First sale of March

I had a buyer contact me today for the cranberry lace scarf (Cranberry Alpaca Scarf) in the Etsy shop - yeah!  This is my first cash sale and we made arrangements to exchange the scarf for payment at a local busy store (one can never be too safe).  Just when I start to think my crafts don't appeal to others I get a sale.  Learned new terminology on Etsy and visited the forums to see how others have handled/listed items for cash sales.  The forums contain so much information for we beginners which is very nice.  Sometimes you have to know the key words to ask but in general I have found answers to my selling and shop setup questions there.

I was quite lazy this weekend so I haven't plied the yarn for the 2nd glove.  I also still need to spin the rest of the fiber for my lace scarf which I am 4 rows shy of completing - yikes.  On the positive the woven style scarf is progressing nicely made with alpaca yarn.  Still deciding which batch of fiber to send to the mill in April but every sale aids in paying for processing fees.  There is still so much fiber in my bins to be spun up.  Every time I think I have made a dent I find more - how does that happen???  I have a love affair and passion for fiber and connect so well with other fiberholics.  My wheel and I have a date for Wednesday - let the plying and spinning move forward!

On the business front I am still practicing simplicity and trying to enjoy the journey of running a business.  I do have a few years to make a profit before the IRS comes down on me.  This week I will be finishing up projects, taking photos, and writing descriptions for my handspun yarns.  Can't sell them if I never list them!

Banner completion

I finally took the plunge and created a real banner for my Etsy shop.  I added pictures of the yarn, fiber we sell along with the photo of Zoelenna on a nice brown background.  The GIMP software tonight just flowed for me far better than my first attempt.  I am so proud of my computer progress in this area - a little bit at a time.  I also did fiber/tool shopping this week and the items have arrived.  I ordered custom gift tags with my shop name, a leather leg protector for prepping fiber and some fiber from a Ravelry friend destashing for a move.  I came across another lady on Ravelry looking for yarn for kids to learn how to knit with and will be shipping some of my acrylic based yarns to them for projects. It is nice to find a home for the acrylic based stuff.  My last purchase for the week was a spinning DVD which has been very helpful in actually seeing worsted from woolen prep styles along with their hybrids.  It also discussed what fibers to use for each style for different types of projects.

alpaca scarf

I spun up the mohair purchased last year and think I will ply it with some wool white top I have as it has so many colors in it.  Washed some hand spun skeins so that I can start knitting and selling them.  Decided to make a knit scarf with a woven pattern out of the alpaca worsted weight yarn I have.  I must admit that I do really like the woven texture and am enjoying the patten even though it only consists of 2 rows repeated throughout the project (pictured on the right).

I am 3 rows shy of completing my petroglyph scarf as I ran out of yarn.  I suppose I should start spinning up the remaining fiber just so that it can be completed, cleaned and blocked.  I have too many choices of things to spin on the wheel - yikes!

I am going to start on the mitten order this week along with working on the scarf. That is only 3 projects needles at this point.  Still tossing around ideas for headbands for the small amounts of yarn I have in my stash.  Of course I could just take photos of them and try to trade/sell them on Ravelry for fiber.  It could be more of a viable option than selling them on Etsy as they have such limited yardage. 

Although there haven't been sales in the shop for February we certainly improved in our marketing presence.  The yarns and some fiber have been featured in a few treasuries and actually received some nice comments on the FB page too.  Posting new pics of the fingerless mitts on Etsty today and will try to get the beret listed on there too.  I can't wait to see the roving from the llama in March.  It has been a busy and good week and March will be filled with more spinning, mill processing and knit designed projects for me.  Back to knitting the scarf.