French Press Cozy

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

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)

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!

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

Used Knitting Books

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

................... 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?

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

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

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 ...

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!

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 ...

... 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 ...

... 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 ...

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!

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 ...

... 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

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

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

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...

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!