Big Changes

I had my Clapotis around my neck when the manager at Michael's asked me why I wanted to teach knitting when I had so much education and work experience.

I picked up then end of the scarf and said, "Because I love this." I told him how at all those call center jobs, and even when I was a newspaper reporter, I would be sit at my desk and think about what I would knit when I got home. (Or often when I went to lunch or clocked into my break.)

Things went really fast after my last entry.  I had started pondering teaching knitting around January. When I signed up for the Craft Yarn Council Certified Instructor Program in February, they asked me if I wanted to teach at Michael's, and I checked yes. (Michael's requires the Level 1 coursework to be completed before you can teach there, but you can do your student teaching at Michael's if you're hired.) Then came an e-mail wanting to know more about my background and which stores I was willing to teach at. Then there was another e-mail telling me that I had been "paired" with two stores in South Austin. By March I was calling people back about filling out the application and coming in to "chat."

I entered most of my work history into the application, but when I went in, I took this instead of a resume:


You are looking at the Clapotis I mentioned before, the Strangling Vine scarf, the Broken Scarf, the Entrelac Scarf, the Soy Wool Spiral hat, my Knucks and a binder full of swatches I did for the CIP.  (I interviewed for the job before I submitted my coursework, so this was before I had sent them in, or even wove in the ends.)

So yes, I did get hired at Michael's in Sunset Valley and the Michael's in Westlake.

I even had my first two demos already. I demonstrated arm knitting and talked about the classes available in May at both stores. I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture while I was at the Westlake store yesterday, but it looked a lot like this:


I'm responsible for doing my own promotion to get students. I posted an ad on Craigslist and got a response in less than 24 hours.

So this changes my rule about not talking about my work in too much detail in this blog. That's been my dream since day one, that my blog and my knitting would be part of my job, instead of something I did when I was done with work. I still have the online, work at home job. (Message me if you want details.) But I'll be spending a lot of time focusing on these classes. especially in the beginning. In fact, a complete description of classes in May should be coming soon.