We had a flood in the studio last night. Maddening, maddening! There have been heavy rains here in central Virginia for several days, and I guess it was just too much for the old drain system to keep up with. I never even had a thought about water damage as I thoroughly enjoyed the sound of rain and slept deeply and calmly.
But, this morning that squish-squish sound when I walked across the rugs to open the door, I realized that I had a 'situation.' We spent most of the day dragging out rugs, bagging up soggy boxes and packing materials, and staying out of the way of the cleanup crew and Roto Rooter. We did not lose any yarn as all the bins are built up off the floor, and the computers are on little raised platforms, too. Of course, there were things that soaked up the water which were tucked back under a packing table, or behind plastic bins holding styrofoam popcorn. We found some little bags of mixed spinning fiber which I bought years ago, and they never sold. All but one were a mess, so we tossed them, and I wound up saving that one bag. (It was in plastic, for some reason.) When I saw it, I was reminded of the first hat I knit for my husband out of my handspun. I plied one of my handdyed yarns with this grey stuff, and I really liked how it came out ... sort of Mother Earth meets Middle Class. My husband still has that hat and every time he pulls it out he says, 'This is my favorite hat of all!'
He has quite a variety of hats, too ... slip stitch in variegated colors, cabled yarn, progressively dyed experiments all in handdyed yarns. This year I made my version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Very Warm Hat. In fact, I was going to gift them to some of the menfolk who have helped me through the year, but he's already nabbed a couple and gifted them early. Maybe that's because he says he doesn't like Christmas and the traditions, yet he likes to give gifts.
I was going to write about moving on, though! Yes, the business is moving. I've rented a commercial space just 3 or 4 miles from here. It is out of town, towards the mountain in a little strip mall built a few years ago, but which never really took off. I suppose it remained unfinished because of the location, a little too far off the beaten track, but that's what I like about it!
We have been involved in every aspect of finishing off our space ... painting each wall a different color -- seabreeze blue, mulberry purple, Italian yellow and lime green. I am still holding out for wallpaper in the bathroom. I found a cute novelty print of kids' shoes, and must have it, but we shall see if my name comes up on the installation list. I will say that here in my town, the name Mahone and the word 'wallpaper' have been spoken together in the same sentence for a few generations, but we'll just see how much pull I have. Evidently, it is not too much, if the state of the bathroom walls are any guide! We'll see ...
Move-in date was planned for January 2nd, but after the flooding last night, we have contacted the owner (my accountant!) and hope to move by middle of December. I'd really like that because I am expecting a huge wool shipment at the end of December, and that would be two biggies happening at the same time --- receipt of a large shipment of wool and moving around the same time. Maybe it's a good thing, this flood. It might just push me into action and get us moved and set up in time for the next big rush.
We're introducing a new yarn, by the way, with this coming shipment. TWEED is a four-ply yarn in Aran weight. When dyed & dried it looks like a candy cane effect with one ply taking up more dye than the other three. This happens because that one ply is a superwash merino, while the other three are non-superwash. The candycane effect doesn't show up in a gaudy way in the knitted fabric, but lends a little shading to the final fabric. It lends some visual texture to the knitted fabric. Ask me about prices when the yarn gets here.
