Playing Catch Up Again

Due to nice weather and some projects my poor blog has been a little neglected lately. Oh well, to catch up I spent much of last week working in the flower gardens around the house, all of the bulbs are planted and new mulch was added to all the beds.

My hubby also finished the aquarium stand he was building for my Dad, so I helped to stain and polyurethane that. Then of course since no project in this house hold can be that easy distaster struck. We had to move all of the fish out the of 29 gallon tank they were in, move the old tank and stand and move in the new stand and 55 gallon tank. Well we had the new stand and tank all set up and ready to put the fish back in when we noticed the tank was leaking!! So we had to drain the tank and put the 29 gallon back up, sigh. Now we are in the process of replacing the seals on the 55 gallon to try it again.

I was able to take my wheel outside and get quite a bit of spinning in though. All of the fiber pictured in my last post has been spun, plus more. I also got a few crochet projects finished, I have alot more to go. I'm trying to stock up since I have a craft fair coming up in May.


I did manage to catch an update at All Spun Up and purchase this gorgeous fiber.

Merino/Silk (80/20)

Merino

Also the first shipment of Squoosh's Fiber Club arrived this week 4oz of Punta in Wading Pool, very pretty. I'm really looking forward to seeing May and June's fiber!

Niddy Noddy and Finished Yarn

Before I learned to spin I would visit Etsy shops and look at all the gorgeous handspun, in pretty skeins with the yardage listed. Fast forward to me making my own hand spun, now how do I figure the yardage and get it into a pretty skein?

Well the answer is a simple device called a niddy noddy. There are wooden ones available to purchase from most spinning wheel companies but I decided to make one from PVC pipe. It cost me under $5.00, all that is required is a few feet of PVC and two T connectors. The center piece of the one I made is interchangable for a 1 yd. or 2 yd. skein. By counting the number of wraps around the niddy noddy I can now get a reasonably accurate measurement of the yardage.

Here is a pic of my handspun stash all made into pretty skeins. I've tagged each one with the name of the shop where the fiber was purchased, type of fiber, yardage and colorway.

Add of course I've been adding to the fiber stash.

Lovestruck 4oz. SW Merino/Seacell (Seacell is a fiber made from seaweed) from Sqoosh Fiberarts, this is a fiber combination I've been wanting to try. I have it on my wheel right now and it's really spinning beautifully, with alot of sheen to it.

Sammy 4 oz. SW Merino also from Sqoosh.

4oz. Merino from PoppyFlowerFibers. (This shop is on Etsy but is temporarily closed due to a leave of absense Lisa had to take.)

Trying Something New

Okay so views and sales have been a little slow at my etsy shop lately. There could be a number of reasons for this 1) I've been spinning and crocheting alot and not spending enough time promoting 2) the economy is bad and money is tighter for everyone 3) alot of the items I make are for cold weather and it's slowing warming up here in the States.

So what to do about it? Well first off I've decided to try a new venue. I now have a shop at Artfire http://ByRebekahWithLove.artfire.com as well as at Etsy www.lilreb673.etsy.com Right now I only have a basic shop at Artfire so I'm limited to 10 listings at one time but it's free to list and there are no selling fees. Should I decide to upgrade in the future I'll have to pay a set monthly fee.

I'm also going to be listing a few more hand painted items it the next month or so. And I've decided I will be offering some of my hand spun yarns for sale. Not sure how soon I'll be listing yarn.

Last but not least I'm also searching for new ways to advertise and promote my shops and my items both online and off. I'm doing a local craft fair May 16th and will be handing out lots of business cards.

Sorry for the lack of pretty pics in this post but I'm temporarily without a camera. My mom and I share the digital camera and she's taken it on vacation. My next post will have pics of my homemade niddy noddy and lots of newly finished yarn.