Westward

When I originally dyed this combination of colorways, it made me think of the ocean and its infinite variety of blues and greens. I named it Westward, after the schooner that I sailed on during my off-campus semester in college at Williams-Mystic. We spent 10 days on the Westward, sailing through the Bahamas. Although I felt like I spent most of my time on the voyage trapped in the lab, counting copepods (most of my deck watches were at night, and my day watches seemed to be mostly science/lab ones), it was still a great experience to help with ocean research on a tall ship.

When a friend, who now serves on the W/M Alumni Council, asked if I would donate an item to the annual silent auction, Westward came to mind immediately. I've contributed a skein of this colorway on my Silk & Silver base. If you happen to be an alum going to the reunion next weekend in Mystic, be sure to bid early and often!

And for those of you who aren't, I've listed some worsted and aran weight yarns at HC. More coming next week--I'm clearing the decks for some new base yarns and colorways.

delusions

I had this grand design of using August to list a bunch of yarn and fiber online. Instead, I finished two orders that were originally scheduled to be completed before Sock Summit, before leaving on a long-planned two-week vacation (camping in the Canadian Okanagan, the Kootenay region, and Fort Spokane in eastern Washington). It was a great trip; I still have to look at my photos and see if I have enough to do a blog post.

And I think I needed to take it easy for a while, too. I had wanted to build on SS momentum, but I'd been operating all summer on an intense schedule with erratic child care, and I needed some time to reconnect with my kiddo. The day when it's completely uncool to hang out with mom is fast approaching, and I need to enjoy these days when his favorite companions are still his parents.

Anyway, I'm sorry if you've been waiting for me to resume online selling. I'm wary about posting online about vacation plans because I feel like it's an open invitation to thieves (am I the only one who's this paranoid?), but I also want to stay in touch with customers. I hope I'm striking a balance by privately informing customers that I'm actively working with about my holiday plans.

But now I'm back to work. Fall wholesale orders have come in, and I'm also prepping for Oregon Flock & Fiber. Many photos have been taken and I'm working my way through them in some new-to-me software that I'm trying out, Adobe Lightroom. Once I get the hang of it, I'm hoping that it will make photo processing both easier and faster. I'm not a natural photographer so I need all the software help I can get. It seems sub-optimal to list yarn on a holiday weekend, so look for listings after Labor Day on my HC store. (Fees at this store are considerably lower than Etsy, so I list my sweater-quantity yarns over there.)

Happy Labor Day to everyone!