I always wanted a knitting studio - and today, I got one!

I am so happy that I finally got my knitting studio!  We worked hard on this today, and it feels so good that I'm blogging about it even if it is quite boring.

This bedroom was my son's.  It's a fairly large room, and to the right where the beds are, there's some wall space.  On the left, there is very little wall space - there's a closet and a door into a "bonus room," which is like a walk-in closet.  There is enough room for a desk in the corner.

The room has good light and was only being used when Steven was home from college.  He told me during Christmas week that he didn't mind if I took it over for a knitting studio, as long as I got the knitting stuff out of the guest room, which will be his room.  The guest room has a much more comfortable mattress, which suits him fine.

I am not particularly good at arranging furniture, but John and I took a crack at this today.  The dresser went to the guest room and the beds got put back together (they're a trundle thingie) and put into the den.  We will probably get rid of the beds, which were comfortable for kids but not so great for bigger people.  At that point, we have to figure out another guest bed that is comfortable for adults. 

I didn't want to spend money at this point, just see what we could do by rearranging.  I don't want a big modification of the house, because we will probably sell it in a few years, and this would be purchased for a bedroom.  Most people who buy in our neighborhood are raising children.

The Passap came from our bedroom, the Brother 270 from the guest room, and the Brother 965i came from our office.  The contents of two closets had to be swapped so Steve has a closet where he sleeps.

This second photo shows it in quite a mess, with John taking a break to answer the phone and junk lying all over the place.  See my cute little dog, who sneaked into the picture?  He's a mutt, a chihuahua-terrier mix.

And, finally, the finished room, with a mid-gauge by the door (I don't plan to leave that there), around the corner, the Passap E6000, against the wall under the picture, the Brother 965i on a motor stand, and with a chair pushed up to it, the Brother 270.

The desk is still in the corner left of the shot, only we moved my "knitting computer" to it.  That is an old computer that I only use for Design A Knit software and typing out patterns.  It is so old and so slow that nobody wants it for anything else.   I do most of my blogging from a laptop, and most of my bookkeeping from another computer in our office, and now that DAK has a version for the newer operating systems, I can ditch the antique.  John and I think the beat-up old desk can go and that I would be better off with a folding work table, where an oddball machine (mid-gauge, USM, or 970) can go for temporary use and where I can use my laptop.   Another change I will probably make is the addition of shelves along the long wall, at least partway up the wall, and behind the machines. 

Did I get the knitting supplies out of the rest of the house?  NO!  There are still cones of yarn in two other rooms, a big machine downstairs, and two circular sock machines downstairs.  Maybe with some serious cleaning out of the adjoining bonus room, I can get everything together in one general area.  There are even a couple of machines around here that I probably won't keep.  I am trying to stick to owning the most common, most popular machines that my readers likely use. 

What did I learn from this exercise today?

1. The machines are bigger than they look.  You need room to work around them, too, and you need to be able to get to the plugs to unplug them (we have big thunderstorms here sometimes).  My girlfriend lost a Passap to lightning last spring, so now I'm finally more careful.
2. I still need to de-stash quite a bit.  I found myself moving things I really don't use.
3. I need a tall wrapping paper canister or something like that for all the cast-on combs.  I have them in cardboard mailers now, and am tired of that.
4. I am thinking about some pegboard.  The machines aren't pretty anyway, and pegboard is fantastic for odd-sized items.
5. I still love putting spare parts in the machine lids, which are sitting on the back of the stands.  The wooden stand is better for a machine with no lid, which is the case with my mid-gauge.