Life in the broom closet

This is my knitting room, yes I realise I am lucky to have it, just wish I could get into it! Holly is here until next wednesday, and to ensure "flow" in the lounge (where she is currently in repose on the futon bed under the stairs) Flash decreed that her bags must live "elsewhere"...you guessed it "elsewhere" is my knitting room, and as a teenage girl, she has a lot of stuff, and it must be available for quick access at all times...therefore I have no floor. I am trying hard to just breathe, and am contemplating the "closet meditation" the one where if you have NO SPACE, you just sit in a closet, close your eyes and concentrate on your breath...while the kids turn the house inside-out looking for you. My knitting room is approx 1 metre wide, by 4 metres long,by 7 metres high ( what a waste of space!) it house the hot water cylinder, and a few boxes of stuff which haven't been sorted yet, along with my Brother 910, and an IKEA kitchen cart full of my stuff, one of the great things about it is that I have my back to the wall when I knit, so my little phobia of people walking up behind me when I am knitting, has disappeared!
Lucky I have the hand-knitting now huh!
Which is going fine, I have made this pile of bits, which was great for re-learning casting on and off, and the Hollymonster has asked if I will teach her to knit before she goes home, and she has heard they have a "stitch and bitch" at Uni, made me sniffle a little, my girls grew up with me knitting all day every day, but they concentrated on books and art and beaches, I remember Blaise at 2...taking it for granted that everyone's Mum knitted, asking my friend " where is your knitting machine?" and now finally I can share the knowledge...phew
Back to the bits, I should have finished them today, so I hope to finish the whole thing tomorrow, then I will have all the bugs worked out ( like the "cast on 8 sts" which should have read " cast on 22 sts"...kinda a big difference) and then I can start on the REAL thing, as it is a "vintage" style in pastel shades, I have bought some pale pink chenille, I think chenille is pretty naff, but it suits this pattern...I remember when I handknitted when the kids were little, I would go to a yarn shop and buy all sorts of things, and the ladies would get a bit stressy...because I wasn't buying a "garment lot" of anything...what was I going to knit, what would happen if I "gasp" ran out of a dye lot ???
Anyway, so what I was trying to say is that I have never ever used the correct yarn for anything, when I had a stash I would just search through it for something appropriate, and adjust the pattern to suit, at the time I felt a lot of pressure to conform, follow the pattern, follow the rules, who the hell was I to change the design?... then Kaffe Fassett came along, and finally the yarn shop ladies understood.