I came into this business, sort of on a whim. I’m not sure where the idea came from exactly, but I remember sitting home trying to figure out ways to generate income, outside of my career as a civil servant. Being affected by the Federal Government shutdown, I realized that job security, and paychecks, only went so far. I thought about my journey relearning to crochet and learning to knit, and recalled just how rare it was to see faces of color in the fiber arts community. I decided to revive my Instagram page and interact with the fiber arts community, outside of Ravelry. I also decided to make crochet tutorials, to increase representation in who was teaching, too.
One evening, while painting with my three children, my mind wandered to color mixing and it hit me. I was going to dye yarn! That night, I painted a rainbow, using only the three primary colors, and a hint of white to tint. I ordered a mini dye kit from Amazon (yay free, two-day shipping!) and dug the bare yarn out of my stash. I dove into tutorials, articles, and books on dyeing yarn.
In the midst of all of this, tragedy struck. My mother’s brother, my uncle, died in a car wreck. The day before his service, we spent the day in the Forsyth Park in Savannah. What a lovely day. We spoke to local vendors and artists and the kids got to playing in some sidewalk chalk. On the way to lunch, I cleaned the baby’s hands with a wipe. The resulting color, the mix of the blue and yellow, produced a color that inspired me. Actually, I showed it to Noelle, my oldest, and said “I think we’ll dye a yarn this color and call it Savannah.” And that was it.
I went through LOTS of bare yarn and dye. I also learned that my original rainbow line, in the specific colors I wanted to create, did not make me feel the tingles, so I went back to the drawing board, with “Savannah” as my shade guide. I was ordering yarn and dye left and right. And then, on March 2, I registered for the festival. I know. I’m so ambitious sometimes. But by this point, I had found my dye formulas, and even if I hadn’t, I was determined to figure it out by the time the festival came.
I had 8 gorgeous, spring and summer colors, named by me and my daughter, and with that, I went on to launch my online store. I will admit. I didn’t know SHIT about building a website, much less running an online store, but if I’ve learned nothing in my nearly 15 year career as an auditor, I’ve learned how to learn QUICK. In our profession, you have to pretty much become an expert on a program in a couple of months. We cannot help anyone improve, if we don’t first understand how a program should run. So, I identified my dye errors quickly and adapted. I also received advice and support from my sisters-in-dye and yarn along the way.
I’m three months in, and it’s already been quite the ride. I don’t know what I expected, but I’m learning and growing every day. I am loving this thing, and when I’m dyeing and washing and hanging yarn, I feel a sense of peace and calm that I can only hope gets passed on to you.
Always, and in love,
Nia