behind the scenes

I'm just going to come right out and say it: our yarn clubs are the best.

I don't say that to be prideful, I don't say it to put anyone else down. I'm just stating a fact. They're the best.

I could give you a litany of reasons why they're so awesome: great colorways, great yarns, great format, great customer service. But the truth of the matter is that they're the best because of the people in them.

Nice, nice, fun, awesome people. They make the marathon days at the end of the month leading up to club shipping worth it.

It takes a long time to dye close to 1,000 skeins of yarn. It takes an entire day to do all the prep work to ship multiple truck loads of packages.

Because people can order as many skeins as they want, very few packages are the same, which means there is no assembly line of packages where we put one skein in an envelope, slap a label on it, and call it cool.

You can see an example of my color coded shipping list. It takes 5-8 hours just to make the color coded shipping lists.

It then takes about six hours just to run all of the shipping labels. Because people order different quantities and are located all over the world, I can't just do a mail merge and set the weight and walk away.

And it takes three people two days just to label everything. By the end of the prep day, the studio looks like a maze -- we've got individual orders set aside, ready to be packed, we've got all of the sock club extras assembled and ready, we've got snacks and music and iced tea.

Tomorrow's the big day! Fly away, little babies!

for the first time in decades...

I am not going back to school this year.

I'm also now old enough to say "It's been decades."

That makes me old.

Of course, I went back to school every September as a child and teenager. Then I went to college. And then I became a teacher. Hence, every single year for decades I've been doing back to school shopping in August.

As a teacher, I at least attempted to dress in a pseudo-stylish manner. I had a large wardrobe of skirts that I usually paired with a brightly colored, fitted T-shirt, a cardigan, and shoes like these:

Now, the only back to school shopping I've done is for my children. Which is fun in its own way, but involves a lot more of saying, "No, I won't buy you shoes that light up and sing songs! What is this world coming to? What has gotten into young people these days?"

Which is further evidence of my oldness. I'm officially asking what has gotten into young people these days.

I have also started turning up the television extra loud and muttering under my breath about the music that the young scallywags in my town blast from their vibrating cars.

So now I wear shoes like these, all day every day. They're comfortable and slip resistant, which is useful when your floors are in a perpetual state of dampness.

I sigh about it and keep a pair of sandals under my desk and look for reasons to wear my stylish clothing. Whenever I wear anything other than my work uniform -- a black T-shirt with our logo on it, a pair of dye stained pants or shorts, and Crocs -- people notice.

"You look nice," my family says, as I leave the house in a black T-shirt with our logo on it, a pair of dye stained pants and loafers. Loafers are enough of a wardrobe upgrade that people take note when I wear them.

 I no longer have much use for pretties like this:

Being a Full Time Yarnista certainly has its advantages. Wardrobe ain't one of them.

And you know what I miss most about being a teacher?

My colleagues (and friends) who made getting up at 4:30 am worth it.

Happy back to school to all of you, whether you're a teacher or a parent or a grandparent or just someone who wants the scallywags off the street and safely corralled into school where they belong.

And here's a coupon code good for free shipping on anything on our site: AUGSHIP. It will expire at the end of the day on August 31st, so use it while you can!

Go shopping!

It's a good thing I have three children and a dog.

It's the only thing that keeps my house from looking like this:

I mean, really. If I were a woman who lived alone, I would have a sideboard, and this is what my sideboard would look like.

Covered with antique lamps and teacups.

It's a sickness.

I would own all of those lamps. And I would turn on a different one each night. And I would make myself tea, and I would use a different floofy flowered cup every day.

And I would eat cookies along with the tea and I would gain 100 pounds and I wouldn't fit in my clothes, but I would love looking at my teacup and lamp collection.

It's a trade off. Clothes or teacups.

Those mint green ruffle dishes? I covet them. I COVET them. Covet is not a strong enough word.

What is the universe trying to tell me here? That I should have been born in 1910?

That I have a sickness?

It can't be that I need a hobby. I have more hobbies than I can count, and can think of ten more hobbies I'd like to take up if I had time. So don't suggest that.

What?

I can't even stand it.

Stop. 

The only thing that stops me from filling my house with floofy tchotchkes is the fact that I have three small children and a dog.

That, and the lack of a vast personal fortune.

P.S. Please forgive the camera phone pictures. I just happened upon these and couldn't resist.

What today looked like...

It started with me wearing my glasses, which I hate doing.

I hate how they slide down my nose

I hate how they make my face feel hot.

I hate how they smudge my makeup.

I hate that I can't wear sunglasses because I don't have any prescription lenses.

Glasses = nemesis.

But the glasses were necessary today because my contacts are driving me crazy and I need some new ones.

And besides, today I laid out my 33 (34?) new fall colorways and named them all.

All of them. This is a huge step. It usually takes me 91 hours to name some colorways. But I did it.

That means we're one step close to putting together the fall lookbook, which will have patterns and yarn -- lots of yarn -- in it.

So, now I'm asking for some feedback.

Having seen our Spring Lookbook, can you make any suggestions that might improve our fall version?

Photos of models wearing clothes knit in our colorways = check.

Better pictures = check.

Was there anything you particularly liked, so I can know to include that in the new version?

Fall Lookbook launch countdown is on!

Keep it to thirty

That's what I keep telling myself.

I wish it worked with my age. I tried. I walked around for four days at age 29 and 361 days muttering, "Keep it to 30, keep it to 30."

Then I looked in the mirror and found seven grey hairs.

I'm trying hard to keep it to thirty new fall colorways. It's tough, because once creativity strikes, it's hard to ward her off. She wants to play, she doesn't want to be caged.

I need to keep it to thirty for logistical reasons, really. Otherwise, I'd make 300.

How do I choose between my babies? HOW? Eeny-meeny-miny-mo? Is that even how you spell eeny-meeny-miny-mo?

This is going to turn into Sophie's Choice pretty soon if I can't curtail my impulse to make just one more pretty thing.

Help!