Where the magic happens

After some troubleshooting I was able to get the studio photos off my camera. I've been meaning for a while now to share my workspace.

First is a photo of my yarn winding, storage, labeling and shipping area. Back in the day the counter space is where I used to dye the yarn. But I quickly outgrew that space and moved into my current studio. I still prefer to store all of my yarn indoors and in boxes and so I kept the counter space for all the other busy work I do. This is also especially convenient as this area is located at the end of our kitchen and so I can do a lot of work while supervising the kids.

I have twice now upgraded my swifts. I started out with an umbrella swift (which I still use with my winder), I then moved on to a hand cranked Crazy Monkey swift, and later when the opportunity arose I purchased a triple winding motorized swift.
The drawers hold all of my packaging and shipping supplies.

What is not shown is the racking opposite to the swifts, the shelving unit holds all of my knitting related books, some undyed yarns, and the dyed yarn that is waiting to be shipped. I have some space for a few boxes of dyed yarn, and then underneath the counter I also store several boxes of dyed yarns for shows and such.

Just off the kitchen is the entrance to my garage studio. For now it is still a shared space, I took over the majority of the floor space, but we do maintain space for all of our camping gear and a large chest freezer.
The counter got cropped off in the photo, so about a 1/3 of it is missing from the picture. The bottom drawers are from a recent kitchen remodel project and I still need to utilize them more efficiently. The upper cabinets hold all of my dyeing supplies and the powdered dyes. The bottles on the counter are pre-mixed solutions I use to avoid dealing with powdered dye on a daily basis.
I like to tape my lare orders to the cabinets so that I can quickly refer to what needs to be dyed next.
I still on occasion set dye with the microwave, I find that it works well for me and I have never had issues with it. The only drawback is that it cannot process the yarn quickly enough and so I prefer steam setting as that allows me to set a large quantity of skeins all at once.

Opposite the counter is my propane powered burner system. As you can tell from the kegs stored below this used to be my husband's beer brewing setup. But since he wasn't brewing very often I took over the space, but he is yet to move those kegs out of the way. I absolutely love my propane burners but I am definitely feeling a little crowded and so I think I am going to double my burner space and add two my burners.
The large stainless stell vats are used for low immersion and kettle dyeing as well as steam setting the dyes.

This concludes my mini tour, I hope you enjoyed!

Downton Abbey club (last shipment and signups)

My first club came and went, it was such a whirlwind of dyeing and packaging and figuring out what goodies to add.
Countess was inspired by the Dowager Countess of Grantham. Her wit and spunk called for bright vibrant colors. (I heard she might be written off the show at the end of the next season and that makes me sad)

[June's club selection "Countess"]

Signups are now open for the next installment of the club - summer club