Eco Friendly Yarn: Handspun Yarn & Handdyed fibers from Blonde Chicken Boutique

New Website and a contest!

2009-01-14T15:06:00.002-05:00

*big sigh*
Well, it's done! My new site has launched and my blog has officially moved.
Please check it out at http://blondechickenboutique.com.
If you subscribe or "follow" or link to this blog, please change your links!

To celebrate the launch and to kick off the Month of Love, I'm having a contest, be sure to enter for your chance to win 50% off your next BCB purchase!

New New

2009-01-01T14:30:00.005-05:00

Welcome to 2009! I hope you're having a lovely, fiber-filled year so far.
I'm starting the new year with a new website...well, the shell of a new website. I still need to rearrange, organize and figure how the heck to get my pictures to look pretty. The main change will be that my main website and my blog will all be in one pretty place.
Another fun change is that I want to turn more of it over to you. I'd like to start a regular (weekly? monthly?) Ask Tara thing. You can ask me anything you like about spinning, dyeing, knitting, finding local farms, using Etsy, starting a business, or...uh, moving from Ohio to Tennessee or training a Bagle (Beagle/Basset rescue pup) or anything you can think of. I'll answer the questions in the blog or with a video tutorial. If it's something I don't know about (like vaccinating your sheep), I'll find an expert to ask and report back. To ask your question, leave it below this post in the comments or if you'd like to stay anonymous to other readers, you can email me.
I've gotten a few questions on YouTube about dyeing on the stovetop, so I'm going to start with that answer, with a video on the new website. I'll give you the link right here and after that, it'll all be in the new place.
So, stay tuned and in the meantime, please allow a little quietness here as I work to get the new place all cleaned up for a fun housewarming party, ok?
Thank you for all of your questions, encouragement and kindness in 2008. For this year I wish you beautiful fiber and plenitful time for your crafting.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-23T15:11:00.004-05:00

Just a quick note to remind you that it's not too late for gift certificates! You can get them until noon tomorrow, December 23rd! Once you purchase it, I'll email you (within 6 hours) a personalized, printable gift certificate (it's no extra cost if you'd like me to mail it, but obviously it won't get to the recipient before Christmas!)

(an example of a gift certificate)

Even though I'll be away from a lot of usual internet-y places (like the blog and flickr), the Boutique will continue as usual. In fact, I'll be adding a bunch of new yarns, including a new color of Bananiere on Friday!

Introducing: LocalSpun Fiber and Yarn Club

2008-12-19T11:08:00.005-05:00

You know that I love local fiber, right? And that I love sharing it with you?
Inspired by the awesome response to the LocalSpun line (I didn't get to announce the yarn, it sold before I got the chance to tell you about it!), I've decided to make it a monthly event.

The LocalSpun Club is all about sharing my local fiber with you, in both fiber and yarn form. You can subscribe to either the Yarn Club or the Fiber Club.
Here's how it'll work:

Each month I'll visit a local farm, get a fleece (always a different breed!), take lots of pictures and get some info from the farmer.
Each month you'll receive 4 oz of fiber or yarn by the 20th. 1, 2 or 3 month subscriptions are available and you can tailor your subscription by telling me your favorite color and by choosing between batts or locks (for the fiber club).

Along with your subscription, you'll also receive information about the sheep that produced the fiber, the farm where it was raised and access to pictures and videos of the farm visit!

Know a spinner or knitter who might love this as a gift? It's not too late for the holidays!
Within 12 hours of your purchase, I'll email you a personalized, pretty, printable gift certificate for you to give to the recipient! They'll receive their package with everyone else, by the 20th of the month! That's right - you can buy a subscription to the LocalSpun club right at the last minute, until midnight on December 23rd!

Yesterday, I announced this to my newsletter (if you're not on the list, your missing out on finding stuff out first! Sign up here!) and they've pounced on it! There is only 1 spot still open for the Yarn Club and 2 for the Fiber Club.
This is my first time offering a subscription service and I'd like to know what you think! What would you like to see in a club? If you subscribed, what would you like to recieve?

Reentry and Recap - Seattle and Urban Craft Uprising

2008-12-15T11:55:00.005-05:00

I'm a homebody. A real, honest-to-goodness, I-could-stay-inside-for-weeks type of homebody. I've built a home-friendly business (spinning and dyeing requires that I remain near my kitchen and couch!) and if it weren't for the dayjob, I might never venture forth.
Which is exactly why I insist on applying to crazy-huge, far-away craft shows.

They challenge me and stretch me and, yeah, force me out of the house. The last two weeks, nay, the last two months have been consumed with preparing for Urban Craft Uprising. I made more yarn than I ever thought possible, created a new "mini-series" (yarn with jingle bells! yarn with pompoms! Holiday Happiness!) and packed it all up and lugged it across the country. Once in Seattle, I met customers, vendors, authors! I explored, I rode busses and ferries and planes, I consumed hundreds of cups of coffee (if you'd like a coffee review, I kept embarrassingly detailed notes, which I'd be happy to share here).

So fun and so worth it, but also a little too much. I was only gone for one week but for the two months preceding I allowed my entire life to be focused on preparing for the show, keeping the Boutique stocked and fulfilling custom orders. I love being that busy, feeling the ~~crush~~, buzz, but the truth is, it's not healthy. I promised myself that when I was done with the show, I would take a step back. But being away from what I love the most (you, the fiber, the color) isn't healthy either.

When I returned, I eased myself back into it. I've been away from my dyepots and my wheel and the whole business for one FULL week. I thought it would be restful but I feel all at odds. So odd, I've actually done a lot of *gasp* cleaning. Like, my whole house. Obviously, I'm not well.

I need to work on balance: yarn time and personal time. Accomplishment and relaxation.
I'm going forward with that intention.

That said, I can't leave Seattle behind without a second glance!
A quick sum up: Urban Craft Uprising was magically delicious. I brought NONE of my own display units, everything I could possibly need was donated by the wondrous Kayce, of World of Whimm.

My friends helped me at the booth (that's Carissa above) and I met the most fabulous customers.

Like this one, who bought the yarn on Saturday and returned on Sunday, with it as her hair. Weird. and Wonderful.

The girls (3 of my college roomates) managed to show me every good thing in West Seattle.

(like Bakery Nouveau)

I showed myself a bit of Pike Place Market:

On Tuesday, while they worked, I took the ferry to Bainbridge Island

(view from the ferry)

It was here that I experienced the best yarn store of my life, Churchmouse Yarn & Teas.

All in all, a really smashingly wonderful trip.

It certainly consumed my life there for a while, so I don't intend to do any more shows until next summer. But I AM on the lookout for more big shows like this one (I need to get out of the house, remember?) Big enough to sink my teeth into and to push me into adventuring places I never thought I would.
With that in mind, as I sneak back into my regular routine of dyeing, spinning and blogging, can you share your favorite craft (or yarn or knitting) show?
Do you have adventures in your town that I simply can't miss?

Attention Seattle Knitters: Urban Craft Uprising

2008-12-03T14:27:00.005-05:00

Are you a crafty soul in Seattle? If so, you simply must come to Urban Craft Uprising this weekend! I'm at booth 56 with loads of BCB yarn and Cloudlover's roving!

Here's some more info:

Over 100 vendors under one roof for one stop holiday shopping that will make you feel good about the holidays.

Date: Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th
Time: 11 a.m.- 5 p.m.
Where: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall
Admission: Free!

What is Urban Craft Uprising?
- A craft sale by indie designers and crafters throughout the day beginning at 11 a.m.
- Swag bags will be handed out to the first 100 visitors each day with samplings from vendors and sponsors - so be sure to arrive early! Last year a line started before our vendors arrived!
- DIY wrapping station- recycled materials to make your wrapping unique and green
- Free giveaways every hour

For a preview of who else is vending, along with the EXCELLENT author singings (I most excited about meeting Alicia) visit www.urbancraftuprising.com.

After the show, I'll be in Seattle until the 11th. After that, I'll return to the blog with the rest of the Eco-Friendly Yarn series and lots of Seattle pictures! While I'm gone, the Boutique will run as normal, but with all orders placed after December 1st, shipping on December 12th. I'll still be checking my email, so don't hesitate to contact me!

Now, I ask you: what should I see in Seattle? Where's the best coffee? chocolate? yarn?

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T13:47:00.003-05:00

This Thanksgiving I'm so very grateful to you and to the entire fiber community. Last November, I sold a skein of handspun for the first time in the Boutique. That sale and the more than 200 that follow, pursuade me daily to pull out the dye pots or sit down at the wheel.
This blog, the Boutique, but most of all, YOU have stretched me. I've been challenged, inspired and encouraged. You, darling reader, have pushed me to try things I never imagined or to step into a role I hadn't dreamed of. Because of you, I've started making small videos, to visit fiber farms and to try carding my own fiber.
For that, I am eternally grateful. A simple Thank You doesn't seem like quite enough, so I hope you'll enjoy the Thanksgiving Day Sale - 10% everything in the Boutique (even Gift Certificates!) from today through December 1st.
Have a lovely Thanksgiving and a yarn-filled weekend!

Eco-Friendly Yarn: Local Fiber

2008-11-19T15:10:00.009-05:00

You already know that here at Blonde Chicken Boutique, it's all about the Eco-friendly. But what does "eco-friendly yarn" mean? In the next few weeks I'll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. Living consciously is a journey and I'll be sharing the books, websites and people who have informed my journey. Eco-friendly means different things for different people, but this is what it means for me and for the Boutique.

Mysteriously, self-striping yarn spun from local locks

Although all BCB yarn is eco-friendly, my first priority is always to find the most local fiber. Yesterday I shared my reasons for eating locally, today we'll talk about what that means for yarn.

After being committed to eco-friendly yarns for two years, it wasn't until reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle that I even considered finding local yarn. Sure, I loved meeting the animals and farms at fiber festivals, but it hadn't occurred to me that there might be farmers nearby.
When I decided to find local farms, I figured:

a. there wouldn't be any
b. the ones I found would be happy to sell me yarn, especially since I need to buy it in bulk (to dye for the Boutique)

I was wrong on both counts!

There are quiet a few lovely local farms, which I found through a combination of searching and serendipity. But the farmers I found are just that: farmers. Most aren't fiber artists or spinners or knitters! So even though they loved their fiber animals, most farmers aren't stocked with the actual fiber products (roving, yarn, etc).

In fact, most sheep farmers (that I've met) send their fleeces to the Wool Pool. The Wool Pool is mysterious, semi-governmental thing in some states. You can read about Tennessee's here. I learned that some wool distributors (like R.H. Lindsay) also hold them. The premise is that a processor collects wool from a bunch of different farms and pays the farmers a flat fee per pound. That fee is usually no more than 20 or 30 cents per pound. Compare that to the $30 (or often much more!) per pound that spinners pay for commercially processed roving and you can see that the farmer is NOT getting much of the profit of this product.

Supporting the farmer's in my community is one reason to buy local, but just as important to me is the connection to the fiber and to the animal. Those wool pools through Merino in with Icelandic; even the single-type wools are a mishmash of excellent and sub par fleeces. Instead of highlighting the remarkable, the wool pool reduces all to mediocricy. Buying the fleece right from the farmer and washing it myself, that allows me even more control and freedom! I'm not the only fleece-loving geek, Fuzzy Galore wrote an excellent article on why you should process your own fleece.

So what do I do?

Continue to look for local shepherds. Sure, I have my favorite farms, but if I'm going to provide you with ONLY small-farm fiber, I need to find a lot more of them!
Build a relationship with the farmer's I've met - by doing free spinning demos at their farm, referring my friends there and just keeping them up-to-date on the fiber products I'd like to purchase. I also meet up with them at local fiber festivals, provide feedback on projects their working on (processing their fiber into yarn, etc) and hook them up with other local fiber-people.
Buy what they have. Whether it's a fleece or roving or yarn I might not have otherwise picked, showing my support by actually buying what they offer is incredibly important.
Learning how to process the fleece into yarn (or find small local mills - which I'm still working on!). Before I started meeting local farmers, I never even considered spending my fiber-time on washing and carding a fleece. But once I saw that the only way to go local was to learn to rely on myself - it seemed obvious. And it ended up being fun and teaching me so much more about fiber, in all it's stages between farm and yarn!

Looking for local fiber?
Of course, you can always check out the Boutique, full of wooly goodness that is local (to me). If you live in the area, I'd be happy to deliver the fiber to you or take you to the farms!
If you want to find fiber close to you, I suggest you:

Check Local Harvest (type "wool" into the "Products" box). Call the farms and explain that you're a knitter. Before you visit, I recommend asking IF they sell their fiber and in what form. You might be surprised!
Go to the nearest Fiber Festival (this is a good list.) Head to the barns and chat with the farmers. Ask where their farm is and if they allow farm visits. A lot of the shepherds I've met don't have business cards, so be prepared with a notepad and pen!
Ask around. Although most people look at me like I admitted to being a vampire when I talk about spinning, they all somehow know someone who knows someone who has an alpaca. Or at least an angora bunny.
Call your local 4-H office. Seriously, those kids have every animal imaginable.

Now it's your turn!
Any more tips for people who live in an urban area? Do you work with local fiber?

Eco-Friendly Yarn: What is a Locavore?

2008-11-17T09:50:00.009-05:00

You know by now that I'm dedicated to only spinning and dyeing eco-friendly yarns for the Boutique. But what does "eco-friendly yarn" mean? In the next few weeks I'll explain the three main tenets of Blonde Chicken Boutique: Local, Sustainable and Recycled. Living consciously is a journey and I'll be sharing the books, websites and people who have informed my journey. Eco-friendly means different things for different people, but this is what it means for me and for Blonde Chicken Boutique.

Although all BCB yarn is eco-friendly, my first priority is always to find the most local fiber. Today I'll cover the locavore lifestyle and tomorrow we'll talk about what that means for yarn.

So, What's a Locavore?

"Locavore" refers to someone who is committed to eating locally: local veggies, local meat, local dairy. I'm blessed to live in a very agricultural area with a long growing season. For 9 months out of the year, I have ready access to fresh fruits or veggies at the local farmer's markets. Since my husband is a vegetarian and we don't make any meat at home, I don't worry about local meat. However, there is a nearby butcher who buys some of his meat locally and the bakery down the street smokes meat and fish that they've caught. They also make and smoke an excellent turkey sausage. I found dairy products to be the hardest to buy directly from the farmer's, due to legal issues. For eggs, we buy Appalachian Harvest eggs at the grocery store. They are a distributor that collects eggs from many local farms and then packages them and sells them in traditional grocery stores (like my Kroger). We occaisonally get some goat's cheese from Oak Moon Creamery, a local goat farm, but I'm still looking for cow's milk and cheeses.

How did I become a locavore?

Raised to eat fresh food, my mom often bought meat, bread and dairy from our Amish neighbors. I've always loved Farmer's Markets and farm visits but just in the last year I've become more passionate about supporting local agriculture. For me, it's not about the food, although there are plenty of reasons local food is better; it's about buying directly from the person who grew it. It's about giving back to my community.

Reading Barbara Kingsolvers' Animal, Vegetable Mineral solidified this from a preference to a passion. In this book, the author and her family commit to eating locally for one year. They have a big garden and preserve a LOT of food to get them through the winter. They also rely on their neighbors for diary and some meat. Kingsolver writes about her connection with the land and her community in a way that is touching and compelling. The book is full of practical advice and she doesn't gloss over the hours of hard work (or the inevitable "harvesting" of her turkeys).

Interested in finding local food?

LocalHarvest simplifies finding farms and stores that carry local produce. Just search your zip code or for a product. This is the best "local" database I've found, at least for my remote corner of Tennessee!

The Eat Well Guide is similar to Local Harvest, but without the huge database of self-added farms (again, this is just in my area). It has an advantage with it's 'Plan a Trip' function which allows you to find restaurants and markets during any road trip! I plan to use the next time I visit my in-laws in Ohio...although I'm very familiar with the highways, I don't know of ANY non-chain restaurants to eat it.

Animal Vegetable Mineral - the engaging book about a year of local.

In Defense of Food - If you're wondering why local food might be better, this is the answer. Less gas to transport, fewer additives, all-aournd less of the bad stuff, more of the good stuff. Except, you know, in more scientific words. Everyone I've shared this book with thought they wouldn't like the book (is it too diet-y? or science-y?) but ended up loving it.

Do you eat locally? Why? Any resources that help you?

6 free kntiting patterns for boys

2008-11-12T09:48:00.009-05:00

As the holiday season approaches, I'm beginning to ponder the inevitable Christmas Gift List. Despite my best efforts to avoid it, I always feel the pull of handknitting gifts for my very dearests. The trickiest people on that list are also the smallest.
I have two, sweet little brothers, ages 8 and 9. Although adorable and irresistible they have one ginormous flaw: they have extremely specific ideas of what constitutes "cool" handknits. They love knowing I knit something for them, but they are very particular about what they'll wear.

Here are just a few things I know they'd love:

Stegosaurus Hat
Ok, this one is a cheat: I designed it two years ago as a Christmas gift. Actually, D helped me design it: he drew a picture of his ideal hat and this is how it turned out!

Fingerless gloves
Both the boys want a set of fingerless gloves for recess. Leafy would be perfect for a pair (shortened for the shorter hands, of course!)

The Batman Logo chart and the Transformers Logo chart can be added to a basic hat or made into a simple patch for their backpack. They'd look great on a full-fledged sweater, but these boys grow to fast for a handknit of that size!

Although, at 8 & 9, they're a little too young for it, the Jayne Cobb Hat would be a great gift for your Firefly fan.

For the extremely particular amongst your boys, this is Ribbed Beanie is probably plain enough. Not so plain knit in a bright color, like Festival:

What do you knit for the boys in your life?
And if you're afraid of what your boys might buy you, may I suggest pointing them towards a Blonde Chicken Boutique Gift Certificate?

Finding Inspiration

2008-11-11T10:25:00.000-05:00

As the days get shorter and the opportunity for color fade into the brown of winter, I find it harder to become inspired. My TN mountains become brown, the flowers are long gone and my local farmer's market closes up. While I'm bursting with colors, ideas during spring and summer, come October, I start to worry about drying up with the leaves.

Day 5

There seems to be something about October that makes me want to pick up my camera. It's surely the trees and leaves and wonderfullness of fall, but I think it's also the threat of winter. More than any other time of year, I need to be diligent in searching out inspiration in the winter.

Day 16

To combat this ennui, I give myself little challenges. In October, I challenged myself (and some Twitter friends joined me)- take a photo every day. Looking for the right shot and trying to capture it compels me to find the beauty and celebrate it.

Day 15

Now that the leaves are coming off the trees and it's almost dark by the time I get home from work, I'm finding it harder to find the shot. This forces me to look inward - to my cozy home, my cute pet and even my office.

Day 20

How do you find inspiration during the ever-shortening-days? Any colorful movies or shows the light the fire?

How to spin from a batt

2008-11-03T15:48:00.002-05:00

Introducing: Local Spun Batts

2008-10-31T10:28:00.006-04:00

Created from one local fleece, the LocalSpun line celebrates the unique properties of a breed while honoring the sheep that produced it. I've visited the farm, washed the fleece and laid it out in the sun to dry. The line includes dyed locks, handcarded batts and handspun yarns. Every item is one of a kind and once sold, can never be recreated.

Today the batts are in the Boutique, with locks to follow this weekend and handspun yarns on Monday (along with a video showing how I spin these batts here on the blog).

The names for these batts are inspired by John Keats's poem "To Autumn". It's much too long to include in it's entirety in the shop descriptions, so I'd like to share it here, along with the batts inspired by it. Serendipitously, today is Keats's birthday!

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For Summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,--
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
Among the river sallows, borne aloft
Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Next week there will be yarns from the same fleece, with names from this same poem (unless someone suggests another Autumnal poem!).
Happy Autumn!

Life of Yarn - Carding

2008-10-24T08:59:00.011-04:00

The Life of Yarn series is my attempt to share the process from fiber (on the animal) to finished yarn. Each is just a glimpse into a moment in the life of yarn and yarnmaker.

Most everyone knows that fabric comes from yarn or thread which comes from cotton, sheep or synthetics. But how does it really GET there? From farm to cloth? In the next few week’s I’ll be working through and documenting this process. Today: The Blending.

The one question I seem to get most often when doing spinning demonstrations is "How do you get the wool like...that" with a gesture to the roving I'm holding in my hand. Most everyone understands that the wool comes from sheep and the fleece gets washed and dyed...but what takes it from a pile of fiber to the fluffy batt in my hands?

The fiber can be combed or carded to make it more spin-able and I chose to card this fleece with my brand new drum carder! (still so excited about it!) You can absolutely spin fiber right from the lock, but I wanted to card it, to make it fluffy and separate the locks. I want to keep some of the inherent "sheepiness" of this yarn, so I'm not carding it until smooth, just until nice and airy, with some of the little curls still intact. What I end up with is a batt (you can read the defintion of fiber terms like roving and batts here) - a pile of fluff with a lot of air and most of the fibers parellel-ish.

Since it's a simple process that's sort of hard to explain, I'll show you how I do it in the following video.

If you're unfamiliar with this step in fiber processing, the video gives a quick rundown of the general idea. If you're very experienced with drum carding, I'd love to hear your feedback, as I'm brand new at it!

The batts I'm carding will be available in the Boutique this Friday, October 31, along with the dyed locks (pre-carding). Next Monday I'll share a video on how I spin these batts and the yarn from this fleece will be available Monday, November 3. The locks, batts and yarn are part of my new LocalSpun line - a collection of yarn and fiber that all come from the same, local fleece. I hope to produce this line each month using a different local fleece, which I'll wash and dye by hand, share the process and offer the fiber and yarn. Each month I hope to use a different breed of sheep (or alpaca or goat) and share what I discover about the farm, the breed and the process.

Any questions about drum carding?
What else in the process would you like to see?
What breed should I look for next?

Slowing

2008-10-21T14:12:00.002-04:00

After a death in the family last week, I've slowed down quite a bit. Being out of town for so long (first a craft show, then helping my mom move, then the funeral) resulted in me feeling a little scramble-y. But instead of snapping back into action, I'm taking it slow. Completing custom orders, pushing back the debut of a new line of yarn, spending some time with my new drum carder. Yarn is slowly re-appearing in the Boutique, but I'm taking my time and relaxing my demands (I'm a pretty demanding boss)
Here's how I'm slowing down:

Baking: banana bread, pumpkin bread, apple pie

Knitting: Twist & Shout (pictured above)

Sipping: Orange Dulce, Orchid Oolong

Listening to: Adele, Ray la Montaigne, Iron & Wine

Looking forward to: SAFF on Saturday, Urban Craft Uprising in December

I'll be back in full force later this week, with a new tutorial for Fiber Friday, on carding the fleece and the launch the new line on October 31st. The new line will be yarn and fiber made entirely from the first fleece I processed. I'm still looking for a good name for the line, as this is something I'd like to do every month - wash, dye, card and spin one local fleece and then offer the washed locks, dyed fiber, batts and yarn all from this one sheep. Any suggestions? I'd love to hear what you'd most like to see (locks, batts or yarn?)
How are you slowing down as the weather cools down?

Craft Show Preparation: When yarn ATTACKs

2008-10-08T15:45:00.007-04:00

The yarn, fiber and wooly goodness is taking over my house! I've been getting ready for CRAFT ATTACK, a craft show held in Charlotte, NC, this weekend. It's only second craft show and I am overwhelmed and overexcited and swirling around trying to get ready in time. My mom and I are leaving Friday to take the scenic route, through Boone and Blowing Rock (3 yarn stores, right near a great coffee shop).
I met a few of the CRAFT ATTACK organizers at my last craft show and have since been Twittering with them. They've planned an excellent show that will have over 80 vendors in the lovely Independance park.
Since this is is just my second show, I'm still learning about preparation. Here's how I've been getting ready:

Stock - trying to make as much as possible! What looks like "a lot" in my apartment, looks pitiful in the booth! I make a schedule a few weeks out and plan for how many skeins I need to spin a day that I WON'T list in my Etsy shop. Then I stick with my schedule (or try to!)
As I work on creating, I add the "show stock" to my inventory list, just so I can know what I'm bringing, what sells and what doesn't. This is also an excellent way of figuring out what the "value" is of what you're selling. If you don't bring $2000 worth of stock, you certainly can't expect to make that much! I find this helps me have a much more realistic view of what I could potentially expect from a show.
Labels - When adding those items to your inventory, this is a fantastic time to label them! I believe EVERY item should be clearly priced, so customers don't feel shy about asking the price. I print out my labels, on recycled paper and make little hangtag ‘books”. I fit 3 tags/sheet of paper and then fold them in half. The front has my logo, the back has my “story” and the inside left is printed with info about the fiber (so I have different labels for local wool, banana fiber, etc – each explains what makes these fibers eco-friendly). I then handwrite the yarn’s info on the inside right (name, yardage, weight, etc). It’s a much easier process when I do it once a week…instead of waiting until the night before the show!
Displays – there are lots of great examples of displays on this flickr group . You want depth, height and movement. I use baskets on tables, a 3 tiered basket thing (it’s about 5 ft tall) and a hanging sweater thing (made for folded sweaters hanging in your closet). I also have lots of clear glass jars (like at candy stores) with a pop of bright fiber. People like to feel up yarn, so I try not to pile anything up (or else they can’t get to what’s at the bottom).

For my sign, I sewed a simple rectangle that folds over a dowel (or can be used as a table cloth), the bottom half is the actual “sign”. I cut out and sewed on my name (in the font from my logo) with my logo next to it (overlapping rings) in both fabric and handstitched yarn (ok, so far the yarn hasn't worked so well, so I'm still experimenting). It’s super bright and I love it! Pictures to come after this weekend.

Oh, and tablecloths! Cover each table all the way to the ground so that you can store stuff under them! As for the tables themselves, I like a rectangle table for the back of the booth (with business cards, newsletter sign-up and my cashbox on it) and a round table near the front of the booth.

Because so few people have actually seen yarn being created, I bring my wheel and spin. This is really a major part of the "display", so I have to make sure I have room with it (and that I bring plenty of fiber to spin. It draws people in, and I can talk and spin at the same time (I have a little explanation I do about how the wheel works, if they look interested and start asking questions). But once they start to look at the yarn, I stand up to talk to them. If your craft is small and fiddly (I’m thinking earrings), you’ll probably turn people off by being focused on something they can’t see. Knitting and crochet is similar…is it interesting or do you look bored? It’s a fine line!
Marketing – I bring so many business cards I think I'll never give them all out. And yet I do. Bring all you have! And pens! I also have my newsletter signup sheet on a clipboard. The wind was really blowing it around last time, so I tied a length of yarn around the whole thing with solved the problem perfectly! I offer 10% off to anyone who signs up and if you’re already on my list (and you tell me that!) you get 10% off. This time I'll have a little bowl full of giveaways (and something to hand kids who try to touch everything else) - felted baubles, tiny bits of yarn, etc) and stickers. I'm still trying to figure out a way to tag the little free balls of yarn, so that they remind the customer of my business, but they're too round to tie a business card to. I don't want to put them in a little bag, because then you can't feel them! Any suggestions?

Also be prepared to answer the “Can you make this in ***” question. Know how long it would take you and how you’ll handle payment for a custom order. If you don’t want to do custom, come up with a nice way of saying no, so you’re not taken by surprise in the moment.
Packing the car - Obviously you need your stock, your tent, table, display units and cashbox. As for what else, this is the most comprehensive list I've ever found!

When planning for the show, I found the following articles to be super helpful

What do you do to get ready for a show?
Will you be at CRAFT ATTACK? If so, let me know!

To find out if the preparation paid off, be sure to subscribe!

Autumnal To Do

2008-10-07T11:00:00.005-04:00

Photo from Nov 2006

Each season, I like to set an intention for how I will enjoy it. It's a pleasant To Do list celebrating the crunchy leaves and crisp apples. This year, I want to:

Bake an apple pie
Finish knitting a sweater (probably Twist & Shout) by the end of November
Find my favorite flavor of tea (this group has been helpful)
Spin fall-inspired yarns (my favorite suggestion to the contest, so far, is "Hayride")
Make the perfect cup of hot chocolate (cocoa, honey, homemade whipped cream)
Eat lots of roasted fall vegetable (turnips, butternut squash, onions, garlic, sweet potatoes, yum!)
Go on one last picnic, before the weather is too cold.
Finish dyeing, carding and spinning my Coopworth fleece
Take a photograph every day until the end of the year

What's on your Autumn To Do List?

Life of Yarn - Dyeing

2008-10-03T14:48:00.010-04:00

The Life of Yarn series is my attempt to share the process from fiber (on the animal) to finished yarn. Each is just a glimpse into a moment in the life of yarn and yarnmaker.

Most everyone knows that fabric comes from yarn or thread which comes from cotton, sheep or synthetics. But how does it really GET there? From farm to cloth? In the next few week’s I’ll be working through and documenting this process. Today: The Color

After the fleece is clean and dry (although, really, I don't see why it needs to be dry), I dye the fiber. This is hardly the only way to do it. In fact, it's time for a digression on the creativity of the process.

There are 1000s different way to move fiber from animal to yarn. I've been showing how I did it, for this one fleece. If you're following along, planning for your own fleece, just keep in mind that there are a zillion little chances for creativity. You can dye the fiber in lock form (like I'll demonstrate), once it's carded or once you've spun it into yarn. You can card it or comb it or send it out to be processed by a mill. You can mix all different colors together into one batts or spin rovings of different colors together. This process is full of little decisions. Don't get confused or bogged down in choosing one or the other. A fleece is a lot of fiber, plenty to play with, so experiment! Split it up into 1 lb sections and treat each section differently. With this fleece I'm leaving a pound undyed and dyeing the rest in 2 oz (or bigger) sections, then carding together the different colors (by the way, I'm creating a limited edition line of yarn using only the fiber from this one fleece, it'll be in the Boutique in late October). When this is fleece, I plan on doing it all over again (documenting and sharing it here, of course) using different dyeing, carding and spinning techniques.

Ok, now on to the dyeing.

When it comes out of the microwave it looks like this:

I know I say it a few times in the video but by all means, leave it alone and let it cool!
Once the fiber is cool and has been rinsed, I put it back outside, on a rug, to dry.

Oooh, such pretty colors! ALL of them from Easter Egg dyes! I've achieved different depths of color by pouring off some of the dye liquid into another glass jar and adding water.

Once dry, they get carded and spun, tune in next week for carding!

4 Free Crochet patterns for Handspun Yarn

2008-10-02T08:29:00.007-04:00

Tea Scarf - a lovely scarf just perfect to chase the early morning chill. Perfect for Sno-Cone, which is 170 yards of fluffy bright wooliness:
Knit/Crochet Handwarmers So cute and simple, great for just the smallest amount of handspun yarn with the biggest impact. The fluffy 80 yards of Oceanic should be plenty for the crochet part (if you use another yarn for the knit cuffs)
200 - This bulky scarf is HOT! Even my picky I-don't-need-a-scarf husband would wear this one (in the appropriate colors). It takes 4 different colors of 100 yards each and I'd mix Deep Sea with Autumn Sky, Juice and Sunrise Bananaiere.
Inka Shawl : A beautiful shawl, this pattern calls for a self-striping yarn. It would be brilliant in a yarn like Summer Salad which is mostly green with little stripes of other colors.

Life of Yarn - Washing the Fleece

2008-09-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

It's a Coopworth, shorn just last March from one of Elizabeth's herd. It's around 7 lbs and I loved the locks, even dirty:

When I was ready to wash it, I spread it out on my back "porch". My cat was fascinated:

I was a little nervous I'd ruin it, so I gathered all the bits around the edges that were dirtiest and washed those first. The fleece had already been skirted, which means all the dung tags (uh, poop) and really dirty stuff around the edges had been removed before I bought it. But I found the dirtiest, shortest locks and put them in the washing machine.

Here's where my fleece washing differs from everyone else. Usually you fill the washing machine up with the hottest water, but, well, my hot water line isn't hooked up to the washer (we always wash with cold water), so I had to get a little old-fashioned. I took my big dyeing kettle, filled it up with hot water and put it on the stove. When the water got really hot, I added it to the washing machine. It took about 2 kettles to get enough water to fill the washing machine, so I only washed the fleece with hot water once. I added a shot of Dr. Bronner's shampoo (all natural, organic ingredients!) and then left it alone for 2 hours. I came back later, drained the water, filled it up with tepid water and let it sit again for 2 or 3 hours. After these two rinses I couldn't believe how clean and white the fleece was!

No dirt, no grime and so much brighter white than I expected.

I put the fleece back outside, on an old, clean rug to dry.

After it was dry, I brought it in and dyed it, more on that next week!

5 Free Sweater Patterns for Handspun Yarn

2008-09-24T12:19:00.001-04:00

Last night, I gave up on a sweater. My beautiful handspun sweater just isn't working out. After completing the body and 1 sleeve, I realized I need more yarn. And the yoke isn't right (too much fabric at the shoulders). And the whole thing is too stiff, not drapey enough. Most of these issues could have been solved by following a pattern (well, except for the drape, I just needed to use a bigger needle and knit it at a different gauge), but because I'm designing it myself, all these little things have to be figured out. If I had chosen a pattern suited for handspun, many of these mistakes might have been avoided.
But that's only if I choose the right pattern! Here's a few things to keep in mind when choosing a pattern for handspun yarn

Gauge with handspun is variable. One skein might be heavy worsted, while the next is bulky. Knit for the bigger yarn, or else your work will be stiff in areas. Of course, it maybe be a little thin in some areas, but that's usually preferable.
Handspun yarn usually has a lot of texture. Play this up with a simple textured stitch or St st.
Along with texture, handspun yarn can be quite colorful. Cables and pictoral lace are easilyobscured by all the color going on, so avoid "overkill".

I had a time of mourning as I folded the sweater and put it away (I'm not ready to rip it out yet). But I'll come back to it. I'll probably cast on for a sweater using that same handspun in a few weeks. If I use a pattern next time, these are a few I'd consider:

Cathode (Rav link) - top downs are the easiest to adjust for gauge & Cathode is excellent since you can use just a bit of handspun for the body and trimm it in commercial yarn.
Cavern (Rav Link) - Tingel's Cavern really won me over to this simple top down cardigan.
February Lady Sweater (Rav link) - this uber-popular sweater (over 2000 projects in Ravelry) is simple to adjust, especially if you want it big and roomy.
Incredible, Custom Fit Raglan - this is first customizable pattern I ever found. Not really a pattern, as much as a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure.
Top-Down Calculator (Rav link)- Not even a pattern. Plug in your gauge and your measurements and out pops customized directions! Amazing!

Autumnal Inspiration

2008-09-22T11:19:00.008-04:00

Happy Autumn!

To celebrate the first day of this lovely season, I threw open the window to my office and opened up the Fall Color Report by Pantone. This report is designed for fashion and home designers, but everyone in any industry that sells color uses it (or other trend-forcasting tools), so you'll see these colors in clothes, furniture, even new yarn lines!
You don't have to be a designer to enjoy perusing it. I find it fascinating to read the profiles of designers in the report. It's also interesting to be aware of the "in" colors, because once concious, it seems I see them everywhere! The new knitting magazine, Knotions, has an article about applying the Color Report to your choice of yarns and knitting projects.
In the past, I've given it a quick once over and moved on, but this season I've decided to challenge myself (ya'll know I love a challenge). This fall I'd like to create a line of yarns, inspired by the colors of the season. This is a little different than I normally work, dying fiber as inspired and naming it after the inspiration, so I'm going to need some help putting the colors together and then naming the yarns.

*CONTEST INFO*

After looking through the color report, what's the first color combo you think I should try? What should I title it? Include BOTH color combo AND title in the comments below and you could win a little contest!
Every commenter whose suggestion turns into a finished yarn (in the next 3 months) will get 10% off their next purchase of any eco-friendly yarn in the shop!

Life of Yarn - at the farm

2008-09-19T11:34:00.009-04:00

5 Free Knitting Patterns for Handspun Yarn

2008-09-16T04:15:00.001-04:00

"I just realized that I have developed kind of a collector style in my yarn buying. I don’t buy yarn for specific projects any more but more like “oh-how-beautiful-must-have-that”. This of course results me having several single skeins of this and that (and they are all soooo pretty). So what can I make with your yarn?"

That's an actual email I got from a customer and it expresses how many of us buy yarn. We see something pretty and we snatch it up. But what to DO with it as it starts to overtake our living space?

Well, after answering this question for myself, I've started collecting patterns that will show off handspun. These patterns work with the special properties of handspun yarn, not requiring an exact guage (since handspun has natural inconsistencies).
Below are 5 free patterns that (can) use a single skein of handspun - the name links directly to the pattern (sometimes a pdf), followed by the Ravelry link. I've included a suggested yarn which is the right weight and length to make the pattern (click the name of the yarn to purchase it).

Sherbrooke (Ravelry) - a lovely textured cowl

Autumn Sky

Lace Ribbon Scarf (Ravelry) - a very pretty, lacey scarf

Fabulous!

One Skein Scarf (Ravelry) - a, uh, scarf!

Juice

Foliage (Ravelry) - a pretty leaf-y hat

Lettuce

Caliometry (Ravelry) - a headband

Preppy

I'm still working on my handspun sweater. What have

you

made with handspun yarn?

Un-scary Tech for Fiberists

2008-09-11T16:19:00.007-04:00

Technology.

The word strikes fear into so many of the small businesspeople I know.
It scared me too, until I accepted that, as an online business, I was only going to get to know my customers by sucking it up and plunging in. The only word scarier?

Marketing.

When normal folks think of marketing, they think of TV ads or used car salesman or Mad Men. I did too and my avoidance of the "M word" kept my yarn business stagnant for over a year.

BCB has had a website (and has been a legal entity) for over 2 years but I've only sold yarn online for about 10 months. The difference between actually selling and having a website?

Marketing. Using Technology.

Now, keep in mind, I'm not a rush-er into projects. I'm a planner. And a reader. Before I started BCB, I read every book about selling crafts, art businesses and small business that I could get my hands on. Barbara Brabec remains a favorite but all the books I read were seriously outdated (even those that were just a few years old!). But I didn't know that. I launched BCB and I thought I was ready to go.
But then nothing happened. I was prepared for sales, I was organized, but...nothing. I had a lot going on personally at the time, so I let BCB sit alone and unloved for about year.

But then I started reading again. I found the wealth of information that is in the Etsy Forums. I had a few skeins to sell, so I took them off BCB and listed them on Etsy and started reading about marketing my Etsy shop.
When I read about creating a marketing plan, it dawned on my : "Oh, I need a daily plan for marketing this or no one will know I'm here". A silly, obvious statement, but it was the shake up I needed. I dove futher into Seth Godin other marketing blogs.

I got a Flickr account, then this blog, then Ravelry, then Twitter, then Disqus. I just keep discovering new ways to connect with my customers and talk with other fiberists.

While I'm certainly still learning myself, I've been hired by a few local small businesses to help them grasp the basics of technology (email, forums, effective websites). I love seeing when they have their own lightening-strike moment, when it becomes clear that:
a. Social Media is not scary
b. they need to be active every day, in effective ways, to be 'top of mind' for their potential customers.

I've had such a great time learning about new technology and using it in my own marketing plan and I love others figure it out. In that spirit, I'll be writing a series of posts giving some advice and resources that I've given other small business about using technology to market a small (fiber-based) business. This stuff is usually referred to as "social media marketing", but that's just a fancy name for new-technology-that-lets-you-get-to-know-your-customers. These posts will be specifically for those who feel a little anxious about marketing, or about the internets or about seeming like a slimy salesperson or feel just a bit lost by the plethora of options (IndieFinds, Myspace, etc, etc, etc). This isn't really marketing advice: its advice about using a good mix to meet your customers. Mostly it'll be pointing to the blog posts, books and experiences that have taught me how to best use what's available.

Everything I've learned is through books, marketing blogs and personal experience, so we won't be doing anything official here, just chatting about how to apply it to a fiber-based business. Of course, if you have some other internet-based business, this might be helpful, but what I know most about is a business focused on those in the fiber world - the magazines, the websites, etc.

To aid our discussion, I'm trying out some new technology in my comments, Disqus. I don't have advice about using it yet, because this is the first post it's on! Help me figure it out by commenting below, letting me know what piece of "social media" you don't get..or what new application you'd like to know more about...or how you use technology to market your business! I won't have all the answers, but I'll point you to those that do!