It has been busy around here. I've been working on more Kickstarter reward yarns & got a nice custom order.
When I very first opened the Etsy shop, I asked for feedback in the forums. I knew my listing needed improvement (still kinda do) and I wanted to be sure I wasn't accidentally leaving out any important info. One of the complaints was the long shipping time, 3-4 weeks, for dyed to order yarn.
Sometimes I have yarn on hand and can dye it and get it out the door fairly quickly, but most of the time I don't. That means I have to order yarn and wait for it to get to me before I can dye it for you. I may not really need 3-4 weeks to get your yarn shipped out, but I like having the space to take that long. I also list yarns that are ready to ship. Shipping time on those yarns is 1-3 days. I might not have as big of selection in ready to ship as in dyed to order. I hope to grow this business to the point where I have yarn on hand most of the time and dyed to order shipping times can be reduced. Until then, order early and always check out the ready to ship section. To see what yarns are ready to ship now Click Here. “I’d pay $10 bucks for that.” she said. Oh really? How fucking kind of you. I don’t say it out loud, instead I tell her the price I’d sell the hat for. It’s higher and she isn’t interested in being nice to me any longer or hearing about handmade hats. And she really did think she was being kind with her $10 offer. Most people do, because they have no clue what goes into handmade things. They can buy a hat for $10 bucks at Wal-Mart, so $10 is all any hat is worth. She has no idea that the yarn cost me more than $10. It’s a wonderful hand dyed wool. She has no idea how long it took to make, which was forever because I’m a slow ass knitter. Handmade things have a very different level of quality and value than mass produced things.I could’ve taken her money and in the process devalued my work and the of every other Maker, but I’m not interested in selling to people who don’t value handmade. “My stuffs not selling! I must lower my price.” says the Maker. “I can get that cheaper at the store.” says the Buyer. Around and around they go. Most of the time the Maker has priced their stuff so low that even if it does sell, they are losing money and the Buyer never learns to see handmade as anything other than disposable crap you can get for less at the store. This isn’t really helpful to anyone. Makers need to own the value of their work. Buyers need to stop being cheap ass wankers. Even me. Remember, you get what you pay for. How can we accomplish that? I think that it starts with us Makers. We need to price our work appropriately. That means covering our costs and paying ourselves. This can be hard, because we don’t always see the value of what we make. We sometimes get desperate and chase after the quick cash. But if we learn to value our work, our time, and ourselves we can shift the Buyers perception of handmade too. There will be people who don’t give a fuck about handmade or what goes into making things. They are not our customers. We can’t try and cater to them. It is a waste of time chasing them as potential customers. There are people who are interested in bringing quality things into their lives. They are interested in handmade. They understand that things of quality and value aren’t cheap. These are the people we need to be focusing on. These are the customers that will love what we’ve made just as much as we do. Makers, for the love of The Doctor’s scarf, value your work, price it properly, let the love of your craft be a light saber to heart of cheap shit. Buyers, for the love of shiny pirate gold, quit filling your life with cheap meaningless shit, support a family and buy the fucking $30 hat. It’s worth it. Re-posted from my other site. I love how the Blue Moon colorway worked up with this pattern.
The pattern is simple and worked up fairly quickly. I've struggled with lace patterns in the past, but this one was easy to follow. I normally knit hats on double pointed needles, but for this hat I started on circulars. It helped keep yarn overs from getting dropped. The lace creates a loose fitting slouchy hat. I have a mass of hair and most hats fit me tightly, but not this one. Seaforth pattern was created by Karie Westermann at kariebookish.net and can be found on Ravelry. This finished hat is available for sale in the Etsy shop. I did get permission from Karie before listing the hat. You can order this hat knit in any of my colorways. Click Here for Etsy Listing I love how this yarn turned out. It's People Eater purple and white/natural. I dyed it so the color gradually shifts from purple to undyed. The hat pictured is knitted with my Gamma bulky weight yarn. There is just enough yarn in 1 skein to complete this hat with a little left over. This pattern is inspired by a short story I wrote. I think the cables look a bit like mermaid tails. The cables are simple. I prefer to knit this hat on double pointed needles and not use a cable needle, but you can start on circulars and use a cable needle.
The bulky yarn makes these hats knit up quick, warm and squishy. You can buy the pattern on Ravelry or Etsy. Pattern is $2.99 Click Here for Ravelry Click Here for Etsy It was poor planning on my part and I only ended up with 10 skeins of sock weight yarn, which you guys snatched up like mad. Now, I can't order more without getting enough pre-orders. The horror!
So if you missed out on sock yarn or loved what you already got and need more, you've got to let me know you want it. I need pre-orders of 10 skeins before I can order more (unless I sell a ton of other yarn). To get on the pre-order list, email me using the contact page. I'll add you to the list. You will not be billed for any yarn until I have enough pre-orders. At that point everyone on the list will be sent a Paypal invoice. When the payments are received, I'll order the yarn. Your sock yarn will be dyed to order. You can pick from any of the available colorways! Sock yarn is 100% superwash Merino wool 400yrds/100gr hanks $22 per hank + $5 shipping. Contact me to get on the pre-order list. I'm testing out Weebly for the new AF yarn site. I'm not sure how I'll like it. I'm very used to wordpress, but this seems easier. If I like it I'll eventually upgrade and have a shop hosted here too.
I've been dyeing yarn for the shop and to fill Kickstarter rewards. I've also squeezed in some knitting. I'll be adding proper blog posts here soon. Keep your eyeballs peeled. |
Hello Yarnlings,
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October 2015
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