Summer Plans

It's hard to believe that summer is almost here! My girls get out of school on Friday, June 17th... which is just around the corner.

Usually our summers are full of magic camps, day camps & tennis lessons. We usually try to squeeze in a bit of travel, too. Some years we go to our camp in Maine (where we've had a consecutive 3-year-run of rainy weeks!) and last year we managed to visit my younger sister in France. This year we've got some SUPER CRAZY plans!

On Monday, June 20th, we (Marc, Helen, Sophie, the two cats Maisy & Lucy, and I) are all hopping on a plane for a HUGE adventure. This adventure will take us far, far away (almost 4,000 miles!) and will last a little longer than the average vacation (3 years). We are moving to Tampere, Finland!Marc has been working at Nokian Tyres for a few years and was offered a 3 year position in e-Commerce at the company headquarters in Nokia, Finland. It's an amazing opportunity for Marc, for my girls, and for all of us as a family, so there was absolutely no way we could pass it up. He already started his new position in early February and has been commuting back and forth ever since.

The first thing out of everyone's mouth when I tell them my news is "So you're selling the business?!" The answer (OF COURSE) is...

NO WAY! I am NOT selling the business!

Kaleidoscope Yarns is my life. It's my baby. I've learned so much in the past 9 years. I've grown both personally and professionally. I've met the most wonderful people - whether it be co-workers, customers or sales reps. I get up in the morning and once the kids are out the door, I can't wait to get to work!

I've poured my heart and soul into the shop since May of 2002. I absolutely love the products we sell, the service we provide and the things we all get to do on a daily basis. It's fun, it's exhausting, it's stimulating. And in this day and age, with technology the way it is, there's NO reason to think for a moment that I can't continue to own and run the business from afar!

So that's exactly what I'm going to do, with the help of my excellent team. Everyone here at Kyarns is excited about the what the future brings. We're always looking at ways to be better, and this change will surely force us to look at things differently - more "outside of the box" and that can only mean good things. Here's my new office (empty, because the furniture was still on the boat. It's getting moved in this Friday!)I will still be doing most of what I do now - working on the website, sending out weekly emails, blogging, coming up with new sample ideas, collaborating on classes, coming up with patterns - and by being out of the day-to-day hustle and bustle, I will have more time to focus on the long-term. Do you know I've had things on my "to-do" list for 2 years now? Things that I want to do to the website to make it better, that I just haven't had time to do? I'm excited!

We're all set up with WebCams and Remote Access and Skype and FaceTime. Who knows, when it's busy in the shop, someone may Skype me in Finland and you can carry me around on the computer while I help you! (We're joking about that, but not really sure how effective it would be!)

And of course, there's a lot of knitting over there! I'm so excited to check out the Finnish and European knitting scene (and fashion scene too!) and see what tidbits I can bring back to all of you. Remember, it's very dark in the winter... and cold + dark + snowy = lots of knitting ideas for Jill! After all, this cool knitting-related video about an obsessed knitter comes from Finland:


I'll be back four times a year, and in contact with my team on a daily basis. And you can expect some blog posts about how we're adapting to life in a new country...There's bound to be some humor in there somewhere!