Surrounded by yarn. Please send help.

Despite catching some crappy flu on Sunday night almost immediately after I finished teaching my very first dye class, then nearly passing out at my brother’s birthday dinner, and tossing and turning through a long night of fever and chills last night, I’ve been experiencing a ferocious wave of energy. It’s partly an unsettled feeling of wanting to do so much and create so much while only having a limited amount of time… but it’s also a massive push from the energy I gained from being at the TNNA trade show. I met so many beautiful, young, talented women who had taken charge of their lives, their passion and their careers… women who had built or re-built their lives on the design and creation of contemporary textiles. It makes me feel like I could feel perfectly at home doing the same with my life. It also makes me feel like I should stop being so timid about how much I love what we do.

After spending a weekend rooming with Cecily Keim of Such Sweet Hands and Kim Werker, two girls who wrote the book on crochet, I came home with a pressing need to crochet something… anything. Currently, I’m obsessed with the Babette Blanket. Pictures soon, if I ever stop ripping out what I make. These girls could make a crochet-convert out of anyone. I did teach Cecily how to drop spindle very quickly… and then she did order a new loom from the Glimakra booth. That would be a double yay. I’m excited to see her excited about trying out weaving. Her eyes were seriously sparkly with the thought of being able to mix crochet and handwoven fabric. I love that.

I’m also currently obsessed with spinning this silk/merino fibre that I dyed last Thursday. It still has bits of undyed roving which give the spun yarn a bit of lightness and sparkle.

And I have grand plans for this simple, kettle dyed olive and apple green coloured merino wool.

But this wave of uncontrolled energy has me running between projects, creative and admin, all day long. I don’t stop for lunch until about 3 in the afternoon when I remember that my stomach is empty. I’ve ripped and re-cast on for some really silly project about six times in the last two hours… while also warping the Spring loom with new Malabrigo yarn, dyeing a pound of cashmere/silk yarn, weaving mistakes into my bfl scarf, snapping other warp threads on the Baby Wolf, and packaging about two dozen silk/merino fibre packets. All the while, thinking about the sportweight sock, Trekking sock, and my brother’s hat that I’m knitting… and not thinking about the February baby and Baby Surprise that I am also knitting. Forget accounting (for now).

So in the midst of all this (gentle) madness, I need to remember that I am not a machine and that while some things require my hands and eyes, other things do not and should not. This hand dyer and business owner seeks test knitters at all skill levels. If you are interested in doing some test knitting, please drop me a line at felicia [at] sweetgeorgiayarns [dot] com and let me know what you like to knit and what you are typically comfortable knitting. I would love to hear from you.

Also in the mix is a weaving workshop that will be happening on Wednesdays at the Studio starting early February. If you are interested in working through some of the very basics of weaving and getting started with either a 4-shaft loom or rigid heddle loom, I’d love to hear from you!

Now, back to that Babette Blanket.