I am FIVE

Well not me but Red Bird Knits turns 5 today. My but time flies when you are having fun!

At the ripe old age of 50, I decided that 25 years of working for someone else was plenty. Since the other half of my years had been spent studying it seemed like a nice symmetry to start a business to take me through the 3rd quarter of my life (Yes I plan to live to 100)

After long deliberation and finding great help from Mihalyi Czikczentmihalyi (if that is even close to the right spelling I am satisfied) and his book "Finding Flow" (Sally Melville talks about him too in her Knit Stitch book) as well as a romp through "What Colour is Your Parachute" (there may not be a "u" in colour - I think the book is from the US), I narrowed my choices down to 3 - music, gardening and knitting.

I've played the cello since I was 8 and possibilities included teaching (somewhat hard to get into), performing (very hard to get into) and further study (no thanks - not on the scale (pun intended) required) so that idea was discarded.

I was in the process of becoming a Master Gardener at that time and had almost finished the course requirements and was closing in on the 2 year apprenticeship but gardening is so seasonal and I don't do too well in the heat plus Landscape Architecture was another 3 at least years of study that option was discarded too.

Aren't you glad that knitting won the race! I sure am. I designed my first sock (Cobblestone) while I was still working for someone else and that was the springboard for my business. Regia self patterning yarns were just hitting the market and when I couldn't find the Regia Ringels that were being talked about on the lists ( I had joined Knitlist and Socknitters list by then), I went out searching for a source and the rest is history.

I now have more than 50 sock patterns of which I have sold 3300 to date and I am now into my 4th year with my Sock of the Month Club. What a ride it has been.

Oh by the way I am having a sale to celebrate but then I am trying not to be sales oriented on the blog - go to my website if you haven't already and you can get the details there.