Episode 010: Celebrating 10 Years of Colour with SweetGeorgia

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Welcome to the 10th episode of The SweetGeorgia Show! This is a little special bonus episode that I’m squeezing into our regular schedule because I wanted an opportunity to say a few more things than I usually would for a regular episode.

My husband reminds me that anniversaries are a time of celebration. A time to be joyful, positive, and enjoy the place where we find ourselves now. But I find it also very rewarding to reflect on where we’ve been these past 10 years because it helps me dream about the next 10 years. So today, I wanted to share a little more of our history with you.

I want to tell you about how we not only survived but thrived through the challenges of the past 10 years. Not in a rah rah we’re so awesome way, because it’s not true. I made tons of mistakes. But I share this story as a way to maybe provide encouragement to those of you makers and designers who are struggling with your businesses, struggling with not having enough time or hands to do things, struggling with the loss of creativity due to stress or anxiety. I guess it’s on my mind because in the past year or so, I’ve come across more burnt out knitwear designers than I can count. I hope to share with you the lessons I learned about creative burnout and overwhelm.

And in no way does my talking today mean that we are done growing or that we’re at this happy, relaxed resting place. Not at all. We are driving forward with even more intention than ever before. It still doesn’t mean I make the right decisions, but at least we have a direction that is unwavering. And that is, to make more than pretty colors and squishy yarns. The thing that gets me out of bed in the morning is trying to find new and better ways to inspire and engage the craft community and bring color, light, and joy to people’s lives. It’s a mission and purpose that has fueled me now for years. At the root, it’s an intense desire to make people happy. To lift their spirits. To encourage. To spread the joy of working with our hands.

But it was not always so clear for me.

I learned to knit when I was in grade school and knit all through high school. I was busy at university, studying for my degree in pharmaceutical sciences, but let’s be honest — I spent most of my time learning how to ballroom dance and competing in dance competitions. It’s no joke. In second year university, I counted the number of hours I spent in dance practice and it was over 40 hours a week. My pharmacy professor was horrified. Even from those early days, it was obvious that the field of pharmacy wasn’t going to capture my interest or attention.

While I was still at university, I started hiring myself out as a web designer. It was 1997 and I was in love with this new technology and all the possibilities that came with it. One of my first clients was a television show called Double Exposure on Vancouver Television (VTV) at the time. I even got myself hired by the pharmacy faculty to help design the interface for a video-based teaching tool where students could learn to use lab equipment online.

When I left university, I transitioned myself from working as a community pharmacist part-time to being a one-woman graphic design and web development firm. My edge was that I offered both front-end visual design AND back-end database systems and programming in one package. It really effectively combined right-brain and left-brain challenges for me. I loved visual design and typography. And I loved writing code and making useful, functional websites. Things that didn’t just look pretty, but actually did awesome stuff like event registration or club membership administration. But spending all day every day in chained to the computer writing code started to become more of a grind for me. It wasn’t the creative outlet that I needed. For any given web project, I might spend a couple weeks on the visual design and picking colors, but then another few months writing the functionality of the site. So the creative part was minimal.

So in 2004, I started a website for myself. I wanted to give this blogging thing a try. I called the blog SweetGeorgia because I had intended on writing about baking and possibly starting a bakery. SweetGeorgia seemed like a cute name for a bakery. At the same time, I had picked up knitting again and wanted a way to keep track of what I was doing, what yarn I was buying, that kind of thing. The blog was meant to be that little creative outlet that I needed.

Very quickly, I got sucked into the internet world of gorgeous yarns, knitting blogs, and then I discovered spinning and dyeing. I started to blog more and more about knitting, learning to spin and learning to dye. I was absolutely consumed by the blog and I loved every minute of it. I could easily spend 2 hours in the morning reading blogs, then another 3 hours photographing my knitting and writing my own posts. I spent my weekends playing with hand painting yarn and fibre, cooking it in my electric turkey roaster and hanging it up to dry in my bathroom. I would reach out and ask people for dyeing or spinning advice and very quickly, in this pre-Ravelry world, I felt a community form around this little corner of the fibre arts world that I was fascinated with. I enjoyed dyeing, spinning, and taking photographs of the things I had made, putting into practice those things I learned about visual design and composition from working as a graphic designer. Then, people started to ask if they could buy what I had made. The positive response to my dyeing and colors was so encouraging. It had never crossed my mind before that this could be a “thing to do”. I felt conflicted. I could not stop myself from dyeing. I felt compelled to make more and more yarn and dye all the fibre I could get my hands on. But I honestly could not see myself knitting up or using everything I was dyeing. It was simply a creative escape for me. A way to play and express ideas through color in a way that was more immediate and tangible than my real-life graphic design career.

So I started selling my hand-dyed yarns, fibres, and handspun yarns on Etsy on September 9, 2005.

For 18 months, I experienced incredible, unpredicted, and overwhelming rapid growth. I was supplying wholesale accounts and yarn shops in both Canada and the US. I was dyeing custom orders for anyone who asked. I had enlisted members of my family to come and help me re-skein yarn in my basement, wrap paper labels around finished skeins. I dyed for about 10 hrs a day on both Saturday and Sunday each weekend, and then I had to still be on the ball and ready to jump for any of my graphic design and web design clients from Monday to Friday. During the week I would shoot photos, process orders, print shipping labels. Even though we had the technology, it wasn’t as fast as it is now. It’s still not fast, but back then, printing one shipping label could take 10 minutes. Packaging and preparing 10 orders for shipment could take me 2 or 3 hours. I wrapped each skein in pink tissue paper. I hand-wrote thank you cards. I drew smiley faces on people’s sales receipts.

After those 18 months, I was completely burnt out and unhappy. Being unprepared for rapid growth and never saying no to anyone for fear of disappointing people, I just kept accepting job after job, order after order, and I burnt the candle at both ends until there was no more candle to burn. Little tiny things would make me snap. I would meltdown when people called. Just seeing the influx of emails in my inbox every morning would bring me to tears.

I did something rather dramatic, I guess. In 2007, I stopped dyeing. I stopped SweetGeorgia. In some ways, this is not an uncommon story, if you have followed the tiny subculture of the dyeing world for the past several years. Many dyers have started and stopped, realizing that production dyeing is an enormous amount of work. It requires passion, creativity and an eye for color. But it also can be very physically demanding, hard on your body, with prolonged exposure to chemicals. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve burned myself. It requires you to not only make beautiful things but know how to reach people who might want them. It requires you to do your own marketing, your own bookkeeping, your own business planning. And I feel blessed that I had many of the skills to be able to do all these things. But I couldn’t do all these things AND also try to run a professional communications design business. I couldn’t run two full-time businesses at the same time. So I stopped SweetGeorgia. I stopped the design business. I literally stopped everything.

It was around the time I found myself very inspired by a graphic designer named Stefan Sagmeister who was a big supporter of taking sabbaticals. About every 7 years, Stefan would take a whole year off from doing client work so that he could experiment with design and replenish his creativity.

So, for just over a year, I didn’t work or take clients. In that year, I traveled to London three times, visiting artists and crafters in their studios, trying to understand how makers and creative people are able to make a life making things.

During that year, Ravelry launched in beta. Once I finally got my invite to join, I logged in and saw literally thousands of people who were dyeing and selling yarn listed on Ravelry as “yarnies” or indie dyers. It really further added to my feeling of hopelessness. I felt like “what’s the point? Why bother? Why make more yarn when there’s already so much of it out there?”

Then one fine day, Shannon Okey asked me if I would dye some yarn for her book Alt Fiber. She asked me to do some natural dyeing for her book and still never being one to disappoint, I agreed. I cooked the marigold and indigo yarns on my kitchen stove. I enjoyed the process and the results got me more and more excited so I started to do more natural dyeing on silk…. Experimenting with cochineal, pomegranate, logwood and overdyeing the colors with an small indigo vat I had mixed up in my backyard.

Naturally-dyed silk yarn, 2007

One morning, I looked over at a skein of silk on the dining room table. It had been first dyed lightly in weld. Then dyed in marigold. And finally overdyed in madder. The layers of golds, yellows, and oranges made it look like it was literally glowing. The way the daylight hit the skein, made it vibrate almost supernaturally. It was in that moment that things completely changed for me.

Up until that point in my life, I had been raised to be agnostic or atheist, even. I had tried to actively dodge anything remotely spiritual or religious. But this moment was undeniable. It was my God moment.

It felt like a curtain had been drawn and I had been allowed to glimpse the unquestionable, authentic beauty that existed in this world. I had been allowed to glimpse God’s work. That my feelings of hopelessness or sadness could be lifted simply by the presence of colour was deeply moving to me.

From that point on, I was convinced that I was supposed to return to SweetGeorgia. Ever since then, I’ve believed that SweetGeorgia is my calling.

I know the concept of color psychology sounds a bit quacky and in no way do I mean to suggest that depression can be cured by color alone, but imagine a world where everything and everyone was dressed in black, white, grey, and beige. Think about what your mood would be like. Think about what it’s like in the winter where everything is grey and brown and it’s been raining or snowing and dark for months. Now think about adding a brilliant red scarf to your outfit. Or a shockingly sunny pair of socks under your boots. Almost immediately, I feel my mood lighten.

I feel like it is my job to help people experience what I experienced. That moment of being awestruck and at peace, seeing how much beauty there is in the world. I still don’t feel like I am there yet. My mind is always still churning, thinking about ways I can introduce new colors or different ways of dyeing that might spark that excitement or squeal from a knitter or spinner. I feel like if I have any purpose or contribution for this world, it is to help others out of the darkness too and into a world of color, light, and joy. And knitters have shared with me over the years their stories of using our yarns and colors in shawls to celebrate weddings or births as well as in gifts to comfort those who are grieving. I feel blessed that color makes these stories possible.

This has been my direction for the past many years. I feel so strongly that this is what I am called to do, but it doesn’t mean that it has been easy. Whether you feel like what you are doing is your life purpose or not, I do know that I’ve had to learn a few life lessons that can be universally applied to whatever business or journey you are on.

1) Surround yourself with amazing people and accept help.

Life changed for me for the better when I accepted that I couldn’t do everything. Bringing wonderful, dedicated people onto the SweetGeorgia Team AND receiving guidance from mentors both in and outside of the yarn world have been the absolute game changers for SweetGeorgia.

2) Don’t compare.

There are thousands of indie dyers out there who have self-identified themselves on Ravelry. But I stay away from looking at other people’s work because it can be overwhelming and discouraging. It can always feel like you are behind, or not doing enough, and you can end up being very hard on yourself. Don’t compare someone else’s middle to your beginning. Focus on what YOU are doing today. How is it better than what you were doing yesterday? Or last month? Or last year?
I look back at how we have incrementally made changes to our yarn lines and base yarns, and I love how our sock yarns now are so much more hardwearing AND softer than the yarns that we used 10 years ago. Over the past 10 years, we have put excellent people and systems in place to ensure that our hand-dyed yarns are dyed consistently. Every day we work towards ensuring that are colors are properly set and don’t bleed, that the colors are as similar as possible from dye lot to dye lot… and now we have better standards in place to ensure that that all happens. Every day is about constant improvement for ourselves. At the end of the day, we answer to our knitters, not to our competitors.

3) Learn to say “no”.

In those early years, so much of my overwhelm was self-induced. I couldn’t say no. I was afraid to disappoint. But when I dedicated myself to the idea of starting up SweetGeorgia again in 2008, I did so by initially saying “no” to wholesale so that I could say “yes” to making high-quality handmade yarns in an organized and well-managed way. It was more important to me to keep my word and deliver yarns when I said I would deliver, than to accept a whole whack of huge orders and then take a year to deliver. It was only when we had systems in place that we could track what needed to be dyed, for whom, and by when, that we started to take on wholesale accounts, very slowly and intentionally. It has always been my hope that our customers can trust us to be consistent and deliver on time.

4) It’s not about me.

Sure, SweetGeorgia started off being about what I was learning and what I was dyeing, but it’s not about me. SweetGeorgia is not a blog and it’s not a product. It’s not me, my face, or my name. Over time, SweetGeorgia has become an intention. It’s our desire for YOU to be positive, centered, and joyful in your craft.
Today, my work is all about how can SweetGeorgia make our customers feel awesome. How can I make our staff feel well-prepared, encouraged, and empowered. How can SweetGeorgia help get others in this fibre arts community reach their goals and dreams.

5) Keep showing up.

History is built over time. Our product lines evolved over time. Our colourways were developed over time. We didn’t start out the gate on Day 1 with a hundred color formulas. These things happened slowly. Sometimes, I get impatient with myself and wonder why I haven’t done more or created more, but then I remind myself that what we have today is better and more than we had last year and the year before that. Patience, perseverance, and simply continuing to be present every day, has helped make things happen. It keeps me optimistic about what we might be doing next year or the years after that.

I hope that maybe one or more of these little ideas might help you in your journey as a maker or designer.

Now, for a whole lot of thank yous.

Despite trying to do it all myself, SweetGeorgia would not and could not possibly exist without the help of the family and community that it is a part of. So, I have many many thank yous to mention right now. I hope you won’t find me too long-winded, but there are not enough words to thank the people who have helped make SweetGeorgia a reality.

Dan and Felicia at SweetGeorgia 4th Avenue Studio, 2008

First of all, thank you to my husband for being my greatest cheerleader who has always believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. He has given my life joy and laughter, but also perspective and balance, and has taught me that my worth is more than what I produce with my hands.

My mom and her first pair of hand knit socks, 2011

Second, I thank my mother. My mother has always been the most selfless person I know. Raising three kids and working a job she didn’t particularly like to support our family, I always wanted her to just enjoy her retirement. But when we were at the 4th avenue studio, my mom would come several days a week to the studio, packing a lunch for me, and helping me twist and package yarn, doing whatever she could to help me and the business. Both my parents have been the source of incredible love, support, and encouragement.

Handspun Gotland yarn, dyed with cochineal, 2006

I want to thank my spinning and weaving teacher, Irene Weisner. Years ago when I was just a fibre-crazed new spinner, I joined her class at Place des Arts in Coquitlam because I wanted to see real people spin in real life. But Irene was more than simply the purveyor of spinning knowledge. She had a way about her that was stealthily encouraging. She seemed to have great faith and great expectations in her students. She really believed you could do it. Her encouragement made the idea of SweetGeorgia fathomable and it helped grow my confidence as a spinner, weaver, and teacher. I know I am not the only one who feels deep appreciation and respect for Irene, and so I thank her for all her support from the very beginning.

Hubert and Teresa Mock at SweetGeorgia, 2015

I thank Hubert and Teresa Mock. Hubert is our Production Manager and Teresa is our bookkeeper and Retail Operations Supervisor. The dedication these two have shown SweetGeorgia has been immeasurable. Over the past two years we experienced really rapid growth in the business while I was away on maternity leave. Hubert and Teresa spent countless hours making sure SGY would run seamlessly and smoothly throughout that time.

Dyeing our yarns, 2014

Our incredible dye team includes David, Charlotte, Ray, Laurel, Christian, and Mariana. Each and everyone of these dyers comes from an interesting and varied background. Many are visual artists themselves. David has been dyeing full-time with SweetGeorgia for the past three years. Mariana comes to us with over 20 years of dyeing experience. Ray is focused on ceramics, and Christian is a painter. Laurel comes to us from the film world. And Charlotte has a background in animation and does tons of crocheting and knitting herself. Every day they help us improve our techniques and practices. Thank you so much to our dyers. Without them, we wouldn’t have yarn!

Packaging the yarns of the day, 2012

Thank you also to our team of studio assistants and packagers. They help twist the skeins, tie labels to each skein, pack them in bags. Everything is done by hand and they all put so much care and attention into everything they do. And we also have Allison in the UK helping us with our marketing and sales, and Tabetha in Colorado coordinating all the designs and knit designers. We are so blessed to be surrounded by these dedicated and hardworking people. Watching everybody chat and share plans and ideas over the lunch table makes my heart want to burst with happiness.

I thank the people who have worked at SweetGeorgia in the past. Every intern, summer student, studio assistant, and dyer. They have all helped push and grow SweetGeorgia to what it is now.

I thank Liz Gipson who gave me the biggest break a spinner could ask for, by inviting me to teach my spinning class on Craftsy.com. Thank you to Holli Yeoh, for collaborating with SweetGeorgia on our first book project. And I thank author and editor, Kim Werker, for being so supportive and straight with me. In fact, talking to Kim gave me the confidence to begin this podcast in the first place.

I thank our beloved yarn shop owners who have trusted us since the beginning. Stephanie at Unwind. Anina and Jan at Urban Yarns. Francesca and Zoe at Three Bags Full. Anna (and now Paula) at Baaad Anna’s. Danielle at Fibrespace. Sherry at the Loopy Ewe. Pearl at Knitty City. Lisa and Melissa at Espace Tricot. Jenn and Miko at the Purple Purl. Erin at Eat Sleep Knit. Steve and Kathy at WEBS. Nancy at Noble Knits. There are simply too many to mention. But many of these shop owners have given us to guidance to steer us through the challenges of the past decade.

Finally, I thank you, our listeners, our blog readers, the knitters and spinners who have generously given their time to test or sample knit for us, our chatty and friendly Ravelry group members (like Deborah Dar Woon (autumnmoon88), Grace Verhagen (sprouts), Ginny Landry (venea), Susan Bridges (thatsusangirl), Jennifer Beever (willrun4yarn), Jennie Might (izamight), Greta Cornejo (backtobasics), Katrina Stewart (kalem1) and many more). Thank you so much to our beloved customers. None of this would exist without you. SweetGeorgia would not exist without the encouraging words from those first few blog commenters ten years ago. SweetGeorgia would not exist without your enthusiasm for what we’re making and your support for our business.

SweetGeorgia is not yarn. SweetGeorgia is not me or my face or even the colors that we dye. SweetGeorgia is an intention to inspire and engage this craft community in color, light, and joy. I am so thankful that you have allowed us to be part of your lives.

Thank you so much for 10 wonderful years and I hope you will join us on our new adventures as we head into our next 10 years.

Music Credits

The Young and Beautiful – by Ivory Hours

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