It's exactly two years since I first walked up the winding wooden stairs of the cosy little café that had recently opened at the bottom of town. I remember it as if it were yesterday, that feeling of bubbling excitement and amazement, it was like standing on the edge of a dream world not daring to believe it could actually be real. Finding myself a studio space to work from really was a dream come true for me, I had so often wished for it over the years since my art college days, daydreamed about it, talked about the possibility of it with friends.
Do you remember me telling you the story? It took Tracy and I almost a month to renovate the tired old room, bringing it back to life with a lot of hard graft and optimism. But it was SO worth it and as we each settled in to the room, we managed to create a beautiful, colourful, inspiring place to share and work. Over the past two years, we opened our doors to friends and visitors and held a number of Open Studio days (you can read about our very first one here). Tracy worked hard on her "Handmade Over Yonder" textile business and I ran my first lot of crochet workshops....
.... and our cosy little textile studio became a well established place for us to each carry out our creative work.
On the first floor above the café, there are actually four rooms in total. Our old studio room is the biggest and stretches the length of the building with windows at both the front and the back. Next door there is a smaller room which is used by the café, providing extra seating for café customers. It's at the front of the building and has a square window set into the very thick old walls. It also has oodles of character - the picture above was taken in December when it was all decked out for Christmas....
....you can see that this room also has the same beautiful old wooden floor boards as well as a rustic open fireplace. It's much smaller than our studio room and not quite as bright, but there is a delightful atmosphere in here that makes it feel special.
In October when Tracy decided to work from home, the café owners announced that they would quite like to use the opportunity to have a bit of a change around upstairs. In the time since our studio had been established, the café had grown increasingly popular and was in desperate need of more space. It seemed the obvious thing for us to swap rooms, for the café to take the larger room and for me to transfer my clutter to the smaller room.
So at the very beginning of the year, everything was swapped about and I began the task of making this new room my own.
It wasn't too big a job, and I enjoyed working there each day and seeing the transformation slowly take place.
The walls were painted a soft grey which had suited the café, but I wanted to maximise the light and provide a clean backdrop for all my colourful stuff. White emulsion went onto all the walls (three coats of it) and then it was time to add some colour.....
....I was inspired by Tracy's love of this gorgeous shade (she painted up a thrifted table for the studio, and I had also used it to paint a little peg shelf) . It's a glorious, warm shade of blue called "Blue Ground" by Farrow & Ball and I had a strong desire to see this colour on one wall in my new studio..........
...........oh yum!!!! The colour is incredibly uplifting and happy, reminding me of soft summer skies and calm seas.
The colour changes a lot depending on the light and sometimes looks slightly grey, but having it on only one wall keeps the room looking light and bright.
Do you like my butterfly picture? I have to thank Lou of Little Green Shed blog for this - I noticed it hanging on her wall in the background of a snap on Facebook, thinking it was an expensive arty print. When I admired it and asked where it was from, she told me it was actually a sheet of wrapping paper! So I googled "butterfly wrapping paper" and sure enough I managed to find it online (similar on Amazon here
So...........would you like a little tour of my studio?
It's not quite finished yet, I've still got a little shelf to hang and I'd also like to create a big sample/inspiration pinboard on one wall, but actually I just can't wait any longer to share it with you!!
Come in, come in, make yourself at home! I'm going to walk and talk you round the room, are you ready?
As you come in the door, to the left is my Yarn Wall. It took me aaaaaaaaaages to arrange these shelves as I had a good sort out of my considerable yarn stash at the same time. I'll move around a bit to show you more......
.....ooooooooooooh, just feast your eyes on that little lot! I've got two Ikea Billy Bookcases side by side here which are perfect for yarn storage purposes. The best thing about them is that once you've bought the bookcase (which comes with 1 fixed shelf and 4 adjustable shelves), you can buy additional shelves to add in so that you can tailor your storage to suit your yarn/book needs.
I find it incredibly inspiring to be able to see all my yarn set out like this, it feeds my creativity on a daily basis. My shelves mostly contain Stylecraft Special (two shelves of DK and one shelf of Chunky) and a mixture of Drops yarns (merinos in various weights and the left over Alpaca/wool from my poncho). The clear tubs towards the bottom contain my cotton yarns - Drops Paris, Muskat and Cotton Light, plus Rowan Handknit and some Debbie Bliss cotton.
I keep my crochet books on these shelves too, it's lovely having them all in one place.
Moving round, awww there's my beautiful blue wall and butterfly wrap....lets step back a tad and I'll show you a bit more.....
I've got my old farmhouse pine table in the middle of the room now, with a motley assortment of thrifted and gifted chairs around. I usually sit at the head of the table in the blue painted chair there, it's a lovely place to work and I've felt very inspired being surrounded by so much colour every day.
The biggest change for me in this room has been the arrival of a new computer. I found an old side table at the local collectors centre which was just the right size to tuck into the corner there next to the window.
Although it's still early days (I only got the computer about a fortnight ago), having a computer at the studio has transformed my daily routine. I had gotten into the habit of coming home after the school run to use my computer in the mornings, then heading to the studio to spend a few hours once all my admin/writing work was done. Often the studio time disappeared almost completely as being at home I was quite easily distracted (no surprises there!). But with a computer at the studio now I head there straight after school, arriving at 9am to have a coffee and get straight down to work. I spend the first part of my day catching up with emails and social media, then I either choose to write my blog (I wrote my first post there last week) or spend time doing creative work.
During the past fortnight, some days I've happily spent all day (six hours) at the studio and other days I've stayed until after lunch before heading home to do a few bits and pieces prior to the afternoon school run. I'm hopeful that my days will be much more productive with this routine, with a good balance between work and home. I'm also hoping to get back into the habit of writing my blog during the day when I'm generally much more full of energy, rather than at 8pm when often I am just too tired for it at the moment.
The day was very bright when I took these photos - that bright patch of nothingness on the left is the window next to my desk. I've got one of my old Lloyd Loom chairs there right next to the window for times when I want to crochet and need good natural light.
Aww, I just LOVE that dilapidated old sideboard! I spotted it two summers ago outside a local restaurant and rescued it from landfill, you can read more about it here. It's great for storage but also makes a beautiful display area too. I bought the old oak book case from eBay for £20, this area is still a work in progress but at the moment it holds an assortment of favourite objects which make me smile every day.
This is the wall directly opposite the blue wall. I've got another Lloyd Loom chair tucked up in the corner there (for cold days when I want to sit and crochet next to the radiator!) I'm planning on creating a large inspiration board on this wall, a place to pin up crochet samples, cards, colour ideas, photos etc which will change depending on what I'm working on.
I've been making up some crochet "colour blocks" for each of my blanket packs as a visual reference for the studio. The above one shows my original colour choices for the Granny Stripe blanket which is almost 5 years old now. By the way, I've been writing up the colour stripe order for the granny stripe with a more detailed set of instructions for making the blanket as so many people keep writing to ask for it. Hopefully I'll have that finished and ready to share very soon.
I love surrounding myself with colour, it continues to totally rock my world. Looking at the colour blocks for the four blanket packs I've already made makes me so happy! I love each one of them and the memories attached to the resulting blankets, but I absolutely love-love-love seeing them all together. Thinking - wouldn't it be amAZing to make a full colourful patchwork crochet blanket with these little 3-round target squares????!
I've been working on fresh colour ideas for my next set of projects which I am soooo excited about!! This is one of MANY colour palettes I've been pondering over for my next blanket (using my new granny square design, oh the excitement of a new granny blanket!). I'll be choosing fifteen super-pretty colours of Stylecraft Special DK with a happy Spring/Summer feel to them - my heart is going boom-boom at the sight of this photo, I kid you not! I really am not normal.
Talking of Stylecraft colours, there will be some fabulous news coming very soon regarding a very SpEcIaL competition, I can hardly wait to share with you. All will be revealed in the March edition of Lets Knit magazine (out on 20th Feb) - I just know that all you colour/yarn lovers out there are going to absolutely love it - keep a look out for more details at the end of next week.
Well my lovelies, it's been an absolute pleasure to chat with you, thanks as always for stopping by. Back soon....
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
ps I'll be running some crochet workshops at the studio from March-July, hoping to have dates and more details of those very soon x
hi was given your atic24 by a friend, after looking at it for the first time I was amazed at all the beautiful colours of wool, the studio looks great its a pity I live in London.
Posted by: anita edkins | June 12, 2015 at 01:31 PM
I love your
site. Can wait to see more.
Posted by: judy yeager | March 15, 2015 at 09:12 PM
very beautiful work,I like to read your blog and see what you are working.
thank you that you share with us your joy and happinies.
Posted by: Flavia Salagean | March 10, 2015 at 05:53 PM
I have just started to crochet and loving every minute of it. Your beautiful striped blanket gave me the push to have a go. I have a significant wool stash that now has potential to diminish in stature.
Your new studio is lovely. What a relaxing place to work. X
Posted by: Lesley McC | February 28, 2015 at 10:41 AM
@Lord Goat, you clearly have a personality disorder, please take it elsewhere. We all love reading Lucy's blog, it is an oasis of calm in an otherwise hectic and often horrible world. I for one don't care if she is paid by stylecraft, in fact I hope that she is - and I hope they pay her a lot, given that their Special DK is so popular now BECAUSE of Lucy. And if they aren't they should.
Posted by: Kim | February 27, 2015 at 04:44 PM
I have just discovered your blog and I really loved the work room. I liked the book case idea for your wool and as I have just gone through my stash, rewinding all into pies I have approximately 500 balls and would love to display them like yours. It was great to read about all you have done and I would love to keep up with your blog. Good luck with your gorgeous new work room.
Posted by: Pam Wilson | February 26, 2015 at 09:30 PM
@Lord Goat, has no one ever told you that if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything?! Your comment sounds quite spiteful...
I luuuurve all you do, very inspirational so keep on going and let the haters hate.....xxx
Posted by: Sandy | February 26, 2015 at 10:26 AM
Just found and had a good read of your site. Two questions:
1) are you paid by Stylecraft?
2) Any chance of a pattern that you've invented yourself or that at least isn't just trebles in some form or another?
Posted by: Lord goat | February 25, 2015 at 01:56 AM
So very pretty! The whole studio looks nice. I especially like the window swag, is it somewhere on the blog? I looked and didn't see it but may have overlooked it. Love reading your blog, thanks so much for all you do.
Posted by: Regina Bishop | February 23, 2015 at 01:22 AM
Wow, your studio looks very nice... I love how you store (display your yarns) and I love how there's so much light. Its inspiring :-)
Posted by: Maya Harrison | February 23, 2015 at 12:46 AM
It looks really nice:)
I Like your idea of making butterflies, look forward to seeing the result!
Hope you will have many happy crafting hours in that space.
Posted by: sofy | February 22, 2015 at 09:52 AM
A new blanket pack squealing with excitement. Remember you hinted about it a while back and I suggested I may need to get a divorce if I bought more yarn then the husband agreed to buy it when it came out Rugby World cup is coming up and he is earning brownie points already yay.
Posted by: anne wright | February 21, 2015 at 08:34 AM
¦¦¦(¯`:´¯)¦Olá amiga!!!
¦¦(¯ `•.\/.•´¯)¦¦¦??Uma Ótima semana
¦(¯ `•.(?).•´¯)¦(¯`:´¯) para você e toda a tua família!
¦¦(_.•´/\`•._)(¯ `•.\/.•´¯) Siga o blog
¦¦¦ (_.:._).¦(¯ `•.(?).•´¯) Deixe seu comentário
¦¦¦(¯`:´¯)¦¦(_.•´/\`•._) Teremos o maior prazer em
¦(¯ `•.\/.•´¯)¦¦(_.:._). responder
¦(¯ `•.(?).•´¯)¦¦¦¦ Deixe seu blog e email
¦¦(_.•´/\`•._)¦¦ Para que possamos
¦¦¦(_.:._)¦¦¦¦¦ retribuir a visita.
Visite meu blog - Tita Carré - Crochet
Posted by: Tita Carré | February 21, 2015 at 04:57 AM
What a beautiful place to work, love it! Do you need to be able to crochet to attend a workshop? Do you ever do total beginner classes?
Posted by: Lyn | February 20, 2015 at 03:59 PM
I am very excited to have the color sequence for the granny stripe blanket - I have started it already but I am studying your pictures trying to copy your order of colors!! I may wait to work on it until I read your new instructions! Yayayayayay!!! thank you for this!
Posted by: Sara R | February 20, 2015 at 03:51 PM
Oooooh I REALLY love that Farrow & Ball colour. I have 'Skylight' in my living room, 'Pale Powder' in my hallway and 'Dimity' in my bedroom. I love their shades, although, I'm feeling the need for a change, and have been looking at their shade cards to have a bit of a freshen up! I LOVE the smell of fresh paint. Your shelves with all the yarn look simply delicious. I find views like that so inspirational. Whilst in the house i'm more of a pastel, calm girl, I still cannot live without huge amounts of colour. It's just usually in what I wear and accessories! I wish I lived closer, I'd love to pop by a do a workshop. I hope you enjoy many hours in your lovely space Lucy.
Have a super weekend lovely xxxxx
p.s You should SOOOOOO try and make something drapey. Oh my word, the excitement of what you could come up with........xxx
Posted by: vanessa | February 20, 2015 at 12:24 PM
Congratulations on your new studio! What a lovely place to work. Love the idea of a new granny square blanket too. Wish you many happy hours in your new space.
Posted by: Marijke | February 20, 2015 at 09:12 AM
I love the trim hanging in the window recess!! Have you done a tutorial for that? Your studio is inspiring me to get mine i order!!!
Posted by: Bev Slater | February 20, 2015 at 07:28 AM
Wow! What an absolutely lovely studio. It looks like you put a ton of work into everything you do—I hope you're proud of it all, you really should be. I've just ran across your space here, but I love what you've made out of those rooms!
All the best,
Eve
Posted by: Eve Estelel | February 20, 2015 at 07:23 AM
What a beautiful studio Lucy, I love it! What a dream to be able to have such a wonderful creative space.
I have recently started to read your blog and I love it so much I am now reading all your prior posts - I am currently up to November 2008!
Posted by: Lozza | February 20, 2015 at 05:10 AM
Oh Lucy, it's just lovely! So colourful and cosy, just how I imagined it would be. You've collected some really nice pieces of vintage furniture, haven't you?! You have a good eye. Much love to you - hope you're well, miss our coffees. xx
Posted by: Gillian | February 19, 2015 at 10:16 PM
What a lovely space to spend your days. So inspiring and colorful.
A dream come true, I am sure.
Congratulations!
Posted by: Arlene | February 19, 2015 at 07:20 PM
Your studio brings me joy to just look at and dream about a room like that in my home. Love it! I have been wanting to display yarn on a bookshelf like you did. Do you tuck in the wrap band inside the skein so you still know all the details? It is so inspiring to see the yarn displayed.
Posted by: Brenda Bowman | February 19, 2015 at 07:12 PM
So yummy! Your studio just sparkles with "Lucyness" from all four corners! You have done a fabulous job and the lovely blue wall colour really works well as a foil to all your beautiful colourful creations. You must be feeling very proud and pleased with all your hard work! I love seeing all your yarns stored on the shelves ready to entice and inspire - doesn't it make your fingers tingle with the urge to get hooking, just looking at all that rainbow deliciousness? Oh, those wonderful colours and textures! I can't wait to see what you create next! I've nearly finished the Cosy Blanket (at last! I had a long hiatus just after Christmas as my mother was very unwell) and I think I am going to do the Cottage pack next - I've so enjoyed my first proper venture into crochet, and it's perfect to keep me occupied now that my mam is back home from hospital and needing me to keep her company. Maybe I can inspire her to take up crochet again too! As always thank you for keeping us all so inspired and uplifted, Lucy. I hope you and yours are all keeping well too. Love, Rubekah xxx
Posted by: Mama Bear | February 19, 2015 at 05:34 PM
Your studio is so cozy and beautiful!I find your blog a source of inspiration and being able to have a look at your place of work means a lot.Thanks for sharing your creativity and world to us.
Posted by: Claudia Teper | February 19, 2015 at 02:57 PM