Weekly-ish notes on navigating big change

Searching for "say no"

My creative Mission

Reading this post, by Diane (of CraftyPod) on Make+Meaning about Creative Missions, sparked all sorts of crafty, hopey, changey thoughts.

She says

even the most compelling hobby, when it becomes your paycheck, can start to look an awful lot like work.

And I can tell you, this is SO true.

Which is why, each year I look at what I want my business to DO. Not just pay my bills (although that's a goal), but what I want it to do in my life and in the life of others and (this may be a little grand) what it's doing in the world.

  • What does it change?
  • How does it improve the people who interact with it, impact the environment, support the crafty world?

Reading the article, I was reminded that my business has a few Missions:

  1. Promote sustainable fibers, especially that of small farmers – through using only sustainable fiber in my own work, through explaining those choices to the crafty world in a non-judgey way, through bringing attention to environmental issues around fiber and providing information on making eco-friendly decisions (whether with my yarn or anyone elses
  2. Supporting the indie-yarn community – through A Novel Yarn, through providing information, through sharing what I've learned, through being available to answer questions one on one.
  3. Experimentation – with yarn-making, with business-growing, with class-teaching. My mission is to try new things, learn, synthesize and share the results.  This is really the heart of everything I do.

This is always something I'm working on and working with. The deeper I go on this creative mission, the more the mission changes, the more details I get, the more ideas are sparked, the more my life becomes authentic and the more I live what I truly love.

What is your Creative Mission? Are you still working on it?

Growing with Craft Shows

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Craft Shows have been a part of BCB since I first knew I wanted to quit my dayjob. I got to talking about it last week with some other crafters on Twitter.

It got me  thinking back to my first craft show and thought I remembered that I wrote a post after that first show.

Sure enough, I wrote of the most popular posts on this site, 5 1/2  Shocking Facts about Craft Fairs.
I reread it and I'm delighted by my exuberance.
That feeling hasn't faded in the last 2 years of doing shows; in fact, it's only grown stronger (and has grown into selling at my own shop).

As I prepared for my second show (which was much bigger than the first), I wrote another post about preparing for craft shows.  In it, I link to a lot of great basic resources.

It's funny to reread that post, because while I cover all the steps in preparation, I certainly don't go into the details (like, how do you figure out how much to bring?). And the details are what people always ask me about!

Exactly 1 year and 1 day after that last post, I wrote about the Pain of Craft Shows. In it, I share all the agony (and exhilaration) that goes into pouring yourself into a show.
I think it's the closest I've ever gotten to the WHY I do craft shows. I say:

I do craft shows because it’s the one place, the one situation in which being a full-time yarnie feels good, normal, accepted. The people get me. They get my yarn.
It’s a place to be me: handknit clothes, stripey knee-socks, pink-haired, yarn-making me.

And when I get home, back to my solitary studio, back to my online conversations, that afternoon of pure me-ness stays with me, buoying me, refreshing me.

Sounds fabulous, eh?

In talking to others about craft shows, I've been asked a lot of questions.
Specific questions.
Questions I don't answer in the above posts, questions I couldn't answer in a zillion posts.
To answer the questions and to help everyone branch out into this very satisfying experience, I put together a class, How to Rock a Craft Show.
If you've been thinking about doing craft shows or you've been wanting to them better, check it out!

If you have questions about craft shows, leave them in the comments!

My real-life Yarn Shop

I own a yarn shop.

A Novel Yarn

A real-life, bricks and mortar, come-in-and-have-a-seat yarn store.

I signed the lease just 11 days ago and we're opening tomorrow. Tomorrow!

I've been blogging our day by day progress on the website, you can read it here.

I've waited to announce it here, because I was still working out the details. What would the shop be like? What would it's personality be?
How would it affect Blonde Chicken Boutique?

Now that I know the answer, I'm ready to share it with you.

Blonde Chicken Boutique is going to continue on as it has. It's my own company, my own line of yarn. I will keep posting new yarns weekly to the Boutique and talking about eco-friendly fiber and pattern ideas here, on the blog. Blonde Chciken Boutique is my creative outlet and it's not going anywhere.

A Novel Yarn is in partnership with my mom. We're trying to create an open studio for fiber arts and a gallery for handmade yarn.

But what's that mean?

Open studio: I'll be spinning at the shop during business hours. I'll also have my carder, so you can see the process from fiber to yarn. I'll also have one-on-one lessons for knitting and spinning. We'll be teaching classes on a all sorts of knitterly endevours from learning to knit to knitting with handspun to using Ravelry.

Gallery for handmade yarn: Our shelves with be overflowing with handmade yarn from myself and a host of my spinny friends. Anyting relating to fiber that is handdyed, handspun or otherwise handmade  is welcome! We'll have handpainted needles, Learn to Knit Kits, books by indie publishers and (eventually) patterns by indie designers.

It has been a whirlwind to get open but so so satisfying to just begin to promote so many fabulous fiber artists.

Tomorrow is our first day and December 19th is our Grand Opening. If you're in Jonesborough, TN, come say hi!

And if you can't come in to the yarn shop, you can always find your favorite Blonde Chicken Boutique yarn right here in the shop.

Can you help?

This is Jay.
Jay, loving the pizza

He needs a job.
I have a theory that maybe you can help.

Since Jay got laid off, we've been talking a LOT about how one looks for a job. He's been shaving, getting dressed nice, going in and asking “Are you hiring?” or “Are you looking for help”, along with a pile of resumes. They all say “fill out our online application,” or send his resume to HR never to be heard from again.  There's little to no interpersonal communication, no talking to a real person, no getting to know each other. And this is rough if you're great with people but have a less-than-impressive resume.

But I'm all about the online. My entire business is based on meeting and getting to know awesome knitterly types online. Most of my newest friendships and collaborations have been formed online. Sure, I've now met tons of them in person, but we keep our relationship going online.

So I thought we'd do a little experiment and bring Jay's job search online. Not just an online application, but an online version of a getting-to-know-you chat. Not all those “What's your weakest trait” questions, but real, useful stuff about him.

After you read this if you think “Wow, I have just the job for Jay!”, leave a comment below or email him at jamison.swigerATgmail.com.

Jay is currently the shipping department, tech guy, graphic designer, head chef and dog walker at Blonde Chicken Boutique. Oh yeah, he's also my husband.

For a few months, he's been working in all those capacities full-time, but now he'd like to help other small businesses (or individuals), doing, well, anything they need doing. Here's a bit more about what he's done for BCB.

Tech Guy:
Jay makes all the decisions for the BCB's hardware and software needs. He maintains the network and fixes the printer before I throw it out the window. He regularly does something to my laptop that makes it run all smooth and happy and have more memory. He also researches and finds the best (usually free) software to meet the need of whatever new project I dream up.

I know he's good at this because I don't have to know anything or think about anything and he makes it  all work out, giving me time/energy to focus on the yarn.

Graphic Designer:
Jay just recently redesigned my product labels and whoa, they're awesome. He also designs all my ads and looks at the stats to see which one performs best. He designed my much-complimented business card, thank you cards and everything I've ever printed out.

He also built a website for our friend, Mama Beehive, and designs posters for the local wrestling company and youth groups.

Head Chef:
It's embarrassing, but most days I don't remember to eat until 6 or 7. Jay not only remembers that I need to eat, he whips me up tasty goodness. He's a vegetarian and makes the best burgers (no beans!), chili and enchiladas EVER. And his deep dish pizza crust. Legendary!

(This is the kind of skill that doesn't come up often in interviews but it is priceless.  When there's a “potluck” Christmas party, you are going to be glad that you have Jay's pizza and not another bacon/mayonnaise/peas “salad”.)

Jay has a bachelor's degree in History and almost has one in Political Science, and he's spent the past few years working full-time in restaurants. All that reading and learning and paper-writing seriously honed his critical thinking skills.

For example, everything you see at BCB, from the Yarn Mail to the (soon-coming) Learn to Knit Kit first starts like this:
“Hey, Jay, I'm thinking I could do X”
“Oh, good idea! What about Y & Z? “

It's not just idea-bouncing, it's stuckness-slicing. I've been trying to come up with a good learn-to-knit pattern to include in my kit. I think scarves are too long for new knitters, too easy to get bored. So I'm obsessing over this, giving the 50,000 pros & cons and Jay says “So, are you selling the item or are you selling the learning to knit? Which is more important?

*Ding!*

And now, in the grand tradition of Havi's Personal Ads,

What we'd like:
A job for Jay. Or even some freelance work until he gets a job.

How this could work:
You have something that needs doing and think Jay would be right for it. This could be dog-walking, graphic design, bringing you food or working for your fabulous company, located here in Johnson City or available online.

You'll either leave a comment below or email him at jamison.swigerATgmail.com.

If you don't have a job for Jay, you'll pass this around to people who might like it.

Thanks! I'll keep you posted on what comes of this!

Week in Numbers

Space Needle

1 week = last 9 days

72 lb suitcase (spinning wheel + yarn + clothes for a 2 week trip)

2 planes (Tri – Cin, Cin – Sea)

1 great afternoon with Eileen (lunch! cupcakes! epiphanies!)

12 hours talking to awesome Seattlers (and some fabulous Vancouver-ites, including my dear Kim Werker).

2 yarn stores in Seattle (Hilltop Yarn, Fiber Gallery)

2 hours spent talking to Jessica of RoseKimKnits

1 lunch with crafty rockstar Sister Diane.

2 moments of oh-my-gosh-I-took-the-wrong bus! in 2 (!) cities

1 night with 4 fabulous businesses-women at Cairene's.

2 yarn stores in Portland (Knit/Purl, Close Knit)

1 missed flight (my husband)

1 missed train

54 minutes on the phone with Delta to get the missing luggage sent to our hotel.

1 extra night in Portland

37 hours on a train (Seattle to Portland, Portland to LA, LA to Oceanside)

$40 for some snacks on the train (Jay says, “train-way robbery”. Heh.)

1 yarn store in Southern California (so far!): Clever Knits

2 nights of from-the-garden tomato sauce

7-ish days of being completely unplugged; from internet, from Twitter, even from TV

2 1/2 books read (Not Buying It, Made to Stick, Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society)

2 more days in Oceanside left

10 more hours of plane travel until I'm home to my puppy.

How was your week?

Path to Yarn – Out of the Cubicle Forest

This week I’m celebrating the launching into my new life by sharing the path that led me here. Follow along all week!

The crafty-ness started at home, then  I went to college and learned to knit. and I ran a business. Yesterday I moved into cubicle-land but today I leave it behind.

Yesterday we left off at January 2009, when I made my Escape Plan.
The plan was simple. I needed 3 of the following 4 things to happen:

  1. My sales to reach $XX/week for 3 out of 4 weeks, for 3 months in a row. (This would show consistency.)
  2. My savings account to grow to $XX (to cover those weeks when my sales weren't as high).
  3. Open 2 wholesale/consignment accounts (I thought this would provide me with another stream of income, other than Etsy, but I soon realized that wholesale sales wouldn't help my bottom line as much as just selling the yarn full price in different venues).
  4. Some press for Blonde Chicken Boutique (that happened in March!)

This plan both gave me a goal (sell enough yarn, save enough money) and a metric to measure my progress.

No longer could I just complain about my dayjob; I knew what I had to do to quit!

I talked the plan over with my husband and he was comfortable with it, except he wanted to add something. He wanted me to not just keep up my books, but to print off a little report explaining sales and expenses. Although he didn't know it was called this, it's essentially a Profit & Loss Report (I used to have to do these for the pottery studio).

The report isn't for him, he doesn't even see it (unless something super exciting or weird happened), but he knew that if I assess it monthly, I'll be more diligent & responsible in my bookkeeping. (I'm the one that tracks the bills/household expenses and he knows I'm a tyrant when I really commit to something!)

My dayjob income was our family's primary income. Without it, or something replacing it, we can't pay 75% of our bills. So quitting my job was not taken lightly by either of us.

But Jay didn't want that to stand in my way, either. So we got out all the bills. We made up a budget (we've done this before, but we wanted to refresh it). We brainstormed ways to cut the cut-able bills (cable, for example) and ways to get rid of the things we could pay off (our car's nearly paid off!) Once we could do those things, and our monthly expenses lined up with my monthly yarn-income (for 3 months in a row), he'd feel completely comfortable with my quitting. I agreed.

(Side note: I hesitate to share all this, because I'm intensely private and this seems nearly too much. But SO many people have asked me how I made the decision and I want to be as honest as possible. We thought and prayed and planned HARD before it happened. We made concessions. We argued. We made up. This decision doesn't just affect me, but the whole family and without Jay's support, I would have been frozen by fear and uncertainty a long time ago.)

So January began with these goals in place. During both January and February, I made my sales goals! Yay!

In March, I learned that due to the state budget “crisis”, the University (my dayjob) was offering a buyout. 3 months pay + 6 months of what the state paid for my health insurance + some other bonuses.

I was overjoyed. Jay and I sat down and did more math, more planning. We asked ourselves, Will the buyout help us reach the goals in the Escape Plan? Or will it happen too soon?

We agreed that the buyout money would go to pay off the car and go into savings. My business would become the primary income in August (I got my last regular paycheck at the end of June). We knew we couldn't coddle the business, it needed to start supporting us as soon possible, so that if this crazy idea wasn't going to work, we'll know sooner, rather than later.

We decided it would work. I applied in April, but had to wait until May to find out if I was accepted. During this excruciating 2 months, we stuck with the Plan. My sales continued to be where we needed them, I started to look at health insurance plans.

I found that I was approved for the buyout, but I still needed to work until June 30th (and I won't get the buyout money until months later). That last month in the dayjob was so hard, so depressing. Coworkers stopped talking to me. No one acknowledged my birthday. People kept saying, “Oh, how cute”, about my business. Oh, and because my apartment was being renovated (and made more expensive) we had to move by July 12th.

But it happened! My last day rolled around and here I am, writing about the path that led me here!

If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below!

Thanks for coming along on this path with me, it's been to remember what exactly brought me here!

PS. Don’t forget: I’m answering any and all questions on Twitter, today at 4 pm EST. Just put #AskTheChicken in your tweet (at any time) and I’ll answer! You can follow along and see all the questions and answers here.

PPS. The sale! Don’t forget there’s a yarn sale with discounts for both new and returning customers! Grab your yarn right here: http://blondechicken.etsy.com

Path to Yarn – Learning to Knit

This week I’m celebrating the launching into my new life by sharing the path that led me here. Follow along all week!

Yesterday the crafty-ness started at home. Today, I got to college and learn to knit!

I went to a beautiful little University, 8 hours away from home, deep in southeast Tennessee. After a freshman year filled with what-should-I-major-in? torture, I decided on French Literature.

I absolutely loved books and I love language, and I had taken 4 years of French in High School, so it just made sense.  I imagined myself as a French professor, at a small college (perhaps the one I attended), spending my days teaching a few dedicated students the joys of Prevert's poetry, while reading and writing and always learning.

And it wasn't until I was a Teacher's Assistant my senior year, that I ever doubted the plan. During my first day to teach the class, I stood up….and was blank. All those faces staring at me! I started shaking and blushing and stammering (in English!)

While I denied it at first, I knew: I was terrified of standing in front of people – how did I think I was going to be a professor? I didn't really acknowledge that teaching WASN'T for me until a year after graduation, when I started to apply to grad schools.

By this time, I was deep into knitting and dyeing and business-stuff, so moving on from French Lit was a little easier.

But wait, let's go back to college!

All along, I did little crafty things. Making dinners for my roomates, scrapbooking, handwriting letters to my best friend.

But my senior year, I stumbled into the craft section of the bookstore. This was in 2004, when big, gorgeous knitting books were just starting to hit the shelves.

I bought Knitting Pretty, got really hideous mauve acrylic yarn and some metal needles. When I got home, me and my roomate Lindsay sat on my bed and tried to decipher the instructions.

We would read slowly, look at the pictures, look at the yarn in our hands.

Casting on was a breeze (backwards loop cast-on) but the knitting, not so much.

We were completely stuck at the “pull loop on right needle through loop on left needle”. What? Pull what through what? The pictures showed the yarn wrapping around the right needle and in the next picture – bam! The new stitch is made!

Eventually we got it and I knit maybe 50 rows on that scarf before it went in a bag and I focused on gradutation, moving back to Ohio, and planning my wedding.

Tomorrow, I get married (to Jay) & get obsessed (with yarn)!

PS. Don’t forget: I’m answering any and all questions on Twitter, today at pm EST. Just put #AskTheChicken in your tweet (at any time) and I’ll answer at 3! You can follow along and see all the questions and answers here.

PPS. The sale! Don’t forget there’s a yarn sale with discounts for both new and returning customers! Grab your yarn right here: http://blondechicken.etsy.com

One Week

In one week, I'll be self-employed.

In one week, I'll be responsible for my own health insurance.

In one week, I'll set my own schedule.

In one week, I'll live in a new house.

Next Wednesday is not only my first day of full-time Blonde Chicken Boutique shenanigans, it's also Moving Day!

The whole family + the whole Boutique is moving (just across town).

To say I'm overwhelmed in as understatement.

Excited and nervous and scrambly and full of oh-my-goodness-what-did-I-forget sort of thoughts!

Last night I couldn't sleep and started thinking about ALL the yarn and fiber I need to pack before moving. And the unpacking! The new place will have a dedicated fiber studio (yay!) but I hate to be apart from my fiber for even a day or two.

So instead, instead of moving all that yarn across town,  what if I just send it to you?

How about free (domestic) shipping on any order over $50?

You'll be cheering up both of our weeks by heading over to the Boutique and stocking up handspun yarn, organic cotton and Spinnables.

(to get the free shipping, just place your Etsy order (of over $50) and wait for a CORRECT Paypal invoice)

This little moving sale will be on for just ONE WEEK and on July 1st, I'm going to close the Boutique until I'm all settled in my new studio.

When it reopens, it'll be filled with new and different yarns, so if you like what you see, snatch it up now!

Big News

I've tried to write this post for weeks.

I can't figure out how to say it in a way that conveys the big-ness for me and for Blonde Chicken Boutique. This is a huge, scary, exciting step, but it's just so hard to express.

So, how about I just say it:

I quit my day job.

June 30th is my last day working in an office, for an employer.

July 1st, I wake up to…Blonde Chicken Boutique!

I'll be a full-time fiber artist, yarnie, fiberista, spinster – whatever we're calling it that week – it'll be my full-time job!

Even though I handed in my resignation a month ago, it still feels crazy and new and exciting!

This will allow me to do SO many new things with BCB, things you've asked me to do and things I've been waiting to do. More craft shows, more in-person lessons, more yarn!

As I transition into this new role, I'll be sharing more and more about the business-side of BCB: what systems I use, how I decided to go full-time, all sorts of stuff! I know only some of you might be interested in that, so instead of bore the blog readers, I'll be writing about it in a little newsletter-y thing. Sign up here if you want to learn more biz-stuff.

Thanks for helping me make all of this possible!

Begin as you mean to go on

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“Begin as you mean to go on”

I heard this phrase at the beginning of 2008, on Breda Dayne’s Cast On. I was struck by it then – such a clever phrase – but never explored it. It's really lovely, so much more poetic than the idea of New Year's Resolutions and with so many more implications. Every new project that can be started with the notion of  “Begin as you mean to go on”.

At the beginning of this year, as I started work on my new website, it came to me again.
How do I want to go on in 2009? How do I want the new website to go on?

I don’t “do” resolutions. I love lists and I love setting intentions. But the concept of “resolutions” doesn't resonate for me. I'd rather remind myself on a regular to basis to learn, improve and grow.

And that, the growing, is what appealed to me in Chris Brogan’s  post about picking a word as a goal for the year. At about  the same time, Lisa Call wrote about choosing a word to set her intention.  These two posts stirred something, stirred that phrase “Begin as you mean to go on” and I began to think about my intentions for this new site and the new year.

I set intentions for nearly every day, could I expand that to a year? The intention would need to be simple; just a few, memorable words that would guide my business decisions this year. I can look at every decision and say, will this be in alignment with my intention?

So what did I come up with?

Kill it. Share it.

When it came to me I knew that's it! But, ugh, I hate the violent connotations of the phrase “kill it” or it's similar “crush it”. What I mean when I say I want to “kill it” is that I want to achieve excellence, I want to become as fabulous as I can, to learn as much as possible. But the phrase “learn it” just doesn’t have that same push, that same insistence. Is there another word that invokes this sort of insistent drive towards excellence?

As I was thinking over this excellence, I read about succulence – the state of being juicy. That’s what I want! I want to infuse my work with juiciness –  full of richness of texture and color.

It somehow goes along with “kill it”. I want to bring succulence to it, to enjoy it, to delve into it thoroughly.
I’m still unsure of the right word, something to align the ‘Kill' with the ‘Succulence'…is there anything in between?

There we go, that’s my expanded Intention for 2009: Kill it (make it juicy), Share it.

And what is the “it”?

The “it” is whatever it needs to be. The “it” is yet to come, the “it” can change. For the next few weeks, the “it” is designing the Month of Love Series, learning about video editing, launching a new video project, organizing a mill-spun line of yarns.

So this is how I'm beginning. I'm learning, infusing and sharing.

What do you want to learn this year? What do you hope to share?

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