Miss me? Here’s a quick little update on my life.

Hey everyone. It’s been a while (again).

I feel like I owe a bit of an explanation to my horrendous lack of online activity lately. There really shouldn’t be an excuse, but I needed a break.

The last post I made anywhere was on May 18th, which was just over 3 weeks ago. I didn’t really tell anyone I was taking a break from social media, my blog, and everything relating to Strings & Things. I just did it.

In those three weeks I struggled a lot with the transition I am experiencing right now. For the past five years I have been a student who works evenings and weekends and usually had every single morning to herself. My scheduled contract jobs were quickly coming to a close so I was feeling the pressure to do some real job hunting. As much as I love yarn and love Strings & Things, it wasn’t feasible for me to attempt to turn it into a full-time source of income. In order to live properly, I needed something a little more “9-5ish”.

During those three weeks, every spare moment I had I was on my computer searching for jobs, applying to jobs, and attending interviews. I was picking up extra shifts where I could in order to save up enough in case I was unable to find a job before my contract work ended. I was feeling extremely stressed out.

Usually I turn to yarn to help relieve my stress, but whenever I would sit down and attempt to relax, the anxiety of “I should be looking for a job” would creep back up and I’d drop whatever I was doing and keep looking. I wasn’t getting a whole lot accomplished in the world of yarn, which was furthering my looming feelings of stress and anxiety.

In those three weeks I also was quite sick, and still am rather sick. Now it’s nothing serious, I assure you. But normal healthy people don’t experience three types of colds/flus/infections within a two month period. I was having really frequent migraines and headaches that would last all day, forcing me to hide in the dark and nap, hoping they would fade away and I would be able to get some work done. That usually didn’t work out. They have died down a bit in frequency since, but they are still happening more than what is considered normal. I am working with my doctor to try to figure out why I have been so  unhealthy lately and it is turning out to be quite the mystery.

My feelings of stress, anxiety, and overall unhealthiness were debilitating. I was exhausted, confused, overwhelmed, but still trying to fight through every day. I found the time to finish one project during those three weeks, a personal project, that didn’t even turn out the way I had hoped. My relationship with yarn was starting to become more of a burden than an exciting and fun thing. I had to take a break.

I was blessed enough to find a full-time job that would work with me to accommodate my last few shifts teaching dance, but I am still working more than I ever have before. I simply do not have the time to make and make and make the way I did only a few months ago. I am trying to figure out what that means for Strings & Things in the future, but I am still unsure. All I know is that I am prepared to fight to keep this little project of mine alive, it just might require me to switch my focus a bit to allow for this new “adult” schedule I have.

I won’t dive to deep into my new ideas that I am trying to create, but I promise you my mind has been racing trying to think of new things I can do to keep Strings & Things going.

For the amazing yarn ladies out there and other business owners I have been working and collaborating with, don’t worry! I am still working diligently through our agreements and I am trying my hardest to make things work. I appreciate everyone’s patience with my lack of consistency and availability lately.

A PSA to all my fellow knitters and crocheters: I already know that I won’t be able to attend any Christmas markets this year, so I won’t be preparing a whole bunch of stock over the summer. That means the yarn I have been hoarding that was waiting to turn into winter stock is no longer something I need to keep. In the next few weeks I will be posting tons and tons of great quality, brand new, unused yarn here and in my Etsy shop for purchase. If you know of any other yarn ladies out there who are looking for some goodies that will be much cheaper than they should be, follow my blog so you can get the update when everything goes live!

Thanks again for all of your patience with me. Hopefully I will have some more exciting news soon!