Random Monday

I've got a lot of random thoughts floating around that don't really connect so I'm just going to make a list. Here goes...

1. I did the Inman Park Festival in Atlanta this weekend. It turned out to be a pretty good show for a non-fiber focused event. I was the only yarnie there. But I got to meet a lot of cool people. The girl in the booth across from me actually majored in fiber arts in college and had moved into glass design. We had a cool conversation about dyeing and fiber. It's a small world, after all.

This was my first festival that was totally outdoors and my first with a canopy. My dad bought it as an early birthday present for me and I couldn't be happier! It worked great. We were shaded and protected and professional looking. Thanks Papa! You're the best :)

2. I got to watch the weirdest and coolest parade ever at the festival.

The Seed and Feed Marching Abominable. They've got a cult following in the city. They even had a PBS special made about them.

A precision attache case team. Bet you didn't know these existed.

The Atlanta School had some of their students dress up in steam punk. This picture isn't the greatest but I just think it's awesome that there were all these 13 and 14 year olds in steam punk get up.

Bagpipers.

"William" and "Kate" made an appearance.

Box Heros. Basically there are superheros made out of boxes. Really, really well done.

The Atlanta Roller Girls one of our local roller derby teams (Can I just say I love roller derby team names? And the names the girls give themselves. I have my roller derby name picked out but I'm not telling in case you try and steal it :)).

The Bridesmaid Brigade which featured girls wearing their bridesmaid dresses.

A guy on this bike thingy. You know, just because every parade needs one...

And, yes, a record breaking Gnome March. Didn't gnome they had these? Neither did I. But let it be gnome that they were out in force. Enough gnome puns...

3. For some reason I feel like avoiding grad school this week.

4. There are 20 more days of work left until I'm unofficially self-employed (I will be officially self-employed in August).

5. I finally updated the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages blog. For the first time ever I had some problems where the site was not recognizing a page. Finally got it fixed.

6. I really need to update my shop stock. But I haven't the energy. Must do this tomorrow.

7. My friend Jenn informed me this weekend that I don't eat or sleep enough. I'm beginning to agree with her.

8. I saved 27% on my grocery bill today. I'm no master couponer but I got enough breakfast foods (yogurt and cereal) to last me at least a month, some cleaning supplies for .99, health and beauty items for less than $5, salad, and organic dishwashing detergent. The most expensive stuff? The canned cat food and cat treats. Why do I have such a picky cat? I can't buy anything cheap because she won't eat it. All in all I think I did pretty good. If I can get it to 50% I'll be elated.

9. My friend Jenn (another Jenn) did a blog post about the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. It's such and awesome and lovely article! Many thanks to Jenn for featuring me. I love her and her family dearly, especially her two boys :)

10. I'm tired. And yet I have the strong urge to clean my apartment. Instead I'm going to take a bath and work on my grad school reading. Because nothing says "relaxing" like reading the standards for administering psychological assessments.

Selling Out

Recently I've gone through a bit of personal struggle over my business. Part of me wanted to be a purest and only sell yarn. The other part of me wanted to diversify to reach new clients by offering knitted goods. I didn't want to make my dyeing seem less important but, frankly, if this business is going to support me, I need to sell more stuff. And I've always considered myself a Knitter first (with a capital K) and a dyer second. While dying has definitely become more and more important to me (and even more so over the last 8 months) I still love knitting deep down at the core. I could sit all day and knit and be perfectly content. I do love to spend all day dyeing but it's just not as pleasurable to me. Not that I don't get a great deal of pleasure from it, don't get me wrong. But there is still an aspect of work there for me. In knitting, even when I'm making things to sell, it really doesn't seem like work. It seems like I'm enjoying myself while (potentially) making money. The only issue comes when I don't want to make something that I think will sell. I mean, there are only so many washcloths a girl can make before she starts to get a little bleary eyed.

 Baby booties, another thing that might make you go bleary eyed if made in large quantities.

So, there was a little struggle. But in the end, the diversify side won. If you look at the dyers that are out there very few only wear the hat of Dyer. Most are also designers, button and shawl pin makers, or spinners as well. And some started with one of these other areas and moved into dyeing. And that's just talking about the lucky few who do this full time. Many more have dyeing as a hobby that makes a little spending money. So, why can't I offer my knitting? I'm no master but it doesn't take a whole lot of skill to make some felted coasters or baby booties. But people like that kind of stuff. There are a lot of people who are looking for something unique and handmade. Something that's not mass produced. Something with a little character. I could be that person. If that seems like I'm selling out or selling my dye abilities short, well, that's something I may have to deal with down the road. In the meantime maybe I can actually make knitting into a profitable venture.

Pile of knitted things to be felted.


On a side note: I will be at the Inman Park Festival April 30th and May 1st in Atlanta, GA and the Snellville Days Festival May 7th and 8th in Snellville, GA. If you're in the area please stop by! Inman Park looks to be a huge event with a Street Market and juried Arts and Crafts Market (I'll be in the Street Market). Snellville Days is a bit smaller and more folksy but they are both worth the trip.

Resting Up

It's Saturday and it's raining and I don't want to do anything except knit and read blogs. Sure, there's laundry to do, the house needs to be vacuumed, I need to finish my taxes, and there are literally 5 boxes of donations for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project that need to be labeled, but I'm tired! As is customary for me I go through periods where I get extremely super duper out of control busy and, for awhile, I thrive. And then it all gets to be a little too much and I sort of have a break down and cry and really wish for some chocolate (there is a reason I don't buy sweets). And then I take a few days and I don't do a whole lot of anything. Things get accomplished but in small doses. For example, the dishes and the laundry will rarely get finished on the same day during this time. I'm in that final stage right now. Last week I was finishing up the quarter for grad school which meant I had two 15+ page papers due the same night (side note: I finished both but they were shorter than the required length. Got one of them back already and I made a 95 on it. All that stress for nothing.). I was getting ready for the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival and then, on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning (can't remember now, the time line was kind of sketchy) a family thing came up. It resulted in this:

My cousin William receiving a Purple Heart after an attack on his patrol in Afghanistan. You can read a little more about it here. I'm insanely proud of him and the other soldiers, mentioned and not, that were a part of this. We are so ignorant here in America of what goes on daily so we have the freedom to run our mouths, drive our gas guzzling cars, and own half the world's wealth. Obviously this hit me pretty hard. Especially since my cousins and I are very close, they're like my brothers and sisters. By Thursday night I was a hot mess. And then, it was over. I turned in my papers and posted my final discussions for school. I went to the fiber festival and had a great time. My cousin was discharged from the hospital and life went on.

I wish I could say that this past week has been less crazy but it's been just as much stuff, except, different. Different meetings, different job commitments, different deadlines. Still the same busy-ness. But today feels a little more calm. A little more relaxed. I'm sure I'll get stuff done today, just at a slower pace. And that's ok. For now I'm going to read some blogs and knit more on the big blobby blanket.

And not worry too much about the other stuff.

Saturday at a (Fiber) Festival

First off I want to say a huge THANK YOU! to everyone who has written comments, tweets, facebook messages, emails, or who has told me in person how excited and supportive they are to hear that I will be striking out on my own in June. It really means a lot to me to have so many people in my corner :) I want to share with you a little of what my life is about to become. Here's some snippets from the Smokey Mountain Fiber Festival held this past weekend in Townsend, Tennessee. Warning: This post is picture heavy.

My humble little booth.

 Left side:

Right side:

My friend and helper Jennifer modeling our cozy little hotel room at the Talley Ho Inn.

This picture is only funny to Jennifer and I but let's just say that everyone at a fiber festival has a story.

Booties that Jennifer made and then embroidered. And then gave to me to sell! Oh, the cuteness!

Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Besides those huge balls of Red Heart Super Saver...

Beth one of our next booth neighbors. Beth runs the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival (which I will also be at).

A drop spindle demonstration.

Coldwater Alpaca Ranch which had some beautiful felted hats and lovely smelling soaps and lotions.

Mercedes of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks.

A weaving demonstration.

Spinning.

Handcrafted dolls and stuffed animals. This bear was used in the movie Paul.

Loom weaving in the booth across from ours. We heard the click, clack of her shuttle the whole weekend. It was actually quite a soothing sound. Plus she had some awesome handwoven placemats and table runners.

And, even though I had to finish up 2 papers for grad school and I was super stressed about having everything ready for the show, I was finally able to relax a little and start something new. A baby blanket made from scraps of my aran weight yarn. This will be a charity knit for the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project since I have been neglecting my charity knitting to make swatches for the show.

Now that I have a three week break from grad school and only 6 more (working) days until Spring Break (I'm starting my break a little early because I'm having a tonsillectomy the week before), I can actually knit a little, read some blogs, relax, and breath. It's nice to be able to do that again.

Biggest News

So, the time has finally come to break my biggest news yet! Drum roll please!

As many of you may know I have been an educator for the past 6 years. First in the middle school band setting and then in 1st grade general education. I love kids and I'm a pretty good teacher but the work is stressful and there's always more to teaching than just teaching. Then in November of 2008 I launched Vivid Creation Fibers. At first VCF was pretty small and I mostly just carried stuff online but then it began to expand and I started selling at a local yarn shop and doing festivals. And in 2010 I started the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project. I thought the charity would just be a little Ravelry group for me and maybe a few people who stumbled upon it but in less than a year we had over 100 members. Most recently, in October of 2010 I started grad school full time. So for the past 8 months I've been working full time, going to school full time, running an expanding independent dye company, and organizing an international charity. To say I've been busy is an understatement. It didn't really surprise me all that much when I began to wonder about some of the commitments I'd made and began to reassess where my priorities were. Which has lead me to make a decision.

At the end of this school year (first part of June) I will be leaving my full time teaching gig to focus on my company, the charity, and grad school.

I'm super excited but also a bit nervous, as anyone would be I suppose, about stepping out on my own. This opportunity will allow me to focus more on traveling and doing festivals (I think I'm already signed up for 8 this year) and on getting 501(c)3 status for EEROP. Plus I won't have to worry about staying up late and trying to type up an assignment for class just hours before it's due. I'm hoping and praying that Vivid Creation Fibers will really take off so I don't have to get a part time job but that is still a possibility. Right now I have lots of friends who are willing to utilize my baby-sitting skills and I'm also not above cleaning a house or two for some cash so maybe I can get enough of those side jobs to make it work. We'll see. A lot of it is left up to faith but I truly believe I'm doing what I'm called to. This month has already been really good to VCF and to EEROP and it's not even half over yet!

I appreciate all the support that you as my readers have given me and I look forward to being able to keep in touch and network with you even more in the upcoming months. Until then it's a countdown to June!

A picture of me at the Southeastern Animal and Fiber Festival (SAFF) last year. So ready to start the festival circuit this year!

Big News

I have so much to tell everyone! So much in fact that I'm going to do it in small doses. Which means you'll have to come back later to find out what the bigger and biggest news is :)

The big news is that the Month of Love ends tonight! If you haven't posted to the EEROP Ravelry forum about your love themed knitting then do so today so that you can be entered into the drawing for a little post-Valentine's day surprise.

Part of the big news is also that my first festival of 2011 is coming up March 17-19. It's the Smoky Mountain Fiber Festival in Townsend, TN which is located relatively close to Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. If you will be attending please stop by and say hello (and let me have a bathroom break as I will probably be working this festival alone and would appreciate the opportunity)!

Sadly I don't have any really big knitting news. I made a swatch of some sock yarn. Trick or Treat colorway as a matter of fact. But I haven't washed and blocked it so it just looks like a little rolled piece of knitting. I have almost finished R. J.'s blanket though!

I'm pretty impressed with how quickly this has gone. A little over a week's work and I'm almost done. It is a small blanket (only about 26" by 26") but I think that's helped keep it from getting too boring. Adding in the color block in the middle also helped keep it interesting. For some reason I'm under the delusion that I could never knit a full sized blanket. But I've already made 2 baby blankets and I didn't get bored or overwhelmed with either of those. Maybe some day I will have the gumption to tackle a bigger one.

Getting it Together

With all this wonderful weather we've been having in the South (sorry Midwestern readers) I've begun to think about festival season. My first fiber festival of 2011 will be next month. Which means I need to start getting ready. More booties to knit! More washcloths to make! More yarn to dye! More swatches to knit!

Hawaiian Hibiscus

First I had/have to finish up some things...

Cross the seed stitch mittens off the list.

I love the puffy way these turned out. I think I might be heading out of mitten territory though. I don't know if I can make any more thumbs and still find enjoyment in them.

I've moved on to something bigger.

A blanket for my cousin R. J. who is due to arrive in late April. Once I finish up with this it's on to more swatching!

Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival

I have some catching up to do I see. The biggest update is about the Middle Tennessee Fiber Festival which was this weekend in Dickson, Tennessee. It started on Friday but I had to work all day so my friend Stephanie and I headed out after I was able to leave. We got into Dickson after 10 so we just checked into our motel for the evening. The next morning we headed out at 8 to set up for the festival.

Pulling the car in to unload (as you can see, everyone else had already set up for the weekend).

My little sign marking my booth space.

Unloading everything.

Stephanie helping to set up the wire shelving.

Sock yarns on the table.

And on the wire shelving.

Aran yarn (on the left) and all the sock yarn.

Another view of the sock yarn.

Roving on the back shelves, bulky (in front of shelves) and aran yarn (front).

Checkout.

View of the whole booth.

And me!

Inside our "barn" area.

The fairgrounds outside the barn doors.

On Saturday there was sheep shearing every hour on the hour. Stephanie was able to catch one of the shearings and she took some great pictures of the process.

Sheep in the pen.

Baa, baa, black sheep...

The shearing.

And afterwards! I think it's so cool how their fleece comes off so cleanly in one piece.

We had a great time on Saturday and I ended up crashing at 8:45. I was exhausted! Thankfully the festival didn't start until 10 on Sunday so we were able to sleep in a little later. First thing Sunday we had a visitor.

I think I need a bunny. She would match Penelope perfectly.

Stephanie got in on the bunny love too.

Sunday was another productive day, up until the very last minute actually. Got to meet Mercedes of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks which was very cool. We broke down the booth and headed out to meet our friend Paloma who lives in Nashville. After dinner with her we headed to my aunt and uncle's house who live east of Nashville. While there I got a call from my dad saying the weather was bad in Georgia. Stephanie and I decided to stay with my aunt and uncle for the night since we'd be getting home after 2 a.m. anyways. This morning we had some delicious pancakes (made by my uncle) and headed home. Finally pulled in to my place around 3:00 this afternoon. I took a nap, picked up some groceries, and I've spent the night just relaxing. And designing a child's fair isle sweater.