Tag Archives: Studio

My Studio

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I am so thrilled with my new studio. My husband finished refurbishing it while I was on holiday and it was ready when I arrived home last Monday. The original tiny windows – so typical for Norwegian “kjellerstue”/basement den – were replaced in mid August by large windows going nearly all the way to the floor. See below the installation of the windows into the frame Michael had made. So with plenty of daylight, I have no excuse for not getting on with my work anymore. He removed the wall panelling as well as the ceiling panels (added to ensure good sound for the former owner who loved listening to his favourite music in this room) and had planned only to paint the walls. But that was before Michael discovered that only part of the wall had wallpaper beneath, so instead I have new wall panelling but this time it is a thinner version than the original one, which was appropriate for a den. Also in white to give more brightness. You can see the old windows here: We Are Well Settled.

I still have plenty of books, boxes of swatches, yarns and samples to tidy, but I have a lot of space to do so now. Next door to my studio is a large storage room. Michael has named it the yarn bunker. It does sound like it is filled to the brim with yarn, but I can assure you, it is not. However, I have started sorting my yarn into producers and placing my sample garments in see through boxes. There is no need to use a torch to find what I am looking for anymore, like I used to do in our old house.

Here is a view of the yarn bunker before I started emptying the boxes and moved my printer in here. The entry is through the door on the right hand side in the first photo. Unlike some knitters I know, I keep it unlocked (read: there is only one way in). This storage room used to have a large paraffin tank (for the old fashioned gas heater that we had removed from my studio) and a large wooden work bench, so it is hardly recognisable from how it used to look. Both my studio and the yarn bunker feels a lot larger than they did originally, when we first saw them for the first time, last autumn. I will post some more photos when it is all sorted and my studio has been in use for awhile. In the mean time you will find me working in my studio and accessing that yarn bunker.

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We Are Well Settled

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Yes, we are well settled in our new house. Michael has just finished the last building the last bookshelf and has moved onto the next project; extending the front terrace. I am working in my new studio – still at our dining table but it is not our dining table any more and it will eventually become my working & meeting table. Most of the boxes are unpacked, even though there are plenty of tidying and sorting of drawers to be done. We have even met a few of the neighbours and discovered that this is indeed a small place. A few shop owners in our local town knew we were moving in and exactly which house we have moved into. The previous owners are well known in Ørje, and so will we be, by the sounds of it.

Now even our mailbox is in the right place across the road now – the first few days we did not have one and missed having one. Even the mail redirection service works well, I am pleased to say. There are deer out in the forest close to our kitchen window in the early mornings. Above you can spot one of them. All we can hear are the birds and a bit of traffic, so my shoulders seemed to have moved down several centimeters since we moved.

My studio, originally the garage then a “peisestue” (read second living room usually with a fireplace – here a gas heater), will be refurbished beginning this summer when we are planning to replace the small basement windows with floor-to-ceiling windows. The gas heater will be removed, since there is floor heating installed beneath the slate floor tiles. A number of my folders, samples, yarn and workshop materials are still in boxes and I need to sort out the ones that will be kept stored in boxes in the next door storage room. My new orange leather chairs are from IKEA, while I have inherited the bookshelves we used to have in our old living room, in addition to the cow skin. As you can guess, I wanted to add some colour to my studio and it was an easy choice for me. My sister-in-law and niece have already tested them and approved of my choice.

On the short wall you can see two of the five photos exhibited at the Strikke 2016 at Hadeland Glassverk last autumn. There is a third one in the corner and two on the opposite short wall. I do love having so much space and living for years in London does make me appreciate it even more. If you find my desk extremely tidy, it is not because I do not have any work on, but because I cleared it especially for this photo. As usual I am working to keep my deadlines. A new place to photograph has been found and it has already been tested; it is a nearby beach. All we need now, is for warmer weather to arrive since it has been colder than usual for April. However, I am busy preparing for the upcoming Vienna Wool & Design Festival as well as writing patterns, so it does not matter that much.

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