Too Soon

I can’t believe I’m already typing this.

Tomorrow is the last day of my designer residency at SweetGeorgia Yarns. It’s surreal in every way. First off, because it’s been quite the year. The work, the learning, my coworkers (more on this below)—have been above and beyond amazing. Second, because I don’t want it to be over.

This past year was my first brush with doing design work full-time—all told I released 16 patterns, including a giant MKAL and my first two garment patterns, and my first video course. (I forgot to announce that, didn’t I? Well, it’s official—I’m now an instructor with the School of SweetGeorgia!) It’s been fabulous, creatively stimulating, and exhausting all at once.

This all ties into the learning, which I’ve largely been documenting on this blog as it happened. Learning grading was huge; I’m still finding my way around, but every time I sit down to the spreadsheet full of Tabetha’s formulas, I feel more confident. It’s opened up a whole new world for me that I can’t wait to explore. And then there’s learning to shoot video. Video and I were not friends…managing all the nitty gritty on both sides of the camera—lighting, angles, file format, scripting, actually sticking to the script—had me rending my hair. But after all that, I’d say that the video camera and I have reconciled. We’re never going to be buddies, but the relationship is functional. I can work with that.

Finally, my coworkers. These people are the bomb. I’ve been overwhelmed from day one with how kind, uplifting, spunky, and just plain fun the SweetGeorgia team is. Felicia, founder and creative director of SGY, is one of the most gracious and intentional people I’ve ever come across. Tabetha, design director and my mentor, is savvy and gutsy and hilarious; she’s taught me so much about the industry and is the kind of person who can always be relied on to have a pep talk and a solution ready to hand when you come to her with a problem. The rest of the team is likewise remarkable—there are too many awesome people for me to name. They shower each other with encouragement, humor, and love with no holds barred and no strings attached, and they’ve done the same for me. I’ve made friends for days and many of us will still be exchanging project photos and Elmo memes long after I’ve finished up my time as a resident. (Yup, these folks love their memes.)

So in other words, even though the residency is nearly over, SGY and I aren’t parting ways by any means. I’ll still be doing contract work for them into the foreseeable future, including some exciting things that’ll be out in the next several months. I’ll be hanging out in the School forums as an instructor and hopefully a half-decent cheerleader. And as you can see, I’ve already caked up my yarn for the upcoming SweetGeorgia Spring Lace-Along.

That photo below? Those are all the labels from every skein of SGY I used this year. I usually keep labels until after each project is done, for reference; at the start of the residency I started saving them as a way to track my productivity throughout the year. Now these labels are much more than that; they’re mementos, in a way. It’s been a grand old time, and I’m sorry it’s coming to a close. I’m going to miss being a part of the team, even though I knew it was only going to be for a year. But boy, am I glad I was.