Building a Fiber Studio

For years I’ve always stuffed whatever fiber- and spinning-related things I’ve collected over the years into whatever nooks and crannies of my house or apartment were available. I never consciously dedicated a room as a fiber studio, even if I stuffed its closet to overflowing with all of my bins of fiber and yarn and various other supplies. I always just hauled my spinning wheel out from wherever it happened to be — which was always whatever corner was available in a spare bedroom — and brought it into the living room, and I’ve been doing that lately with my drum carder, my wool combs…so it’s time to devote some actual space to this pursuit.

There’s been a thread lately on the Spin-List group I’m on about fiber studios and whether people have actual dedicated space for one. Some do, some don’t. Some have rooms in their houses that they’ve crammed as tightly as possible to the rafters with shelves of fiber, tools, and equipment. Some have an actual structure somewhere on their property — usually a converted barn or, in one case I read about, a converted milking shed — where they can set up something as private, spacious, and dedicated as a painter’s studio. I envy those people because I think someday I’d like to have a small studio — an actual small building — where I can spend my time when I’m working with fiber. It could happen someday!

In the meantime, Matt was totally fine with me taking over one of the bedrooms we currently don’t have anything in, probably because designating it as a fiber studio would probably keep my fiber from creeping into all of the other rooms of the house. So today I did a little work on the room and moved some stuff around from other rooms that I wasn’t really using but could totally be used for things in my burgeoning fiber studio.

I put a second-hand dresser from my sister’s fiance in there that I wasn’t using anymore. It’s perfect for storing my extra bobbins, extra spindles, fiber tags, plastic fiber storage bags, my dyes, my dye tools…you get the picture. The quilt ladder you see has stuff on it that technically doesn’t qualify as part of spinning or fiber work — I decided it was perfect for holding all of my colorful belly dance skirts (actually, there are two more I have that didn’t fit on there) and reduced some closet space in another room. I think it adds some nice color, although if I add some shelving to this room as I’d like to do this will probably move to a different room. On top of the dresser I have a small lightbox I made to photograph fiber and yarn for selling, and of course there’s an iPod docking station so I can listen to tunes while I work on fiber.

A growing fiber studio.

I’d already been using the closet as fiber storage anyway and thankfully had, during my time off last year, finally truly organized it, with labeled containers and everything. Here you also see my Ashford Traditional wheel, my current wheel. In about a week I’m getting a Lendrum Double Treadle that will become my new main wheel.

One half of the fiber studio closet: I mark my containers so it's easy to find stuff.

The other side. It's pretty full. I'm trying to work within that constraint rather than let it overflow into the room.

On the other wall of the room I set up a folding table that we had and weren’t using so I have a semi-permanent place to put and use my drum carder and wool combs, both of which have to be clamped to a sturdy surface. I can also use this table to do some blocking if I just clear it off, which is great double duty. The only problem with it is that it’s very long and not very attractive. What I’d like to do is find a smaller desk or table that I can still clamp stuff to that actually looks more like furniture and then put open shelves next to it that can store my most commonly used fiber, such as my alpacas’ washed and separated fleeces, for easy access rather than having to dig out their containers. You’ll notice underneath I have a container for each of my alpacas’ that has their fleeces, bags of washed locks (in Benz’s case, divided into his white and black locks), any combed top or carded batts I’ve made from them, etc. Silverton’s is in the closet only because his doesn’t fit under the table.

Pico does an inspection. 'Yeah, I think I see your problem here. You're lacking any sort of treat dispenser. That's not gonna be up to code, ma'am.'

It’s coming along. I’d like to add an over-the-door shoe holder, the kind with clear pockets, to store various small amounts of fiber and accessories more conveniently, or to store commissioned yarn projects in various stages of development so I can see them pretty readily. It’s not a converted dairy shed, but it’s a great little space!