Hello, fiber friends. From the bottoms of our hearts, we hope you’re all doing well, but we also know that’s a really big ask right now. We’re safe at home, well stocked, and our state is under a stay-at-home order. We’re also incredibly lucky that our household’s primary income is stable, as we have so many friends and loved ones who’ve suffered sudden and severe economic hardship due to necessary social distancing and quarantine measures. The fiber community has been hit hard, with major festivals and other in-person events cancelled. For many fiber artists, their business is in fact their primary income. Large events can comprise a major part of an artist’s income for a year. If you, too, are lucky enough...
We quite probably could have started with a simpler set of colorways upon launching our yarn line. I’ve certainly dyed simpler things! But this idea latched onto my brain quite early in the process, and I had to see it through. Our Dathanna colorway series is my attempt at translating my understanding of the Irish words for colors via the medium of dye, rather than the medium of English language. As may be apparent from the yarn listings themselves, there isn’t a direct, one-to-one correlation between, say, “green” and “uaine.” One of my favorite things about my stumbling attempts to learn Irish (and my mostly-forgotten efforts at other languages in school) is the process of trying to understand the world from a completely different...
Happy Holidays, one and all! We’ve been gearing up for the season for a while here at the Cozy Hearth, making sure that our customers, friends, and family stay warm this winter. We wanted to take some time on this year’s Small Business Saturday to celebrate small businesses in general (on our Twitter feed), and to be thankful for everything that makes our little knit-business run. Our shop cats, of course, are always eager to help. They also make dashing, charismatic models for store photography, when they feel like cooperating. Which is, in true cat fashion, only sometimes. Isaac and Fiyero both like to keep a close watch on all fibercraft proceedings. Our suppliers make the things we need to make more...
A lot of the photography for this blog has taken place on the front steps of our apartment, partly because that space has good lighting and some good framing devices, but also because it’s a favorite knitting space for me in particular. Since the weather in this season is highly unreliable, though, and because I missed the conjoined activities of knitting while people-watching, I’ve been taking time a few mornings a week to bring my knitting to a coffee shop for a few hours. So far, it’s been excellent. Knitting in public does a number of good things, both personal and in general. Personally, I can get a boost in productivity and focus on nearly any project when I introduce occasional changes...
I’d been admiring my sister’s knitting skills ever since she moved in with us. Em had even gifted me a truly excellent hat at one point, and happily chattered away about what those needles were doing and what each of the many yarns stashed in the living room were good for making. I’d turned down several offers to learn the skill myself – I was too busy, I was too stressed out, I didn’t want to pick up yet another hand-intensive craft when I’m already struggling with lingering repetitive stress injuries. I’d just watch Em knit, and be content with fluffy goodness as a gift and a mystery. Then – and I know this will seem like a non-sequitur, but bear with me –...