Thursday, July 23, 2009

Cleaning Up the Studio

Ian brought home this tired old library card catalog and it's been sitting on the front porch for weeks. He thought it would be good storage for my studio but I couldn't think of anywhere to put it, until I realized that if I cleared off my yarn dresser, it could go on top. Space is at a premium and all surfaces have been covered and cluttered. This just gives me an elevated surface to cover and clutter.

The best part is that I was able to store most of the stuff from my beading table. I haven't been able to get close to it for the last year. One thing lead to another and finally I was in full fledged cleaning mode. The dust was terrible and this is not to say that the studio is actually clean now, but it is workable. By the time DS Matt and Julia came for dinner yesterday afternoon, I was completely congested from the dust. Bad timing.
I was inspired by my accessible workspace and emailed Laura for help on calculating the warp from my handspun. Bad news. I didn't have enough to make the size I wanted. Several more emails and a couple of phone calls later, we decided that I should put on a dummy warp, which I have started here. I'm flying blind. I have entered this project in the fair next month. I hope this works.
Meanwhile, my handspun is waiting and ready, and I am antsy to get it onto the loom.

10 comments:

Tina T-P said...

Oooh - it just rained here - blissful but short! I love that old card catalog!

I see you're out reading blogs - we just left a message at Michelle's right next to each other :-) T.

Theresa said...

Great card catalogue! What a find.
You have a beautiful loom Sharon. I've never done a dummy warp, but I've been a dummy warping! :-)
Sounds like a great solution and I know the woven piece will be beautiful, how could it not with all that lovely hand spun yarn!

Valerie said...

Oh, it does my heart so much good to know that other people's workspaces get out of control.

Right now, cleaning mine would be more of an archeological dig than actual cleaning!

Good luck with that dummy warp. I've never done that.

Lee said...

My space is a constant battle. I just did a big clean up last night because I need the floor space for a quilt project (come to think of it, that might be a great reason to keep quilting). By the end of next week, I expect it will be back to it's usual state of disarray.

My library dismantled our card catalog in 2002 (it was way too ugly to score a piece of it), one of our patrons still laments it's loss (worse still, he *hates* our switch to call numbers).

What is a "dummy warp"?

bspinner said...

Great job!! I'm almost inspired to get my studio cleaned up.

I use dummy warps a lot. Saves on both time and good yarn like your beautiful handspun.

~~Sittin.n.Spinnin said...

I love those old card catalogs! They look so antique-y!

MiniKat said...

Love the new bead storage. It's very pretty.

I hope the weaving project works out. :-)

vlb5757 said...

Maybe your rearranging wil inspire me to clean up my office. I have a huge client this week and I am sorry I haven't cleaned it up. Maybe when they are gone I will go in there and clean it up!

beadlizard said...

What a man. The card catalog is perfect!

The King-Lehmans kept their seed beads in typesetter's type cases. A huge wall of them. Opening a drawer was an inspiration in itself.

One of the problems with weaving is it IS dusty. Do you size your warp?

Life Looms Large said...

Fingers crossed that your yarn behaves itself!!! Seems like it will be a great project!

I've given up on having a clean studio over the summer. I figure there's time for cleaning in the fall, right? (And in the fall, I'm sure to come up with some other excuse.....which is why my DH insists that I have my own space for the looms - so he doesn't have to see my mess!)

Sue