Gearing up for the holidays, before this year, really felt as though it was pressed on me, mainly by any custom orders that came in.  I think this is the first year that fanknitics has felt like a business, rather than a marginally self-sustaining hobby.

In the last year, I’ve sold hats to Canada, the U.K., and to a graduate student who reputedly took it to Antarctica with him on a research trip.

I’ve been granted a real opportunity: a real job that requires an ever-longer commute, during which time I have very little else to do than read or knit.  Even when my fellow commuters are particularly boisterous, and I can’t concentrate on the novel or even audiobook-of-the-moment, I can, and do, knit.  Or crochet.  And that inevitably makes me better disposed toward my fellow wayfarers, instead of being, well, irritated.

My time is compartmentalized almost fully now, with knitting time being between 5:05 and 6:45 a.m., and from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m.  In that time, I can get most of a Jayne hat knitted, I am almost certain (I haven’t tested it yet).  I can certainly crochet a kippah in one day, and maybe get halfway through another one.  I’m happier and more patient whiling away the hours (almost two in the morning) keeping my hands busy.

This self-defense in the face of impatience, frustration and boredom has miraculously resulted in Stock for My Store.  I’d never thought I could safely re-list a custom hat once I had the body of the last order finished, but there it is.  I did that this week.

So, despite having a full-time job, a partner, a child, and a commute, I somehow have managed to start having a small business as well.