A big thank you to everyone who came out and said hello, we were so happy to meet so many of you (despite how serious I look in this photo – I was hot!) Our booth was spilling over with handmade yarn from me (of course!)

and a bunch of other  yarnies.

For the full list, check out A Novel Yarn.

PS. If you got a pattern at the show? I’ll be posting those videos I promised tomorrow! Come back for them or just subscribe and it’ll come right to . . . → Read More: The Biiiig Crafty!]]> The Big Crafty was awesome!

A big thank you to everyone who came out and said hello, we were so happy to meet so many of you (despite how serious I look in this photo – I was hot!)

Our booth was spilling over with handmade yarn from me (of course!)

and a bunch of other  yarnies.

For the full list, check out A Novel Yarn.

PS. If you got a pattern at the show? I’ll be posting those videos I promised tomorrow! Come back for them or just subscribe and it’ll come right to your inbox.

My favorite part? The delicous Short Street Cakes (the ONE place that makes gluten-free cupcakes!) will be there with cupcakes. Woo!

You can get directions to the show here.

I will be in spot #5, which you can find on this map (pdf).

Need even more incentive? Mention that you saw this blog post and you’ll get a FREE pattern. It’s super secret and not for sale yet, but it looks like this:

Instead of writing about, let me tell you what it’s like:

But most importantly?

Without you and your support at the Boutique, I wouldn’t be able to pay the bills. Without your delightful emails, I wouldn’t love what I do. Without your encouragement and sympathy during hard times, I wouldn’t be able to go back to the wheel each day.

Thanks for making this last year awesome.

Here’s to many more fabulous, yarny, colorful adventures!

PS. Completely unrelated but entirely serendiptously, I’m almost at 600 sales in my etsy shop. The person who buys the 600th item will get a free skein of yarn in their order! Get . . . → Read More: Happy 1 year anniversary!]]> Today’s my anniversary!

I have been self-employed, making handspun yarn, full-time for one year!

Instead of writing about, let me tell you what it’s like:

But most importantly?

I want to say,  THANK YOU!

Without you and your support at the Boutique, I wouldn’t be able to pay the bills.
Without your delightful emails, I wouldn’t love what I do.
Without your encouragement and sympathy during hard times, I wouldn’t be able to go back to the wheel each day.

Thanks for making this last year awesome.

Here’s to many more fabulous, yarny, colorful adventures!

PS. Completely unrelated but entirely serendiptously, I’m almost at 600 sales in my etsy shop. The person who buys the 600th item will get a free skein of yarn in their order! Get yours here.

(please ignore anything stupid that I may say, including my baby talk. I am powerless in the face of such adorableness)

Hope this brightens your Monday!

PS. If your Monday needs a little more fun, join . . . → Read More: Sheep-watching]]> This weekend I hung out with my sheep and I thought you might enjoy a bit of it.

(please ignore anything stupid that I may say, including my baby talk. I am powerless in the face of such adorableness)

Hope this brightens your Monday!

PS. If your Monday needs a little more fun, join me here.

Ok, maybe not famous, but they are in the Jonesborough Herald and Tribune!

The story centers on some of my students, the Misterly family. The picture you see above is of 11 year old knitting machine, Maggie. I’ve been teaching the Misterlys (mom, daughter and 8 yr old son) for just about a year. During that year they’ve made toys, sweaters and finished up piles of unfinished knitting.

Check out the entire article here.

If you’re looking for more information about knitting lessons with Tara Swiger, you can find it here.

If you aren’t near enough for lessons, but still want to learn to knit, check out my Learn to Knit Kit.

Did you read the article? Let me know in the comments!

PS. Tomorrow I’m going to announce 2 new limited-edition yarn excitements. If you don’t want to miss out,  get it delivered right to . . . → Read More: Knitting Lesson Fame]]> My knitting lessons are famous!

Ok, maybe not famous, but they are in the Jonesborough Herald and Tribune!

The story centers on some of my students, the Misterly family. The picture you see above is of 11 year old knitting machine, Maggie. I’ve been teaching the Misterlys (mom, daughter and 8 yr old son) for just about a year. During that year they’ve made toys, sweaters and finished up piles of unfinished knitting.

Check out the entire article here.

If you’re looking for more information about knitting lessons with Tara Swiger, you can find it here.

If you aren’t near enough for lessons, but still want to learn to knit, check out my Learn to Knit Kit.

Did you read the article? Let me know in the comments!

PS. Tomorrow I’m going to announce 2 new limited-edition yarn excitements. If you don’t want to miss out,  get it delivered right to your inbox, by clicking here.

And flipped to page 66.

And there. Is. My byline.

Even better: there’s a whole 4 page spread of my article.

And my pictures.

The article is, as the title says, all about finding local fiber farms (or, if you’re British, Fibre Farms). I wrote about my experiences and gave some suggestions for finding farms local to you.

Inside Crochet is a British magazine (and it’s been available there for a few weeks, I think), but you can find it in the States at your local yarn store or at Barnes + Noble (my spies tell me that it should be in by May 10th).

Let me know if you . . . → Read More: My first published article!]]> Just got my copy of Inside Crochet in the mail.

And flipped to page 66.

And there. Is. My byline.

Even better: there’s a whole 4 page spread of my article.

And my pictures.

The article is, as the title says, all about finding local fiber farms (or, if you’re British, Fibre Farms). I wrote about my experiences and gave some suggestions for finding farms local to you.

Inside Crochet is a British magazine (and it’s been available there for a few weeks, I think), but you can find it in the States at your local yarn store or at Barnes + Noble (my spies tell me that it should be in by May 10th).

Let me know if you read it!

Don’t tell anyone, but I have a super-hero alter-ego. You know her as the Blonde Chicken.

And no, she doesn’t fight for chicken rights (although we are both vegetarians). And she doesn’t dress like a chicken (because that would be ridiculous). She’s the Blonde Chicken for a totally adorable reason (if you don’t know the story, go read it here), that hasa nothing to do with chickens (and only circumstantially with being blonde).

Even if you don’t know it, you’ve already met her. Well, you’ve met her if you thought you were talking to me, at a craft show or at TNNA, or on Twitter or on Etsy or anywhere that has anything to do with yarn. (If you ran into me at the grocery store, then yeah, it was just me)

For the past, oh, 4 years she’s been running the show.

The Blonde Chicken started by approaching . . . → Read More: In which I confess…]]> Lean in a little closer.
I have a secret to share.

Don’t tell anyone, but I have a super-hero alter-ego. You know her as the Blonde Chicken.

And no, she doesn’t fight for chicken rights (although we are both vegetarians).
And she doesn’t dress like a chicken (because that would be ridiculous).
She’s the Blonde Chicken for a totally adorable reason (if you don’t know the story, go read it here), that hasa nothing to do with chickens (and only circumstantially with being blonde).

Even if you don’t know it, you’ve already met her.
Well, you’ve met her if you thought you were talking to me, at a craft show or at TNNA, or on Twitter or on Etsy or anywhere that has anything to do with yarn.
(If you ran into me at the grocery store, then yeah, it was just me)

What?

For the past, oh, 4 years she’s been running the show.

The Blonde Chicken started by approaching a local yarn shop (in Dayton, OH) and offering to dye some custom  colors (I was busy managing a paint-your-own-pottery studio at the time). Then she photographed more yarn and put it on Etsy.

When I moved to Tennessee and got a desk job, she was NOT detered.
She took the yarn to an art gallery and did a spining demonstration during an Art Walk (the nerve!).
She’s the one that applies to craft shows (and then has the guts to actually GO and talk to STRANGERS) and twitters and heck, lots of the time she writes what you find on this here website.

Why?

The Blonde Chicken is strong and brave and silly and passionate about eye-popping brights and socially-responsible fiber.

And when I first ventured online, as a dreamy girl with a teeny tiny business idea, I was too shy. Too shy to post on a forum. To shy to blog. To shy to tweet.

I know you wouldn’t believe it if you’ve met me at a craft show, but I am painfully shy.
Turn bright red and stutter-kind-of-shy. Painful!
I put off applying to craft shows because I could not imagine the horror of talking to people. real! live! people!

So I called upon Blonde Chicken. She jumped in with both feet; making friends, snapping pictures, writing, dyeing, spinning.

Everything that seems too too. Too overwhelming. Too scary. Too out-there.

All those things, the Blonde Chicken does.
With silly music blaring and dye pots bubbling and chat a-chattering, we do it together.

That’s just weird.

Yeah, I know.

But the thing is…it’s helpful.

Helpful to not feel like I have to put myself out there.
Helpful to ease my way into it.
Helpful to remember that somewhere in me is the ability to do epic stuff.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the role of the Blonde Chicken in my business because now that I have a real, in-person yarn shop and teach real, in-person classes, a lot more people are meeting me. Tara.

And I realized that, in the beginning, I needed Blonde Chicken. Needed her to go out and biggify the us and the yarn.

But now, thanks to growing with Blonde Chicken, I’m not so shy. I’m not so afraid to say “Hi, I’m Tara, I make yarn.”

I’m tempted to end this with a sappy “If you’re nervous about biggifying…find your inner super-hero”, but, well, that’s too sappy.
Instead, I just want to say, in the words of a multi-national corporation I don’t even buy from: Just Do It.

Find the thing (Victoria-shmoria can help with that) and do the thing.
Put yourself out there, share your thing, be brave.
And if you just ca not imagine doing any of that, make up an alter-ego.

It’ll be fun.
And weird.
I promise.

PS. Ha! I’m not the only one! The super-smart Maryann has an (imaginary) assistant, Tina! Love the hair, Tina!