I love yarn!

Catch Up

OK. Two small businesses, 3 weeks of house guests and my computer's untimely death was too much. We did manage to finish the wet side of my studio (yay!!!) and go on a mellow and cheep vacation. The kids are back in school and I'm back at work. Way back at work. One full time job, one half time job, motherhood, and being married to my dream man takes up a lot of my time. And I've been asked to be the Creative Director for the local theater program that both my kids are involved in.

Here's the big yarn news: I love Ravelry. Almost too much. If you're not on the list run, don't walk to sign up for an invite. They are still testing and developing but it rocks out already. Enough talk. on to the candy...You can get it here starting tomorrow. I'll be sending 20% of the price of each skein sold to Jess and Casey to help with the ginormous price of this awesome free website!

I now have a laptop, a cell phone and an iPod. Wireless internet has worked for one day in the studio. All very well and good, but when did I go from the kid who could program the VCR without thought to the adult who can't even figure out how to move a frickin cursor across a screen? Case in point: I was having trouble with my iPod's shuffle feature. I wanted it to shuffle only the songs and not the chapters of my audiobooks. One of my cousins who came for a visit (and lives in an iPod-free home) fixed in about four jabs of a thumb after my husband and I had been stumped for days (and we were really trying!) Sheesh.

Exciting, New (and really dirty)

I can finally start telling people. Yay, I suck at keeping my own secrets!

My husband has wanted to own or co-own a game/hobby shop since high school or earlier. We have often discussed this for an option in our 50s after an early, well funded retirement (yah, good luck us). But an opportunity to join with another friend (with the same dream) without all the pesky waiting. Great timing, No. Once in a lifetime chance, Yes. The shop is established but has been left to stagnate for the last few years. The owner, a wonderful friend, became a father after years of trying and just wants to be with his sweet little girl. This is lovely for them and he has been wonderfully helpful and supportive. But damn! That place is a pit! The whole place is like the floor and wall behind an old fridge when it finally breaks and you have to get a new one. It's a shock every time I look closely. And nothing is organized. At all. Eeks!

Now yarnporn for you: Sorry I put all that dirty store/dream opportunity stuff first. It's been bursting to get out! This is what I'm putting in the shop today. More than originally planned. I have an emergency room bill to cover now. We used to have better insurance, but it was cut so that people could keep their jobs, so that's OK. Last time our insurance was cut it was due to a budget issue from the Reps giving themselves a raise. grumble, grumble, grrr... Back to the yarn, the ones in the center on top are the new silk/merino single. Yummy. The right side is mostly my new colorway: Talon.

Yarn and Kitchen Demo

I can no longer be accused of not dyeing blue. See?

Top to Bottom: Lizardman, Angst, Giles, Neapolitan.
I love dyeing yarn. A lot. I played with some new colorway ideas last night. That was fun too. Currently I monopolize the entire kitchen when I dye. That's all gonna change. A while back I took over the small rental apartment on the back of my family home. The main loft area got a small makeover and was transformed into a lovely studio where I currently do all the dry parts of running a small dye house. There's a lot more than you'd think... skein from cones, reskein dyed yarn, print yarn bands, attach the yarn bands, all the computer stuff like listing on etsy and yada yada yada.

Now it's time to redo the apartment kitchen into a proper wet side. So naturally we went to IKEA. The ceilings are only 70 inches tall (the apartment is the old servent's quarters in my 150 year old house, they must have had some short staffers!). We had a time of it getting all the shelving I needed that will fit the size dye bottles I use and all that for the money I could spend. But my husband is a super-wiz at that kind of thing and so he's sweating his ... butt off putting my goodies together. He took out all the old kitchen bits: fridge, stove and 3 or so feet of cabinet/sink. Yah, it's dinky. And now it looks like this:

Scary.

We need a new subfloor in one area, there is mystery pluming and it's really, really ugly. Other than that it totally frickin ROCKS! I will get a huge boost to my efficiency and we'll be able to eat at the kitchen table again. Woo Hoo! I think my family is particulary looking forward to being able to use at least one of the three sinks in our kitchen without having to move yarn, mostly empty bottles of dye or whatever out of them first. And yes I do use all three sinks. We only have three because one of the more recent owners of our home was a soap maker. I'm following in the footsteps of a cool indie-artist/work-at-home mom. It's all kinds of good around here.

Creativity v. Productivity

Creativity:
I've got a few new colorways in the works and notes for several more. Yay! I needed that. And I have 4 new yarns picked from a field of about 15. Well, maybe 5. And 6 doesn't sound unreasonable, right? Hmmm... Sarah is helping me organize sample knitting for my etsy photos and for garments people might want to knit for fall and winter (and by organizing I mean she's doing it and I nod and smile and send yarn) . How awesome is that? I love you Sarah! I have too many ideas. This only seems like a problem when I try to follow thru with all at once.

Productivity:
That's a shot of my last delivery to Threadbear. I'm almost done with the order for tomorrow. It has some of the new colors. Yum. Last time I was there I asked for input and got BLUE and Neapolitan. You can check Rob's blog tomorrow night to see it.


Goals and Stuff:
I had a sinus infection for 7 weeks. It was a boot to the head as far as productivity goes, but creativity was totally shot. Now I am well, if still low on energy, and I want it all. I'd like a couple of days just to work on browns. Browns (the way I do them) include yellow, red, blue and most of the time some black too. That's a lot of trial and error. I can picture an hundred plastic dixie cups in a grid with charts to keep track of proportions and such. Damn it's fun being a geek! This summer is going to be hard on my little business. My daughter, while sweet and enthusiastic, turns my 3 hour per batch timing into about 4.5 hours per batch and I have fewer days that I can even try for a batch. I got advice on this topic from a professional which was work for an hour or two before the kids wake up and a couple more after they go to bed. Hunh? First of all, I sleep a lot. Like almost every day. And second, I like time with my husband. I mean *REALLY* like being with him. So that schedule won't work. AT ALL. Oh, and there are three renovation projects in the works. One is just massive (more on that later) one is minor and one moderate. I'm really not sure when all that is going to get done. All three are non-optional at this point. Summer Break... right.

New Product Ideas- HELP!

I love handknit socks. A lot. But I don't want to just dye sock yarn. I have invented a technique that allows me the freedom to dye sweater yarn so that the stripes on the sleeves are about the same width as the stripes on the body. (Is it freedom or a shocking degree of anal? I'll let you decide, but keep it to yourself) This system, technique, whatever isn't wasted on socks. But there is so much more I can do.
Take for instance this mind-blowing yarn I like to call Catnip (for the reaction I get from everyone who gets to touch it) Similar to Lorna's Laces Lion and Lamb, this 50% Merino 50% Silk yarn would make really odd socks but is begging to be a scarf or sweater or (as one friend suggested) underwear. Can you picture a Clapotis that gradually changes color from orange to pink to purple? (or whatever color progression strikes your fancy!) Yummy!

Also in the works are a Brushed Kid Mohair yarn. I tried lots before I decided on the one I will be carrying in my etsy shop. BTW I will only have it in my etsy shop (the Catnip too) so I can keep the price at a point where I could afford it! There's also a couple yarns I'd like to knit sweaters out of.

I passionately love having my own business. But I can't figure it out all by myself. I didn't start as a knitter. I'm not a good knitter now. Gauage... not even close. Patterns... not so much. Loving yarn... hell yah! So, if anyone has any ideas of the kind of pattern my yarn could work well with, I'd love the input.

It's the last day of school

I have the fear. I love my kids and want to be with them a lot, but all day every day is more than a lot. I want to keep dyeing too. Dyeing took a huge dive last summer. That just can't happen this year. Done with the summer anxiety rant now.

Good stuff now!
jen of the piddleloop sewing team and organizer of the awesome sock kit I participated in sent me this huge pile of goodies! There were several bags and pouches and each one was holding onto a fun surprise! There were things from my etsy favorites list and stuff with hearts and stitch markers in my favorite colors and my initials. I so totally love the pins from the Moustache Factory. There are two pins that make a giraffe, one pin is the head and some neck and the other is the rest of the neck and the body. How totally fun is that? I also love the toast with a moustashe!

My husband and I have both had a sinus infection for more than five weeks. This sucks mightily and is the cause of many a belated email response and the like, but it has allowed me to spend some quality time in bed with pointy sticks and yarn. Obviously I have been out of it because I haven't been able to do anything like follow a pattern, so I've been coming up with stuff like this:

and this:


The up side of this is that I can say for sure that my Duchess yarn holds up pretty well to lots and lots of frogging!