State of the Studio

from doorway - Leclerc Fanny, library, cone winder, wall of shelves to the right and to the left

from other end of the room - Leclerc Fanny, shelves at the end of the room and at the side

middle of the space - warping board, storage cubby, shelves to the right with things that have no permanent home temporarily stored, on the floor in front of the shelves

other end of the studio - worktable moved to opposite wall, things on that wall moved to where the table was, Megado moved away from the back wall to make space for another shelving unit to go, plus shelves with yarn

view of loom, spool rack, cabinet with music and misc stuff, shelving unit with bins and boxes

laundry area - wall of shelves with bins and boxes, Doug in the middle of working on something using the washing machine top as a work space

entry to store room with 7 boxes of things that need to be unpacked and stored, plus shelves and shelves of yarn

behind the shelving on the far right of the above photo - surprise!  - more yarn

The studio reorganization has been on-going for six months.During that time we got rid of the AVL (just some bits and pieces left - Doug is working on finding new homes for some of it, the rest will go into the garbage/recycle as appropriate).  

In order to make the transition as stress free as possible, a lot of things got taken to the annex to make room for the new shelving to be installed, and the rearrangement of how things would be placed in the space.  As the shelves were installed here, things were brought back from the annex.

The Leclerc Fanny got rotated and the valet installed above it, a counter that really wasn't being effectively used was removed and a wall of shelving was installed.  That allowed me to get all the rayon chenille out of boxes and onto the shelf so I could see what I had.  I made a decent dent in that stash pre-craft fair production.  I could actually condense the stash, but I like being able to see what is there (although I won't be doing any rayon chenille for a while.)

The cone winder got moved into the studio proper and out of the laundry area - Doug is discussing a sale with someone but is having a challenge about shipping it.  It's too big to go into the mail so a courier will have to be used.  Then the holiday intervened and things stalled on that front.  Along with some of the AVL pieces which are facing similar challenges.

(When he gets firm word from the people he is in discussion with, I will post an updated list of AVL parts here just in case.)

Once the pirn winder went to a new home, that area got turned into more shelving/storage space and the silk yarn I picked up in August was set out in two locations - one by the cone winder, the other in the pirn winder area.  

The other end of the studio, where the AVL had lived since 1982 was cleared out and when the Megado arrived Doug and his helper put it together.  Since then it has been shifted several times as we tweak the space and try to make it work more effectively for me.  This week Doug finished tweaking a table by adding casters and a larger table top so that I have room for the laptop, mouse and bobbins on the top, my boombox, headphones and cassettes live on the middle shelf, and I now have a bottom shelf for storing things that are used occasionally.

The laundry room had a wall of shelves installed which now hold remnants of the booth things (office box, cash box, electrical boxes) plus some of my teaching bins, some of the fibre stash, plus most of my bobbin lace.  All of those need to be opened, sorted and organized.  But not today.  At the far end all my woven textiles are set out.

There are also still piles of empty boxes which we tend to keep to use for whatever needs to be boxed up.  

In the yarn storage area, there are still boxes that need to be emptied and sorted through.  Once those are dealt with, I will be able to get to the lower shelves currently hidden behind those boxes.  Since most of those boxes contain things that have not seen light of day for a very long time, I suspect some of it will hit the recycle bin/garbage.  But until I have somewhere to put the contents, I am not opening them.

I took these photos this morning.  No effort was made to tidy for the photos, and some things are in the middle of being dealt with.  Like the silk warp.  The decision was made to strip the excess yarn out of the warp chain, the design will now be asymmetric, and the yarn stripped from the chain will go into the recycle bin (which goes to a friend to use in her craft practice.)

Things are not set in stone.  As I use up my stash, things will shift and change.  My goal for the coming year is as it has been for decades - work from my stash as much as possible.  Doesn't mean I won't buy more yarn, but that I will do it with more intent with the idea that I do not need production levels of yarn, just a broad enough stash that I can design from it. 

I have depth of inventory of rayon yarns of various kinds.  As I use that up I will not replace it (except if I need more warp quality yarn to use up the weft quality yarns).

The goal is to move the last of the things at the annex to here, including the last set of shelves which will go against the wall 'behind' the Megado.  At some point soon Doug will begin taking the industrial steam press apart.  Hopefully he can find a buyer for the baby boiler.  The rest will go to the scrap metal place.

It served us well, but it's time for it to go so we can move out of the annex.  Notice has been given to the landlord so we are on deadline.

I gave myself to the end of the year to shut down my business and convert my weaving practice to hobby status.  Last night I emailed my accountant to request an appointment to discuss what I need to do to officially close my business.  Company arrives on the 18th and I want as much as possible done before then.

There are several special orders that I intend to also have (at least) woven, because I can sit and hem with my company (who actually enjoys hand hemming and usually helps - but it's not a requirement!)

The first box of Olds homework arrived, but the student is on an adventure so I'm not in a hurry to open that while I try to get my weaving done.

I have pitched a couple of ideas to Handwoven - we will see if they accept them.  Also want those done before company arrives.

There are two Intro to Weaving workshops in Feb., and since I will be dressing the looms for the students, I need to get those warps ready by Feb. 14.

When I said I was 'retiring' I didn't say I was retiring from life or weaving, just trying to keep a business afloat.  I look forward to taking more time to design things and if they take more time to weave, that isn't a big deal.  But I do love me some deadlines, even if they are just internal ones.  

So I begin this new year the way I mean to go on...weaving, writing, teaching...

Sending love and light to all for this coming year.