dyeing

I miss my dye studio.  I want to dye, in the worst way.  The last time I did any dyeing (other than teaching the workshop) was on October 2.  That was almost 6 weeks ago.  Ugh.  If it seems like I’m whining, I am.  I’m entitled to.  Six weeks with no dyeing is a long time.  The first 3 weeks were bearable – in fact, I had good reason not to be dyeing.  It was fiber festival season and I was off having fun on the weekends.  But then I skipped a festival with the intention of catching up on the rest of my life so that I could spend November weekends dyeing.  And here we are two weekends and one holiday in and no dyeing.  I even had this plan a few weeks ago, one that involved doing a ton of dyeing this past weekend.  I managed to work at home on Monday, which would have meant being able to dry fiber and yarn outside from the weekend, package it up last night and then do more dyeing today.  Instead, we got tied up with other things all weekend – 2 meetings at our church, errands, general running around.  No dyeing.  The closest I came to my dye studio was to look through the window at the mess out there.

Things have been crazy for me lately.  Honestly, some of it is my own doing.  I have a way of taking on too much.  Volunteering for this and that.  Agreeing to go to one meeting or another.  Committing myself to way too much.  It always seems manageable until something unexpected comes along.  That unexpected came in the form of some work stuff this time.  Suddenly, lots on my plate.  I’m putting in longer hours, having to do a lot more and worrying about work a whole lot, whether I’m there or not.  Its not bad necessarily, in fact it’ll be good in time.  Just hectic.  Hard to leave work at work.  Combine that with all of the other extra stuff, the fact that The Holidays are coming quickly and my usual stuff, like the day to day work of running the business and there’s not a lot of time for anything else.  Things start to feel like they’re spinning out of control.

Enough is enough.  The reality is I need to dye.  The shop hasn’t been updated since early October and I have a guild meeting in 4 weeks.  And worse, I need to be creative to bring some balance back to my life.  Its always the first thing to go when I get busy and yet I need it so badly.  Since I couldn’t do any dyeing today, I spent the day really catching up.  Getting rid of the to-do list that’s been sitting there for 2 months.  Catching up on emails.  Organizing stuff.  Cleaning out the dye studio (4 hours it took, it was so disorganized).  Re-prioritizing.  That was the big one.  Some things had to go.  I made decisions, some difficult and some easy.  Yes, it meant bailing on a couple of things – only the ones in which I felt I could do so without letting someone down.  Nothing long term or earth shattering.  Just saying “no” instead of “yes” for once.  It feels good.  Things aren’t quite under control yet, but they’re getting there.

The end result?  Saturday and Sunday are now dye days, as is the weekend after this one and probably most of Thanksgiving weekend.  No matter what the rest of the week throws at me, I’ve got a weekend in my studio coming.  It’s already getting better.