No, there won't be any really bad images of Nicholas Cage in obesity appliances.
This post is really about change. Rob and I have had several long talks about the issues I have
with my current color consultation backlog. In an effort to ameliorate that somewhat, he's been
posting Charlotte's Web colorways to
Black Dog for anyone who doesn't want to
wait or can find something among the offerings that would suit their needs without waiting for
a custom consultation.
First off, don't read too much into this. We do want to continue to offer
our color consultation service to those who need it, and we have no intention of starting to charge
for the service. We do, however, want to relieve some of the pressure that has built up on that
queue due to my own lack of attention to it with all of the other concerns that I've had to deal
with in regards to our physical location, in-person customers that need our attention, and the
general goings-on of the business that has grown up around us.
What we are going to start doing, though, is move the Charlotte's Web Shawl kits
off Black Dog and put them on their own page on our
business site. Hopefully, it will
free up some space at Black Dog for other things, allow folks interested in preset kits to find them
more quickly, and help to reduce my consultation queue to those folks who are in more specific
need of color help. For now, we've got an
Up Close page
up for the project, and I'm going to try to get the next batch of kits up there instead of Black Dog.
In the meantime, visit the
Up Close: Charlotte's Web Shawl
page at
ThreadBear and let us know what
you think of the idea. Believe it or not, we really do appreciate the criticism positive or negative as
long as it's constructive.
Much love, people!
Matt.
posted by Matt at
0 Comments
If you've been keeping up with
Rob's blog, then you're probably
already aware that I've been churning out Charlotte's Web shawls of late. We recently
hired a very talented woman who's been helping me pull yarn for them, and with some of
the chaos of the move settled (more on that later), I've gotten my monstrous backlog
down to two-to-three weeks. Sound crazy? Nah. Crazy is the fellow behind the wheel.
The work is just fine. Anyway, the queue is moving, so please don't hesitate to place
orders if you're interested. I want to help folks as fast as I can, but not having
anyone in the queue would scare me!
And if you're worried about me burning out, don't. I burned out years ago.
That's why I'm doing this for a living. Ten days in the hospital and fourteen
days of an excruciating phonophobic and photophobic tension headache
taught me that being 100% type-A isn't all that great for me, so I do have my ways
of blowing off steam.
One is returning to my former life as a web developer long enough to
revamp the
business site.
I've been banging around some ideas for the site for a while, so I spent a couple of evenings
deep in code and Photoshop, and ThreadBear has a new face.
Take special note, all of you
Ingeborgers, that
I've added
Up
Close pages that feature popular patterns, yarn, and materials information that's
often difficult to cull from the Internet. My intention is to offer specific information about
yardage, color, weight, etc. that you usually can't get without buying the pattern or asking
numerous questions in already busy groups, comments, tagboards, or blogs.
I've also been doing more spinning. The new ColorMe hand-painted
wool top that we recently got in struck me as somewhat intense for my tastes, but having
been in a booth at Fleece Fair in Greencastle, Indiana all day last Saturday, I either had
to start spinning with my own fiber or start buying other people's. Frankly, I'd love to buy
other people's fiber, but since I was trying to come home with more than I left
with, I thought it best to minimize my own shopping. It turns out that the intensity of the
dye is somewhat subdued in spinning, and the colors blend to give a much more heathered
and/or tweeded effect than I'd originally expected.
Spinning has given me a whole new perspective on color and the way our
eyes and brains perceive color. When I get more of the ColorMe spun, I'll show you what
I mean, but in the meantime, I'll say this. I'm really excited about getting the shop out
of the house so that I might have the dyeing studio that we'd originally intended for the
efficiency we've called home for the last few months. I want to throw color at fiber and
see what comes out.
In the meantime, though, I'll have to let working with Taiu, Maie, and Richard's
work at
Koigu be my inspiration. I'm
so looking forward to seeing them at TNNA. We've had some wonderful project
ideas churning, and I'm just itching to talk with them in person.
By the way, if you've placed an order for a color consultation and haven't heard
from me, be on the lookout for an e-mail. I'm currently working about two-to-three weeks out
(and the gap is quickly closing), so if you had a request in that was placed before mid-March,
send it again. I don't know exactly why, but a
couple of older messages appear to have grown legs in my Inbox. As my backlog grew
while I was working on securing the new space, I tried implementing several organizational
schemes to manage the bulk, and I'm assuming that the shuffling must have been the culprit.
Regardless, the most recent solution seems to have put things into overdrive, and I'm delighted
to be catching up quickly.
Which appears to be a good thing. I've noticed a couple of new buttons around
the rings since I've been brought back into quasi-commission.
Much love, people! Oh, and Sarah, just so you don't think I'm slipping, my bad! ;-)
Matt.
posted by Matt at
0 Comments
