Now offering hand dyed yarn!

And so you have to ask yourself: Do you want a dining room that you rarely use or do you want a play/work/diaper changing station/ mama cloth making (only for a friend to take to Kenya-not for our business)/ Audrey library and toy room?? Of course we want the vibrant work space! Maybe one day we find that we have to keep home and business separate but for now picking up some knitting between breast feeding or scooting out to the kitchen the moment Audrey lays down to sleep for a bit of dying is the way our business works.

Audrey is just over six months old, the same age as our business. We are not growing quite as fast as she is but our development is steady. This week we are offering hand dyed yarn. After knitting for a few months with store bought yarn we found out that we can make our own colours and patterns and that it would be even more fun!
Six months ago Audrey would stay wrapped in a cashmere sleeve, only emerging for diaper changes and the occasional bath. Six months ago our business was pretty confined too. A corner on the couch was all that we needed to knit. Now both Audrey and the business take up much more space! It all seems so natural, this progression of growth and we are enjoying every moment of it!

Taking over the house...

Today we sold our dining room set to make room for the woolies. We will now eat in the kitchen and wind yarn and knit in the living/dining room. The kitchen is still the dye spot but sometimes if it's not too windy we can go outside to work. We got our swift (to wind skeins) and a ball winder this week so if all goes well we will soon be selling hand dyed yarn. Right now we have BFL and merino to dye.

Smartypants now has a blog!!!!

This is what our night is like. Sometimes we wish that we could send a video of the production of our knits. There's baby Audrey eating the wool as we knit. Annie, my cousin, an amazing artist, embroidering new designs and getting excited about an owl that she sketched on a scrap of paper four years ago! My Mom, just home from teaching a day in Kindergarten gets told that I am stocking in an hour so could she please make a few drawstrings! And me, nursing, changing dipes and knitting all day long. Except when I'm over at Annies making new dipes for Audrey, or when I'm standing on a chair changing up the snaps on a goodmama. Can you explain to anyone who does not use cloth that you CHANGED the snaps on a diaper??

So we did a funny stocking today. Interupted by a visit from Audrey's Dad and her Nana, and wth us wishing that we had better light to take pictures.
We're looking into making a light box. It's a funny business. We started making things for Audrey, before she was born. Had some needles a few balls of wool and made up patterns. Then we bought a load of wool from a store in Toronto and some new needles from a Mamma on DS. Then we got a wholesale account, and bought more wool. Then we bought some koolaid and started dying, that progressed to acid dye and we got really excited about making our own colours. A swift and a ball winder should be arriving next week. The business is slowly taking over the living room and often even the kitchen when it's dye day.

Here is our inspiration in her first longies and the soaker she wears today!