#82 - Casually chatting about travel, craft projects and current obsessions

I'll discuss balancing my craft business, personal health, and self-care. Venturing into video podcasting deepens my audience connection. COVID-19 reminded me to prioritize health over productivity. Crafting remains a source of relaxation and creativity amidst running a small business. I emphasize sustainable crafting and integrating it into my marketing. Join me as I share my journey.

FULL SHOW-NOTES WITH TAKEAWAYS  patternshift.fm

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BEST QUOTE FROM THE EPISODE
"Sometimes, a lot of the time, when you get overwhelmed by all the things you need to do and you don't have the energy to do things, and you do want to show up... answer the question: How can it be easy?"

LINKS

• Bullet Journal Method
• Ja, Wol Community
• Check Your Thread Podcast with Zoe Edwards
• Sätergläntan Institutet för slöjd och hantverk
• Hollands Wol Collectief
• Navia Brushed Tradition yarn

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Chapters

• 0:00 Podcast Update and Life Chat
• 8:47 Upcoming Travel Adventures and Craft Projects
• 22:42 Planning Ski Outfits and Knitting Projects
• 36:09 Crafting, Sewing, and Shopping Plans
• 55:51 Building a Community for Small Businesses

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So is this any better? Is this any better? Is this any better? No, it's not. I cannot hear myself. I know what's going on. Oh, here we are. Here we are Right. Hi everyone, let me adjust my lipstick here. Today I'm actually recording video as well. I've been doing that for a while and because I'm trying to figure out if I want to record the podcast and then also share the recorded material, the video, on YouTube, and I've been recording it to figure out whether or not I feel comfortable about it, whether or not I mean about it, whether or not I mean this lipstick, I mean.

Speaker 1: 0:47

That's the thing, right, when you have to, when you record video, you kind of have to make an effort to make yourself look a little bit presentable. As you can hear, this episode is already sounding different than my other episodes. This episode is already sounding different than my other episodes, and that's because this is a completely different type of episode. I've been focusing on providing you with practical and somewhat philosophical information about running a craft, a needle craft, a textile craft based business that is trying to do things right for the world and for themselves and balancing all the things, and sometimes it's easy to have somebody to hold you by the hand and tell you what is actually worth your energy and what to focus on and what other things you can kind of let go of in order to keep enjoying what you do and keep yourself happy and healthy and also still feel connected to your passion, to the reason why you started doing this in the first place, to the reason why you started doing this in the first place. So that's what I've been doing, focusing on practical things a little bit more, and less interviews, more of sharing bits and pieces of what I also teach in my course, so that, in a different way, things are accessible to more people. And why is today different?

Speaker 1: 2:31

Well, I happened to walk into a cloud of COVID and, yeah, that kind of pushed me back a little bit on my schedule and I'm recovering, I am okay, I'm good, I'm good. I mean I'm, I'm healthy. It's just that I have so low energy still and this has been, oh, I don't know, almost two weeks ago now. So, um, one of my friends told me uh, for every day you're sick, it's like, it's like what did she say? Seven days recovery. That sounded so wow. But yeah, I haven't been feeling up to doing work, work, so I haven't been able to record an episode and I kind of completely missed one without telling anybody about it, and it didn't feel bad, because I try to um, that's what I try to teach people that you are important and your health is important and you have to balance things. And as much as everybody says show up, show up and hustle, hustle, hustle that is not sustainable for anyone, and so I have to practice what I preach and be okay with not being there all the time, and I already decided that I wanted to do a bi-weekly podcast, because that matches my general energy level and the way that my life is organized and the amount of time that I have left next to running the business, because podcasting is not the business.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Podcasting is basically part of the marketing plan. So some people are content creators and that's their whole thing. For me, it's just part of my thing. My actual work is working with small business owners and figuring out what their next step is and where they feel comfortable and where they feel uncomfortable and how we can work with that and work around that, and so that is what I love to do, and I also really love to make podcasts, by the way, that's why I still do it.

Speaker 1: 5:05

After how many years A bunch? This is episode 82 times two. That is the amount of weeks divided by 52. Well, you do the math. It's not for me, but I've been doing this for a while and love doing it. But I've been doing this for a while and love doing it, but I'm giving myself a little bit of grace for not having been able to bring out an episode last time. Also, I have been working with Teresa, who is my assistant for the podcast. So she does some of the work around letting people know that there is a new episode, and that has been great and really takes off the edge of the things that are harder for me, like things that honestly, are a little bit boring for me, like kind of a copy paste type of stuff that is sometimes really hard for me to do. So that has been great to be working with her and but even with some help, I still have to do the bulk of the work and sometimes that's just not possible.

Speaker 1: 6:29

So today I'm just going to chat about what's going on in my life, about what it is that I'm up to in different parts of my life, and just to show you who I actually am, because sometimes I've been in this, I've been working in specifically the knitting realm, the knitting scene, for I think about like working at least 18 years, so that's been a while, and sometimes I forget that the people that I used to talk to and see all the time in my yarn shop are not necessarily the people that are listening right now. They're probably not, because I kind of shifted my audience from the buyer to the seller and um, and so a whole bunch of you people don't even know who I am. Uh, I don't know. That's that sounds awful, awful, as if you should know, but what I mean is you don't know much about what's happening other than the stuff that I'm sharing with you and my good friend Zoe Edwards from the Check your Thread podcast. She always talks a little bit about what she's up to, talks a little bit about what she's up to, usually connecting to the topic of her podcast being more sustainable around sewing and making more sustainable choices and she talks about the things that are happening in her life when it comes to sustainability and all kinds of things, and I always really enjoy that. But I decided to offer you as much practical information as possible in a short amount of time and then there's not a lot of time to chat, I thought. And so maybe it's fun to have a chatting episode for once and kind of get you up to speed with what's going on.

Speaker 1: 8:47

So what's going on, saskia? Well, a whole bunch of things really. May is going to be, and it's already started. It's such a busy month. Lots of things are happening. I will be traveling a bunch. We have our I think it's translates to the spring break for school, so we have two weeks off for the kids I have. I'm a mom of two teens and we have been traveling back and forth to our holiday home that we have in the Netherlands, where I also live, and it's a two hour drive, so it's far away enough to feel like you're away, but it's close enough so that you can. Well, you wouldn't get your toothbrush if you forgot your toothbrush, but yeah, like we turned two weeks into three by doing four days at the holiday home and four days at home and going back and forth so that the kids can also hang out with their friends here. And it's been, it's been ideal.

Speaker 1: 9:57

Honestly, the way we have things set up there is that I have made the what's the word in English, the mudroom into a craft room. Actually, it's also still the mudroom, but it's quite big. They used to the people that used to live there were dog breeders and their own dogs would be in that space and they would have kennels there and they took it out and now it's quite a big room to just be a mudroom. So I put in some tables where I can sew one of those cute Swedish pegboards that I really like, and we found an antique closet or my in-laws found an antique closet at a thrift store, beautiful, for like no amount of money whatsoever, so that's really a stunning piece that I keep some fabric in, because we don't live there the whole year. We have the space that usually was used for clothes. I have put all my bits and bobs of yarn that are not full skeins, and that is still a lot of yarn. So I also move my.

Speaker 1: 11:24

There's going to be a lot of umming because this is completely spontaneous, unscripted, I don't even have notes. So it's going to be a lot of umming and I'll take some out in the editing, but not all of it, because you know, um see. See. So my, my yarn scraps which are not really scraps. They're just the odd balls, you know, and I've organized them in um, in color, according to color, and I also have my knitting loom there. What else? I've got my e-spinner there as well, and I've got my normal pedal spinner at home.

Speaker 1: 12:15

Here's editing, saskia. Of course I'm talking about my spinning, so I can do anything there. I am taking my sewing machine with me when we are going, when I have a plan. It's there right now and I'll sew a skirt, a reversible skirt, because it's one of those fabrics that has a double gaze, and it's reversible fabrics that have what is it? Double gaze, and it's reversible. So I'm trying to think of how to do a pocket in a reversible skirt. That's not going to be too difficult. So I'm just basically thinking about sewing like a bag that I will just tie around my waist, that I'll flip inside the skirt, and it's going to be separate from the skirt. That's my idea, but now I'm already going into my projects.

Speaker 1: 13:12

But so I have this craft mudroom set up there, which is amazing. We have a lot of outdoor space. I'm actually thinking about growing flax there, which I could, but I have to learn a little bit more about it, but it's not too hard to grow. I think I don't have to be there the whole time to watch it grow. So I think it's doable.

Speaker 1: 13:42

And so this summer I'm traveling up to Sweden for the well. I've been in Sweden a lot of times, but to Säterglanten I hope I'm pronouncing it right Um, it's a craft school in uh well, it's the middle, middle North of uh of Sweden and uh in a town called Inchen, and I've learned old needle techniques there, I've learned to spin there, I have made a corset there and I've picked up some Swedish here and there. I'm still really trying and it's very basic and speaking is so different than listening, but when I listen to a conversation I can piece things together right now. So I'm getting somewhere and I'm looking forward to going there so much because to me, this place is I don't know.

Speaker 1: 14:42

It's like all my nerves get a break. Everything there is handmade, natural, everything is calm. People even get a note when they subscribe for a course to not bring perfume, which is, I mean, it's. Everything is calm there. Basically, you eat or what's. Is it hand-baked? Yeah, your hand-baked granola from a hand-carved wooden bowl next to a hand-spun, hand-woven curtain. Like it's crazy. It's so beautiful, so amazing. I don't even know if that is even real. I mean, what I mean is do they put up a show or is that the way things sometimes are? And I think the latter, because we've traveled as a family to Sweden quite a bit. So it's just a different, a different way of looking at crafts and uh, there's, there's so much history and I just love it there.

Speaker 1: 16:03

I love it because I can learn how to spin um flax in the Netherlands, definitely, could learn it here. I mean, I can even learn it in this, in this room. I could just go to YouTube or to Skillshare or to I don't think Skillshare has it crafty or the other one, the Spanish one, uh, the one where I'm learning about writing right now I can't think of the name, it's okay, it's fine, it's I'm, it's not like they pay, they pay me. So, yeah, that's where I'm going. And because how fun would it be if I can grow my own flax, then turn it into linen, then spin it, then weave it and then sew it into a garment. Garment, that would take ages, but that's not the point. The point is that I could, and I'm very curious to see how that, yeah, how that would evolve and I would have so much fun in the process.

Speaker 1: 18:41

I do have a little bit of an issue with getting there, because I try not to fly if I don't have to and I usually don't but it's proving really difficult to go there by train, and I have learned that not all the tracks in Europe have the same width. So that is one of the reasons that they well, it's a little bit naive, but one of the reasons that they don't just all work together so that we people in Europe can actually have a choice if we want to travel. And now it is proving really, really difficult to book a trip from Rotterdam, where I live, to Incheon in Sweden, and I've tried so many websites so many times and there's like it's going to take at least 24 hours. I'm going to have to switch trains so many times, it's going to be three times as expensive as flying and, um, it's, it's messing up my whole value system and, um, before I know it, I'm saying to myself I should just learn this from YouTube. But that's not, you know, I mean not, you know, I mean it's very, very frustrating. Um, but at a certain point you're just going to have to say, like, I don't get on a plane, unless it just doesn't make sense not to.

Speaker 1: 20:15

So, yeah, there's that, um, but I'm looking. I'm looking forward to that trip so much because I'm going to go by myself. The first time I went there, nobody spoke English like hardly. Over the years, it has become more popular with people from outside of Sweden and so there's been more English around me, but I hope this time it sounds weird, but I hope people will speak Swedish like the whole time. I'll just try to be more silent so that they don't switch to English and just listen more than speak, which is going to be a challenge in and of itself and of itself. Um, yeah, so, and that's coming up, uh, but even faster. Also, that's only later on in the, in the summer, but in May I will be going to Paris, sweet, sweet Paris, um, because it's going to be the first anniversary of my marriage. Still sounds weird. And yeah, we're gonna spend it where we spent it last year, in Paris, in the same hotel, which is great, and this time without the kids, so they're going to be watching the house or wrecking it either, or, and I'm very much looking forward to that because I always have so much fun when I travel with my husband we are really good travel buddies and I don't have any particular plans.

Speaker 1: 21:54

I think I will look at my fabric stash and have a good deep think about what's missing. I'm actually wearing the Breton stripe t-shirt that I made from the fabric that I bought last year in Paris. It's just a basic t-shirt which I really like and enjoyed making. It's a really good quality fabric. I love Breton stripes. They go with everything and anything. They're such a cool classic, even with this crooked lipstick. Like, maybe it's just my lips that are a little bit off off center.

Speaker 1: 22:42

It's weird to it's weird to listen to your own voice, but I've gotten used to that a little bit. Um, and making short videos for Instagram back in the day gotten used to that too. I'm starting to get used to recording um, the podcast as a video, but I'm always kind of looking at why is that hair a little weird and why is so? I don't know whatever. Where was I? So Paris? Um, I think I have been listening to Zoe and um, as the aforementioned Zoe from Check your Threads, and she has an episode about organizing your stash, um, in a way that you can use it. So in these drawers behind me. I have, um, is this the right one? Yeah, uh, I have the um.

Speaker 1: 23:49

I have a winter drawer and a summer drawer and the fabrics that I first want to use, but I have been missing a kind of a thin fabric that could be like floppy pants. I need floppy pants in my life that are comfortable and kind of cool, kind of chic, you know. So I don't have that, so I might look for it. In Paris, at that area around the Sacré-Cœur, they have fabric shops that are crazy. Last time I went looking for I wanted to make pajamas from Toile de Joux, but they only had upholstery fabric and I thought that would not be very comfortable as pajamas. So I didn't manage to find it last time. So maybe this time we'll see. I'm not buying anything that I don't need, so what I like to do is I like to beforehand think about what's missing and what is going to be something that I'll probably get anyway, and if I then get it while I'm traveling, it's going to be a memory as well as something practical that was going to come into my house. Anyway, what I did order is some soft, soft shell fabric. Is it fabric, soft shell stuff? Um, because I have a friend, her name is May I don of talked to each other and decided that we wanted to make our ski outfits for this year, because we go to Austria together every year with our families and we always have such a great time and we have been going to.

Speaker 1: 25:44

We have been skiing and snowboarding for a big part for me, but skiing since we were kids, like since we were really tiny and we were thinking about the 90s style where you wear even jeans with a protective I think it's called gamation but I don't know how to translate it. It's these things that you kind of plasticky with elastic and you put them around your boots and around your pants at the bottom so the snow won't get into your boots. And we were talking about why don't we just knit a sweater that is windproof? That should be good enough. Like talking about all the different styles and ideas and comforts and my ever growing frustration with non-existing plus size ski wear. It's like as a fat woman or fat person, you're not allowed to ski. Yeah, it really sucks. Every single year I'm in the car on our way back and I decide that I want to start a business in fat girl ski stuff and then I don't, because I already have a business and 700 hobbies and interests, so I just get wired up about it every year. And so this year we decided to make our own stuff. And I don't know, but she's already got a sweater finished.

Speaker 1: 27:18

I have done nothing except for order the soft shell fabric which they didn't have, any fun prints. But then again, I'm 48. Who needs a fun print? I do. They had super cool. I mean they had one meter, that's enough to make me a hood. So now I got, I went with a leopard print. I mean you could say it's fun, you could say it's done, you could say anything about it, but at least it's not boring. So I have kind of a leopard print, but it's a little bit abstract, so it's not not leopard leopard, it's like. It's like leopard done by Picasso or leopard done by some other artists.

Speaker 1: 28:13

And then I got some plain black to make pants and actually I'm looking, I'm very much looking forward to the pants. The trousers no, trousers, ski trousers, no, ski pants, ski pants. And I'm looking forward to wearing them because I'm thinking I don't need much, I just need an elastic waist and a way for the snow not to get in my boots and I'm good, I don't need much, it just needs to fit. I don't even really need pockets, because I could just I don't know get a fanny pack, bum bag, whatever you call it, something like that. Of course, then I have to extend the thing that goes around your waist because they're all small. Anyway, I'll figure it out. So I'm looking forward to that.

Speaker 1: 29:05

I think I can do it, but I thank the universe that I have a sewing teacher that is also up for doing this and helping me out, because she's like no, no, no, no, not just an elasticated waist, we can do better. We can do zippers here and push button there, and then we could do this so that you can have a pocket here and a pocket there. I'm like oh no, I don't know it's, it's May already. I'm not, I don't know. I don't know if I can do it, but I don't want to like if May can do it, I can do it, we can do it, we're going to look cool.

Speaker 1: 29:41

It's me made May now and I'm going to move that into um, did it December and uh, make sure that I have my outfit In terms of the sweater. Um, so I'm thinking of making an anorak and uh, ski pants, um, and ski pants and a sweater. But I'm not trusting the sweater plan to be, like, foolproof for snow and everything Not. Yet, although I am the wool advocate, I just also kind of in my in the back of my head, wanted to make that uh anorak type thing as well. So I'm thinking about using the yarn that I bought when I was visiting the?

Speaker 1: 30:28

Um Faroese islands. It is, it is quite hard, hardy, it's um, and I always think the scratchier, the warmer, and it's not super scratchy cause it's the, it's Navia and it's the brushed, the brushed um variation. Um, I can look it up and I'll share it in the show notes, or maybe not, because I wanted to keep this a very light uh chat. Yeah, I should look it up. I should not let you look it up yourself. That's not how this works. I'll look it up for you. Uh, brushed, vintage brushed, whatever.

Speaker 1: 31:11

And um, I also got uh, a book that has all the patterns for the Faroese traditional patterns for the color work. So one of the I bought like a whole bunch of colors with not really a plan. It's not colors, colors, it's all natural colors. So it's browns, grays, creams, dark, dark browns, not black, and I'm going to mix and match and there's one pattern and a pattern book that I could use, but I kind of want to mix it up and do my own pattern within a pattern, if you know what I mean. So I've got the written pattern on how to knit the sweater, but I want to design the fairy's pattern. Why is it one word? Well, you know what I mean. Let's hope you know what I mean. So that's my plan for that. So I need to get going with that.

Speaker 1: 32:17

Um, then I'm also now for my husband knitting um how should we call this? A? Um Trachtenjacke, which is basically the kind of cardigan you wear with lederhosen. Um, also for that trip, because in Austria, where we go, they wear the traditional costume for Christmas and or every day. A bunch of people wear it every day. They walk around leather pants every day and the ladies wear their dirndls and the actual pretty, pretty, like not the Halloween, buy it in a plastic bag type of dirndls, like the crafts, luscious colors, shapes, all of the things so beautiful. That's another dream I have, because every year I go there they buy about three plus size ones and they're already sold once I get there.

Speaker 1: 33:25

So, and I'm a little bit. I need to try them on right, because I don't want to buy them online because these are, these are items that you, they will should last you for years, like that. That's the idea. That's a whole different thing. I guess next year maybe I'll make my own dirndl. That dirndl, that could also be a thing. So yeah, I'm knitting the Trachtenjacke, which is basically garter stitch forever. I don't really mind garter stitch forever, especially at night, because I'm tired and I can't think and I can't count and I can't do anything but go straight into the basic stitches. But it's so much of it that even I get bored, and so I have put that to the side, but I think I should really start working on it again because I have to get cracking on my own sweater. So yeah, there's that.

Speaker 1: 34:28

What else am I doing? I'm knitting a pair of socks from some Rosario, rosaria, rosario, uh sock yarn from Portugal that I have bought. Where did I buy that? I think in Brighton. I think I must've bought it in Brighton, don't really remember, anyway. So, uh, basic socks.

Speaker 1: 34:52

What else I'm uh sewing, uh, a shirt dress from I think that type of fabric has a name, but I don't know what it's called. It is white and light blue stripes, kind of that very basic, a little bit like for the people that are watching. A little bit like this, that kind of fabric like this, that kind of fabric If you remember the kids dungarees they have a brand, oshkosh or something, and they were usually in that kind of stripe. It's not really jeans, I don't know what to call it, twill, I guess. So I'm doing that for my own blocks, that I've learned to pattern, draw, draw patterns for my, for my own sizes measurements, and I'm doing that in sewing classes, but I haven't been there because it's the holidays and I'm now sewing the whole the big units together, but I'll probably spend a lot of time doing the collar and all of that and the button bands.

Speaker 1: 36:09

I've done it before. I have made my own wedding overalls which had all those different kinds of elements, so it's not going to be a new thing. But I'm super bad at remembering what comes first and so I completely rely on my teacher. But what happens when I do that is that I feel like I'm not learning enough. So I just kind of lean in to the moment and just do whatever she says and then I forget about it in to the moment and just do whatever she says, and then I forget about it. So I've decided to take my bullet journal with me and keep like step-by-step notes of what I'm doing.

Speaker 1: 36:49

I'm not sure if I'll ever get back to them, but at least I know that I have them, because the idea is that once I've done this dress, that is the same as a tunic or a shirt with long or short sleeves. So once this works, it works for a whole bunch of different things that are easily adjustable and made to measure for me, which is amazing and great. And if you don't know it yet and great and if you don't know it yet, this is something I have also recently learned is that I started sewing to be able to make things for my size, for my body, but then when you buy patterns, they are also made for general bodies. Of course, they have a wide size range and, depending on whether or not you work with stretch materials or wider styles, it is great and it's such a step up from buying clothes in the shop, especially when it comes to quality and material and strength and how you put it together, but they are still not made for your specific body.

Speaker 1: 38:09

So I took the class of making what they call blocks, I think, for a top, a skirt. Those two combined is a dress, then I have pants and then I have all the information that I need to make adjustments for different types of skirts and stuff. So I decided I did this course. If I don't put it into practice, I will forget. I will not get back to it. So every single thing that I'm doing now in class it's actually not knitting, not knitting sewing classes, but it's begeleid and I know all of you are saying the word now because you know it, but I forgot it. And I know all of you are saying the word now because you know it, but I forgot it. It's accompanied. No, well, my teacher helps me whenever I need the help. That's basically it, and there's a whole group of other people that are doing their own thing and it's fun. It's a nice way to connect with other people that are also sewing and basically a cool hangout. To be honest, I love hanging out there. So that is, I think, all of my knitting projects, my sewing project oh, I've got another sewing project.

Speaker 1: 39:44

So, because we are going moving back and forth to our holiday home a lot, also on weekends and in the holidays, sometimes I need to do a little bit of work and I have an iPad, but that was not really working for a lot of things and so I invested in a laptop and now that laptop needs protection. So a while ago I bought wool felt from the Dutch Wool Collective, hollands Wool Collective, which is basically felted fabric from sheep here locally, local sheep, and it's really fun stuff. One of the pieces that I bought is was cream colored and we just did nothing to it and just put it on the floor and it's a rug now. We didn't even cut anything, we just put it on the floor, done, okay. We put a non-slip mat under it and it's great. It's in the bed, bath bath, it's in the bedroom of our holiday home and it's wonderful. And then I bought the dark brown and it's really thick. It's like seven millimeters thick. So now I'm making kind of an envelope with a big elastic around it, which was actually meant to be used in a skirt, but I need it another way. So now I'm going to put the elastic band around that.

Speaker 1: 41:12

And a while ago I took apart this old pair of jeans, stitch by stitch, and I'm using the pockets on the inside to put the laptop cable in. I think the plug is a little bit too clunky, so I'm not sure what to do with that yet, but I'll figure it out. I'll probably never travel with just a laptop, so I'll probably have a bag where I can put that thing in. Uh, but yeah, that's fun I'm. I'm going to be doing that as well. I think this is all my craft stuff.

Speaker 1: 41:54

Um, and I was talking about Paris and the fabric buying. I will not buy any yarn in Paris, but I will, however, probably and I will not lie about this probably buy some yarn at the Wedding Wool Weekend in Berlin. I'm going there with my friend Angela, and we've been trying to do a wool-based event together probably since COVID Since not my COVID, but since the lockdowns, and there was always something going on, usually from my end, and this time we finally managed to actually get train tickets and a hotel. We got an Airbnb. It got canceled because they messed up, I don't know, it was a weird thing. We got a hotel. Now we're going there. I'm super excited. I'm also very excited about all the time we'll have in the train for knitting and I'm really, really looking forward to meeting all the vendors there and the crafters and seeing some friends that I haven't seen in a while. So, yeah, I'm really excited about that.

Speaker 1: 43:11

Um, basically, the vendors now are my clients. So, uh, I am looking forward to talking to them and to figuring out what is hard for them and how they could use support in running their small business. So I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully, I'll be able to do some reporting from there. I will bring my small mic, but I still have to officially get approval for that. So I'll go in and ask Ruth and ask if I can do that and hopefully I will be able to do a little bit of a report there, which I really like doing. I'm always really nervous to do it, but it's so fun to listen to reports from all around and my plans for buying stuff there. The plan is always as little as possible because I already have yarn. I don't need yarn, but I will have to tell you this I am going to do the same thing that I do with fabric Look at my wardrobe, look at what's missing.

Speaker 1: 44:32

What do I have in my stash? Can I make something from stash? Is something lacking? I've got two plans. I start with the one that is not going to get me on a whole other tangent, and that is lino muka, which is a linen which I love. I used to sell it in my shop and I have this mismatch of different colors in my stash that I've tried to turn into a coherent project, but I haven't been able to manage. I have the brightest green, almost like fluorescent green fluorescent green. Then I have kind of a denim blue, like I don't see how that. I mean, I'm up for a little bit of a, an experiment, but it just doesn't work.

Speaker 1: 45:28

Then I have what do I have? Some red, I think. Now fluorescent and red, no, no go. It does work with uh, with the blue, but I already have a blue and red linen top and it's not enough. So what I'll do is I'll pick one of the colors that I like most for a top, cause I do need more summer tops. I don't nearly have enough now. I need to really step up and get some stuff done too, so that I can wear something. So that's the idea I'll probably buy, if they have it, some of that denim color and make a nice bluish linen top for summer which will be really easy to wear with the rest of my wardrobe because it's basically now either a red, white blue like I want to say Navy style, but it's not true like red, white blue, uh kind of things, and then black.

Speaker 1: 46:36

So part of me is Tim Burton, part of me lives in a cottage, and I also like colors that have a little bit of brown in them, like with yarn when you dye over a yarn that's already brown or tan colored. Those kinds of colors I really love, so that I also have in my wardrobe. So finding something that could go with the whole thing, that is great and that makes me wear more things longer and with more pleasure, and so I can mix and match stuff. So that's the plan, and then and this is the whole other tangent I feel like coming. I really truly adore and love crafts needle crafts, textile crafts, as you know and I also have other things that I really love, and one of those things um have been coming back in loops is stationery and fountain pens and things like that, and I've been in a little bit of a how would we call it An obsession, perhaps.

Speaker 1: 47:57

I've been a little bit obsessed about watching YouTube videos on inks and fountain pens and I have acquired a nice new Kaweco Aluminium. They call it Ruby Red, but I call this like blush, not blush pink. Like's really nice pink. It's cherry blossom no, that's too. It's darker than that, but it's really really nice, it's lovely.

Speaker 1: 48:29

I bought it together for those of you that are interested. I got some ink with it that matches and it's the Wait, let me get it. It's the Ruy d'Ancre by Herbin and it matches perfectly. But the nib that I had on it was an extra fine, because I want to have an extra fine for my bullet journal, because I like writing small in there. But then this ink was too light. So I guess I still have stuff to learn. But also, I happen to be creative and I switched my Kaweco Galen leather cognac version, leather cognac version. The tip was a broad or double broad, yeah, double broad. So I switched this one with this one and now is also a great match, also by Harbin, and um, so this kind of now turned into a fountain pen thing. Uh, but I'll leave it at that. So why am I talking about fountain pens now? Oh, my gosh, because I was talking about knitting plans. Makes sense, right? So this is why I need a script, otherwise this is not, it's all over. So I'm looking at all those videos of fountain pens and people that are sharing their ink choices with their fountain pens.

Speaker 1: 50:33

Called Adventure Denali that is her channel, I forget her name now A wonderful person, very lovely. I actually have something to say about her that also relates to what we are actually doing in this podcast, but I'll get to that later. She collects vintage fountain pens and has this whole thing. She has two dogs and another little critter that I forget the name of, and she knits, and she was knitting this shawl. I think it's called Moon Sisters, and I fell. I was over the moon, I fell in love with it. It's so beautiful. I was over new moon, I fell in love with it. It's so beautiful.

Speaker 1: 51:23

Uh, I'm, as I have no notes, I'm looking it up as we speak because I did put it in my uh, ravelry favorites. Um, or to be fully, um, complete, it's my. What is the app called? Rabbit Moon Sisters? Yeah, and the pattern is by Caitlin Hunter. It's such an amazing design. Caitlin has actually been inspired by Anna Maltz, my friend who did this whole pattern book on Marling. The book is called Marlisle. It's an amazing, great, fun book with my favorite chal, actually my all-time favorite chal called let me S. It's called S E-S-S and this is it. It's really beautiful.

Speaker 1: 52:27

I love that one. It's really chunky and I wear it as a it's almost like a blanket. But this new pattern by Caitlin Hunter is made for fingering weight sock yarn and is big, but it's thinner, it has more drape and it needs a lot of yarn. It needs three skeins for two colors, so six skeins of fingering weight yarn, and so I'll probably look for that, because I think I need this shawl in my life and I do not have that amount of same-ish sock yarns in my stash. The sock yarns that I have are mostly for socks and just one skein, or I do have a three by two set that I bought for a top, but that's not going to be enough. Then I cannot do the amazing fringe that is in this shawl. So, yeah, that's probably what I'll be looking for and yeah, that is the thing.

Speaker 1: 53:54

So I was going to say something else about Adventure Denali. I feel like I need to look up her first name. Yes, so I was going to say another thing about Adventure Denali. Her name is Alicia and what I thought was so fun, I just happened upon her channel via, via, through different Inca pen videos, and I found out that she has this whole YouTube channel and she just uses her phone. And I think this is a great way to end this episode that sometimes, a lot of the time, when you get overwhelmed by all the things you need to do and you don't have the energy to do things and you do want to show up, because sometimes it's okay not to show up, you know it's perfectly okay to take a break, but sometimes if you want to show up and you find it hard, then answer the question how can it be easy?

Speaker 1: 55:03

This is what my coach, kim, has taught me. How can it be easy? Alicia has made a wonderful, wonderful channel, just choosing her phone. She even edits on her phone, she takes away all the things that can be super overwhelming, but just setting up boundaries for herself and saying listen, I'm using my phone, I'm editing on my phone and this is what I can do. And that helps you to not overthink every single thing. You're going to leave the um, every single thing. You're going to leave the ums in there. You're going to leave the struggling and the finding the words in there. Not all of it, maybe, but a bunch of it, and it's fine.

Speaker 1: 55:51

She definitely has a huge amount of followers, which is not really, I mean, I don't know why. If she wants to make money with this or um, and is it about the amount of followers, that's a whole different thing. But she's able to make something that I have been loving and I've been eating up, uh, with almost no tools, and that is the same for any one of you that runs a business and is trying to make things work. We don't need a whole bunch of flashy stuff, says the girl with a fancy microphone and fancy headphones. I got these after a couple of years and I love them and I'm going to keep them, but when I just started out, I didn't have that and I didn't need it, and you can do your work and you can share your knowledge in ways that can be really valuable and truthful and honest, and it doesn't need all that other uh, fancy stuff. So I was going to leave you with that thought and um, uh, and hopefully I'll uh you.

Speaker 1: 57:11

You enjoyed this, um, a little bit of a different kind of vibe to to my um, my podcast. I hope you will sign up for my emails. I will not send you a lot of emails, for the same reason that I don't record a lot of episodes, but when I do, I hope they will be helpful. I have tips, I have insights, small questions answered that can really hopefully shine a light on the things that you are struggling with as a small business owner, and I just would love to have you on my list so that we can get in touch and connect.

Speaker 1: 57:57

Another way to connect, obviously, of course, is through my online community. For a small amount each month, you support the podcast and you're in a community with peers, other people that love the same things that you do and they struggle with the same things that you might struggle with. So even if you're not entering my big program, you will still get so much value from just being there and hanging out with people like yourself. So go over to patternshiftfm and find all the information that you need. You can sign up for everything there as well and through the links in the show notes. Bye, you can sign up for everything there as well, and through the links in the show notes. Bye, thank you.