No, I'm not reverting to my hermitting ways. It really has been that busy. If you don't believe me, check out all the goings on at Rob's blog. And that's just a fraction of it. In the last few weeks, I've concussed myself, designed a new sweater, updated tons of new classes to the shop schedule, bought a whole bunch of new stock (including some YUMMERLY possum blend from New Zealand that I'll be designing with shortly... just 'cuz), put together a monster spring cleaning sale with Rob and Sabrina, blocked an awesome shawl that Rob knit, and generally just got a lot of stuff out of the way that has been back-burnered for a while.

As for the concussion, I'm just a dork. It had been a long day at the shop, and since my car was in the shop for not being winterized properly (yeah, yeah... I'm an idiot. I know.), I was loading all of my stuff, Rob's stuff, and the pupperkins into Rob's Explorer... in the snow... in the cold. Yes, I was doing it alone, but that's SO not the issue. Rob does paperwork, and I don't have to, so I'm glad to load the car. Anyway, I was truckin'. I was all wrapped up, and I'd already made a couple of trips out the car and had the rear glass raised so that I could just drop stuff into the back and run back in for another load. Well, the car was actually facing the store, so I had to go around the car to get to the back. In case you've never noticed, when there is something flat at eye-level, it all but disappears in the dark. At least, I'm telling myself that, because I came around the back end of the Explorer at a pretty fair clip and walked dead into the corner of the glass rear window that was less than an inch above eye-level... dead center... right in the forehead... between my eyes. For a moment, I thought I'd lost my eyes. I sure as shootin' couldn't see anything. There was just this monstrous buzz... and the most nauseating aurora borealis I've ever seen. Then there was the streetlamp over the parking lot... fuzzy, but there... and I could hear that there was traffic, but I couldnt' have told you what planet it was on. Slowly, I noticed snow falling across my field of vision. Oh, yeah, snow. That's what that is. Am I standing? Holy shit! I'm standing?!? I hadn't fallen, but whoo! It's a thousand wonders. What's in my arms... oh, yeah, I was carrying my laptop bag. Oh, crud. I could have dropped my laptop on pavement?!?

I told this story to my mother, and the first thing out of her mouth was, "good lord, I bet you had a few choice words." Um... no. No words. I couldn't have thought of words if I'd had to. I got the last of the stuff into the car without saying anything to Rob and got into the driver's seat of the Explorer (standard procedure-- we're old married folk). My head was ringing, but everything was clear. I just hurt. Everywhere. If you've ever met Rob, you know that telling him you've done something radically stupid is worth days of teasing, so I'd decided to keep it to myself by the time he'd finished paperwork and made it out the the car. It was already warm, and we headed out of the parking lot. Then it hit me (not, not again... I mean figuratively) that I might actually have really injured myself. Dammit! I had to tell him. Well, to make a long story short (too late), he's been doll. We are all pretty sure at this point that I did have a mild concussion, but I'm a boy, and we do dumb shit like ignore concussions and stuff. I had a few days when I really couldn't do much of anything and several when I could barely string a coherent thought together long enough to finish a sentence, but otherwise, I've just had some pretty nasty headaches. I'm planning on having a nice, long massage later this evening or tomorrow, so I'll be right as rain come the end of the week.

I did have time, though, during my convalescence to design and knit most of the front of a very interesting men's v-neck saddle-shoulder pullover. The front is done in panels, and despite what I think I'll be tearing out later this afternoon to reknit, I'm happy with the design and think it's pretty sure to make the book.

I've also recently acquired some awesome hand-painted possum-wool blend from New Zealand that I'm very excited about knitting into something yummy for myself. I don't have the camera at home, or I'd show you. It's definitely my colors. Deep, jewely secondary shades. It's pretty regardless, but it's also very complimentary against my Scottish Viking coloring (or lack thereof).

Oh, classes. Tons of new classes are on the schedule at ThreadBear. I'm particularly excited about an Argyle Sock class that I'm teaching in about a week and a garment design class that I've got planned for the summer.

Our Spring Cleaning Sale was a huge success. We cleared out of lot of older stock, and there's a good bit of room now for all of the spring/summer stock that has already started arriving. Of course, if you don't see it here with my shots of the displays, Rob will have pics up of the new arrivals at Black Dog. Oh, and check out his post of the shawl I blocked for him. It's gorgeous.

Finally, I'd like to ask your help in a couple of marketing tasks for ThreadBear. I'd be very grateful for anyone who is willing to offer reviews of the shop at Insider Pages and Yahoo. I've been trying to get our listings updated wherever I can find them, but it's one on a long list of tasks. If you see an old listing for ThreadBear anywhere online that you think could stand a bit of fleshing out, please contact me at webmaster@threadbearfiberarts.com.

Thanks, guys. Talk to you soon!
Matt.