Taking Some Time - Who We Are, and Who We Are Not
Updated: Mar 1
Knitting, Quilting, Sewing, Beading, We Do It All.
We just may not do it very well.
After our latest round of winter retreats, I got to thinking. I really enjoy these hobbies but after all these years, I'm still a novice. One look at the projects our attendees bring with them and I realize I'm way out of my league.
While I may have knit a few baby sweaters for my children when they were toddlers and completed a truly hideous quilt ten years ago, I don't have much motivation for big projects anymore. Truth be told, I haven't even attempted a new techniques or challenging pattern in years.
There was a time when I was younger (much younger) that I wanted to learn everything
I could about sewing, knitting, jewelry making, drawing, embroidery...you name it.
Not only did I want to learn it all, I wanted to teach everything I could to anyone who would listen. Now the best I can do is fit in small knitting projects here and there and only sew when my not-yet-jaded-by-the-frustrations-of-a-puckered-seam-or-a-too-short-quilt-block daughter asks for my help.
So what happened? Life. Life happened. And for the most part, I wouldn't change a thing.
I got older, my kids got older, and my responsibilities and challenges shifted and changed.
But honestly, I can't just blame life. It was also frustration. Buying fabric only to find out I actually hated it halfway into my quilt. Or taking the time to make a gauge swatch (ugh!) only to have the garment still not fit! Or the time my bobbin wouldn't load properly and I had to eat a half a box of chocolates before I was ready to try again.
Hobbies are wonderful but they can also be super frustrating!
Who hasn't asked themselves "why do I like this?!" at least one time during a difficult project?
So where do we go from here?
After all this thinking, here is what we've concluded:
*I have taken the liberty of including Melanie in this section because over the years we have spent a lot of time hashing out these frustrations.
Who we are -
Like I mentioned before, we're crafters. We (neither of us) would say we're particularly great at it. But we sure love doing it. Crafting bring us joy. We knit, we sew, we quilt (Melanie), we bead (me) and we're busy women. There are a lot of people we love who want a piece of our time and honestly for the most part, we're happy to give it to them. But we are also ready to reclaim a little time back for ourselves.
I may never knit another sweater but I'm ready to try something new (Portuguese knitting!) and after our winter retreats, I think I'm ready to give quilting another try.
We're friends who started a business because we love meeting new people and providing them with some time and space to reclaim their hobbies.
Who we are not -
We're not experts on any of the hobbies we do. We don't know everything, we haven't tried everything and our projects (when we're actually able to get them finished), are far from perfect. And honestly, We're happy about it. Not having all the answers or knowing everything about our interests makes working alongside so many different and varied women all the more interesting and valuable.
Also, while we're at it - from a business point of view - we're not fans of social media or algorithms or affiliate links or having to market ourselves. It's way out of our comfort zone! We don't really think the women who would want to join us spend a lot of time on Tik Tok and they probably wouldn't appreciate being bombarded with ad's or emails. So we try and keep it simple and hope the experience we seek to provide, speaks for itself.
If you'd like to learn more about what we do or our upcoming retreats, please click the link below.
Also, leave us a comment about the time you had to eat a box of chocolates in order to finish a project.
We'd love to hear from you!
- Ash (and Mel)