DYE DYE DYE!!!!!

DYE DYE DYE!!!!!

I have been doing a lot of dyeing to build up inventory for my March show and the remaining February shows here in Southern California. Here's one of the new colors and fibers, Black Cherrie. I love this color and the fiber. It is a combination of 70% superwash merino wool and 30% SeaCell. I have put a couple of skeins in my Etsy shop. Getting this rich and intense of a color took a little extra work and time. I used 3 different colors to make this color, and 3 different dippings.

I can't wait to knit or crochet something up with this. Right now, I am working on a new crochet fedora hat pattern. I will be hopefully rolling out a nice colleciton of hats for spring. I really want to do some larger pieces, I have designed a caftan for lounging around in the house, but I don't know how long that will take to do. Here are a couple of other items from the dyeing session this week.

Valentines Day Show

Today I did day one of set up of my booth for the Sugar Plum Festival in Buena Park.  The show will open on Thursday and go until Saturday.  I got the frame of the booth setup and will have to go back tomorrow to finish loading product on the shelves, and hanging all of the skeins of yarn.

I have lots of  new yarn colorways to premier at this show, and hope that a good amount of Southern California and LA area knitters and crocheters come out.  By the way, check out the awesome art work and crochet and knitting from one of my favorite customers Matt NIshii. He made this adorable hat and scarf set with my variegated raw silk for his niece.It uses a combination of finger crochet and double crochet stitches.  How great is that. 

Fall Shows

Sugar Plum Festivals are going great!  Lots of wonderful knitter & crocheters came out to purchase new colors and fibers.  They were great and showed some great creations with my hand dyes which always feels really good.

This seasons collection as you can see was really rich and intense, yet still very colorful.  I love it and had a great time creating it. I will be creating even more in the next two weeks for the next show, I hope everyone will be as happy with the newest creations.

Change in Direction

I have decided to change direction of my shop. I am really not enjoying selling other companies yarns for various reasons: waiting to get my order only to not get the whole order, rude and unrelyable sales reps, colors not how I thought they would be etc. Also, when customers do come they comment that they only want to buy my hand dyes since everything else is available everywhere else.

I even brought in a ton of yarn from Garnstudio in Norway and that did not do well at all either, despite the low price points. Therefore, I have decided to go solo and only sell my own hand dyed yarns and patterns. I guess I just had to face the facts that I do not like working for anyone else period.

I also realize that I love doing shows and traveling the country meeting my customers in person! I will definitely be doing more of that again. I guess I am just not sedentary enough to stay in one place.

I am moving my shop to West Van Nuys for a location where my rent is almost $600 a month cheaper. I forsee a lot of difficult times ahead, so I am trying to be proactive by preparing myself early.

Skacel Yarn - Urban Silk

After much anticipation, I received the shipment of Skacel yarn, Urban Silk. I had heard so much about this yarn that I could not wait to order a sample pack for the shop.

It is an absolutely GORGEOUS yarn with limited but beautiful colors that are rich and vibrant. The yarn itself is luxuriously soft. The fibers are 80% Silk, 20% Cotton. You get 92 yards per 50 gram ball, and it knits up on a US7-9 knitting needle, yielding 4-5sts per inch. I will definitely add to this review after I have had a chance to either knit or crochet with it. But as of right now, it is incredible to touch and feel.

Garnstudio Yarn Finally In!

Well, I finally have my shipment of Garnstudio/Drops Yarn in, and boy did I have a hell of a time getting it. First the shipment seemed to be on its way from Norway, no problem. The Customs Broker called for some basic questions, and then said there should be no problem with me getting the yarn. Then 5 days later, all hell broke loose. First, the shipment was lost. Then part of the shipment was found. Then the other half was found. Then the delivery company tells me they don't have any drivers available to deliver it so I would have to go to the airport to pick it up myself. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper, but I was still excited to receive and inspect my inventory.

Once I got home from the airport, of course I couldn't wait to see what I was so willing to travel to the end of the earth to get (okay maybe not the end of the earth, but I was stuck on the 405 freeway at 4:45pm, for those of you in LA, you know it felt like I was traveling to the end of the earth). I was only able to pry open one box half way because I did not have my box cutter, and the Norwegians are very tape happy. I couldn't even use my car key to get those darn boxes open. Any hoo, I reached inside of the boxes of my world traveled yarn, and pulled out the first bag I could get. Cotton Viscose #27. This is the most gorgeous color I have ever seen. Not quite pink, not quite purple, but a beautiful in between with a silky sheen to boot. I was in heaven. I ran upstairs with my on bag anxious to get started working on a store sample, but then had the typical artist delima, I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to make with it.

So after much back and forth, I decided to go with a broomstick lace design inspired by Stitch Diva Studios. I am not yet finished with it, but I will post it up as soon as I can.

Displays Finally Finished

Well, I finally finished an entire set of display cases for the shop, and I think that they are pretty nice if I do say so myself for a do-it-yourself with no experience type of thing. I didn't put 3 of these on wheels, but I should have and will do that later most definitely as it really make a difference when vacuming and mopping the floors. Now I only need about 6 more to be completely done. I even built in a peg board display with storage shelves underneath to be able to display nice hanks of yarn.