Remember to breathe

April has been the busiest month I can remember having in a very long time. Between back-to-back weekends in Portland, prepping for Yarn Train, birthdays only days apart, weddings and rehearsals, new game rooms, lots and lots of deliveries, orthodontic appointments, and delivering yarn to Acorn Street, I mean jeez. Totally out of breath!

Oh, yeah. Did I not mention that? As of now, you can come check out Topsail Tussah in person at Acorn Street Shop in Seattle! They've got a great selection of some of my favorite colors (Fathom and Thorned Rose are both among those there!) and a shop exclusive called Acorn. If I can say it without sounding too egotistical, it's completely divine. It's a brown base with flashes of golden yellow and an even-keeled green. I mean, swoon. And it's only available there, so you'll have to come visit them in person.

Fenella-- the owner of Acorn Street-- has been completely and totally wonderful, and has put together an incredibly lovely shop. They've got a great selection of fantastic yarns (Mmm Shibui and Malabrigo, I can't really ask for much more!) and all of the staff I've met have seemed absolutely wonderful. I think you'll find it worth your time to stop by-- and 'sides, it's on the LYS Tour coming right up here.

omg. ^

Yarn Train was absolutely wonderful. I'm always super stoked to get a chance to show off my yarn in person to people, and I just want to thank everyone who oohed and aahed and maybe even took a skein or two (or in the case of some people, like 20!) home with them. 

As far as testing out the Etsy reader-- I loved it! It took me a minute to get the hang of it and figure it out, but it was really great. It was nice to be able to link people to my Etsy shop and get sales numbers, and just for inventory management. Even if you don't have all of your items in inventory, you can just ring a "Quick Sale" and enter amount and still have it count as a sale. The credit card fees are the same as Square, and it just adds a whole lot of functionality. A notable upside is that the reader is designed such that it has a little lip that extends behind your phone/tablet so that the reader is stabilized while you're swiping. It's pretty awesome. I'm disappointed that it doesn't have chip reader functionality, but I think I can live.

I totally meant to take loads of photos, but you kind of just get super swept up in the fun and flurry. I also totally meant to follow the "shopping list", but see above. Stuff I am super excited about: 2 more skeins of Blue Moon Fiber Arts Silky Victoria. I love this yarn to DEATH. I absolutely adore polwarth, and obviously, I have a thing for silk and this yarn combines both. I also, um, bought yarn for a second A Cropped Sweater for Winter. Yes, I realize the first one isn't finished. But, really, it's gonna fit this time and I will use this template for all worsted weight sweaters from here on out, seriously. And two gradient braids of merino/bamboo from Thoroughly Thwacked that go together really nicely. I will probably spin them sort of heavy (worsted maybe?) and make a nice big cozy shawl or wrap or something.

I finally have a moment to breathe, and it's beautiful. Today is a gorgeous 80F in Seattle, and I sat on the deck in the sunshine and typed this all up. I'm looking forward to finally getting to finish some sweaters (I know, totally inappropriate for the weather, but oh well!) and catching up on some overdue chores. It's only a brief moment of respite before I throw myself back into it all, but it's definitely welcome.

<3,

Arianne