Fran Sale Stafford

Out with the old, in with the new

We happily said goodbye to 2022, the last quarter of the year having been a medical nightmare. We welcome 2023 with hopes of heart repair, a reprieve for a few months from the immunotherapy treatments that have produced more extreme side effects for longer periods of time.

Traditionally, the holiday decorations were put away on New Year’s Day as school often resumed the next day. This year, the process was begun half a week ago, just after Son 1 returned to his job. The tree was left standing until today and it too has been stripped of his ornaments and lights, removed to the cedar thicket on the edge of the woods, and the needles vacuumed.

The Dyson decided it didn’t want to do the job, so the old Oreck was hauled upstairs and did a much better job of even removing the dog hair from the rug than even the newer Dyson when it is working at it’s best. The Dyson has been disassembled and every washable part banged free of dust and washed, set aside to dry for a few days.

The closet beneath the basement stairs needs to be cleaned out, some ductwork retaped, then the crates will be moved down for storage for the next 11 months.

The bottom left one will go straight to daughter’s house next Christmas, it has about half of my Santa’s in it that I chose not to place this year and are ready to move on to her collection. The tree ornaments got new storage this year that allows a separate cell for each ornament so they don’t have to be individually wrapped, which made the put away simpler and will allow easier decisions on what will go on the next tree if it is too small for all of them.

The Christmas Amaryllis gift is beautifully blooming, a total of 7 lovely red blooms.

Now that the holidays are behind us, more time will be spent working on the shawl that is from Jenkins Turkish spindle spun Alpaca, Merino, and Silk. It was begun in mid December once all Christmas knitting was complete. The spindle is holding a lovely blue wool of unknown origin, spinning enough to double the thickness of the hat that is my preferred one when the weather is cold.

After last weekend’s weather tried to destroy us with single digit temperatures and high winds, today feels like spring with mostly sunny skies. We managed to get a walk in before the tree came down and out. We have a couple more warmish days, mostly with rain, then a return to more normal winter temperatures here with low 40’s f during the day and 20’s at night. Life moves on, we continue to taking it one day at a time.

Friends

Most of my friends live far away, but a few have been made through my various fiber arts and two of them are very local to me and women that I have taught to spin, one on spindles and a wheel, the other newer and just on spindles.

The main group of spinner/knitter/weavers that gather in the adjacent town are more casual friends and with Covid and then hubby’s health issues, have been seen only very sporadically. My plan had been to attend the annual holiday social with them last Thursday and the freezing rain/ice storm caused it to be postponed until this week. There is another storm brewing to potentially cancel or postpone it again and family obligations might prevent me from attending anyway. I had planned to take one of the local friends with me last week, the other was away midweek, but neither of them are available this week.

We try to get together as often as possible to spin, knit, chat, and have a cup of tea. Sometimes it is the three of us, usually at our home, sometimes just two of us, but always a pleasure. Because of the week’s foiled plans, we decided to have our own little social yesterday. The house is decorated, I baked another small batch of Ginger Nut cookies and the house was fragrant with the smell of fresh baked ginger. The tea kettle hot when they arrived and we gathered to visit and craft together. Some small gifts exchanged, my first Christmas present, a wax coated Amaryllis bulb almost in bloom. It doesn’t require soil or water, just placed in bright light and allowed to bloom.

Once it has bloomed out, I will remove the wax and treat the bulb in a more traditional manner and hope it will bloom again next year and the year following.

The afternoon was a treat, the two ladies, true friends. The cookies enjoyed. We will gather again when we are all available, likely not until after Christmas, but the anticipation of further gatherings tides me over.

Taking one day at a time.

I Let It Go

A half dozen years or so ago, my yarn making, knitting, soap and salve making grew beyond what the family could use and a small cottage business was born. Etsy was tried and abandoned due to the fees and rising postage cost, a website store initiated with the help of Square. It was fairly easy to manage, but generated very little in sales. A few in person events were done each year and some product made, booth fees paid, but still, barely breaking even each year.

The tax ramifications, hassle with the income tax, the personal property tax, and state sales tax caused stress every year.

Then COVID struck and in person events ceased for two years. Though there were a few this year, even with low or no entry fees, it just got to the point where it wasn’t fun anymore.

First the webstore was taken down, the last couple of in person events done with minimal sales, and the decision to just let it go. Some yarn was gifted, a shawl traded for some hand woven kitchen towels to be used as gifts, some knitwear gifted, and body products donated to the museum where my goods are sold in their gift shop. This leaves a few skeins of yarn for me to knit, soap that will be used in the household, and a few more knit items that need a new home. This week, the tax certificate was mailed back to the State with a letter notifying them that Cabin Crafted Shop is no longer in business at this location or any other. I have kept the domain name, just in case I change my mind at some point, but for now, I have let it go. The decision is bittersweet. Some of the events I used to enjoy became too expensive for my little business, some just not busy enough to make them worthwhile.

I will continue dressing in Colonial clothing and spinning at events as requested, but only for the pleasure of educating others.