the first week

The first week as my own full-time boss has been pretty tiring. I split skeins and otherwise wrapped up a group order, tinkered (again) with my photography setup, took many, many pictures of yarn, edited photos, put up some listings at Etsy, dyed a sock club order, and squandered countless hours on the internet reading reviews of the Aubrey-Maturin series. I also finished reading Life by Keith Richards, in which I learned he is also a Patrick O'Brian fan. Though I admit that I fail to understand his claim that Aubrey and Maturin remind him of his relationship with Mick Jagger. I just don't see it.

Tomorrow I'm rewarding myself with a trip down to Madrona. I'm not a vendor this year (or I would have quit my job in January in order to prepare) but NW Handspun Yarns is carrying some of my BFL and BFL/silk fiber in their booth. Looking forward to seeing friends, browsing for shawl pins and buttons, and just generally soaking in all the fibery goodness.

Next week, I ought to have a bit more breathing room, so I'm planning to get back to my obsession with silk hankies.



Love dyeing them, love knitting with them. When I was in China several years back, I went on a tour of a silk factory and watched them stretch cocoons, but I'd forgotten how long the silk strands are. Amazing stuff.

a new chapter

Friday is my last day at my job. I have been there for 11 years, but for many good reasons--dyeing yarn is way more fun, I was tired of people hating me just because I worked for a government agency (at least hate me for something personal I did to you), we refinanced our house at an absurdly low rate that opened up our financial options--I will now be a full-time dyer!

I am so excited. I'm bursting with ideas for developing and marketing my business. And interestingly, this has spilled over into my last three weeks at my job. I've astonished myself with the creative ideas and approaches that I've come up with for tackling some of the same issues that I've been working on for years.

This also means that I've been busy on a number of fronts. In my February newsletter, I promised a Feb 10 stocking at Etsy, but I've been juggling a lot of things, including an avalanche of fiber for Madrona. (I didn't get a booth this year, but NW Handspun Yarns will have my BFL and BFL/silk fiber for sale.) I'm afraid that stocking my store has been forced to take a back seat with all the craziness that's happening. Look for a stocking on Feb 17 instead.

Taking the leap has opened all sorts of possibilities to me, even just within my own mind. What have you been wanting to do? You only live once. And life is too short to not be happy.