The new studio build, pt 1

Boredom is kicking in, to add to the frustration at not being able to work. I've barely stepped in the studio in a while, which isn't a bad thing, but I'm starting to feel quite disconnected from everything I do. That's not something I'm used to and in all honesty it's healthy to throw in some distance from time to time, but I'd rather do it under my own steam than feel forced to! I'm going to sit with my notebook today, to work through some maths, to keep the grey matter from rusting.

Fortunately the weather has been kind of late and that means that the new studio build can plough on. I'm desperate to get into this space as the current one feels alien and far from the friendly space it used to be. So seeing the new studio take shape is what's keeping me afloat right now.

The SMT (super mega trailer) came onto our plot some 2 1/2 years ago. We originally planned for it to be a large guest space, akin to a small apartment. We toyed with the idea of holding mini knitting retreats here, for 4 or 5 of my regular knitting customers/workshop attendees at a time to come and learn with me and stay with us. But now that I need to leave my current studio, plans have changed and now the SMT will be mostly mine. The trailer is roughly 10 metres long which is way more space than I need, so there'll still be a guest room at one end, but we've had to put an end to the retreats idea.

A fair bit of restoration work has been needed but thankfully that's mostly superficial and it's still solid underneath. There's been a small team working on getting it into shape and the most noticeable work we're having done is the mural that runs the full length of the trailer!  I've been posting shots over on my Instagram feed and here's a few of the in-progress shots. The mural changes frequently as it grows and develops and it's still some way from being done, so do bear that in mind.

My only request was for a few stitches to appear. Tom and I had this idea of knitted pipes which Andrea, our graffiti artist, totally got behind. He knows I knit Hats but he doesn't know my pseudonym or much else about my biz, and it's amazing how well he's interpretated it all.

Is that a woolly wormhead? Are those knitting ideas coming out of the head, or going in?

And what will these stitches become?

In this panoramic shot we've got a better sense of scale, even with the distortion. The SMT is 10m by 2.6m roughly. There's a door to the left by the steps, and then another door at either end.  

The steps and everything to the left of them, including the door, will be the guest room. That's just shy of a third of the total length. The rest of it - everything to the right of the steps - will be the new studio space. Loads of space and light! 

My current studio is in my MIL's trailer, which is a WW2 German army trailer. The SMT is two of these joined together, so it's an odd shaped space with its angled walls and curved roof that we're familiar with - once the interior is painted we can pretty much carry everything over. It also means that I'll gain about 35% more space with the way that we're dividing up the SMT. That means more storage space and room for a small silversmithing bench as well as a decent sized permanent table that I can use for sewing and more. 

I'm blogging from the Squarespace app on my phone which is working smoothly again! But it still isn't clever enough to let me add in links and such, so I'll send you to the sidebar to find the link to my Instagram account should you want to see more. I'm using the Stories feature go show the progress, and you can find the Highlights in my profile.