to have a happy, sunshiny feeling."

Tell us about your space?

My craft space is the second bedroom in my house. It's upstairs and faces the street, and on a (rare) sunny day here, it's one of the brightest and warmest rooms. Sometimes when my BFF is spending the night, we blow up the air mattress and stick her in here amongst the yarn, but other than that, the space is pretty much solely for craft work and solely for me.

Is this also your work space?

This is also technically my office. My computer is in here, as well as my printer/scanner, my shipping supplies and thermal label printer. Now that my dream of having a separate craft room has come true, I would really love to at least have a separate table for boxing up orders and shipping! Even though my yarn lives in here, I don't do any crocheting in the craft room, since I don't have comfy seating. I do all my crocheting in the living room, parked in front of the TV! I'll do all non-crochet work in here, such as, gluing hair accessories and brooches together, cutting felt for accents, gluing decorations to scarves and other crochet work, beading, photo editing, blogging, emailing, yarn ball winding, and sometimes I'll take photos in here for Etsy if the light is good that day.

What have you done to make your space cosy, beautiful or inspiring?

I always knew I wanted my craft room to have yellow walls. I picked a yolk-y, extremely warm yellow with a lot of orangey-red undertones. I wanted my room to have a happy, sunshiny feeling. Aside from that, my supplies aka my yarn really provide inspiration to me. I just love the LOOK of yarn, and having my yarn wall is extremely delightful! It can be hard to keep my craft room looking tidy, because I'm so busy most of the time that I don't spend much energy re-organizing or re-decorating. I just let the supplies decorate the room for the most part. I collect a little plush here and there, but don't want to go too overboard. I've been trying to pick up colorful prints made by friends and fellow crafters here and there, but I'm so bad at getting frames for them!

How do you keep organized?

I recently mentioned on Twitter that it's kind of unfortunate that my crafting is such a messy job. I have to spend so much time cleaning up after my last project, in comparison to, say, a graphic designer who doesn't have to put all the yarn away, or a writer who doesn't have to pick up fabric scraps before starting a new project. I have clutter around me constantly, but you really have to clean regularly before it gets too overwhelming! I have a lot of plastic bins to keep finished projects in. Works in progress are usually sprinkled all over the coffee table in the living room or on tables in the craft room. I am the kind of person who needs to SEE things to remember them, so if I hid the progress projects, I might forget to finish them! I have plans, though, to create curtains for some of my shelves and to hide things under tables. Plastic bins are helpful but a little unsightly! My supply stash is enormous, too enormous, and it's all here in the craft room. (Okay, that's a lie. I had to hide 3 ugly boxes of yarn in the hallway to take photos!) I have some spare shipping supplies down in my garage, but everything I use to create magic is shoved in shelves or tucked into a plastic bin in here. Yarn goes on the yarn wall, and other small supplies are in cute jars and containers on a pink shelf designed and built by my friend or in plastic drawers!

Any tips & tricks for organising supplies?

To be honest, I am not a very organized person! Or, I just don't choose to spend the time thinking about organization. I try to use plastic bins to separate the little things or get cute containers from places like Target or Daiso. I also have a little wooden card-catalogue-like storage solution for smaller supplies like jewelry findings and pom poms. Everyone asks me what kind of shelves I keep my yarn in, and they are CD shelves from IKEA. This is an easy and obvious tip: but it's crucial for everything to have a place. I experience a lot of anxiety over the fact that things never seem to have a place, so you need to try to create one!

Which are your favourite possessions and are there any of your own creations on display?

- My ball winder and swift! I used to wind hanks of yarn with my knees and my hands. Having actual tools to do this has been a real time saver, and both were gifts, so that makes them extra special to me.

- My glue gun! I know glue guns get a really bad rap because they leave strings and the adhesive is allegedly not so great, but I love mine. I wish they invented a glue stick for the hot glue gun that was for clothing and washable! I want to glue gun everything!

If I plan to sell something, I try to tuck it away in a bin to keep the lint and dust off them. I have some craft duds that I'll never sell, and they usually end up being default display pieces, but I try not to have too much of my work hanging about. I'd rather they find homes with other people! I do hang the crochet-paintings on the wall until they are sold, though. I love how they make a space feel cozy.

How do you organise your inspiration and ideas?

I have a notebook for jotting down ideas, making small sketches, and taking pattern notes. This is separate from my notebook with the day's to-do lists and notes. I also keep a small notebook in my purse. You have to write down ideas before you forget them, because you WILL forget them! That's about the extent of my organization! My life is more like a collage than a filing cabinet.

Where do you look for inspiration?

I don't usually need to sit down and figure out how to be inspired. I usually have a backlog of ideas. What I lack is the time to execute everything! To be inspired to keep going and walk the walk, I like to read Elsie & Emma's blog, A Beautiful Mess. They seem to know how to make the most of their day. Observing others be productive inspires me to be productive!

If you had three wishes, what would you do to make it the dream craft space?

1. Separate shipping area

2. Comfy couch

3. A server to take my order for coffee and cupcakes

Make sure to check out Twinkie Chan's blog for crochet-goodness »