Wag More. Bark Less. Card Fiber.

Yesterday I talked about about the making of New Years Resolutions and the reflective process that is entailed.  What did I intend, did I accomplish it, now what?  So when I looked back to the beginning of 2010, I realized that I didn't really publicly state my resolutions.  I made some, but they weren't that exciting.

For example, I started using PayPal for shipping orders for my Etsy shop.  It's worked out very well.  Instead of taking the time during the day to carry an armload of packages (or even one!), I printed postage and left the packages on the porch for my local USPS carrier to pick up.  No loss of packages in my urban neighborhood, one less errand during my already busy work day & I even saved a little money.  I do kind of miss my tiny Post Office near the college, but I still use them for international orders.  A fine & successful 2011 start up, but not really earth shattering.

I also resolved to be a more active board member for SAFF, and that was good and this year I intend to be even more active.  Of course, that is what I signed on for.  The current composition of the board makes that a pleasure - even though it is a good bit of work.  I had work-related resolutions too, but you don't really want to know about that now, do you.  Love my job, want to do it well, but that is rarely of interest on this blog.

So this year:  be happy & be healthy (much like Crazy Aunt Purl in 2010), but also be nicer, as in Wag More; Bark Less.  Think about what you say and how you say it.  Ummm... before you say it.  A few years ago I gave myself a stern talking to about much the same topic, and I really put a stop to some of the negative thoughts and words.  Becoming more mindful of my feelings is not a bad thing to do.  Getting exercise almost everyday is a start, so I brought turtlenecks and a fleece for lunch time walks.

Another resolution is to really use my MP3 player for more that the FM radio (which is the reason that I picked that particular one), but really.  So yesterday I downloaded and the subscribed to a bunch of podcasts.  They are mostly NPR (Fresh Air, Planet Money, Car Talk, etc.) but also the Onion and Slate.com.  Should tie in nicely to the exercise resolution, eh?

Back to fiber...I really love my drum carder, but I never offered drum carded batts before, so today I added the batt set that you see here to my shop.  If they don't sell, that's okay.  Happy to spin it myself.  But you never know until you try!

That said, the New Year has now officially begun for me.  I even started my diet - Back to the South Beach! 

Happy Easter!

This is my favorite (ok, only) Easter joke:

Have a great day with family and friends, walk in the park, or the neighborhood, admire the flowers, knit in springy colors.  Have fun. In my town we will have an English Country Dance.  I may have to sit the gate at least part of the time, so I'll do a bit of knitting.  Probably the hedgerow socks.  I'm on the heel flap and that is a good time to do some boring knitting.

I'm also doing normal things:  Dyeing my Mars colorway,  Washing a beautiful Aran sweater that I wear as a coat , and sad to say, doing my taxes :-(  But I don' t really mind doing them.  I had an awful 2007 - very confusing - so last year I went to H&R Block.   I left there $500 poorer, so this year I am seeing what they did and using that experience as a pattern for doing it myself.  It's almost time to fill in the main form.  I think I have all the auxiliary form and schedules taken care of.   This will be a good one to finish up!  Apparently I had a good year!

How to Spend a Snowy Weekend

Here in Western North Carolina, we had a several inches of snow with a warmish Saturday that melted the top layer into a crust of ice.  I planned ahead so that I would not need to go anywhere.  Plenty of food, a choice of beverages, good reading material and no shortage of fiber!

I baked a delicious Pumpkin Sour Cream Bundt Cake.  The center is a cinnamon-sugar struesel.  The cake is substantial without being heavy.  I plan to add a dollop of Cream cheese based hard sauce this evening.  It's yummy!  But I have 3/4 of a can of pumpkin leftover, so I'll be looking for some more pumpkin recipes to use it up. We also made a delicious beef stew and chicken soup.  Yum!!!

I carded wool.  Last December I was in the neighborhood of the Mid States Wool Growers Coop and purchased a few pounds of natural colored wool. I've been separating it into different colors.  This is the 'Oxford Grey.'  Should be enough for a very nice skein, though I did not weigh it.  Fills a copier paper box; could be this evening's spinning.

I cleared the walk.  With the help of my fine neighbor, we shoveled the snow.  Light and fluffy on the bottom, crusty on top, so not a difficult task.  The street is still icy, but today it should get up to the mid-30s with sun.  Let the thawing begin!  I hope to finish digging my truck out and free it from its snowy bondage.

I started my taxes.  Not thrilling but necessary.  Besides I wanted to see how Smoky Mountain Fibers did.  The short answer:  Don't quit your day job! But with a good sized ending inventory of fiber, yarn and dyes, not bad at all.  2011 will be a year of cost-containment.  Hear that? Watch your spending!  Maybe time for another destash!

I knit!  My raglan cardigan was at the stage where I attached the sleeves to the body.  A dozen or so rows later, it is coming along nicely.  The best thing about raglan sweaters (other than the minimal sewing up at the end), is how each row gets successively shorter as you go from the armpit to the neckline.  Now with 300+ stitches, it's still a slog. 

I also washed hand spun yarns and planned an English Country dance that I'll lead next Sunday. J and I laid out some garden plans for the coming spring and summer.  Won't be long until it's time to put peas in the ground!

To Infinty and Beyond!

The December Phat Fiber sampler box was actually themed Aurora Borealis and Beyond, but why stop there?  Yes, I know it's already January, but with holiday travel and the back-to-school season, I'm just getting around to blogging about it.  What can I say, I'm a busy woman!

I always get excited when the box comes, but I don't open it until I have a few minutes to actually enjoy it, take pictures as I open it.  Later I go back to see what is really there.  Although every month is good, some of them totally blow me away.  December made me very happy - you'll see why...

  Sparkly black tissue paper greeted me with a striped coupon pack right on top.  Part of the fun of opening the box is seeing Jessie's packaging - It's always fun!  Just below the tissue, the goodies kicked it.  I'll do the fiber first, then the yarn.  Starting with the gold fiber you see in the 12:00 position, I'll promenade the circle. 

Kalpaca Farm sent a generous baggie of carded alpaca that was Kool Aid dyed in similar colors of salmon and yellow with a bit of lavender showing through.  From Ewe to Ewe’s sample was Merino roving in a colorway called ‘Fir’ – a saturated dark green.  Spincerely Yours gives us a sunny roving of blue, turquoise and yellow in superwash merino.

It was hand dyed locks from Farm Girl Chic – the blues and greens of 'Neptune' interpreted in color on Border Leicester locks – curly and shiny.  Moose in Socks interpreted the theme as ‘Northern Lights with a superwash merino/bamboo blend.  The lavender, green, grey, bronze, pink roving has that bamboo sheen and merino softness that makes me want to spin it NOW.  Both of these seller have more of their sampled colorways available in their shops.

WC Mercantile sent a lovely ‘snowball’ of superfine merino artisan dyed in shades of lavender and grey.  Very pretty fiber and clever packaging.  Misty at Desired Haven Farm used a photo of a nebula as her inspiration and included the photo with the roving.  In colors of blue, purple, salmon and black with a good bit of white showing through, this roving is bright and colorful.

Look right in the center of the picture.  The Sassy Sheep sent her merino/cashmere/nylon roving in a pretty little gift box.  But the real gift was the supersoft (as you can imagine!) roving dyed in a colorway called Galaxy – black, purple and teal.

And now the yarns...a particularly nice selection of yarns for December.  This time I'll go from left to right in an orderly manner.  Melissa’s Kre8tions sent a lovely sample yarn in deeply saturated blues that she calls, A December Evening. Blue Mountain Handcrafts sent a similar singles of handspun merino in a colorway aptly named ‘Alien Sun’ – red, orange, gold and burgundy.  Very rich!  Similar in weight, these yarns will stay together in my mind and in a future creation of my own.

The Cool Climates sample is an intriguing art yarn of wool, mohair, bamboo, tencel and what  looks like firestar plied with beaded thread.  She calls it Aurora Borealis1 and it rocks!  What an amazing spinner - watch for this in a stripe of a hat near you!

Two lovely sock yarns.  #1 is ‘Dark Side of the Moon’ from Twiggi Knits is a merino/silk blend in dark grey nd purple highlighted with yellow and orange.  #2 is a  superwash merino/ nylon blend from WabiSabi Yarns in a deep purple medley.  With the number of sock yarn samples that I have been accumulating, I think a pair of ‘fraternal twin’ striped socks is in the future.  I’ll just have to decide on a base color that will show off these and other sock yarns that the talented Phat dyers are sampling.

SteeleSpun Yarns sent 5 yards of a bulky single in Superwash merino and alpaca dyed a color called Meteorite – a deep rich grey.  Jag’s Funky Fibers continues recycling yarns for creative re-use, this time a polyester ‘terry cloth’ yarn in beachy colors of sand and sea.

The non-fiber samples in this month’s box includes 2 very lovely, snagless stitch markers from MyFairBagLady and Lampyridae   Skein Snake sent a repurposed cord lock to be used to hold your knitting on your needles.  Since I am currently knitting a sweater on a circular needle, it was immediately pressed into service.

There were two patterns in my box this month:  DaniDo Crafty’s lovely Verge cabled neck warmer design and a ‘Mood Lifter’ Slouch hat pattern from Kelsey and Northern Lights Fiber Company.  Both are knits that will be satisfying to knit without being overly complicated.  The slouch is in a slip stitch pattern that should be excellent for hand dyed yarns.



There were also a number of coupons and business cards, but this post has about done me in!  Thanks again to Jessie and Marcus for making this Phat Fiber thing happen!

We have a Winner!

As part of my participation in the Phat Fiber Sampler box, I occasionally give away roving.  The queen of Phat Fiber, Jessie puts a notice on her blog and people will come to my Etsy shop and comment on what they like.  It gives me very good feedback about colors that people like (and why).  The folks who comment have an opportunity to win fiber or yarn or stitch markers - whatever is on offer.  I once won a lovely journal, still too precious to use!

Jennifer of Landen Road Designs won the Saturn roving - the red/gold colorway that I featured in the December Phat Fiber box.  Her clay work is lovely and as a beginning spinner she was very tickled to receive it.  Perhaps she will send a photo of the project that will come out of it and I'll share it here!

As I looked at her blog to see where to send it, I realized that she lived in Canton, Ohio - the city where I spent my childhood and adolescence.  Now I admit that I went away to college and never returned and have only visited to attend a class reunion a few years back.  The city has grown immensely and my urban neighborhood looked a bit rough around the edges, with the suburbs seeing positive growth that was only starting when I left.  But the park that runs through the NW section of the city was still lovely, bringing back memories of wading in the creek, walking on the trails and skating on the lake.  The Pro Football Hall of Fame is still there too!

Progress Check

In my last post, I made a list of what is/will/should be happening. All in all, it has been a very good week! Here is the update...

• The Roofing dude is about to fix the creaking rafters. Check.  We have raised high the roofbeams, carpenter.
  
• The Plumber has my leak on his schedule (as soon as he gets back from Europe!).  Still broken, minimizing the use of plumbing, which means that laundry is piling up and I skipped my shower this morning.  I did spin out some dyed fiber, but captured some the grey water to use in soaking mohair locks
  
• The Solar guys are about mid-way through their installation. And should finish up tomorrow!
• New entry.  The furnace dude comes tomorrow to give the old geezer of a furnace it's yearly tune up.
  

In the world headquarters of Smoky Mountain Fibers...

• I'll be working at the Locally Grown Gallery this weekend at the WNC Farmers Market. An excellent day, selling lots of yarn, patterns and hats.  I spun a good bit too! 
• New entry. I weighed, bagged, photographed and listed a few bags of hand dyed locks I have had hanging out in the studio for too darn long.  Send them to a new home!
  
• New entry. Keep on spinning - I'm dangerously low on dyed yarns in Locally Grown.

• The day job has been requiring excessive reporting to finish the federal fiscal year, but they are nearly complete.  Done!

• I will lead my first full program on English Country dancing on Sunday. Although not a groundbreaking success, everybody lived through it and my fans were quite pleased.  Lots of new dancers!
  

The Deadlines Are Upon Me!

I hate waking up at 4:00 a.m. in a bit of a panic about all the things I need to do.  But that's what I did on Sunday morning.  I began realizing just how many things were due at the end of October.  Some are on the good side of the work/fun continuum.  SAFF for example.  Even though I have to keep up with a web page or 2.  Dyeing yarn and fiber for my Etsy shop and delivering yarn, fiber and hats to my LYS accounts. Knitting and spinning.  Again, a good kind of work.

But my actual day job is definitely slanted in the other direction.  And even though I love what I do, occassionally all the deadlines kick in at the same time.  So instead of lying in bed worrying, I did what sensible people all over the universe do.  I made a List.

So on this very Monday morning, I have taken said List and begun completing items on it.  This blog post, however is not on the List, so it will be quite short and only mention that...

I have been featured on another blog,

http://jennytheartist.blogspot.com/2009/10/farmville.html.  Thank you Jenny!

My house is newly re-roofed, but now has several giant cracks in the ceilings and walls.  Kind of scary, huh?
This was not in the contract.

In the interest of getting back to the List, I'll be signing off! 

Getting Reading for the Show

This Saturday I will be a demonstrator & vendor at the sweet little Mars Hill Heritage Festival on the campus of Mars Hill College where I work.  I'll be carding & spinning a lovely natural brown/grey fleece and selling hats, yarn and fiber.  Now nobody ever gets rich at this little show, but we do put on a good event.  There will be live traditional music, handmade pottery (and kids can throw a pot), 4-H booths, milking goats, an apple butter kettle, a keeper of bees and a number of eceolygy/sustainablility/history displays of the campus quad.  The usual vendors will be down on Main Street.

Between now and then I need to...

• Tag yarn and hats
• Felt some knitted hats
  
• Ply and wash yarns 
  
• Weigh and tag fiber
• Make a bunch of signs
• Assemble my display stuff
• Assemble the portable 'office'
• Pack the truck
• Snag stuff I need from Locally Grown
  

Because we have an English dance event that same evening, I also need to...

• Clean the house (because you never know where the party will be!)
  
• Tidy the guest room
• Bake cookies
• Assemble table linens & serving utensils
• Pick and arrange flowers
• Better clean the bathroom too

Since I don't do many craft shows (about 3 per year!), I have to reinvent the wheel every time.  But since a good bit of the stock of SmokyMountainFibers will come to the event, it's a good way for local Ravelers and Etsians who wish to can see my work.  I put a note on Ravelry inviting spinners to bring wheels and spindles and 'set a spell' as we say up in these mountains.  Should be chilly (good for hat sales) and I hope it's sunny!

Buying Less Fiber - with a Minor Exception or 2!

This morning I was looking at a Yahoo group digest email (Spin-Sales; yarnandfiber; FleeceforSale - one of those) and a seller was offering a delightful fleece for sale. The picture looked delightful - lovely gray color, good breed, right price - but I was not seriously tempted. In my earlier spining days, I would have jumped all over that fleece. But this morning I lingered briefly thinking, that would be very nice. I have some shows coming up, so I'll need real live fleece to demo carding and spinning. A lovely fleece to process and spin. Then I clicked off.

Like most spinners I have too much fiber - washed fleece, roving in white, natural colors & hand dyed. And because I am in the fiber business, buying unnecessary fiber cuts into the bottom line. But somehow, for the most part, it's enough. The Mountain State Fair (near Asheville, NC) is just around the corner with SAFF just a few weeks after that. I can wait untill I can see, touch, smell the fleece. Online pictures are tempting, but not enough. The real sheepy deal is just around the corner. I'l leave that beautiful fleece for somebody else. My fleece is waiting for me at the fair or SAFF.

Then I saw a note about the PhatFiber giveaway. Today the featured seller is Rachel, of My8KidsMom and Counting Sheep Farm fame. When looking at her shop, I didn't just decide what I liked, I bought it! Mulberry silk undyed roving. I don't have that - at least not undyed. I can dye that. I can blend that. She had 2. I bought then both! I paid retail! Yikes. I can't wait to get it!

Busy is the New Relaxed

It's a lovely, cool, relaxing weekend. I'm working in the garden, going to lunch with a friend, dyeing my new bump of wonderful, natural roving in shades of reds and oranges. I visited my biggest customer and got an order ready and planned my next spinning 'production run.'

Weekends without too much to do are truly delightful. But with plans for the next 6 - 8 weekends, good thing I like to stay busy. So the rest of this weekend is all about dyeing, carding and spinning; working in the garden (though the grass has been cut!) and reading whatever I please! Tomorrow I'll be at the WNC Farmers Market tending Locally Grown, the crafts gallery and spinning dark brown roving overdyed loden.

In the meantime, a bit of housework and laundry, delivering to the Grove Arcade store, Saturday public radio shows and some quality time with the drum carder. I love my life!

Slammed: Pesky Day Job!

Several interesting things that are very likely blog fodder have been happening lately. Unfortunately my actual workload has been getting in the way of my updating this blog. I am facilitating a workshop next week for area teachers. It's all about the contributions of children in history, including Child Labor, Hence the lewis Hine photo of the young spinner. I'm just slammed getting ready for it and loving every minute. Reading, researching, writing, building the online part of the course, but it does not leave any time for the SmokyMountainFibers blog. I've thought about it, done a wee bit of interesting knitting, even taken pictures, but it just doesn't put itself up.

In a nutshell...

• I got my totally cool Phat Fiber box - great fibers!
• I won a contest and got a very cool prize.
• I'm spinning nifty yarn
• I'm knitting LOTS of hats (works well with the reading).
• Last night was Fiber Group night.
• The Etsy shop is Hoppin'
• I got featured in 2 Treasuries.
• The garden is growing every single day!
• I called a way fun dance with one of my favorite bands, House Red.

Wait, no wonder I don't have time to write about it!

Dyeing for BonBons

Last evening I spent a bit of time making up 'BonBons' the delectable little one-ounce rolls of hand dyed fiber that I sell in the local yarn shops. It's a great way for feltmakers to get a decent amount of hand dyed fiber in several colorways without a huge investment. I noticed that both my accounts were a bit low and my 'candy box' was a bit scanty as well. Taking a visual inventory (which means that I look in the box and say, 'huh, I need greens'), I look at my dyed fiber supply, pull the colors that I need and proceed to weigh, roll, tie and tag the fiber goodies. This usually results in another visual inventory, whereby I say, 'huh, I need greens' and decide what I need to dye next. Last evening - you guessed it - it was shades of green.

When I first started selling dyed fiber in Asheville HomeCrafts in the Grove Arcade, I wasn't sure how to package it. Roving balls were messy and got shopworn and separated from their tags. Also, needle felters didn't want 4 ounces and they far outnumber the spinners. So I hit on the bonbon idea. Take an ounce of fiber, roll it up like a cinnamon roll, tie it with pretty yarn and tag it. The finished product is 'gift wrapped.' I use both commercial and handspun yarns, taking a moment to select a contrasting yarn that looks good on the fiber.

This is a part of my fiber world that I really love. Creating beautiful things that are sold in a local business that then go home with visitors from all over. Some across town; others from across the world!

Easter Weekend: Spinning, Dyeing and Flowers

I have had a delightful long weekend with almost no commitments, except the small goals that I have set for myself. Lots of dyeing and considerable spinning, including taking a look at my needs of color and fiber. I recently bought 3 pounds of mohair locks from Sandy, a remarkable woman who raises remarkable angora goats who produce fabulous fiber. This evening I will dye the last of it so that I can continue to sell dyed locks in my Etsy store.

I also dyed a lot of roving for the B&M stores - the bonbons and grab bags have been selling like mad, so I have been dyeing, making up the grab bags and small 'bonbons,' little snails of roving in one-ounce increments and delivering the goods.

I've also been taking photographs, to get a bit ahead for my shop. While I was in the studio I carded fiber for spinning multi-color yarns and spun a good bit. Spinning yarn everyday to meet the Ravelry challenge has not been at all difficult. I have been watching a BBC miniseries, Cranford. The only thing missing is a bit of English dance - must not have had an ECD consultant on the production staff.

Did I clean a lot of 'stuff' out of the basement? Yes - I threw away things, put stuff in a box for Goodwill, did the laundry that had been piling up, broke down boxes for recycling. I was only a start.

I have a rigid heddle loom that I have not used in years. It is a very nice 32" Beka on a stand. Cherry wood, 3 heddles and it is an older one, that my research tells me that it is one of the 'good ones.' But I have emotional baggage tied up in it more than anything else - I really wanted to be a weaver, but after a few years and a number of projects (mostly scarves) I found I didn't truly enjoy the process. After spending a day at the computer, I didn't want to spend time hunched over a hot loom. I have since been given a 4 harness table loom, that I haven't touched either, so I do believe it is time to a more enthusiastic weaver. Then I can get rid of the cones of cotton yarns that I will no longer need. If and when I want to use the table loom, I will buy the yarns I want for that project.

After a rainy Friday and chilly grey, threatening Saturday, Sunday dawned sunny and beautiful. I washed sweaters and dried the on the deck along with the freshly dyed mohair. I took a long walk that included an adjacent neighborhood that has a number of competitive gardeners and the UNCA Botanical Gardens. Lilacs and tulips are in full bloom along with the white trillium, Virginia bluebells and columbine. All in all, a lovely day after such gloomy weather.
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A Bit of Everything

I had the kind of weekend that I like the best. I dyed, I knit, I worked on a design, I called a dance in Jonesborough TN. I spent time with others, helping out at the LYS Sit & Knit & communicating with my test knitters. I spent some time alone. I - wait for the drum roll - cleaned my house.

Between the fiber business and the full time job + night class, it has gotten a wee bit ahead of me. I had a round of house guests in the fall, but I haven't given it more that a lick and a promise since. But after spending time at my friends' houses, I realized that my house was beyond the pale. So now my floors are clean throughout, the bathroom is lovely, the kitchen and living room are heavily de-cluttered, the studio is a space I can work in. Still plenty left to do - including a bit of retraining for that fellow - but much better than before.

The new hat is coming along nicely. The test knitters have given me excellent feedback, plus they enjoyed knitting the hat. My intention is that it will be a Ravelry free download, though the B&M shop wants to sell it. Now I'd like to do a worsted weight version. Sounds like fun!

Goal Setting

My mission for SmokyMountainFibers has always been very simple:

Use high quality materials.
Make beautiful things.
Ship tomorrow.
If you make a mistake, admit it, apologize and fix it for free.
That should keep me from making too many.

But I have been lately thinking about my fiber business and how I can make the business end better while keeping the creative part fun. I want to be sure that I am happy and connected with the fiber community, while building my business in an increasingly uncertain time. I also want to do other things - garden, hike, dance - oh, and there is the day job! Here are my thoughts...

Selling my work - I set sales goals on Etsy by month and by year. For example, in 2009 I hope to sell 1000 items. That means I have to sell about 85 (actually 83.33) things per month. In my private world, I’ve rounded that up to 100 items per month to stay ahead of schedule. That is highly doable, as the warmer months are slower and things really kick up in the fall. And since I ended 2008 with just about 1000 items sold, it’s easy to keep track.

Selling at the B&M accounts is a bit trickier because they sell different things - mostly hats and handspun yarns. But because the 2 shops can sell all the hats I can make, I just have to decide what & how much I want to make. The yarns are easy - Make what I want, deliver as much as I want, knit up the rest!

Colorways – I’d like to round out the color selection in the Etsy shop to be sure that I always have a full complement around the spectrum. I tend to have reds , blues and greens, but can frequently run low on minor colors and there are colors that I can’t seem to photograph well, so they don’t get posted. I either spin them up or sell them locally.

Sock yarns – Although these are NOT my strength on Etsy, they have a steady turnover at both B&M shops. Work on semi-solids. Think up a catchy name for same. This is Rosewood as knitted by Mickie.

Etsy FAST –Get involved in the team again. Join in the challenges, stay active on FiberFriday

Ravelry - SMF group – Start it - Easy! Maintain it - a bit harder! What if nobody joins? Yikes!

Patterns – Shall I give one away? Free patterns posted to blog? Posted on Ravelry as a free download? Hmm…

Website: SmokyMountainFibers.com – This is the year!