Let's Share Studio Ideas

I was thrilled with some of the feedback I got from friends and readers about my studio project.  Marge wrote and said her knitting space is a small room, maybe 9 feet square, and she has three machines set up with other machines underneath and pegboard on the walls.  Marge, I would love to see photos of your space.

Tom, in the past, sent gorgeous pictures of his studio with real cabinets and marble countertops.  Tom is a neatnik who says he's getting some clutter now.   "Some" clutter - gee, I think my clutter is terminal!   I have dug through my email and can't find those pictures now, hint, hint, Tom. 

Sylvia wrote and sent a picture of the rolling platform her husband Doug devised, which lets her pull out the particular machine she's working on.  The platforms only roll forward and back, so the machines don't move around with the sideways knitting pressure.  Sylvia uses the platforms to hold tools, as well. 

Alex suggested an umbrella stand for cast-on combs.  I did a web search for umbrella stands, which aren't as common here in Texas as on his side of the pond, and discovered that you can get very attractive ones, some of which are oblong and would give you plenty of space for lots of combs.  Totally cool idea.

Greta suggested stacked coffee cans for a wonderful cast-on comb holder.  She took the bottoms out of #10 coffee cans, stacked them and taped them, then covered the thing with contact paper, and says 4 tall works great.  I had heard about fancier ones made by gluing various lengths of big PVC pipe.  I am thinking about drilling holes as needed and hanging the nasty tangly things.

Greta was describing a shelf her neighbor made her that sits behind her machine.  She says it's moveable.  I couldn't picture it, and asked for a photo of that.

You probably noticed my little rolling carts.  They are quite nice for small items like measuring tapes, calculators, transfer tools, pens and tablets, and ribber weights.  I took the wheels off one of my carts to make it short enough to fit under the motor frame on my Brother motor. 

John and I got into a discussion about pegboard.  I used pegboard at my shop, and it's just wonderful for tools and miscellany.  I went over on Amazon found this terrific-looking pegboard system for craft and sewing rooms, which comes in a whole bunch of fun colors.  Of course, if you search over there for pegboard, you find galvanized steel and all sorts of heavy-duty peg systems.  When I had the shop, we purchased the big, cheap sheets of pressboard pegboard and John put them up with spacers and an electric drill.  Then we rolled beige paint on them and added an edging around them (it was some plastic stuff that we just pushed on, very easy to do).  It looked perfectly nice and enabled me to display all those zillions of little packages of needles, hooks, hoops and so forth neatly.  We didn't have trouble with that pegboard warping or wearing out, because the items weren't all that heavy.

So - here's an appeal - email me photos of your cool, works-for-you studio ideas to diana_knits "at" sbcglobal "dot" net, and I'll post them!   Please don't be too humble - we all love great knitting space ideas.