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Corrina Ferguson Interview

Hey there on today’s episode, I have the distinct pleasure of interviewing Corrina Ferguson. Corrina is doing some really fun things in the world. And I’m excited for you to hear it.

If you’re sort of nerdy like me. And you would like to be really efficient or figure out ways to be more effective at what you’re doing. You’re going to love this podcast. Corrina talks about how she created a coworking space to combat that really awful feeling that you get when you don’t know what you’ve accomplished in the day. 

And you’re not making headway on your dreams. And so she created what she was looking for in the world. I love that. As you could imagine, that is right up my alley. And as a maker I’ll but it’s right up yours too. The idea that if something doesn’t exist in the world and you want or need it, and you think it might enhance your life create it yourself, right. 

So that’s what she did. And we talked about that for a little bit, and we talk about the Pomodoro timer. We talk about how effective it is to have a deadline. And how, although we inherently sort of hate structure. It also seems to be necessary to move forward in life with all those big dreams we have. And then we talk about how she is. 

A knit designer, she designsknitting patterns. And I mean, like 200 of them. 

Which is super fun and you can find her knitting patterns on Ravelry and you can also find them on her website and she also does tech editing for other knitters. And she’s got this great coworking space. She’s even offering listeners to this podcast, free session on the coworking space. If you want to check it out, see if it’s something you might want to try, I’m going to, I just thought you should know. 

 And we also talked about Bigfoot. And you know, all the documentaries. on big foot.. And again, You know, we’re not talking about whether anyone saw big foot or whether or if Bigfoot is really not, because we all know the answer to that. 

But isn’t it amazing how there’s just something for everyone in the world. 

There is something for everyone. And our world has gotten so small in that way to where we can really reach out. And find our people and find information that really lights us up. Like Bigfoot, if it does you, so. Without further ado, take a listen. I think you’re going to love this podcast. 

You are listening to the in kinship podcast, a podcast for makers who crave. Of vibrant, authentic, juicy life on their own terms. Juicy!. , I was just trying that out for size. I’m not sure what I think about that. I actually got a little red in the face. When I said it. But, you know, let’s try it out for today. All right. Let’s get started. This podcast episode was sponsored by at the Tip of the Mitt fiber fair. The tip of the Mitt. Fiber fair is a beautiful fiber fair located here in Petoskey, Michigan, right at the tip of the Mitt. Yeah, we’re Michiganders. We’d like to get our hand out to show the mitten. That we live in and to show you where you can find the fiber fairs, it’s going to be up near the tip of your ring finger. 

Something like that. Anyway. Is held the first weekend in June and beautiful Petoskey, Michigan. And it celebrates the areas, local farmers and artisans. You can check out all the information at tipofthemittfiberfair.com. That’s T I P O F T H E M I T T F I B E R F a I r.com. And now. Onto our show. 

Tina: Today I have with me Corrina Ferguson. Corrrina, welcome to the show.

Corrina: Thank you for having me.

Tina: Oh, Karina, I was just on your website and I have to tell you, it’s beautiful. I am a knitter, um, a relatively new knitter. I would consider myself a master garment. sewist but a pretty new knitter. Although I’ve knitted a couple of sweaters and I’ve knit a bunch of cowls I’m actually in love with like little cape-like cowl things, you know, that made me feel like a superhero when I walk around town with my fingerless mitts on and whatnot.

Um, you Beautiful website. Will you tell us about your business? Let’s start out there and then we’ll back up and talk about your journey as a maker, but let’s begin with what it is you do right now and that website I was just talking about.

Corrina: So I do way too many things right now. Um, I’ve been a knitting designer for about 15 years. Um, and so I do still design stuff. I have stuff in my hands right now for a new design I’m working on. But the bulk of what I’m doing in the knitting world is tech editing, which is taking other people’s patterns and making sure they’re as close to perfect as possible.

And then the other thing that I’m doing is I actually have gotten together a bunch of my crafty maker business friends, and we do co-working together, and I’m working on a co-working membership for people who are crafty business people. So I’ve got like all these balls in the air, but the knitting design is still my favorite part of it all, like creating something from nothing.

Tina: Right. And I saw on your website you have over 200 patterns. That was mind boggling.

Corrina: Yes. Yes. And it’s interesting cuz some of them are like complex sweaters. And then I did some work for a website recently where it’s literally like a crocheted ball, you know, . So it, it runs the gamut from like super fancy to super, super basic.

Tina: Very fun. Before we dive into your history again, I keep setting that back cuz I’m too interested to find out where these paths will lead. Tell us more about that co-working space. What does that look like? Pull me through an actual co-working event, if you will.

Corrina: Basically what we do with the co-working is we work a method that is, um, Very, , Pomodoro timer based, I don’t know if you know what a Pomodoro timer is, but it’s I think the Italian word for tomato.

And so you are 25 minute timer and you work for 25 minutes at a time. So I have the session set up and I started practicing with my friends last year. Um, we do two hours at a time and we do 4 25 minute sessions. So it’s like, okay, what are you gonna do for this first 25? And then at the end of the 25, we regroup and we say, okay, what did you get done?

And sometimes it’s like, I finished my newsletter for my Patreon, and other times it’s like, oh, I went down a social media rabbit hole and didn’t get anything done. But, and I use this personally when I’m working by myself. I use the timers because my brain is all over the place. . The timer goes off and even if I’m not working, I’m like, okay, the timer has gone off.

I’ve doom scrolled for long enough, which is so easy to do nowadays and I’m gonna get back on track. So it’s really helpful. I think everyone that’s working with me now has, don’t wanna say the same kind of brain, cuz that just sounds weird, but, um, similar things where that kind of focus really helps.

And we do that twice a day. Monday through Friday, we do a morning and an afternoon thing and people come in as they can and some people come once a month and some people come every day. But there’s always someone there, so I actually get stuff done.

Tina: Wow. That was my next question was how. Effective is it for you as a person leading or um, leading the charge, I guess, if you will, on the co-working space to do it for two sessions every day, Monday through Friday? I wondered. Is that, but let me back up. All right. So there are certain things that I love to teach because they force me to get something done before I teach it, right?

So I wonder if it’s that same concept. 

Corrina: It’s kind of that same concept. when everything went upside down in the world. Um, I spent a couple of years just really flailing and so I had joined some different women’s business groups and one of the things that one of them had is they had a once a month co-working session, and it was a Zoom and there were hundreds of people in it, and you just put in the comments what you were gonna work on, and then you just worked.

And it was like crazy effective for me. It was like I got more done in that two hour session than I had gotten done, you know, the whole rest of the week. 

Tina: Wow. 

Corrina: up, up until recently, my days haven’t had a lot of structure because my boys are grown. Um, we recently rescued a dog and so she has been imparting a lot of forced structure on my days, but we work around the co-working, but doing it twice a day, I know that no matter what, I’m going to do business work for four hours a day and there’s big things I wanna do and I wanna keep my knit design going and I have all these tech editing clients and so it just makes sure that, you know, you don’t have those for me, those weeks where you come to the end of the week and nothing has been accomplished.

And I had so many of those in 2020 and 2021. And I just, I couldn’t have it happen anymore. It was, it was very demoralizing to have just these huge stretches where I couldn’t account for anything that I had accomplished. 

Tina: I love that.

Corrina: I had one friend that I started with and I’m like, Hey, my brain is not working and I know your brain is not working, and what if we tried this? I tried this and it worked for me. And she’s like, oh my God. Yes. And then it just kind of went from there and, you know, more people did it.

But it’s, it’s been really, really helpful for me. So,

Tina: I love that. So, okay, I have heard this concept before. I’ve forgotten all about it. So you work for 25 minutes and then you take a break. 

Corrina: It’s usually five minute breaks is how they say. They say, 25 on five off and you do it three times and then you take a longer break. We do it the two hours and our five minute breaks. Sometimes people will get up and do something during the break, but mostly during the break we check in and we, you know, make sure we’re back on track.

When I’m doing it by myself, if I have to go to the bathroom, I will wait until the 25 minute timer goes off and then go to the bathroom during that five minute break, run the dog outside, you know, and then get back to work. And it’s just, you know, it’s, I hate structure, but I require it,

Tina: You know, and there are a lot of studies out there that I’ve been listening to, and I think this fits in just perfectly into the idea of how to be really mindful about your life so that you have more joy and vibrancy in your life. Right? Because I get the whole concept of like, I have so many dreams of things that I wanna accomplish in my life, and only so much time.

And so I try to be very focused with my time, but, Lately I’ve fallen off that track a little bit and I would like to come back to it cuz it’s, it really stinks to go through a whole day or several days in a row and be like, I didn’t get accomplished anywhere what I thought I would. And I have to say that I can be unrealistic in understanding how much I can actually accomplish as well.

So I have to be careful with that balance of it. There are so many studies out there that talk about the power of doing something concentrated for a certain amount of time and only focusing on that one thing. And that anytime we get up, even to go to the bathroom and we come back in, it takes 15 minutes or something for us to recalibrate and get back into the flow.

Corrina: Yeah. It’s that whole context switching, I think is what they call it. And it’s, you know, people tell you you can multitask but you really can’t, cuz your brain isn’t a hundred percent there on any of it. But yeah, it, like I said, it’s just something that’s been so great for me and for the other people that have been doing it with me, which just makes my heart happy that you know that it’s helpful for other people too.

Tina: Thank you for sharing that. I’ve been personally very inspired to hear that and I’m like, maybe I need a co-working space all of a sudden. Right. Like, that’s definitely my mind. So your passion though, your true love is pattern making for knit wear right?

Corrina: Yeah. Knitting designs. Um, and that’s, that’s my favorite part. And actually I do a lot of that work in the evenings because sitting and knitting a new design doesn’t feel like work to me. Um, you know, some of it feels like work, like loading into Etsy and ravelry and dah da da da da. But like actually creating something, that to me is, very energizing and very good for my brain.

So, like, my husband will watch Bigfoot documentaries is the current obsession, and I will design a new cowl. So in the evenings, you know, when we’re sitting Yeah. Bigfoot. There’s a lot of Bigfoot going on right now. You would be amazed at how many, um, Bigfoot, I’m gonna put air quotes here, documentaries there are on the various streaming platforms that we subscribe.

It’s, it’s crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.

Tina: Wow.

Corrina: yeah, I do a lot of that in the evenings. So,

Tina: Very nice. I’m a creative person as well, right. And I love being a business owner. I’ve always enjoyed that. I’ve had that my entire career really. I’ve owned my own business, but I like to be creative. So I was trying to imagine, cuz I also like to picture the whole thing that you’re talking about.

So I try to imagine what that co-working space looked like, and I could see that the creative work would probably be done some other time. But that all the writing, which is, you know, arguably creative and all of the editing and all of the things that go into, creating a creative business , would be so well suited to that.

So, and not to like, keep going back to that, but maybe I will. The whole podcast. I have no idea. I’m very intrigued by it.

Corrina: Well, it’s, it’s my obsession right now, so that’s okay.

Tina: Yeah, I can see that. I am always a bit obsessed with ways to be more efficient and effective at what I do, so that I have more time to be creative and do the things that I love doing just for the flow of them. So I can completely relate. Will you share with us, who inspired you in your path to being a maker and are you a maker in ways other than knitting, or is that your primary focus?

Corrina: Knitting is definitely my primary focus. As far as inspired to craft, or to make my mom was creative. My, my stepmother was creative. My stepmother actually taught me how to crochet when I was a child. And then, you know, I did the whole Girl Scouts thing and everything was crafts and arts, and I always love that part.

Um, and then as an adult, like right now, knitting is my business and it’s still the part that I love the best. And you were talking about being a beginning knitter and an experienced ums. Sewist, 

Tina: Mm-hmm. .Yep. 

I 

Corrina: right word? . But I have like, um, probably a dozen, sewing patterns for garments and the fabric for the garments.

And I got myself a decent sewing machine and I took some classes. I’m a very beginning sewer, so that’s the thing that I do that like challenges my making skills, I guess is the best way to say it. And I always say when I’m talking about knitters that my favorite kind of knitter is what I call an adventurous beginner.

It’s the person that doesn’t know enough to know that they shouldn’t try this next thing,

Tina: Right,

Corrina: don’t say that in a negative way, it’s just they look at it and they’re like, oh, this looks beautiful. I don’t think I can do it. And I’m like, well, if, if you’re willing to learn, you know, a little bit, a little bit, then yes you can.

 But yeah, knitting is definitely my main. I do the, I do the sewing. I tried to learn to quilt. I, I don’t think I can, I don’t think I can do that. Um, I can’t. I can’t let, I’m a very spreadsheet graphicy person with my knitting, and I can’t let go of the fact that I can’t seem to cut a straight line in, quilting.

So like, you’ve got all those rulers and it’s just like that, that’s not really straight, you know, that’s not straight. Right. She’s like, it’s okay. We’re the, no, that’s not really straight. So I just, the, the quilting is not for me, but the sewing, you know, bodies are not straight. So that, that I find a little, a little more forgiving and stuff.

 I have to have something to do. Like my husband can sit there and watch TV forever and scroll through his phone or whatever. I have to have something in my hands. I can’t just sit there that, oh, that makes me crazy.

 Idle hands for me lead to doom scrolling, and there’s just way too much doom right now. So if I’ve got the knitting, I can mock my husband’s Bigfoot documentaries and knit and just have a nice evening,

Tina: Nice. Yeah, that’s a beautiful way to spend on the evening. I can totally see that. Um, you know, and what I love too is that, and I’m sure you probably have found this, I don’t know , how much you’ve sewn as far as clothing goes, but when I began knitting and I began with sweaters, you know, I was using short rows to create shaping cuz my body is very curvy and so I wanna just shape my sweater to my body. And because I was a garment sewist already, I had a really good idea of how something two-dimensional fits my three dimensional body.

And so I think that knitters and garment sewists already have this kind of like connection and sort of ease with understanding the concepts that can be kind of hard.

Corrina: Yeah, it totally, um, I was very pleased to find out how much the sewing patterns made sense to me. Like, there’s a notch here because, you know, there’s a chest here, you know, or whatever it happened to be. Um, it definitely does go hand in hand, and I think that if you understand how to fit your body one way, you.

Learn to fit your body the other ways. Um, the one thing that I have is I want all these linen things because I live in Florida and linen of course is not stretchy, like knitting . So I have to, you know, I had to learn a little bit there. There’s some mistakes made there. There’s been some things that, have hung off my body, like sheets of cardboard, but

you know, it’s all practice, so.

Tina: Right. And, and linen has its own, um, uniqueness and that generally has a great deal of body. So not only is it not stretchy, but it kind of will, will sit away from it has a little more structure to it and it’s wiggly all at the same time. So it’s like this interesting mix of fabrics. Mm-hmm. , you either love linen or you hate it.

Corrina: My dream wardrobe is living in Florida. My dream wardrobe is like all linen, like I have linen pants and I’m like, I wanna have linen tunic and blah, blah, blah, blah. My actual wardrobe is Bob’s burger’s, t-shirts and leggings. So , but yeah, it’s starting to get hotter here already and I’m like, I should sew some of that linen and yeah, and then wash it 50 times

And now a quick word from our sponsor. The tip of the fiber fair. The Tip of the Mitt Fiber Fair is an annual events been going since 2014 and it takes place this year at the Emmet county fairgrounds on June 3rd and fourth of 2023. And the fair features fiber animals, workshops, demos, and fantastic vendors. I have to say, I’m not teaching a class this year, but I have in years past, and it’s really a lovely event. 

The kind where you bring one bag, thinking that that’s all you’re going to buy, because honestly you don’t need any more yarn and then you ask. Um, I’m sorry, do you have an extra bag? I could use. Because, you know, Before, you know it, you are buying all the yarn. And. Having all the fun. So if you find yourself craving. 

To get your hands into some beautiful locally made. Gorgeously dyed fiber. Come on up to the tip of the Mitt. June 3rd and fourth. You can find out all the information on the fiber fair’s website, Tip of the Mitt fiber fair.com. 

Tina: So when did you begin, designing knitting patterns and do you remember that first one?

Corrina: well, what happened was, I didn’t learn to knit as a child. My mother learned to knit and, and she didn’t teach me for some reason. And then my stepfather was a crochet. So when we moved to Florida, um, almost 20 years ago, I had the boys and I was super excited to be a stay-at-home mom.

There was, that was the plan. And then the boys had the audacity to go to school. And so I, I picked up knitting as the hobby I wanted to learn. So I started to work in a knitting shop, um, down the road from where we lived. And, um, I was the adventurous beginner who didn’t know what I didn’t know. My first sweater was like a 50 page cabled, hooded nonsense thing. I still have it. It’s ridiculous. And I started to, Teach in the knitting store.

And so I think my first designs were actually washcloths. Um, back there was this thing and I forget what they call themselves now. They changed their name. It used to be Mason Dixon and it’s something else. They, they chose a better name, but they had this thing where they were like all about the, the power of cotton washcloth.

And there were like these cotton washcloth knitting clubs. It was a thing. And so we had a club and I designed a bunch of the washcloths for the knitting club. So that was my first patterns. Um, I don’t think any of those ever actually made it on raverly. And then I was like, I can do this. And I’m a math person.

And so, you know, when I started to realize like how much of writing a sweater pattern was opening an Excel spreadsheet, like my little heart just, just like, this is mine. This is what I’m going to do. part of why I’m so good at tech editing, is because the numbers are like my first true love and the spreadsheets make sense to me.

 And then ravelry came about the same time, and then it was easy to sell your patterns on ravlelry and it just kind of snowballed from there. 

Tina: So I learned how to crochet from my, you know, I was only inspired to crochet from my grandmother. I taught myself from a book, I forgot that until just this moment cuz she passed away when I was 17. And she’s actually my inspiration for sewing as well.

She was a seamstress. 

Corrina: Oh 

Tina: she passed away before I learned any of these things from her. But I definitely was inspired from her. And after I had my son, he’s seven years old now. I went through a bit of postpartum depression and I was trying to figure out how to be a little bit older of a mother.

So I was 37 when I had him. I had been well established as a human by that point, right? I had well established patterns and paths and I knew who I was and all of a sudden I’m this whole other human. And I had really let go of the making that I was doing and I was missing out on people cause I stayed home as well, which I was so incredibly glad that I could do.

But I also found it sort of limiting in the fact that I had other aspirations as well as being a mom. And so all of that to say about a year and a half into being a new mom, , I found a knitting group in my small town, and I went in with a staunch of like, I’m a crocheter. I’m not a knitter. Don’t even try to get me to knit because I’m a crocheter. Right? This whole like, whole statement around it. And then of course they’re all knitting and I always love the way the fabric looks in knitting better than I do, the way the fabric looks in crochet. And so I did learn how to knit from this wonderful woman named Betty Davis, and so I started on a sweater almost right away. There’s another point to the story, but we’ll go here first. So I started in the sweater almost right away, and anytime I made a mistake, she would just drop it all the way down and I’d be like, gods whatcha doing? And she’s like, now fix it. And I’m like, I don’t what, and she was like, oh, just take it.

And she would, you know, show me how to do it. And so now I can fix any issues in my knitting like nobody’s business because Betty Davis made sure that I could do that.

 Which does bring me to my next question for you. How satisfying is knitting in. An environment that is quite warm,

Corrina: Well, there definitely is a dearth of yarn stores and stuff. You still have that kind of thing down here. But I’m a plus size woman and so when I’m designing sweaters, um, nine times out of 10, I’m designing them for model sizes. And so it was very satisfying to me to knit a beautiful sweater in my mother’s favorite colors and just send it to her cuz she’s a tiny little Sprite.

 So that part of it like never bothered me. And then we live and die in the air conditioning the whole, you know, if the apocalypse ever comes, that’s what’s gonna kill me is the lack of air conditioning. I’m gonna have to like, move up where you are because Yeah, 

and then I’ve learned like what knitting you can take, where like you can take certain fibers to the beach and certain fibers is a really bad idea to take to the beach. Um, and then, uh, when the boys were younger and they had sports practices and club meetings and stuff, you know, I would, I would always have stuff with me there and, I knew what I could knit outside and what I can’t.

I mean, you definitely have the hot and sticky, but I knit my family hats all the time. I don’t knit a lot of garments for the family. Just when the boys were little, it was like fool’s errand because you’d knit them something and they’d outgrow it in five minutes. Um, which you, I’m sure you know, having a young boy.

But, you know, it’s just one of those things that. , it totally makes sense that you don’t think of knitting as a hot climate hobby. But most days, even in the summer, my husband has an upstairs office, so he likes heat, the air conditioning cold downstairs to help him upstairs. And so I have a sweater on almost every day and I’m like, this year I’m gonna knit sweaters that I’m going to wear, like sweaters that I’m going to wear in my office.

Like I’m going to do them for myself. So I don’t, I don’t really have a problem with it. I did write a whole book actually that was all based on the idea of warm weather knits. we focused it on the thinner fibers. The only thing I think is unsatisfying about Florida knitting is. . You know, if you’re talking about garments, you’re not gonna get a whole lot of use out of a bulky sweater.

Bulky sweaters are like super fun cuz you can do ’em in five minutes. You have a sweater, ta-da. But you, you know, that’s just not, that’s just not useful here. Even if I’m, hiding from the air conditioning, I don’t need a bulky sweater. I don’t know, I guess it’s one of those things I just kind of got used to.

I mean, there’s certain times of the year you just don’t go outside, so it doesn’t matter.

Tina: right, I can see that. And as somebody who’s only visited Florida once or twice, you know, I could definitely have a skewed vision of what it would be like to live in Florida. 

Corrina: You’re probably right. I grew up in Ohio. I grew up in Cincinnati and. Coming down here. I remember when we moved here, we got out at the Florida sign to take a picture of the boys, and I got out of the car and I stood with my arms straight out from my body. I’m like, what is wrong with the air?

Because you just got out of the moving truck and you’re clothes. Just like we’re instantly drenched and stuck to your body. And I was just like, and my husband who grew up here and moved back here with me, is just laughing at me. And like I said, almost 20 years later, here we are still, you know, still the air is trying to kill you.

So,

Tina: All right. That’s exactly what I pictured. So 

Corrina: I was gonna say, you’re right. You’ve got it.

Tina: And I am so a northern girl. So I live in northern Michigan, and the only other place I’ve lived other than northern Michigan is Alaska. So I’m definitely made of some northern blood, right? So I can’t even imagine the heat just devours me. I don’t know. I don’t know how you do it.

Corrina: you adjust some and then you spend a lot of money on air conditioning. 

So 

Tina: And, and you hide from it with your cardigan, which I love that whole phrase that you just gave us, by the way. . So speaking of living and life, so we know somewhat what your days look like because you shared with us that you have your coworking space Monday through Friday, so you have four hours that you’re dedicating that way.

What else do you do in your life that brings you joy other than your knitting?

Corrina: Well, I’ve got to admit that our world has gotten small, you know, with the pandemic and stuff, I’ve never really gotten back into the swing of how I used to do things, um, before it all happened.

 I was very much feeling the rut of it all. Like I enjoyed my co-working time and my husband and I had, you know, our, our patterns and stuff. But, we got a rescue dog at the end of the year, and so that is the new part of spending my day.

Um, I haven’t been getting enough exercise and I know I feel better if I do, even if it’s a hundred degrees outside. So we got what we thought was a grown dog and she, um, was about nine or 10 months old in actuality, and she is adorable chaos. So that’s a big part of our lives right now. Every morning I get up and.

You know, wrestle with the dog and okay, we gotta get the good harness on because if you escape again, I’m gonna have a heart attack cuz she escaped from one. We’ve gone through like six harnesses for the dog because she is Houdini, reincarnated. Um, so there’s a lot of that. We have one adult son that’s still at home, young adult son and then one that lives on his own.

He’s coming for dinner with his girlfriend tonight and I’m all excited cuz I feel like, you know, we don’t see enough of them but really we’ve, we’ve turned into super home bodies and I struggle a lot with, is this the way that it’s going to be forever And which was part of the reason that we introduced the dog because, it was the same old kind of everyday thing and it was like, okay, we need, something needs to happen here.

And so the dog was the first thing that happened and it’s actually been really great. The day-to-day. I’m very glad I have the co-working people because if I didn’t, I could probably go weeks and not see actual other people besides my family, 

which I put little so I have a Prius.

And if you don’t drive a Prius for a long time, sometimes the little battery, cuz it has a big battery and a little battery, you don’t drive it enough, it’ll, that little battery will die. And I did that a couple times during the pandemic, like proper. And so I have a paper planner and I put a little sticker in my planner when I drive my car. So it’s like, did you drive your car this week? Corrina, did you leave the house this week? Other than walking the dock? So I have a little sticker that I put in my planner that’s like, okay. And it can’t be just like to the corner. It has to be, you know, like actually driving the car long enough that it does what it needs to do.

And so it’s like, okay, so you’re gonna go to the beach today and you’re gonna, you know, grab the ingredients from the health, you know, just, but I, I put stickers in my planner to make sure that I don’t, don’t forget to drive my car. Like my son went down to Orlando to see one of his friends and he has a Prius as well, but he’s like, can I take your car to go?

And I’m like, yes, it needs to go somewhere. She’s very, she’s very bored. Ruby needs a ride. She needs to,

Yeah. 

Tina: Stretch your legs. Mm-hmm.

Corrina: yeah, the day-to-day , it’s, I don’t know. And I just, I have this whole, I turned 50 last summer and I’m just like, is it like this forever? Is it, is this, you know? And so you just gotta find the joy wherever you can.

So that’s sounded very depressing.

Tina: from somebody who’s listening to your story. It doesn’t sound depressing at all. It sounds real. It sounds like it’s hard to kickstart out of something, especially when it’s not fully gone. Right? And I just wanna honor the fact that you know what it takes for you to work in a really productive way that makes you feel good.

And it wasn’t out there, so you created it. I love that about humans that can do that. And I think that it’s a beautiful way to approach life. And it’s exactly what I wanna explore here in the podcast is this idea of like, if this isn’t out there and I want this, then I can do this. I can make it happen.

Corrina: when I was looking for coworking situations, I started like Googling, virtual Zoom coworking. Cause obviously I’m not going anywhere and it’s all very. And I’m just gonna say this, it’s all very dude, bro. It’s all very, we’re gonna, and some of the, the language that they used and I read it and I’m like, these are not my people.

 And so I was like, fine, I’m just gonna ask my people to do it with me. And, and I do have that. If it doesn’t exist, I’m just going to make it because I needed it. Um, and I think that the people that have been working with me regularly needed it too.

Tina: Yeah,

Corrina: And I’ve also gotten stronger friendships with people that, you know lives.

One, one of the ladies that comes, she comes at like, I think it’s like, I don’t know what time it is when she comes in the morning, cuz she lives in Norway, but she’s there and she, she comes in, she’s, this morning she comes in and she’s like, good morning. And I’m like, does that weird you out to say good morning to me when you’re gonna have dinner in a half an hour?

You know,

Tina: Right.

But, 

Corrina: it’s definitely been good. So,

Tina: And can I just speak to that for a moment? Like, Two things came up for me here is one is that what an amazing time that we live in, that 

Corrina: Right, 

Tina: can find the people that resonate with you because would the effectiveness of a co-working space that was full of not your people, would it still be okay? And in the past, would we have just made it work?

Yeah, we would’ve. It would’ve been okay-ish. But now you get to do the same thing you would’ve done there, but with people that resonate with you. And it just feels so much more amazing. And not only that, but you are working with somebody from Norway as you’re working right? Somewhere halfway across the world and it’s just, what an amazing time to be alive in so 

Corrina: It is. ,one of the girls that works with me and she’s there almost every time. Uh, my friend is from Houston and her daughter is doing some kind of job scholarship thing in Germany, but they’re going to go to Oslo for part of this thing. And she’s going with her daughter and she’s like, I’m gonna go to Oslo, and I get to go meet Linda.

And I was just like, I’m jealous. Can I go to Oley? Cause it’s like, but they’re like making plans to meet up and I’m just like, this is awesome. This makes me happy.

Tina: I love the whole interconnectedness we can have and the ability to really find the people and create the lives that we want, the people that resonate. So like, I didn’t even know that Bigfoot documentaries existed, right? If you would’ve asked me, is that even part of the world?

I’ve been like, well, no, the world consists of people who so garments and maybe moms. You know what I mean? Like it would’ve been this, my little view, which is both good and negative at the same time. But, , it’s interesting how curated we can make our own existence in this day and age.

Corrina: Yes, definitely. Definitely. I don’t recommend the documentaries, by the way. I, I mean, I, I think I, I don’t know, maybe if you had a drink and you’re like, Hey, let’s, yeah. Then maybe that would be, but yeah, there’s something out there for everybody.

That is the beautiful part. My husband loves Bigfoot stories, and there’s Bigfoot stories, and there’s games and knitting and sewing and st. There’s something for everybody,

Tina: there is. 

Corrina: a good thing. 

Tina: That is a good thing. So what are you excited to be working on right now? What’s new for you? What’s on the horizon? 

Corrina: Well, the big thing that I’m working on is I feel like we really have the coworking cemented because I did it for the better part of last year with my friends. So I’m working on actually being a business woman and launching it properly. So I’ve, you know, I’m doing some training and I’ve working on, all the businessy stuff to like get that in a position where I can invite other people into that world.

So that is probably my biggest thing that I’m working on. Um, and I’ve learned a lot over the last few years about things that help my brain, um, work. So I’m gonna be in putting that together with the co-working. One of the things you said earlier is you were talking about how you’ll think you can do more on a day than you 

Tina: Mm-hmm. 

Corrina: I.

I have overlapping systems, but one of my systems is I have a whiteboard with Post-it notes on it that are color coded and it’ll say you have a tech edit for this client and it’s gonna take you three hours, which it’s not gonna take me three hours, it’s probably gonna take me an hour and a half. But I overestimate all of those times , so that when I’m looking at my day, it’s like, there is no way this is gonna happen.

So let’s not set ourselves up for failure. Let’s, you know, move them things around. And do I occasionally work all weekend? Yes, I do. And then I have design collections that I’m working on for this year that I need to get out from under me that didn’t make it last year.

Um, I’m doing a big collection, well, not a big collection, big for an independent. I have a collection of five pieces that I’m doing in mal abrigo yarns for the fall. Apparently this is my year of only using warm colors. Everything I wanna knit is like warm fall, something colors. Like my mom’s still in Cincinnati and she goes, how do you live without fall and spring?

And I’m like, I don’t, it’s sad. I don’t know . So, but everything that I wanna knit is like, the thing that I have in my hand right now is all autumny colors. And so yeah, just, just keeping on and , trying to figure out how to make my world a little bigger in the reality of what life is now and staying off of Twitter so that I don’t read about any more new things that I need to worry about.

That’s what I’m excited about this year.

But really the big thing is the co-working and getting it so that it’s good for people. And like thinking about things like time zones and all that. Businessy stuff. Businessy stuff. I like the businessy stuff. I love checking things off of lists. It makes me very happy.

Tina: me too. I’m a bullet journaler. I absolutely love list. When you mentioned earlier that numbers are your thing, I, I have done accounting for a long time in my life as well as creative enter, so like pattern drafting, which is something that I do for sewing. And I do pattern drafting primarily to create teaching garments so that I can teach people how to fit it to their body and then create new things from it.

But I love the marriage between my analytical and my creative brain. Like it’s such a perfect combination for me. But one way that we are come completely different, you and i. is you build in extra space around what you’re doing and I take away anything that might have possibly been extra. So I’m like this, alright, so if I were doing the tech editing, I’d be like, you’ll take me an hour and a half, but one time I did it in 45 minutes, so I’m gonna allocate 45 minutes to this project.

Right? That’s how I 

Corrina: But business

Tina: Oh, it’s awful. 

Corrina: that’s very bad. 

Tina: it is, I have a graphic arts degree as well, and so I worked for a, a firm for couple of years and it actually was one of the most peaceful jobs I’ve ever had because kind of like what you’re talking about, they had a big board and there were time slots and each person had, you know, half hour blocks of time and you would go every morning to the board and there’d be job packages that were there and somebody else in the firm, cuz it was a big enough firm. So somebody else in the firm would put out like what they were gonna build the client for three hours for this, two hours for that. So it needed to be done in that timeframe. And so you would pick all the jobs and you would have to then allocate them onto your time slot and you couldn’t take more than your time allowed. And it was the most peaceful, satisfying job I’ve ever had. And I’ve been trying to get back to that ever since. So now in my asana, which is what I use to do all of my to-do lists cuz I’m

very nerdy this way. 

Yeah. 

Corrina: that makes me so happy. 

Tina: Right as it should. And so I will put on a task and I will estimate how long it’s gonna take me.

And then so that I don’t feel so disappointed in my day that I haven’t done anything. Cuz I have done a million things, but I have the impression that I can do 5 million things in a day when I actually can’t because I did once cuz it happened once. And so I can do that every time. Yeah. So I will put in there like, you know, write my newsletter and knowing that it takes at least an hour, so then I’ll put an hour behind it.

And so when I, I try to do this, when I allocate my tasks out for the week, I try to not put more task, more tasks in a day than there are hours in that day. Um, but I sort of suck at it still even though I’ve been trying this. So I love it. I love that you add space and I’m gonna try, there’s so many things you’re, you are helping me to expand in right now. I’m gonna try to do that, add space around things. Thank you.

Corrina: It does help. Well, and it, it’s just so much more satisfying to end of the day and be like, oh, I can do this too, cuz I finished everything else than to be like, oh, I have to roll this into tomorrow and maybe I can’t cook dinner tonight. Or maybe like you look at the dog’s face and you’re like, I’m really busy this morning.

Maybe we, you gotta go for a walk with the dog. You know, you, and there’s so many things that you’ve got to do. And I say, got to in a, you gotta eat a proper lunch. You’ve gotta take a break, you’ve gotta drink your water, you’ve gotta, you know, take the stupid walk for your stupid mental health or whatever it is.

And you know, we don’t build in time for those things. And then you get through your day and you’ve not gotten done everything that you want. And then you also didn’t do the things that are good for.

Tina: right?

Corrina: Body, mind, and soul. And then you’re like, okay, today sucked. And I’m trying to be less about the suck and I’m trying to be more about the,

Tina: Mm-hmm.

Corrina: you know, 

the, that the tactical military grade harness that I put on my dog this morning, she did not try to escape from that is a bright side.

We had a lovely walk. She didn’t bark at any of the neighbors. And, but yeah, I don’t know. 

Tina: Today did not suck.

Corrina: I have learned more in the past 2, 3 years than probably 10 years before that. And part of that is so much time by myself because the boys had graduated school, the boys were out of the house for a while.

Both boys were outta the house. And it’s like, oh, I gotta like be alone with this person, this person, I’m pointing to myself and they can’t see me. And it’s like, okay, we need to do some stuff around here. So, but yeah, definitely build space. Space is good.

Tina: It is good. You know, I was just having a conversation yesterday because I am a very nerdy planner and I absolutely adore it. Right. I’ve been trying to create systems that work well for me instead of like fighting my natural way of being, because it’s never gonna work then,

Corrina: Mm-hmm.

Tina: So part of it for me is that I choose three things each day to get accomplished.

And if I can get those three things accomplished, then I have that sense of accomplishment. Because this is all in our heads, right? For the most part. I mean, yeah, to some degree we have certain deadlines that we have to meet. And I would even argue that this is the case for people who work in an office or people that work for somebody else to some degree.

Is there only certain things that you have a true deadline on? And the rest of it is what you put on yourself, what you’re going to accomplish in any given day. And so I think if we can be realistic with what we can actually do. And then also be mindful and put some boundaries around it, like you’re talking about with the timer.

Like that makes so much sense to, to fine tune it. But so each week, this is how I start my week. It is I start my week and I do this week planning and I do it usually on Sunday. Sometimes on Monday. And I’ll take, and I’ll look at my, again, I keep all of my to-dos in Asana cause I have so many irons in the fire that I have to keep it all organized or it would keep me up all night long, like trying to remember all the details of it.

So I keep it all there. I’m very organized that way. And then once a week I will start with, cuz I’m also kind of, for lack of a better word, I’m kind of woo woo as well. So I’ll do like a little prayer. I’ll

Corrina: am too 

Tina: that’s awesome. I’ll look at some, um, astrology kind of things for the week.

And I’ll do a little journaling on that and then I’ll look at like, how does my body feel? You know, what are the three, absolutely three things I need to get done that week? And I’ll write those three things down so that I can remember, like, this has gotta be my focus this week, period. And then I’ll take my to-do list and I’ll create like a weekly to-do list.

And then that weekly to-do list, it just will be like half a page of my journal long, it won’t be super long cause I can’t do more than that anyway, so like just stop putting things on it that are never gonna fit. And then each day I will go through and I’ll decide, , what has to happen each day based on what my deadlines are, like the podcast deadline or an interview or things like that.

And like I said, I try to allocate time to it so I can say, do I actually have time in that day to accomplish these things? And then I’ll also like work out like my perfect work schedule when I have my son my perfect, cuz I was recently divorced this year, my perfect work schedule when I don’t, and then like sometimes I can go overboard and I can’t hit those things cuz I’m like, you’ve gone too far and you can’t hit this.

But just yesterday, like, I know without a shadow of a doubt. And I have shared on this podcast probably every episode that I’ve shared, I know without a shadow of a doubt, if I stop and take a lunch, go for a walk, my whole day is better. And did I do that this week at all? And I’ve been in a funk and I’ve been crazy all week.

Did I do it once? No. Do you have any tips for that? You’ve got this tool in your tool belt and yet you still don’t do it when you need it Most.

Corrina: I have to admit, , the lunch and the dinner thing, if I were left to my own devices, I would be, you know, eating crackers at nine 30 at night for dinner. But my husband works from home, but he works for a major corporation. So he comes down for lunch at a specific time and at a specific time, Wendy is at, hid the foot of the stairs waiting for him to come downstairs because she gets a walk, a short walk when he comes down for lunch, you know, and so his schedule helps me keep my schedule.

 And so the co-working hours definitely help me. It’s to have, you know, my, my last Pomodoro session, we end at noon.

We end at noon, and then I come, you know, and I get lunch and everything, and then we end at four 30 in the afternoon. I find having those hard cuts makes a difference for me. I know that it made a difference for me when I was in the workforce. Um, but also I, I set a lot of alarms. I have alarms that’ll go off.

Like there was an alarm today that was like, okay, get up from your lunch and, you know, go upstairs and get set up. There’s an alarm that goes off that tell me call my mom, you know, there’s an alarm that goes off that, you know, if I’m still working at a certain time. So I said a lot of alarms and part of it’s the Pomodoro timer, but part of it is my phone is just whole pages of alarms for different things.

Like it’s 15 minutes before coworking, it’s blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The boys are coming for dinner. Did you start dinner yet? You know, , it’s just like, and that’s the way my brain works, but I. I also, , check off when I do good things. I do a paper planner, but it’s dated and I give myself little check marks when I drink my water, and I write down what I had for lunch at actual lunchtime and whether or not I had fruits and vegetables because

apparently I haven’t learned that lesson.

So,

Tina: Wow. Do I resonate with this very much? And I haven’t utilized, I haven’t utilized alarms nearly as much as I should. I am like taking notes in this podcast episode right now, and

I’m like, 

all right. I’m gonna start a, working with a co-working space, maybe yours as soon as you get it live here.

And I am going to set more alarms because I know these things weren’t for me, and they’re so hard to enact. They’re so hard to make happen, especially when you’re having a rough time.

Corrina: it. Yes. This week was not my best week. Um, and the more I stick to my schedule, the better. But if you wanna try co-working, we have it open cuz you can come for the hours, but not all the bells and whistles are there. Um, but also if you wanna try, you just, I’ll just send you the code and you can come and visit us once.

So I let people come and visit because we may not be your vibe, you know, . Cause I don’t want people to like to be like, oh no, you know, and maybe they don’t like, you know, , one of the ladies does a little dance when she finishes something and it’s like, makes me so happy. But maybe that’s not for other people that we’re silly and we’re cheering and we’re, you know, whatever.

Tina: One of the questions I love to ask all of my, guests is, what do you wish people knew?

So maybe imagine those women that come into your workspace or maybe imagine your sons or somebody out there. What do you wish they knew that you think that they don’t, that you wish that they knew Deep in their heart?

Corrina: I think the biggest thing, and, and I’ll phrase this in terms of knitting because it’s easier for me and I’ll come back to the phrase that I use that’s adventurous beginner. I like to look at life as being an adventurous beginner.

Do I know how to do all the life things? I’m 50 years old and I don’t, but will I try all kinds of things that maybe I should have thought about a little more like going to the pound because I saw one cute picture on a Wednesday afternoon and now I have a dog. I think that people stay in their lane or stay too safe.

 If you look at things as if, no, I’m a beginner at this. No, I have no idea how to do this or, you know, no, I’m not the expert at this, but I, I’m willing to try, I’m willing to be adventurous. It’s more important to me to try new things and to, I don’t know, I just think that that’s really important.

And so when people like come in, they say, oh, I can’t possibly knit a hat or a sweater. And I’m like, it’s all just knit and pearl. It’s all just knit and pearl stitches. And that’s kind of life too. It’s, there’s just little basic blocks. Do we, some times break it down to the very basic blocks where I have to set a timer so I remember to eat lunch.

Yeah. But it’s all just basic blocks. It’s all just knits and pearls and. You know, you just gotta get out there and do it. And I say that as I talk about my world being small, but I really just think looking at life as be the alien, be the person that’s like, I don’t know what this is, but I’m gonna figure it out and I’m gonna give it a try.

You know? I don’t know.

Tina: I love that. I also, I also love Be the Alien. Like that might be my new mantra,

Corrina: One of my favorite authors is Jen Sinero. She wrote a series of books called, you Know You Are a Badass. And then she did all kinds of spinoffs on them and, and she talks about being the alien in your world. She’s like, go to your grocery store like you’ve never been there before. Go to your coffee shop and everything’s a wonder.

And I did that in my backyard last night. Um, we’re trying to make our yard more hospitable to Florida, you know, to be outside not only the winter . And so we were sitting out there last night and the planets were aligned last night. Like everything was lined up and you could see Jupiter and Venus, I think, 

Tina: Oh, really? Literally. 

Corrina: , yeah, literally the plants were aligned. And I was sitting in my backyard and I was sitting there and I remember when my mom came to visit a few years ago, cuz she lives up in Ohio. She’s like, I can’t believe you don’t have furniture out here. Cuz at the time we didn’t have furniture out there.

She goes, I would be out here every day. And I’m like, mom, you would burst into flame. You’re a redhead, but she walked into our backyard and she looked, we live on a, we live on a lake. It’s really a retaining pond, but we live on a lake. And I’m sitting there last night and I was being the alien, and I was looking around and I’m like, how beautiful is this?

We’ve got lights on the porch. We’ve got comfy chairs. You can hear the frogs. The dog is happy, husband is happy. We’re sitting out here feeling the breeze. And there’s so many things that, that you can be the alien about. Just look at it with those,

Tina: Mm-hmm.

Corrina: I don’t know. It’s, uh, it’s all like gratitude and stuff, but it really, it helps me when I’m having one of those ugh times. So

Tina: thank you for that.

Corrina: you’re welcome.

Tina: Karina, this has been such a lovely time. Where can my listeners find you online, and where can they try out your working space? I know you have two different ventures going on.

Corrina: I am, well my name is Corrina Ferguson and craft Star Studios is my knitting pattern site, so you can find me on ravelry and I have all my patterns are most of my patterns on my site. So if you need knitting stuff or technical editing stuff, that’s the way.

But I’ve also started my own brand. It’s Corrina ferguson.com and that’s where there’s information about the co-working and the stuff that I’ve found that helps my productivity as a weird math creative brain. Um, . And so you can find all of that stuff there. And if you ever think that the coworking might work for you, I would love to have people come and visit. Cuz I think that people should try it to see if it’s something that works for them. They can always just shoot me an email on any, any of my sites or send me a message on Instagram or whatever.

And I would be happy to set that up. And I, I love meeting new people. So

Tina: Thank you. .

Well, that’s all for our show today. Wow. Did I have a good time talking with Corrina? And I’m so glad you’re here to listen. Thanks for spending your time with me, if you would, I’d be really grateful if you would jump on your favorite podcast, listening app and subscribe to the show. And if you’re there, you might have to leave a review because that’s how I’m going to reach new people. And I would love your help doing that. 

All right. How the most beautiful day. 

Our podcast today was sponsored by the tip of the Mitt fiber fair. The tip of the Mitt fiber fair. Is held and beautiful. Petoskey Michigan this year at the Emmet county fairgrounds is on June 3rd and fourth of 2023. You can come and you can. See demonstrations, and you can take a workshop. You can buy. Yarn yarn yarn yarn yarn. you can buy fleeces you can fight beautiful handmade goods you can see the artisans you can eat delicious food at the food vendors just come on up It’s a lot of fun The website is tip of the Mitt fiber fair.com. T i p O f t h e m i t t f i b e r f a i r.com. You can always find the link to that in the show notes