Welcome back everyone! HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!! It’s been a couple of weeks since we chatted. Last week John, Ashley and the girls came down to Toronto and we had a pretty standard visit. Ash and I knit, the girls played and met their new cousin and my bro acted like he was being tortured until I actually want to torture him. I’m joking. Kind of. My meditations on my sibling relationship can probably be saved for another day though.
In other news I started a little Etsy store! Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. Red Sock Blue Sock Yarn will always be my first love but since I have recently found myself with some time on my hands I decided to try something new. I made the announcement on Saturday on Instagram with just a handful of notions pouches that I’ve been working on over the last few months. I did not expect the response that I got from my Instagram family. Within 24 hours all of my little pouches were sold out! I’ve never been so excited in my life! I did a little happy dance and ran to my sewing machine to start making more when I had a concussion brain moment where I forgot that this isn’t a brick and mortar store where people buy something and go on their merry way, I actually have to mail things out.
Even just in a short few days, I’ve found myself in the middle of a huge learning curve. There are so many things that you have to consider when you’re running a small business, even if it’s just a part time hobby. I’ve never really had to deal with that because Ashley largely takes care of most of it. I write the blog, show up to shows and, when I get a chance, help with the dye process. Maybe do some labeling. Now I have to package things and mail them out, think about marketing, track costs and try not to screw it all up. I did not anticipate this but I guess we’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
Ashley and I also have been preparing for our upcoming Harlow KAL that’s launching on April 1stand when I say preparing, we mean trying to figure out what things like YF-SL1YO and BRKSL DEC means. Individually I know what all of those letters are but put together, I have NOOO CLUE! How did people learn these things before the advent of the internet and, specifically, YouTube? Nevertheless, it’ll be nice to master a new knitting technique. There are definitely a few brioche projects in my Ravelry favourites that I’ve been too nervous to take on so I’m hoping that after the KAL I’ll have a little more confidence.
I’m also totally dismayed that April is a little over a week and a half away. The last time we spoke I was working on Counterbalance mittens and contemplating a Find Your Fade shawl. The mittens are now finished and I’m definitely still contemplating that shawl but any hopes of having it finished before the Toronto Knitters Frolic are dwindling fast. There are only 38 days until Frolic which is amazing because Frolic kicks off show season, warm weather, long days, sister weekends and all sorts of good stuff. I absolutely can not wait.
The next time we speak we’ll be just days away from our Harlow KAL kickoff so I hope that you’re all getting your yarn ready or placing your orders soon! As I try to figure out this brioche stuff I’m hoping to make a few videos so we can walk through it all together but we’ll see how that goes.
That’s all for me for this week! We’ll talk soon! PEACE to you and yours and as always, happy knitting!