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.