Happy New Year!!!
Sorry the posts have been a little scarce lately, thing have been a bit nuts around here!
Inspirations Update!
After a few slow days around Christmas (totally expected) thing have really picked back up again with Inspirations. I’ve got a big old pile of dyeing to do tomorrow and a bunch of orders to run to the post office in the next few minutes. . . .
I’ve also been rethinking my business plan on a number of levels, now that life is about to be turned upside down by a muchkin. We had hoped to do CT S&W and NH S&W in Spring’05 and perhaps a show or two in the fall. The fall may still be an option (depending on whether the postponed Italy trip happens then) but we aren’t going to attempt the spring shows this year. Partly because I’ll be as big as a house by then, and partly because if we managed to dye up a bunch of yarn to take and sold most of what we brought I’d then be trying to restock to have anything dyed ahead for the summer when I’m likely not going to be doing any actual dyeing for a month or so . . .
I’d rather work on stocking up a decent stash of each color, in each yarn and have it on hand so we can start just pulling things from tubs as the orders come in and doing smaller batches to replace stuff than have to dye to order like I’ve been doing once the baby arrives. I’m going to need to be prepared and able to just have people package things for me rather than be trying to do the dyeing next July. Know what I mean?
I’m also thinking, that given the amount of dyeing I need to do to get prepared for this, I’m going to hold off on coming up with a whole seperate line of colorways for cotton and synthetics for now. I had planned to work on that in January and February so that I’d have some of those ready for a “summer” line. Given how much I need to do just to get caught up at this point, how much I’ll need to do to stash enough yarn to be prepared for summer and how many projects I’d like to do as patterns to add to the site, I’m thinking that adding another entire category of yarns and colorways for spring is very unrealistic for this year. Gives me something to plan for for 2006, right?
This is all part of my plan to try to be realistic about what I can expect to get done in the next few months and not try to over do it. I can’t work as many hours a day as I could when I started this, it just isn’t physically possible. The kid won’t let me! And I expect that isn’t going to change much once they arrive either . . . I want to be sure I don’t try to over expand and then not be able to keep up. I’m planning for slow, steady growth at this point so I can keep up with it and keep this business on track. I really, really want it to work. Perhaps now more than ever since I don’t want to have to leave my kid all week to go to another job if there is anyway that I can stay home to do this.
We have a plan for how I’ll do the dyeing once the baby is here as well. My MIL lives upstairs and wants (demands?) to be our childcare system. I plan to set things up with her so that we talk sometime toward the end of a week to make a schedule for the following week where I can have her for 6-8 hours for 2-3 days each week during which I’ll leave the kid upstairs with her so I can dye yarn. My breaks will be to feed the kid and let her feed me 
She’s Italian and loves to cook so I’ll get childcare and meals on those days which is great since once the kitchen is set up for dyeing cooking really isn’t an option! Not a bad deal, huh?
I’m also looking at adding undyed yarn as a purchase option (coming in January after I get the pages together) and several other new lines of products, new patterns etc. I’ve got a couple of patterns to add to the site that are my own design and I’m taling with a few other designers you’ll recognize about adding their patterns as well. I’ve got to get caught up on the colorways and patterns etc that I already have first. Once the current inventory is up to date and all on line then I can go ahead with adding more stuff.
Baby stuff
We had another DR apt this week, this time with my Cardiologist. Don’t know if I’ve mentioned here before but I have a bit of a heart thing. Not too serious but they want to keep an eye on everything now that we have the additional strain of being preggers add to things. Every thing checked out just fine. No indications that any of this is going to be a problem. Exactly what we wanted to hear.
We are still working on the barn, which has to get done enough for me to take the storage portion of it before we can start working on a nursury . . . but we are getting some ideas of what we are going to do in terms of decorations etc. We have actually lucked out since there is so much baby stuff available. We have a new niece on either side of the family, one is 4 months, the other is due in early March so there is baby stuff there. Moxie has given me a pile of stuff from her little one . . . my MIL has a crib that we are going to bring downstairs, we have a bureau and wardrobe for the room that just need to be repainted (something DH will do out in his new shop in the barn I’ve been working on taking stock of the baby things and we have probably as much 0-3 clothing as a kid born in July will need, most of enough in 3-6 and some stuff in 6-9 sizes already. I’ve already told my mom and his that if anyone is asking about what to get us things sized for 9-12 and 1+ yr would be greatly appreciated!
Knitting wise I’m working on a few pairs of infant socks, I figure 3-5 pairs in each of the first few sizes should do it . . . I’ve also got yarn for a blanket which I bought (3 years ago) on our Honeymoon in Italy so I’ll be working on that. I’ve got 3 hanks of superwash dyed up in one of my own baby colorways to do a 2nd blanket from which will also be displayed as a sample on the site . . . and I plan to do a bunch of “wool soakers” as diaper covers since we plan to use cloth. I’m even working on spinning up some yarn for a few of those. . . oh, and I want to do one light weight sweater just in case we end up somewhere with too much A/C next summer.
I’m also going to have my mom help me make some of the bedding, a quilt and bumpers etc from this cute Beatrix Potter fabric I bought and I’d like to do a few simple cross-stitch panels with numbers letter and colors and the B.P. characters from these charts I found. . . . those of course, don’t have to be done the minute the kid arrives, I can just add them as time allows.
Hmm, okay, listing this all out I’ve actually got my work cut out for me the next few months!
Funny Bunny
I had Jasmine (the white rabbit) in the other night to be brushed. I’d been worried a bit about them being okay on some of the really cold nights we’ve had. I’d been assured by several people who have rabbits that given the hutch and location we have them in they should be just fine. But still, I was worried. So, I had Jasmine in to groom her and one of the first things I noticed is that even though her coat is not fully in yet, it is much much denser than it was over the summer. I’m talking like 2x as much fur! I worked on brushing her, she was nice and relaxed while I did her back, sides and even face. Then I gave her a 5 min break on the kitchen floor before picking her up to do the underside (never their favorite part). About 5 min into brushing that portion of her I noticed my lap as getting rather warm and just kept getting warmer! I finished her as quickly as I could and took her back outside. I honestly think if I’d kept her in another 10 minutes she would have overheated completely! Guess I shouldn’t be quite so worried about her being warm enough!
New Year’s Plans
We have decided, since DH didn’t have to work tonight (very unusual) to stay in and cook dinner and have ourselves a special New Year’s Even dinner. After all, this will be our last New Year’s even that its just the two of us! We’re debating between steak and lobster for dinner, with likely a pasta course of some kind and perhaps some antipasto and dessert . . . How are you ringing in the new year?
Okay, breaks over, back to work. I’ll post again in a few days!
