Hello!

 Well, here goes! Blog Post Number 1 from me, Charlotte, at Wild Magic Yarns. 

This all feels a bit surreal, really. And scary. If you follow me on Instagram or YouTube, you might already know that I was made redundant on Christmas Eve. I am a Primary School Teacher, but for the last four years, I have been working from home as the Curriculum Development lead, and online lecturer for a Women's Domestic Violence charity. 

I've been working from home because apparently, when you get ill and have to start using a wheelchair, you become "incompatible" with a school classroom. After being told I was a "Health and Safety Nightmare", I left my class and was heartbroken.

 I was incredibly lucky to find a new job that I absolutely loved. Best of all, I could work from home, so when feeling at my worst, I could still work from bed. But, working for a charity comes with a dependence on external funding, and as of December, there was no longer funding for curriculum development, or online learning. All that accessible stuff they did during the Covid lockdowns that changed the lives of disabled people so much, is now being taken away again. But, what can you do?

Not much. So, I decided to see if I could make Wild Magic Yarns work as a small business. 

This was never actually my intention. Yarn dyeing is physical, and I am disabled. Much of my time is spent confined to bed, in a great deal of pain and barely being able to work on a laptop, let alone anything else. However, I am determined. I have been chronically ill for years and managed to hold down a teaching career, do my Master's in Education and navigate life in a wheelchair, moving to an adapted bungalow and adjusting to my new life. 

It has not been easy. I have been gradually getting worse since May 2024, presented with myriad new symptoms. This has involved a whole lot of different tests and hospital appointments. I an TERRIFIED of anything medical, so having multiple blood tests, swallowing a pill-cam for a capsule endoscopy, even sitting in waiting rooms for hours, has been a real ordeal. It isn't finished - they still don't know what's wrong with me and I am facing yet more scans, invasive tests and medication trials. One of them is a "Nuclear Medicine Scan" - I don't even know what that is! 

Anyway, what I am trying to say is that I am not going to let my disabilities get the better of me. It would be all too easy to give up, do nothing and just exist. That's not me, though. I need to be doing something, and if I can do something I love, hopefully I will manage. After all, I will be my own boss and I can be as flexible as I like.

I don't want to make silly amounts of money. I just want enough to pay my share of the bills (with maybe a little left over for yarn!). I really, really hope I can achieve this. 

So, that's where things stand at the moment. I am sorry if this first post was boring, but I wanted to explain why I've suddenly decided to start dyeing yarn properly, and how nervous and excited I am. I also find it easier sometimes to communicate in writing, rather than speaking. I thought that a written blog would be handy for those times when I'm not able to Vlog, or when I look so ill I would scare everyone away!

Tomorrow, I am going to place an order of yarn, and plan some new colourways to stock my online shop. For now, I am sitting with my thoughts, and a Hotel Chocolat hot chocolate from the Velvetiser, that my teen just brought to me. Teenagers are great - I cannot recommend getting one enough! They even dye yarn sometimes 😉