Why The Name "Treehouse Fiber Arts?"

This story begins with a dream of a treehouse. My hubby is the dreamer of the family, and I tend to be the realist. I learned this difference about us very early on in the relationship. So when he told me he had a dream of building a big treehouse someday for his kids (aka, "his kids and him"), realist-Rachel laughed at the thought. Probably even rolled my eyes. At the time, we lived on a treeless street in a condo in downtown Chicago. We didn't have any children, and he worked 80 hour work weeks. Suuure, we can build a treehouse someday...

Then came the blessed addition of two boys. A move to suburbs. And a yard with trees! A forest of trees. Amazon started delivering books on treehouse building. Essential power tools for building a treehouse were procured. Graph paper with various sketches of treehouses began appearing on the desks and coffee tables around the house. Our DVR (remember those?) recorded treehouse-building reality shows. Still the skeptic, given our life responsibilities of the time, I didn’t believe a treehouse project could ever "get off the ground." (sorry)

Actual construction began with the help of some friendly neighborhood competition (to my husband’s delight, our neighbor also had similar "dreams"), and then a visit from two of my husband's "Obi-Wans" of construction and all things home maintenance -- the grandpas. With their additional wisdom and manpower, the treehouse project began. Posts were dug, brackets were screwed into trees, decking was laid, walls put up, roof nailed on, side railing attached, pail with a pulley system installed, staircase lovingly built.

The first time I went up into the treehouse, I immediately visualized myself knitting on it's deck. Next came the visions of me spinning on my spinning wheel (I didn’t have a spinning wheel), hearing the whirl of the wheel and the tap tap of the treadle against a back drop of wind through the trees and melodic birdsong. Or up there with my loom (I didn’t have a loom), beating my handspun yarn into my newly woven fabric as I passed the shuttle back and forth. I felt inspired and relaxed up in the trees. All cares, worries and concerns were left at the bottom of the stairs. All inspiration, creativity, and dreaming were at the top.

Fast forward to now. The boys’ treehouse days are over (and that price/playtime use ratio is still a bit low for me - hi again, realist-Rachel), but I now have great memories (I have Olden Days!) of the bulding of it (3 generations of men having their hand in it), nerf gun wars off the railings, the boys laughter coming from it up the trees. And even that first time I realized that my tween son was up there innocently with the neighbor girl. I think. Despite naysayers and realists, my husband’s dream became a reality.

I always had a great desire to run a business, but realist-Rachel assumed that was not in the future for her once shen got married and had the kids. When I nervously jumped into the YouTube podcasting world in 2016 I called my channel “Treehouse Knits” to inspire me to be brave, sharing my knitting (and myself) on video with other knitters, and standing up to that “naysayer” voice that tends to pop up into my realist-head. The Treehouse Knits channel opened up the big beautiful world of Fiber Arts for me - and friendships, trips (Norway being the highlight!!), retreats, and so much more.

In 2018, realist-Rachel embraced her dreamer-side and created Treehouse Fiber Arts, LLC. The business has followed my own creative journey, starting with selling hand-sewn project bags and my own handspun to knitters, to now selling cross-stitch and punch needle kits, notions and even a collaboration with a knitting friend (yay Treehouse Knits!) running a hand-dyed linen and Aida Club.

While being realistic can keep you from making some major mistakes in life, "dreaming" is the necessary start for anything big and exciting! Did I tell you that I now I own a double treadle spinning wheel? And a couple electric wheels? And a rigid heddle loom? Three of them? Dreams can be expensive…but that’s another blog.