New Colors

It's been really great having a dye space to go to every week. I'm amazed every week how much work I get done in such a short time. It's easy to getting work done when there's no distractions like the internet, a couch, a fridge, a t.v.!


New Merino Knots drying.

On the knitting front I finished the booties, the hat is started. I've gotten a little distracted with sewing felt food for e to play with. Well, maybe for me to play with! I spaced taking pictures of those. I also posted Mermaid in the shop. $5 from every skein will be donated to Doctors Without Borders for Haitian relief.

Mojo

It's back! Last Thursday night was knit night. I really went to tell everybody we're having a boy and to eat the yummy food. I brought my obligatory knitting project that keeps getting ripped out and pretended to work on that. Then I got to help somebody with their knitting project and I think something rubbed off on me. I realized that I was trying to work on something that I have no interest in right now. I should knit something that has interest. So on Sunday while the wee one napped I cleaned up some crafty mess in the garage and in the process found yarn and needles. I also found some fiber and spinning wheel. I found things I wanted to make instead of struggling along in a project going no where. I know that's not life style advice but it works for knitting and for me right now. So I now have a pair of completed booties, which I finished Kitchener-ing yesterday while e bathed. If you've ever had trouble with that stitch I recommend this tutorial. Changed my life. Changed my life in that I can now Kitchener with confidence.

What else is new you ask? Well, Knitted Wit yarn and fiber is now at Make One in Milwaukie. I visited the shop yesterday, very nice. A beautiful space, a great selection and very helpful.

Also new, a color way called Mermaid. I just dyed it up today and will hopefully have pictures at the beginning of the week. $5 from every skein sold will go to Doctors Without Borders for relief work in Haiti. I hope I'll be selling this yarn for the next 10 years. When the emergent need has been met I'd like to find an organization that is working with artist and cultural preservation in Haiti. Mermaid is inspired by the colors often seen in paintings and the legend of Mermaids in Haiti. With so much of the population displaced traditions can get lost, especially with the great loss of family members. But for now the immediate need is food, water and shelter. That is where the efforts will go.

I'll hopefully be back soon with pictures and have the yarn listed in my Etsy shop, which is quite sad and lonely! I hope you find your mojo if it's been missing.

Oh Boy!

That's right we're having a boy! I can't tell you how excited I am! I also feel like life has been simplified on many levels. We can stay in our currant house for a long time, the boys will have bunk beds for much of their lives. I really don't need to buy baby boy any clothes, this doesn't mean I won't, but we really have all the clothes we need. I think also the confidence. We know what to do with boys! Now I just have to wait 20 more weeks to meet him! That feels a little like forever. You can remind me I said that in June!

This has been a busy week. On Tuesday we moved Knitted Wit over to the new dye space. I'm headed over there after this to put things away properly and get ready for dying next week. Yesterday we painted e's room and moved furniture around so it's just his room now and not part office. He'll be sharing the room in the future with baby boy, but for now it's just him. I feel great having these two major projects done, moving Knitted Wit and the boys room. Now to organize all my junk in the garage! I guess that's what nap time on Sundays is going to be for a while. Before baby boy gets here I'll definitely be having a stash sale. I have so much yarn that I won't get a chance to knit with and it should go to a good home. Maybe in May we'll have a sale under the carport.

I think the next big thing for me to figure out is what to do with my Etsy shop. I'm terrible about posting things for sale in there. I suppose if I did repeat colors it would be a lot easier to post items, not so time consuming. A problem to be solved later...

I'm off to clean and organize. I think I've entered a nesting phase, I hope it lasts!

Out with the Old and In the New

Happy New Year! What a year 2009 was! (funny thing, I just wrote 2008) It's exciting starting a new decade, especially as an adult. At the beginning of the last decade I was in college, about to start dating E and had a world of options. In some ways it's more exciting to have a narrowed focus. I have my family, a job I've been at for more than six years and my growing business. It's funny those three things keep me so busy. On the paper they're just three words, family, job, business. But there is so much that encompasses each of those three things. In the next year my family will be getting bigger, I'll be working at my job less, and hopefully my business will be growing.

I just realized that I don't have anything to show you! I haven't been knitting or spinning. I was able to make some Christmas gifts, E did a ton of baking. I've had to take some time off from Knitted Wit because my day job is retail is super busy in December. I'm about to move into a dye space with Pico Accuardi Dyeworks. I just have to make it through inventory this next week and then I'll be back to dyeing in a big, dry, warm space!

What are you looking forward to for the new year? The new decade? Any big plans or goals?

Now that life is getting back to the slower routine hopefully I'll see you around these parts a little more.