April showers bring May flowers. We are counting on it. Here’s our status update for mid-April 2021. We have just completed our second move of three, in a one year period. Maybe that’s normal for some folks, but in our 25+ years together, we had only lived in three places.
And when we move, it is never just suitcases. Artisan business owners (who decided back in the 90’s that knitting was a good idea) have to travel with a knitting studio. You two-needle knitters have no idea. You pack it all up in a cute knitting bag, a few skeins, a pattern, markers – maybe a measuring tape and a counter.
We travel with a few more items, and a couple hundred pounds of equipment. Each of our temporary homes needs to include a “knitting studio” and a “steaming room.” Much like in our very first home, the rooftop studio in San Francisco, these “rooms” have often been corners of busier spaces. Tanya’s “knitting studio” in California was the kitchen counter/office. The “steaming room” in our newest studio apartment is just to the left of the bed, and it’s looking a lot like the dining room table.
A mobile knitting studio includes, among many other things, a knitting machine. In our case, at least three at a time, because we need to be able to switch between yarns and pieces when someone places an order. Manual knitting machines weigh 30 to 50 pounds each, and stretch four feet in length. Every machine needs a table, and each table needs straps and cinder blocks to hold it in place as we pull the carriage over 200 needles over and over again to make our fabric.
As any good carpenter will tell you, we’ve only just begun. A variety of hand tools, hooks, scissors, pins, and patterns must be available at all times. More weights for the fabric, and yarn yarn yarn, with a side of yarn.
The steaming area is a little less complicated, but it requires a special over-sized table for our large knit pieces, multiple covers, and multiple irons. We have different styles and preferences when it comes to steaming, so each of us has a Rowenta, and a back-up, because nothing lasts forever. Not even this blog post. Or winter.
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