Climbing out of the Cave

Our last post signaled a need for all of us to take the holiday to regroup.  December is so busy leading up to the holidays, and then you're in it.  Kids are home, schedules are skewed as some of us work and some of us have time off, there is travel to see family and friends, or family visiting.

I'd like to say that there was a lot going on behind the scenes at Craftstitute, but we really did all need some time to rest.  Some of that involved healing, and some was travel.  For myself, after a crazy year of jumping into this business, trying to continue to do some MiMBY work, and then taking a new job with a wonderful design company, it was a chance to breath and slow down.  I sewed.  I knit.  I finished Christmas presents and had conversations with my family as we made dinner together.  We went on a couple of hikes.  I napped and read books, then napped some more.

Sometimes a vacation from life is just what you need.

We've had a soft reentry at Craftstitute.  At Wednesday's Drop In, an SOS came in from Liz Woods, who teaches our advanced sewing classes.  Her main gig is costume design for various theater groups around town.  She was in a leotard tizzy - needing a chorus's worth of beautiful merlot-colored velvet leotards sewn up for fitting.  This was Wednesday.  The show opened last night.  

I told her to come on over and we put the big tables to good use, with Liz cutting out leotards while I manned the sewing machine.  Theater people do things differently.  They don't mind last minute scrambles and function well under pressure.  They are resourceful and seem to panic with a smile.  At least, Liz does.  I marveled at her composure, being myself one of the people who can get swept up in the mob mentality of freaking out.

It felt good to get back into the space, to be helping out one of our community of talented craftstitutes.  It reminded me of why we had started this endeavor in the first place.  A fellow knitter was there getting help with seaming a sweater, and we talked and laughed and connected, just as Craftstitute's mission intended.

More classes will be going up this week, so stayed tuned.  Drop In times have resumed - come see us, bring a project, and let's catch up!

Robin