28 Days to Launch!

We have something new cooking, and inspired by Clara's daily report last May, I am going to try my dead-level best to post every day this month and give you little peeks at what it is. This means I've got to try to hold it down to a reasonable amount of jabber each day. Wish me luck with that, because I tend to get long-winded!

Just a bit of set-up: Last year was a rocky one for all of us, huh? Everyone has their 2009 story of compromise and adjustment. Here's a bit of mine. We've spent the last five years learning and growing a business that has pretty much one stream of income. I generally like to focus intensely on what I'm doing and Figheadh has given me plenty to do. I hope it always will. What happened during this last year, though, gave me spaces between frenzy to think and imagine branching out in additional directions. I did a lot of thinking and imagining, and in some of my thoughts I imagined some other business models, ones that allow my work to be more accessible to knitters and crocheters, allow me more freedom to create and work a couple of crafts that I love, and allow me to choose small yarn companies to work with. I also imagined being ready to embrace technology in light of all its possibilities and opportunities to provide a "greener" way to do business. Yes, I know that all sounds kinda cryptic, but stick with me folks. I'll let you know more details soon enough!

For now let me just show you some of my work from the past couple of months. I have at last not only designed but knit up two shawls/wraps! Yep. I was enticed enough by two lovely stitch patterns and some gorgeous yarns to plunge in and see what everyone's been so giddy about when it comes to shawls. Now, mind you, this is just a start. These are both just big ol' rectangles. Maybe one day I'll do one in lace-weight yarn. Anything can happen, right?

For now, I'm just proud to have finished this lovely Thistle Schaefer Nicole one and this Lilac Pagewood Farm Tundra one. The one on top is a Figheadh pattern about to be revealed and the one underneath is part of our new venture!

Today I'm supposed to get the oil changed in the Figmobile, go by the tax lady's office for a bit of business, mail a box of goodies to my sister, tweak the last of the new Figheadh spring patterns to send to the editors, pay a couple of bills, put out the call to my testing pool for help with 7-8 designs, and work on two new designs--a knitted sock one and a crochet hat & mitt one. I'll let you know tomorrow how much I actually get done!