As my family and I have moved through the last few weeks, of the darkest days of the year, we've taken a lot of time for self reflection about our journey together on this earth. Deciding what is important and meaningful for each of us and how we can move forward into the new year, more in tune with each other and our natural world.
More family time together was the first unanimous decision! For this reason, the biggest change is that I will not be taking any more custom knitting orders until Spring 2011 and then only on a very limited basis. Most hand knit longies take over twenty hours to knit, not including time for hand dying the yarn, photographing, listing, etc. I've been spending an obscene amount of time knitting customs, and not enough time tending to my own family's needs.
Another reason for this decision is a need for creativity! Knitting the same thing over and over again is very draining on the creative soul. I think in the last year I've knit about two dozen pairs of birchbark longies and I just need to do something that makes me passionate again!!
The second change we are moving towards is being more aware of recycling, reusing, repairing and repurposing. In the last year, all of our shopping has been done at local thrift stores or Goodwill. However this year, we're hoping to eliminate as many shopping trips as possible by repairing the worn out pair of jeans or using them to create something completely new! Did you know that each household throws away 68 pounds of textiles every year?? You can count tons of unique upcycled sweater items through out the year!
Other things we've put on the table to accomplish this year are:
*New knitting patterns and hand dyed yarns in a variety of weights and fibers (can you say merino and silk! ~It's absolutely amazing~)
*My husband Mike has proven to be an oil blending genius and will be mixing up some amazing batches of hand~made soap along with our much loved laundry soap!
*Mike is also designing some recycled waldorf style dolls, with a not so waldorf spin, geared at older kids and teens ~hmmmm, I'm really excited to see what he comes up with~
*Eco~Wrap Cloth gift bags in a variety of sizes made from hand dyed hemp/cotton fabric! We made some this year for the first time with all of the extra fabric and ribbon around the house and even our die hard paper lovers have been converted!
*Eco~friendly shipping. I've stock piled our shipping shelves with biodegradable mailers from EcoEnclose! They're very affordable, extremely durable, and best of all they completely break down in up to 60 months, even in a landfill!
Whew, it's going to be a busy year, but we're so exciting to finally be creating and collaborating together as a family. We can't thank you enough for following us on this journey over the last year, and look forward to discovering what the new year brings for us all~
What changes are you making in your life this year?
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More family time together was the first unanimous decision! For this reason, the biggest change is that I will not be taking any more custom knitting orders until Spring 2011 and then only on a very limited basis. Most hand knit longies take over twenty hours to knit, not including time for hand dying the yarn, photographing, listing, etc. I've been spending an obscene amount of time knitting customs, and not enough time tending to my own family's needs.
Another reason for this decision is a need for creativity! Knitting the same thing over and over again is very draining on the creative soul. I think in the last year I've knit about two dozen pairs of birchbark longies and I just need to do something that makes me passionate again!!
The second change we are moving towards is being more aware of recycling, reusing, repairing and repurposing. In the last year, all of our shopping has been done at local thrift stores or Goodwill. However this year, we're hoping to eliminate as many shopping trips as possible by repairing the worn out pair of jeans or using them to create something completely new! Did you know that each household throws away 68 pounds of textiles every year?? You can count tons of unique upcycled sweater items through out the year!
Other things we've put on the table to accomplish this year are:
*New knitting patterns and hand dyed yarns in a variety of weights and fibers (can you say merino and silk! ~It's absolutely amazing~)
*My husband Mike has proven to be an oil blending genius and will be mixing up some amazing batches of hand~made soap along with our much loved laundry soap!
*Mike is also designing some recycled waldorf style dolls, with a not so waldorf spin, geared at older kids and teens ~hmmmm, I'm really excited to see what he comes up with~
Whew, it's going to be a busy year, but we're so exciting to finally be creating and collaborating together as a family. We can't thank you enough for following us on this journey over the last year, and look forward to discovering what the new year brings for us all~
What changes are you making in your life this year?
