My Accountant is Not a Knitter

Today’s post was supposed to be the one I’ve been looking forward to writing for a long time — a little guided tour of the development of a brand-new colourway called Diaphonous, (which I just love!), and then a shop update with some lovely yarns in that colourway. But somehow, as I’m looking at the photos I took today, they just aren’t quite right… the colours are just off. And I can’t be showing you the development of a colourway if the photos don’t show the colours. So the pictures will be retaken tomorrow and the blog post written later this week. Watch for it, ok? This colourway is worth it!

But… that leaves me sitting here at my computer blog-post-less, no idea what I’m going to write. The past few weeks have been insanely busy and I’ve barely been able to catch my breath: my husband (and head skeinwinder) has been in England for three weeks, I’ve been taking care of the family on my own, while tying and dyeing and winding like mad to build up stock again after we got mobbed at HomeSpun (what a day!), getting ready for Knitters Fantasy (last Saturday and wow, what a great day!) and… and… there was something else… What was it?

Oh, yeah, taxes. I was trying to do my taxes. And, I’ll tell you, with everything else that was going on, it was a real struggle to make myself sit down and work on the numbers. So, y’know, I tore into the accountant’s office late last week, my hair sticking out all over the place and a wild look in my eye, and dumped a stack of papers on her desk. “It’s all here,” I said. “…I think.”

She picked up the papers and cast her eyes over the first few sheets, and we quickly went over the main stuff. W-2zzz… 1099zzzz… 401kzzzzzzzz….

Things My Non-Knitting Accountant Says

But I’ve got to tell you this, because you’ll love it. After she looked through all that stuff, she came to the SpaceCadet spreadsheets. And as she looked over the numbers for the business, she said almost unconsiously, “Yarn! …Yarn!”

Now, the business is healthy, but the numbers are hardly mind-blowing, not by any means. But my accountant is not a knitter and, when first I told her I dye yarn for knitters and crocheters, I am quite sure she was under the impression that there were only a handful of you guys out there, and that you probably buy only a skein or two of yarn per year. (I mean, you only knit booties, right? Only when you’re pregnant. Of course.)

She remembered I was in the room and looked up again. “I… I wouldn’t even know what to do with it,” she said, still clearly flummoxed by the whole yarn-concept. “What do they do with it?”

“They knit with it,” I said, grinning. I couldn’t help it, her obvious confusion was too entertaining. “Here, look… ” and I pulled out my knitting, the Walnut Grove shawl in the Yarn Alliance’s Selfish colourway.

She squinted at it, then reached out and touched it gingerly with her fingertips. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “It’s really thin!” And then… “You could make something normal with it!” Why, yes. Yes, you could. My grin spilled into a chuckle.

I love dyeing yarn for you guys. And, she loves crunching numbers. It’s all good.