Eco Friendly Yarn: Handspun Yarn & Handdyed fibers from Blonde Chicken Boutique

New Website and a contest!

2009-01-14T15:06:00.002-05:00

*big sigh*
Well, it's done! My new site has launched and my blog has officially moved.
Please check it out at http://blondechickenboutique.com.
If you subscribe or "follow" or link to this blog, please change your links!

To celebrate the launch and to kick off the Month of Love, I'm having a contest, be sure to enter for your chance to win 50% off your next BCB purchase!

New New

2009-01-01T14:30:00.005-05:00

Welcome to 2009! I hope you're having a lovely, fiber-filled year so far.
I'm starting the new year with a new website...well, the shell of a new website. I still need to rearrange, organize and figure how the heck to get my pictures to look pretty. The main change will be that my main website and my blog will all be in one pretty place.
Another fun change is that I want to turn more of it over to you. I'd like to start a regular (weekly? monthly?) Ask Tara thing. You can ask me anything you like about spinning, dyeing, knitting, finding local farms, using Etsy, starting a business, or...uh, moving from Ohio to Tennessee or training a Bagle (Beagle/Basset rescue pup) or anything you can think of. I'll answer the questions in the blog or with a video tutorial. If it's something I don't know about (like vaccinating your sheep), I'll find an expert to ask and report back. To ask your question, leave it below this post in the comments or if you'd like to stay anonymous to other readers, you can email me.
I've gotten a few questions on YouTube about dyeing on the stovetop, so I'm going to start with that answer, with a video on the new website. I'll give you the link right here and after that, it'll all be in the new place.
So, stay tuned and in the meantime, please allow a little quietness here as I work to get the new place all cleaned up for a fun housewarming party, ok?
Thank you for all of your questions, encouragement and kindness in 2008. For this year I wish you beautiful fiber and plenitful time for your crafting.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T15:11:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note to remind you that it's not too late for gift certificates! You can get them until noon tomorrow, December 23rd! Once you purchase it, I'll email you (within 6 hours) a personalized, printable gift certificate (it's no extra cost if you'd like me to mail it, but obviously it won't get to the recipient before Christmas!)

(an example of a gift certificate)

Even though I'll be away from a lot of usual internet-y places (like the blog and flickr), the Boutique will continue as usual. In fact, I'll be adding a bunch of new yarns, including a new color of Bananiere on Friday!

Introducing: LocalSpun Fiber and Yarn Club

2008-12-19T11:08:00.005-05:00

You know that I love local fiber, right? And that I love sharing it with you?
Inspired by the awesome response to the LocalSpun line (I didn't get to announce the yarn, it sold before I got the chance to tell you about it!), I've decided to make it a monthly event.

The LocalSpun Club is all about sharing my local fiber with you, in both fiber and yarn form. You can subscribe to either the Yarn Club or the Fiber Club.
Here's how it'll work:

Each month I'll visit a local farm, get a fleece (always a different breed!), take lots of pictures and get some info from the farmer.
Each month you'll receive 4 oz of fiber or yarn by the 20th. 1, 2 or 3 month subscriptions are available and you can tailor your subscription by telling me your favorite color and by choosing between batts or locks (for the fiber club).

Along with your subscription, you'll also receive information about the sheep that produced the fiber, the farm where it was raised and access to pictures and videos of the farm visit!

Know a spinner or knitter who might love this as a gift? It's not too late for the holidays!
Within 12 hours of your purchase, I'll email you a personalized, pretty, printable gift certificate for you to give to the recipient! They'll receive their package with everyone else, by the 20th of the month! That's right - you can buy a subscription to the LocalSpun club right at the last minute, until midnight on December 23rd!

Yesterday, I announced this to my newsletter (if you're not on the list, your missing out on finding stuff out first! Sign up here!) and they've pounced on it! There is only 1 spot still open for the Yarn Club and 2 for the Fiber Club.
This is my first time offering a subscription service and I'd like to know what you think! What would you like to see in a club? If you subscribed, what would you like to recieve?

Reentry and Recap - Seattle and Urban Craft Uprising

2008-12-15T11:55:00.005-05:00

I'm a homebody. A real, honest-to-goodness, I-could-stay-inside-for-weeks type of homebody. I've built a home-friendly business (spinning and dyeing requires that I remain near my kitchen and couch!) and if it weren't for the dayjob, I might never venture forth.
Which is exactly why I insist on applying to crazy-huge, far-away craft shows.

They challenge me and stretch me and, yeah, force me out of the house. The last two weeks, nay, the last two months have been consumed with preparing for Urban Craft Uprising. I made more yarn than I ever thought possible, created a new "mini-series" (yarn with jingle bells! yarn with pompoms! Holiday Happiness!) and packed it all up and lugged it across the country. Once in Seattle, I met customers, vendors, authors! I explored, I rode busses and ferries and planes, I consumed hundreds of cups of coffee (if you'd like a coffee review, I kept embarrassingly detailed notes, which I'd be happy to share here).

So fun and so worth it, but also a little too much. I was only gone for one week but for the two months preceding I allowed my entire life to be focused on preparing for the show, keeping the Boutique stocked and fulfilling custom orders. I love being that busy, feeling the ~~crush~~, buzz, but the truth is, it's not healthy. I promised myself that when I was done with the show, I would take a step back. But being away from what I love the most (you, the fiber, the color) isn't healthy either.

When I returned, I eased myself back into it. I've been away from my dyepots and my wheel and the whole business for one FULL week. I thought it would be restful but I feel all at odds. So odd, I've actually done a lot of *gasp* cleaning. Like, my whole house. Obviously, I'm not well.

I need to work on balance: yarn time and personal time. Accomplishment and relaxation.
I'm going forward with that intention.

That said, I can't leave Seattle behind without a second glance!
A quick sum up: Urban Craft Uprising was magically delicious. I brought NONE of my own display units, everything I could possibly need was donated by the wondrous Kayce, of World of Whimm.

My friends helped me at the booth (that's Carissa above) and I met the most fabulous customers.

Like this one, who bought the yarn on Saturday and returned on Sunday, with it as her hair. Weird. and Wonderful.

The girls (3 of my college roomates) managed to show me every good thing in West Seattle.

(like Bakery Nouveau)

I showed myself a bit of Pike Place Market:

On Tuesday, while they worked, I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island

(view from the ferry)

It was here that I experienced the best yarn store of my life, Churchmouse Yarn & Teas.

All in all, a really smashingly wonderful trip.

It certainly consumed my life there for a while, so I don't intend to do any more shows until next summer. But I AM on the lookout for more big shows like this one (I need to get out of the house, remember?) Big enough to sink my teeth into and to push me into adventuring places I never thought I would.
With that in mind, as I sneak back into my regular routine of dyeing, spinning and blogging, can you share your favorite craft (or yarn or knitting) show?
Do you have adventures in your town that I simply can't miss?

Attention Seattle Knitters: Urban Craft Uprising

2008-12-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

Are you a crafty soul in Seattle? If so, you simply must come to Urban Craft Uprising this weekend! I'm at booth 56 with loads of BCB yarn and Cloudlover's roving!

Here's some more info:

Over 100 vendors under one roof for one stop holiday shopping that will make you feel good about the holidays.

Date: Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th
Time: 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Where: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Admission: Free!

What is Urban Craft Uprising?
- A craft sale by indie designers and crafters throughout the day beginning at 11 a.m.
- Swag bags will be handed out to the first 100 visitors each day with samplings from vendors and sponsors - so be sure to arrive early! Last year a line started before our vendors arrived!
- DIY wrapping station- recycled materials to make your wrapping unique and green
- Free giveaways every hour

For a preview of who else is vending, along with the EXCELLENT author singings (I most excited about meeting Alicia) visit www.urbancraftuprising.com.

After the show, I'll be in Seattle until the 11th. After that, I'll return to the blog with the rest of the Eco-Friendly Yarn series and lots of Seattle pictures! While I'm gone, the Boutique will run as normal, but with all orders placed after December 1st, shipping on December 12th. I'll still be checking my email, so don't hesitate to contact me!

Now, I ask you: what should I see in Seattle? Where's the best coffee? chocolate? yarn?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T13:47:00.003-05:00

This Thanksgiving I'm so very grateful to you and to the entire fiber community. Last November, I sold a skein of handspun for the first time in the Boutique. That sale and the more than 200 that follow, pursuade me daily to pull out the dye pots or sit down at the wheel.
This blog, the Boutique, but most of all, YOU have stretched me. I've been challenged, inspired and encouraged. You, darling reader, have pushed me to try things I never imagined or to step into a role I hadn't dreamed of. Because of you, I've started making small videos, to visit fiber farms and to try carding my own fiber.
For that, I am eternally grateful. A simple Thank You doesn't seem like quite enough, so I hope you'll enjoy the Thanksgiving Day Sale - 10% everything in the Boutique (even Gift Certificates!) from today through December 1st.
Have a lovely Thanksgiving and a yarn-filled weekend!

Eco-Friendly Yarn: Local Fiber

2008-11-19T15:10:00.009-05:00

You already know that here at Blonde Chicken Boutique, it's all about the Eco-friendly. But what does "eco-friendly yarn" mean? In the next few weeks I'll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. Living consciously is a journey and I'll be sharing the books, websites and people who have informed my journey. Eco-friendly means different things for different people, but this is what it means for me and for the Boutique.

Mysteriously, self-striping yarn spun from local locks

Although all BCB yarn is eco-friendly, my first priority is always to find the most local fiber. Yesterday I shared my reasons for eating locally, today we'll talk about what that means for yarn.

After being committed to eco-friendly yarns for two years, it wasn't until reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I even considered finding local yarn. Sure, I loved meeting the animals and farms at fiber festivals, but it hadn't occurred to me that there might be farmers nearby.
When I decided to find local farms, I figured:

a. there wouldn't be any
b. the ones I found would be happy to sell me yarn, especially since I need to buy it in bulk (to dye for the Boutique)

I was wrong on both counts!

There are quiet a few lovely local farms, which I found through a combination of searching and serendipity. But the farmers I found are just that: farmers. Most aren't fiber artists or spinners or knitters! So even though they loved their fiber animals, most farmers aren't stocked with the actual fiber products (roving, yarn, etc).

In fact, most sheep farmers (that I've met) send their fleeces to the Wool Pool. The Wool Pool is mysterious, semi-governmental thing in some states. You can read about Tennessee's here. I learned that some wool distributors (like R.H. Lindsay) also hold them. The premise is that a processor collects wool from a bunch of different farms and pays the farmers a flat fee per pound. That fee is usually no more than 20 or 30 cents per pound. Compare that to the $30 (or often much more!) per pound that spinners pay for commercially processed roving and you can see that the farmer is NOT getting much of the profit of this product.

Supporting the farmer's in my community is one reason to buy local, but just as important to me is the connection to the fiber and to the animal. Those wool pools through Merino in with Icelandic; even the single-type wools are a mishmash of excellent and sub par fleeces. Instead of highlighting the remarkable, the wool pool reduces all to mediocricy. Buying the fleece right from the farmer and washing it myself, that allows me even more control and freedom! I'm not the only fleece-loving geek, Fuzzy Galore wrote an excellent article on why you should process your own fleece.

So what do I do?

Continue to look for local shepherds. Sure, I have my favorite farms, but if I'm going to provide you with ONLY small-farm fiber, I need to find a lot more of them!
Build a relationship with the farmer's I've met - by doing free spinning demos at their farm, referring my friends there and just keeping them up-to-date on the fiber products I'd like to purchase. I also meet up with them at local fiber festivals, provide feedback on projects their working on (processing their fiber into yarn, etc) and hook them up with other local fiber-people.
Buy what they have. Whether it's a fleece or roving or yarn I might not have otherwise picked, showing my support by actually buying what they offer is incredibly important.
Learning how to process the fleece into yarn (or find small local mills - which I'm still working on!). Before I started meeting local farmers, I never even considered spending my fiber-time on washing and carding a fleece. But once I saw that the only way to go local was to learn to rely on myself - it seemed obvious. And it ended up being fun and teaching me so much more about fiber, in all it's stages between farm and yarn!

Looking for local fiber?
Of course, you can always check out the Boutique, full of wooly goodness that is local (to me). If you live in the area, I'd be happy to deliver the fiber to you or take you to the farms!
If you want to find fiber close to you, I suggest you:

Check Local Harvest (type "wool" into the "Products" box). Call the farms and explain that you're a knitter. Before you visit, I recommend asking IF they sell their fiber and in what form. You might be surprised!
Go to the nearest Fiber Festival (this is a good list.) Head to the barns and chat with the farmers. Ask where their farm is and if they allow farm visits. A lot of the shepherds I've met don't have business cards, so be prepared with a notepad and pen!
Ask around. Although most people look at me like I admitted to being a vampire when I talk about spinning, they all somehow know someone who knows someone who has an alpaca. Or at least an angora bunny.
Call your local 4-H office. Seriously, those kids have every animal imaginable.

Now it's your turn!
Any more tips for people who live in an urban area? Do you work with local fiber?

Eco-Friendly Yarn: What is a Locavore?

2008-11-17T09:50:00.009-05:00

You know by now that I'm dedicated to only spinning and dyeing eco-friendly yarns for the Boutique. But what does "eco-friendly yarn" mean? In the next few weeks I'll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. Living consciously is a journey and I'll be sharing the books, websites and people who have informed my journey. Eco-friendly means different things for different people, but this is what it means for me and for Blonde Chicken Boutique.

Although all BCB yarn is eco-friendly, my first priority is always to find the most local fiber. Today I'll cover the locavore lifestyle and tomorrow we'll talk about what that means for yarn.

So, What's a Locavore?

"Locavore" refers to someone who is committed to eating locally: local veggies, local meat, local dairy. I'm blessed to live in a very agricultural area with a long growing season. For 9 months out of the year, I have ready access to fresh fruits or veggies at the local farmer's markets. Since my husband is a vegetarian and we don't make any meat at home, I don't worry about local meat. However, there is a nearby butcher who buys some of his meat locally and the bakery down the street smokes meat and fish that they've caught. They also make and smoke an excellent turkey sausage. I found dairy products to be the hardest to buy directly from the farmer's, due to legal issues. For eggs, we buy Appalachian Harvest eggs at the grocery store. They are a distributor that collects eggs from many local farms and then packages them and sells them in traditional grocery stores (like my Kroger). We occaisonally get some goat's cheese from Oak Moon Creamery, a local goat farm, but I'm still looking for cow's milk and cheeses.

How did I become a locavore?

Raised to eat fresh food, my mom often bought meat, bread and dairy from our Amish neighbors. I've always loved Farmer's Markets and farm visits but just in the last year I've become more passionate about supporting local agriculture. For me, it's not about the food, although there are plenty of reasons local food is better; it's about buying directly from the person who grew it. It's about giving back to my community.

Reading Barbara Kingsolvers' Animal, Vegetable Mineral solidified this from a preference to a passion. In this book, the author and her family commit to eating locally for one year. They have a big garden and preserve a LOT of food to get them through the winter. They also rely on their neighbors for diary and some meat. Kingsolver writes about her connection with the land and her community in a way that is touching and compelling. The book is full of practical advice and she doesn't gloss over the hours of hard work (or the inevitable "harvesting" of her turkeys).

Interested in finding local food?

LocalHarvest simplifies finding farms and stores that carry local produce. Just search your zip code or for a product. This is the best "local" database I've found, at least for my remote corner of Tennessee!

The Eat Well Guide is similar to Local Harvest, but without the huge database of self-added farms (again, this is just in my area). It has an advantage with it's 'Plan a Trip' function which allows you to find restaurants and markets during any road trip! I plan to use the next time I visit my in-laws in Ohio...although I'm very familiar with the highways, I don't know of ANY non-chain restaurants to eat it.

Animal Vegetable Mineral - the engaging book about a year of local.

In Defense of Food - If you're wondering why local food might be better, this is the answer. Less gas to transport, fewer additives, all-aournd less of the bad stuff, more of the good stuff. Except, you know, in more scientific words. Everyone I've shared this book with thought they wouldn't like the book (is it too diet-y? or science-y?) but ended up loving it.

Do you eat locally? Why? Any resources that help you?

6 free kntiting patterns for boys

2008-11-12T09:48:00.009-05:00

As the holiday season approaches, I'm beginning to ponder the inevitable Christmas Gift List. Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I always feel the pull of handknitting gifts for my very dearests. The trickiest people on that list are also the smallest.
I have two, sweet little brothers, ages 8 and 9. Although adorable and irresistible they have one ginormous flaw: they have extremely specific ideas of what constitutes "cool" handknits. They love knowing I knit something for them, but they are very particular about what they'll wear.

Here are just a few things I know they'd love:

Stegosaurus Hat
Ok, this one is a cheat: I designed it two years ago as a Christmas gift. Actually, D helped me design it: he drew a picture of his ideal hat and this is how it turned out!

Fingerless gloves
Both the boys want a set of fingerless gloves for recess. Leafy would be perfect for a pair (shortened for the shorter hands, of course!)

The Batman Logo chart and the Transformers Logo chart can be added to a basic hat or made into a simple patch for their backpack. They'd look great on a full-fledged sweater, but these boys grow to fast for a handknit of that size!

Although, at 8 & 9, they're a little too young for it, the Jayne Cobb Hat would be a great gift for your Firefly fan.

For the extremely particular amongst your boys, this is Ribbed Beanie is probably plain enough. Not so plain knit in a bright color, like Festival:

What do you knit for the boys in your life?
And if you're afraid of what your boys might buy you, may I suggest pointing them towards a Blonde Chicken Boutique Gift Certificate?

Finding Inspiration

2008-11-11T10:25:00.000-05:00

As the days get shorter and the opportunity for color fade into the brown of winter, I find it harder to become inspired. My TN mountains become brown, the flowers are long gone and my local farmer's market closes up. While I'm bursting with colors, ideas during spring and summer, come October, I start to worry about drying up with the leaves.

Day 5

There seems to be something about October that makes me want to pick up my camera. It's surely the trees and leaves and wonderfullness of fall, but I think it's also the threat of winter. More than any other time of year, I need to be diligent in searching out inspiration in the winter.

Day 16

To combat this ennui, I give myself little challenges. In October, I challenged myself (and some Twitter friends joined me)- take a photo every day. Looking for the right shot and trying to capture it compels me to find the beauty and celebrate it.

Day 15

Now that the leaves are coming off the trees and it's almost dark by the time I get home from work, I'm finding it harder to find the shot. This forces me to look inward - to my cozy home, my cute pet and even my office.

Day 20

How do you find inspiration during the ever-shortening-days? Any colorful movies or shows the light the fire?

How to spin from a batt

2008-11-03T15:48:00.002-05:00

Introducing: Local Spun Batts

2008-10-31T10:28:00.006-04:00

Created from one local fleece, the LocalSpun line celebrates the unique properties of a breed while honoring the sheep that produced it. I've visited the farm, washed the fleece and laid it out in the sun to dry. The line includes dyed locks, handcarded batts and handspun yarns. Every item is one of a kind and once sold, can never be recreated.

Today the batts are in the Boutique, with locks to follow this weekend and handspun yarns on Monday (along with a video showing how I spin these batts here on the blog).

The names for these batts are inspired by John Keats's poem "To Autumn". It's much too long to include in it's entirety in the shop descriptions, so I'd like to share it here, along with the batts inspired by it. Serendipitously, today is Keats's birthday!

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Next week there will be yarns from the same fleece, with names from this same poem (unless someone suggests another Autumnal poem!).
Happy Autumn!

Life of Yarn - Carding

2008-10-24T08:59:00.011-04:00

The Life of Yarn series is my attempt to share the process from fiber (on the animal) to finished yarn. Each is just a glimpse into a moment in the life of yarn and yarnmaker.

Most everyone knows that fabric comes from yarn or thread which comes from cotton, sheep or synthetics. But how does it really GET there? From farm to cloth? In the next few week’s I’ll be working through and documenting this process. Today: The Blending.

The one question I seem to get most often when doing spinning demonstrations is "How do you get the wool like...that" with a gesture to the roving I'm holding in my hand. Most everyone understands that the wool comes from sheep and the fleece gets washed and dyed...but what takes it from a pile of fiber to the fluffy batt in my hands?

The fiber can be combed or carded to make it more spin-able and I chose to card this fleece with my brand new drum carder! (still so excited about it!) You can absolutely spin fiber right from the lock, but I wanted to card it, to make it fluffy and separate the locks. I want to keep some of the inherent "sheepiness" of this yarn, so I'm not carding it until smooth, just until nice and airy, with some of the little curls still intact. What I end up with is a batt (you can read the defintion of fiber terms like roving and batts here) - a pile of fluff with a lot of air and most of the fibers parellel-ish.

Since it's a simple process that's sort of hard to explain, I'll show you how I do it in the following video.

If you're unfamiliar with this step in fiber processing, the video gives a quick rundown of the general idea. If you're very experienced with drum carding, I'd love to hear your feedback, as I'm brand new at it!

The batts I'm carding will be available in the Boutique this Friday, October 31, along with the dyed locks (pre-carding). Next Monday I'll share a video on how I spin these batts and the yarn from this fleece will be available Monday, November 3. The locks, batts and yarn are part of my new LocalSpun line - a collection of yarn and fiber that all come from the same, local fleece. I hope to produce this line each month using a different local fleece, which I'll wash and dye by hand, share the process and offer the fiber and yarn. Each month I hope to use a different breed of sheep (or alpaca or goat) and share what I discover about the farm, the breed and the process.

Any questions about drum carding?
What else in the process would you like to see?
What breed should I look for next?

Slowing

2008-10-21T14:12:00.002-04:00

After a death in the family last week, I've slowed down quite a bit. Being out of town for so long (first a craft show, then helping my mom move, then the funeral) resulted in me feeling a little scramble-y. But instead of snapping back into action, I'm taking it slow. Completing custom orders, pushing back the debut of a new line of yarn, spending some time with my new drum carder. Yarn is slowly re-appearing in the Boutique, but I'm taking my time and relaxing my demands (I'm a pretty demanding boss)
Here's how I'm slowing down:

Baking: banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple pie

Knitting: Twist & Shout (pictured above)

Sipping: Orange Dulce, Orchid Oolong

Listening to: Adele, Ray la Montaigne, Iron & Wine

Looking forward to: SAFF on Saturday, Urban Craft Uprising in December

I'll be back in full force later this week, with a new tutorial for Fiber Friday, on carding the fleece and the launch the new line on October 31st. The new line will be yarn and fiber made entirely from the first fleece I processed. I'm still looking for a good name for the line, as this is something I'd like to do every month - wash, dye, card and spin one local fleece and then offer the washed locks, dyed fiber, batts and yarn all from this one sheep. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear what you'd most like to see (locks, batts or yarn?)
How are you slowing down as the weather cools down?

Craft Show Preparation: When yarn ATTACKs

2008-10-08T15:45:00.007-04:00

The yarn, fiber and wooly goodness is taking over my house! I've been getting ready for CRAFT ATTACK, a craft show held in Charlotte, NC, this weekend. It's only second craft show and I am overwhelmed and overexcited and swirling around trying to get ready in time. My mom and I are leaving Friday to take the scenic route, through Boone and Blowing Rock (3 yarn stores, right near a great coffee shop).
I met a few of the CRAFT ATTACK organizers at my last craft show and have since been Twittering with them. They've planned an excellent show that will have over 80 vendors in the lovely Independance park.
Since this is is just my second show, I'm still learning about preparation. Here's how I've been getting ready:

Stock - trying to make as much as possible! What looks like "a lot" in my apartment, looks pitiful in the booth! I make a schedule a few weeks out and plan for how many skeins I need to spin a day that I WON'T list in my Etsy shop. Then I stick with my schedule (or try to!)
As I work on creating, I add the "show stock" to my inventory list, just so I can know what I'm bringing, what sells and what doesn't. This is also an excellent way of figuring out what the "value" is of what you're selling. If you don't bring $2000 worth of stock, you certainly can't expect to make that much! I find this helps me have a much more realistic view of what I could potentially expect from a show.
Labels - When adding those items to your inventory, this is a fantastic time to label them! I believe EVERY item should be clearly priced, so customers don't feel shy about asking the price. I print out my labels, on recycled paper and make little hangtag ‘books”. I fit 3 tags/sheet of paper and then fold them in half. The front has my logo, the back has my “story” and the inside left is printed with info about the fiber (so I have different labels for local wool, banana fiber, etc – each explains what makes these fibers eco-friendly). I then handwrite the yarn’s info on the inside right (name, yardage, weight, etc). It’s a much easier process when I do it once a week…instead of waiting until the night before the show!
Displays – there are lots of great examples of displays on this flickr group . You want depth, height and movement. I use baskets on tables, a 3 tiered basket thing (it’s about 5 ft tall) and a hanging sweater thing (made for folded sweaters hanging in your closet). I also have lots of clear glass jars (like at candy stores) with a pop of bright fiber. People like to feel up yarn, so I try not to pile anything up (or else they can’t get to what’s at the bottom).

For my sign, I sewed a simple rectangle that folds over a dowel (or can be used as a table cloth), the bottom half is the actual “sign”. I cut out and sewed on my name (in the font from my logo) with my logo next to it (overlapping rings) in both fabric and handstitched yarn (ok, so far the yarn hasn't worked so well, so I'm still experimenting). It’s super bright and I love it! Pictures to come after this weekend.

Oh, and tablecloths! Cover each table all the way to the ground so that you can store stuff under them! As for the tables themselves, I like a rectangle table for the back of the booth (with business cards, newsletter sign-up and my cashbox on it) and a round table near the front of the booth.

Because so few people have actually seen yarn being created, I bring my wheel and spin. This is really a major part of the "display", so I have to make sure I have room with it (and that I bring plenty of fiber to spin. It draws people in, and I can talk and spin at the same time (I have a little explanation I do about how the wheel works, if they look interested and start asking questions). But once they start to look at the yarn, I stand up to talk to them. If your craft is small and fiddly (I’m thinking earrings), you’ll probably turn people off by being focused on something they can’t see. Knitting and crochet is similar…is it interesting or do you look bored? It’s a fine line!
Marketing – I bring so many business cards I think I'll never give them all out. And yet I do. Bring all you have! And pens! I also have my newsletter signup sheet on a clipboard. The wind was really blowing it around last time, so I tied a length of yarn around the whole thing with solved the problem perfectly! I offer 10% off to anyone who signs up and if you’re already on my list (and you tell me that!) you get 10% off. This time I'll have a little bowl full of giveaways (and something to hand kids who try to touch everything else) - felted baubles, tiny bits of yarn, etc) and stickers. I'm still trying to figure out a way to tag the little free balls of yarn, so that they remind the customer of my business, but they're too round to tie a business card to. I don't want to put them in a little bag, because then you can't feel them! Any suggestions?

Also be prepared to answer the “Can you make this in ***” question. Know how long it would take you and how you’ll handle payment for a custom order. If you don’t want to do custom, come up with a nice way of saying no, so you’re not taken by surprise in the moment.
Packing the car - Obviously you need your stock, your tent, table, display units and cashbox. As for what else, this is the most comprehensive list I've ever found!

When planning for the show, I found the following articles to be super helpful

What do you do to get ready for a show?
Will you be at CRAFT ATTACK? If so, let me know!

To find out if the preparation paid off, be sure to subscribe!

Autumnal To Do

2008-10-07T11:00:00.005-04:00

Photo from Nov 2006

Each season, I like to set an intention for how I will enjoy it. It's a pleasant To Do list celebrating the crunchy leaves and crisp apples. This year, I want to:

Bake an apple pie
Finish knitting a sweater (probably Twist & Shout) by the end of November
Find my favorite flavor of tea (this group has been helpful)
Spin fall-inspired yarns (my favorite suggestion to the contest, so far, is "Hayride")
Make the perfect cup of hot chocolate (cocoa, honey, homemade whipped cream)
Eat lots of roasted fall vegetable (turnips, butternut squash, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, yum!)
Go on one last picnic, before the weather is too cold.
Finish dyeing, carding and spinning my Coopworth fleece
Take a photograph every day until the end of the year

What's on your Autumn To Do List?

Life of Yarn - Dyeing

2008-10-03T14:48:00.010-04:00

The Life of Yarn series is my attempt to share the process from fiber (on the animal) to finished yarn. Each is just a glimpse into a moment in the life of yarn and yarnmaker.

Most everyone knows that fabric comes from yarn or thread which comes from cotton, sheep or synthetics. But how does it really GET there? From farm to cloth? In the next few week’s I’ll be working through and documenting this process. Today: The Color

After the fleece is clean and dry (although, really, I don't see why it needs to be dry), I dye the fiber. This is hardly the only way to do it. In fact, it's time for a digression on the creativity of the process.

There are 1000s different way to move fiber from animal to yarn. I've been showing how I did it, for this one fleece. If you're following along, planning for your own fleece, just keep in mind that there are a zillion little chances for creativity. You can dye the fiber in lock form (like I'll demonstrate), once it's carded or once you've spun it into yarn. You can card it or comb it or send it out to be processed by a mill. You can mix all different colors together into one batts or spin rovings of different colors together. This process is full of little decisions. Don't get confused or bogged down in choosing one or the other. A fleece is a lot of fiber, plenty to play with, so experiment! Split it up into 1 lb sections and treat each section differently. With this fleece I'm leaving a pound undyed and dyeing the rest in 2 oz (or bigger) sections, then carding together the different colors (by the way, I'm creating a limited edition line of yarn using only the fiber from this one fleece, it'll be in the Boutique in late October). When this is fleece, I plan on doing it all over again (documenting and sharing it here, of course) using different dyeing, carding and spinning techniques.

Ok, now on to the dyeing.

When it comes out of the microwave it looks like this:

I know I say it a few times in the video but by all means, leave it alone and let it cool!
Once the fiber is cool and has been rinsed, I put it back outside, on a rug, to dry.

Oooh, such pretty colors! ALL of them from Easter Egg dyes! I've achieved different depths of color by pouring off some of the dye liquid into another glass jar and adding water.

Once dry, they get carded and spun, tune in next week for carding!

4 Free Crochet patterns for Handspun Yarn

2008-10-02T08:29:00.007-04:00

Tea Scarf - a lovely scarf just perfect to chase the early morning chill. Perfect for Sno-Cone, which is 170 yards of fluffy bright wooliness:
Knit/Crochet Handwarmers So cute and simple, great for just the smallest amount of handspun yarn with the biggest impact. The fluffy 80 yards of Oceanic should be plenty for the crochet part (if you use another yarn for the knit cuffs)
200 - This bulky scarf is HOT! Even my picky I-don't-need-a-scarf husband would wear this one (in the appropriate colors). It takes 4 different colors of 100 yards each and I'd mix Deep Sea with Autumn Sky, Juice and Sunrise Bananaiere.
Inka Shawl : A beautiful shawl, this pattern calls for a self-striping yarn. It would be brilliant in a yarn like Summer Salad which is mostly green with little stripes of other colors.

Life of Yarn - Washing the Fleece

2008-09-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

It's a Coopworth, shorn just last March from one of Elizabeth's herd. It's around 7 lbs and I loved the locks, even dirty:

When I was ready to wash it, I spread it out on my back "porch". My cat was fascinated:

I was a little nervous I'd ruin it, so I gathered all the bits around the edges that were dirtiest and washed those first. The fleece had already been skirted, which means all the dung tags (uh, poop) and really dirty stuff around the edges had been removed before I bought it. But I found the dirtiest, shortest locks and put them in the washing machine.

Here's where my fleece washing differs from everyone else. Usually you fill the washing machine up with the hottest water, but, well, my hot water line isn't hooked up to the washer (we always wash with cold water), so I had to get a little old-fashioned. I took my big dyeing kettle, filled it up with hot water and put it on the stove. When the water got really hot, I added it to the washing machine. It took about 2 kettles to get enough water to fill the washing machine, so I only washed the fleece with hot water once. I added a shot of Dr. Bronner's shampoo (all natural, organic ingredients!) and then left it alone for 2 hours. I came back later, drained the water, filled it up with tepid water and let it sit again for 2 or 3 hours. After these two rinses I couldn't believe how clean and white the fleece was!

No dirt, no grime and so much brighter white than I expected.

I put the fleece back outside, on an old, clean rug to dry.

After it was dry, I brought it in and dyed it, more on that next week!

5 Free Sweater Patterns for Handspun Yarn

2008-09-24T12:19:00.001-04:00

Last night, I gave up on a sweater. My beautiful handspun sweater just isn't working out. After completing the body and 1 sleeve, I realized I need more yarn. And the yoke isn't right (too much fabric at the shoulders). And the whole thing is too stiff, not drapey enough. Most of these issues could have been solved by following a pattern (well, except for the drape, I just needed to use a bigger needle and knit it at a different gauge), but because I'm designing it myself, all these little things have to be figured out. If I had chosen a pattern suited for handspun, many of these mistakes might have been avoided.
But that's only if I choose the right pattern! Here's a few things to keep in mind when choosing a pattern for handspun yarn

Gauge with handspun is variable. One skein might be heavy worsted, while the next is bulky. Knit for the bigger yarn, or else your work will be stiff in areas. Of course, it maybe be a little thin in some areas, but that's usually preferable.
Handspun yarn usually has a lot of texture. Play this up with a simple textured stitch or St st.
Along with texture, handspun yarn can be quite colorful. Cables and pictoral lace are easilyobscured by all the color going on, so avoid "overkill".

I had a time of mourning as I folded the sweater and put it away (I'm not ready to rip it out yet). But I'll come back to it. I'll probably cast on for a sweater using that same handspun in a few weeks. If I use a pattern next time, these are a few I'd consider:

Cathode (Rav link) - top downs are the easiest to adjust for gauge & Cathode is excellent since you can use just a bit of handspun for the body and trimm it in commercial yarn.
Cavern (Rav Link) - Tingel's Cavern really won me over to this simple top down cardigan.
February Lady Sweater (Rav link) - this uber-popular sweater (over 2000 projects in Ravelry) is simple to adjust, especially if you want it big and roomy.
Incredible, Custom Fit Raglan - this is first customizable pattern I ever found. Not really a pattern, as much as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.
Top-Down Calculator (Rav link)- Not even a pattern. Plug in your gauge and your measurements and out pops customized directions! Amazing!

Autumnal Inspiration

2008-09-22T11:19:00.008-04:00

Happy Autumn!

To celebrate the first day of this lovely season, I threw open the window to my office and opened up the Fall Color Report by Pantone. This report is designed for fashion and home designers, but everyone in any industry that sells color uses it (or other trend-forcasting tools), so you'll see these colors in clothes, furniture, even new yarn lines!
You don't have to be a designer to enjoy perusing it. I find it fascinating to read the profiles of designers in the report. It's also interesting to be aware of the "in" colors, because once concious, it seems I see them everywhere! The new knitting magazine, Knotions, has an article about applying the Color Report to your choice of yarns and knitting projects.
In the past, I've given it a quick once over and moved on, but this season I've decided to challenge myself (ya'll know I love a challenge). This fall I'd like to create a line of yarns, inspired by the colors of the season. This is a little different than I normally work, dying fiber as inspired and naming it after the inspiration, so I'm going to need some help putting the colors together and then naming the yarns.

*CONTEST INFO*

After looking through the color report, what's the first color combo you think I should try? What should I title it? Include BOTH color combo AND title in the comments below and you could win a little contest!
Every commenter whose suggestion turns into a finished yarn (in the next 3 months) will get 10% off their next purchase of any eco-friendly yarn in the shop!

Life of Yarn - at the farm

2008-09-19T11:34:00.009-04:00

5 Free Knitting Patterns for Handspun Yarn

2008-09-16T04:15:00.001-04:00

"I just realized that I have developed kind of a collector style in my yarn buying. I don’t buy yarn for specific projects any more but more like “oh-how-beautiful-must-have-that”. This of course results me having several single skeins of this and that (and they are all soooo pretty). So what can I make with your yarn?"

That's an actual email I got from a customer and it expresses how many of us buy yarn. We see something pretty and we snatch it up. But what to DO with it as it starts to overtake our living space?

Well, after answering this question for myself, I've started collecting patterns that will show off handspun. These patterns work with the special properties of handspun yarn, not requiring an exact guage (since handspun has natural inconsistencies).
Below are 5 free patterns that (can) use a single skein of handspun - the name links directly to the pattern (sometimes a pdf), followed by the Ravelry link. I've included a suggested yarn which is the right weight and length to make the pattern (click the name of the yarn to purchase it).

Sherbrooke (Ravelry) - a lovely textured cowl

Autumn Sky

Lace Ribbon Scarf (Ravelry) - a very pretty, lacey scarf

Fabulous!

One Skein Scarf (Ravelry) - a, uh, scarf!

Juice

Foliage (Ravelry) - a pretty leaf-y hat

Lettuce

Caliometry (Ravelry) - a headband

Preppy

I'm still working on my handspun sweater. What have

you

made with handspun yarn?

Un-scary Tech for Fiberists

2008-09-11T16:19:00.007-04:00

Technology.

The word strikes fear into so many of the small businesspeople I know.
It scared me too, until I accepted that, as an online business, I was only going to get to know my customers by sucking it up and plunging in. The only word scarier?

Marketing.

When normal folks think of marketing, they think of TV ads or used car salesman or Mad Men. I did too and my avoidance of the "M word" kept my yarn business stagnant for over a year.

BCB has had a website (and has been a legal entity) for over 2 years but I've only sold yarn online for about 10 months. The difference between actually selling and having a website?

Marketing. Using Technology.

Now, keep in mind, I'm not a rush-er into projects. I'm a planner. And a reader. Before I started BCB, I read every book about selling crafts, art businesses and small business that I could get my hands on. Barbara Brabec remains a favorite but all the books I read were seriously outdated (even those that were just a few years old!). But I didn't know that. I launched BCB and I thought I was ready to go.
But then nothing happened. I was prepared for sales, I was organized, but...nothing. I had a lot going on personally at the time, so I let BCB sit alone and unloved for about year.

But then I started reading again. I found the wealth of information that is in the Etsy Forums. I had a few skeins to sell, so I took them off BCB and listed them on Etsy and started reading about marketing my Etsy shop.
When I read about creating a marketing plan, it dawned on my : "Oh, I need a daily plan for marketing this or no one will know I'm here". A silly, obvious statement, but it was the shake up I needed. I dove futher into Seth Godin other marketing blogs.

I got a Flickr account, then this blog, then Ravelry, then Twitter, then Disqus. I just keep discovering new ways to connect with my customers and talk with other fiberists.

While I'm certainly still learning myself, I've been hired by a few local small businesses to help them grasp the basics of technology (email, forums, effective websites). I love seeing when they have their own lightening-strike moment, when it becomes clear that:
a. Social Media is not scary
b. they need to be active every day, in effective ways, to be 'top of mind' for their potential customers.

I've had such a great time learning about new technology and using it in my own marketing plan and I love others figure it out. In that spirit, I'll be writing a series of posts giving some advice and resources that I've given other small business about using technology to market a small (fiber-based) business. This stuff is usually referred to as "social media marketing", but that's just a fancy name for new-technology-that-lets-you-get-to-know-your-customers. These posts will be specifically for those who feel a little anxious about marketing, or about the internets or about seeming like a slimy salesperson or feel just a bit lost by the plethora of options (IndieFinds, Myspace, etc, etc, etc). This isn't really marketing advice: its advice about using a good mix to meet your customers. Mostly it'll be pointing to the blog posts, books and experiences that have taught me how to best use what's available.

Everything I've learned is through books, marketing blogs and personal experience, so we won't be doing anything official here, just chatting about how to apply it to a fiber-based business. Of course, if you have some other internet-based business, this might be helpful, but what I know most about is a business focused on those in the fiber world - the magazines, the websites, etc.

To aid our discussion, I'm trying out some new technology in my comments, Disqus. I don't have advice about using it yet, because this is the first post it's on! Help me figure it out by commenting below, letting me know what piece of "social media" you don't get..or what new application you'd like to know more about...or how you use technology to market your business! I won't have all the answers, but I'll point you to those that do!

How to cheer up a Wednesday

2008-09-10T13:49:00.003-04:00

Revel in the new yarns, just posted to the Boutique. These are my two favorites

Thriller, handspun from Cloudlover's awesome roving.

Kim, solar dyed (more on that later this week, I hope)

I'm still working on taking pictures of all the new yarns I had spun for last weekend's market. I was making headway yesterday, until I deleted ALL of the pictures on my camera (including all the pictures from the festival!)
I expect to list more yarns on Friday, maybe Saturday (depending on if the sunshine cooperates with my photography plans!), so keep your eye on the shop.

5½ Shocking Facts about Craft Fairs

2008-09-09T14:02:00.013-04:00

I participated in my first craft show last weekend, the Crafting Patch Market in Charlotte, NC. I was very nervous beforehand and stayed up way too late to get every last skein of yarn labeled. It all paid off in a lovely day (no hint of Hurricane Hannah) filled with fantastic people and a real sense of community. Despite being well-prepared by reading everything I could about doing a craft fair, there were still a few things that surprised me:

A festival provides indispensable feedback on your marketing plan. Online buyers see & buy without disclosing what prompted the purchase. Did they seek me out? Did they stumble upon me? At this festival, several knitters came specifically to see me (thanks to my posting on forums, the blog, etc). Others registered recognition when they read my label. The feeling was indescribable. People recognized Blonde Chicken Boutique as a brand. The thought still makes me all sparkle-y.
Instant feedback is a drug that I'm afraid I may be addicted to. Sending out yarn to my lovely online customers, feels a bit like sending my squishy friends into the ether. They may show up on Flickr or Ravelry, but mostly I release them into the wild with hopes that they find a good set of needles (or at least a comfy stash to marinate in). Watching a real, live, chatty, interesting person walk away with my yarn is ridiculously satisfying.
Describing a product is entirely different in person. The long, descriptive prose that is so necessary to sell a tactile item online isn't necessary in person. The customer has the squishy soft item in their hand and can clearly see the colors. This may seem obvious, but after writing web copy for so long, I had to remember it while writing the labels. I also had to scale back on the descriptive talk with most customers. Some people want to know all about the farm where the sheep who grew that wool was raised, but some don't.
Being friendly is exhausting, but being passionate is exhilerating. After years of waitressing, followed by 2 years managing a retail studio, I was expecting the usual exhaustion of a day filled with smiling at people and describing the product. I was shocked by how different this experience was. Yes, I was tired, but I was exhilarated. Selling someone apple pie is NOTHING like sharing a passion for creating!
You don't have to (and probably can't) fake enthusiasm. For the first time in my customer service experience, I didn't need to tell myself "be nice". The fiber artists came in, chatted and I was overwhelmed with happy, smiling words. I nearly hugged someone (everyone). It was ridiculous (but I didn't hug anyone other than my husband, so don't be afraid to come by my next booth!) Describing my process, demonstrating the wheel, chatting fiber, it was all so FUN!

5½ . I want to do it again! Ok, this isn't so shocking, because I've already agreed to do National Alpaca Farm Day at Silver Thunder Alpacas and have been accepted by Craft Attack. But I am surprised at how much I'm looking forward to the events. I am shocked at how much the experience has cemented that live, in-person selling needs to be a part of my overall business plan.

So if you're thinking about doing a craft show, I strongly encourage you try one. Find an inexpensive option (like a small one, or share a booth) and go after it! You may find it shockingly fun!

Meet me at the Crafting Patch!

2008-09-04T16:41:00.006-04:00

I am so excited to do my first craft show this weekend! I'll be selling yarn and fiber at the Crafting Patch Market at Independence Park in Charlotte, VA on Saturday, September 6. Visit the Crafting Patch website for more information (here's a map). If you're in the area, I'd love to meet you, so come by my booth or shoot me an email and we'll plan to meet up while I'm in town!

Won't be in Charlotte this weekend?
In preparation for the craft fair, I am emptying the Boutique and bringing every last skein of yarn with me. It will look a little bare from September 5-7, but don't worry! On September 8th I'll be restocked with new yarns and old favorites (a big shipment of Banana fiber & yarn has just come in!) I'm offering a 10% discount to my newsletters subscribers, so sign up for my newsletter and receive the discount! Because it wouldn't be fair to ONLY offer a discount to the locals without extending it to all my lovely readers, ANYONE who makes a purchase from the Boutique from today until September 13th AND mentions the newsletter (put it in the "message to seller" or shoot me an email after you make the purchase but before you pay) will get 10% off the entire order! This isn't just for you readers, feel free to pass the newsletter on to your friends, or blog about it or post it in forums or, well, you get the idea! Tell anyone that might like some yarn that they can get 10% off just by signing up for my yarny little newsletter.
(not sure you want a newsletter? Well, check out the last (and first) newsletter to assure yourself that it's not annoying or spammy or unwanted. I'm on a roll if I get out once a month, and I will ONLY send discounts, free patterns and notices of upcoming events.)

Failure

2008-08-27T16:14:00.005-04:00

Polite people would use a different word.
But let's be honest:

I failed.

My Ravelympics goal, which I knew was lofty and difficult and challenging (but that was the point); well, I failed at it. I set out to spin and knit a sweater in 17 days and I didn't accomplish that.

And that is fantastic.

The risk of failure incites action.

Without this challenge, I would have never begun. I have been talking about knitting a sweater from my handspun for months but without this challenge, it would still just be a dream.
Not only did I commit the goal, I worked hard towards it; spinning 400 yards of beautiful yarn, swatching, designing and knitting half of a sweater in 17 days!

The risk of failure creates commitment
The feeling of true commitment to something I really want feels great! By focusing all my knitting energy on one project, I've accomplished a lot, reminded myself what I'm capable of and started creating a sweater I am SO happy with.
And that was the point: to create a garment that I'm proud of, that fits well and that feels incredible. The timeline was just a little push to do it faster and with more focus.

Failing leads to success.
Failure in the Ravelympics isn't failing at knitting and spinning. It's failing at one goal. The overall goal is (still) to knit and spin an entire (wearable) sweater and that is still well within my reach. Risking failure with the Ravelympics is leading me towards success in the overall goal.

This is just a little reminder to myself and the other failed Ravelympics Ravletes (and regular athletes, too, I guess) that what we created during the Olympics could never be a failure because we were, simply, creating.

The life of Yarn - in the studio

2008-08-20T08:28:00.004-04:00

The Life of Yarn series is my attempt to share the process from fiber (on the animal) to finished yarn. Each is just a glimpse into a moment in the life of yarn and yarnmaker.

I recently confessed that most of my freshly dyed fiber spends some time in the trees, but once it comes inside, it has a much tamer life. The handdyed fiber is stored away from my kittens and puppy, in a closet. When inspiration strikes, I pull it out and it spends some time in my "studio" (also known as, my living room)

Here, it lounges on my spinning chair, on cushions made by my Grams (check out that piping! It's not "my" colors, so I'm looking for fabric to cover it with), along with a pillow I made (these are the colors I want to cover the chair cushions in). I love this photo because it shows I've "integrated" the fiber and yarn into my living space: the handknit sweater on the back of the chair, the fiber on the bookshelf for my Ravelympics project and just out of frame (on the left) is a vase full of handspun. I like to think the visible fiber desensitizes my family into believe there's really "not that much".

The other "half" of my studio is the coffee table (which is right in front of me when I spin), it holds the swift, bobbins for plying and finished skeins. Here, the spun fiber relaxes on a bobbin while I spin another bobbin of singles. It will be plied with the other bobbin and then wound onto the swift (the big thing with four arms)
This table gets cleaned off after every spinning session: the swift goes under the couch, the bobbins get tucked away next to my wheel and the skeins of yarn take up their residence in a bookshelf in the guest room (locked away from all kitties!)

(because, the kitties, they like the spinning chair!)

The yarn shown (as fiber) in this post will be unveiled in all it's 2ply squishyness and available in the shop this Friday, by noon.
In fact, this week I'm trying something completely different for the shop. Instead of posting a yarn every day, I've saved up all my yarny goodness for one BIG update on Friday. I have some new fibers like organic merino and farm-fresh llama AND a new summer-inspired series of squishy bright yarns!
Mark your calendar - from 10-12 am E.S.T , Friday, 8/22/08,
10 new eco-friendly handspun yarns will be listed right here!

Fiber Friday - Knitty Dirty Girl

2008-08-15T10:42:00.001-04:00

Next in the series of Interviews with Fiber Artists is Rachel-Marie of KnittyDirtyGirl.com. To learn more about Rachel-Marie's jump into the world of full-time fiber artist, read this excellent Etsy article
How'd you get started dyeing?
I started dyeing with kool-aid and yarn from my beloved Brown Sheep Company. I don't remember what sparked my interest in dyeing. Being able to create my own colors has helped me to be a more creative fiber artist.

Which came first: the knitting, the dyeing or the spinning?
Knitting, then dyeing, then spinning. I am still working on my knitting skills, my spinning expertise has far exceeded my knitting talents.

How did the business begin?
I started selling my knits with trial and error. I have learned from some not so smart business choices. I started selling my knits to friends, then at a co-op, next on ebay, and finally on Etsy.

Did you intentionally grow your business this direction?
It just sort of evolved into what it is today. It is completely surprising to me that I have managed to survive off of my artsy income.

What's it like to work from home?
I have struggled working full time out of our apartment, but only because it is so crowded. The high chair, fish tank, bird cage, spinning wheels, tv, baby playpen thing, Dora kids table, stroller, my fiber and laptop, my husband's desk area... it's all crammed into the living room. Once we buy a decent sized house things will be a lot easier. Other than that, the kids are pretty good, and I can't complain.

Can you explain the process of creating your yarn?
I use roving that is already processed for my made to order handspun. I used mill end fiber and farm wool for the bulk of my one of a kind novelty yarns and hand carded batts. The farm wool I wash and card myself. I dye all of my wool, except black, which I can not seem to achieve that color.

Some complain that it can be time consuming, but the actual washing part is mostly a waiting game. I just dump some of the dirty fleece in my washing machine, then I squirt a lot of grease fighting dish soap in. I fill it with hot water, keep the lid open and let soak. I spin it out after a few hours, and repeat. You can repeat that a few times if you like, then make sure to let it soak in hot water with no soap, to rinse. You must not agitate the wool, and do not let the water sit so long that it gets cold.

If the sheep has had an exciting life with no coat the fleece may need to go through a wool picker. Which I do not have. I pick out the bits I see potential in, and after they are dry I card them. I dye the fiber either before or after the carding process depending on the amount of vegetation.

Finally I gather all of my materials (sari silk, bling, cotton, wools) and make some batts using my drum carder. My farm wool usually does have some vegetation left in it. I love it, it shows my customers that I really am using farm wool. I blend it with softer, processed, superwash merino mill ends, which makes the vegetation less noticeable.

Here I am spinning my made to order yarns using already processed roving:

Some of my stash:

My drum carder:

What's the inspiration process like?
Sometimes, but it's normally like I try and keep the dyepot full at all times. I usually become inspired from my dyed stash. I usually pull names related to yarns from books, movies, or tv shows that I like. I choose names from these medias that fit the yarn.

Sometimes I get ideas or concepts for well thought out yarns. Like my gnome series (above) and then execute the idea. But mostly I just look at my shop and see what I think it could use more of based on price points, color, and season. Sounds boring, but it works for me. I come up with better yarn just looking at my stash and trying to make the best of it.

What do you wish you’d planned for before you went full-time?
I know now that June and July are very slow for me, and from now on I am going to try and save some money for those months. Or supplement my income in some way during that time. I actually just got offered a part time, one day a week, job at the new local yarn shop in my city! They are carrying my yarns, this steady income should help us get by when retail is otherwise slow. Plus, it will help me learn more about my industry, connect with my customer base, and get me out of the house once a week!

What has surprised and delighted you about being a fiber artist?
The endless possibilities! Just when you think you are bored another door is opened, like natural dyeing. You could devote your whole life's work on that topic alone.

Ravelympics Update - Week One

2008-08-14T08:29:00.006-04:00

Ravelympics Update:
I started with the Handspun Heptathlon: pre-drafting, organizing my spinning space and getting underway, while watching the Opening Ceremonies on Friday night. I kept up the pace Saturday morning and by lunch had a huge 200 yard skein.

At this pace, I could have been done with all of the yarn by Monday, but alas, I don't live in the Olympic village and was pulled away from the wheel by little brothers that had to be fed, a business that needed new yarn and various other distractions (like a visit to the farm!) By Tuesday I was back in the saddle, spinning a second ginormous skein (which is resting in it's post-spin bath).

The temptation of the squishy yarn was too great and I moved away from the Handspun Heptathlon (without finishing it!) and launched into the Sweater Sprint. While watching Micheal Phelps earn his 10th Olympic Gold, Wednesday night, I cast on for the sweater.
I promptly fell asleep, knitting in hand, so I'm obviously not much of a sprinter!
If I'm going to compete, I need to plan the schedule: T
his weekend - knit to underarms on sweater
Mon - spin last skein of yarn
Tues - Friday - finish body
Sat - Mon - knit sleeves

If you're not a knitter, or if this whole Ravelympics thing seems a bit weird, this article does an excellent job of explaining the spirit of the Games.

The Life of Yarn - on the tree

2008-08-10T18:22:00.006-04:00

Hanging freshly dyed wool out to dry, I was struck by the ridiculousness of the sight: huge swaths of brightly colored fiber, adorning a unassuming tree.

From the parking lot, my tree seems harmless, the dogwood of any normal resident:On closer inspection, it becomes obvious these residents are a bit more colorful.

And by the time you get to my door, it becomes clear that this is a house of those possessed;

possessed by a need to drape everything in color, to soak up the bright summer, to imbue the yarn-world with sunny goodness.

This weekend I dyed pounds of wool, all in bright, happy colors, mostly in semi-solids, as seen above. While I stood outside, hanging dripping wool, I thought about the path these fibers take on their way to becoming yarn. I have, through this blog, tried to delineate this path. I shared the path from inspiration to finished yarn, and I've shared moments from visits to the original source - sheep and alpacas. But I still find that an incomplete picture of the real process.
Most knitters and crocheters know that yarn starts on an animal's back and through some magic alchemy becomes the yarn they hold in their hands. This path can take so many forms that it in sharing one path, I am necessarily omitting the other possible paths. Obviously commercial yarn - sold from farmer to wool pool, processed (usually with chemicals), cleaned, combed, dyed and spun by huge machines - has path so different from handspun yarn that they are barely the same product.
Even the yarns I create take different paths - some from mill-ends, some from local farms, some recycled from Nepalese women's co-ops! I either handdye it in many shades, making the color decisions at the dye pot, or I kettle dye it in bright solids and decide on the color combinations at the wheel. The fiber above will be the latter - many times throughout the next few weeks I'll grab a handful of various colors and combine them in new and inspiring ways.
The time in the sun is just a moment in the fibers life, next stop: the wheel!

Fiber Friday - Interview with SeeJayneKnits

2008-08-08T10:23:00.003-04:00

Fabulous! Spun by me from SeeJayneKnit's Fabulosity roving

Today's Fiber Friday interview is with Jayne of SeeJayneKnit. She is a full-time dyer, spinner and stich-marker maker! I got to know Jayne through the Fiber Friday threads on Etsy, where she shared her experiences with learning to spin. She knocked my socks off when she started selling her handspun yarn just a few weeks later and it was perfectly beautiful! A quick learner, with a great eye for color, you can keep with Jayne on her blog or by checking out her shop.I was so smitten with her color-sense that I purchased some fiber from her shop. It spun evenly and quickly into 2 gorgeously soft skeins of yarn (one of the skeins is my biggest EVER at 300 yards!)

(just to clear up some questions I had last week, everything in italics, is me, Tara, and everything NOT in italics is Jayne's answers)

How did you get started dyeing?
It started with blogging. One day I was fooling around with yarn and dye just to, you know, have some fun. I loved how the yarn turned out, so I blogged about it. By the end of the week people were asking to buy it. How was I supposed to know where that was going to lead? I sold yarn from my blog for a month or two and then moved to etsy where it would be easier to manage.

If you want to see the early blog posts about dyeing with some basic instructions, go back to March of 2007.

What came first: dyeing or stitch markers?
Dyeing. Definitely. I like to make earrings and jewelry as an earlier hobby, so I would put a free stitch marker on every skein of yarn I sold. People started asking for those too...

How did it become a full-fledged business?
People started asking to buy the yarn, so I set up a paypal acct, and started listing it on my blog. I started with about seven skeins of yarn I posted one evening that sold out during the night. When I could see that I enjoyed it, and that it wasn't going to go away, I moved to etsy to make it easier on myself. Since I didn't intend to become a business, I had to figure out how to do a lot of things very quickly, but overall it has been tons of fun, and I'm keen to continue.

Did you quit a dayjob to work with fiber?
Nope I didn't quit a day job. I used to be a high-school teacher, and then a grad student in theology and New Testament. I was heading towards a masters/PhD and eventually teaching at a seminary in graduate studies. Then I had a major emotional/physical breakdown. I have a disability as a result of that, so for the last five years or so, I have considered myself to be unemployable. I'm just not that consistently well or reliable health-wise. About four years ago, I taught myself to knit to get through long painful days. That led to blogging, and oh yeah, the blog led to dyeing...

I honestly can't think of a job I'd rather do than work with fiber. I couldn't have imagined this job for myself, so I consider myself very blessed that things worked out as they did.

What's a normal working day like?
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! There is no such thing as a normal working day.

I work any and all days of the week, at just about any time of day or night. I don't know how many hours a week I work, but it varies from half to full-time, depending on my energy, commitments, mood, and the type of week it is.

Typically, I do my emails/write up sales etc/do mail in the morning. If I'm going to dye yarn, I'll work for three to four hours in the morning/and early afternoon. I spin at any time of day, but especially enjoy doing that in the evening if the TV is on.

I pop into etsy at several points in the day to list, relist, or tweak listings, or photos.

I find the business side of things to be a lot easier and quicker now that I am so much more experienced at it. I've learned to streamline a lot of things.

Is it easier or harder to be creative with your business?
Some things are more production mode (making a bunch of stitch markers or dyeing up a known colorway). That part is definitely easier as I have refined my methods.

If I find I can't think of anything new or have trouble naming things, it's time to scale back for a few days or weeks and let things ride until I feel refreshed. On occasion I close up my shop to let myself go free for a bit. Otherwise, my policies generally protect me from burning out. I don't do wholesale. I don't do spinning or roving by request. I'm protective about which custom orders I agree to do. I feel a lot more creative when I make things on my schedule than on someone else's. And I do live such an unstructured life of flexible schedule etc, that I usually don't feel smothered by my work.

Can you explain the creating process?
Yes, I can explain the white fiber to dyed process, but that's boring. And I don't always start with white fiber. I often start with an already colored yarn (commercially spun). I have a whole repertoire of colorways that I can do on yarn that is already blue or golden yellow, or brown, or pink, or....

I get ideas from looking at things, or when I'm spinning and my mind goes loose to wander. I walk outside a lot. Stuff pops into my head. Sometimes a name begets a colorway, and sometimes the other way around. I get a lot of good ideas when I'm not doing anything related to my work. And I'm completely fearless about experimenting. Accidents and experiments have led to some of my best work -- and best sellers.

I get bored doing the same thing over and over, so I'm always playing around. I don't write anything down.

What do you wish you had planned for before you started?
Hmmm...I wish I had not bought so much inventory of undyed yarn so quickly. It's all good stuff and it sells, but I didn't know what I liked to dye the most until about six months went by. By that time, I had it figured out, but I still have this huge inventory that I have to work down. On the other hand, that keeps me doing fresh things all the time, as each yarn type reacts differently to my assorted dyeing methods. And I do re-stock my favorites, so it's a good balance.

What surprises and delights you about being a full-time fiber artist?
Pretty much everything. Except doing the mail. I'm amazed at how many variations on a colour I can get. I still like the smell of wet wool. I still ooh and ahh when something new comes out of the pot. I love the feel of fiber. I love to spin (that has been a recent surprise and delight). I love how friendly and encouraging knitters are. I love how gentle and accommodating a job it is to work with fiber. This is a very positive line of work for me as it is all about something soft and pretty that you can make into something else. The fact that my work brings surprise and delight to others is a huge delight to me.

Anything else?
Um...it's always a bit tricky explaining to non-fiber people what I do for a living. They usually don't get it until they see my yarn room, and then suddenly they realize that this is a THING.

And...I'm starting to have lustful thoughts about drum carders...

Challenge: Spin & Knit a sweater!

2008-08-07T14:50:00.003-04:00

Happy Ravelympics Eve!

Ravelympics is the Olympics for Ravelers (members of the online fiber community Ravlery, if you're not yet a Ravlerer, join now!). It starts tomorrow, with the Opening Ceremony of the Olympics (8 a.m. my time) and ends on August 24 (when the torch goes out). Ravelers, like Olympians, set their own crafting goals and join with other Ravlympians to challenge themselves to complete it during the timeframe.

By the way, if I was in the Opening Ceremonies, I'd want to wear this or this, from last night's Project Runway.

I really love knitting with my handspun, but rarely get the chance, since most of what I spin goes in the shop. I've been trying to remedy that, but spinning for myself cuts into spinning for the shop and I end up selling my most favorite skeins. However, I have maintained a small stash of wool that's "just mine". Two years ago my mom gave me 24 oz. of the softest Merino wool combed top for Christmas and it has languished in the closet, because I was too afraid of it do anything with it. I've always known I wanted to knit a sweater out of it, but the prospect seemed too daunting. The Ravelympics provide the perfect challenge to get over my fear, get out the Merino and get to spinning.

My Ravelympics goal: to spin the yarn for, design and knit a cardigan.

I've "trained" by dyeing the fiber (a beautiful pale blue), pre-drafting about half of the fiber), spinning a test skein-let (I test spun a 2ply too, but realized, Am I crazy? That's three times the spinning!) and knit a test swatch. I'm getting 3 sts/in on 10.5 needles with a very softly spun single ply. I want my sweater yarn to be a little tighter spun and to be a worsted weight, so I'm not going to design the sweater just yet.

My sweater design will be similar to this garter-yoke cardigan, with the side details of Cobblestone. The challenge with spinning to knit any project is the age-old question, "How much yarn?" I found this chart, which indicates I'll need about 1,000 yards. My plan is to just spin 8-9 skeins (I normally get over 100 yards/bobbin) and then start knitting. If I've used over 2/3 of yarn for body, I'll start spinning again for the sleeves. That, by the way, is an excellent tip for deciding on yardage for a sweater you design yourself - sweaters can be broken into thirds - 1/3 for front, 1/3 for back, 1/3 for both sleeves together.

My (extremely loose) schedule is: First week - Spin, second week - knit sweater. I’ll break it up into smaller goals after I see how fast I’m spinning and how much I get done this weekend. I'll be tracking my progress, here on the blog, to keep myself accountable. I'd love to know who else will be joining me! Leave a comment so we can cheer each other on!

Gimme some love!

2008-08-06T11:41:00.003-04:00

I really love reading what my customers think of my yarn. Whether it's Etsy feedback, in the Ravelry group or in blog posts - it's really nice to know how people are using the yarn. I've longed used GoogleAlerts to alert me of anything written about me or my yarn, but it must not be working right, because anytime I google "blonde chicken yarn", I come up with a new batch of links to the shop. The most exciting are write-ups by shopping blogs or "knitting stars" - and lately I've been blessed with a few mentions:

Indie Fixx's column Indie is the new Green featured my yarn (and used photos of both my Banana and handspun yarn!) in an article on 'green' yarn.
Vickie Howell (host of the TV show Knitty Gritty!) used my handdyed recylced silk in a featured crochet pattern (it's on the front page of her website and I am definitely making these!)
Just this morning, Indie Quater featured my yarn!

Have you read anything about BCB? If you find a link or write a review relating to any of products (past or present) please post it in the comments below!
(If it's new to me, I'll contact you to send you a thank you gift, so be sure you leave a way to find you!)

Farmer's Market Project #7

2008-08-05T16:04:00.006-04:00

I've gotten a little behind on posting the Farmer's Market Project, since being out of town for a few weekends, but I'm back, baby! Renewed determination and commitment to see this through until the end of the season.
This photo was taken 7.19.08 at the Johnson City Farmer's Market. You might recognize the tablecloth from past photos, as this is my favorite booth - always filled with color!

Bright red and yellow shades on mill-ends wool was handspun ultra-fluffy, thick and thin. Plied with a handdyed green hemp thread, the yarn became even fluffier and soft with a squiqqly, fun-in-the-sun vibe.Yellow Tomatoes, available here

I was happy with it, right until my husband looked at it and said "Hulkamania, brother!"
Oh, uh yeah, it does look a bit like it could be knit into a boa for the Hulkster:

Hmmm...

Fiber Friday - Silver Sun Alpacas

2008-08-01T09:00:00.001-04:00

Today I'm thrilled to get a chance to talk to Ricky of Silver Sun Alpacas. She is both fiber farmer, fiber dyer and purveyor of all things fibery! (all photos taken from Silver Sun Alpacas)

How did you get started with fiber art?
My true fiber passion started about 25 years ago,but long time before that I always had a pair of needles knitting something for someone. My mom taught me how to knit when I was younger, and still helps when I run into problems. She is 82 years young now and still knitting her heart out! She just loves knitting using the alpaca yarn. About 25 years ago I saw my first silk painting in an art store, and I knew then that I had to know how it was done. From that, the road to a living room full of dyes, paints and bolts of silk was very short. Loved the color mixing, applying it on the silk, making my own scarves, than designing my own skirts from my handpainted silk fabric. The walls of my relatives were full with handpainted silk pictures, since I ran out of space in my own home. After moving to the USA (I'm originally from Israel. My husband and I moved to the US 17 years ago with our 3 little kids.), I had a big pause, raising kids and working, but still knitting scarves and hats.
Which came first: the animals or the knitting or the spinning?
The knitting came first, as I mentioned before. Then alpacas just stole my heart 5 years ago, when I saw my first alpaca, and things were never the same again. When the children grew up and all moved out of the house, I had the urge to take care of something. I looked for something special, not familiar... new, exotic. We visited an alpaca ranch in the area, and when I first saw an alpaca, they captured my heart right away and I felt very comfortable around them. I knew then that that was it. Several months later(after lots of research!) we purchased our herd, which started out with 11 total(we're up to 26 now!). We boarded them at a near by ranch until we found our own place. A year after that we moved to a ranch house with my 11 alpacas, now 24. Once we had all the alpaca fiber from our first shearing, I started to learn how to card and spin on my own.My daughter got my passion for animals, so when she got married and her husband got stationed in a close by Navy station, she came back with her own animals. Although, I know she is back temporarily, we enjoy her company and her help with the animals.

How did the business side of it start? Did you start selling on Etsy or some other way?
Usually, during fall and winter, we open the ranch doors to the public for them to see the alpacas. For most of the visitors it's their first time seeing a "small llama". Visitors were very interested in the yarn and fiber, and were asking for spinning fiber. So I pulled out my dyes, dying books, and purchased a drum carder, and experimented with natural colors, bright colors and carded it to batts. I liked the outcome. Put it in my ranch store, and customers loved it. After that, I decided to teach myself how to spin. So I bought a spinning wheel, and after a few weeks of practicing, I started putting up my handspun yarns on Etsy.

Did you set out from the beginning of it to have a business?
In the beginning, I planned to use the fiber for my personal use. But, as time passed, visitors and customers were asking for spinning fiber and handspun yarn. They were looking for handmade items, instead of commercialized things they would find at craft stores. I started slowly to introduce my colored fibers to the public and had a great feedback, especially with return customers.

Did you quit a dayjob to do this full-time? If so, how did you make that decision?
Me and husband had a retail/wholesale store in the city. So, when we moved to the ranch we closed the retail store, and continued with the wholesale department.
It was not an easy decision. But, I had an empty nest syndrome, and we were looking to change our environment. We are both animal lovers and knew that alpacas are for us. We researched extensively, visited several ranches and learned the whole process of raising these beautiful creatures.

Now that you are full-time, what’s a normal working day like?
Early in the morning, I go to the pasture with my coffee mug, filling the water buckets, make sure there is enough hay for everyone. I check on all the pregnant girls and their crias (alpaca baby). If there is a girl that is very close to give birth, I usually stay in the pasture, monitoring progress.
I like to sit with the girls early in the morning watch the babies playing.
During the day, I dye my fiber in pots or paint them individually, and put them up to dry. I card and blend previously dyed fiber, and wash raw fiber in between. I go visit my herd several times during the day. Early in the evening we clean the pastures and pens, add fresh hay, spread small trays with feed, minerals and supplements. That's also the ideal time for us to do some breeding, as needed.
After we finish taking care of all the animals in the evening, I sit in front of the TV - thats my favorite wheel time. I collect my personal fiber and spin it, and by the end of the night, I have several skeins of yarn spun up and ready for knitting!

How is this different than before?
Back when I used to work in a closed office, I didn't have the time to be creative. I had other responsibilities to my employees and to my customers. And by the time I got home, I had the responsibilities for my household - my kids, my husband, my home. No real time for myself, to do the things I want to do.
Now, I do what I want with my time. I still do the things I need to do, but now I have the time to be creative!

Is it easier or harder to be “creative” in your full-time fiber artist schedule?
To create I need inspiration. Most of my inspired ideas come to me from my surroundings, or when I cook, or in nature. A beautiful flower, a lovely sunset or even a very tasty ice cream. I see the colors, and try to implement it to the fiber. It is easier to be creative for me, since most of my day I'm outside with my animals, or inside my studio trying to bring my creations to life.

Can you explain the process from fiber on-the-hoof to finished yarn?
Alpacas are shorn once a year, usually in the spring time. Each alpaca produces 3 - 9 lb. of fiber.
After shearing, I take each blanket (top of the animal, which is considered the best part) and skirt it - clean out all the dirt, hay pieces, etc.
Some spinners like to spin alpaca fiber without washing, I like to wash it first.
I wash it 2-3 lb. at a time, and spread it outside to air dry, or to the dyeing room for added color if it needs it.
Now, it's ready to be carded and blended with my drum carder. Before this batt goes to the public, I spin it for a trial. Make sure it deserve it's name. I usually make a fiber by an inspired subject, sometimes after it's done, it looks different from what it intended to be, so, it gets a different name.

What do you wish you’d planned for before you went full-time?
I wish I would have done it earlier in life!

What has surprised and delighted you about being a fiber artist?
Always surprised to see people's reaction. They are amazed to see their first alpaca, first carding and their first spinning wheel lesson. I am delighted to teach and educate them about the fiber and what it takes to process it.

Anything else you want to add?
My husband always tells me that not very many people love, or even like, their job but that he takes great joy in seeing me love mine!

Fiber Friday Interviews - Kitty Grrlz

2008-07-25T09:27:00.001-04:00

Today's interview (the third in the series) is with Bobbi of Kittygrrlz. She creates fun and exciting handspun yarn using fibers handdyed or carded by other with other fiber artists, a beautiful example of collaboration. You can read more about her fiber-y life on her blog.

How did you get started with knitting?
I was vending (with jewelry) at the DIY Trunk Show in Chicago, in November of 2004. As I like to say, this show changed my life! Their local SnB group was there giving free knitting lessons. Since I had a Chicagoan helping me out, and it was pretty quiet in the morning, I went up and got my free lesson. They started me off with some needles and a skein of basic yarn, and, honestly, I never thought I would get it. I was all thumbs. But, I took it home, promptly bought some PURPLE yarn, and just started knitting . . . I actually still have that first piece - which most resembles a table-runner, I think. :)

How did you get started spinning?
I came across the YARN WENCH site and just loved her handspun yarn. I totally splurged and bought one of her skeins and I LOVED it. So, I started knitting with hand spun yarn, mostly hers. By the Trunk Show the following year - 2005 - I was there selling mostly hand knits and wearing a sweater I had knit! Then, Lynn (the Yarn Wench) started dyeing fiber and I just so loved her colors - they are truly amazing and inspiring - and I thought, well, if I could spin, I could get the fiber, spin the yarn, AND knit it. What I didn't quite expect is how much the spinning would take over! I try to continue to do both but admit that spinning has really become my first love. So, I am one of those who came from the knitting side of it TO the spinning. I have thought about dyeing, but quite honestly don't think I want to invest the time into it when there are so many great dyers already out there. I'd much rather use that time to spin - and knit!
As far as choosing fiber - I am most attracted by color. Then the type of fiber. I get almost all of my wool from the Yarn Wench, but also buy carded batts from several etsy sellers. I venture out sometimes and try new dyers, if the color or fiber strikes me, but especially now that I have to watch my fiber budget, have been sticking to my favorites. I do feel that spinning fiber dyed by other artists help keep my items "handmade" throughout the process. I also like supporting other independent artists and etsy sellers. At times I wish I could support more of them!

How did your business begin?
Well, I have had my own website for a long time but had only sold a couple of jewelry items from it. And, I had done a couple craft shows. But, in 2005, I heard about Etsy from a fellow librarian. She had a shop, which led me to the site and so I thought I would sign up. At first, I didn't make full use of it - I just listed my items and that was it. (And oh how I cringe at those first listings with the bad pictures! it's amazing I sold anything at all!)
Once I started spinning (in December of 2006) I really started putting more effort into both my own website AND my etsy shop. At the beginning of this year, I also separated out my hand knits into their own shop - kittygrrlzknits.etsy.com - so I could better promote the yarns vs. finished items. That first year with yarn - 2007 - I really focused on promoting on Etsy - I was in the forums and did showcases and just tried to establish a presence there. Towards the end of the year, though, and into this year, I started doing outside advertising - places like Ravelry and Knitty and on various blogs. I've also managed to snag a spot in one of the Etsy Co-op ads and just managed to get another one recently.

Did you set out from the beginning of it to be self-employed?
I started out selling jewelry in hopes it would give me some extra income - a "part-time" job that would help me feed my creative side. I never thought of it as just a way to "support my hobby" - I wanted it to be an actual business. So, I did a lot of the official things like registered my business name, applied for the tax id numbers, etc. (I'd already had the domain name - just had to put more effort into the website). To be honest, though, the jewelry thing didn't last long - and I don't think it would have worked out. I just didn't have what it took to make it a sustainable business. I threw a lot of money at it in an attempt, but when I started knitting . . . and especially when I started spinning . . . I thought, now THIS IS something I could do full-time.

What led to your self-employment? Did you quit a dayjob to do this full-time?
At the beginning of this year, things really started to pick up and I started to seriously consider if I could make it a full-time gig. Then, right around that time, I found out the project I was working on would be "over" by July 1, thus my job would be ending. This really cleared the path for the option to spin and knit full-time. Over those months, I debated it endlessly. I did apply to a couple jobs I felt I was qualified for, but I didn't apply for everything that came along. As time went on, it just seemed all signs were pointing to me doing this full-time, and who was I to argue with fate, right? There is a part of this that I want to express but am not sure how to word it. I'd always secretly wanted to do something creative full-time, but my obsessively practical side always won out. Which is weird given some of the other "leaps" I've made in my life. But, I always feared the uncertainty and loved the stability of my job. I'm also one who didn't HATE the job I had - I actually liked it quite a bit - so wasn't trying to escape a bad environment or anything like that. So, I hoped maybe some day I could do something like this, but just wasn't ready until everything aligned and made it obvious that NOW was the time!

How did you make that difficult decision?
After I found my job was ending, I looked for related jobs to my experience, applied for a few, but in the meantime I was having some of my best sales months EVER! It really seemed like now was the time, everything kept pointing to Kitty Grrlz full-time and NOT finding another library job. I didn't jump in totally unprepared, though. I knew I had some money saved. I knew I had options if things didn't work out. Back-up plans abounded! But, I also felt this was the time to make the leap! While I DID make the conscious decision to go full-time, I also have to be honest and say it also sort of came about on its own. What else was I going to do? Job ending, Etsy sales up? I think the main thing, though, is that if I didn't think I could make a go of spinning and knitting full-time, I probably would have stepped up the job search a bit.

Now that you are full-time, what’s a normal working day like?
Ha, I think the question should be, what would you LIKE it to be like, and what is it ACTUALLY like?
I really want to get on a normal schedule - similar to the one I had when I worked. I'd like to get up in the morning and do my Post Office run. Have my yogurt. Check my email/site/blog. Then, spin. Take a lunch break. Spin some more. Etc. . . . In reality, I've been sleeping much later than I should, and have been spinning into the wee hours of the morning! But, even with the schedule not being quite what I want, I have been working ALOT. My boyfriend warned me that I'd probably be working even MORE without the full-time job than with, and he was oh-so-right! I just finished a 3-day show which basically had me out of the house at 6am and not home until 7pm or later. I've got spinning to do, knitting for upcoming shows to do, pictures to take, items to list, etc. Last week I was basically working from about 8am to past midnight every day. I LOVE it, though!!

How is this different than before? Is it easier or harder to be creative in your full-time fiber artist schedule?
Since I am trying to keep a similar schedule as to when I was working, it isn't that much different - except for the timing, I guess. I am staying up much later! As for the creative part of it - I actually think it is the same if not a little easier to be creative since (in theory) I DO have more time to work on fibery pursuits. I have been cramming for shows the past two weeks, but now have 3 weeks before my next show - I am looking forward to being able to just spin and knit what I want - I have a huge list of what I want to do - ideas for new yarns, and things I want to try. So, creatively, i think it is better . . . I think the main difference can be summed up like this - When I had the full-time job, when I thought of something I'd want to spin, knit, or try - I'd have to wait until i got home and rarely I had time that day and it sometimes would be weeks or months before I got to it - NOW, when I think of something, I can just spin it if I want, or at least get the fiber out and ready to go. Last week, before my show, I was so tired of spinning bamboo. So, I decided I would try corespinning - and I DID! If I'd had the day job, I probably never would have gotten to it!

Can you explain the process from fiber to finished yarn? Do you plan it out ahead of time?
Well, this is sort of hard to answer. Usually, I start with a fiber and often times the fiber helps tell me what it wants to become - an art yarn, or something simpler? Or, maybe a Navajo 3ply? So, I start with the fiber which is very much related to color. Then, I prep it. Sometimes, while prepping, I will change my mind about how I'm going to spin it - if I think it's better suited for a different type of yarn I'll change my plan. On occasion, I may start with an idea of a project or type of yarn and then find a fiber to spin it - but I almost always start with the fiber. And, I almost always choose that fiber by color. For my FunctionArt yarns, the fiber is the first part and the second part are the yarns to spin in - which I take a lot of time in selecting. I look not only for color but also for texture and how I think they will work together with the fiber and each other. I just . . . think I "wing it" most of the time and just spin what inspires me at the moment. Or colors that I love.

How do you name your yarns?
First, I have different "types" of yarns - FunctionArt art yarns, Batt-tacular yarns spun from carded batts, Beautiful bamboo which is of course bamboo, etc. THEN each one has a colorway name. Sometimes these names come from the name of the fiber colorway (Lynn does name her colors, too, and often times they are so perfect I don't change them) and other times I name them things I think of - either inspired by the color or something that struck me while spinning it. I love the names, though, and while sometimes it is hard to come up with just the right one, will continue to name all of my yarns.

What do you wish you’d planned for before you went full-time?
Well, I think I had thought of a lot of things and was prepared, but looking back I'm not sure it was wise to take a vacation right at the beginning. We had planned it before any job decisions had been made, and I figured it may be the last chance for a vacation for awhile, but it really threw me off my schedule and routine. (It was a great vacation, though!)

What has surprised and delighted you about being a fiber artist?
Hmm . . . that I'm actually doing this??? There are times I just randomly think, "Oh my god, I don't have a job" . . . but, of course, I DO have a job, it's just different! Then there are the moments when my practical side screams, "What are you doing!?!?" But, I just love being able to spin all day!!

Anything else you want to add?
In reading Folktale's interview last week, I was struck by the fact that I, too, was such a writer when I was young! I wrote ALL the time, even up through college and even a bit once I was out. It really tapered off, though, once I started with the knitting and spinning . . . so i just love the connection of "spinning yarns" !

Collaboration

2008-07-22T13:33:00.000-04:00

Every yarn is a collaboration between animal, farmer, dyer, spinner. Each yarn I spin is an unspoken agreement use the raw, pure fiber to create an artistic expression, to endeavor to honor the original fiber and the others who have worked with it.
This sense of collaboration and community is why I choose to buy most of my supplies from local fiber farmers and handpaint the fiber myself. Sometimes, though, I like to create something in collaboration with even more artists, to work with someone else's painted fiber.
Last week I purchased some lovely fiber from a few Etsy sellers. The small fiber farm, Fleecemakers, raise Romney sheep and sell the roving dyed and blended in beautiful mixes. I ordered Ocean Wave and Tropical colorways (stay tuned to the shop or my Twitter updates to see the yarns this fiber become!)
I've been a fan of Jayne's work for a while, but when I saw the Fabulosity fiber, I couldn't resist any longer. I snatched it up and created some Fabulous! yarn (that's not bragging, that's the yarn name!)

My favorite part of selling handspun yarn is knowing that everything I spin becomes a collaboration with yet another artist - the knitter or crocheter! The fiber that I admired and squished, that flowed through my fingers and twisted into yarn before my eyes; it will flow through a knitters hands and become something warm, useful and squishy.

Have you collaborated with me (or another fiber artist)? Let me know about it in the comments!

Farmer's Market 7.19.08

2008-07-21T17:32:00.000-04:00

Grape tomatoes at Johnson City Farmer's Market

Fiber Friday - FolkTale Fibers

2008-07-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

Today's interview (the second in our series) is with Abby of Folktale Fibers. She creates beautiful handspun yarn from cruelty-free and vegan fibers. You can read more about her fiber-y life on her blog, but be sure to check out her beautiful shop.

How did you get started with fiber art?

Honestly, I think it's in my blood. Ever since I can remember, I've been obsessed with textiles and the process of making things. My earliest memories are of finger crocheting on the school bus on the way to field trips (this was before kindergarten) and sewing buttons onto fabric scraps my mom gave me while she sewed clothes on her sewing machine. I had a fabric and yarn stash by the time I was three or four years old! I didn't discover the art of spinning until about 3 years ago, when I suddenly realized that I could spin my own yarn. I already knew the basic process, since I had been making cordage for years, but it had never occurred to me that yarn was made in the same way. I bought a spindle and some fiber from Earth Guild, and the rest is history!

Which came first: the dyeing or the spinning?

The spinning. All my first handspun yarns were undyed, and then I used them later as practice when I started learning to dye. I dyed mostly with kool-aid and food-safe dyes at first, and later moved on to natural dyes, acid dyes, and most recently, fiber reactive dyes. I've become a much better dyer than when I first started, and I think my color sense has developed a lot more too.

How did the business side of Folktale Fibers start?

I used to sell handsewn clothing and hand-carved/customized model horses when I was a teenager, on ebay and on my own website, and I think I've had a dream of having a successful online indie business for a long time. I started selling handsewn cloth pads on etsy before I learned to spin, so once I started spinning more yarn than I could use, I began listing it in my shop. And now I have a full-fledged fiber business!

How'd you come up with the name?

A lot of my inspiration is drawn from fairytales and folklore, old traditions and the natural world. Not to mention, spinning itself is a craft with a ton of tradition and many fables and myths connected to it (Rumpelstiltskin, the Norns - three sisters who spun, wove, and cut the fates of humans, and The Seven Swans to name a few). Wikipedia has some information about mythology & spinning/weaving here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weaving_(mythology) . It took me a while to come up with my business name, but I think it's a good reflection of where my yarns come from.

What was the path from hobbyist to full-time fiber artist like?

I really just wanted some spending money, and to share my crafts with others, but I eventually realized that I could do this full-time if I really wanted to. So I guess it morphed from a hobby into a business. If I had never started it as a hobby, though, I would never have had the confidence to attempt a self-employed crafting job full time.

I've never really had a “real” job, so I think I'm a bit of an oddity in that aspect. When I moved from the woods back to the city, I decided to open an official business to pay my rent & bills and hopefully save a bit to buy land in the future.

What do you mean 'when I moved from the woods'? I'm picturing a Walden-esque lifestyle in the woods that required no income

Yep, that's pretty accurate!
I was in advanced classes in high school, and in montessori school before that, and by the end of high school I think I was just burned out on school. I knew what I wanted to learn (mostly crafts, botany/herbal medicine and homesteading skills), and it wasn't stuff I could learn in school without taking a ton of classes that I didn't care about, so I ended up traveling the country for a few years with my current partner. We went to various skillshare gatherings, made new friends that taught us stuff, and visited old friends. We mostly hitchhiked our way around, with a few stretches of walking, trainhopping, and a craigslist ride or two. We didn't really need money because we slept in the woods at night while traveling (under a tarp if it was raining) and all our food was scavenged from the wild or dumpstered. It's pretty crazy how many fresh fruits and veggies get tossed out everyday. I did some work-trade here and there, and had a brief stint picking organic blueberries at an awesome little farm, but for the most part we just had no need of money. We still live pretty frugally, I think it's just ingrained in us at this point.

After traveling for a few years, we eventually settled down on some land owned by our friends - 30 acres in the mountain of North Carolina that back up against a huge tract of national forest. We lived in various homemade shelters on the land, like a bark hut built from saplings and poplar bark. There were other folks who lived there, so there was a small community. We learned all sorts of primitive skills and crafts while we were there. We lived completely off the grid, no electricity or water. We cooked over wood fires and hauled our own water from the many beautiful mountain springs. Our friends had a composting toilet set up that produced compost for the garden. Our food came from the land (a small garden and lots of wild foods) and was supplemented by organic produce from local health food stores - we worked out a deal where they would let us have all the food they were going to throw out for free, and we would share it with the community. We lived there for about 2 years, but we decided to leave so that we could save up money to buy land and possibly go to school for fiber arts/herbal medicine (me) and ethnobotany (my partner). I eventually would like to build a tiny cabin in the woods and have a small herd of fiber goats and maybe a few sheep.

That is so fascinating!
What’s a typical working day like?

I usually wake up and start my day off slow by making a cup of tea or two and checking my email and etsy shop. If I have packages to ship, I pack them up the night before so I can walk to the post office in the morning while it's still cool out and not too crowded. The rest of the day is spent multi-tasking – I usually have two or three things going on at once, like a pot of dye simmering on the stove while I spin or card. If I have things to list on etsy, I take pictures mid-day while the light is the best. I usually quit around 5 pm to start cooking dinner before my partner gets home (he works full-time). I cook all our meals from scratch, since we don't eat processed foods and have a bit of a strict diet, so cooking usually takes a while! Then at night I usually check my email once more, maybe sew or felt some yarn embellishments, and make myself a to-do list for the next day. I also try to take a day off each week to clean the house and relax.

Is it easier or harder to be “creative” in your full-time fiber artist schedule (as opposed to creating as a hobby)?

I thought it would be hard to keep going at such a rate, and every once in a while I hit a bit of a slump, but I'm surprised at how much creative energy I have. I think it might be a bit easier for me to be creative now than when I spun and dyed less, because now I'm always thinking about it. Just the act of creating a new yarn or colorway sets off ideas for more.

Describe the creative process of designing a new yarn.

A lot of the time, I have an idea before I start dyeing. I try to write ideas down as they occur to me, otherwise I tend to forget them! But sometimes, especially with vegan fibers, I just dye them in large batches and then draw my ideas from the collection of fibers I have at the time. If I'm in a creative slump, it helps to have a big stash of dyed fiber to dig through. I can also just sit down with a notebook and a pen and come up with idea after idea for yarns and colorways.

What do you wish you’d planned for before you went full-time?

I wish I'd found someone to help me with taxes. I tried reading all the information I could find online, but it was a lot to take in and not always helpful. That was hands-down the hardest business-related thing I've had to figure out! I also wish I'd figured out an accounting system beforehand, since I'm just sort of making it up as I go.

What has surprised and delighted you about being a fiber artist?

That there is always something new to learn or discover when it comes to fiber, even if you thought you had it figured out!

Anything else you want to add?

I realized something a bit funny (to me, anyway) the other day. When I was a kid, I grew up without a TV and was an avid reader. I always wanted to be a writer when I grew up, and I wrote all the time. And what do I do for a living now? I spin yarns. (Get it?)

Yes! I actually encounter a lot confusing related to that metaphor, because my town has the National Storytelling Museum and Festival....telling people I "spin yarns" results in people thinking I'm a Professional Storyteller!

Thanks again to Abby for sharing her fascinating story! If you have any other questions for her or suggestions for upcoming interviews, please leave a comment.

I'm on the front page!

2008-07-16T12:38:00.000-04:00

Edited to add: and again this morning (7.17.08), I'm on the front page!
It's this Treasury, featuring the Independence yarn.

So, the front page of Etsy is kind of a big deal. The admin at Etsy select Treasuries to feature on the front page and Treasuries are made by Etsy users. Only the prettiest pictures get in Treasuries (in theory) and only the prettiest Treasuries make the front page.
And my Sunshine yarn did it!
Yay!

Farmer's Market 7.12.08

2008-07-15T17:18:00.000-04:00

Taken by little brother T, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market...purple bell peppers?

It reminded me of this yarn:Irises

So now I need it to inspire a new yarn!

Farmer's Market Project #5

2008-07-13T17:10:00.000-04:00

This week's picture was taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market: ripening Cherokee Tomatoes, from a local farm. Just as the rain subsided, I was smitten with the deep red and receding green of this heirloom variety.

I captured the purpley red on mill-ends wool (rescued wool from what would be thrown out by a commercial spinning mill) and handspun it fluffy, thick and thin. I then wrapped the squishy wool in hemp yarn, handyed the shade of green tomatoes.
The two textures and colors play with each other, like the ripening of a tomato, creating a contrast for your eyes and hands. The knitted (or crocheted) fabric will have a slight tweedy effect with the green just popping up now and then to add some life to the party!

Fiber Friday - Around the web

2008-07-11T16:01:00.000-04:00

This week has been full of multi-media fiber-happiness:

A sweet little profile of my friend, Maple of North Star Alpacas
A podcast with the authors of Shear Spirit (my new favorite book)
A beautiful video of Martha Vineyard Fiber Farm:

PS. If you're near Abingdon this Sunday, come visit me at A Likely Yarn.

Farmer's Market 7.5.08

2008-07-08T13:53:00.000-04:00

Cherokee Tomatoes - also known as black or purple tomatoes, fully ripe their skin becomes a blackish purple. (I bought two - very mild in taste, not tomatoe-y)

Farmer's Market Project #4

2008-07-07T12:19:00.000-04:00

Inspired by these peaches, the seasons' first, I handdyed some local fiber 3 shades of peach.

The three shades in this 2 ply yarn create a self-striping yarn that starts with darker peach at one end and moves towards the lightest, peachiest color at the other end of the skein. Knitted (or crocheted), this skein will create one long color repeat that moves from darkest to lightest along the length of the project.

I was/am very tempted to keep this yarn for myself and knit a scarf out of it! It took all my moral fortitude to stick with the Project and list the yarn in the shop!

PS. This is a super busy week with out-of-town family (and pets) staying in my guest room/studio/office and dyeing lessons in my kitchen and knitting night at Jill's. I might not be around too much!

Farmer's Market - 6.28.08

2008-06-30T16:00:00.001-04:00

Fresh peaches, Johnson City Farmer's Market

Farmer's Market Project #2

2008-06-30T14:19:00.000-04:00

I had to skip the Farmer's Market last week, since I was IN my best friend's wedding, but the week before that I actually went to 2 local farmer's markets. The new Jonesborough market is still small, but all of the produce (of which there was very little by 10:30 am) was local. My favorite local chocolatier was there (Earth and Sky Creations)- and we bought a chocolate for each of us. On the car ride home they both got melty and so we were at a rush when we stopped by the JC market. So rushed, in fact, that I left my camera in the car and it wasn't until the last minute that I grabbed it and shot the brightest thing I found:

While I was out of town for the wedding, I thought about these flowers, so bright amongst the green leaves. I decide to finally break out the banana fiber I've been too nervous to spin and I dyed it a few shades of green. I found some brilliant impatient-orange recycled silk that are the perfect shade of orange. The banana fiber and recycled silk are recycled in the same way: a Nepalese woman's co-op collects the scraps from sari weaving; apparently banana fiber is a very common fiber in India! While the silk is smooth, with all the fibers parallel, the banana fiber is very crimpy and clustered up, tied together is some places. Making it spinable is a time-consuming task and involves "fluffing" it, pulling apart the fibers, cutting or untying the knots, getting it as parallel as possible (I tried handcarding to no avail!). Because the banana fiber is so uneven and I wanted to ensure a sturdy yarn, I chose to use a commercially spun 100% hemp yarn as the base and spun the banana and silk around the hemp yarn (like corespinning).Impatient Orange - available in the shop

The resulting yarn is fluffy and soft and scrappy, while extremely sturdy and strong.

and funky!

PS. The chocolate got melty, but we popped it in the fridge when we got home (just a few minutes) and it ended up tasting SO amazing - PB for Jay, Chili Powder for me.

Finished Quilt

2008-06-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

Today my very best friend is getting married.
Jamie and I have been through high school orchestra, family vacations, deaths, parental weddings and divorces, college graduations and my wedding together, as best friends.

As I sat with this quilt, her wedding gift, in my lap, I thought of all the hopes and worries and happiness we've shared. The giggle fits and camping on the beach and loud singalongs to Les Mis.

I wanted this quilt to symbolize so much: the warmth that our friendship has brought me, the years of letter writing we've engaged in, my hope that she'll enjoy husband-snuggling under a blanket as much as I do.
Making the quilt was a ritual I needed; to stitch our friendship into something tangible, to allow myself to believe in our new lives, to physically labor my prayers and happiness for her into something she could hug.

The quilt is comprised of 12 blocks that are 16 in square.

Separated by 400 miles, I purchased 4 fabrics, 1/2 yard of each while my mom did the same. We met up to exchange fabrics and buy the border. We retreated to our own homes and Mom pieced 5 blocks and I made 7; neither of us using a pattern, just throwing together the 9 fabrics however we wanted.

When I stayed with my mom during the weekend of Jamie's bridal shower, we sewed together the blocks, added the 6 inch border, purchased the batting, backing fabric and bias tape. I brought it home and handquilted the entire quilt by myself in 3 weeks.

The border is a double fold bias tape, machine-stiched on the front and hand blind-stitched to the back. I am SO proud of my handstitching - this was my very first time quilting or blind stitching anything!

I'll give it to her today, her wedding day, hoping that all of my thoughts, prayers and wishes make it out of the quilt and into her life.

Fiber Shop Swap

2008-06-20T13:00:00.000-04:00

Remember the Fiber Shop Swap?

It's all wrapped up now and I wanted to thank my partner, Extreme Spinning!

Preschool, available in the shop

She sent me two amazing fiber art kits that included yarn, fiber, binding cotton, pearls and instructions for it all! The two yarns pictured here were spun from those kits and were so fun!

Farmer's Market - 6.14.08

2008-06-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

Bright orange impatients, cheering me up after my chocolates melted!

*I'll be out of town this weekend, so I'm skipping next Saturday & this week's project will be completed next week.

Farmer's Market Project #2

2008-06-15T12:33:00.000-04:00

Last week, at the Johnson City Farmer's Market, I was struggling to find some yarn-worthy inspiration. We had slept late and most of the fresh veggies were gone. While the goat cheese was delicious, I didn't think white slabs of creamy goodness were going to translate into an interesting yarn. Just as we were leaving, I caught site of these white stalks, which reminded me of Soy fiber (I don't know why; everything reminds me of some fiber!)

I was thinking of that pale green when I dyed the fiber and those spiky stalks on the round one (what is that?) inspired the way I spun it.

I'm not entirely happy with how the color came out, I was going for something a bit more green, but this ended up in the blue-green range. A little of the natural cream of the soy fiber still shows through, like the barely green of the stalks.
This yarn was definitely a lesson in dyeing soy and in trying to match the inspiration photo!

Fiber Friday - Hobby Knob Farm

2008-06-13T15:29:00.000-04:00

On a muggy Friday evening last month, Jay and I had the pleasure of visiting Hobby Knob Farm in Weaversville, NC. Shepherdess Elizabeth met us on her big back porch, where she was working on a fleece, cleaning out the grass as it sat on a big screen door.

Elizabeth gave us a grand tour, past the guard llamas that were being groomed for her daughter's upcoming 4-H show and up to the sheep on a leash.
Yes, a sheep on a leash (a very long leash) in the yard! I knew then that I was gonna love this place!

The flock of sheep all live in several huge fields and are rotated throughout the day. When we arrived, Elizabeth put out some feed in the chicken yard and the sheep (and their constant companions, the llamas) came running.
As cute as the sheep are, that chick in the above picture, might be my favorite - she looks like she's wearing pants!

Hobby Knob is focuses on heritage breeds of sheep: Jacobs, Cotswalds and some Shetland crosses.

Elizabeth breeds with other local, small farms to create interesting, beautiful fiber and fantastically adorable lambs!

The fiber I got from Elizabeth is a blend of her wool and mohair with local alpaca. It dyes beautifully soft colors and spins so easily, so smoothly!

This yarn was dyed with the leftover Easter Egg dyes and spun to a heavy worsted weight. I named this first skein spun the fiber I got at my farm visit after Elizabeth!

Farmer's Market Project #1

2008-06-09T10:42:00.002-04:00

Last week,while strolling through the very lively Abingdon Farmer's Market, I slyly snapped this photo of a pepper plants and begonias, while my husband bought some peppers.

Throughout the week, I thought about the photo and what aspects I wanted to caputure in the yarn. I was most struck by the variety of greens and the interplay between the shot of red with the rest of the photo. It took me a few days, but on Thursday I pulled out some gray streaked mill-ends wool and a local wool/alpaca/mohair blend from Hobby Knob Farm. I put both fibers into a dyepot with a medium green. As the temperature rose, I sprinkled in a few more greens (dye will "strike" the fiber quicker when it's already heated, so you can get patches of distinct colors while kettle dyeing).

The resulting fiber was dried outside in the sunshine and spun into a bulky single, shot through with begonia red recycled silk. The scrappy silk offers both a contrast of color and texture, the same contrast provided by the begonia in the picture.

I would love some company for the Farmer's Market Project! Read this to learn more and then leave a comment if you'd like to join me. I welcome anyone who does any craft; I'll make a blogroll of those involved, so make sure you leave your blog address!

Farmer's Market Project - 6.7.08

2008-06-07T19:38:00.000-04:00

Romaine Lettuce, taken at the Johnson City Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market Project is a self-challenge: each week I'll take one picture at the Farmer's Market and will post it here. During the next week I'll dye and/or spin a yarn inspired by that picture and will list the yarn the very next weekend.

Tomorrow I'll be posting the yarn inspired by last week's photo.

Hobbledehoy - behind the wool

2008-06-06T14:03:00.000-04:00

Fiber Friday is here and today I'd like to share what I hope will become a regular feature: an interview with a full-time fiberist! I've gushed over her beautiful batts, and now I'm happy to share some insight into the world of Hobbledehoy. Liz (aka hobbledehoy) is a successful full-time spinner with a thriving Etsy shop. She candidly shares the realities of life as a spinster on her blog. I find her blog and business inspring but I was curious about her beginnings, so I asked some questions and she generously answered:

How'd you get started spinning?

I've been a long-time fan of the Craftster.org forums, and discovered novelty spinning on one of the boards there. I'm a bit obsessive with new hobbies, and will gobble up all the information I can find about a specific craft before trying it out. I ordered a spindle and dyed wool yarns with KoolAid while I waited for it to arrive. A week later, I ordered a wheel. It all happened so fast- most of those first few weeks are a blur. None of it would have been possible or affordable if it weren't for mill end wool providers and a lucky Etsy search (where I discovered a used Babe wheel for sale).

Which came first: the spinning or the bunny?

I spent a full year spinning before I brought little Huxley home. I had no idea what to expect- processing fiber from my own animal. Fortunately, Huxley is a sweetie and doesn't mind sitting still for hours while I snip away his fluff (I'm too scared to pluck! Plus, it makes him antsy).

How did your business begin?

Actually, I was selling one inch buttons and simple earrings on Etsy- two or three months before I began spinning and selling yarn. The business-y aspects of selling yarn began when I realized that in order to afford fiber to spin, I had to sell what was spun. I'm not much of a knitter, and would literally spend days cranking out new yarns- that's a lot of fiber!

Did you set out from the beginning of it to have a "business" and be "self-employed"?

No. I just wanted to rake in enough cash to pay for textbooks and student fees. When I sat down to chart my profit, I realized that I could probably spin yarn for a living- especially since the cost of living in this area is relatively low. I live frugally, but am able to make ends meet by taking overhead production costs into consideration.

What led to your self-employment? How did you make the decision to being "full-time"?

I was working approximately 20 hours a week in college, taking 18 credit semesters. When I added spinning to my already compressed schedule, I decided that something needed snipped. I made the decision to quit my part time job when I noticed a trend with my sales- 80% were to returning customers. I decided that if I could sustain a base of loyal customers and continually lure in new shoppers through branding and marketing efforts, I just might be able to squeak by with my hobby. Now, I'm preparing to start clocking in full 40 hour work weeks with my business, possibly branching onto a website this Fall. I've been keeping my head above water, just slightly, until now, but am looking forward to building a more structured and less spontaneous business.

Thanks Liz, for sharing your business beginnings! And to further make your Fiber Friday, Liz posted a little tutorial for corespinnig (instructions here):

Yarny News

2008-06-05T14:49:00.000-04:00

My yarn is being sold at the new Portuguese, online yarn store Knit! Although I can't read much of the website, I'm excited!

There's a new yarn store in town (sort of). A Likely Yarn opened in Abingdon, VA this Tuesday and I will be working there every other Sunday, starting June 15th. Come by if you're in the area! Jay and I are building the website, so I'll be posting about that once it exists!
While I should have been working on other projects, I developed this flyer/price list for BCB...what do you think?
I'm pretty excited about Squidoo, which I'm still figuring out. I started wtih this lens on local yarn, but it's still just a baby! Let me know how you think it could be improved and what you'd like to learn on the subject!

Local Lunch

2008-06-02T11:45:00.000-04:00

Spring Salad Greens from Abingdon Organics
Strawberries from Bishop's
Farm Fresh Herbed Goat Cheese from Oak Moon Creamery
Dried Sweet Cherries from the guy at the JC Farmer's market (no signage, no business card)

Not pictured:

Toasted Rosemary Focaccia from Scratch
Sumatra from Cooper Coffee Co.

PS. After searching for each of these vendor's websites, I am struck that only 1 has a website or even a small little information page! People, websites are imperative! What do you think is keeping these small businesses from embracing the technology? Lack of knowledge? Perceived cost? This is something I would really love to help other small businesses with and I wonder what the barrier to entry really is!

New Project - Farmer's Market

2008-05-31T18:22:00.002-04:00

Every Saturday, if the sun is shining, my husband and I (and sometimes the pup) visit a Farmer's Market. We get most of our vegetables, bread and eggs from the local farmers. I also recieve something a little less tangible - inspiration, a sense of community and deep gratitude for this excellent resource. In the past, I've created yarns inspired by nature, but I wanted to work on something a bit more immediate, more grounded in the present.
Thus, my Farmer's Market Project: each week I'll take one picture at the Farmer's Market and will post it. During the next week I'll dye and/or spin a yarn inspired by that picture and will list the yarn the very next weekend. This will force me to execute my plan quickly and spontaneously and I hope to photograph the yarn in it's "natural habitat", at the next week's market!

This week's picture was taken at the Abingdon Farmer's Market; a tray of pepper plants and begonias.

Fiber Friday: Wit's End Fiber

2008-05-23T15:17:00.000-04:00

At Maryland Sheep & Wool, strolling through the sheep barns, I came upon a table with some business cards, a skein of yarn and a bag of wool. As I plunged my hand into the wool (ecstasy!), the farmer approached and he and I my mom began chatting about his sheep. It took me about two seconds of admiring the sheep

and fondling the wool before I pounced on it! I was thrilled to learn that Wit's End farm is just a few hours from my house, in rural Virginia. When I returned home, Jay had purchased the first of the season's strawberries. Inspired, I pulled out the local wool, and dyed it in "local" colors.

Strawberry

I set aside 4 oz of fiber to sell and quickly spun up another 4 oz:

Strawberries, already sold!

A few days later, the leaves outside my office door inspired me to dye the rest of the wool:

Leaf

This fiber has been an absolute dream to spin with and serves as further proof that buying direct from the farmer makes for the most satisfying spinning experience!
If you want to find local farmers, search Local Harvest, or just google "sheep farm ___ (your city and state)". If you know of any great local farms, please share in the comments!

Inspiration Monday #10: Quilty Goodness

2008-05-19T15:29:00.001-04:00

As I've been spending most of my weekends with quilt in hand, making tiny, tiny handquilting stitches, I'm a little woozy with the quilting bug. Here's a bit of the inspiration that led me down this rabbit hole:

I've seen a lot of quilts made from blue jeans (in fact Crafting a Green World just posted about them), but this is my very favorite.
Amanda makes excellent use of some old sheets.
Jane is the reason I believed I could handquilt my very first quilt, and this post is the reason I wanted to.
Alicia's quilt is really the first that struck me as something I both wanted to make and wanted to own.
The insight into Lisa's quiltmaking (art making!) is remarkable.
Malka's post on quiltiness convinced me (before I even started) to make this quilt as "quilty" as possible.

I'm 7 out of 12 blocks, and then I'll do a few rows around the border, and then it's time for the bias tape (which I hear is pretty fun).

Fiber I love: Hobbledhoy batts!

2008-05-14T16:07:00.001-04:00

Long have I admired Liz, of Hobbledehoy's use of color. I remember reading her Featured Seller interview on Etsy and feeling so inspired! I long watched and drooled over her batts, but they usually sell out so soon after listing, it seemed I kept missing them.
Imagine my delight and surprise when I finally did order a pair and she added a little extra batt!
The wait was definately worth it, the batts were squishy and soft and spun up into the bounciest yarns.
I was extra thrilled when, moments after finishing this yarn:

I went on a walk and snapped this picture:

Usually my pictures inspire my spinning, but this time my fresh yarn inspired to notice the beauty in these buds.
Today I listed the yarn spun from the little extra batt. I added it in with some of my own handdyed purpley mill-ends wool/mohair.
The results reminded me so much of the pansies blooming everwhere; I'm now inspired to try to photograph a few!

As I started writing this post, I realized I'd like to know a little more about the girl behind the yarn, so I asked to interview her and she agreed! Look for it here, on Monday!

Fiber Friday - At Maryland Sheep & Wool

2008-05-09T14:08:00.000-04:00

My mom and I left Friday morning for Maryland, stopped at every coffeeshop, ice cream booth and bathroom between here and there, and arrived 6 hours later in Frederick.
We failed to take a single picture in which we didn't look like death, so you'll just have to trust me - we had a great time! Frederick is such an adorable town, with a great range of shops. Our perennial favorite is Muse, where each got a little handmade book from YeeHaw Industries to use a trip journal. We enjoyed fantastic sandwiches at Cafe Nola, where the waitress was knitting and was also going to the Festival!

At the festival, we got down to goat picking:

Mom & a sweet Pygora

and farmer meeting,

These lovely Rambouillets belonged to Wit's End farm and produced this:

And shopping!

from the American Cormo Sheep Association, which had the nicest, most helpful lady farmers working!

Merino from Cloverleaf Farms

Socks that Rock, from The Fold

It was a fun, exhausting day, but I ended up with just what I wanted and needed! You'll be seeing that Rambouillet roving, dyed this week, in the next few days.

Maryland Sheep & Wool - at a glance

2008-05-08T13:29:00.000-04:00

Click to see more info

These are just a few of my favorite photos from this year Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. Tomorrow I'll be posting my own photos and acquisitions!

Inspiration Monday- Inspiration in a box

2008-05-05T12:28:00.000-04:00

I admit it: I love TV. Not all of it, but the shows I watch...well, I can be a bit obsessive about them.
Obsessive enough that I memorialize my love in the form of yarn.
One of my favorite shows is LOST. I like the intrigue, the mysteries and the way a viewer is rewarded for paying attention. I also love the scenery. The lush greens and sinister black were the inspiration for my LOST yarn:
I started with jungle green and ocean blue local wool and swirled organic, undyed cotton, local naturally brown alpaca and a shot of mill-ends black wool. The black (like the Black Cloud on the island), shows up very little, but when it does it surrounds the other color in an immediate hive of noir. In other words, I let it wrap around the other ply, making scary little clouds of black! Despite my best efforts of making a sinister yarn, LOST is squishy and soft!

Another in the vein of dark and mysterious is Battlestar Gallactica:
Jay and I started watching it this winter, on DVD. We then anxiously awaited the release of Season 3 on DVD, and the return of it this March and it might just be the most exciting thing we do on Friday nights (yes, we are geeks - if you're not a fan of the show, you might just want to skip to the pretty pictures)! I had been mulling over the BSG yarn for quite a while before I started it, trying to figure out the overall "color" of the show. Jay really gave me the idea, when we started talking about the overall "gray" tone of the show. The overarching theme of life on the Battlestar, is that life has a lot of gray areas: not all Cylons are bad, not all humans are good, even the good/bad people act out of character, sometimes the "right" thing involves leaving others behind, letting them die or letting the guilty go free. This 'gray area' that permeates the daily life on the Battlestar is symbolized with natural gray alpaca (from the small farm, North Star Alpacas). The stark white bamboo represents the Cylon's coldness and the organic, naturally white Merino wool symbolizes Six's unwavering religious fervor. Her striking red dress makes a small appearance in the form of a blood red recycled silk. The black of the ship and the vastness of space is represented by pitch black mill-end wool.

For lighter fair, I'm a fan of The Office, Friends, I love Lucy, The Cosby Show, Spongebob, Saved by the Bell; all of which inspired yarns for my Month Of Love Series:

Jim & Pam

Dwight & Angela

Carrie & Big

Ross & Rachel

Lucy & Ricky

I'd love to do some more... are there any TV shows you think should be memorialized in yarny glory?

Maryland Sheep & Wool

2008-05-01T16:04:00.001-04:00

I'll be here all weekend.
And on Saturday, at 11:30, I'll be at the Ravelry meet-up, hoping to (finally) meet Lolly!
Will YOU be there? If so, drop me a line so we can meet up!

PS. The shop will continue as usual, anything purchased Friday - Sunday will be shipped on Monday (which is the usual way it goes)

Inspiration Monday #10: Alpacas

2008-04-28T19:05:00.000-04:00

This week, all my thoughts and daydreams have centered on one thing: Alpacas.
I spent Saturday morning at a Shearing Day, at Silver Thunder Farm. It was fun and amazing and educational and so so memorable and encouraging.
The way the farmers handled their (and their neighbor's) alpacas.
The way the shearers were efficient and kind.
The way the alpacas bleated through the whole ordeal - only to jump up, shake it off and prance around with their friends.

More than anything, it cemented some dreams as I realized: I can do this.

Fiber Friday #9- Behind the Fiber

2008-04-25T11:49:00.000-04:00

I gush a lot about the fibers I love, my inspiration, etc, but I very rarely mention how much I absolutely LOVE the business side of BCB. I love it so much I write articles about it for Etsy, so much that I subscribe to business blogs, and so much that I'm applying for an MBA program this fall (I've been taking pre-MBA classes for a year, since my BA is in...French).

One of my new favorite blogs, asked the question "What is your business?" and I realized that while most everyone knows I sell yarn, maybe a little clarification would be good for the both of us!
So here it is, BCB: the Business!

What’s your game? What do you do?
I dye and handspin eco-friendly, squishy yarns in bright colors for fiber artists. My fibers are from locally farmers, recycled and/or organic and I handpaint each of them, in a very un-scientific, serendipitous process before they leave me!

Why do you do it? Do you love it, or do you just have one of those creepy knacks?
I love it! I've always had a visceral reaction to tactile experiences; since I was 4 or 5, I sewed with Grams, then moved to braiding friendship bracelets (which I, of course, tried to sell), then hemp necklaces with beads embedded (also tried to sell in junior high), then a small stint with scrapbooking until I taught myself to knit and ever since it's been a 24/7 fiber fest. And color, it's what I turn to for inspiration, courage, a sense of well-being. I truly just love all aspects of fiber and dyeing! Not sure if I have a knack, I just know I love it!

Who are your customers? What kind of people would need or want what you offer?
My customers are fiber artists, people who also feel passionately about just the right color on just the right fiber. They are concerned about their impact on the environment and about supporting the local community.

What’s your marketing USP(unique selling point)? Why should I buy from you instead of the other losers?
My yarns aren't just fun, they're good for you and the earth and my Appalachian community. I believe creating should be about having fun and doing the right thing. Knitters, crocheters, weavers, felters; they each spend a LOT of time with the yarn before it becomes the finished product and they should LOVE their materials. All of my yarn and fiber has integrity and spirit and will add another layer of meaning and artistry to their work

What’s next for you? What’s the big plan?
What's next is sourcing more of my materials from local sources; building more relationships with local farmers; finding a way to get local wool into local hands. Long term I want to work with other small creative businesses and farmers on creating a community for education and the exchange of goods; and educate these businesses and farms on using new technology for reaching their market.

Recycled Paper yarn - Earth Day!

2008-04-22T16:45:00.000-04:00

After much thought and planning, I decided it was time to finally start spinning paper:

I gathered some colorful paper from the newspaper

started cutting strips - cutting from top to bottom, leaving about an inch connecting the strips, then bottom to top

It's hard to explain, but this shows what it should look like!

After all the cutting, I realized this pink paper was MUCH too stiff to spin, so I cut up the TV Guide and spun that.
Really, it wasn't that successful, the paper kept ripping, so the skein is full of knots.
It does look cool, but
There's only 5 yards of yarn for 2 hours of work!

I sent it as an extra gift to a customer that is also a spinner, figuring she would appreciate all the effort!

Happy Earth Day! What are you doing to celebrate?

Inspiration board

2008-04-21T13:04:00.000-04:00

Susy's post on Inspiration Boards really has be rethinking this board in my office.

I've read/seen/thought about making boards like this in the past, but not until reading this was I struck with the necessity of it. These weekly inspiration posts are a method of keeping all of my inspiration together, but I think I also need a visual board, one to continually inspire. I have a board both in my office (at the dayjob) and one in front of my sewing machine and both are pitifully bare. So to start the inspiration-fest, I've been checking out others!

Hanna's board is SO much cooler than the typical pinboard.
Design For Mankind's zine on inspiration boards is a plethora of goodness
The Flickr pool is not to be missed

Despite all the great inspiration boards out there, I don't see any that really "go" in an office like mine. Most are arty/crafty or fashion-based and while I love that for home, it just doesn't fit in with my work life...any suggestions?

I'm off

2008-04-16T16:21:00.000-04:00

..for the rest of the week; for a drive to Ohio, for coffe-sipping with Mom, for quilt-making, for a bridal shower, a bachelorette party, and and and...

Enjoy your weekend!

Study Break

2008-04-15T17:05:00.000-04:00

As finals approach, I'm studying for my last Stats test, rewriting my last paper and going to Ohio tomorrow for a weekend of bridal shower fun for my best friend.
Obviously, I need a little chocolate cake and Bill Cosby (this is my very favorite bit of comedy, I have it on record, an actual 78 record!)
Bill Cosby Himself - Chocolate Cake

Fiber Shop Swap

2008-04-11T18:19:00.000-04:00

Do you create fabulous spinning fiber or yarn? Are you looking for a way to spread the fibery love?
Then you definately need to join the Fiber Shop Swap, hosted by me and Lapoli.
We're accepting all joiners, until 4/25/08, who agree to send at least $10 worth of fiber or yarn to their assigned partner by 5/31/08. Once you recieve your item, you'll post it on the group's Flickr. That's it, nothing fancy!

To join, fill out this form and be assured that no one but Lapoli, your partner and I will see your information. After the swap is complete, we'll delete the list and you won't ever hear from us again!

Thanks for playing!

Spinning Nature into Yarn

2008-04-10T15:20:00.001-04:00

I realized recently that I post a lot about the things that inspire me (every Monday, in fact), but I rarely describe what happens with that inspiration. So I'm making a concerted effort to change that and to show a little more of the process behind the yarn (the myth behind the ~~man~~ woman).

Natural Inspiration
Lately, surrounded by blooming things, I've been inspired by nature. I think I've particularly attuned to it since this month's Project Spectrum Element is Earth and that the earth is really providing a beautiful palette. The first step in being inspired is to capture the inspiration. To this end, I carry my camera obsessively and take pictures whenever I see anything.

These daffodils were in a no-man's-land near my apartment, so I picked as much as my vases could hold (while still leaving enough outside to inspire others!)

I particularly love their ruffly edge.

This tree is right at my back door and I love to watch (and document) the change from tiny green bud to barely open flower, to full fledge cloud of flowers:

Translating Inspiration:
The trickiest part in translating inspiration to fiber is getting the color just right. My dyeing process is extremely serendipitous, so it's a happy surprise when I get the colors just right:

Once the fibers are dyed, I have to decide how I want them to appear in the finished yarn. For Dogwood Blossoms, I wanted to highlight the three separate colors to symbolize the stages of a dogwood blossoms life, so I spun it long repeats (each 5-15 yards long)

Winding the yarn off the bobbin and into a skein is probably my favorite part, as it's the first time I feel the yarn and see the colors play against each other in the skein

After the yarn is spun, there's still the issue of "styling" and photographing, which I think is vital to conveying my original intent.

I love to read about how others work with their inspiration and how it impacts their work, whether it's in fiber or another media! Let me know what inspires you and how it shows itself in your work, in the comments!

Miscellany and Free Yarn

2008-04-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

Miscellany

A (brand new) local knitting group met last Saturday, in Jonesborough (that's us up there, I'm the one on the far right). I considered not posting the photo, but I figured I'm swallowing my self-consciousness and saying Hello! That's me!
My Storque article is up: all about defining your Target Market.
Come chat about the target marketing in this thread.
Sara (of Etsy) has asked me to write an article about the weekly Fiber Friday threads, if you've taken part in the past, leave a comment about why you like it, what you've learned, etc.

Free Yarn
When I started to write this post, I had sold 95 items, now it's 97!
I am so very near 100 items, a number that I want to celebrate! So, to show my appreciation, the 100th item sold will be FREE, with NO shipping!
It doesn't matter how many you buy, if you purchase the 100th, I'll adjust your invoice and the 100th be free and the entire order will have no shipping!

If you want to know if your item will be the 100th, just take a look at the shop, on the far right:

This prize is a big sloppy Thank You! kiss to my wonderfully supportive, slightly yarn-addicted customers! To ensure that you get the free yarn and shipping, leave me a note in the "Message to Seller" part of the transaction.

Have a great Wednesday!
(edited because I had a LOT of exclamation points)

Inspiration Monday #9: Surface Design

2008-04-07T11:53:00.001-04:00

I fell into a craft vortex today. I'm suddenly obsessed with surface design, specifically stenciling and stamping. It happened innocently enough:

Hanna's post on stenciling,
led me to Michelle's Green Paper Press Street Team and her Cut it Out Crusade.
Which referenced Michelle's tutorial for designing a stamp.
I then found this great little tutorial on stamping. Before I knew it, I had the stamping kit, from Dharma Trading Company, in my cart and ready to go

I've managed to resist this far, but I'm dreaming of carving my own stamp for my business cards and notepads....
As soon as I figure out which color ink to order...

Fiber Friday #7 - Organic Squishy

2008-04-05T15:15:00.000-04:00

I'm always searching for the perfect sustainable, responsible yarns for BCB. A product isn't "responsible" unless it fulfills the following standards:

It must come from a family-owned business or farm (no corporations).
It must be sustainable (both the business and the product).
It must be as earth-friendly as possible (either recycled or chemical free and not travel unnecessary distances)

Ones that are unique and eco-friendly, that can be dyed bright happy colors, are pretty hard to come by. Thus, I was thrilled to find Marr Haven, a family farm that processes their own Merino wool without using any chemicals (just water and salt!). Their yarn was reviewed very favorably by Knitter's Review and so I felt confident ordering a LOT of fiber and yarn.

It is exactly what I hoped for! The yarn is soft, squishy and takes the dye beautifully (pictured throughout). I struggled with a name for it...and then decided on "Organic Squishy" - strait and to the point! I'm choosing to dye only 2 skeins in each colorway, except by specific request, and am looking forward to truly have an entire "line" of this yarn in a variety of colors and weights.

The fiber is lofty and extremely easy to spin. It takes the dye so bright and clear (it's the brightest colors in the following yarn):

Question:

2008-04-01T21:08:00.000-04:00

I'm nearing my 100th item sold on Etsy and would like to celebrate in some way.
Which would you prefer:

A special prize pack to the person who buys the 100th item?
A smaller prize for the 99th, 100th and 101th item sold?
A contest, in which the person who guess the day my 100th item sells gets a prize (probably a percentage off next purchase)?

Answer in the comments!

Inspiration Monday #8: Creativity

2008-03-31T11:56:00.000-04:00

I just started reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit last night and stayed up much later than I should have, enthralled by the concept of a creative habit and preparation for creativity. More on this as I get through the book and have some time to process it all.
Creativity keeps popping up:

CopyBlogger took a survey of what creativity is
A Creative Journal: just discovered this site dedicated to journaling, just in time for my new journal!

I'm also thinking a lot about knitting with my own handspun. I can't seem to get up the courage to dye and spin the 24 oz of Merino I received as a gift over 2 years ago! I've yet to settle on a project that would meet my demands that 1. It be a project that I can see/use a LOT, not just during the (short) winter months and not so bright and "homemade" that I just wear it around the house. Nothing sloppy 2. It be doable and finishable - no intricate lace shawl with cobweb weight 3-ply! I've been perusing the following links, in hope of inspiration:

Jane, a newish spinner, well, her bravery is just amazing me!
Here's an article on the subject of knitting with handspun
And of course, Knittyspin!

After seeing see this sweater, it all clicked: I need to knit a comfy, wear-everywhere hoodie out of my handspun! Nothing too bright, just muted, slightly stripey handdyed, handspun hoodie!

It's time to make the...

2008-03-25T19:29:00.000-04:00

Donuts! The following is a photolog of the making of these donuts, last Saturday afternoon:

rolling the dough (after it's risen for an hour). Note the French Press coffee maker wearing it's handknit cozy!

Cutting out the donuts, using the only round thing I had available.
You can see that I also used some square cookie cutters.

Fresh out of the oven, doughy and puffed!

After their bath of cinnamon and brown sugar! Yum!

Happy Easter

2008-03-21T13:08:00.000-04:00

Dyed with Easter Egg dyes!

I was about to write a lengthy Fiber Friday post (about Organic Squishy), but I have the day off, the sun is shining and the pup is adorable.
So having a lovely weekend and I'll be back on Monday!