Whenever I get ready to do some sewing it takes me a bit of time to get ready and this is the reason why.  It looks a bit of a mess but it is actually organised, I’ve got my needles threaded ready to use in the pako needle organisers this one needs two because of the number of colours.  The kit came with the threads sorted onto cards and I’ll generally use cards like this otherwise I have a couple of the pako thread organisers that I’ve started to use recently.  I got a photocopy of the chart and cut it down into smaller pieces for this picture.

I never really highlight my chart to show what I’ve stitched already I just seem to have this knack for knowing what I’ve stitched already.  I prefer black and white charts but I can see why they like to colour code them, especially if there’s a lot of colours but I seem to be able to ‘picture’ the black and white ones more easily.  Also in the picture is my strand separator (the heart shaped thing on the right) it’s by a company called Puffin www.puffinco.com they have a video on their website showing how it’s used,  in the UK I got mine from a company called holliestitch.  I’ve also found pointy tweezers to be a bit of a must since we got a cat, he likes to climb up for cuddles just as I’m about to start stitching so there’s usually the odd bit of fur that gets onto the stitching.  Whenever I’m finished stitching for the day I do put everything away not because I like to be tidy but because I still think that all those colourful threads are just too tempting for a cat that still hasn’t grown out of being a kitten.  All the threads go into a footstool box and my stitching gets put away in a bag that I made from some curtain lining fabric.  I did have the idea of decorating the bag with small stitching from my magazines that I get but that’s just another thing on my to do list.