Poor OxfordKitchenYarns. With small children to look after, family has had to come first this year. The last few years have been a cycle of dyeing while pregnant, going on maternity leave and then coming back to restart things (yet again) but with the added excitement of another baby to add into the mix.

This is not a precursor to announcing I’m pregnant by the way, it’s a just a reflection on the fact that in November OKY will be seven years old (!) and, here I am, feeling like I’m (re)starting up again.

Regardless of all the starting and stopping, and the wonderful and exhausting chaos of family life with three children under six, I’ve never thought of giving up. The idea of not dyeing, not exploring all the amazing and surprising things that come out of my dye pots, has never struck me as an option. I love dyeing yarn. I love making things from my yarn and selling my yarn, and seeing all the things that other people make from it.

So yes, it’s been a hard winter, a wet winter full of many niggly small child illnesses, back to back grown-up colds and not enough time at the dye pots. It’s been a spring that’s flown by in a blur. But now it is summer, and my baby is now a small person in her own right. The sky is mostly blue, and there are designs on the needles, and yarn in the dye.

I’m starting over yet again, a little older, and little wiser and still in love with my tiny yarn business.

Thanks for sticking by me. I’ve lots of fun things to show you.