On the road again

Greetings:

I am back in San Diego this week, visiting friends and family.  I just had a great lunch visit with my friend Barbara, who tried to get me to go buy more yardage for my stash.  We worked together many years ago at a local (rather cheesy) fabric store, and to this day, whether she's with me or not, if I buy fabric, I blame it on her.  She has gone on to be a great maker of art quilts, while my path diverged to weaving, spinning and New Mexico...and the rest, as they say, is history. 

Here's the view from where I'm sitting right now.
Once upon a time, you could even hear the ocean from here.  Now the prevailing noise is Interstate 5, which is about four blocks away.  When I was a teenager and the interstate got completed, my friend and I would sit on the overpass near my house and hoot and holler when a car would come through (every 15 minutes or so).  Nowadays it is almost always bumper to bumper, no matter the time of day.  Progress, I think they once called it.

Anyway.  Not to be a downer with all my urban woes...being away from the shop and Taos has been a good time to gather my thoughts on how the business is growing, what's been popular, and what hasn't been.  Monte and I are planning to attend the wholesale show in early June, and I'm thinking about what it is we'll want to buy to continue to grow in the direction I'm aiming for. 

Here's another snapshot from my past.   Regretfully,  I still haven't figured out how to upright these photos so you can see them properly, so you'll have to tip your head a little bit.  This is a sample of the

weaving I was doing when I moved to New Mexico (before I got side tracked with a shop).  My loom is still waiting for me to return to it, and while I have hopes of at least weaving all the rug yarns I have stashed, some days it feels like I'll never weave again. 

Road trips like this one usually bring me great joy in planning a new project.  Somehow it got too busy before I left Taos...so at the last minute I grabbed my stash of Mountain Colors 8/4 yarns and am knitting up socks for the Dulaan Project.  Quite a change from my usual trip projects that generally involve at least one suitcase full of yarn and countless patterns, books and needles.  Maybe this is my version of spring cleaning...both in terms of using my stash and clearing my head...for a new season.  --Martie