studio keys.
Well, hello there! It's been a bit quiet on the blogging end for me lately--this has been a hard winter here in Maine, and that, combined with a lot of projects in progress, has meant that my energy has had to go elsewhere. I'm planning a big, three month retrospective for the Stockinette Market, so don't worry! I'm still crunching numbers! But today, I wanted to check in about some big transitions that have been and will be going on in the background.
So, as most of you know, my day job is working behind the scenes at Brooklyn Tweed. I've been here for about three and a half years, and I will honestly say that it has been three and a half years of one of the best educations a knitter and designer could ask for. I've learned so much and made some of the most amazing friends and comrades in this crazy industry, and it's been an absolute privilege to work for such a thoughtful and intentional company. Words can't express how much this job has helped me grow and understand who I am as a designer and a maker.
In the next few months, Brooklyn Tweed will be moving to a new location, and consolidating the offices into one. The story of where the business will be moving to isn't mine to tell, so I'll wait for Jared to fill you in on that. But when Brooklyn Tweed moves to its new location, I will not be moving with it.
This has been an incredibly hard decision--being a part of the Brooklyn Tweed team has been such a huge part of my life over the last few years. But at the same time that I've been delving deeper and deeper into the company here, I've been building my own business. Designing, teaching, writing, statistical analysis--all of this was building in parallel to working full-time at Brooklyn Tweed. And, to be blunt, I'm tired. It's been an amazing and adrenaline-filled couple of years as I've juggled everything, but I've gradually come to realize that I can't keep juggling without crashing and burning.
In addition, I've built the most lovely life for myself here in Portland; my family and friends are here, all of whom give me such energy and joy. My home, at least for where I currently am in my life, is here. There is no place else in the world that gives me such happiness (okay, maybe I could do without a few feet of the snow on the ground). So I knew, when it came time to make the decision about moving with Brooklyn Tweed, that it was time to go off on my own.
What does that look like for the next little bit? Our warehouse and offices here in Portland will be closing March 20th. I've signed a lease on a wee tiny studio/office space in the same building where Quince has their offices, and I'll be moving all my Brooklyn Tweed operations into there. I'll be continuing remotely full time with Brooklyn Tweed up until around May, and then part time until probably July or August as they hire on new staff in their new location. After that. . . . ?
The studio is mine, and I'll keep it for my own workspace after Brooklyn Tweed is done. I've got some cool projects lined up for the next year or so, and while part of me wants to make sure I have other stuff lined up so that I'll be busy and have that safety net, I'm going to try to take it easy, or at least easier. There's been a lot of me missing in the last few years; emotion, self-care, and care for the other people in my life has kind of taken a back seat to pursuing my two separate careers. So now that I'm transitioning down to one career (-ish--people in the knitting industry never have just one career!), I want to make sure I don't fill that gap with more work. I want to have a life. I want to catch up with me. I want to catch up with people. This may be a bit of a pipe dream, but I'm hoping to regain a little bit more of who I am--the girl who spends all weekend in bed reading, the girl who bakes cookies at 10:30 at night, the girl who goes out for margaritas and ice cream with friends, the girl who spends the day at the beach, the girl who goes running in the summer twilight. I've kind of lost her in the last couple years, and I want to get her back.
So, there we go. By around fall of 2015, I will be completely freelance as a knitting designer, teacher, writer, and stats analyst. This is more than mildly terrifying, but I am so excited to make it work. So whatcha got going, world? Let's talk, and let's do this.
