How I Fell off the Face of the Planet

Looking for the candle giveaway? It's over here.

Howdy! Today I want to share a little bit about what's been happening around here the past few months (aka, How I Fell Off the Face of the Planet), as well as how I found my way back down to Earth. Please pardon the temporary interruption to the usual yarn-infused posts. :)

Story time!

A few months ago, summer had just started, and I was facing the prospect of having three rowdy kids home all summer while I attempted to work my regular part-time day job AND run Storied Yarns. Every day was chock FULL of To Dos, and plenty of stress.

For my kids, the #1 thing they heard from me earlier this summer was, "Not right now - Mommy's working."

UGH! This was NOT how I wanted things to turn out.

When you run your own business, the To Do list is really never-ending. I struggled to find the time to work on the day job tasks, work on Storied Yarns tasks, and take care of my kids and my household. I was a hot mess; so much so that nothing worked out well, and everything felt like it was falling apart.

Lucky for me, a few months before summer started I made the decision to join Tara Swiger's Starship. In the Starship I've had access to classes and counsel from other creative business owners like me, and I've learned that I can change my business (and really, my LIFE) if I just sit down and take the time to explore what's working - and what isn't working - and map out the steps to make the changes I need in order to get back on track with where I want to be.

So let's go back to earlier this summer. My path from stress to peace basically went something like this:
1. Freak Out.
2. Break down, cry, talk to a very understanding and sympathetic husband.
3. Put 2 + 2 together to figure out that I'm working 40 hours a week to earn about 20 hours' worth of pay.

In case you were wondering, working full-time hours for part-time pay was NOT my idea of a good life. 

4. Explore what's working, and what isn't.
5. Change schedule to focus on day job primarily, with Storied Yarns worked in around the edges.
6. YAY! Peace, yo!

Now, summer is over, and I follow a schedule that works for me: I spend certain hours of the day focused on the kids and the house, and other hours are reserved for work. I haven't turned into June Cleaver overnight, but most of the time I've got clean laundry, clean dishes, and clean floors - which is a lot more than I had back in June. I even get time for a break every day!

I'm not exactly happy that I had to get to such a stressed-out place to make these changes, but I'm glad for the changes nonetheless. That experience has helped me learn that I can handle anything that comes my way. I'm not 100% there yet (I'm still working to transition my existing day job, which is ending soon, to running my own business of a different kind for a day job income - more on that later), but I'm on the path to living the life I want - the life I choose for myself.

I'm still going with Storied Yarns, and I'm hoping that this new schedule will even give me more time to share my adventures here on the blog. I've already found that by not trying to make my business into a full-time job, I have a lot more fun working on it and it helps me feel more creative and inspired. I hope you'll continue to join me in my adventures, and to share with me through the comments!

Thanks for letting me share a little of my behind-the-scenes today! I'll be back later this week to show you what I'm knitting and what I've been cooking up in the dye pots.

NOTE: This blog post has been part of Tara Swiger's Exploration Party - a celebration of inner explorers, led by Tara Swiger of Explore You. You're invited to share your own explorations with us, too! And if you're thinking that there's an area of your business OR your life that could use a little exploration, Tara's new class could be just the thing you need. (Seriously, I don't normally recommend stuff like this, but the Starship has helped me SO much, and this class is like a mini-Starship experience. Also? She makes a lot of Star Trek references, has pink hair, and she's a knitter. She totally gets us.)

Fiber Friday: Wandering in WIP-Land

psst - Are you looking for information about the Fiber Arts Retreat in April? Read THIS! 

Hello, and Happy Fiber Friday!

This week here at Storied Yarns Central, I feel like I may be slightly drowning in WIPs. I recently cleaned out my personal fiber bin (more on that next week), and inside I found a handful of project bags full of knitting WIPs. Now my WIP bin is overflowing instead of my fiber bin! ACK.

The only WIPs that I'm actually working on at the moment are a crocheted handspun shawl and a hat for my husband.

First up, the shawl - I'm using the Rippled Wrap pattern by Cheri McEwan, and I really like it because once you get past the setup rows, each subsequent row is basically the same as the last so it makes for nice TV crocheting. I also like that it's crochet and I'm using a really big (size US P) hook with super bulky handspun so in theory it will be a fast project (if I ever get the time to work on it, that is!). I'm using a variety of handspun skeins that are all hot pink but each one is unique; originally I made these into a bolero but I didn't like the way it fit, so instead they're going to make me a super cozy shawl for those cold winter nights.

Let's just not talk about the fact that it might be spring before I finish it, okay? 

Here is that lovely shawl in progress:

The hat I'm knitting for my husband was a special request from him. He wanted a "Ron Weasley hat," which to him means a hat with ear flaps and ties. Of course, being ME, I had to dye up a Ron Weasley colorway for his Ron Weasley hat, and then I had to use handspun for the hat instead of regular yarn, because that makes it more complicated more cozy.

Here's a picture of the hat along with the rest of the yarn I have in order to finish it - the yarn is a 2ply of my Ron Weasley colorway on SW BFL with a ply of natural oatmeal colored Icelandic wool. I love how the natural wool kind of mellows out the Ron a little bit, making this hat JUST wild enough for my husband to still wear it (I hope!).

I'm using the basic idea of the pattern, A Practical Animal Cracker Hat, by Becca Evans. This hat was inspired by the actual Ron Weasley hat from the third movie (the one my husband is referring to when he tells me the kind of hat he wants), so it's what I'm modeling my hat after. I had to frog the first one, though, as it turned out several inches too big circumference-wise, so I'm continuing on with my own method of decreasing since my numbers will be off from hers. For that I'm using Crazy Aunt Purl's guide to decreasing the crown of a hat.

The down side of this "quick hat" project is that I'm going to have to line it, because the Icelandic makes this handspun a little scratchy and I don't want the hubster NOT to wear it because it's too scratchy. So I'm going to use a SW Merino/Bamboo blend yarn to line it so it will be nice and soft and double cozy that way, but essentially that means I have to knit two hats. Oh well, at least it's going to be a fun one when it's finished!

The reason for all my rushing on these WIPs is that I'm DYING to cast on for the gorgeous pair of fingerless mitts that my friend Steph designed for quarter one of my A Yarn and a Tale book club. I'm making myself finish at least one of the above projects first, though, preferably the hat. So, there's that.

I did manage to squeeze in a little spinning this week - I spun this corespun yarn from a pair of batts by Ever Improving Me. I plan to knit it into a corespun crown for a KAL in the Funhouse Fibers Ravelry group. Wahoo!

And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you, Fiber Fangirl. I also added some new goodies to the Storied Yarns Shop this week:

So, I guess that's it for me! Watch for an announcement next week about Quarter 2 of A Yarn and a Tale, and to stay the most up to date, hang out in the Storied Yarns Ravelry group.

Happy Stitching!

XOXO,
Jess

Meet a Colorway: Tesseract

Hello, and welcome! Are you looking for information on the Fiber Arts Retreat in April? Here you go!

Today we're up for another rendition of "Let's Meet a Colorway!" If you've been here before, you know that all of my gorgeous colorways for yarn and fiber are inspired by characters and stories. When I meet a new story, I tend to obsess over it; I dream about it, I think about it, I find myself quoting it in my head. All of this tends to continue until I make a colorway inspired by it. Then I can finally move on and think about other things, ha!

Anyway, today's spotlight colorway was inspired by a story that I first read a long time ago: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle.

This colorway is called "Tesseract," and it's inspired by the wrinkles in space/time that Meg and her siblings use to time-travel in the books. It's a fun and funky blend of white, grey, charcoal, midnight blue, violet purple and burnt orange:

When I look at this colorway on the skein, I'm reminded of those awesome photos they take with satellites in outer space, where all you see is a blanket of stars against a dark sky and then there are these mysterious, colorful, glorious clouds:

Andromeda Galaxy from Space.Com

This colorway is one of my all-time favorites, and it was inspired by a book that I truly loved as a child. Need some ideas for what to knit with it? How about Time Traveler Socks? Ha! Or maybe a Wrinkled Scarf? I also think this yarn would be ahhh-mazing as an In the Pink Shawl. I mean, wow. It would look just like a galaxy on your shoulders!

Buy this yarn for yourself when you want to escape to another place or time. Buy it for someone else who encourages you to try new things, see new places, or is always there for you when you get lost and need to find your way home. 

You can find Tesseract in the Storied Yarns shop. And hey, I just updated it today, so there are a few other new lovelies in stock as well! If your favorite colorway happens to be sold out, just use the custom order yarn or roving listing and I'll dye it up for you. It's okay, fangirl - I've got your back. ;)

Color Inspiration: Jareth

Today I bring you another post inspired by inspiration itself! Sometimes people ask me how I come up with the ideas for my yarn and fiber colorways.

Sometimes they don't, but I make them listen to the story anyway.

Today, I present the story behind my "Jareth" colorway. Here he is on Sparkle Sock:

Mmm, isn't he divine?!? I am so in love with this particular skein that I dyed one up for myself. More on that later.

This colorway was inspired by one of my favorite childhood movies, "Labyrinth." I have seen this movie so many times that I can nearly quote it word for word. Of course, I wanted to BE Sarah - she had a rockin' cool bedroom, an amazing collection of costumes and there was a mega-hot Goblin King in love with her. Plus, she gets to hang out with Muppets; what could be better, right?

This colorway isn't inspired by Sarah, though - it's inspired by that Goblin King. Mmmmm, yummy.

It's a kettle dyed colorway, so I never know quite what I'm going to get - the nice goblin king who takes my brother away after I wish for it to happen, or the unfair goblin king who turns the clock ahead to shorten my time in the Labyrinth? In any case, he always comes out of the dye pot looking stunningly gorgeous, don't you think?

The actual colors are tan, purple, midnight blue, grey, black and white. They are inspired by spiky rad-tastic hair, magical powers, wicked eye makeup, a fluffy white shirt and tight black pants. Ha!

You can find this skein in the Storied Yarns shop, ready to come home with you and make some magic of its own. Need a pattern recommendation? (Perhaps, What Kind of Magic Spell to Use? Hahahahaha!) I'm planning to knit Ysolda's Ishbel shawl with mine. Come and knit along with me if you want - there are several of us knitting it together on Ravelry.

Well, that's it for me today. I'm off to throw some dye at some wool for a Storied Yarns shop update later in the week. I'll try to do another inspiration post then, too, because I've got a brand-new line of semisolid colorways to show off!

XOXO,
Jess