Thursday, January 01, 2009

Back from beyond

Well, back anyway. The fall travel has ended at long last, I returned from Buenos Aires with no yarn to show for it. it amazes me that I was given the opportunity to travel to South America again and I missed the chance to get great yarn at fabulous prices. True, i did get yarn last time I was in BA, but this time I promised myself I would make it Scalabrini Ortiz (we were only 10 blocks away in the hotel) and get yarn.

Well, that didn't happen, but I did get to see two different sides of the Argentine health care system.
One was a bit scary, like the emergency room gurney in the photo below, with another patient next it- (a real lack of privacy here). Best part was, the hospital was only going to ask for a 8 peso donation for 2 xrays, an ambulance ride, all of the blood tests and the doctors visits. We donated quite a lot more.
The otherhospital was outrageously overpriced, but very clean and lovely ($5000 US for an overnight inpatient stay- US not pesos, so I would have been over 15000 pesos!) I had two students who had medical emergencies when we were there, so as the leader I had to go along.
For a bit, it looked like I wasn't going to make it home for Christmas, but then finally things worked out and we all made it home safe and sound.

Tomorrow I go back to work after begin off for 9 days, the longest time I have been home since I had Nate in 1999. I got some work done, including sone new yarns to go on Etsy.

For those of you who have asked, yes, I am still dyeing yarn. But, the majority of that yarn is being sent to Cherry Tree Hill Yarn who buys it wholesale and resells it to her customers, some shops here in the US, some online retailers in the US and in Europe. I stopped the Etsy store when my travel schedule and work life made it impossible for me to consistitently fill orders and mail packages on time. (This fall I was on the road two to three weeks at a stretch). So while I could dye yarn when home for a few days, I couldn't get photos and posts done)

So, we are now in the spring and I hope to devote myself again to posting and selling yarns through the etsy store.

I've also been toying with the idea of a natural dyes podcast. It is really amazing how many questions I get via email about dyeing with natural dyes. So, I thought it would be a good way to help teach other people about this great creative way to get new, unique colors and blends of colors.