I know it’s been awhile since I last posted, but I’m back now and ready to go!
The past month has been a time of reflection, change and excitement for me.
1. I quit my job. I was working for our local borough in a happy, fun department with amazing people. But I have never been, nor will ever be the type to work a job. At least not for long. It must be in my blood, as my dad and many other family members have entrepreneurial spirits. And after owning a business for 6 years during my twenties, it’s just hard to go back to a 9-5. I got used to freedom and that is a difficult thing to give up. But I’m thankful for the time at my job; the people I met, the things I learned. And now it’s time for a new chapter in life, including finally, finally being able to focus on Expression Fiber Arts and see where the wind takes it…
2. My beautiful niece got married a few days ago (she’s the one in the picture above) and is on her way to Florida to meet her new family and then off to England where her husband is currently stationed with the AirForce. What an adventure and what an opportunity! We’ve all been busy planning the wedding, deep cleaning the house, scurrying around and now that she’s gone… there is an odd quiet in the house. It’s peaceful, but nostalgic, with a sense of change stirring. So I’m a little happy, a little sad, but overall at peace.
So to start things off with this new phase of Expression Fiber Arts, I’ll begin by finally getting the new colors listed for you that I designed and dyed based off my recent trip to England, as well as many other goodies. It’s all I can do to not start ordering in scads of new yarns, but I want to sell the ones I have first.
It doesn’t help that my yarn factory is tempting me with silk/bamboo/merino lace weight yarn. I almost gave in and ordered 100 kg, but am waiting!!
So I wanted to get this post out to you so you know what is happening! The next posts should hopefully be introducing many new shades for you to feast your eyes upon.
Also, I’m curious to know what you want to read about on this blog. Tutorials? If so, on knitting, spinning, dyeing yarn and wool? Or just shop updates? Or do you prefer just inspirational pictures? Patterns seem to be the most popular posts, so are you wanting more patterns? Easy ones? Complicated lace? Shawls, sweaters, scarves, mittens, stuffed animals, blankets? Knitted or crocheted?
Please feel free to contact me and let me know what you want to hear!
Enjoy this beautiful day! We are finally in the warmer part of the year here in Alaska; it’s getting into the high 60’s, low 70’s now, with 24-hour daylight. It just makes a soul feel so hopeful and alive.
Peace & Light
C.
Yarn dyeing tutorial, please! Or even recommend a good one somewhere… Several years ago I bought a bunch of yarn when the sock craze hit. Your yarn is just about the most perfect I have ever drooled over and I would love to get this yarn dyed up! Thanks!
You have a wonderful mix of subjects already, Chandi, but like Maggie Henry posted above, I too, would LOVE some yarn dyeing tutorials! And all the pictures you include with the blog are always great! It would be great to see some of the in-between stages as well. For instance, I’ve looked quite a bit on the internet, and maybe I’m just not finding the magic word combination through Google yet, but I’m super curious as to how people create hanks or yarn from the initial cones, or larger skeins, and I haven’t yet found anything very informative. For example, I just bought a cone of plain white cotton yarn from Joanne’s yesterday, and I have idea really how to create the hanks of yarn to dye them as people are always showing in dyeing videos. How do you know how many yards to include within each hank? How many times should you tie a small piece of yarn around the hank to keep it from tangling? Etc. Does that make sense? It would be fun to learn about this process from your posts and You Tube videos, as you obviously enjoy what you do for a living, and those who posses that blessing are always the most fun to learn from!