Back to it

Well that was a lovely little break. I have been working, but really, not much. I'm kind of amazed by how long it has taken me (is taking me) to get back to my usual work rhythm. Partly, I was really wiped by Fibrefest, and partly, life just sort of took over. It's the curse of the work-at-home-mom -- if an errand needs to be done, then the one who works at home is going to be the one to give up work time to do it. And I get that, it makes sense. I don't need to book time off with anyone, rearrange meetings, file paperwork with HR. But still, there have been a lot of little things -- holidays that preschool takes but not any other business, illnesses, etc -- and they have taken over 50% of my usual three days a week working time lately.

But I'm back to it! I spent Tuesday communing with the dyepots, and dyed 8lbs of corriedale. The current batch is possibly even lovelier than usual; Hello Yarn is such a great supplier, so reliable and affordable. Can't say enough good about them and their product. Here is some of what I have dyed:



The current batch of BFL is sort of intriguing. It has an incredibly soft hand, and the fibers are long and very fluffy. It's wonderful to spin, soft, a bit soapy/silky to draft. However, there are these regular little tufts of very short hairs. Any spinners know what those are? They must be something that's usually combed out, that wasn't in this batch. Anyway, it's spinning up fine, but I'm having to slow down and be careful when I get to the short-ish bits.

In other news, I have signed up for the comprehensive spinning class at Place des Arts starting next week. Here's my little secret -- I'm a beginner spinner. I can do a couple types of yarn rather well, so I'm confident about what I offer for sale, but my range of skills is not high. I'm looking forward to this course, so that I can learn the basics right from the dirty-fleece stage, fill in gaps in my basic knowledge, and extend my skills so that I can spin different types of fiber with confidence. I have learned as much as I can by myself, with YouTube videos and experimenting, and I'm looking forward to learning from a real live teacher in a classroom situation.

And to close -- here is some yarn to look at. I am still trying to perfect the colourway "Ianto." Torchwood fans -- waddya think of this batch? I didn't get the charcoal element in, quite, but if you see it as just a tie-shirt combo, it's rather good I think.

I made a wool tree!

Is it wrong to be just a little in love with myself today? 'Cause I am. 'Cause look what sprouted up in my dining room:


I'm very proud of my work. I'm also certain that I haven't done nearly enough to prepare, I don't have enough stock, I'm going to be doing a lot of handing out my business card and hoping people contact me later, but hey, I can't do anything about that now. I have worked my fingers off the last three weeks, I bought as much supplies as I could afford without digging into high-interest credit, and I've accomplished quite a bit. It's a balancing act, doing this small business. I want to keep enough stock around so that anyone who finds me can probably find something to their taste, but not so much that I have more than i can afford tied up in the stock. I want to buy enough supplies to keep my stock high, but not so much that the business is living on credit. So, a balancing act. But an interesting one.

Look! Yarn:

I feel pretty...

Well, not me precisely. Me, I need a haircut, my roots are severely grown out, and I'm still fighting an unpleasant multi-symptom virus that had me cancelling class on Saturday and, what's more not meeting my spinning quota for the day, but the part of me that I'm all focussed on these days -- the wooly part of me -- that feels awfully pretty. Here is my upstairs half-wall thingy:


And my back patio drying racks:


And two bigass bins o' yarn in my spinning room:



I am actually feeling not completely panicked, not entirely inadequate, not like I am about to be cleaned out of my meagre supplies within moments of Fibrefest's doors opening, leaving me with 15 hours in which to apologize to potential customers that I have nothing to show them.

I had a little burst of energy yesterday and I managed to dye another 4lbs of corriedale, in awfully pretty colours. Not having much in the way of creativity left, I dyed colourways that have been popular in the past and all 4 batches turned out just like I wanted. I spun 12 skeins of yarn as well, and felt generally cheerful in the process.

Did I mention the unexpected not panicking? That was nice.

Today, I'm starting with some relaxing spinning -- a very pretty Shetland roving:


And in case you missed it: Fibrefest is in Abbottsford on March 7-8, *not* at Tradex where it used to be. Follow the link for driving directions, and come visit me there!

The Countdown Begins

As of today, there are three weeks until Fibrefest. And I cannot begin to envision being ready.

The business has had a strange three months. My sales have seemed to be very low. My December and January farmer's market days were slower than the late summer and early fall days. My Etsy sales, which had been becoming steadier, seemed to drop off completely. And yet, when I look at the account books, my monthly net sales for each month have been about the same. The apparent difference is only that -- apparent. The pattern has been changing, though. Rather than a steady stream of small sales, I have had larger sales at greater intervals. So I have nothing actually to complain about, but this new pattern does get to my nerves somewhat.

I seem to panic about two things: 1) that I'm not selling enough, and I should pack up this silly home-based craft business and get a real job, and 2) that I'm selling too much, and I won't have enough stock for my next market date, craft show, or wholesale order.

Clearly, I'm just in a mood to panic.

I am trying to get a grip. But having three weeks to go until my biggest show to-date, and having in the last month sold some 75 skeins to Three Bags Full, and 21 to a couple other people, I have bare, bare cupboards. So I get to find some (barely) legitimate reason to panic about *both* problems -- not enough stock and fear of no sales -- at the same time. For three weeks.

Maybe I got off the prozac too soon.

In the queue

I had intended to post a bunch of the soft-spun corriedale that I've been making -- loads of new colourways, all gorgeous, I'm very proud -- but they all got bought before I could post them. Hardly a problem, but a bit of a surprise. It seems that the half-size (as in, 55g instead of 110g) skeins are selling marvellously well at Three Bags Full, much better than the full size, and they wanted to re-stock a mere two weeks after they bought their last batch from me. I'm delighted, but the cupboards are bare. Pictured above is what I managed to spin in four or five days of being at home with a sick child. It's not my usual high rate of production, but the variety is high. I should be able to post one new yarn a day for the next week or so. Which is good, because I'm going to be unable to get any spinning done until Tuesday.

I swear, I haven't gotten a decent stretch of work days since November. Christmas, visitors, illness -- it conspires to take away what little time I have. And getting the two year old to understand that she has to let me spin is a tough sell.

One month until Fibrefest! My goodness, I am *so* not ready. Much work and stockpiling to be done.

In which I totally brag about my own stuff

I had so much fun making the purple and grey stranded mittens, that I wanted to make them again. I decided to make them out of my regular corriedale singles, and I couldn't be more pleased by the results. Here are my new mittens:


I made them out of natural 2) and Pink and Brown. I like the effect so much that I'm considering making a whole sweater with a natural foreground, and a background in maybe multi-blue, or shades of orange. There is some undyed fiber all measured out and ready to be spun -- I suspect I'll want a lot of it around, for myself, and hopefully for the people who will see these mittens at Three Bags Full and the Coquitlam Farmer's Market, and want to make their own. I'm even considering writing up an actual pattern. I don't really enjoy writing patterns, I'd rather teach someone how to knit without one, but I do enjoy selling the patterns, and I do get requests for the things. So there may be a write up. A comment or two expressing an opinion on this matter would help me to decide.

I somehow put the thumb on the same side on both mittens. I can only blame temporary insanity. I swear, I checked, but I think when I checked I was holding one mitten upside down. Anyway, I was too lazy to totally undo the mitten to the provisional row that forms the thumb opening, so instead I took down the wrong thumb, grafted the life stitches of the thumb opening together (and not all that well, as you can see), then snipped a stitch in the middle of where I wanted the thumb to go and opened it up. This is an Elizabether Zimmerman technique, one she uses for afterthought pockets on sweaters, and afterthought heels on socks. The Yarn Harlot wrote about the afterthought heel last week.

Here's my picture of the altered mitten, close up:


I have printed off the entry forms for the Abbottsford Fibrefest in March. I'm a bit intimidated by the idea of sending off the entry fee and committing to a big show like this, but when I look at it realistically, it makes sense. I pay $35 for a table for a day at the Farmer's Market, and it's only a small percentage of patrons there who knit and are interested in buying yarn on that particular day. Fibrefest, *everyone* is interested in yarn or fiber, and if they're like me, they enter the building fully expecting to spend a minimum of $200 before they leave. So all in all, I think I can expect sales to be good enough to justify the entry fee. But it's still a bit intimidating.

Hey anyone know of a flat pack, easy to assemble and disassemble, and repeat many times over a season, fairly inexpensive shelf? Doesn't have to be that attractive, I can cover the ugliness with fabric and yarn, but it does need to fit into my rather small trunk of my rather small Subaru.