Mr. Turtle Archives - Page 2 of 4

Atlantic Beach

January 20, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

It seems like every year that I’ve know Mr. Turtle, his family goes to Atlantic Beach over Martin Luther King Weekend. I am told, that once upon a time, the family also went in the summer time, but with adult schedules being what they are, it seems that the off-season is the time we all make it work.

patterns in the sand at Atlantic Beach

I like Atlantic Beach in the off season. The pace is slow: there is time to spend hours on a puzzle, a book, or a piece of handwork. The tone has some things in common with the farm: we unplug, play games, and rest. But there are things about the beach that are different than the farm: most notably, there’s always something to fix or do at the farm. At the beach it is quiet and lazy. There is time to bundle up and take long, multiple mile walks along the shoreline. Most of the time you don’t have to share your space with anyone else; there might be a native with her dog, or a couple walking hand-and-hand, but these events are few and far between.

There’s time to sit on the balcony with binoculars and look for dolphins, fishing vessels, and “german u-boats.” We look for shells, take artsy beach photographs, and spend time with family. In the evening we cook in, or go to the Channel Marker, where we eat delicious, delicious seafood. Seriously, if you’re ever in Emerald Isle, this is the place to go.

swatching in hairpin crochet

I made the choice not to bring anything with a pressing deadline with me, and managed to carve out some time for play – fooling around with shapes and textures and swatching for future things. Since the pregnancy seems to make me always tired, I’d fall asleep on the couch to the sounds of the family working through a puzzle or playing a game.

I made a small hat as a class sample that’ll be for Kiwi afterward. I caught up (a little) on my darning, and plotted for my next piece in Piecework. It was lovely, and quiet and fun.

Me with all my tools, taking over the couch. My big crafting bag at my feet, my tin of stitch markers, my pile of scraps, and my scissors.

Is there an Atlantic Beach in your life? A place to unwind and take the time for things you normally don’t get to do?

Exciting News for Tinking Turtle

January 15, 2016 by Jennifer Raymond

I’ve started this blog post more times than I can count. I’ve tried for profound, silly, and serious. I’ve tried imitating other people who have come before, and nothing quite has hit the mark. So I’m just going to share.

Coming in May 2016, Mr. Turtle and I will be expecting a little turtle. Yesterday, Michael and I headed to have our first ultrasound, where we found out we’re having a baby girl. I haven’t even quite wrapped my mind around the gender yet! Needless to say, Michael, myself, and both sides of our family our terribly excited.

For the last few weeks, we’ve been calling the baby “the Kiwi.” While we’re in the final rounds of picking out a name, we probably won’t be sharing it until the baby’s born. We like to keep some things a surprise! So until then, feel free to call the baby the Kiwi with me. Who knows, stranger nicknames have happened.

Come May there’ll be a bunch of new changes as we adjust to having a new member of the family. On Saturday I’ll explain what that’ll mean for Tinking Turtle as a business, and how that will affect you, the customer!

I’m also now accepting suggestions for baby clothes and accessories to knit or crochet. Priority being things that are practical, and that the baby will be able to wear more than three times. Is there a particular pattern you love? Share it with me in the comments!

Goals and Resolutions: Tinking Turtle 2015

December 27, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

Now that Christmas has finished, my eye is starting to turn towards the New Year. While I don’t normally participate in New Year’s resolutions, I do use this time to put together some constructive goals – some for the business, and some personally.

What are some of the things I’m looking to change for the new year? Well, this last year had a bunch of designing, and a number of tight deadlines. On the plus side it brought designs such as Boston Ivy, Mercury, Electrostatic Lines, Riverbend and Lucky Hearts, and Stained Glass Rug to name a few. On the downside, I’m not sure that pace is sustainable. I’m going to be taking a good look at managing time and making sustainable decisions. On the plus side, I’ve now got over two years of data on how long a design takes me. On the minus side, I need to figure out how to leverage that data more.

What did I do well in 2015? Well, I made it to my second TNNA! I reached 50 patterns published – a major milestone both personally, and on Ravelry!

50 Patterns Published!

I got to teach several video classes with Interweave, which I’m still super proud and excited about.

As Mr. Turtle and I meet to have our yearly planning meeting, I’m sure we’ll come up with more concrete milestones we want to hit in the next year, and taylor the long-term goals we have already set. I think it’s important to keep evaluating your goals to make sure they’re attainable and still relevant. As life, jobs, and careers take us in different directions, the things we strived for at one point may not be the things we’re striving for at another point.

Do you make crafting, crocheting, knitting or other goals for the new year? How do you make them? I’d love to hear!

Boston Ivy Sweater, in Interweave Crochet Winter 2016

December 18, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

black and white drawing of young man in sweater with hat on.

Original idea for Boston Ivy.

I’ve been checking Ravelry and Interweave’s Crochet website for the last two weeks, waiting for the most recent issue of Interweave Crochet to come out. And now, I’m pleased to announce that Interweave Crochet Winter 2016 is on the shelves (or will be in the next few days), and available to purchase. In this issue is my design, Boston Ivy. Boston Ivy is a design that’s near and dear to my heart, as it started out as a request for a sweater from my brother, Matthew.

Boston Ivy was originally pitched as an idea based off of my brother, Matthew, and his descriptors for a perfect sweater for him.

He wanted it to be warm. Not necessarily sweater warm, but more like rugged sweater/jacket to wear outside. Decoration and cables should be kept to a minimum. It had to had to have a collar that would go around his neck, and it had to be something he could move and be active in.

At the same time I’d been playing around with a crochet or knitting technique involving using long strips of fabric. I’d braid the fabric, and then pick up stitches on either side of the braid, making it look like a particularly interesting cable. Boston_Ivy_Sweater_medium While I’d seen the technique done, a little, in crochet lacework, I’d never seen it done on larger pieces. I also hadn’t seen it done all that much.

I thought this was a great pity that I needed to remedy.

I began pitching the idea to a variety of magazines, with little interest. Until Interweave Crochet.

Boston Ivy is a sweater for men and women. It’s sturdy and comfortable, with drop shoulders and a distinctive braided pattern down sleeves and front.

Worked in single crochet thru the back loop, it creates a ribbing that’s warm and stretchy.

And I love it.

From the Business Desk: Small Business Privacy

October 15, 2015 by Michael Raymond

From the Business Desk is a semi-regular series that looks at some of the important factors in running a Small Fiber Arts Business. This feature looks at some of the common privacy implications that Small Business owners should have an awareness of. Join Mr. Turtle as he looks into the practicalities of privacy and small business.

License: Some rights reserved by g4ll4is

Just the other week, the United States Office of Personnel Management (OPM) announced that in addition to the estimated 22.1 million identity records that had been compromised in an illicit hack of their databases, approximately 5.6 million sets of fingerprint records has been stolen as well. Unlike a credit card or social security number, which can be changed or re-released, this personal biometric data is crucial to keep private, something that the OPM had failed to do.

While most small businesses do not operate at the scale of the Federal Government, they are still responsible for certain privacy requirements around how customer and employee data is collected and used. In addition to the commonly thought of privacy items like securing data from theft, there are other more subtle aspects of privacy law that govern what a business can, and more importantly cannot, do with someone’s data. While privacy has been growing in importance with the rise of the Digital Age, it has only been recently that the general public has become attuned to it’s importance in the world of commerce. As a small business owner, having a baseline understanding of some of the key elements of privacy law can pay dividends in protecting your business and yourself from liability.

In the United States, unlike our European cousins, privacy regulations follow a sectoral approach: each sector of the economy has its’ own set of laws and regulations. The general enforcement for privacy constraints in the business sphere, as opposed to more regulated sectors of industry like healthcare and finance, is the Federal Trade Comission (FTC). In its’ creation with the Federal Trade Commission Act, the body is chartered with enforcing against “unfair and deceptive trade practices and acts,” of which case law has held includes taking appropriate privacy and security measures. For the small business owner, this is important in how you portray your business’s privacy practices to your customers and the general public.

One of the first items a business owner should consider is that if you have a web presence, you should have a written Privacy Policy. This serves to inform any visitors of their rights to their personal data, and more importantly, your intentions surrounding that data. This in turn allows users to make informed decisions or know that for instance using a “contact me” form on your website may lead to their email address being added to your mailing list. Additionally, the State of California in their 2003 Online Privacy Protection Act requires such a notice to be posted on the website if you may potentially be collecting identifiable information from California Citizens. Given the interconnected web of e-commerce in today’s world, the chances are that this may be happening; ensuring that you have developed a current and accurate document unique for your business situation can cover a lot of your privacy bases in this respect.

Attribution: Some rights reserved by hyku

Another key area a small business owner should be aware of is how they conduct any email communication and marketing. As e-mail messaging has exploded in recent years, replacing more traditional postage service mailings, many small business owners have found themselves afoul of the regulations in this space. Email messaging in the United States is primarily governed by the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM Act) of 2003. In brief, the Act requires all email messages to possess a legitimate return email address and physical address of the sender, not have any false, misleading, or deceptive headers or subjects, and provide a clear and conspicuous way for the recipient to opt out of receiving future email messages at no cost to them.

Because of requirements such as these, I would recommend that any organization that intends to use email as a platform for outreach to consider selecting an Email Marketing service to assist in managing one’s distribution list. Many of the commonly used services, such as Mad Mimi, MailChimp, or Constant Contact provide free or extremely cost effective basic plans for small business users. These services allow the use of email formatting templates to assist in meeting all necessary privacy requirements, and additionally provide a platform by which recipients can individually manage their subscription status and opt in or out of receiving certain types of communications. Additionally, such services assist in keeping email distribution lists secure, and ensure that when messages are sent out, recipients email addresses are not exposed to other individuals. It is because of these benefits that any small fiber arts business should consider setting up an Email Marketing service as part of their initial business plan.

While the future of privacy law and requirements for U.S. based businesses may seem murky, a small fiber arts business can take heed of the above principals to best position themselves to be able to respond both to industry requirements as well as the overarching desires of their customer base. By acting and thinking in the best interest of the customer, and treating customer information as you would have another company treat yours, the savvy business owner can create and maintain indispensable customer goodwill. And that is an asset always worth having for your business.

Michael Raymond, CIPP/US

“Mr. Turtle”

Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival!

September 25, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

Tomorrow morning I’ll be heading off to the Shenandoah Valley Fiber Festival – one of my favorite to teach at! Last year was my first year teaching at the fairgrounds, and I loved every moment of it. The staff are great; the venue is lovely, and the drive to Berryville is a pleasure.

Last year I was so busy teaching both days that I barely had time to breathe. This time I’ve got a little more flexibility – I’m teaching one class on Saturday afternoon, and another Sunday morning. Mr. Turtle and I talked about going apple picking on the way home.

If you’ve never been to SVFF, it’s a great fiber festival for kids, and a feast for the eyes for stitchers. Last year Mr. Turtle was fascinated by the sheep dog demos.

I was glad to see some of my favorite vendors. When you do the fiber festival circuit, various vendors become your friends, and it’s good to see them again and catchup for a few minutes between sales or setting up. If you go to the festival, go and look up Turtle Made – a company that makes the most clever turkish spindles. Also check out Dragonfly Fibers – they’ve been the lovely sponsor of a few of my designs!

Meanwhile, I’ll be in the instructor tents doing what I do best, teaching my heart out. This weekend we’ve got a reprise of a constant favorite, Duct Tape Dress Forms, and also a class on repairing handknits. If you have a spare moment, keep an eye out for me at lunch, as I grab a quick bite and say hello to as many people as I can!

From The Business Desk: Agile for Small Businesses

September 25, 2015 by Michael Raymond

From the Business Desk is a semi-regular series that looks at some of the important factors in running a Small Fiber Arts Business. This feature looks at how to leverage some new time and project management techniques from the Agile framework for small businesses.

As a small business owner, time is one of the most important assets that you have. It is also one of the most limiting. While other business areas like staffing or inventory can be expanded or invested in, there are only so many hours in a day (if you know how to change this, please let me know!). Making effective use of your time for projects and operations is crucial for a well managed business to both succeed and grow.

Is this what agile means to you?

Scrum. Kanban. Sprint. Agile. You may have heard these phrases before in industry trade shows or in the media as the newest focus for tech companies to manage their time, projects, and resources. While originally created for Software Development, the Agile Framework at it’s core can be applied to any business process or project; especially in the Fiber Arts industry where there are natural market segments and discreet work items like classes, designs, and projects.

While we here have written previously about project management, thinking about the Agile methodology more surrounds the what rather than the how. The core elements of agile that a Small Business owner should most be aware of are Team Ownership of Work, Minimum Viable Product/Shippable Units, and Timeboxing.

Before diving into these a bit further, I wanted to provide a 30 second overview about Agile from a non-technical perspective. Unlike traditional mindsets where work is done in an orderly, sequence of events, Agile revolves around breaking up the necessary work to be done into discreet work units, and then over a set period of time (commonly called a “Sprint”) delivering a piece of the work to the customer. For example, if you are running an LYS the work could be a 4 week class on garment construction; each week/session could be a unique and discreet unit of work. Now, with this background, let’s look a bit further at some of the tenants that could be applied to your business:

Team Ownership of Work: Agile frameworks work best when a team of individuals with a variety of skills are empowered to come together to tackle a project or issue as a whole. The team, rather than one individual, collectively has a say in how the work is preformed and ultimately delivered to the customer. This is especially applicable to a Fiber Arts business, due to the muti-facted nature of the industry.

If you are looking to put on a specific fiber event like a Fiber Festival, your team could consist of folks with a deep knowledge of yarns and marketing, separate instructors with significant technique knowledge, and then a handful of us less crafty types with some of the more technical business knowledge. By bringing the team into the decision-making process early on to determine what is and is not feasible (“scoping the work”), you and your business can be sure to have a better understanding up front of what you can (and more importantly what you cannot) accomplish in a given period of time.

Minimum Viable Product/Shippable Units: In the software development space, research has shown that the average user base only heavily utilizes 20% of all of the features of a software application, following the classic Pareto 80/20 rule. Think about your business. Are there certain key elements that always seem to attract the most customer base? Do you have certain patterns that always seem to hit on what the customer wants? Agile is built around focusing on identifying what those elements are, bundling them together to create the leanest possible unit for work to ship, and then working towards that.

Applying that principal to your business can dramatically help you drive your Return on Investment, as once you are able to focus on these areas, you are able to cut to the core of drawing in your customer base. Then, once you have a solid project or process up and running supporting that desire to be taught a specific skill in one of your classes, you can enhance that with additional features that may apply to a smaller set of customers. Doing this is following the tenant of breaking down your projects or work into smaller features called Shippable Units that can be developed in a shorter period of time.

Timeboxing: As mentioned at the beginning, managing your time effectively is crucial for any business owner. As an example, I have allocated myself 60 minutes to write this article. Following the Agile principal of timeboxing, a discreet amount of time is set aside for any one task, meeting, or work item. When that time is up for the day, no matter at what state the project is in, you should stop and move to your next item. Many different studies from business to medical have demonstrated that mulitasking is actually a misnomer, and the human brain loses efficiency when rapidly switching between tasks.

As such, being able to focus on one item at a time, like updating your website with your latest shipment of yarn or re-arranging your models for an upcoming trunk show, work it for a specific period of time, and then close out that piece of work before moving on can dramatically increase the efficiency in how an individual or team gets work done. So when you have those daily team meetings, or find yourself bogged down answering your inbox, break up your task into specific chunks, and timebox them. It may take you longer to accomplish that one task, but by knowingly addressing items one at a time you are able to accomplish a lot more work as a whole.

Overall, the Agile methodology is gaining traction in many large and medium sized corporations and is still being developed and tweaked as additional lessons are learned. While this overview has just scratched the surface, it’s an interesting mindset to begin thinking about when approaching your business planning for the coming year. For another approach on how to use some of these tenants, check out this great post from Agile Advice. And with that, I’m timeboxing this post for today!

~ Mr. Turtle

Fun Times at the Farm

August 12, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

Fun Times at the Farm

On Friday I wrapped up the last of my camps with Montgomery College, hastily packed up my belongings, said goodbye to my lovely hosts, and swung around the beltway in DC to pick up Sweetness and Light.

For those of you who have begun following me in the last year, the monikers Sweetness and Light have little meaning, as I haven’t written about them recently. Sweetness and Light are the name of two girls that I was a nanny to for four years – from mid 2010 until mid 2014, when Mr. Turtle and I moved to Richmond. I began working for the family when I moved to DC – underemployed and still with the shine of college. Sweetness was three, Light, just over 10 months.

Now, Sweetness is a precocious eight and Light is going to be six at the end of this month. In the time in between, their parents have become more than friends, their family has increased by one (a 20 month old boy, now), and my employment has deepened into a friendship. About once every four months, Sweetness and Light come for a sleepover, and since I was “in town” anyway, it made sense to “borrow” the girls, and bring them home for a few days.

Light rocking a ball-cap.

So what might have been a relaxing weekend unpacking and decompressing from camp became a joyful visit (perhaps relaxing might not be the word I’d use, but invigorating might fit).

Well, perhaps it was relaxing for Sweetness.

This was a particularly special trip, as we got to take Sweetness and Light to the farm. Sweetness got to drive the riding lawnmower, we took rides in the antique jeep (without seatbelts!), and went to the James River to “ride the rapids,” fish and swim.

On Monday we returned to Ashland, and I dug out the camp materials for one last reprise, and we did needle felting to make pillows in honor of Mr. Turtle’s birthday, in a week.

Now the girls are gone, and it’s time to get back to the grindstone. There’s updates to the website, design subs to create, patterns in a backlog that need to be written and edited, and camp stuff to unpack and find homes for.

Come next week, I’ll be trying to get back into the grove of blog-posts that are more informative that update-ish. I’ve also got a bunch of patterns that have come out in the last four weeks, so I’ll spend some time highlighting those!

My First Local Yarn Store: The Needlecraft Center

June 9, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

This last weekend Mr. Turtle and I drove the long five hours to Davidson College, our alma mater. It was his class reunion (last year was mine, but since the weekend was the same one as TNNA… I chose to forgo it). Davidson College is a small liberal arts college just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. You might have heard of Davidson College in a few different contexts: our free laundry services, when we went to the Elite 8 in 2008, because we’re Stephen Curry’s Alma Mater, or (if your’e in the stitching world) the fact that we’re the alma mater of Ann Shane of ’85 – also known as one half of Mason-Dixon Knitting.

Mr. Turtle and I have been back to Davidson a few times since we moved away five years ago – the most notable instance being at Mr. Turtle’s brother’s graduation. So the changes to the campus weren’t quite such a shock to us as they were to others. Still, it’s interesting to see how the campus has grown and changed.

There are few places that have been as formative to my life as Davidson. There’s Camp, of course, and my family. But Davidson is where I learned a lot of life skills in a very short amount of time: how to write well, create an ordered argument, set-up an excel sheet like a pro, weld and hammer. It’s where I met Mr. Turtle. It’s also where I met my first LYS: The Needlecraft Center.

The Needlecraft Center, Davidson NC

So while Mr. Turtle spent his time socializing with old friends, I took a quick hour to stop by the store, say hello to the staff, and just revisit a place that got me through many college crisis. And then, on Sunday before we left, I took some time to spend with the owner, Elaine McArn, who has run the store for 43 years – since 1971.

It was lovely to visit with Elaine. When I was in college I was a little intimidated by her: she was so very knowledgeable and experienced. She was the one who caught that I was knitting twisted stitches, who gave a word to the knitting style I preferred. She was the one who educated me on why it was worth it to save your pennies and use good yarn. She started me on my first terrible socks. I didn’t always welcome her advice: after all, I was young and didn’t always appreciate being told what I was doing was wrong, or not the best way to go about things. But I respected her – especially when I realized she was almost always right.

The year after I graduated my perception of her changed. I was working for the college, living in a house, and beginning to figure out the “adult thing.” I began to really respect the fact that Elaine had a long-time respected business, especially in the crafting world. I got to know her better through knitting nights at the store, and by hanging out more as she talked about the difficulties of owning a store: dealing with “missing merchandise,” how to market yarns and tools, and making tough choices about where her business was going to go. We bonded over gardening: growing peas and tomatoes, zucchini and squash.

young hatchlings in a nest cozied in a potted fern

Young Hatchlings in Elaine’s Fern

We’ve kept in touch on and off since then. Elaine was one of the first people I contacted when I knew I was going to TNNA. We met over breakfast the morning before the show floor opened, and she gave me advice about how to conduct myself. It made me relax when I was SO nervous!

So on Sunday it was more than nice to visit with Elaine, to talk about families and business, gardening and textiles. To talk about having to make tough decisions when you run a business: are you going to buy a new printer, or do workarounds so you can have the cash in reserve? Which yarns do you carry, what things are fads and which are not? We bonded over the young birds hatching in one of her ferns, and the way rosemary smells just after it rains. As we were talking I had a moment where my younger self looked through my eyes – not quite believing we were discussing tatting and crochet in heirloom textiles.

Have you had people in your life whose relationship has changed and grown? I’d love to hear about some of them!

A weekend in Pictures: Davidson Reunion

June 8, 2015 by Jennifer Raymond

Mr. Turtle and I got back from our Davidson College Reunion later last evening. It was just enough time to unpack, read through emails, feed the cats, and start a load of laundry. I swear, this traveling every weekend thing has to stop.

Tomorrow I’ll talk more about the reunion, as my thoughts settle. Today, a few quick pictures of what I’m working on:

Swatching for my current design!

I’m working with some lovely yarn called chocolate. I’m trying not to get hungry every time I use it.

Working on the sleeve of the piece. Knitting bag in Davidson colors!

Davidson College has a lake campus, where Mr. Turtle spent many an afternoon as Commodore of the sailing team. We went to revisit the lake campus, and I plopped myself by a tree near the water, and worked on the sleeve to this project.

All the revisiting members of 2010. I’m not there as I’m class of 2009.

Sign me up!

Thank you for visiting!

Tinking Turtle

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