And on…

There’s a proverbial “ancient Chinese curse” whose age and place of origin I cannot verify. It’s a wish that one live in interesting times. These are they.

Leaving my job and relationship was difficult, and certainly not having an income is scary as hell. That’s not to oddest part, though. What’s truly interesting is my own lack of… well, direction. Obviously, I’m sending out resumes and filling out applications. I’m also working to develop the contacts I would need to start my own web design and development business. I’m also brushing up on a lot of the technical skills that I’ve let atrophy a bit while working in a retail environment.

I even attended the Michigan Works Job Fair yesterday at Lansing Center. I had to scramble a bit because I’ve worn business casual or just plain casual for most of the last eight years, and as incredible as it must seem, I’ve put on a pound or two since I last purchased business attire. I got my hair cut, took out my earrings, got—in the lexicon of my youth—purty, and headed to town. I did make a few wonderful contacts, and I’m genuinely excited about the prospects of a couple.

That said, there was an awful lot of recruitment for positions for which I simply have too many teeth. If you’re a meth head and are reading my blog, when you’re going for a job interview, you should really consider soap. Your Sunday jeans might also be a good idea. And if at all possible, delouse. Oh, and stop reading my blog. Ew.

What’s blowing me away, though, is how much time there is in a day. What on earth are you supposed to do with it all? I mean… I’m using it to try to find a job, of course, but after all of the running around and spending hours on Monster and Career Builder and Dice and Thingamajob and every business’ website who, when I visited them in person, said, “you should visit our website,” I’m left to walk the dogs, fix myself some lunch, and figure out which other thousand sites to visit that afternoon. Seriously.

Fortunately, I really am in good spirits. It’s been sunny, and there’s been considerable promise—at least from retail businesses—in terms of looking for Christmas help in the next few weeks. I’m also amazed at the number of jobs for which I actually am qualified. I haven’t gotten any callbacks, yet, but I’m hopeful.

Knitting? Now that’s another story. I’ve not knit a stitch in weeks. I have had several ideas, though, so once I am again gainfully employed, I’ll be very happy to get my fingers dirty with a little design work. In the meantime, the pups are good, Rob and I are figuring out how we intend to cohabit, and I’m actually feeling very purposeful. Interesting, no?

News from the back office

Believe it or not, I do still exist! And not only do I exist, I’ve actually been doing things. I know. It’s mystifying.

Ok. I’ve been doing lots of work on a new website for ThreadBear to be announced soon with lots of new features and LOTS more product. Of course, I’ll get more details to you as soon as we’re in a position to make things public.

My mom did wind up having surgery for the cancer that I mentioned in a recent (stop laughing… it’s still on the screen at the time of this writing) post. She did not, however, require chemo this time, so BONUS! Go Moma! She’s since been to a seafood festival in Panama City Beach FL, an anniversary party in Brenham TX, and… Oh, wait. That’s not happened yet! She will be going to ThreadBear Fiber Arts Studio in Lansing MI in a couple of weeks to visit yours truly! WOOT! Yeah, that’s a good one.

She’s finished the baby blanket that we decided on for the new baby that’s due in October. My niece does appear to be having some issues with the pregnancy, but everything seems to be under control. For my own part, I finished a baby jacket from my own handspun yarn for the new addition, and I’m working on a jacket for my great nephew who just turned three. I can’t make something for the baby without giving him something! Good Lord! I can’t start sibling rivalry right off the bat. I’ll have pics tomorrow.

As for today, I’ve just finished getting photos up of Rob‘s hand-dyed sock treasures at the main site.

What else? I guess you’ll just have to stop back by to see. Me? I’m headed home for some much needed R&R. Later!

What's up

My mom’s had another cancer issue. It is being resolved as quickly and as effectively as medical science allows, but it’s still a pisser. She’s tough, my sweet Southern Moma, but I worry about her. And I try not to get her involved with drama here. That winds up meaning calling less, though, and she’ll string me up by the short hairs if I call her any less. Like I said, my sweet Southern Moma can be tough. So we stay in touch.

I haven’t given her the good news, though. I think we have a very strong candidate for the new great grandbaby’s knitting project. Kathy came up with it, and I think it’s great. Unfortunately, it’s at the shop, and I’m at home. So, that will have to be revisited.

For today, though, I’m home at the dining room table with Busby baking into the carpet at the screen out to the deck. There’s light traffic on Oakland, and the mowers have been out in the park across the river. A young woman’s walking a chocolate lab up the Riverwalk path, and a jogger in State shorts coming the other way has slowed to a walk with his jersey over his head catching his breath.

I’m forty, now. We had a party and everything. I was delighted by the black balloons particularly once I realized that I was still nearly if not the youngest person in the room. Since, I’ve had a stomach virus, picked up a taste for Gatorade G2 Strawberry-Kiwi, picked up smoking again briefly (don’t comment… my mother’s already been all over it), and am now still kind of trying to put a diet back together. Not a Diet, mind you, but a diet. A food plan. A sustenance plan with room for delight.

I like food, and I miss cooking. I just recently uncovered a copy of How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I’m hoping for great things, but a decent meal every once in a while would be satisfactory. In the meantime, I’m glad it’s summer. Produce looks fantastic at the local shops. Even my favorite Asian market appears to have some fresh seasonal offerings. I haven’t a clue what several of them are, but maybe I’ll get a chance to find out. Maybe not.

I’ve been working on getting a new ThreadBear website up and running over the last several months, and we’re hoping to get that open to the public soon. Of course, given the time of year, we’ve been meeting with sales reps from various yarn, pattern, and accessory companies in anticipation of the fall season and the TNNA Market in June. That’s always entertaining. I’m sure this year won’t disappoint. I’m most intrigued by the idea of getting to see what’s new coming down the pike. That’s this show for most yarn shop owners. There’s a fashion show the night before the Market opens, and vendors from all over show you when they’ve got. It’s very cool… and very tempting. We try to shop there primarily for chocolate jimmies to put on top of what we’ve already ordered with sales reps. It’s easier to browse if we’re not pressed for getting our fall orders in, and it’s helped us find some of the more interesting products that have graced the shelves at ThreadBear. Personally, I can’t wait.

For today, though, I’m going to finish up K1CToo and Rowan and see what else remains to get online at the new site.

A new register for ThreadBear

After several days of me behind the counter (a dangerous situation on the best day), I’ve finally resolved our register issue. Both registers are back up and running. Please, give anyone using the left register a bit of patience over the next few days. There may be hiccups with this new machine.

Larger font in newsletter

Will do, ladies. My apologies. Rob asked me to take care of this after last week, and I let it fall through the cracks. I’ll take care of it immediately.

Free at last… free at last

Have you ever come to one of those times in your life when you felt like all of the work you’d been putting out there was really starting to come back to you? Liberating, isn’t it?

Have you ever had a secret that you were monumentally excited about but hadto keep under wraps? Remember how you felt when you could finally shout it?

Well, as most of you know, ThreadBear has had us bursting at the seams for months. I’ve had almost no time to post entries, and even my new wheel isn’t nearly as broken in as I’d like it to be. Connor has gotten so used to us being gone every evening for some event or other, she positively clings to Rob (and me, but she’s definitely Rob’s baby) from the moment that we come in the door until…well, she always clings to Rob—to the point we’ve dubbed her Speed Bump. One doesn’t just turn and start walking in this place anymore. You’re apt to trip over about eighty pounds of dog.

A few weeks ago, our landlady mentioned that they had a space for rent just next door to her office here in Bloomington, Indiana. The space is smallish, but it’s about a block off of the courthouse square in downtown Bloomington. We’d be just a few blocks from Indiana University, too. The rent wasn’t high, but between what we’re already paying for rent at home and what that space would cost us, well… let’s just say the combination is prohibitive.

Rob and I talked about it that night. It sounded good, but the money was a serious issue. We sort of tabled the idea for the time being, but we came back to it several times over the next few days. Then one evening, our friend Helen called while we were discussing this. Rob answered the phone, told her what we were talking about, and discussed the whole issue with her for a while. By the time they got off the phone, Helen had given us about four-hundred-some-odd reasons for opening a shop in her hometown of Columbus, Indiana instead.

The following day, Helen and another friend call us from the car. They’re riding around Columbus jotting down the telephone numbers of every commercial space for rent in Bartholomew County. We laugh, but it’s both gratifying and exciting. Within forty-eight hours, we come up with something. Another friend and client of ours in Columbus, Cathi, has a brother, Jim, who is trying to convert a two-story early twentieth-century house from duplexed apartments back into a single-family rental unit. The neighborhood itself is on the leading edge of gentrification, and the house in on a corner lot overlooking the neighborhood. There’s a small yard, and there was already a small cigar shop that Jim and Cathi are running on the back of the property facing the side-street, so zoning shouldn’t be an issue.

We stop by, meet Cathi, Helen, Jim, and his wife (another of our novice knitters) Amy, check the place out, and discuss the kinds of things we’d all like to see done to the place if we were going to put a shop into the building. Of course, we’d supply a lot of the TLC necessary to bring the house back to life, and Jim is very amenable to opening up the house by breaking down the walls that separate the apartments. There are several other things that need to be done, but basically, we all agree to think about it, and get back in touch.

To make a long story short, we’re doing it.

We made the announcement Sunday at our Open House, and Rob is talking with Jim today. From here, we have a whole lot of packing and a whole lot of planning to do.

The house is two blocks off of Hawcreek Boulevard or IN-46/IN-7 in Columbus, Indiana, and IN-46is an exit off of I-65 going through Columbus. We’ll be about 30 minutes from Franklin, 50 minutes from Bloomington, 50 minutes from downtown Indianapolis, an hour-five from Ellettsville, an hour-fifteen from Louisville, an hour-forty-five from Cincinnati, two hours from Brazil, two hours-twenty from Dayton, three hours from Evansville, three-and-a-half hours from Olney, Illinois, five hours from Lansing, eight hours from Atlanta, ten hours from Toronto, ten-and-a-half hours from Annapolis, twelve hours from New York, twenty-three hours from Grand Junction, Colorado, and about forty-eight hours from Calgary.

Does that about cover everybody? Louise, if you want travel times from France, contact your travel agent.

Well, obviously, she needs a little love. This is the main part of the house. Jim’s having central air installed, so the window units won’t be there, and the whole house is being pressure washed to reveal the white underneath. I swore it was grey to Rob and Helen, so here’s my public apology. It’s white. It justlooks grey.

I’m very excited to have a front porch again. I’m looking forward to dragging a wheel or a loom out there, but there will have to be a rocker or two, too.

I’m brainstorming madly for what to put behind the big double windows, but something will come to me certainly. There are actually a couple of back exits, but now that Dolores is in Colorado, we shouldn’t have to worry about frisking anyone! (Just teasing! PLEASE come for a visit!! We’ll make desserts! Chocolate, even.)

Ok. That’s enough for today. I’ve got to go to fill orders. If you’ve got an order pending with us, know that I’m on it. But obviously, we’ve had some pretty hefty distractions!

Much love, people!
Matt.