///:: Warning: Rant Coming ::///

So, we got the Blue Brick a studio. Yep, a real space, dedicated to yarn dyeing, so we could stop dyeing out of our kitchen and I could stop rendering things that were meant for food, unsafe for food. We were pretty excited, what a giant step for our fledging business!

We get a tiny 12′ x 12′ room, concrete floors, high ceilings, no windows, but a sink. They’re humble beginnings, but we figure it will do the job. Then we notice there is no lock, or indeed a handle, on the door. For the first few days of our lease we have no keys (the landlord tells me ‘what? I left it open for you, just start moving your stuff in!) as if that’s a sound idea. Finally, after about a week, we get keys, move in our stuff and get ready to dye.

Day 1: My yarn supplier manages to forget all the worsted weight in my order. All of it. She’s making it right, and shipping it to me, but it ends up delaying production. As it happens, we had already pushed our schedule back three days because (surprise!) we were waiting on our worsted yarn base.

Day 2: We get the yarn to the studio (sans worsted) and discover that there is no hot water. Without heat, I cannot set the dye, or achieve the vibrant colours you’re all used to seeing. I try to make do by warming up water using the prehistoric microwave that was donated to us, but we get tepid at best. I end up with 16 ruined skeins of a seriously blasé yarn, give up, and go home.

Day 3: I spend this day trying unsuccessfully to get the attention of my landlord regarding the hot water. On their priority list I suspect I’m somewhere below the plants growing up through the pavement. We decide to invest in a water kettle and a new microwave for heat-setting. After a tiring run through a Walmart we arrive at the studio triumphant and ready to go again. I soak the yarn using the water kettle, dye it up, turn on the microwave and….

Everything goes black.

We open the door, the hallway is … black. Turns out the building was wired in such a way that not only did we have no access to the box, but our microwave blew our entire wing. The yarn is soaked, and I can’t do anything about it, so I had to leave it there.

My plan for day 1 was hitherto unheard of levels of productivity, punctuated by the frequent exclamation of ‘wow! This is so much better than working at home!’. This plan has failed to transpire, but at this point we’re trying to laugh about it so we can fondly remember when the Blue Brick was super tiny and managed to take out the power of an entire building while trying to heat-set yarn.

We will make this right. We will make the space work, and we will make beautiful yarns, hopefully extremely soon. I was hoping to have new colourways to show off by now, but it will be at least the weekend before the first batches are done. Wish me luck with the ongoing fiasco that is the Blue Brick’s new home ;)