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.