It's really happening, folks!

I started my ThreadyBear test garment over the weekend, I got the last of the yarn out to my test knitters yesterday, and the class that got the whole thing going met for the first time last night. Woohoo!

I've been amazed at the number of folks who have joined the Yahoo! group to participate, and I'm really excited to get testing out of the way and get the kits out to everyone who'd like to try one of these little guys out.

Oh, quickly for those of you who weren't there for the germination of this idea, ThreadyBear is a teddy bear sweater in Fair Isle that I've developed to offer knitters who have been intimidated to take on the emotional and financial investment of a full-sized project a smaller, less expensive, and hopefully easier beginning project. The yarn for the entire project, if purchased as a kit from ThreadBear, should be under $25 (we haven't calculated exact yarn usage yet-- that's why we're test-knitting).

Anyway, I'm very excited about having my own started, and I'm finalizing the pattern during the testing process, so it should be ready for public consumption in a week or so.

Um... Ok. I was in the middle of my blog post when I stepped away to shower and get ready to open this morning. Since then, we've had yet another phenomenally busy day on Hutchins with both your orders and our tremendous local business. Fortunately, we have a couple of people helping out now that are really making life somewhat bearable. Seriously, I love what we're doing, but it's been so busy that it was really getting to be too much of a good thing.

Anyway, as I started to tell you this morning, the ThreadyBear test kits have left the building and are on their way to my test-knitters: Wendy of Wendyknits and Teresa of One More Row and Another Latte. Wendy is getting the largest of the sweaters (since she's da'monstah and will likely complete this miniature project in fifteen minutes or less) in the Spice colorway, Teresa's doing the smallest of the sweaters in the Winter Wheat colorway (though she's doing the smallest only because she was concerned about keeping up... as if), and somehow I suspect in last place will be me fitfully completing the medium sweater in an original colorway just because Spice and Winter Wheat were the only two full colorways I had in stock.

I did get a little bit done on a sleeve cuff over the weekend, but I suppose I could rip it and do a real colorway, now. Why? Oh, didn't I tell you? The Jamieson's 2-ply Spindrift for ThreadyBear came in.

I've spent every moment that I've had not devoted to clients or legal crud today getting that checked in and verifying that I have the yarn for each colorway. There were backorders, so I'm scrambling to make substitutions where I can to complete as many colorways as possible before the test-knitting is done.

Please, know that if you have a color consultation on hold with me right now that I've gone through the lot of them tonight and that I am trying to get back with everyone as quickly as possible. There is most definitely a backlog, and I can only apologize. As always, every client's business is exceptionally important to us, and we devote whatever time is necessary to each customer to get their needs served. If that means that the person in line behind them has to wait a bit longer, please understand that you will get the same attention when your turn comes.

Fortunately, though, we do have a new toy!

Office geek porn!! Woohoo!

If you've ever been a slave to having to run to the post office as a part of your job, you know how orgasmic it is to finally have a postage meter. Rob and I have looked at each other at least four-to-five times a day for the last week and said, "that thing is amazing, isn't it?!?" We may not have load of excess time, but we have more time to get done the myriad things that there are to be done each day. I didn't realize how time-consuming our post office trips had been, but the difference is amazing.

Ok. It's late, and I'm off to bed.

Good night, everybody. Be well, love deeply, and know that whether you see it or not, you are deeply loved.

Much love,
Matt.