Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Priorities

When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade.
When life gives you snow and with it a "snow day" from school, you make snow angels with the kiddo.

This is my fourth winter in Vermont, and I finally have my first real snow bib. It makes laying down in the snow a whole heckuva lot more enjoyable. I used to just be wet and miserable after spending time playing in the snow, but here I am warm and dry after angel-making, sled-pulling and mountain-building. I have now experienced the value of Proper Attire.

Spinning is happening, as usual, but felting is on hold until I get some more nylon tulle in the mail. I cut it all up for the nuno-felt workshop this past weekend at the LYS...
I'm still getting used to this teaching gig...I was all tied up in anxiety knots before class started...I always wonder, will they enjoy the class? will i give them enough to go on so they feel the class was worth it? My process has always been so intuitive, I feel I have difficulty giving guidance on the aspects of design. BUT, for all my worrying, everyone seemed to have a really excellent time, and left with some beautiful pieces of felt. I left the class with a blank "canvas" for a gift wool "painting" and a pair of awesome pulse warmers...pics soon as I sew on the buttons. They are for teeny-tiny wrists, but I'll get them in the shop in the next couple of days. I even updated last night...a couple of things leftover from BBB that won't be on their way to consignment...

like this and this and this

I scored some awesome patterned silks the other day, so there is definitely more felt on the way, a new line of yarns for January and soon, some small-batch handpainted yarns spun from locally, humanely raised corriedale and alpaca at the local Spinnery.
I think I might request a 2-ply worsted weight. I'm not a sock knitter, and I'm pretty sure there are already plenty of folks that provide handpainted sock yarn to those insane people who actually enjoy using those itty-bitty needles. I will admit that I traded for some sock yarn from Woolerina at the BBB, and that it's BEAUTIFUL, and that I will try again to knit a whole pair of socks this time, but I would rather work with the heavier-weight yarn for my own dyeing and usually for my own knitting.

In the meantime, there's this whole holiday thing I'm not ready for, a few custom orders, moving (the day after Christmas) and then a trip to Cali to see family during New Year's week.

Perhaps better to go back out in the snow and think about all that other stuff tomorrow.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Shannon,

don't forget to breathe and make time for yourself in the flurry of all your plans. I bet that in a few months, things will be much more calm.

happy happy holidays to you!

S.

velmalikevelvet said...

Snow angels, I remember those from my days as a child in Seattle! Lovely.

Thank you *so* much for your kind comment on my blog this week; sounds like we are experiencing some of the same things. Glad to hear that you are figuring it out too.

The best to you during the holidays, and have fun and be safe on your trip to Cal.

Velma