There's been a lot of things happening in the background over the last few months, things that have been and will be affecting Woollen Wytch and how I run it, and in wanting to be fully transparent with you, I want to share what's been going on. 

If you want to read the full story, I'll leave it below, but if you want to short sweet details of how it may affect Woollen Wytch scroll to the bottom.

Running a business and Working Fulltime

Since Woollen Wytch began, I have been running it alongside working a fulltime daily job. The hours and my role at the daily job have changed over this time, I went from working 40hr weeks with standard hours as a Supermarket Delivery Driver, to working 30hr weeks as a General Assistant in the same department. 

Being a Delivery Driver was great, but I had a few incidents on the road that sort of ruined the job for me. I was threatened a few times, and I ended up having back problems. After 2 years, I came off the job, and transferred across to being a GA,  instead of driving the vans, I was loading them and organising the backroom & shoppers. Again I enjoyed it, but the downside to being a GA is that you start work before anyone else. For the last 2 years, I've been getting up to go work at 2am. 

The beginning of a Burn Out.

To start with it was great, starting at 2am, meant I finished work at 9am. This meant I could come home and work on Woollen Wytch from 9am - 5pm and be mega productive. In the beginning, I got so much work done, and you may have noticed I posted on Social Media more. But, over the last 12 months or so, I've been burning out and burning out hard. 

The 2am starts have slowly been destroying my health: both physical and mental.

I haven't been eating properly (and especially not healthily.) I don't exercise anymore. I don't socialize and visit friends/family. I don't read. I don't write. I don't draw. I don't spin. 

I haven't been doing the things I enjoy because I've been so exhausted. All of the time. I've barely spent any quality time with Ant since transferring to being a GA because my days off are spent sleeping trying to catch a break from the exhaustion. 

I didn't really catch how much my job effected my home life until now. 

Over the last few months, more and more people started handing in their notices at work, and the trance of working myself ragged broke. Working in Supermarket Retail sucks you into a pit of despair very quickly, when I took the job originally it was supposed to be a stop gap, a 6 month leeway until I found something better. Seven years later and I'm still there, I'd convinced myself I couldn't get a job anywhere else, that my only experience is Retail so I'd never get anything else. But that never stopped the wishful thinking and the weekly check on jobsites- not that I applied for any of the job listings. The lack of confidence was strong and the self worth was at it's lowest.

The Job Hunt begins

The team I work with are some of the best people I've come to know, we've made ourselves into a little family. Everyone plays a role, and everyone looks out for each other. So when 3 out of the 10 resigned, we all started looking for jobs, none of us wanting to stay at the Supermarket without the support and banter from each other.

I started actively looking for jobs last month. I haven't been just flinging my CV around though. I've only applied for jobs that I'm 99.9% sure will be better suited to me and the life I want to live. 

I want to be able to see friends, hang out with Ant, spend an afternoon reading or spinning without feeling stressed that I need to go to bed by 7pm every night. I want to be able to tax my brain, and keep busy. I don't to break my back lifting extremely heavy boxes about all day. I want to go to work when the Sun is up and not before even the birds are awake. 

I think I found it. The job for me. I handed in my notice last week and start my new job next month. I honestly can't wait. But it means that Woollen Wytch will have to change. 

What's with the Changes?

Woollen Wytch will be going through a little transitional period over the next few months. 

I'm not 100% sure which changes will be permanent or which will be temporary but I do want to be honest and upfront with you all before they happen. I run Woollen Wytch by myself, and so things might need to be pivoted as they happen and problems might arise from that, so please accept my apologies now, I'm only trying my best.

The Monthly Stitch Marker & Yarn Club is ending. This one may/may not be permanent. It all depends on my workload and the hours of my new job, its a little bit of a career change and I'm not sure what I'll be able to handle. Juggling the stitchmarker designs and a new colourway every month seems a little much for me at the moment and I don't want to make promises I can't keep. If you've bought a Prepaid box over the last few months, don't worry I will be running the Club until those run out, so your boxes will be honoured and dispatched as normal. However once those run out, the Club will be closed for the foreseeable future. I believe the last box will be August's box. 

Dyed to Order yarn will be dyed at minimum once a month. At the moment, if you order a 'DTO' Yarn these are dyed up as soon as possible, however much like the Club boxes, I'm not sure what I'll be able to handle or when I'll be able to drag my dye pots out. So to keep things smooth, I'll be dyeing Dyed to Order yarn once a month. The cut off point for each month will be last day of the month, and the yarn will be dyed over the first weekend of the month. This may lead to a longer wait time if you miss the cut off point and roll into the following month. 

From 2023, I will only be doing 2 shows a year.  This one is the real shame because I really love doing shows and meeting everyone. However, I want a better work/life balance and currently all of my 'work holiday' is taken up by shows and I don't have any time in my schedule for a holiday for myself. This hasn't been great because I could really do with a week to unwind, so I've decided from 2023, I will only be doing 2 shows. Want me at your local show next year? Email and tell me. Towards the end of the year, I'm planning on sending out questionnaires to find out what Shows & Festivals are best for everyone so keep an eye out for those. 

Postage Delay My new job is no longer around the corner from the local Post Office, which means I won't be able to just pop by to drop off parcels after work. Whilst I'm sorting myself out and working out a new weekly schedule, there may be a little delay on dispatching orders as I work out when's the best time to do my weekly post-run. At maximum there may be a 2 week delay from order to dispatch. Any queries, please contact me directly. 

Overview of the changes to Woollen Wytch.

• The Monthly Stitch Marker & Yarn Club is ending: Any Prepaid boxes will be honoured, but once those run out, the Club will be closed for the foreseeable future. (I think that leaves around 2 months left with the last box being August's Box) 
• Dyed to Order yarn will be dyed at minimum once a month. This may lead to a longer wait time if you miss the cut off point. 
• From 2023, I will only be doing 2 shows a year. Want me at your local show next year? Email and tell me.
• Postage Delay At maximum their may be a 2 week delay from order to dispatch. Any queries, please contact me directly. 

For now that's the only changes I can see happening, however these might change and alter again in future. Keep an eye on my Social Media channels for more up to date information. (Instagram/Facebook/Twitter/Youtube)