Happy New Year!

Pippin the new cat with Jessie

Has it really been over a year since I posted every day? Yes, yes it has. The last time I posted was June 24 of last year--the day I cut the end of my finger off while in hot and heavy pickling mode. Since then I have had three ER visits (not finger-related), one heart surgery, two hospital stays, two times having my heart stopped, a new cat addition to the family, and I'm finally writing again! That's a lot of happenings, and I don't want to talk about any of it (except maybe the cat). What DO I want to talk about? Fiber!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (Montana) ... I bought a spinning wheel and fell in love with spinning exotic fibers--alpaca, llama, yak, camel, etc. Rovings (fiber for spinning) from these animals are expensive, and I quickly discovered that it would cost many hundred dollars to buy enough luxurious softness to spin into yarn to knit into a sweater for Dave. Then I hit upon on the seemingly brilliant idea of buying raw fiber, having it processed at a mill into roving, and then selling half of it to pay for my own habit, er, projects. Yak crack, if you will. Thus the business Farm2Yarn was born. Sadly, it has remained in it's infancy ever since. What can I say? I am a easily distracted by new, shiny ideas (can you say squirrel?).

The alpaca/silk blend sweater I spun and
knitted for Dave

But Farm2Yarn is back on top of my list, in my sights, and on my radar. It currently shares top billing with Siyeh Studio Glass (my production work--not teaching or selling supplies), and contract technical doc writing (most recently and I hope again soon for data.world). What do all of these things have in common? They are each and every one activities that count towards What One Does For a Living. Both Siyeh Studio and Farm2Yarn have nascent business plans (I might even finish them this time instead of starting with a plan but then chucking and winging like I did the last few times), and I have determined an amount of technical writing that I would like to do to fill that niche of my esprit.

Why so many different things? How will I ever do any of them well splitting my time like that? Besides being easily lured (shiny!), I am also easily bored. There are too many wonderful things one can do with one's time to spend "full time" on one thing--for me at least. So this week--with this morning taken out for jury duty--is devoted to dyeing fiber for an upcoming fiber event where I am a vendor, and preparing materials and communication for an upcoming glass show where I will have a presence in the form of a SALES REP (how professional is that?). I have already given data.world a nudge that I am ready to begin a new writing contract the first of February, and I hope my nudge bears fruit (Hire me! Hire me!). In the meantime, Glass Incarnate is going to be split into tales of the trials and tribulations of running a retail fiber materials business, a wholesale art glass production business, expanding my brain while writing for a (partial) living, cooking with the Instant Pot, and maybe some tales from the dark side if my heart starts spluttering again. Whee! Let the wild rumpus start.