Over a year ago, I wrote this in the notebook I used the first time I launched Phibersmith Designs as a business in Vancouver in 2009. The book hadn’t seen much action since our first son was born in 2011.
And now he's 4 and a half...
2015 seemed like it would be a good year to start ramping things up again. Our sons were three and one, out of the true baby phase and both into solid sleep cycles (the key to any home-based business where children are involved). My husband’s father had gone through cancer treatment in the summer of 2014 and wonderfully seemed to be on the path to recovery (and still is, to our family’s great relief). We were well settled in Guelph, and Connor was in preschool three afternoons a week. In other words, on the family and personal side of life, things seemed to be evening out some.
The Diamond Kerchief Cowl hit a sudden wave of popularity in March, selling over 300 copies that month alone.
The fall of 2014 saw me beginning to take on a few graphic design clients, which was going well, and feeding the non-mommy part of me that was starting to get a little restless. At the same time, a friend who was managing a yoga studio asked me if I might design some yoga socks for sale in the storefront. Time to open up the throttle a little bit. Just a little bit, I told myself…
Phibersmith Yoga Socks - short version
2015, as it turns out, was a pretty challenging year. Phibersmith hit a snowballing-downhill-run around May, and there hasn’t been much let up since. Behind the scenes, the first half of the year was also very personally … I’m searching for the right word here, and just thinking “crappy” in big blinking red letters. It was CRAPPY, flash, flash.
And wow, that sounds like a terrible introduction to this post… but please bear with me. Because keeping all the blows that 2015 dealt piled in front of me like the mountain that they were makes me that much more proud of and grateful for all that I and the people around me were able to accomplish despite the obstacles. We conquered that mountain, got to the top, and built beautiful things there.
And when I think about it that way, I think it’s not a bad way to live every year. After all, any 12-month period is going to come with a certain amount of CRAPPY-flash-flash.
This is me wearing an extremely warm (and extremely cute) alpaca hat in July, trying to pretend it is November.
One of the things I am most proud of from 2015, though it is relatively recent, is the launch of the Yarn Club by Phibersmith Designs here in Guelph. The reception of the concept has been amazing, and has really given focus and direction to Phibersmith Designs as a whole. In fact, the Yarn Club has been the motivating factor in getting this blog back into working order after its fall of neglect, because it will soon be playing host to Yarn-Club-generated content. Meeting follow-up material and links will be located here, such as patterns we’ve discussed, and workshop information.
2016 is already lining up its own snowball arsenal, so before I get buried in it, here’s a point-form recap of Phibersmith’s first year.
- Yoga Sock pattern release begins the year
- Diamond Kerchief Cowl sells 150 copies in 24 hours after Pinterest post, 300 in the first week of March
- Lady Slipper Alpacas partnership begins in May
- Madalena Dress sells 60 copies the first weekend
- Seashell Cowl sells 100 copies in first 24 hours
- 10 new patterns published between beginning of June and end of August
- Website redesign launched in August
- K-W Knitters’ Fair in September
- Online shop launched in September
- Woodstock Fleece Festival in October
- First Yarn Club meeting in November
- “Co-mitted", the first annual Phibersmith charitable fundraising pattern released in November
That’s my idea of giving things a little gas apparently… Take that 2015. And now on to the next thing!
The Co-mitted hand-holding mitten is raising money for the World Food Program to provide food and supplies to areas with emergent situations all over the globe.