*******: New Adventure: Posy!

*******: New Adventure: Posy!: My daughter, who is about to turn 8 years old, loves dolls. I don't think that she so much loves playing with them as she loves possessing...

Creation of Yarn

I had fun at the ranch on Sunday.  It was good to reconnect with the alpaca owners for a few hours.  The baby alpacas are so adorable and I did pick out a fleece for next spring amongst them.  He is white with hints of fawn within his fleece.  Last year's crias are so big now - these animals grow so fast but still remain docile.  It is always good to meet the folks that come to the open house.  Some have never seen an alpaca before and many are not aware of all of the items one can create with their fibers.  The little kids adored the alpacas especially the toddlers.  We had really good weather for the event considering the day before was snowing and rainy.

Although I didn't sell any yarn I did receive some good feedback from customers.  Yardage matters to them and knowing what projects they can make with a skein is very helpful.  I'm going to rework/add to the skeins I have fiber for this week prior to trying to sell them locally or in the shop.  Product descriptions will be tweaked to give good project information to shoppers for our yarns and let them know how to combine skeins for that special project.

Given yardage requirements I am going to revisit my pricing of the yarn too.  If it will take more than a skein to complete a project I need to make sure the material cost doesn't exceed a customers budget for the finished project.

ATAR will be opening up the shop more often especially doing the holiday season.  I have agreed to man the shop on Saturdays which will give me a dedicate time to create items along with some potential sales.  It is good to have a variety of outlets for merchandising and will be fun to help in promoting the venue.

Festival cancelled

Today's pumpkin patch festival has been cancelled due to the rain/snow we are receiving.  It is fall in Colorado and we never know what kind of weather we will get.  Yesterday was sunny and warm today cold and rainy with a touch of snow.  I'm sad the kids won't get to have the pumpkin feast but am looking forward to a day off. 

I have updated my yarn labels and relabeled all of the yarn to be sold this weekend.  The yarn for the new store has been labeled too.  I just need to complete the yardage for the yarn to be sold on Etsy and label them in the coming week.  I'm learning to use StumbleUpon and Pinterest as marketing tools and both are neat concepts.

The green wool scarf and white alpaca hat are projects to finish this week.  Once they are done are will work on an alpaca scarf and the shades of green ruffle scarf.  Perhaps I will do some spinning on the wheel today. It occurred to me yesterday that I haven't been spinning this week in preparation of this weekend activities.  My poor wheel must be lonely from the neglect - I can't remember the last time I went this long without spinning fiber of some sort.

Off to relax!  Have a great weekend.

First International Order

Today I received notice that our listing for 2 oz Alpaca Black Roving had been purchased and needs to be sent to Malaysia.  Now to figure out international shipping!  I am glad to live in a city with many post office locations that are not slated to close down due to budget cuts.  My local post office does have friendly workers who have been very patient with me and all of my shipping questions.

My packaging seems to weigh about 3 oz so I do need to recalculate shipping charges for items to make sure I am not underpricing this area.  I don't mind paying for tracking or proof of delivery at this point as I am new to the arena and it is not terribly cost prohibitive for these options.  When sales pick up I might change my policy but for now the sales cost does cover these fees.

My wholesale order of fiber has been packaged, labeled and invoiced.  It is ready to be dropped off at the shop this weekend.  Below is a picture of this wonderful fiber.  It can be purchased locally at The Recycled Lamb shop in Lakewood, CO or everywhere else at www.herie7.etsy.com.

I still have weekend sales events coming up and the rest of the week is dedicated to labeling product.  Yarn labels still need to be tweaked and I have several skeins of yarn to measure/weigh.  October is definitely looking to be a prosperous month.

October Sales

I just received my second wholesale order for roving - yeah!  The new LYS opened this weekend called Wild Yarns in North Denver.  I will be giving them 5 skeins of hand spun yarn to carry in the coming week.  I'm thinking the Shetland yarns and BFL along with one of my alpaca tussah silk yarns.

Next weekend I am demonstrating spinning at a pumpkin patch and at the open house for ATAR ranch in Arvada, CO.  Today was a spinning demo day at The Recycled Lamb.  I plied 3 skeins of yarn and learned how to make the knit ruffle scarf.  The scarf should be finished by the end of the week.  I have two skeins of red merino wool yarn to list in the shop for the holidays.  I'm going to list the green dyed BFL skein in the shop too.  The remaining 3 oz of BFL has been spun and plied and is overall in shades of gray.

Projects for the week are to continue to upload inventory in the software program, improve my yarn labels and finishing spinning the merino/tussah silk roving that was started today.  I never quite seem to pick up the cotton to finish it but will do so before the end of the year.  My spun singles are getting stronger and I'm going to leave the Wensleydale yarn as a single. 

So far I have had two sales this month and am looking forward to next weekends opportunity to sell more.  I still have the green wool scarf to finish along with creating another Estonian lace scarf from my leftover yarn.  Tatting is still a work in progress but I'm sure the techniques will come to me and the process will flow for me soon.