It's All About Wool2Dye4

Efficiency Startles Yarnie Company Owner into Action

2011-12-22T15:03:00.005-05:00

Over the past several weeks, I have been in negotiations with two local companies who have warehouse capabilities beyond what I can do. Both companies have some different services to offer, and I will wind up working with both of them in the end. This business, Wool2Dye4, has grown quite a bit in the past two years, and this means handling lots more inventory. We receive it and check it off a list, then lift it and put it in place. We label the outside of the box, then we open the boxes, take the yarn out and remove the mill labels, and replace them with our Wool2Dye4 labels. Then, we stock the shelves or close the boxes again, and if there is any need to shuffle placement around, we lift them again and move them around. Considering that a box of skeins weighs 44 pounds at a minimum, and cones up to 70 pounds ... well, it is a physical job requiring strength as well as attention to detail.

In the eight months since I moved the company the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, I have had two packers/stockists who both had to be let go. Oddly, both claimed they had no idea why they didn't last, and one, unfortunately, was a friend whom I kept on as an act of friendship. Sadly, he didn't seem to think as much of our friendship and it ended badly, I am sorry to say. This last incident clarified my thoughts about hiring more employees to handle stock and warehousing, and through a circuitous route, I came to consider two different options for both warehousing and the labelling of all stock as a new alternative. It is wonderful when opportunities fall across your path, and you actually recognize them as such! Advantages include no physical labor for me or my assistant, a freeing up of current space for better use, and paying for this as a service rather than employee wages. I have had both packers file for unemployment benefits, and here in Virginia, you can receive benefits without having to prove you could perform the job! Pretty amazing, really, and very disappointing, especially over the one whom I had considered a friend. I cannot tell you how many conversations I had in my mind, but, of course, can never actually say out loud.

Yesterday I decided on a part of the upcoming change, the warehousing, stock labelling, and sample creation. I am going with a local sheltered workshop, a non-profit which employs physically and mentally challenged individuals. Twice I have been to the site and both times been so impressed with the attention to detail and pride in workmanship. Nothing like what I have just experienced with people who sought out a job and then slouched through the days. I feel so happy about this decision. In addition to getting all of this work handled, I am able to give back in a small way to the community.

The efficiency part, though, is fascinating to me. For years, I have created a process for each of the elements of my business. Samples, for instance, have undergone quite a change from the original little wound bits of yarn round individual cards printed with the yarn specs. I think we had 12 yarns at that time. Today there are 39 yarns in the permanent line, 9 special purchase yarns, and 5 or 6 retirement yarns. We are about to add 8 new yarns in January 2012, too!

Yesterday I was asked to come over and help revise the process of assembling my wholesale sample pack. The most recent incarnation of the wholesale sample pack has been a layering process, two columns on the front and two on the back, in a 9x11 bag with a sticky closure. For me this presentation has been cumbersome, so I absolutely understood the need for a new way to pack all the samples into one bag in a way in which the new packers could accomplish this, and which would be pretty. (I have a running joke, which is actually quite serious, and I frequently intone, 'Here at Wool2Dye4, Rule Number Two is Make It Pretty!' If a new employee ever asks what Rule Number One is, I know they were listening. This former friend, most recently disengaged, never thought to ask that question!)

So, they asked me to create a wholesale sample pack and timed me. Of course, my fingers were fumbling and it definitely did not look very pretty. Then the first modification came: using a piece of cardboard as a center sort of spine and glue dots to affix two of the sample baggies at a time. That worked better, so we tried that. Again, I was asked to create the entire packet from start to finish, and I didn't do too well. So we three tossed around ideas, until the simplest and most efficient idea of all came to one of them. The new idea was to draw a single line down the center of a piece of card stock, and, using round clear stickers, affix two sample baggies at a time, working from bottom up. It made a spectacularly pretty, very neatly arranged set of samples. All these years, and I had never thought to try this!

They break down all jobs into a process and study the movements and method until they come up with an efficient way to perform the task. This includes much more than making samples, but in handling a large number of stock boxes and the contents, how to stack and warehouse them for efficiency. The next study will be about shipping efficiently from other countries, and there are some very exciting possibilties there, including some non-traditional approaches. More on that later.

Suffice it to say that coming into contact with these people has made an impact on my thinking. I realized that I no longer have to have total control over every aspect of the business and can learn to use the expertise of others, and to to trust the people whom I hire to handle that. This was brought home very suddenly on the day of their visit to look over the business. I was interrupted for about fifteen minutes, and when I returned, the President of the company asked me, 'What would you do with your time if we took away all the responsibilities of the warehouse?' I started to stutter, and couldn't form a complete sentence. Those who know me well will surely not believe that, but it is true. My mind was racing with flashes of marketing ideas I have stewing around in there but no time to turn into reality, of the new website almost ready to go but caught in a limbo where I just cannot move it forward, of the letters unwritten to customers in response to theirs to me, or just the very time to consider new ideas. The eMails alone used to take up three or four hours of each day, and in the past month, I have been distracted and my attention sidelined. So there I was looking like a dummy, unable to answer that simple question, but this guy recognized that my mind was busy, busy, busy with the possibilities. That was the moment I knew they were onto something which would help me and allow the business to grow. It would mean that I would have to give up micro management! I am very good at that, but in my own defense, I do feel that without control of the processes, the business could never have grown as it has. Oddly, though, I felt a sense of relief come over me, and that was one of those Bingo! moments in life when you know that a good idea has just occurred and it is time to act and act well. So, I moved forward and it is all about to come to fruition.I had another Bingo! moment seven years ago when I started Wool2Dye4. I just paused to reflect on that realization that hit me, and immediately turned my thinking towards how I could make the idea work.
Through my life, many opportunities have fallen across my path, and I've followed a lot of them. While all were not good, I have learned how to let the bad ones go. Right now, though, I am sure I am onto something which will allow my business to grow in a healthy way, and allow me to enjoy it much more.
It's a good time to be coming to a new realization, isn't it, with the new year approaching. I am corny and like making resolutions and writing lists, and taking care, and for anyone who is reading this right now, I've got to say that these little oddball preferences for order are key to growing a successful business. You have to like what you do and how you do it. You have to be happy with your choices, have the guts to look hard at how things have always been and take the chance to make a few changes. That is where I am just now, and I feel it is the right place to be.

Sales tax for internet merchants? Could happen soon!

2011-12-02T17:24:00.000-05:00

Sales Tax measures ‘to Cost Us Big’ … December 1, 2011 WSJ

By ANGUS LOTEN
Amazon.com wants to bring order to the way online retailers collect state and local taxes. And that has Web entrepreneur Stacy Strawn feeling anxious.
Under a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, online retailers including her aren't required to collect sales tax for purchases made in states where they do not have a physical presence.

Stacey Strawn says proposed online sales-tax rules would hurt her Silver Gallery: 'The big retailers will eventually take over online shopping.'

Amazon is backing new sales-tax proposals but some small businesses are worried it may hurt them in the end, Stu Woo reports on digits.
But Ms. Strawn, and others like her who operate with just a dozen or so employees, would have to begin collecting and remitting taxes for the more than 40 states that currently charge sales and use taxes, along with thousands of cities and counties across the country, as set forth by a Senate proposal unveiled last month.

That proposal, which has the support of Amazon, includes an exception for small-business retailers with less than $500,000 in annual "remote" sales—a sum so low that it wouldn't even cover Ms. Strawn's employees' wages.

"These are the most small-business-unfriendly measures I've seen in years," said Ms. Strawn, whose Waynesboro, Va., store, Silver Gallery, sells sterling-silver bowls, cups and jewelry. "This is going to cost us big."
Ms. Strawn isn't entirely sure what the cost to her business would be. A 2006 PriceWaterhouseCoopers study found local and state tax compliance costs small retailers 13.47% of all sales tax collected, compared to 2.17% for large retailers.

The concerns voiced by Ms. Strawn and other small online retailers highlight a new point of contention in the debate over taxing Internet sales—the so-called small-business exemption in federal proposals is now so small that even many small fry aren't protected.

"The Internet is the only place where someone like us can be next door to an Amazon," Ms. Strawn said. "If they don't do something, the big retailers will eventually take over online shopping. And that would be a huge loss."

Nearly all of the Silver Gallery's $3 million in revenue last year came from online sales. The store currently has seven full-time employees, but she may have to cut some jobs as a way to deal with the added costs.

Legislation that would require online retailers to collect state taxes has been proposed in each of the past seven Congresses, including House and Senate bills in 2007 that set the small-business exemption at a much more generous $5 million in annual sales.

Amazon's willingness to get behind the proposals—combined with pressure from states for new sources of tax revenue, and bipartisan efforts in the House and Senate—has given the movement more traction this year.

Last month, the world's largest online retailer expressed support for a Senate bill calling for standardized federal rules that would require online retailers to collect out-of-state sales taxes—with a $500,000 exemption for small retailers. Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of public policy, said at a House Judicial Committee hearing Wednesday that any small-business exemption must be kept low to protect states' rights to collect taxes, while leveling the playing field between online retailers and their brick-and-mortar competitors that already collect state taxes—typically reflected as higher sticker prices. "No one should want these online sellers to take advantage of a newly created un-level playing field over small Main Street businesses, and no one should want government to pick business-model winners and losers this way," Mr. Misener said.
"Amazon is prepared to make its technology available as a service to help sellers by collecting sales tax for them," he added.
Other supporters of the proposals include brick-and-mortar-only retailers who believe the standardization will help create a more level playing field overall in the retail industry. Without a state sales tax, online retailers "have nearly a 10% discount automatically," contends Maggie Jetter, owner of Tweed Baby Outfitters, a baby goods and apparel store in Nashville, Tenn., that doesn't sell its wares online. "We're doing the same thing, offering the same products, so the law needs to be reformed and updated," she says.
Online retail sales in the U.S. grew 13% to $176 billion last year, and are expected to grow by 12% to $197 billion in 2011, according to Forrester Research.

The University of Tennessee estimates that states and local governments will lose up to about $12 billion in 2012 from uncollected sales taxes.

Tod Cohen, vice president, eBay Government Relations, said in testimony Wednesday that the company believes the U.S. Small Business Administration should be the one to determine which small business retailers would be exempt. Forcing small businesses to take on the same costs and tax burdens as national retail businesses is unrealistic, unfair and will "unbalance the playing field" between giant retailers and small-business retailers on the Internet, Mr. Cohen said at Wednesday's hearing.

The SBA defines most small retailers as those making less than $7 million in annual revenue. In some categories, businesses such as women's clothing, book and games stores are considered small businesses if they have revenue of less than $25 million, according to the agency.

Some small and midsize retailers argue they may have to raise their prices to cover the costs of complying with a slew of new state taxes, under the proposed standardized federal rules. The risk is that shoppers looking for the best prices may then move their purchasing to larger sites that can absorb the added costs, said Joe Sponholz, president of BabyAge.com, a Wilkes-Barre, Pa.-based online baby products retailer with 29 full-time employees.

"It's not the start-ups or the Amazons of the world you have to worry about here. It's all the guys in the middle," said Mr. Sponholz, whose company recently built a distribution center in Nevada rather than California, to avoid paying state sales taxes. He says the $500,000 sales limit will only help very small retailers who have yet to develop a truly national reach.

A House bill introduced in October is also limited in the number of small businesses it would exempt. It makes an exception for those whose out-of-state sales are less than $100,000 in any one state, or a total of $1 million nationwide.
—Stu Woo contributed to this article.

Next Re-Stocking on Monday, Dec 5, 2011

2011-12-01T15:42:00.000-05:00

New yarn in the incoming shipment, don't forget! It's Donegal Sock, and I, for one, will probably knit something out of it in the natural state. It's just so different looking and pretty! Ask for a sample if you do not yet have one!

The re-stocking shipment is definitely scheduled for delivery on Monday. We will spend all day settling it in and may get some of the orders out Monday afternoon. Tuesday, though, we'll be at 100% shipping capacity, and as usual, we ship in the chronological order in which your order was received.

Tomorrow is Friday, and I will send out the invoices for private orders, and then release the newsletter. By the time you receive the newsletter, the inventory on the website will have been updated to reflect the incoming stock. So, when you get the newsletter, you are free to browse the website and shop from everything that is coming in. What we have been waiting for is the new Donegal Sock, of course, and also the yarns wiht Stellina sparkly stuff in them: Sheila's Glitter, Sheila's Sparkle and Sparkle Select Lace. We even had most of the sparkly yarns up until last week, and I'm very happy about that change. Holding larger stock levels has definitely reduced the frantic factor around order time. Still, here we are at the holiday when everyone really wants to wear something sparkly, right? And we've got it coming on Monday, I assure you.

Here is a list of what is in this shipment. (skeins, unless otherwise noted)
Angel Select
Cash Aran MCN
Cash Sock MCN
Crazy Eight, skeins & cones
Donegal Sock
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter *
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Sheila's Sparkle *
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Lace
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted

* returning to stock

Future of our Falkland British Merino line

2011-11-09T15:27:00.000-05:00

We have had a look at the stock of our Falkland British Merino yarns, and feel that there is about a six-month supply if our customers continue to pick it up at the same rate. In the late spring, our U.K. supplier made nine lovely new yarns available to Wool2Dye4, all from a unique area of the world, the Falkland Islands. The wool from animals who live their lives in one of the most extreme climates on the globe reflects a ruggedness that is unique to this particular yarn. These sheep have to work really hard to manufacture that fiber, so when we source it and bring it to our customers, we know that the yarn is something special and all the more valuable for the limited supply of sheep in the British Falkland Islands.

Here are our nine yarns, exclusive in the States to Wool2Dye4, straight from the sheep on the British Falkland Islands.
Falkland 100% 4-Socking
Falkland 100% DK-SW
Falkland Bamboo Sock
Falkland Platinum Sock
Falkland / Silk Sock
Falkland / Silk DK
Falkland / Tencel Sock
Falkland / Tencel Select laceweight
Falkland/ Bamboo Select laceweight

If you have already knit with the Falkland yarns, then you know that they have a lovely hand, the twist is beautiful, and that they are all nine beautiful yarns. Too, the white is startlingly white! They don't have to be dyed, unlike most other fibers which may have a creamy or beige tone. The Falkland British Merino yarns are beautiful in their natural state.

Would you like a sample? In your next order, be sure to make a notation in the comments section requesting a set of samples of the lovely Falkland British Merino yarn line.

Soft introduction of two yarns this month

2011-11-02T08:44:00.001-04:00

Without much fanfare, we are doing a soft introduction of two yarns, a higher yardage sock/fingering yarn and a non-superwash in 100% merino. I'll tell you about the yarns and then about the possible future of each.

The Basics about the Yarns
Euro 500
100% superwash merino
6-ply fingering weight, 500 yards / 100 grams.
Presented an 150 gram skein of 750 yards
Sold by the skein for a short time
Priced as Crazy Eight.

W2D4 Merino non-superwash, fingering
100% merino, 2-ply yarn, 438 yards / 100 gram
looser twist than sock yarns
Presented on typical 100 gram skein
weight and pricing to be determined

Looking forward with these two yarns ...

Euro 500 is one of those yarns which fell into my lap, a happy surprise. The yardage of 500 yards/100 grams makes it a very lightweight sock yarn, or, for lace and garment knitters, a heavy fingering yarn. It depends on what kind of knitter you/your customers are, and the sort of fabric which will be created from it.

Six plies. That is sort of a European thing over the years, a thin yarn of many plies, and it makes for a strong yarn. The fibers used, of course, determine whether it is soft on the skin and easy to wear. I mean, we hate to wear scratchy yarns next to our skin, so shy away from knitting cowls, scarves, hats, turtleneck sweaters with scratch yarns. This is not a scratchy yarn, but is made from our usual springy superwash merino. It's the same yarn that goes into Sheila's Sock and Merino DK-SW, for instance, but it will feel different because there are so many plies. So, it is an aquired taste. I dyed my first skein last night and it rested overnight in the dyepot. Today I will wash it and give it a bath in some wool wash. I did two baths of purple, one I mixed and one straight from the dye manufacturer, and I think I am in love with this purple. Hope I can do it again.

I can see machine knitters coning this one up and using it.
I can see knitted sock blanks from flatbed machines.
I can see antique circular sock machine (CSM) owners loving this one.
I can see fine gauge sweater knitters going nuts over it.
I can see complete vests knit from one skein of 750 yards/150 grams.
I can see some great possibilities for this one.

Non-Superwash Merino

Now, this time I am doing something entirely different. I am sampling a yarn that I am not sure will be the final yarn we'll spin. That's because the weight hasn't been decided yet. So, I will invite everyone who samples the fingering skeins we'll have available to give feedback. What I need to know is this:
Do we need to add a non-superwash to our line?
Do we want it to be another sock weight? (Current sample will be 438 yds/100 gr)
Do we want or need a sport weight in the non-sw? (I tried this a few years ago, and it languished on the shelves in a noticeable manner. Picture yarn languishing; now, picture it calling attention to itself? Hmmm...)
What applications will my customer base make for a sport yarn, if we go to the sport weight?
Do I have the customer base to support bringing in a new yarn in sport weight?

Good questions. All will be answered as we sample!
Want a sample? Write to me and I'll send you a little butterfly.

Winter Re-Stocking

2011-11-02T07:54:00.000-04:00

Below are lists of our incoming stock lists for November and December. Some of our winter popular yarns are shown in Red. One new yarn will be introduced in each shipment -- Single & Stunning in November and Donegal Sock in December -- and those yarns are shown in Green. As usual, I will send out a newsletter when the shipment is about to arrive. That is when we also send out private invocies for any yarns which have been reserved. If you need to reserve any of the yarns in Red or Green, then please eMail me, at your earliest convenience: Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com.

Incoming stock: expect it mid-November
(skeins unless otherwise noted)

Cash Sock MCN, skeins & cones
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sparkle
Crazy EightCash DK MCN
Single & Stunning *
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
WD4 Merino Worsted-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted, skeins & cones

*Single & Stunning... NEW ... a superwash DK in Singles construction

Incoming Stock: Expect it mid-December ...
a little early to predict ...
(skeins unless otherwise noted)

Angel Select
Cash Aran MCN
Cash Sock MCN, skeins & cones
Crazy Eight, skeins & cones
Donegal Sock *
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock, skeins & cones
Sheila's Sparkle
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Laceweight
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted

* Donegal Sock ... NEW ... 2-ply with flecks of dark NEP (nylon) sprinkled through in the tradition of Donegal Tweed fabric

Creating a 'line' of yarns

2011-10-23T09:24:00.000-04:00

From time to time things change. Seasons, shoe sizes, availability of my favorite brand of potato chip. And what is there to do but change myself, roll with the punches, adapt. There is a life cycle for everything, including business. We live in a world where options and possibilities offer more change that we can sometimes handle, and in order to keep up and not flounder or let our business become stale, we simply must change when the time comes.

In my business, we have to come up with new lines of yarns to meet the demand of our dyers. The knitting world has done a quick catch-up in how it reacts to trends in color and style within the clothing industry, and the immediate interaction afforded by the Internet means that the old laws of supply and demand are constantly running at top speed. The demand is created, in the fiber arts world, by designers who distribute their looks and sell their patterns through Internet outlets. People buy the 'look' of a pattern or sample and try to duplicate it, so a colorway and/or a fiber blend will become popular almost overnight if the original garment is hot enough. It used to be that yarn manufacturers controlled the speed with which trends changed. They brought choices to local yarn shops who picked and chose what they would buy for their shop according to the buying history of their customer base. The Internet has changed this approach and speed of introduction of new choices.

Producing the yarn and getting it to market is not quite as quickly accomplished as the flash of an image around the world. We run three months behind, at a minimum, and six months, to state things realistically. So, we hover at the fringe of top fashion exhibits held in the fashion capitals of Europe to see where designs are headed, and if/where knitting appears on the fashion scene.

Every year we look to the future and plan out how we will produce and bring to market a new yarn or fiber blend or yarn construction. Something new to attract and keep the interest level of our handdyers. And, when a trend hits the knitting world, our dyers want what they want immediately. We scramble and schedule and figure and meet and calculate and do all sorts of things in the background to get the demand met, to balance our lineup of yarns with current trends, tried and true classics, and fading trends.

Achieving balance means that all things cannot be produced at all times, and that we must recognize the time when the lifespan of a yarn is approaching it's end. That is when we make the decision to retire a yarn, and it is a decision not lightly taken. We always know that someone is fully vested in that yarn and that they believe that their market absolutely demands that yarn. Usually, it is with difficulty that we convince those dyers to introduce something new to their own customer base. If they've had success with a yarn going out of production, they sometimes panic and try to convince us that they will fail if we retire a yarn they use.

I firmly believe that all customers at every point along the route will change if change is presented to them -- from our production to the handdyers who turn it into the beautiful finished yarn to the end consumer, the knitter who holds the yarn in their hands and has an idea of how to turn it into a handknit fabric. My customers mostly sell over the Internet, and many are regular vendors at fiber festivals, and some supply their local yarn shops with their handdyed yarns. They often feel that they have a certain expected 'look' which their customers will seek out and which they are comfortable with providing. And, sometimes, they do not want to change what they have to offer possibly because they do not trust that they will achieve current level of sales.

I also firmly believe that the ease of distribution which the Internet offers has made it so easy for anyone to go into business that people jump for the sale without doing their homework. Marketing. It's all about marketing, which is very close to Psychology 101. It is as much about what you have to offer in the moment as it about how you promote your ability to forecast trends, how you keep up with them, how you adapt to change.

About two months ago, in a newsletter to my customers, I announced that we would cease production of five yarns. Oh, my. What an outcry and barrage of eMails with the same message: I cannot change. My customers demand that I stay the same. I must give them what I perceive that they want. So, in an effort to respond to these requests from my own customer base, I decided to produce one more round of most of these yarns, and to bring in one more shipment of each one. My broker, who is one of the top yarn distributors in Europe, offered to supply the fifth yarn to me on a special shipping arrangement. If I could put together enough private orders to fill one box from the folks who had been traumatized by the possibility of losing that one yarn, he would ship them to me with my weekly order of his special yarns, the Bluefaced Leicester British wool. Not once have we been able to fill a box. I've had to take space from my weekly BFL orders to bring in one kilo here and two kilos there, and even that small amount has dwindled down to nothing.

I have one more theory about how the Internet has changed my own business plan, and that is that it is hard to gauge a real demand from a perceived demand. Those customers who say they love that yarn will not be able to find it anywhere else and they may just fall in love with something new that we introduce. I have a tendency to take these complaints seriously, especially when they reach the point of hundreds of eMails. Sometimes I get tired and in my answers I speak too honestly, and sometimes people take offence and write back eMails painting a picture of how my honesty in speaking of the market in general has belittled their sense of individuality. The Internet allows people to say just about anything they want to say to me in an eMail without a single bit of compunction that they may be dramatizing their case.

When I started my business, I wrote a business plan. Every few years I revise that plan to include new ideas, and also to clarify my approach to the dealing with people over the Internet. How I present myself, how much of my personality I reveal, how I use humor, etc. Actually, the use of humor in the written word is a dangerous thing, and something I struggle with. From time to time, I try to diffuse high emotion in my customer by using humor to bring us back to the situation at hand and putting a new focus on dealing with the problem, and it sometimes works. When it does not work, I know that I'm in for yet more of an explanation of how my insensitivity has affected their business. The use of humor is a lesson that is hard to beat out of my personality, because I pretty much see humor in all things. I remember a wonderful Scottish gentleman I met years ago in Texas where we were both working with a school system to set up a bilingual program. He was in his 80's and he travelled around the States writing federal grants for school systems looking for funding. He told story after story of the towns where he had lived for six months here and there, and the bottom line of every single one was this: don't take yourself so seriously!

That's a good lesson. In the context of looking at a line of yarns, it translates, in my mind, as another lesson. Be open to change, look forward and plan, and keep your line fresh. That's what we are doing. I know that some people are slightly dismissive that the world of knitting yarn could actually be fresh, as it still has a reputation of being great-granny's pastime and what is cool about great-granny, after all? I am here to tell you that this is not great-granny's crafty world any longer. The Internet has made shop keepers in the virtual world of the Internt of hundreds of thousands. How they choose to stand out from the rest is up to them. We are the background folk who offer change. It's there for the taking.

Yarn Lessons

2011-09-30T11:26:00.002-04:00

I am in the middle of learning new lessons about the importance of matching the right yarn to the right pattern. I don't think I will be spoiling any of my sister's holiday expectations if I talk about their gifts because I don't think any of them know I even have a blog, and one may not know what a blog is.   I could be wrong about that, and she might have one of her own that I don't know about.

In early September I decided to begin my holiday knitting with enough time to allow me to change my mind, unravel my work, and generally get sidetracked if that is what it would take for me to actually finish their gifts this year. They are accustomed to getting handcrafted gifts from me, and I do not want to disappoint them. I am not sure that they always appreciate the item or the amount of work which goes into their gifts. One year, for instance, I worked like a demon to produce wrist warmers on my antique circular sock machine. The items themselves were simple; it was the learning process which was time consuming. They only knew of the end result, so they might have been a little underwhelmed when the moment of truth arrived. One even called me up and asked me how to wear them ... well, maybe not expressed in such a blunt manner. After all, we are Southern women and we suggest rather than come out and ask when what we really want to know is 'what on earth are these two tubes of knitting for?'   She did, however, suggest to me that they were a little loose and odd to wear, but I just love my own and could not understand what she was talking about.

This year I decided to knit something specifically chosen for each one, and each gift would fall within the same range of difficulty of knitting. I decided to knit three shoulder shawls, all one-skein products. The plan included only yarns from my own line, i.e., Wool2Dye4 yarns. Too, they would be yarns which I hand-dyed myself. These last two qualifications are not difficult as my personal secret stash is impressive. I dye up all of the yarns we sell and they yarns we consider selling.

Two shawls are now complete. I'll post pictures when all three are complete and blocked, but two are knit and bound off the needles. They are a little scrunchy looking now, and this is normal. I know they will grow when the finishing is, well, finished. That is always such an exciting time, the day of blocking, but I really need to be in the right mood to actually get to it. I have a wonderful blocking table set up, all padded and covered with a muslin gridded fabric left over from quilting days. The work area is stocked with blocking wires -- which are the very neatest knitting accessory I have found in years! -- and blunt pins which are sold in the floral arrangement aisle and which are sold in quantities intended for a lifetime supply for at least two persons. So, I'm set up. It is the mood which needs to strike me. The things and stuff are in place. I decided, as I greedily grabbed up wool and pattern for Shawl #2, to finish all three items at one time and to hop on immediately to the next project. I mean, that's the fun part, isn't it?  Instant gratification of casting on a new project? Of course it is!

BUT, Shawl #3 turned into a scarf somehow when my eye went to a sport weight superwash merino from years ago, one which I had ordered from a mill as a sample. I had just purchased a pattern online that caught my eye, and I tried to put the pattern and the yarn together into the same project. Those yarn trial samples are not cheap or easy to come by and this fat ball is the last of that lot of yarn, something that made me consider getting a run of this yarn actually made up for the Wool2Dye4 line. The dye job on this yarn is really neat, too, because it is the result of one of those lazy days when your movements are slow and your consideration is long, so the end product is actually deeply layered and interesting. This one started off with two overdyes and ended with eye-dropper applications. Really fun.

That's a fuzzy quick shot of the yarn, and you can see that it has a big bump of unravelled length that will be a mess to knit from, but I am saving this yarn for a future project. Back into Secret Stash it goes, and may possibly emerge as Shawl #3 ... not sure. Actually, I just made that decision as I typed the sentence before this one I'm typing now. I think I won't consign it to an indefinite future, but use it for the third shawl and cast on this afternoon after the orders for the day go out the door. Something wonderful and delicious to look forward to, and Sister #3 gets the Shawl #3. It is decided. This will mean that the rule that all three shawls would be made from W2D4 yarns will be broken, but will it? I bought the trial run and dyed it and it is owned by Wool2Dye4, so I think I will consider it a proprietary yarn, after all.

And, what will I do with the lovely, smooth and luscious Silk Sock 50/50 waiting for become a circular scarf, the same which almost was substituted for Shawl #3? I will make the unique garment for myself ... or make one just for the fun of knitting that pattern and then add the scarf to the Gift Cabinet. This is a good resolution to the problems of the day. My life is simple at this moment.

New Spam

2011-09-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

There is a new form of spam hitting my mailbox lately, and it hits right where it is the scariest, my bank account. This one looks absolutely legit with a message that a recent ACH (automatic clearing house) transaction was denied on my business account. Scary because this is how I pay and receive payment in my business checking account.

The first time I received the message I forwarded it to my bank, who had not yet seen this type of spam before so we were both thinking something was wrong with my account. They searched for like transaction numbers and dates and amounts and found nothing, and came back to me with the spam diagnosis. I deleted the eMail, after first forwarding it to the government agency which purportedly overlooks the spam industry.

Then, for a while, I didn't get a single spam message at all, until this week when the same ACH failure notice has come daily. Today my security program scanned it and alerted me that this eMail has a Downloader function attached to it.

So, here is my message, loud and clear: if you use ACH services and receive an eMail like this, do not open it. Forward the eMail to your bank manager or service rep and tell them to look out for other spam messages like this. Then forward the eMail to: SPAM@uce.gov.

September welcomes back Sheila's Sock ... lots and lots

2011-09-07T09:12:00.000-04:00

Instead of our usual multi-yarn monthly stocking, September is a transitional month for us. We have now completed six months' worth of orders which were placed in the springtime, and are about to embark on a new system of re-stocking Wool2Dye4 website inventory. This means that we will begin to hold consistently higher levels of stock, and this begins in early October.

September will be a month to catch up on orders for Sheila's Sock, and to introduce a new yarn ... Sparkle in DK weight with a bit of silk added to it (priced as Sparkle Select lace, as it is the same blend). Too, we welcome to the line a yarn which we introduced in limited quantity a month ago, Single & Fabulous!

We have a major shipment of our most popular yarn, Sheila's Sock, due at the end of the week, and are only waiting on notice from Customs that the shipment has passed through Customs and will be delivered on Thursday or Friday. When we hear, we will send out the newsletter to registered customers and post the new inventory of Sheila's Sock for sale. There will be no private orders taken for Sheila's Sock since there should be nice stock for the next few weeks. In October, even more Sheila's Sock will arrive. So, lots and lots of Sheila's Sock and enough to go around.

Restocking: October and November 2011

2011-09-06T14:46:00.001-04:00

Here are two lists of incoming stocking orders, skeins unless otherwise noted. You will notice that some of the yarns which we have announced as discontinued yarns are coming in one last time. They are marked with an asterisk.

October 2011 arrivals
Bamboo TwoStep* skeins & cones
Cash Sock MCN skeins & cones
Platinum Sock skeins & cones
Sheila's Glitter (goldtoned Stellina)
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Sheila's Sparkle (silvertoned Stellina)
Silk Sock 50/50

Cash Aran MCN
Tweed Aran* skeins & cones

Cash DK MCN
Silk DK 50/50
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW skeins & cones

Angel Lace*
Boo Select (a unique purchase of bamboo/merino select weight lace)
Butterfly Select lace
Ultra Select lace

November Incoming Shipment
Cash Sock MCN skeins & Cones
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Sock
Silk Sock 50/50

Sheila's Aran*

Cash DK MCN
W2D4 Merino Worsted

Ultra Select lace
* = last shipment and then will be discontinued

Step away from the programming language ...

2011-08-24T16:16:00.001-04:00

Step away from the programming language ...

I simply should have a padlock on the part of my computer which allows me to tinker with the behind-the-scenes programming features. Every once in a while I get a mad and uncontrollable rush that cannot be stemmed or guided, and nothing will do until I have had my way with the website's background. Simply stated, I think I know more than I actually do about my program.

This time came on one of the busiest days we have had lately. We were preparing for a really big incoming stock shipment, and putting up all available stock on the shelves. Too, we had to prepare at least a hundred receipt packages so they would be ready for order filling on Thursday and Friday. Then, we got in a shipment of a new yarn (which is a secret for now and will be sold in September), and of course, there was the off and on search for any earthquake damage from yesterday. So, all in all, a busy day.

Today appeared to me, for some strange reason, to be the perfect day to rearrange the payment methods that a customer would see on the Wool2Dye4 website. I do these things because I am incapable of learning from experience in certain areas of my work life, and maybe in life in general, come to think of it. So, off I headed to the very serious list of modules which control the important aspects of the website such as payment and shipping, and I decided to start accepting checks. This, in total disregard for previous bad check experiences, but never mind. Today I decided, for about two hours, to accept checks. Then, I noticed that the order that the payment choices were appearing on the website seemed not to be very pretty, and here at Wool2Dye4 we like to make everything pretty. So I rearranged the order of checks/credit cards/PayPal to a pleasing array on the payment page, clicked 'Save and Update' and went back to work with the packers.

About two hours later, in checking my eMail, I got a shock of seeing letter after letter with one common word in the subject line and that was, 'problem.' Nothing, absolutely nothing is less welcome on a busy day than an eMail with the word 'problem' in the header, and this was not one but many eMails screaming about a problem. Oh, No. Quickly, I read various descriptions of the same issue: the website was frozen in place and was accepting no orders at all.

There could only be one reason. I'd been fiddling around in the secret depths of the program and caused this mess myself. But how to fix it? I thought that undoing my changes and restoring the original choices would do the trick, so I undid the choice to accept checks and reordered the payments to the original lists, I thought, ... but, no. So, I tried it again with the same results; however, this time I knew how to take a screen shot (because of my new online class in Adobe Acrobat, no less! See? I am trying to learn how to fix my problems). Quickly I fired off two screen shots to WebGuy with a short and sweet confession of my errors. Then, I called the credit card processor.

The young man at the other end of the line was insistent that there were only three errors which could yield the Error Message Number 13. It had to be thirteen, right? Numbers one and two were not applicable, he said, but I just couldn't believe that choice number 3 was right! That one was that I had changed the log-in name. I had not, or so I thought. I continued to try to bring his attention back to reasons one and two. Eventually, he made a deal with me that if I would just try to reset the log in, and if it didn't work, he would take care of setting everything back to normal by himself. But I had to give his way a try ... and long story made short, of course his suggestion worked. In practice, I had not reset the log-in, but in reality I had inadvertently done just that. That is to say that the program had an automatic reset to the default login of the program, not the card processor's coded login, and that was how the error message came to show on the website.

While I was at the crucial point of understanding what all of this actually meant in plain English, my call waiting feature started to buzz and buzz and buzz. So, we quickly got off the phone, and there was WebGuy to the rescue, hoping he was not too late and that I had not reset the basic code. Luckily, I had not, but it was an opportunity for me to ask him when the new program would be ready.

The new programs are a lot easier to handle for a natural born fiddler like me. There are checkmarks where the changes are immediately shown in example format. I am guessing that some smart programmer came up with that idea to stop people like me from ruining the delicate programming features they work hard to create. At any rate, when I turned eMail on again, there were zip/zip/zip several orders posting one after the other. Two, of course, were my own from the testing, but I didn't care. Orders again. Ahhhh.... that lovely sound of the soft little ping when the order notices come in.

I'll admit to a moment of panic, OK, yes. But, I must say that I had a moment of pride, as well. When I realized that I had a hand in fixing the problem, I was really proud of my day's work.

Honeysuckle Patterns

2011-08-10T17:51:00.000-04:00

We took the samples of the patterns developed for The Honeysuckle Project to Sock Summit 2011,and we had so many wonderful and positive comments. These ten patterns will be sold on HoneysuckleProject.com and the site will be up and active in the next week, by August 17th. Please check back and after a week or so to see when the site opens up for sale of yarn, patterns, and kits.

The Honeysuckle Project at Sock Summit 2011

2011-08-02T20:03:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful reception for The Honeysuckle Project, our breast cancer awareness campaign, at Sock Summit! Caught a couple of new designers who want to be added to the project, a major magazine is going to mention THP in the magazine's next editorial. So many breast cancer survivors came by the booth to thank us for getting knitters involved at any level, and I gave skeins of Honeysuckle pink to each one. I heard stories and shared tears and laughter. It was wonderful and moving and made me so very proud.

Pictures from Sock Summit

2011-08-02T19:55:00.000-04:00

Our booth

A closeup of the yarn display ...

Sharon G and Barb B burst into song!

Our booth stood out on the marketplace floor!

Single & Fabulous fabric

2011-07-25T08:24:00.000-04:00

Luxury yarns are just that ... made of delicate fibers and requiring extra care. They are not the workhorses of our knitting bag, but are of rare fibers with unique properties. Alpaca, silk, cashmere --- these are three fibers which we are lucky enough to be offering in our current lineup of yarns and they number among some of the most expensive fibers on earth.

Here is the Single & Fabulous yarn after being dyed and dried, and in the process of being knit into a fabric. In this case, a hat which will be lined with the same fiber in a different color before it is finished.

Single and Fabulous

2011-07-23T07:35:00.000-04:00

On Ravelry.com a question was asked about how Single & Fabulous holds up. It is a single, not plied, yarn and many of them on the market are pilling as they wear. I dyed up a skein this morning in a steely light blue, using two of ProChem's acid dyes, Periwinkle Blue and Chocolate Brown, in a watered down pot of warm water. Then I dunked the skein in a clear warm bath and the green from both dyes separated out, leaving a nice toned down blue. Very sky-like on a hot day, which is appropriate for our Virginia summer heat wave.

Alpaca is a slippery fiber, but at only 40% of the blend, the merino (40%) and silk (20%) should hold it in place. The twist of Single & Fabulous is not loose and almost like spinning fiber but has enough to make for a definitely knittable yarn. Here is the skein out of the pot.

New knitting project bags from repurposed Interior Design samples

2011-07-21T06:41:00.000-04:00

July Stocking by end of this week

2011-07-18T07:48:00.001-04:00

One of my favorite things to do is to announce the estimated arrival of a new shipment; however, since my move in April, the shipping schedule has been sketchy at best. I have gone to war with the importer, and they have checked down the line with every person responsible for any delay along the way from the mountains of South America to the mountains of Virginia. People have been added in offices along the way to watch the progress of the shipment, and a couple of people have been called into someone's private office for a chat about professionalism, it is rumored.

So, now, it is with a little trepidation and a lot of anticipation that I announce the contents of the incoming shipment. If all goes well --and why should it not with so many additional eyes watching over things? -- the shipment is expected to arrive by the end of the week.

I will send copies of private reservations by eMail when we hear that the shipment has passed through Customs, and release the newsletter to registered customers at the same time. Please note that the entire quantity of Sheila's Sock has been exhausted from this shipment; however, a triple amount is coming in about 3 weeks' time. Sheila's Sparkle will be in that next shipment, too. Now, for the list, as promised (skeins, all) ...

Cash Sock MCN
Crazy Eight
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Glitter
Sheila's Gold
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
Tweed Sock
Ultra Select Laceweight

Wool2Dye4's breast cancer awareness yarn: Honeysuckle

2011-07-13T15:19:00.000-04:00

Wool2Dye4 is a Sock Summit sponsor!

2011-06-29T07:12:00.003-04:00

Come and meet me in Portland OR at the end of July at Sock Summit 2011!

Canadian Post is back!

2011-06-28T08:21:00.000-04:00

Even though our US Postal Service was more than a week late in instituting the freeze on shipping by any method other than Express, the notice that all services would be restored today, June 28th, was good information. And, somehow, we got many packages sent by International Priority during the Canadian strike. I am in the 'don't ask, don't tell' mode on this one. Today our local postman will be happy again. Seems his idea of a good time is staggering out the door, bumping into the gate, with a running patter the entire time about how we overwork him. He's a lot of fun when he's got a pile of orders to carry, and we like nothing better than to make him very happy.

Canadian Postal Strike causes Problems with US shippers

2011-06-27T12:19:00.000-04:00

On Friday, we tried in vain to ship packages to our Canadian customers by US Postal Service (USPS), and were only able to access the Express International service. Today, in response, to my inquiry I have received this slightly intelligible reply:

Following 12 days of increasingly costly and damaging rotating strikes being carried out by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), Canada Post has suspended operations across the country. The accelerating decline in volumes and revenue combined with the inability to deliver mail on a timely and safe basis has left the company with no choice but to make this decision.

We have a mystery!

2011-06-15T19:49:00.001-04:00

The status of the shipment has changed in the past few moments. The info now tells me that there was an 'airline error' and the shipment is not in Virginia, after all; however, the delivery date still shows it is scheduled to reach Wool2Dye4 by noon tomorrow, Thursday. We will have to wait and see... a mystery! and the Government is involved. Quick, grab a pen and write this down. We could write a book about it!

One Day's Delay ... Not so Bad

2011-06-15T19:45:00.000-04:00

Now, the delivery date has been moved to Thursday, June 16th. The shipment has been released by Customs and has arrived in Virginia, so I am fairly confident that we will see it tomorrow by noon.

We have helping hands to get the counting and incoming process done with and will begin to ship a few orders in the afternoon, and lots more all day Friday. I thank my customers for their patience!
Sheila / Wool2Dye4

June Re-Stocking Update

2011-06-14T07:52:00.000-04:00

I have a tracking link to the incoming shipments and see that our June shipment is still in Customs in Miami. Lately, Customs has been taking much more time than it used to, and we notice that in each shipment more boxes are opened and the contents sifted through. While I appreciate the fact that so much yarn going to one address might be suspicious in the mind of a non-knitting, non-dyeing agent, I do not appreciate it when the bags are broken open and luxurious fibers are pawed through and left looking like a rat's nest. What recourse is there, though? Those skeins are unusable and it is money lost.

But, back to the idea of giving my customers more info on this shipment: The delivery schedule is still showing that we are to receive the shipment here in Virginia on Wednesday. Tomorrow. I am going to guess that this will not happen, and that we will see the shipment on Thursday, or even Friday.

I will post more info as it becomes available.

Planning for June Stocking

2011-06-02T06:55:00.000-04:00

We are not ready to announce an arrival for the June stocking, but I thought I would publish the preliminary list. This will allow customers to make plans, especially if restocking for summer festivals is a priority. Sheila's Sock, one of our favorites, is returning with this shipment. When we hear that the shipment is in Customs, I will make a guess of the arrival date. I am totally aware that I may appear a little shy about predicting arrival dates and for good reason. Since the move in early April, our shipments have stumbled a bit on their final leg of the journey to Wool2Dye4. There is nothing worse than fielding irate eMails from customers who need yarn! So, a little caution on my part, especially since I have not received the packing lists, but this is what I believe to be in the stocking. Shhh.... don't tell anyone, but here is the list ...........

Angel Delight Fingering, Angel Select Lace & Angel Sport Sock
Cash Aran MCN and Cash DK MCN
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Aran, Sheila's Gold, Sheila's Sock, Sheila's Sparkle
Silk DK 50/50, Silk Sock 50/50
Tencel/Merino 50/50
Tweed Aran

Retail Packing Event, May 21-27, 2011

2011-05-21T07:17:00.002-04:00

Starting today, Retail customers will be able to purchase our yarns in half-kilo packs. The normal presentation is one kilo packs, and there are ten skeins weighing 100 grams each in a kilo pack. So, yes, that's ten times one hundred equals one thousand grams, aka one kilo. Expressed in pounds, one kilo equals 2.2 pounds, so half a kilo is 1.1 pounds. For most knitters, a pound of yarn will take care of just about any project. It's those pesky wholesale handdyers who deal in the mind boggling numbers of kilos. I often wonder how on earth some of my customers are able to put out the sheer volume of work involved in dyeing those large orders! I've tried it and found out very quickly that these artists are also strong and determined folk, and are to be admired!

But, back to the Retail Packing Event... This is a time for hobby buyers to pick up more yarns because they don't have to commit to a full kilo, and can spread the pennies around. Yarns with silk and cashmere, for instance, in the blends are more accessible. It's a great time to stock up for future projects or to tuck away a couple of fancy skeins for an upcoming dye workshop. For Christmas knitters who love to give gifts which are just about as hand made as you can get without owning and shearing your own sheep, the Packaging Event is timed just right for getting ahead of the plan. And, we all know that many of us are knitting right up to Christmas eve.

At our end, we've altered the wholesale inventory to reflect the yarn moved into these new listings on the website, and will be opening and repacking the kilo packages as the retail orders come in. It will be a week of counting, recounting, and then trying to undo all the double inventory figures at the end of the week.

It's worth it, though, especially when a month or so later there is a post on our group on Ravelry.com from a retailer who discovered a new favorite yarn, and they post a picture of their work. Many of our retail customers grow into wholesale customers. Their hobby becomes a home-based business, and this opportunity to try out new yarns could be background research for someone's business plan. We never know.

Wholesale Requirements apply to every order

2011-05-10T10:03:00.002-04:00

Just a reminder to wholesalers: Every order must weigh a minimum of five kilos. If you have a private order and it is under the weight minimum, you will need to add in other yarns to meet the wholesale requirement. In the past, we have been nice and gentle about a little forgetfulness here and there, but some folks are making a habit of being forgetful. So, please note that every time you use your wholesale discount, you must order five kilos, and the five may be mixed between yarns, of course.

If you do not need five kilos, please create a new retail account. Do not enter your company name or tax id number in the fields as this will prompt the computer to recognize an application for a wholesale account. Use your retail account for orders less than five kilos please.

Thank you,
Sheila/Wool2Dye4

Holding Stock: BFL and new Falkland yarns

2011-05-09T10:38:00.003-04:00

Every business needs to make changes when it is proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that the current system is not working, and that is just what we are about to do with the stock levels of our BlueFaced Leicester and new Falkland British Merino yarns. The demand for these two lines has taken off in the past couple of months, and our old habit of ordering in every week is not enough to keep the stock levels at a healthy point. What has happened is that we have a pile of backorders! I just hate backorders, so we are going to have more of both lines sent in, and have ordered new shelving too.

The thing is that we are fairly proud of how quickly we send out orders. Almost always, unless there is a published reason, we turn orders around within 24 hours, and most of the time they go out sooner depending on the hour they were placed. My customers know this and have come to expect it, in fact so much so that they think nothing of writing an eMail of complaint when an order is delayed two days in shipping! Pretty amazing, really.

So, we've asked Mr. Wool to ship enough of both lines to catch up our backorder list, and to send more in a couple of days of every one of the BFL and Falkland yarns. This includes all of the following yarns:
BFL Aran-SW
BFL DK-SW
BFL High Twist
BFL Platinum
BFL Silk Sock
BFL Silky Lace
BFL-4 Socking
and
Falkland Merino 4 Socking
Falkland Merino DK-SW
Falkland Merino/Bamboo Select lace wt
Falkland Merino/Bamboo Sock
Falkland Merino/Silk 50/50 Sock
Falkland Merino/Silk 50 50 DK
Falkland Merino/Tencel 50/50 Select Lace wt
Falkland Merino/Tencel 50/50 sock
Falkland Merino Platinum Sock

Please allow a week or so for this to work out. It will take that long to catch up and then to get ahead on the packing and shipping.

I think this will solve the minor backorder list we have right now. Even though we have published the warning that there will be a short wait for these yarns, the creation of a backorders means more places to double check an order, and basically, more work. We try to keep things efficiently organized so that we have a handle on stock and orders. It is 'demand' which is the unknown factor, of course. And that's the way of business, isn't it?

We will do what we do best and that is explain what is happening and then move to make the wait go away for our customers. I will reference this post in the next newsletter so that all of this will not be repeated there.

Do I thank you enough? I certainly do not mean to skip over that part of doing business, so here is a heartfelt thanks for making problems like this for me to figure out! Supply and demand, supply and demand....

Making Plans and Adding Names

2011-05-05T09:11:00.003-04:00

The last time we had any yarn from the top bales of a special offering at auction, it was the superfine British Merino. That was such lovely stuff, and I still have a cone of the superwash Aran and a pound of the spinning fiber in my Secret Stash. One of those things that cannot be used for just any project, but saved until the right one comes along.

I believe that is how folks will feel about the Falkland British Merino we are about to handle. It, too, is limited in that there was only so much available, and once it is gone, it will be over and done. In my annual face-to-face meetings with Mr. Wool last week, I learned more about our share of Falkland British Merino. There are 100 kilos of each of the nine yarns made available to Wool2Dye4. The yarns will be posted on the website over the weekend. We will receive weekly shipments to fulfill customers orders, so this means that there may be a backorder of up to a week after you place your order with Wool2Dye4. It is convenient for us to work this way because we have a nice arrangement with UPS and weekly orders come in four or five days, so there is not a very long delay. I know that we usually ship within 24 hours, but since this is a special yarn of a special circumstance, a few days will only sharpen the anticipation.

Here are the nine yarns:

100% FBM
Falkland British Merino 4 Socking
Falkland British Merino DK-SW
Blend with nylon
Falkland British Merino Platinum Sock
Blend with silk
Falkland British Merino/Silk 50/50 Sock
Falkland British Merino/Silk 50/50 DK
Blend with bamboo
Falkland British Merino/Bamboo Sock
Falkland British Merino/Bamboo Select Lace weight
Blend with Tencel
Falkland British Merino/Tencel 50/50 sock
Falkland British Merino/Tencel 50/50 Select Lace weight

We will sell each of the yarns until the one hundred kilos is depleted, and delete them from the inventory as each one exhausts our supply. We will create a new category for this collection called, of course, Falkland British Merino.

This posting of the new line will be in time to be ordered with the next incoming restocking, which is expected around mid-week. Here is a list of what is coming on that shipment.

Cash Aran
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Gold
Silk Sock 50/50
Sheila's Sparkle
and ...
Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle is our only dyed yarn and it makes it's entrance next week! We are so excited to have the chance to have created a yarn to support our efforts to raise consciousness for breast cancer. Lots more on The Honeysuckle Project as we move forward ... (new website included!).

Private milling of Falkland Merino

2011-04-28T08:20:00.002-04:00

To mark the visit of Mr. Wool to our U.S. shores, Wool2Dye4 is going to offer 100 kilos of a private milling of superfine merino from the Falkland Islands. Some knitters and dyers may recall a gorgeous and creamy soft Falkland Bulky we had about two years ago. That yarn just few out the door.

Once someone bought a kilo of it, they came back and stocked up for more, and easy to understand as it has such unique properties to it. Just imagine, for a sec, the unique climate in the Falkland Islands, and what it takes to survive there in the open. These sheep are an example of survival of the fittest in the most refined sense of the word.

All I can tell you at this writing is that the 100 kilos of this new Falkland merino will be in more than one weight, and will be a finite amount of yarn available. We will have samples available, but by request this time. Usually we send out samples of new yarns with all orders, but these samples will be sent by request only.

We will be sending out a special newsletter with details within the next day or two, and also will add more details here, and on Ravelry.com, as well.

Cannot wait to get my hands on this lovely stuff!

Old Stand-By Favorites are back in stock

2011-04-21T16:46:00.000-04:00

Today I have not been happier to see that truck backing up to the door! We welcome back some of our favorite Wool2Dye4 merino yarns. These yarns have already been posted on the website and are available now.

Cash Sock MCN (skeins)
Ultra Merino 3Ply (skeins & cones)
W2D4 Merino DK-SW (skeins & cones)
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW (skeins & cones)

Yarn Stats on the Website

2011-04-20T17:09:00.002-04:00

I frequently have customers write and ask me about yardage per skein. All of our yarns are put up on 100 gram skeins, and should have the yardage on the package label; however, if you cannot put your fingers on that info, there is a place on the website where it is listed.

Go to the Home Page of www.Wool2Dye4.com and look at the tabs at the top of the page, just under the picture/banner. On the right is one called Yarn Stats, and it is a chart which lists yards per 100 grams, the industry standard. If you need yards per kilo, then multiply the 100gr skein figure by ten and you will have yards per 1,000 grams (which is one kilo).

If you are working with yards per pound, then figure the yards per kilo.
Then, divide by 2.2 pounds to get how many yards per pound. (Because there are 2.2 pounds in a kilo.)

So, even if a yarn is not showing on the website === and they do not generally show if there is not stock === you can still find out basic information on all of our yarns. Also, if a yarn is not showing, it simply means that we have no stock of it at the present and NOT that it has been discontinued. Seems that every time a yarn is out of stock for a little bit, I get frantic letters about it going out of stock.

We all have to stock up when we can, and this goes for customers who may be expecting Wool2Dye4's stock to be solid and robust when they need to order, but this is not always possible. So, my advice is to start in a small way to stock up, a kilo here and there, on your best sellers so that when we are low, you will not suffer.

Believe me, I know what it is to suffer when you want a yarn very badly! I am right at this moment suffering fivefold for Sheila's Sock, Sheila's Gold, Silk Sock 50/50, Silk DK 50/50, and Platinum Sock. They will be back, all of them (see published lists of earlier posts), I promise. In the meantime, there are so many wonderful yarns to work with!

Mr. Wool is Coming to Town

2011-04-15T07:23:00.002-04:00

My wool broker, fondly known as Mr. Wool,has actually bought an airplane ticket and is flying in from England at the end of the month to work with me. We plan a whirlwind three full days and will make the most of the last morning, probably, on the drive to the airport. Over the mountain, and through the woods, talking wool all the way.

He comes over once each year and we find ways to fine tune our work, plan future releases, talk about market trends, the economy, etc. He brings samples and European knitting magazines for me to consider after the visit, and we remind ourselves, in person, tha we really work and think and plan very well together.

We may try to do a Chat or RoundTable on Ravelry.com on my group, Friends of Wool2Dye4. Or come up with another idea to mark his visit with my mostly US market. (No offense, please, to my friends in Canada and Australia, who's numbers are certainly growing.) There will be an announcement closer to the end of the month of how we will celebrate his visit.

I am thinking that because Wool2Dye4 is his exclusive Bluefaced Leicester dealer in the States, that maybe it's time for a 3-day sale. While he's here, that would be a nice gesture, but watch for an announcement here, on the home page of the website, on the Ravelry.com group, and also in the newsletter. Whew! May as well post it on FaceBook, right?

So exciting!!! Now, I have to spiffy up the new studio, and maybe even get those posters of rare sheep breeds finally laminated and hung! He sent them five years ago and they languishing in a cabinet. SSShhhh....

Surprise shipment of yarn is just a week away!

2011-04-12T09:22:00.003-04:00

Over and above the previously listed incoming yarns, there has been a welcome release of the last of my yarns held at the mill. So! The good news is that in just a week, a couple of the best sellers will be in stock again, and the wait for restocking is shortened.

Today or tomorrow, Cash Sock MCN arrives. No change there and orders where this is the only backorder will go out immediately. We are poised at the ready, and our new UPS and USPS men are just thrilled that Wool2Dye4 is on their route. Well, they seem happy, anyway. Wait until they start coming in after the big shipment arrive and the mountain of outgoing boxes is taller than they are. Am I gushing, here?

Here is the surprise yarn, due next week, probably before April 18th. It is now posted on the website, but anything currently out of stock and on this list will be shipped, of course, when it arrives. Hmmm. A better way to say this, is that if you place an order with any of these yarns on it, shipping will be delayed until the actual arrival here in the studio, around April 18th or earlier. Watch the Home Page of the website, on that little message which crawls across the top, for arrival date. Or, on Ravelry. You are on Ravelry.com, right? If not, please join and come find and join our group: Friends of Wool2Dye4. But, now onto the important and exciting stuff... the list!

Platinum Sock skeins
Sheila's Sock cones
Ultra Merino 3Ply cones and skeins
W2D4 Merino DK-SW cones and skeins
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW cones and skeins

Updated Stock Arrival List - April 7, 2011

2011-04-07T09:16:00.002-04:00

Subject: Wool2Dye4 incoming orders through August '11

Mid-April: Cash Sock MCN
… skeins unless otherwise noted
End of April/Early May
Cash Aran MCN, skeins and cones
Cash SockMCN
Sheila’s Gold
Silk Sock 50/50
Sheila’s Sparkle

Mid May
Sheila’s Gold
Silk Sock 50/50
Tweed Sock
Ultra Select
W2D4 Merino Worsted
The Honeysuckle Project yarn

Late June
Angel Delight Fingering
Angel Sport Sock
Angle Select
Butterfly Select
Cash Aran, skeins and cones
Cash DK, skeins and cones
Cash Sock, skeins and cones
Sheila’s Aran, skeins and cones
Sheila’s Gold
Sheila’s Sock, skeins and cones
Silk DK 50/50, skeins and cones
Silk Sock 50/50
Sheila’s Sparkle
Tweed Aran, skeins and cones
Ultra Merino 3-Ply, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins and cones
W2D4 Tencel/Merino
Platinum Sock, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW, skeins and cones

Late July
Cash Sock, skeins and cones
Sheila’s Glitter
Sheila’s Gold
Silk DK 50/50
Silk Sock 50/50
The Honeysuckle Project, skeins and cones
Tweed Sock
Ultra Merino 3-Ply, skeins and cones
Ultra Select
W2D4 Merino DK-SW, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Bulky
Platinum Sock, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW, skeins and cones

Mid-August
Angel Sport Sock
Butterfly Select
Cash Aran, skeins and cones
Cash DK, skeins and cones
Cash Sock, skeins and cones
Crazy Eight, skeins and cones
Sheila’s Aran, skeins and cones
Sheila’s Gold
Sheila’s Sock, skeins and cones
Silk DK 50/50, skeins and cones
Silk Sock 50/50
Sparkle Select Lace
Sheila’s Sparkle
Tweed Aran, skeins and cones
Tweed Sock
Ultra Merino 3Ply, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW
Tencel/Merino, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted, skeins and cones
Platinum Sock, skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW, skeins and cones

Reskeining question

2011-03-21T10:33:00.002-04:00

Someone wrote a broken link to an old post I wrote when I first started having Wool2Dye4's exclusive yarns milled. I will post it below, but just ignore the talk about one pound cones, as we only do kilo quantites these days.

The Golden Rule of Measurement: Don't try to split small skeins into smaller measurements. We are at the gray goods end of the market where measurements and weights are approximate.
My suggestion: sell sock yarns by yardage. Most sock knitters examine labels to see if there are close to 400 yards in a ball of commercial sock yarn. That seems to be the benchmark to knit up a pair of socks, so be a little generous and make your skeins into 425 or even 450 yards. This measurement may increase your sales because you will be giving the customer what they want...the number of yards needed to knit a pair of socks. Giving the customer what they really want is how we do business.

Next Re-Stocking ... end of the week?

2011-03-02T12:18:00.004-05:00

Have just received the packing list for the incoming re-stocking. We will not be holding any aside of these yarns, and there will be enough stock to serve all customers from the website.

This shipment is expected to arrive on Tuesday, March 8, 2011.
Angel Lace -- Angel Select -- Bamboo TwoStep -- Butterfly Lace -- Cash Sock MCN -- Crazy Eight -- Platinum Sock -- Sheila's Sock -- Sheila's Sparkle -- Silk Sock 50/50 -- Sparkle Select Laceweight (new) -- Tweed Sock -- W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW
The next shipment will be in early April. Sheila's Gold will return at that time.

Poor Man's Silk

2011-03-01T14:38:00.008-05:00

Frequently I mention, either here on the Blog or on my Ravelry.com group (Friends of Wool2Dye4) my surprise at the huge appetite of sock knitters for luxurious fibers like cashmere and silk. I blame the clothing industry to the glut of cashmere on the market, and now we are in a true supply v demand mindset and, still, the appetite for these fibers continues. We'll see how long this wave will roll.

The rise in silk and cashmere fibers affected Wool2Dye4's recent price increase. Nylon, too, rose in price with the more luxurious fibers. We don't usually think of nylon as a luxury, but at these prices, our opinion may just change. Of course many of our custoemrs either personally prefer a sock yarn with nylon in it, or their customers will demand it from them. We hear reports that some knitters turn away from a sock yarn if there is no nylon in it. And, then we have the purists who are 100% wool knitters. I won't mention acrylic here.

In the past month, here in the studio, we have all noticed an increasing interest in Tencel/Merino which is often called The Poor Man's Silk. Those not yet in the know about tencel yarn may be in for a shocking surprise at how very soft and pliable this fiber is. It possesses the very attributes which describe the more expensive fibers, those that are more desired ... strength, innate shine which shows through the dye process ... these are the things we say about silk!

And, Bamboo TwoStep is also starting to become a bit more popular as well. It is actually closer to silk in my opinion, but this particular blend which we carry is an 80/20 blend, so the merino is the main fiber in the yarn. The bamboo is so silky feeling and so smoothe, though, that it makes the perfect fiber partner in that blending and combing and then in the final and lovely yarn itself. I am hoping that both of these yarns will attract interest as people may begin to look at a wider choice of our yarns.

Price Increase set for March 1st

2011-02-19T11:33:00.003-05:00

Must say that I am impressed by the level of understanding reflected in customer letters about the upcoming price increase. It is the first time people have written insightful letters to me about the world economy, and how it relates to our small fiber businesses.

Now, the price's are only going up on the merino yarns and blends of cashmere, silk, nylon, alpaca, tencel, bamboo. Not on the BFL yarns.

The Bluefaced Leicester yarns are set, pricewise, for the next year. We have recently held a 10% discount sale on the new superwash BFL's and quite of few of our customers took us up on the opportunity to get to know these new yarns. The new yarns were developed in after the fire at the BFL warehouse in the U.K., back in October. That fire destroyed the entire stock of two of Wool2Dye4's BFL yarns, BFL Ultra! and BFL Aran (non-superwash). This, in addition to three tons of lovely BFL yarns which were the stock of my U.K. supplier. When he began to restock, he decided to revamp the BFL line and to respond to current trends in the market. So, we have a high twist sock weight (think of Sheila's Gold interpreted in Bluefaced Leicester), BFL Silky Lace, and a BFL/silk sock weight in addition to the DK and Aran weights in superwash.

Restocking!

2011-02-16T16:45:00.003-05:00

It's that time again, and we are just about ready to accept another shipment of spring yarns. Here is what is expected on Friday (skeins, unless noted):

- Angel Delight Fingering
- Angel Sport Sock
- Butterfly Select
- Cash Aran MCN (limited quantity)
- Cash Aran MCN (cones)
- Cash Sock MCN
- Sheila's Aran
- Sheila's Sock
- Silk Sock 50/50
- W2D4 Merino Worsted
- W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW
- W2D4 Merino DK-SW

Lots of interest lately in the sparkly yarns! Our silvertoned Stellina yarn, Sheila's Sparkle, will return to stock in two weeks. And, we introduce the goldtone version, Sheila's Glitter, at the end of this week! It is priced just as Sparkle, and we have a good quantity of it in stock right now, enough to go around.

As promised, the price increase will go into effect on March 1, 2011. We will be ready to send printable pricelist revisions next week.

One of my assistants, Sarah, has cut her hours recently as she prepares to go to pharmacy school in the fall. She has been working so hard to get some required courses under her belt, and this semester, unfortunately, has had to pare down her time at Wool2Dye4 to Thursdays and Fridays. Sarah is mistress and guru of all things 'Excel' around here, so that's why the delay in producing a printable new pricelist.

I suppose I will have to get serious and learn about Excel! There is actually a four hour short course in April on mastering the most common formulae. That is the class for me. This date is definitely on the calendar.

We will be making an announcement about a charity project that we've been working on, and we'll start to talk about this sometime next month. The background is that Wool2Dye4 has been looking for an opportunity to particpate in a charity on multiple layers of involvement, a program which we can continue to support as we go forward. So, we have come up with a unique yarn which we will have dyed and which will present opportunities for our customers and for us to give back. Yes! Color at Wool2Dye4. Just one yarn, though, will be produced so we had to look very hard to find just the right color. Here is the address of the one color we have chosen have dyed and which we will carry on the website ... http://www.pantone.com/pages/Pantone/Pantone.aspx?pg=20821&ca=1

It is Pantone's Color of the Year 2011. More about our project next month. But, take a look at the color and ready the description about courage and strength. Just the sort of words we would choose for our charity, ourselves!

New yarns just arrived...

2011-02-01T14:35:00.003-05:00

Over the past year, I got away from posting the contents of new stock shipments, and was sending a newsletter to a Wholesale mailing list and a separate Retail list. The program, though, has become less and less reliable as my list has grown, and only rarely allows me in. So, today I am back to posting the list of incoming stock on the blog.

Here is what arrived today:
Sheila's Gold ... Sheila's Sock ... Cash Sock ... Platinum Sock ... W2D4 Merino DK-SW ... W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW.
We have some customers who took up my suggestion, put forth on Ravelry.com, to eMail me and ask for some yarns to be reserved. Some of these invoices have already been created and sent to the customers with pre-reserved yarns, and the rest will go out by the end of the business day.

I will have all the private invoices posted on the website. If you have reserved yarns, you may pick up your private listing under the category Odds'n'Ends. I will send you a copy of the private listing in a confirming eMail and that's how you know that the invoice is posted on the site. Just choose it as you would any other item on the websie, and the program will figure the weight and postage for us.

Price Increases Expected next month, Feb 2011

2011-01-15T12:43:00.003-05:00

Something we all don't like, but is a necessary part of business is raising prices, and next month, Wool2Dye4 will raise our prices. Right now we are working with our broker to establish the prices and when they are ready, I will send out a newsletter with the news.

Lots of customers have been writing to us to say that they dye yarn and sell it to local yarn shops, or to online retailers. These are their wholesale customers, and some of my customers have decided that their customers will not be able to afford to buy handdyed yarn if the prices increase. I am here to say that the yarn shop owners are already dealing with new price lists from every single one of their suppliers, and this is because they know something that not everyone seems to realize.

That is that prices for fiber have increased all over the world. All around the globe mills are raising prices just to stay in business, and they are battling the same demons that my handdyers battle. No one can afford to run a business at break even for very long. We have to raise prices as our own prices are raised on us, so if you are fearful of losing business when you raise prices, I want you to start learning more about business in general, and your business in particular.

Consider the taste for cashmere and silk and how it has ballooned in the past two years! These two fibers have become among the most expensive fibers in the world, and just in December, the cost of cashmere skyrocketed ten percent. That is huge. Now, here we are in our tiny segment of the fiber world market, handdyers very close to the source of the goods, really. We get our yarns and fiber before the commercial yarn companies get theirs and ours are a bit more raw, too. So imagine the price increases those companies are figuring. At their end of the fiber market, setting prices is an ongoing study.

One difference between commercial yarn companies and individual hand dyers is probably best thought of in terms of who has a better grasp on the true cost of getting dyed yarn into the hands of the wholesale customer. Entrepreneurs have a habit of counting up the costs of their materials and shipping and office supplies, but forgetting to calculate the value of their time, and of unsold inventory they are sitting on. They must be counted to get a picture of profit. When we know the real figures, the numbers that describe our success, or struggles, we are better able to make wise decisions.

We all need to invigorate our attitudes towards our businesses, and should seek out help before we need it. There is a wonderful free resource for entrepreneurs called the Small Business Development Center network. Each state participates in the SBA program and has counselors at the offices of their partners around the state, covering territories. Partners might be the local chamber of commerce or community college system. Google Small Business Development Centers and your state name and you will find out how to get in front of a business advisor. Reach out and learn more about business and act from the point of knowledge as you operate.

New Stock just posted on the Website

2011-01-15T12:37:00.003-05:00

Just arrived yesterday,

late in the afternoon, Sheila's Gold, along with other yarns to boost existing stock. It was the Sheila's Gold which we were out of for the past week.

Usually, I am able to send out a newsletter, but for some reason the newsletter program is not cooperating today, so I will list the next two shipments here and hope that this info gets to lots of customers.

Later in January, these yarns are expected (skeins, unless noted) ...Angel Delight Fingering
Angel Sock Sport
Butterfly Select
Cash Aran MCN (with cones)
Cash Sock MCN (with cones)
Sheila's Aran
Ultra Merino Select Lace
W2D4 Merino Worsted

In February, incoming stock includes:Sheila's Sparkle
Angel Lace
Butterfly Lace
Crazy Eight
Platinum Sock
Sheila's Gold
Sheila's Aran
Silk Sock 50/50 (there is a question of whether this will be ready)
Tweed Sock
Ultra Merino 3Ply
W2D4 Worsted-SW (with cones)

January Thoughts

2011-01-06T14:07:00.005-05:00

Every January I get the urge and energy to reorganize my files. To some people, files may seem like an old fashioned collection of useless papers, but let's face it. We do not all live in a paperless environment, and some of that saved paper can actually save us some money. The trick is being able to put your hands on what you need in a few seconds, and this is just about the best reason for keeping clean files and updating them once a year.

A couple of years ago, I had sort of lapsed into a lazy period of continuing along with the same files for three years in a row. It was slowly beginning to drive me mad, so early one January I purged the files of all receipts and paperwork that seemed like something no one in their right minds would ever, ever ask me to produce. I tossed out bags and bags of old receipts and copies of orders. You name it, if it was not directly deductible on my taxes, I tossed it in the can. Then came a notice from the government that there would be a major refund on telephone taxes and surcharges, but copies of telephone bills for the preceeding year had to be attached to the application for a refund. The amount of the refund came to more than $200, and I missed it because I threw out the receipts.

That year I started a new system, and I've worked it the same way every year since then. Here's how it goes...

In December, start collecting new folders, hanging files, those neat little plastic file tabs (from Post-It), a plastic file box big enough to hold all of the previous year's essential paperwork, and some large envelopes and fresh markers. The large envelopes are great to hold an unruly stack of receipts.

Go to an office supply store and choose one of the plastic file boxes with a lid on it, one which has the little lips on either side for hanging files. This way when you open the file box, you can flip through the tax box as easily as you can flip through your filing cabinet's drawer.

On the front of the plastic file box, write the year and any other information. Use big, fat letters so that it is easy to read even if you are standing on your head with a flashlight in your mouth. Never can tell ... For instance, you might label the box 'Taxes: Business & Personal 2011.'

All through the last month of the year, as you close out activity on a category, remove that folder from the filing cabinet and place it in your tax box. Then, prepare a new hanging file for the coming year's notes, label a fresh new file folder with the category and date it, e.g., 'Utilities, 2011.' Do that when you pay the recurring December bills, or when you balance the December bank statement. From time to time, sit down at the tax box and clean out extraneous notes and papers in the folders. Don't throw away important receipts, though, as I did!

When you take your paperwork to a tax preparer, you will be a better prepared customer, and may wind up paying less than those people who come in with a shoebox filled with a mess of receipts and handwritten notes.

I will say that one of the best tax prep ideas I ever came up with was a yearly Tax Diary. It is the one go-to place where I keep receipts of deductible expenses through the year. Now, I am keeping an Excel spreadsheet on the different categories, too. I admit to never deveoping a schedule for filing, and my system is pretty primitive. I toss all unfiled receipts in a basket by my desk, and then one day when they are threatening to topple over, I go through them one by one, enter the amounts/dates/payment method on my Excel spread sheet, and once they are on that spreadsheet, I file them in a folder in the Tax Diary. My yearly Tax Diary has these folders in it: Local Taxes, Medical Expenses, Estimated personal income tax payment, and Donations. All during the year I file any paperwork that has to do with these most important folders. At the end of the year, I print out the Excel sheet and send it along with my other important tax papers to my accountant, make a copy for the folder and transfer the Tax Diary to the tax box for future reference.

January is the time for creating all sorts of new folders for the clean filing cabinet. As I pay bills, I look at that clean corner of my desk and really do not want to see a pile of receipts, so in January I create new folders and file everything right away. That's where I am in the process right now and it feels very good, but I know that by April, the pile will already be a healthy size, and I will have that little reminder going off in the back of my mind telling me it is time to do some filing. Good thing for me that I cannot go longer than a quarter with most of the filing, because there are business taxes to be paid quarterly. That is a sort of natural time to get things back into order.

This is how I keep the paperwork organized. I hope it gives you incentive to try my method, or to improve upon it, for your self.

Call for Convention Orders

2010-12-14T16:21:00.003-05:00

I am afraid that I am giving short notice to wholesale customers in this Call for Convention Orders. It is, unfortunately, out of necessity as customers are starting to talk about attending Stitches West in February, and needing to get their stock in so they can dye it up and pack for the event.

Last year I managed what I thought was a pretty good campaign to impress on my customers who resell at conventions and fiber festivals, and the whole effort was to get people to plan ahead. It seems, though, that this will be a yearly battle and that I must start anew. Well, is this totally fair? I do have some customers who are much more organized than I am, and who have quietly pushed me to get their yarns to them with a couple of months' padding before their events. And, of course, there are the newbies who are tentative about how it all works and write me many eMails so that they can get in tune with how long a lead time they will need in order to have their yarn in hand with enough time to dye up a thoughtfully prepared color palette.

Then, there are those who just sort of go with the flow and pick up what they need when they need it. This is great and I am all for free spirits, believe me! It does make having enough for everyone a bit of a problem.

Over the spring and summer there was a big, intercontinental pow-wow which went on for about six weeks, all aimed at getting Wool2Dye4 set up as a Standing Order customer at the merino mill. This process probably could have been abbreviated if I had only understood all the elements which go into play for the entire process. It is certainly not as easy as calling up and saying I want this, this, and that, but involves procurement, scheduling, accounting, forecasting, and other steps at the local level. On the worldwide scene, it involves bidding at international fiber market level, and high finance at a level much higher than I can reach.

So I am beginning to appreciate that tooth-pulling process I went through last spring and summer to get to my Standing Order phase in the grand scheme of things. But since supply and demand remain the basis of all economies, I have had to learn that my demand figures in heavily into the supply I can expect. And, the same goes for my customers and me. It is simply not possible to give my customer base what they want and need if they do not let me know with some warning time built in.

Plan Ahead,then, became my mantra all of last year. Now, I wish I had kept it up! Was I worried that my newsletters were getting boring with all the talk about getting in orders early and helping me keep organized, or was I getting bored with writing the same thing over and over again, myself? I think it was the latter. Man! I should take my own advice sometimes.

Background. There is so much work in the background when it comes to participating at any level in these fiber festivals, conventions, and workshops. They are concentrated in spring and fall months, primarily. Here we are just eight weeks away from the first major fiber event, Stitches West in Santa Clara, California over the weekend of February 17-20, 2011. If my newsletter today scared fire into absolutely everyone, then we should just make the deadline, but this will mean some long nights and weekends stirring the dyepot. I just know it. Luckily, the Standing Order will prop up available inventory on the best selling yarns, and the new British yarns have all been spun in one ton amounts, literally. I will wait 24 hours and see just how many dyers have taken my urgent call for orders to heart, cross my fingers, and plow into another busy festival season.

Sample knitting from Ushya ... Mirasol's new SuperBulky

2010-12-10T09:53:00.003-05:00

Here is a simple wristwarmer done in SuperBulky Ushya. It is one of the yarns which I bought for UptownStitches.com just before deciding to close down that secondary website. ( I continue to call UptownStitches my secondary website, because I have received eMails from folks asking what I will do with all my spare time, now that I am closing this website! They have no idea what a time-monster my main website, Wool2dye4.com, is!)

Here is simple pattern:
Bulky Knit Wrist Warmers
Yarn: Heavy worsted/ Bulky
Gauge: 3 stitches/inch

Cast on 24, join to knit in the round.

Rows 1-10: *K4, P4* around
Rows 11-12: *P4, K4* around
Rows 13-23: *K4, P4* around
Cast off loosely.

Update on the sell-off at UptownStitches.com

2010-12-09T09:49:00.003-05:00

Since announcing the '50% off' sale, my life has turned upside down! First, I will say that once I decided to close that secondary website, getting rid of the inventory was first priority. So, instead of starting the sale at, say, 20% off and slowly increasing the discount, I decided not to drag it out, but to get going and sell the inventory quickly.
What I did not consider, though, was that there might be a feeding frenzy in fiber-land, and that's exactly what happened. Pulling and packing many orders -- many for one each of ten different yarns! -- plus keeping current with Wool2Dye4 got to be too much. Since I had moved the dyed yarns, aka Uptown Stitches, to a spare room in my home to give more space in the studio for Wool2Dye4, that meant that I was the one pulling the orders, and bringing them into the studio each day. For the first four or five nights, I was putting in some late hours!
We are going to catch up today and will be current with the orders. Yesterday I reorganized the Uptown Stitches room, and distributed what is left on the shelves so that they can be seen easily.

Here's what we have the most of ...
Elsbeth Lavold Silky Wool XL, most of the colors
Elsbeth Lavold Favorite Wool, most of the colors
(cotton yarn) Kraemer's Belfast
(cotton yarn) Kraemer's Saucon
Rooster Aran Almerino, color Gooseberry(sort of dark lime green)
Rooster DK Almerino, color Gooseberry
Rooster Aran Almerino in Custard *

*Now, I know that Custard might not be a very nice name for a color, as lots of people do not like custard. It falls into that category with avocados, where people first describe the texture rather than the taste. Most people like sweets, but not all people like custard. To me, the thought of custard brings to mind the connotation 'eggy!' and that's not a good thing in my culinary consideration. Back to yarn, though, this Custard-named alpaca/merino blend is a nice and rich yellow. It falls into the family of yellows which have a little brown mixed in, to tone down the one color which reflects light. It is actually what I call Italian Yellow. I use that shade to paint all the ceilings in my house! The Italians are always talking about the sun and the sea, and this color on a ceiling is like the sun shining down on you all day long, rain or shine.

Custard. It's a nice color! I've got a lot of that yarn, left, too, and I think it is all because of the name!

Uptown Stitches Sale Starts Today!

2010-11-26T16:43:00.002-05:00

Uptown Stitches is my secondary website. I had a brilliant idea that I needed a place to sell the dyed yarns of some of my handdyers, and so I created Uptown Stitches. To drive people to the site, I took on some wellknown brands such as Mini Mochi, Elsbeth Lavold, Kraemer Yarns, Ellie Rae, Mirasol and some of the works of a few handdyers like Handwerks, Knit Witch, Lazy Perry Ranch, Yummy Yarn, Gypsy Knits, Xtreme Spinning, Zen Yarn Garden and a few others.

But it did not take off. My brilliant idea got lost in the magnitude of the internet, and so I have made the business decision to close it down. I think that for such a site to work today, you'd almost have to carry everybody. The sites which are successful have a huge line of dyers or commercial yarn companies on their line up. I just did not want to divert funds from Wool2Dye4, and so have come to the decision to close Uptown Stitches. All ideas are not really brilliant, I suppose.

So, that said, here is the announcement:

50% off all yarns and spinning fibers at www.UptownStitches.com!

Holiday Stocking 2DYE4 by Barb Brown, Wild Geese Fibre

2010-11-19T13:36:00.002-05:00

HOLIDAY STOCKING 2DYE4
©Barb Brown Nov 18, 2010
Gauge: approx. 5 st. and 7 rows per inch (gauge is not critical)
Abrev.
s1wyib –slip one with yarn in back of work

Using long tail cast on, and CC1 cast on 60
Knit 1 row with CC1.
Using MC, join in round, being careful not to twist sts.

Round 1: With MC *K5, s1wyib* rep. bet ** around
Round 2: With MC *p5, s1wyib* rep. bet ** around . (to s1wyib bring yarn bet. needles to back of work, sl1, bring yarn back bet. needles to front of work)

Repeat rounds 1 and 2 twice more (total of 3 repeats) then work round 1 one more time.

Knit 1 round with MC.
Knit 1 round with CC, dec. 4 sts. around to 56 sts.
With CC, work 1 inch of k2, p2 ribbing
Knit 1 round with MC.
Work Graph One , repeating sts. 1 to 28 twice around (st. 29 is worked only after dividing for heel flap)

Continue in pattern until work measures 12 inches or desired length from top of stocking.
Divide for heel:
Break yarn
Place first 29 sts. on hold for instep.
Work heel flap on remaining 27 sts., inc. 1 st. on first row to 28 sts.
(right side facing- CC )
Row 1: s1, knit across
Row 2: s1, purl across
Repeat these 2 rows 8 more times (total of 18 rows)

Turn heel:
Row 1: k18, ssk, k1 turn
Row 2: s1, p9, p2tog, p1, turn
Row 3: s1, k10, ssk, k1, turn
Continue until all sts. have been worked. 18 sts. remain.
Break yarn.

With MC pickup10 sts. down the heel flap, knit across heel sts inc. 1 st., pickup 10 sts. up heel flap. Join in CC, work 29 sts. Graph One on instep. (68 sts. now in round – 29 instep, 39 sole)
Place markers 5 sts. in from each end of sole to mark gusset sts. Slip markers when working.

Round 1: *k1 CC, k1 MC* across, ending k1 CC, work instep sts. maintaining continuity of graph
Round 2: ssk with CC, work CC and MC across sole sts. maintaining stripes to last 2 sts., k2tog. with CC sts. work instep sts. maintaining continuity of graph

Repeat round 1 and 2 until 58 sts. remain in round. (All sts. in gusset within markers dec.)
Work round 2 until sock is 2 inches less than desired final length.
Knit around with CC
Shape toe:

Round 1: With MC, *k1, s1* across sole ending k1. Repeat across instep.

Round 2: with CC, k1, ssk, knit across sole to last 3 sts, k2tog, k1
Repeat across instep

Round 3: with MC, k1, *k1, s1* across sole ending k2. Repeat across instep

Round 4: as round 2

Repeat rounds 1 through 4, keeping stripe as established on round 1, until there are 26 sts. in the round
Graft with CC. Sew in ends, wash and block.
LOOP FOR HANGING: Cast on 40 sts. Knit 1 row. Cast off. Attach to back of stocking.

Incoming! Mid-November 2010

2010-11-09T14:16:00.004-05:00

Good news of a restocking due to arrive around the 16th to 18th of November. Here is what is coming in...

Angel Lace skeins
Angel Select skeins
Bamboo TwoStep skeins and cones
Butterfly Lace skeins
Cash Aran MCN cones
Cash DK MCN skeins
Cash Sock MCN skeins and cones
Crazy Eight skeinsPlatinum Sock skeins
Sheila's Aran skeins and cones
Sheila's Gold skeins
Sheila's Sock skeins and cones
Silk Sock 50/50 skeins
Surino skeins
Tweed Aran skeins
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW skeins and cones

When we get news that the shipment is about to pass through Customs, we will send out the newsletters to all registered customers. Also, that is when we will send private eMails to customers who have asked us to reserve some of these incoming yarns.

Exciting times! I just love it when the shipments arrive. We have just had more shelves delivered and moved everything around in the shop. That's fun, too because it makes you notice the stock levels even more.

Wool Week in London

2010-10-12T15:28:00.003-04:00

This week the glitterati celebrate Fashion Week in the major cities around the globe. In London His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales participated by video in a major fashion party thrown by the directors of publishers Conde Nast. He spoke about the importance of choosing real wool and of promoting the industries which are fed by wool. "A couple of years ago I was shocked to discover that it often costs more to shear a sheep than a farmer would be paid for its wool,' he said.

Please read on by following these links to articles and a series of wonderful pictures of sheep being herded in downtown London.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/12/wool-week-hits-london-she_n_759653.html

http://www.vogue.co.uk/celebrity-photos/101012-wool-week-selfridges-party.aspx

New Yarns any day now ...

2010-10-11T13:31:00.003-04:00

3 new yarns are coming any time now ...
... Cash Aran MCN
... Tweed Sock
...W2D4 Merino Bulky

Coming within the month, Sheila's Sparkle ...
Here is a sneak peek at this new yarn. Wholesalers! take note. This yarn will have you at the forefront of the latest movement ... sparkle and shine.

Our newest yarn: Dove Sock Sport weight

2010-09-23T16:39:00.004-04:00

Fire consumes BFL stocks in UK

2010-09-22T11:52:00.002-04:00

I have sent this letter to several BFL customers this morning. Read on ...

Over the past weekenhd, the warehouse in England which housed all our BFL (Bluefaced Leicester) yarns, was burned down. Arson. The fire consumed the remaining kilos of our private yarn, BFL Ultra! which was one of the first yarns I had a hand in designing and a yarn close to my heart. Also consumed were tons of BFL Aran on cones and skeins, one of our best sellers.

The BFL Aran can be replaced, not immediately but over time. It is a time consuming process to buy up the rare BlueFaced Leicester fiber at Market, and then ship it in different directions to be processed by hand, sent to mills and spun and then returned again. We are looking at a recovery period of months.

We have a limited supply of BFL Aran on cones right now.

Luckily, we had contracted for spinning two of our former BFL sock weights at a mill which spins our merino yarns, and the shipment had not been sent at the time of the fire. This means tha we expect to welcome back our old favorites, BFL Platinum and BFl-4 Socking, sometime this fall. Wool2Dye4 may have to share our portion of this shipment, though, with our British friends as they will be starving for white yarns!

If you are on Ravlery, I invite you to join a knitted project I am trying to put together. (If you are a knitter or crochet'er, and have not yet heard about Ravelry, you must join the fun! www.Ravelry.com to join) Something in the order of a knitted homage for our BFL supplier, who comes over to work with me a couple of times a year. (Wool2Dye4 is the US distributor for HW Hammand & Co. / Bluefaced.com.) We are thinking of garlands, knitted garlands. If you would like to join that effort, we will welcome your contributions. The group is called: Friends of Wool2Dye4.

We will be sending out more information as we learn more about the production schedules in the future by newsletter, and on Ravelry and the blog. Thank you for your past support of our BFL distribution. We hope to get up to speed by the springtime once again with this line. In the meantime, our merino and other fiber blends will continue to be offered in our regular lineup, as they are not housed in England.

Best wishes,
Sheila
www.Wool2Dye4.com
www.UptownStitches.com

Busy While We Wait ...

2010-09-14T16:09:00.002-04:00

... for delivery of yarn. Here are 100 receipt packets ready and waiting. These feature samples of W2D4 Merino DK-SW, the yarn we have most stock of.

French Press Cozy

2010-09-07T17:30:00.004-04:00

Here is one simple knit ... a tube from my antique circular sock machine with ends seamed together then turned so the seams are on the inside. It keeps my morning coffee a bit warmer for just a while longer!

Fall Re-Stockings

2010-09-03T15:20:00.003-04:00

The best laid plans of mice and men all go awry, don't they. In the past few weeks we have been juggling the schedules of five incoming re-stocking shipments, due between now and the end of October. Very exciting stuff, as we have been slowing selling out of many yarns and were eyeing the calendar nervously.

Today, though, the good news came that a two ton shipment has started the journey to the studio. This is actually Shipment #2, and Shipment #1 somehow got switched out of position. All the folks I have notified about yarns in the first shipment will be disappointed by one week, but it is still pretty good darned news that the bigger shipment is arriving first to be followed, in two weeks, by a bigger and bigger shipment. Ahhhh! Lovely, lovely yarn! These are the most exciting days of Wool2Dye4, when the incoming shipments are just about here. The letters and eMails are flying. This translates to lists and notes on my computer and now taped to a false wall I had built behind me so that I can jump up and make old-fashioned hand written notes to myself. People ask me all the time how I keep up with all the individual requests and the answer is that I have electronic as well as hand written notes, and sometimes we do make a mistake. But we don't want to talk about that here!

Below is the list in incoming yarns coming probably around September 8th or 9th. There is one new yarn on the list: Dove Sock, something that we are trying out and may only offer this once, depending on the reception. At the most, it will be added to Wool2Dye4's permanent lineup, and at the least, it will be around for this one period only. Those who pick it up will have a wonderful alpaca/silk yarn for holiday knitting! Lovely and soft in sock weight, with around 410 yards per 100 gram skein.

Also returning to the lineup is Tencel/Merino, which some people call 'the poor man's silk!' It has a limited crowd of admirers, but very devoted they are.

I am going to organize the list by weight.

Sock Yarns
Platinum Sock skeins & cones
Sheila's Sock skeins & cones
Cash Sock skeins & cones
Sheila's Gold skeins
Angel Delight Fingering skeins
Silk Sock 50/50 skeins (limited quantity. Please eMail me to reserve)
Dove Sock skeins *
*new this fall, Dove Sock is 80/20 blend of baby alpaca/silk. 50 kilos coming only.

DK/3Ply/Worsted
Cash DK MCN skeins & cones
Silk DK 50/50 skeins & cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins & cones
Tencel/Merino skeins (returns after a vacation... welcome back!)
Ultra Merino 3Ply skeins
Crazy Eight skeins
W2D4 Merino Worsted skeins & cones

Aran & Bulky
Sheila's Aran skeins

New Lace added to the 'Select' line (875 yds/100gr)

2010-08-17T11:46:00.002-04:00

We have lately begun to develop a line of laces which are slightly heavier than the usual laces. That is to say, our regular laces usually carry about 1300+ yards in a skein of 100 grams. The new line runs at 875 yds/100 gr skein, so about one third heavier. Still lace weight, certainly, but just a bit more substantial.

Here is a picture of the newest in the line, and it's a little surprise ... superwash merino lace!

Ultra Select Lace

Sheila's Gold ... dyed and ready for knitting!

2010-08-17T11:43:00.005-04:00

Have you tried Sheila's Gold yet?
80/20 blend of our springy superwasy merino with nylon

Used Knitting Books

2010-07-15T16:21:00.003-04:00

Gently used, that is. We've posted some of my personal knitting books on the Wool2Dye4 website. Time to clear out a few shelves here and there to make room. Make room for what? Another obsession and literature to support it, I suppose. For the moment, though, I am thinking of what the shelf might look like with less stuff on it, so I have brought some of my own books into the shop and Sarah listed them on the website.
These are all in excellent condition, a few may have marks on a pattern, but I am not the type of person to underline or highlight passages in my books. And, the price is at 50% of the cover price, so a good deal if it is a title you are looking for.
Go to www.Wool2Dye4.com and click on the category 'Odds'n'Ends' to see a list of the books currently listed. We will continue to add titles as the list dwindles. Dwindingly and adding. Hmmmm. I like that word 'dwindling' and don't often get a chance to use it in coversation.

Superwash vs Non-Superwash top

2010-07-07T09:46:00.004-04:00

................... Two views of an experiment in correcting a labelling error.

The blue mini-skeins were each spun from what was labelled either Superwash or
Non-Superwash in the BFL Top. The results show clearly that we labelled the bins wrong!

Cannot tell you how I felt to receive two letters over the weekend from customers who swore that they did not get the spinning fiber they ordered. One expected superwash BFL; the other ordered non-superwash BFL. Both told stories with the same bottom line: it either felted, or didn't. And, we all know that superwash is not supposed to felt unless submitted to extreme condition.

That's what I tried to do with the experiment in dyeing first a 2-ply yarn and then a hank of roving. The yarn was dunked into almost boiling water for an initial soak, and lifted out by the choke ties and unceremoniously dipped several times more in the soaking bath. Then, they were tossed into a dyepot which was a little too hot and again subjected to the dipping technique, with a few swats of a long handled plastic spoon added for effect. The skein on the left held up from the first bit of abuse; the plies maintained their identification, and there was no spreading out of fiber as in the right hand side hank. The hank on the left side absorbed more color than the one on the right. Conclusion: Left side is Superwash, though not labelled as such, and right side is non-superwash, though, again, not labelled as such. Shame, shame.

The top reacted in the same way, but fpr one noticeable difference which was in the color of the top when it first hit the soaking bath before being dyed. The one of the left kept the white-white color, and the one of the right immediately darkened. The yellowish cast. which was more prominent on the right hand side raw fiber, is a clue that BFL might be superwash.

After much worse abuse applied to the top including stirring about in the hot dye bath, a series of swift thwacks to the bulk, and general agitation -- which we all know is one of the two necessary environmental requirements to make felt, the other being heat -- the theory formed from the skein experiment was supported by evidence of thick felting in one skein. Again, this fiber had been originally labelled as superwash, but it obviously was not superwash.

So, there we have evidence of the results of passing out one fiber to unsuspecting customers who just want to dye up some nice BFL top and are, instead, subjected to a rude experience.

I'm sorry.

Actually, we did a quick experiment in the shop and immediately saw the true non-superwash begin to cling together when first wet, and the color to deepen to the yellowish tone. This is true of superwash yarns and fibers. The chemical process does darken the fiber itself. The other immediate clue was the superwash fiber absorbed more color. It is darker than the non-superwash, regular fiber, and this is always true of superwash. The superwash process strips away the tiny scales which line each shaft of fiber, exposing the core to the dye. Instead of the dead scales disapating the color, the core of superwash fiber is exposed to the dyes without any shielding from the scales.

OK, all's fixed now. The bins are labelled correctly, and we are making it right with the few customers who purchased this confused lot in the past seven weeks. Again, my apologies for the mix-up!

Summer Lace, Anyone?

2010-06-28T14:06:00.003-04:00

How about a slightly different laceweight for this summer? By different, I mean slightly heavier than our typical Angel Lace and Butterfly Lace, which are fine yarns. With only one third more fiber, lace becomes something that is accessible and realistic for more knitters to handle. Instead of 1300 yards in a skein of one hundred grams, how about 825 yards in the same sized skeins? Suddenly it is just a bit more attractive to knitters who may have hesitated to knit with laceweights, yet loved the look and very subtle artiness of lace.

At least that is what my wholesale customers are telling me, and we are going to give it a good try. Our UK supplier has offered us 100 kilos each of Angel Select and Butterfly Select for the summer months. At the end of that time we will begin to hold regular stock of them both, and add them permanently to our line.

The new weights will be called the Select line, to distinuguish them from the very much thinner Lace line. So, we begin with two: Angel Select ... 70/20/10 blend of baby alpaca, silk and cashmere. The same blend as Angel Lace, Angel Delight Fingering, and Angel Sock Sport. And Butterfly Select, the blend of Butterfly Lace ... 80/20 superfine merino with silk ... yet slightly thicker.

We will list the new weight on the website in a week or so. Until then, please let me know if you think this weight will suit you and your customers. Thank you!

Trade Show Weekend

2010-06-15T16:24:00.004-04:00

TNNA (The National Needlework Association) held the annual Summer show this past weekend in Columbus OH, and Sarah and I were there. It was a weekend of introduction of a new Wool2Dye4 line intended for yarn shop owners, and marked the official beginning of a new distributor relationship with Knitcellaneous. Sarah took two classes while there, one of the wonderful side benefits of the TNNA shows .. classes with the glitterati of the needlework world. I worked the booth with Knitcellaneous owners Deb and Bill, and with the owners of two British boutique yarn companies who also introduced new lines with Knitcellaneous. Both FyberSpates and Rooster Yarn joined me in the expansion of Knitcellaneous's offerings.

Many shop owners and knitters already know Knitcellaneous as the manufacturer and distributor of those cute little mini sockblocker key rings, wooden shawl pins, and the dog tags printed with instructions for the Kitchener Stitch. So, now, they are expanding and becoming the exclusive distributor of these two British yarns, upper end yarns which are really gorgeous. I am talking about luscious blends of alpaca and superfine merino Rooster yarns, and the luxurious silk/superfine merino in Scrumptious by FyberSpates. Really, really nice stuff!

We are excited about being the other entry in the new lineup. Even more so after a weekend of working with Deb and Bill, Andy of Rooster Yarns and Jeni of FyberSpates. All of us have the same work ethic and soon were hopping up to talk about each other's lines, just pitching in and making it work. How invigorating to work with people like this and to have fun doing it. Must tell you that many shop owners were spotted actually petting Scrumptious. And their eyes popped appreciably open when they were handed a ball of Rooster and gave it the all familiar yarn lover's squeeze.

Wool2Dye4's new line is a trio of simple kits called Try It/Dye It. Each kit contains a pattern, 12 packets of Kool Aid drink mix, gloves, instructions, and a skein of the yarn appropriate to the pattern. I designed three simple projects which any advanced beginning knitter can knit without being bored. We've got a neck warmer which employs a 4-stitch reversible pattern and folds into a mobius for a nice drape around the neck. Also a set a wrist warmers which uses the faggotting and slip-stitch combination. The third is my basic sock pattern using a one-piece/shortrow heel. At the booth we laid out knitted samples of each project and some handdyed skeins. For every order to a yarn shop, we will also include a party planning guide on how to throw a good Try It/Dye It dye party.

Friday's early orders looked good, and we look forward to receiving the orders placed on Sunday, the typical day when shop owners place their show orders after walking the vendor floor and attending a majorly mobbed Sample It event ... where we did really well, by the way!

So much fun to be associated with these upbeat folks who love their businesses as much as I do. I do like the idea of slowly introducing more people to dyeing wool and think that our Try It/Dye It kits will be a comfortable way to let more people try their hand at dyeing. This is the beginning of a new venture for Wool2Dye4, and TNNA was a terrific way to start.

Picture: Jeni Brown of FyberSpates stands at our booth. If you look very hard on the far left of the table there are three of my kits propped up against the backdrop. Those are the Try It/ Dye It kits!

Trade Show this weekend ... TNNA

2010-06-10T07:02:00.003-04:00

TNNA is a trade show which is held in four locations around the country, and the nearest to me is the summer show in Columbus Ohio. It is primarily aimed at owners of local yarn shops and it is the place where they go to see what is coming out next season, to discover new lines and products, and to get a taste of general trends and forecasts. PLUS this is a place where some of the very top designers and teachers and authors are brought together for top notch classes. Shop owners are often tied to the premises, so TNNA has created a really well organized event to include education, networking, shopping ... all of the best business connections rolled into one week.

Wool2Dye4 is going as an adjunct to another company, Knitcellaneous. We are introducing a line of kits which Knitcellaneous will carry for us. There are 3 kits, each with a skein of yarn, 12 packets of Kool Aid (yes...), dye instructions, and a pattern. The kits are intended to be sold by the local yarn shops to attendees to the Try It/Dye It workshops. Workshop attendees may choose from the sock pattern, or wrist warmers or neck warmer.

So, we will be hanging around the Knitcellaneous booth for a few days. And, Sarah, my most able Assistant, is giving two presentations on Friday on how to throw a dye party.

I will be trolling the vendor floor, looking for familiar faces and a few new ones as well. Hope to meet the Ravelry folks, for example, and one of my dyers for UptownStitches.com is attending. We actually met a couple of years ago at a convention for owners of those pesky antique circular sock machines. She is multitalented, this gal! Handwerks, her company name.

Can't wait. I need a little break, and seeing friends and learning about what is happening for the buying public is valuable news for me as my customers are a step closer to the end user than I am. This type of meeting broadens my perspective of the market, and I make business decisions based on what I can pick up from every source available to me. Plus, there will be lots of yarn fondling going on, meets and eats with some good friends, and a welcome change of pace. I can feel the shoulders start to loosen up a bit as I think of it!

Knits Well With Others ...

2010-06-08T08:40:00.003-04:00

Joining groups is always a double edged sword for me. Usually I am enthusiastic and am attracted by the advertised purpose of the group. Somehow it's happened that my anticipation is greater than the realization of purpose, and while I may participate in projects, as invited, eventually I wander away. That said, I might still pay dues to the organization, especially if they are struggling to maintain membership minimum rosters. I do this with the Handweavers' Guild, and did not drift away from them because of the projects or people, but for an entirely different reason. In fact, that is probably the best and most focussed group I ever joined, and I met wonderful friends there. No, I drifted away because one morning I woke up and realized with simple clarity that I am not a weaver. I put my loom up for sale and made a new friend from the lady who purchased it, by the way, and started to visit the guild less frequently. For one thing, they meet about an hour and a half away from my current home, so that made it difficult, and for another, they are so focussed that I would be out of my element at the hands on meetings.

Already I drive up to that area, which is where I grew up in Central Virginia, and knit with a small group of knitters and one quilter. We meet on the first Saturday of the month. Sometimes when we have to skip a month, the next month's gathering is all the better for it. That's what happened this month.

It may have been two months since we met, come to think of it. Not quite sure, but I do know that the ride up to my home to the place where the mountain views are the very ones that feed my heart and soul, and a lovely and happy relaxed mantle gently spread across my shoulders as I neared home. I say 'home' but our meeting place is in a new little coffee shop in a new big development. It's the spot where that movie about a man who built an ark and sailed right into the halls of Congress, remember that movie a couple of years ago? That's just where the coffee shop is. The mountains form the perfect vista out the window where I have unabashedly claimed a permanent seat at the end of the table, and all I have to do is glance up and there they are.

Shopping time!

2010-05-19T13:17:00.002-04:00

We have posted the amounts of incoming inventory on the site now, and also posted private and pre-orders. So, everything is available for purchase now.

Today the tracking report on the re=stocking order shows that the shipment is physically only a two hour drive away from me as I type. Very exciting, but oh, so far, too! Today it is scheduled to go through Customs where they open random boxes in hopes of finding something illegal. I always laugh to think what the Customs officials think of all that white yarn!

If all goes according to my plans ... and why would I say such a thing! ... then the shipment will arrive at the studio door tomorrow, and we will begin to ship on Friday. If it arrives on Friday, though, we will start shipping on Monday.

Thanks, all, for your patience. The wait is part of the process!

More stock ...

2010-05-18T17:20:00.002-04:00

... at the end of the week! Glad to find that our next shipment will actually arrive by the end of the week. With UPS taking the shipment from the mill to my door, on a couple of continents, we have had a few learning episodes. Long story made short, though, is that while there was one fairly substantial glitch in the process which cost us 8 days of waiting, UPS does learn from their mistakes! They have assigned a person to my orders, and even provided me their name! Now, that is a gutsy move on their part, if you ask me.

This time, we are bringing in much larger numbers than before, and have broken delivery into two parts. In another two weeks there will be more, more, more!

Here is what is expected at the end of this week ... skeins, all, except as noted:
Bamboo Two-Step, Butterfly Lace, Cash Sock, Cash DK, Platinum Sock, Sheila's Gold, Sheila's Sock, Silk Sock 50/50, Silk DK 50/50 Tweed (on cones) and W2D4 Merino DK-SW.

Two of these yarns are coming smaller quantities than half of what I ordered, if this makes sense. Platinum Sock and W2D4 Merino DK-SW are just appearing in minimal numbers this week, but arrive in force in two weeks' time, I am happy to report.

The delays and errors that happen along the way are a part of ordering the manufacture of a product from a foreign country where your influence is minimal, and in the day-to-day operations, non-existent. For the most part, my customers have learned to wait a bit, but there are those who continue to try to exact a committed date which can be held as gospel truth. Such things just don't happen in the international manufacturing, shipping, business. Then, there are those who have looked at the site and have not seen the new stock, and figure that they must have missed the shipment entirely! I do not know why they suddenly think I have stopped communicating, or jumped to the conclusion that they missed the re-stocking shipment. Too, I don't know why they didn't write to me two weeks ago to ask about it instead of jumping to conclusions. And, I've never really understood how radio waves work, so there are the mysteries of business and commerce all wrapped up neatly!

Hold on and stay tuned! More yarn is on the way!

The next shipment has moved ...

2010-05-10T17:34:00.002-04:00

... but then stalled, so we are doing a little waiting on this one at the early stages. The reason this is important is that I am trying out a new shipper. Well, 'new' in the sense that they have not yet taken over the entire shipment from South America to Virginia yet. We do have to give them the benefit of the doubt, though. The responsibilities for each segment of the trip lie with a different office, and the reason we look forward to a successful trip this time, is because we hope that communication within one company will lessen the chances of things which could go wrong and will.

We shall see! I am rooting for their success. After all, what can I do about it at this point, but wait?

Our World is Getting Smaller ...

2010-04-21T11:26:00.002-04:00

Something to think about ..
Recent volcanic activity in Iceland has affected trans-Atlantic flights, and will probably have an impact on the delivery schedules of our British yarns.

In the past we have been lucky to take advatage of our British Wool supplier's overnight FedEx delivery by air. Now, we may see some periods of low stock on the Bluefaced leicester yarns, Lux SuperChunky, and Falkland Buily yarns, as well as the British spinning fibers.

Please do be aware that if any of these yarns goes into an Out-of-Stock situation, it is probably due to delayed air travel across the north Atlantic. We ask for your patience and understanding through the next few months.
Sheila Trunzo Mahone
Posted: April 21, 2010

The new Customs Broker is Magic Man!

2010-04-07T16:47:00.002-04:00

Amazing! The new Customs Broker called today to say he'd put together the documents, found my bond, and was searching for the best way to deliver to me ... maybe tomorrow! Such different customer service, I assure you, from the Big Guys. I can never remember a telephone call from them in the entire time they moved my shipments.

I am a happy woman! Now, just have to stop a moment and consider working hard in this early flash of humid Virginia heat. Hmmm. We can do it!

The Wait is On for a Change ...

2010-04-06T16:31:00.002-04:00

... in shippers. There is a part of me which feels like I have been a prisoner in the land of international importers. For some reason, I have stuck with the same importer/broker for the past four years, even though they torture me with lack of communication, overcharging, and agents who do not speak English as a First Language. Not that I have prejudices in this area, believe me, because at one time, I had a successful textbook distributorship selling books in English as a Second Language in California. But I digress ...

I want to complain, and rarely do it in public; however, today is the day for maybe just a little rant, nothing major at all because people have actually been calling me and helping me. I just want my yarn, that's all. Here I sit, awaiting the largest re-stocking order we have yet to receive, and I know that my wool is just a two-hour drive from here yet can do nothing to grab it up. Even so, I am not unhappy with the importer because we are trying out a new shipper and so far, they have been 1000 times more communicative than the one who held me prisoner in the past for far too long. Could I have escaped, I now dare to ask myself? Hmmmm....

They are so nice! They call me with concern over the missing paperwork (not their fault!), and they have guided me along the way to secure a new broker for this shipper. That guy is so nice, too, and he's Italian! ... by way of New Jersey, but then I am Italian by way of Pennsylvania and Virginia, so we are even there. I have never had such wonderful customer service in the import activities as I've had with these people.

Still, I do not have my shipment and have been watching the developments on three continents, as others in the food chain push and prod to get the right papers into the right hands. But, I can forgive them because, well, they are all so darned nice! and, I am going through a sort of new classroom in importing. I think I got complacent over the past four years in knowing the order of what paperwork was expected at which point. It got to the point, though, that no one bothered to notify me when the shipment would arrive, and I was left guessing most of the time. Try to imagine what I is like keeping my customer base informed when I, myself, am not in complete control of the info!

Now, will my customers be equally forgiving to me? Cannot answer that one, but I will admit that I have given myself a little pad of time in discussing the arrival date of this order. The begging is only now beginning to trickle in, nothing major yet. Hope they will all have the spring spirit and think I am just as nice as I think these new import folk are, too! How I wish there were no begging at all, and I had all the yarn at hand when anyone wanted anything. One of these days ... That is my goal!

Knitting Bags from Haiti

2010-03-29T14:31:00.002-04:00

Knowing how we all want to help fellow crafters and artists in Haiti, I want to suggest this site might be a good place to start. This site sells handmade burlap bags, made by a co-op of Haitian women. It is overseen by a group of American volunteers who have put together a list of products which are made by hand by Haitian women. The volunteers are a faith-based group who have created a program designed to educate women about health and nutrition for families.

If you are interested, please follow this link:
http://haitiancreations.com

Restocking today at Wool2Dye4

2010-03-10T16:11:00.003-05:00

Today we received another big shipment, and again it was bigger than any previous shipment. Seems that every months I say that, and every month I mean that! This is what we are currently processing -- labelling, breaking down into smaller packs, putting onto the shelves and into the bins.

Cash Sock skeins and cones
Sheila's Aran cones
Sheila's Sock skeins and cones
Silk Sock 50/50 skeins
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins and cones
Private orders for springtime clubs and events

Another stock order is due in just a few short weeks, perhaps end-of-the-month or early April. That order will bring two new yarns: Cash DK (our MCN yarn in DK weight), and Silk DK 50/50. Both DK yarns will have the typical yardage of our Merino DK-SW yarn and will be priced as their companion Cash Sock and Silk Sock 50/50.

The shipment will bring:

Angel Lace Skeins
Angel Sock Sport skeins
Bamboo TwoStep Skeins
Cash Sock skeins and cones
Cash DK (new)
Platinum Sock skeins and cones
Sheila's Aran skeins
Sheila's Sock skeins and cones
Silk Sock 50/50 skeins
Silk DK 50/50 (new)
Surino
Ultra Merino 3-Ply skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino Worsted-SW skeins and cones
W2D4 Merino DK-SW skeins cones

Surino, by the way, is one of the yarns we bring in a few times during the year, and is a lovely luxury yarn. It is 50/50 blend of Suri Alpaca with superfine Merino. Very nice.

Good news on the new price structure

2010-03-05T09:56:00.002-05:00

Looking at the new pricelist, I see that several yarns will not be going up in price. These are the yarns which will not have a price increase on May 1, 2010...

Cash Sock
Cash DK
Angel Lace
Angel Sport Sock
Angel Delight Fingering
Butterfly Lace
Surino
Bamboo TwoStep

The new pricelist will sent to wholesale customers by eMail within the next few weeks.

After four years, we must raise prices just a little...

2010-03-02T09:31:00.003-05:00

We just heard last night that our spinner has scheduled a price increase on the cost of fibers, something that they had expected to do last year at this time, but kindly held off doing. We all knew that the economy was about to take a turn, and decided to absorb increases in all the costs associated with getting the yarns through the steps of the process and through foreign countries.

What Wool2Dye4 will do is hold off raising our prices until after the arrival of the end-of-April order, so we ask our loyal customers to consider their own inventory and schedules of upcoming events ... festivals, conventions, vendor opportunities, clubs, restocking your wholesalers, etc.

All yarn prices did not go up, and the new prices will go into effect May 1, 2010. We have not raised prices in four years, and while I am sorry to do it now, I must say that I have absorbed increased costs at my end including shipper's prices, gasoline surcharges, and other operating expenses. The price increase will take effect in May of this year, 2010. Current pricing structure will hold through the following three orders:
1. Early March (due end of this week or early next week)
2. Late March/Early April (already ordered, but you may still request pre-orders for 10 kilos or more)
3. Late April (not yet ordered!) I will issue a Call for Pre-Orders when we send out the newsletter in the next day or so. This will be the last opportunity to receive current pricing on our yarns and after the arrival of the Late April order, the new pricing structure will go into effect.

Now is definitely the time to adopt the Plan Ahead campaign!

Noro Sock Yarns - Sekku and Silk Garden Sock

2010-02-26T14:02:00.003-05:00

From time to time I mention my second website, Uptown Stitches, which is a site where our Wool2Dye4 yarns are sold as handdyes. We have several guest dye artists... FyberSpates, Knit Witch, Handwerks, Lazy Perry Ranch, Yummee Yarns, and Zen Yarn Garden. We also carry some commercial yarns ... the Almerino Rooster yarns, Kraemer Yarns, Polar Knit.

Today, we added NORO to the UptownStitches.com site! Very exciting stuff! To go with sock yarn theme, we are now carrying Noro's new SEKKU (50% cotton with wool, nylon, mohair) and SILK GARDEN SOCK.

Here is the link: http://www.uptownstitches.com/shop/manufacturers.php?manufacturerid=18

Knitting through the Olympics

2010-02-12T13:46:00.003-05:00

Tonight is the opening ceremony of the Olympics. There is a fun little knit-along that we started in the Friends of Wool2Dye4 Group on Ravelry.com. We are offering prizes, too! If you are on Ravelry.com, please check out our two-week knit-along.

We will be casting on a project during the opening ceremony and knitting to completion over the next two weeks and the idea is to have the project finished by the closing ceremonies. Ravelry has official teams, but we were too late to join. Instead, we are offering our own prizes within our group. Everyone who enters on Ravelry will receive a skein of our exclusive quality yarns from Wool2Dye4, and the lucky winner receives a kilo of yarn! Nice prize, huh?

There are still several hours for signing up and searching out your project. The project must use Wool2Dye4 yarn and must be cast on during opening ceremony tonight. If you are interested, hop onto Ravelry.com and join in. Look for the sign-up in the index of topics. (It's near the top of the sheet.)

I am knitting a pair of fingerless gloves, and using handdyed yarn from UptownStitches, the sister site to Wool2Dye4. The yarn is W2D4 Merino DK-Superwash, handdyed by Zen Yarn Gaden in two colors, Midnight Grape and Rosebud. The pattern is Flower Market Gloves, which really has two patterns in one. One pattern uses the Feather and Fan ruffly motif, and the other is a mini-mock cable using a twisted stitch and ribbing. It is designed by Dolce Handknits, and is one of their lovely, feminine designs.

A little bit of wooly history

2010-02-11T17:30:00.001-05:00

My sister wrote me the following amusing note today ..

"I was re-reading an excellent book with particularly lively writing, The Discovery of France by Graham Robb, and came across this story. The context was Robb's discussion of how the Catholic church adopted local fairies, magical stones, wells, etc., -- anything that was important to the local people -- in order to convert them to a less-than-strict form of Christian belief (the same phenomenon around the world for all religions that seek to conquer local values).

He recounts the practice of throwing 'balls of wool at a saint behind an iron cage, trying to hit the part of the saint that corresponded to (their own suffering) libm, and the priest ... gatehring up the wool and knitting himself some warm clothese for the winter.'

All of this was quite recent, i.e., 17th or 18th century."

Wholsale Account information

2010-02-04T17:03:00.002-05:00

Several times a day I receive requests for information about opening a wholesale account. I do have two levels of wholesale accounts which are based on quantity. Our wholesale discounts are extended to bona fide businesses who have a tax id number and who can commit to a minimum order of ten pounds. That is the regular wholesale account and the minimum weight of ten pounds applies to each order.

For larger wholesalers, we have the Power Buyer level where the minimum weight per order is one hundred pounds.

I have several times written about how important it is for a bona fide business to get and use a federal tax id number. The EIN (as it is called) does not affect taxes in any way, even if you operate as a sole proprietorship. What it does is two important things: 1) A Federal tax identification number gives you immediate credibility with suppliers. 2) It avoids spreading around your Social Security Number. Please do take the time to visit irs.gov and spend five minutes to get a free Federal tax number, and STOP handing out yoru Social Security number. Very important. Please.

When people write to me, asking if we offer discounts, I send them a general information letter. Today I am going to copy it into this blog entry, and it may answer a few questions. Here we go ...

"The basic requirements to open a wholesale account are:

1. Business Name and Tax ID number (from irs.gov)

2. Minimjm 10 pound total order weight for each order

Bona fide businesses only. No co-op groups.

To qualify for Wool2Dye4, Inc.'s wholesale discount, there is a minimum weight of ten pounds (of yarn and/or spinning fiber) per order on each wholesale order. The ten pounds may be spread among different yarns and fibers, but the total weight must reach ten pounds. We do not work with co-ops or groups sharing the professional discount. The professional discount we extend is intended solely for the use of an individual or corporation, and is not authorized to be shared with others, or used to create a co-op buying group.

Many people start off with a dye business thinking that a tax id number is something they'll get 'later,' but I advise folks to get it early in the business life. Check with an accountant for help in answering this question if you do not currently have a tax identification number.

When you decide to move forward, just register on teh home page of Wool2Dye4.com's website. Be sure to fill in the busienss name and tax id number. These two fields trigger the program to alert me that a business has applied, and then I must approve or decline each application individually. Once approved, I will send you a confirming eMail, and when you log on the next time, you will be taken inside the wholesale area of the website. There are some different presentations of the yarns, and occasionally some different yarns are offered to wholesalers only. Usually, there will be a notice in the headder of the wholesale site when you log on. I also may send an eMail about new yarns to wholesalers.

(I attach a general overview of prices to this note.) Thank you for your interest in our exclusive lineof merino yarns from South America, and in the Bluefaced Leicester yarns which are genuine British Wool yarns. We are always adding new yarns and following trends in the industry. Announcements of new yarns and of stock arrivals are sent out monthly in a newsletter directed to wholesale customers only. Wool2Dye4 is honored to be licensed by the British Wool Marketing Board to sell British Wool, including Bluefaced Leicester, in the States.

I hope you will fit some of our lovely yarns into your new line of handdyes as your own business grows. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sheila
Wool2Dye4.com"

TWEED ... introducing a new yarn

2010-02-02T08:33:00.002-05:00

We have a new yarn added to our lineup, TWEED, an Aran/heavy worsted knitting yarn. Since customers have been asking for a heavier yarn we have been slowly adding to this weight class starting with Sheila's Aran, and of course, the popular BFL Aran which has already been in place and is growing in popularity.

TWEED is an interesting yarn because of the visual texture in a naturally occurring variation which happens before your eyes as you dye it up. When dyed, it will have the appearance of a candycane or barbershop pole and this happens because of the blend of superwash with non-superwash fibers. There are four plies, three of which are non-superwash, and one of which is a superwash. They are all from our springy merino, but that one superwash ply will absorb more color from the dyepot and create the candycane look as it twists around the other three plies.

Very pretty, very interesting, and very much fun to knit up. As you knit the fabric, your eye will be teased by the visual texture created on your needles. TWEED is available in skeins of 100 grams with 181 yards.

Record temps in England affect our Wool Diet

2010-01-08T12:05:00.003-05:00

I will start off with the punchline ... we just received shipment of the British yarns in question!

Last week I noticed we were running low on two BFL yarns, the Aran and Ultra!, both of which are consistently good sellers with my handdye artists. I looked at the inventory numbers of these two yarns showing on the website, and bumped up the numbers with confidence because we always receive our orders from England in three days, and sometimes in two days.

What I didn't know was that a record cold snap had just hit the United Kingdom and snow and ice had caused the major airports to close down. I was sitting in my pretty new studio working away at the computer, with National Public Radio playing in the background when one of the stories caught my attention. The report was about a record stretch of bad weather, the coldest it's been in 15 years in England, and that there was a shortage of road salt, so traffic all over the country had come to a crawl. Then they reeled off the list of airports which were closed due to icy runways, and it dawned on me that delivery of my little order might be affected by this!

I can 'chat' with my British Wool supplier on SKYPE (the greatest way to have a cyber conversation, if you ask me!), so I told him that I had just heard his weather forecast on my Virginia radio station! He confirmed everything I had heard, and added that they had spread grit on the roads, but it didn't make them much more passable. I'm not sure what 'grit' is, really, but think it might be gravel...

Freight travel must have improved though and the backed-up freight started moving again, yesterday, I think. We just received our FedEx shipment of the BFL Aran, BFL Ultra! and LUX Superchunky. Lovely stuff, this!

Makes you realize that your little corner of the world is in global communication, and that the connections between us are closely interwoven. I am off to post the actual numbers of these wonderful yarns.

Sola ... for two weeks

2010-01-06T09:34:00.003-05:00

I am working alone right now, and have two weeks until my new temporary Assistant arrives. Actually, I am enjoying doing every step of the business and find that I am putting out a lot of good work. Well ... I will admit that I made a couple of shipping errors just before Christmas, but as I have said before, 99% of my customers are fantastic, and they have such a gentle way of telling me that we / I made a mistake! Almost as though they, too, are from the South and have mastered the fine art of complaining without making it seem like a complaint. The secret to this fine art is to suggest rather than to tell. So, instead of saying, 'I paid for a cone and you sent me a skein! Send the cone right now, or else!' which the one percent will write, someone who speaks Southern would write, 'I wonder if you came up with an extra cone last week. I think it might be mine because my package contained a skein. This is order # 1111. Could you check this for me, please?'

See? They suggested that there was a problem yet laid it out clearly, and didn't say that I or my staff made an error, but implied that the impersonal package itself was to blame because it contained something different than what was ordered! Brilliant!

But, back to working alone ... my new Assistant will be with me for a temporary and undefined period while she finds an executive position. She is talented and so smart and creative, and very nice to be around. I am starting a folder with some marketing issues for her to address, and am looking forward to handing them over to someone who is not so closely tied to every detail of every decision. Maybe she can whip WebGuy into shape, and get him to delivery the new update for UptownStitches.com for me. I've been waiting for almost two months now, and that is really too long. I am ashamed to admit that I waited for 18 months, several years ago, for him to complete my eCommerce site! But, there it is. The admission of another aspect of being a Southern Woman, and that is that we really do not like to make waves. I know, I know there are movies which suggest the very opposite even in their titles, e.g. Steel Magnolias, but we do reach that point of steeliness after all avenues have been exhausted. Very close to exhausting all pleas, suggestions, requests, and when my new Assistant comes I have decided that this date will be the point when all avenues truely have reached exhaustion point. It will be WebGuy Meets Marketing Woman, Round One!

Stay tuned!

I moved the business ...

2010-01-01T11:43:00.002-05:00

... into a great new Studio! Here is a picture ................

End of Year Reckoning

2010-01-01T11:10:00.003-05:00

At the end of every year, I make a trip to the office supply store and buy new folders, year-end tax forms and envelopes, and a big file box. It is the one time when I clean out my files, save tax info for the year, and prepare nice new clean files for the coming year. I have come to look forward to this file cleaning, and find that each year I have saved a little less of the paperwork which does not have anything to do with tax preparation, and so that's a little less to toss out.

My accountant likes it, too, that I am getting more and better organized each year! In November I sent a preliminary copy of my finanacial program for a review and it came back clean! Now, the only thing I have left to do is count the inventory and this company's financial paperwork will be complete.

This is also the time when I sit down and quietly look over a handwritten Sales Journal which I have kept all year. It's a simple chart, really nothing more than each month's totals and only one breakout for state sales (as I have to pay state retail sales tax on all sales within Virginia). The year's chart takes up two facing pages of the account journal, which is nothing more than a 12-column bound blank book I bought at the office supply store.

This week I will turn the page to a clean set of facing pages, and note the months across the 12 columns. At the very ottom there are two lines: Month's Sales (total of Virginia and other sales figures) and Cumulative Sales (where each month is added to the previous total, so I can see at a glance the year-to-date sales).

I have been thinking about the one other step involved in turning that page to a clean slate, and that is the forecast figure. It is so hard to predict sales for the coming year when we do not know what might happen in so many areas of our lives. The economy hit lots of folks in the pocketbook this past year, and then there is family and health which can impact a forecast, but all the same, coming up with a good estimate of the coming year's sales is an exercise I go through every single year. Actually, I don't usually do very well with my estimate, and this year was the only time I have ever come in close to the number I picked out of the ethos twelve months ago. In the past, it has been impossible to predict the growth rate of the business, and I underestimated big time every year. This year, though, I came in just a little over the estimate, which was nice. I feel like I have started to see actual trends, even though the business continues to grow, there are basic buying patterns which are starting to come to the surface.

Planning and predicting and getting a handle on all aspects of business is something I want to encourage every single customer to do. Starting with the figures for year 2009, now is a terrific time to commit to paper the costs and income involved in doing business. Many of my customers are work-at-home mothers with family responsibilities over and above the running of their dye business; however, this should not be an excuse to leave the numbers just out of reach. When we are in control of the numbers, we are powerful. We know what to expect, where to make change, how to create profit.

So, today, the first day of January 2010, I challenge anyone who has not yet come to meet their own numbers to start immediately. It does not have to be a big production, but should be an organized approach. You'll need a folder for expense notes and receipts, and a folder for sales information, and a nice clean pad of paper to add it all up. If you have a separate checking account, chances are that most of your expenses and your sales income will be recorded in the register you've established for your business. If you have incorporated the business money into the family money, take some time to go through the entries and note down every deposit which came from yarn sales, and every expense involved in supplies, shipping, inventory. Create a list of income and expenses for each month, and then reorganize it into a neat presentation which will be a model for next year's records.

PayPal is a place where we overlook sales and expenses, so be sure to call up a report for the full year for all sales receipts. Also, create a report for all payments you made out of your PayPal account. Add this payment figure and the balance on hand at year's end in your PayPal account to the year's total sales, to get an accurate figure for the year.

Good luck with this! Make record keeping a monthly habit, and take a look at what your numbers are telling you about your business.

One of the basic lessons of Marketing 101 is: The way to make profit is to cut expenses, and increase sales. Most of us need to do both, of course! This might be a good time to look at the expenses involved in your business, and to see if there are ways to streamline any. Shipping, for instance, can really eat up the cash, and when you consider the cost of packing materials, the figure goes up.

Are you utilizing some free services? Get a USPS.com account and use the free boxes from the postal service. Also, use Click 'n' Ship to get online discount on shipping fees. Too, sign up for Carrier PickUp. I have been signing up for Carrier PickUp one month in advance for a couple of years now. I know, I know that the questions ask how many packages and what is the total weight for each day, but I just fill in a month's worth of 100 pounds, ten packages! And, it works well enough. When you are busy, you need to plan ahead, so sign up for a month of pickups and don't worry about the details in the form.

All the talking heads on TV and radio tell us that 2010 is the year to see a definite turnaround in the economy, and I keep hearing August as a date when things should be normalized. I believe it, and I know that our little tiny end of the economy will prosper because we have remained strong all through the worst of it. Don't forget that when economies suffer, the home becomes more important, and what do we sell if not comfort, hominess. I urge each customer to stay positive, get a handle on your money, become powerful as you use what you have to the best advantage.

Let me know how you get along!

Time to Move On ...

2009-12-03T16:20:00.002-05:00

We had a flood in the studio last night. Maddening, maddening! There have been heavy rains here in central Virginia for several days, and I guess it was just too much for the old drain system to keep up with. I never even had a thought about water damage as I thoroughly enjoyed the sound of rain and slept deeply and calmly.

But, this morning that squish-squish sound when I walked across the rugs to open the door, I realized that I had a 'situation.' We spent most of the day dragging out rugs, bagging up soggy boxes and packing materials, and staying out of the way of the cleanup crew and Roto Rooter. We did not lose any yarn as all the bins are built up off the floor, and the computers are on little raised platforms, too. Of course, there were things that soaked up the water which were tucked back under a packing table, or behind plastic bins holding styrofoam popcorn. We found some little bags of mixed spinning fiber which I bought years ago, and they never sold. All but one were a mess, so we tossed them, and I wound up saving that one bag. (It was in plastic, for some reason.) When I saw it, I was reminded of the first hat I knit for my husband out of my handspun. I plied one of my handdyed yarns with this grey stuff, and I really liked how it came out ... sort of Mother Earth meets Middle Class. My husband still has that hat and every time he pulls it out he says, 'This is my favorite hat of all!'

He has quite a variety of hats, too ... slip stitch in variegated colors, cabled yarn, progressively dyed experiments all in handdyed yarns. This year I made my version of Elizabeth Zimmerman's Very Warm Hat. In fact, I was going to gift them to some of the menfolk who have helped me through the year, but he's already nabbed a couple and gifted them early. Maybe that's because he says he doesn't like Christmas and the traditions, yet he likes to give gifts.

I was going to write about moving on, though! Yes, the business is moving. I've rented a commercial space just 3 or 4 miles from here. It is out of town, towards the mountain in a little strip mall built a few years ago, but which never really took off. I suppose it remained unfinished because of the location, a little too far off the beaten track, but that's what I like about it!

We have been involved in every aspect of finishing off our space ... painting each wall a different color -- seabreeze blue, mulberry purple, Italian yellow and lime green. I am still holding out for wallpaper in the bathroom. I found a cute novelty print of kids' shoes, and must have it, but we shall see if my name comes up on the installation list. I will say that here in my town, the name Mahone and the word 'wallpaper' have been spoken together in the same sentence for a few generations, but we'll just see how much pull I have. Evidently, it is not too much, if the state of the bathroom walls are any guide! We'll see ...

Move-in date was planned for January 2nd, but after the flooding last night, we have contacted the owner (my accountant!) and hope to move by middle of December. I'd really like that because I am expecting a huge wool shipment at the end of December, and that would be two biggies happening at the same time --- receipt of a large shipment of wool and moving around the same time. Maybe it's a good thing, this flood. It might just push me into action and get us moved and set up in time for the next big rush.

We're introducing a new yarn, by the way, with this coming shipment. TWEED is a four-ply yarn in Aran weight. When dyed & dried it looks like a candy cane effect with one ply taking up more dye than the other three. This happens because that one ply is a superwash merino, while the other three are non-superwash. The candycane effect doesn't show up in a gaudy way in the knitted fabric, but lends a little shading to the final fabric. It lends some visual texture to the knitted fabric. Ask me about prices when the yarn gets here.

Incoming ...

2009-11-09T09:53:00.002-05:00

... stock, again. We had a couple of delayed orders in the fall, and now two re-stockings which are arriving quickly one after the other. But, sadly, we will be on a Superwash Diet until right around Winter Solstice, so this will have to last us for six or seven weeks.

We will post these yarns on the website today at noon, Virginia time. (Today, being Monday, November 9, 2009)

Here's what is coming in tomorrow ...

Angel Lace (skeins)

Butterfly Lace (skeins)

Cash Sock (skeins & cones)

Sheila's Sock (skeins & cones)

Silk Sock 50/50 (skeins) *

Ultra Merino 3Ply (skeins & cones)

W2D4 Merino DK-SW (skeins & cones)

* Silk Sock 50/50 is new. A 4-Ply yarn similar in twist and weight to Bamboo Two-Step, sort of in that grey area between fingering and sport weight. Technically, it's a sport, but because of fiber and twist, it acts like a fingering. Silk goes especially nicely with our springy superwash merino. But, of course!

Trial Yarn: Our new Yarn Review Board is going to take a close look at a new superwash 2Ply Aran weight (992 ypp) this month. If you know the great twist of Sheila's Sock, you will recognize it in Sheila's Aran. Stay tuned for results, reactions, raves, and ramifications. Mmm?

More yarn coming ...

2009-10-30T10:21:00.004-04:00

I am beginning to feel that my blog has dwindled down to a statement of incoming stock. I had such elevated plans for it, but here goes one more posting on stock arrivals, and maybe a little musing on keeping up the stock levels so it doesn't look like the website is out of most yarns.

Due any day, but realistically expected to arrive at the studio on November 2 through 4th ...
Sheila's Sock is coming back in skeins and cones. Lots of Skeins, not too many cones this time, though more cones are coming in a couple of weeks.
Cash Sock also, but on skeins this time.
Merino Worsted Superwash! Finally, back in stock. Skeins and cones ... more skeins than cones
Platinum Sock ... Lots and lots of skeins, quite a bit of cones
Surino ... for followers of this luxury blend. Not a big seller, but it has a loyal following
and Tops ...
50/50 Bably Alpaca/merino ......... 80/20 SW Merino/Bamboo .......... 75/25 SW Merino/Merino

That shipment should be going through Customs now, and then delivery usually follows in two or three days. Of course, we've got the weekend in between, but we are very close.

After the next shipment, which should be here around Veterans' Day (and a list will follow), we will be on a superwash diet until around Winter Solstice/holiday time. I've been talking and talking about how our tiny little niche in the fiber market depends on what happens to lots of folks up the line, and the superwash merino diet is a perfect example. It has interrupted my usual monthly delivery schedule, but only by two or three weeks. We just have to plan for it.

I am trying to plan my inventory holdings, too, so that the website doesn't look bare! My first line of attack is to get in more stock,of course, as we've got some customers who have been attending the national shows and who can eat up stock at a moment's notice when they order last minute without giving me a hint of what is to come. Don't get me wrong! I am not complaining about selling yarn, just about not being able to serve my customers. The Superwash Diet is putting a little crimp into my style on that front, but just a little crimp.

Next, I sent a carefully worded letter to my biggest customers, laying out the idea that planning ahead is a good thing and an achievable goal for all of us. I know that these folks have to sign up for the big shows and festivals in advance, and probably know what they will need to dye up to maintain adequate inventory at their booths. Maybe they are hesitant to confirm their needs because they think that they would be committing to an actual order, but I have always tried to communicate that I understand changes in plans and that nothing is written in stone. Perhaps, this time, I was able to get that idea across. I asked them to plan ahead for January and February only, so that I can be sure to have what they will need held aside from what I want to show on the website for the rest of my customer base. No need to disappoint the many because of the plans of the few, as I see it. We will see, though, if I can get them to squeeze out hints of their January and February needs.

I'll be getting in monthly orders, of course, but thought that if I asked them to make that much of a plan, it would start things off right. Not necessarily so ... what a surprise to receive so many eMails asking if I would be making any orders beyond January and February. But, of course! I order all the time, but have only now asked for estimates of future needs. But, whenever I send out a newsletter or group letter, there are always lots of questions which come back. I am here, Wool2Dye4 is not going anywhere. I am just planning, that's all.

But I was about to list what is in the Veterans' Day shipment ...
Angel Lace
Butterfly Lace
Cash Sock cones and skeins ... lots of skeins
Merino DK-SW in cones and skeins
Sheila's Sock, again cones and skeins
and Ultra Merino 3Ply cones and skeins
... plus ...
new ... Silk Sock ... 40/40 sw merino/silk in 4Ply, the weight of Bamboo Two Step
new ... Sheila's Aran ... 2 ply Aran weight in SW merino, with same twist ratio of Sheila's Sock

I know, I know ... so many new yarns here lately!

We are actually going to run a trial on Sheila's Aran, and enrollment is still open. If you would like to join up, just send me a short eMail (Yarnie@wool2Dye4.com) and give me your name and address. Enrollment will close Monday, November 2nd.

A BIG SHIPMENT is due any moment!

2009-10-14T11:58:00.005-04:00

As I type this very message to post on the blog, the long awaited shipment containing a variety of best selling yarns and a new one, too, is somewhere approaching. It is, if the tracking programs are to be believed, within 50 miles of me at this moment. We have had a couple of bumps in the schedule with this shipment, and of course, it had to happen when everyone is chomping at the bit for more and then some more yarn. What happened is that somehow the shipment got separated into two pallets at the port of entry, but this was not discovered until half of the shipment arrived at Customs for clearance. It was rejected because the paperwork listed a different number of boxes that were presented for clearance, so back went that partial shipment, back went the paperwork to the broker, and back went the requests to search out the remainder of the shipment at one of two airports. This added five days to delivery time, which doesn't sound like much unless you are me sitting here at the computer fending plenty of eMails from customers wanting to know where their order is.

Must say that everyone, absolutely everyone, has been understanding about the delay. I think that the demand is coming from the fact that there is an increasing number of wholesale customers who have been trying out the arena of the big convention marketplace as vendors. Over the past six months I have counted more customer participation in the larger festivals like Sock Summit back in August and the Stitches events. This is in addition to participation in fiber festivals at the state and local levels, which has always been a traditional outlet for handdyers. The change I see is that many customers are taking a risk and booking a vending booth at major national conventions.

I have been begging for some advance notice that folks are going to a major festival or convention and will be needing larger orders. Some wholesalers have responded well to that invitation to join me in planning ahead, and others have not gotten the word yet. We had a true feeding frenzy before Sock Summit this summer, and then a Stitches event followed closely on the heels of that major event, so basically, that is why our regular stock levels fell to the low levels of September. I had to scramble to order in replacement stock, as well as enough of the new yarns we were planning to introduce. In a way, I feel that the introduction of Crazy Eight got sidetracked with so much emphasis on replacing the best sellers which were wiped out for the convention people. We do have two more shipments -- in addition to today's lot -- arriving to replenish stock, and each is timed about two weeks apart ... assuming that there are not big delivery problems with either one.

Feedback from these major selling events is mixed, and unscientific, of course, but from what I gather there are many customers who have not broken even with their booth at the national level. Some of these vendors do feel that the cost was worth the loss, though, as they put their name and logo and their work out into the public venue. Others could not justify the financial loss and were disheartened to find that they had to compete on the pricepoint level with major yarn companies, many of whom ran specials for the convention. This brought the price of the major companies down below what the handdyer could afford to offer, and took them out of the competition for knitters' dollars.

Some customers write to me and tell me that they are going to continue the convention and festival circuit, and that they feel the exposure is invaluable and will serve future sales well. Others write that they do not think enough of the actual market attends these events to make the expense worth the effort. Both positions have merit, of course. It all depends on how much of a risk a vendor can financially afford, how great a percentage of one's marketing plan being a vendor consumes, and whether or not the travel and work of setting up a booth at a convention is part and parcel of the lifestyle of the individual vendor.

All things in moderation. OK, so maybe a small percent of the knitting market actually ever attends a convention at the national level. And you can add another small percent of the market for the number of folks who attend fiber festivals on a regular basis. Then add in the percent of knitters who are on Ravelry, and then add in those who subscribe to knitting magazines. All of these places are real contact points for the handdyer to present themselves to their potential customer, and yet each one represents a small percent of the total market. Look at how local yarn shops have been so frustrated about their dwindling market share since the Internet created alternate buying opportunities for what they considered to be their market base. Etsy, eBay, personal dot-com sites ... all are new selling opportunities, and depending upon one's point of view, are either eroding their customer base or building it.

There is no one way to promote one's business. Every single seller should create a plan of how they want to get their name and work in front of their potential customer, and this plan should be based on how they want to run their business. The way this marketing plan will work the very best, though, is if the plan considers first how one's small business will best fit in with their lifestyle. I have said for years that my business should first improve the quality of my life, and I recommend this approach to my own customers. First, pick the activities that you enjoy, price them out, figure out what percent of the market you might realistically reach with each activity, and then start planning, printing, buying, dyeing, saving, and getting down to the business of improving your business.

Crazy 8 Yarn ... welcome to Wool2Dye4

2009-09-29T16:00:00.003-04:00

We have a winner in the Name-That-Yarn contest and it is ... Crazy Eight.
Natasha Laity-Snyder sent us the name, and it struck as just right. Here is my reasoning ... This yarn is an 8-ply, but not the expected 8 plies. There are four cabled plies of two plies each, making 8. Sort of odd, sort of crazy, huh? So ... Crazy Eight.

Most of my customers rename my yarns anyway, so Crazy Eight will remind them that this is our 8 ply sport yarn. The eight plies were arrived at in that unique cabling, and it's also the name of a really fun card game! So a delightful, eight-plied yarn.

I really liked lots of the names -- OctoPly was a contender, and Quick Sock was another and Lucky 8 -- really close to Crazy 8, but more refined -- and SportCaster, a good descriptor built in as sport weight, and cast-on. There were lots of great ones suggested, and I thank everyone who entered the contest!

We kept coming back to Crazy Eight. It fits!

A little more about the new 8-ply sport yarn ...

2009-09-10T16:07:00.002-04:00

Interest in this new yarn is immediate and vibrant, and this surprises me a little. The reason is that folks never seem to follow up on their interest in a sport yarn with much enthusiasm. Something is different this time, though, and I think we may have found a winner in this one.

The yardage is 1,245 yards per pound, which puts it at the high end of the sport category. The stock is coming on traditional 100gr skeins (of 274 yards) and kilo cones (of 2,739 yards). I have been sending out little sample butterflies of about 8-10 yards and feedback is starting to come in. They like it, I am glad to say. Also, this is one of those yarns which needs to be dyed and dried to be appreciated. It looks like and acts like a typical sport weight. The ply format is interesting and adds to the cabled look, as it is actually a cabled yarn. Four plies of two cabled plies are spun together, and that's how we get this 8-ply to curl around itself in a beautiful pattern. Really pretty yarn.

Arrival date is early October. If you are interested in a sample, please eMail me: Yarnie@wool2dye4.com and we'll get out a sample right away!

Name-That-Yarn Contest!

2009-08-29T11:08:00.002-04:00

I have been posting on Ravelry about the news of our next new yarn, and yesterday we began to send out samples with wholesalers' orders. This one is going to be another winner, and the sport weight will appeal to folks who like to knit sturdy socks, the slightly cabled look of the yarn will attract those who like a slight texture to their yarn, superwash to folks who really like to knit their socks in our superwash yarns, and our springy merino for folks who have grown to love that soft luxurious yarn which has so much natural strength to the fiber.

Here's the surprise, though. It is not, as I have been saying, a 4-Ply yarn. It's a 2 x 4-Ply yarn, aka 8-Ply. The construction of this one lends so much texture to the yarn, that same look which is so attractive in our recently introduced yarn, Sheila's Sock. Each of the four main plies are double-plied themselves, making this baby an 8-Ply yarn. So, if you have been wanting to enter the 8-Ply superwash merino craze, here's an entry for you but with the advantages listed above.

We don't yet have a name for this yarn! So ........ Contest!!!

Name-That-Yarn Contest!

Name our new sock yarn and win a kilo of it.

eMail up to 5 entries to Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com

Deadline: September 27th.

International Year of Natural Fibers

2009-08-27T16:34:00.002-04:00

The editor of Wildfibers Magazine sent a link to a wonderous site today, and I have to share it.
Please do check it out. http://www.naturalfibres2009.org
You will get lost in the enormity of fiber possibilities.

Stock Arrival at end of the week

2009-08-25T08:21:00.003-04:00

This month's stock arrival is certainly welcome! Wholesalers have made huge demands on what I had thought would be a growing store of the most popular yarns to have ready for fall festival orders. Instead, Sock Summit put a dent into the plan, and we are busy getting more yarn in even as I write.

Actually, the next order should be here by the end of the week, and we will ship out immediately. Cash Sock did become popular immediately from the samples we sent all last month, and I think from the craze that this MCN blend (merino/cashmere/nylon) has enjoyed for several months. We feel that our MCN is well received because of the nice combing of the fibers, and none of them, especially the cashmere, comes to the top. Plus, our merino is that nice springy stuff that is the signature of the Wool2Dye4 line.

So, here is what is coming in .........
Skeins and Cones ...
-- Platinum Sock
-- Sheila's Sock (limited cones)
--Ultra Merino 3Ply

Skeins Only ...
--Angel Lace
--Angel Sock
--Bamboo TwoStep
--Butterfly Lace
--Cash Sock (sold out on pre-orders)
--Merino/Tencel

These yarns are now being shown as in stock, but most from this list will be shipped from the incoming stock order. Go ahead and place an order for any of these yarns, and we will ship out as soon as the shipment arrives.

Inventory Showing on Website now ... We activated the capability of showing our stock figures on the website. Now, to see what amount of yarn is available, just click on the Category view and a full list of all yarns available will come up, and you'll see a column headed 'Quantity,' and that is the number of items available for that yarn or presentation. If the product title includes 'Set of 5 skeins' then we have whatever the quantity shows of sets of five skeins, not individual skeins. Don't overthink this. It's pretty simple, and must say that many customers have written to tell me that they like seeing how much is available, and that it helps them shop.

Good luck!!! and... as always I thank my customers for their business.
Sheila

Samples, Samples, and more Samples

2009-08-06T14:02:00.005-04:00

We are at the time of year where requests for samples hits an alltime high, so we spend every free moment winding up little butterflies. Round and round, 35 times between little finger and thumb, and then wind a dyed sample around all, if we have made it that far. Some of the yarns actually look different -- once dyed and dried -- so it is helpful for us to dye up maybe 50 yards at a time from the sample cones. Right now we are about to put one or two yarns back into service ... Tencel/Merino and BFL Platinum, so those two are definitely going to be in demand.

The only problem is that I do not have even one skein of BFL Platinum in my secret stash. And that is saying something! Usually, I pull a couple of skeins of each yarn and hold it where it is out of sight and out of mind. It almost always comes in handy, too! Someone will write and say that they have a special customer that wants one skein of one of their reproducable colors, and they absolutely must have that skein. Secret stash has come to the rescue more than once!

We even have a little of a couple of the older yarns we used to carry, like Ultra Merino 2-Ply, a yarn which had a split personality. The lace knitters loved it; sock knitters, though, could take it or leave it. And for a long time after Merino Lace was taken from the line, I was winding off skeins for absolutely necessary demands, until it ate through secret stash and now is totally gone.

Right now, we are winding off butterflies of Cash Sock, our MCN which we feel is an improvement on what is currently out there. (MCN is superwash Merino with Cashmere and Nylon, at an 80/10/10 blend.) I say this because our merino is soft and combed and the cashmere, which has a tendency to come to the front in any blend, does not pill on our yarn. We are sending out Cash Sock samples with all the orders, and to a long list of folks who requested samples.

Cash Sock looks like it will immediately join the Wool2Dye4 family. My wool supplier says it is so popular in Europe that he cannot keep enough stock of it, and the last time he expected some in, he put out the word, and it was snapped up in two days. Two days! Amazing! My regular stock will not get here for about six weeks, but at the end of August we are going to receive around 30 kilos. I don't know how to deal with the demand on this one and am thinking of asking folks to limit their purchases to five kilos until we get real stock in. It's the new craze in sock yarn, it seems, and I like it!

If, for some reason, you have not yet requested a sample, send me an eMail at ... Yarnie@Wool2Dye4.com ..

Ever need a Colonial costume quickly?

2009-07-30T11:10:00.004-04:00

Every once in a while, I am invited to dress up in costume and represent the early American crafts of spinning and/or weaving/knitting, etc. The first event was in the springtime, and the dress I made kept me warm on a cool day; however, that same dress seemed like a huge punishment when worn last summer on a sweltering August afternoon in the sun.

This coming weekend -- another August day in the humid Virginia weather -- I am going to join my guild in demonstrating the domestic arts (ahem!) at the Albemarle County Fair. A group called Backyard Revolution has created a settlement which will attempt to replicate life in the agrarian economy of the late 1700's through the 1800's. There will be natural dyeing of fibers, spinning and weaving along with blacksmithing, log-home building .. oh, lots of things that those folks had to do every day of the week just to subsist.

I will be spinning. Usually I sneak in my plastic spinning wheel, a little jewel from Babe's Fiber Garden, but this group sounds like they might be a little strict on period interpretation. My PVC plastic frame with a stainless steel wheel from a wheelchair will probably not cut it, pass muster. So, I am taking a couple drop spindles and some fleece from a Virginia flock which a girlfriend manages. They are Leicester Longwools, a cousin of my beloved Bluefaced Leicester, so that will fit in nicely. And, I will be working with fiber from Central Virginia, too.

But, back to my costume! I mentioned that I had made a dress for my first appearance in Colonial garb. That thing was ugly, plus it really did not fit and I had positioned safety pins along the bust to create pleats. In preparation for the upcoming fair, I decided to cut off the top and make a skirt and then to just buy a white blouson sleeved blouse (something like a peasant blouse) and an English vest. All of this brings me to the point, which is that I have a great recommendation for anyone needing to put together a costume to approximate early American dress.

It is Jas Townsend & Son, inc. They have a good selection of clothing for men, women and children plus several little accessories, such as the pockets which were worn under aprons mostly. They are muslin pockets with a cotton twill tape running through a little band on the top, but I saw several women in costume who wore theirs on the outside of their skirt, with no apron, and adapted this idea. I sewed my pocket onto the side of my new skirt ... made from the ugly dress. Great solution.

Here is the link to Jas Townsend & Son website: jas-townsend.com. I give them top recommendation!

Next was footwear. My old Berkinstock sandals sort of remind me of pieces of leather which women might have wrapped around their feet during the Middle Ages. I am now in possession of a pair of Mary Janes, by Naot. They work fine, but what about socks? To knit a pair of knee length natural socks in four days is pretty much impossible for me, so I decided to drag out the antique circular sock machine. Within two hours and a couple of setbacks which taught me to check my equipment before launching into a project, I was in possession of a pair of kneesocks done in my lovely BFL Ultra! They were both too long, though, so I have had to unwind the toes and finish them off by hand, but much less trouble and work than handknitting! I have two days to go, and one toe to go, and then must wash out the machine oil. That was the result of over-oiling a reluctant sock machine into movement.

I'm looking forward now to getting dressed up for this shindig on Saturday. The weatherman, though, is calling for a week of solid rain. So, we shall see how the sky looks that morning.

Yarnie says, 'Sock Summit ... or bust!'

2009-07-21T14:01:00.003-04:00

Sock Summit: August 6 - 9, 2009

We are ready and waiting to ship our booth yarn to Sock Summit today. I can hardly believe that the long days of prep, counting and recounting, thinking of what nifty little tool you always wish you had at a booth but had forgotten, and, of course, some snacks. We have closed the boxes and ordered in FedEx to pick up.

Off go the hand-dyed yarns from UptownStitches.com, our sister website, to Portland Oregon's Raintree Convention Center for Sock Summit. The organizers have no idea how many attendees will attend, and estimates are at 50,000 by some counts. Just imagine what it is like to guestimate how much yarn to send for a booth at such an event! Impossible. My partner in crime is Barb Brown, owner of Wild Geese Fibres (http://www.wildgeesefibres.com/), and she is the actual attendee. Due to a long list of regulations which basically mean that taxes and finances would preclude much profit for Canadian vendors to bring in their own stock, she needed our help in stocking her booth. Barb, sock pattern designer extraordinaire, turned to us and we were happy to help her out.

We sent either way too much yarn, or hardly enough ... and we won't know until after Sock Summit is over, whether or not Barb will be kept busy. She's got an American helper at her booth, so she will be able to slip away and take a few of the advanced classes. Lucky her! Must admit that I all put stripped the shelves of Uptown Stitches to stock that booth, so I sure do hope we have some takers!

If you are going to Sock Summit, please do check out Barb's Wild Geese Fibres booth to see the Uptown Stitches yarns in person. We even have a kilo of skeins of one of the Dye for Glory entries, by Laura Schickli. Just absolutely beautiful work on our base, BFL-4 Socking. Each skein will sell for $25.

All of our handdyes will sell at one of two pricepoints: merinos at $20 per skein, and BFL's at $25 per skein. If you get to meet Barb, tell her Sheila sent you!

Web of Trust ... help rate Wool2Dye4?

2009-07-10T10:17:00.002-04:00

Yesterday afternoon, we received a note from a potential customer who attached a negative rating from Web of Trust, an internet company which reports on the security of individual websites. They mistakenly gave our home page a bad review ... but high reviews for all other pages ... because of a parking page which our server uses. It's called Website Welcome, and it's a 'nothing page,' and is only there so people can have a secure checkout on their sites. There is a possibility that one customer somewhere could have been unhappy with the shopping cart for another company which is serviced by my server company. Who knows? As WebGuy #2 says, 'One bad apple ...'

Anyway, what I am hoping will happen is that if anyone is already using Web of Trust that they will give my two websites (www.Wool2Dye4.com and www.UptownStitches.com) a positive rating, to dispell that negative vibe going on.

We've got the security and backup and incripted credit card service and all that good stuff, and that one page of the site does not warrant a negative rating. So, if you see a warning notice from Web of Trust, please do take the time to rate us, and may I ask you to rate us positively?

My thanks to anyone who may see this and actually do this for me.

We've only received the one letter from one customer, but if it happened once to her, then it could happen as the popularity of security sites grows. Maybe it's time for us to get a dedicated server for the sites.

Canadian Kool Aid???

2009-07-09T09:21:00.001-04:00

One of my fiber friends sent me this note in today's eMail ...

Ever since your kool aid dying program at the Stewartsville Library (3 years ago ?) I've asked my Canadian sister-in-law to please bring some creative Canadian kool aid colors back when she goes to visit her parents. She kept forgetting. I saw her this past weekend and she said - okay finally I remembered and she handed me 6 boxes of.....Jello.

My assumption is that Jello won't work because of the gelatin. Will they work?