There's a lot of brown in this post

I've been up to a lot of different things and just haven't been blogging much about them. Here is a partial roundup.

I started working on the fiber I got as part of the group project my spinning guild is doing. One of the guild members has a sheep farm, among her animals a prize winning Romney sheep named Debbie, and a subset of guild members decided to buy Debbie's fleece together and divide it amongst ourselves. I got a pound, about what most other people got. A pound is a lot to spin, to me. I've had it for six weeks or more but haven't had a chance to deal with it. It's composed of unwashed locks, so I have to wash it first before anything else can be done with it. This weekend I started sorting it and putting it into lingerie bags to wash it.

Above is some I have begun to sort through. Below is one clump; I hope you can see how tangled it is; I had this idea that the locks would separate cleanly (and magically) into pieces that I could easily lay out into rows for washing. Not so!

One thing you cannot see is how much lanolin is in it. It's surprisingly free of vegetable matter (aka VM), but very greasy. This left my hands feeling extremely soft, once I washed the lanolin off.

After a while I got better at telling which end was which of the lock - the outside inch or so is brown with dirt (which I understand will wash out). You are supposed to lay them all in the same direction, so I tried to be careful about that. Below, you can see I have laid some of it into a lingerie bag; in the next picture, I tried to show the rows of locks inside the bag - I'm not sure if you can tell.

I filled two bags so far, and only have one more empty bag on hand. I need to go to Target and pick up as many as they have there. I think I might need up to 10 or 12. The next step, once the sorting is done, is to wash it carefully in very hot water, without agitating (so as not to felt it). I need to read more about how to do this, but I have read in several places about doing this in the washing machine. But is that going to leave a lot of lanolin gnarliness in my machine, afterward?

You may see one or the other of these ads in the next month on Ravelry. In fact, if you do, I'd love it if you dropped me a note saying so. It's not that I don't trust their record-keeping, but I certainly have no way of knowing if it's real. That said, they claim I will get around 30K impressions, in my exact market. Given that it cost me only $15, this is quite a deal. After all, I paid $150 for a print ad in BUST magazine, which, while I love BUST, did not seem to result in any additional traffic to my shop and definitely did not result in any additional sales. Not to mention there were no metrics to come out of it. Another time, I paid for a promo spot on Etsy which was useless as well, and they also provided no numbers. So, this is another test foray into buying advertising and I am keeping my expectations low, but I have to say that Ravelry is impressing me so far with how they are doing things. In particular, the fact that you can upload multiple creatives and they will split the impressions among them is very professional. I have yet to see what kind of statistics they provide, but I'm optimistic based on what I've seen so far.

In other news, I've been doing some fiber dyeing. I'm pretty excited about it. Maybe some planet moved out of opposition to another or something; all I know is after over a year of being completely blocked about doing any dyeing, last night I finally just went down to the basement and cleaned off the work table I have set up down there, filled up a pot with hot water and put it on the hot plate, measured out some fiber, and put it in the pot along with some dye. I have some leftover mixed up liquid dye that I would like to use up, rather than trying to figure out how to dispose of it safely. But it's just basic colors - blue, yellow, and brown - and I have felt constrained by that. I'd rather do something with more muted colors, the colors I have dancing around in my head, colors I have to mix from scratch. However, I figured it was best just to get working, rather than get all hung up on the particulars. So I used some of the brown and some of the blue.

I just now noticed that it matches the color scheme of my business logo. There are worse color schemes I could have picked for my first foray back into the world of dyeing!
 

Lifelines

I'm on about row 27 of Section B of Pine and Ivy. Here you can see the second lifeline, which I just added.




It's not super easy to see because it's kind of blurry (sorry, iPhone photo), but if you enlarge it you can see the pink one about 2 inches back and a new brown one just along the working edge. Just putting that in took me about 20 minutes. I hate this project.

Two nights ago I dropped a stitch again and couldn't recover from it. We were in the car on the way home from work and I had a minor meltdown. Once at home, and after having some dinner, I was able to recover things after all. But Adam told me if I didn't put in another lifeline, I would be a fool (and he would say "I told you so" if it happened again). Anything to avoid that. I took his advice.

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The Color Yellow

I planted these calla lilies last year and got foliage from only two, and no flowers; this year, all three came up, and two are showing flowers in this amazing brilliant yellow.




I didn't have any idea what color they would be when I planted them, but sort of expected white or green. Yellow? Who knew?




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My favorite

Chicken cacciatore. Adam knows I love this dish. I don't do recipes on my blog, but I think he started with Giada's many moons ago and by small adjustments has gradually made it his own.




After dinner the kitchen is mine to clean, first, and then to bake a special sussy for my SIL, who has to have a surgery on Monday morning. I don't want to spoil the surprise so I won't be more specific.

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A photographic experiment

Something I've really struggled with since starting to sell my yarns online has been photographing them and having the color in the pictures match (or really get anywhere close to) the yarn color. I got a good camera; I made a light box; I got some halogen lights from IKEA and set them up on the sides of the light box; and still the pictures required a lot of futzing in Photoshop to adjust the balance. Even though I saved the adjustments into a reference file so I could just drag and drop them onto new photos, it didn't always work; and besides, that's cumbersome.

I'd read something about White Balance a while back and decided tonight to see if I could investigate a little further, see if this problem could be addressed if not resolved. I read an article (here) about WB and found in the Canon 5D manual how to adjust it for my camera.

There are 9 settings, and the last 2 are adjustable further (this is color temperature. I don't understand the units but I can grok the ranges).



So I did a series of 18 pictures - without flash and with flash, on each of the settings, the last two at whatever their default temps are, I didn't pay attention. The ones without flash were too dark and orangey. With flash on, the tungsten and fluorescent settings were VERY blue, the shade and flash settings were on the orange side. The best in my opinion was the custom, at the default temp. Here's a set of thumbnails of the tests:



I think the last 2 on the left, custom balance and custom color, are the best, both in terms of not too blue and not too orange, and in terms of how true to the yarn colors they are.
 

The Craftacular was LOADS of fun!

As was no doubt quite clear in my last post, I was a bundle of nerves and apprehension before the craft fair. I was so afraid of uncomfortable situations and questions and cheese-standing-alone-ness that I totally forgot the thing was supposed to be fun - and it totally was!

Adam and I drove to Brooklyn in record time. I was worried that I would need to make change so we looked for a bank to get some singles, but we couldn't find one that was open. (TD Bank has Sunday hours, and I think some Wachovias do too, but there were none nearby.) Eventually Adam hit on the idea of asking in the grocery store, and the manager was persuaded to give me 20 singles and 2 fives. Then we headed back to the fair site, carried in my stuff, and started setting up. The table was naked and sort of scratched up wood, so Adam went out and came back with a couple of plastic tablecloths that really improved the look of things. I put out all my yarns, and spent a while organizing them by color and arranging them to look nice. We put up the sign I got made at the last minute and that was all we had to do. It took almost no time to get completely set up.

I looked around at my neighbors and was kind of intimidated by how much energy they all clearly had invested in their displays. It was amazing! I kind of felt a little bush league, but at the same time, everybody has to start somewhere, and I thought for a first try it wasn't bad at all. After everybody got set up we started chatting and I met some of them. They were all super nice people. The couple next to me had T-shirts and tote bags; the group in back of me (a couple and the wife's sister) had hair ornaments and pins; and there were a pair of roommates across from us, one of whom sold clothing items of all sizes with crochet and other stitching hand-adorned on them, and the other had hand made metal jewelry that was pretty cool looking. The roommates were the most seasoned, although everybody had done fairs before except me. I found out that this was a highly sought-after fair; apparently 500 applications come in for 50 spots and it's very competitive to get in. I felt terrific that I got in after hearing that!

After helping me get set up, Adam went off for a while to do his thing. He wasn't particularly interested in the rest of the booths at the fair and nobody had been let in yet, so it didn't seem that exciting. While he was away they opened the doors to the people who had been lined up for over an hour to get in to the fair. I was kind of amazed by that, but apparently this is a hugely popular event, especially in Williamsburg. In no time at all the place was pretty crowded. There was certainly no way I could spin yarn, as I needed to watch my table and I had to turn to the side to find room for my wheel. So I people-watched and talked to people who stopped to feel the yarns. I sold two skeins of yarn within the first half hour, which was very encouraging.

Adam came back with Pete, who was in great form. He kept trying to buy yarn, but I was hoping to sell to new customers at this fair, if possible, plus he kept trying to buy yarn that was a little too rough for the intended use, which was for baby garments. Fortunately, finally another customer bought the yarn he had had his eye on. I will make him and Jenny something super soft in its place.

Debbie Stoller came by my booth after an hour or so and she sat with me for a couple hours, knitting and chatting with me and also helping me sell my wares. It was SO nice to spend time with her - it's been years since we have, yet it was like no time had passed at all, other than that she had several big stories to tell about family events that had been happening.

Adam and Pete, and Audrey and her boyfriend Brad, who arrived a little later, all hung out for a long time. I was right next to the bar, so they had beers or sodas and shot the breeze with each other, while I schmoozed with customers or spun yarn. At some point both Debbie and Adam had encouraged me to start up the wheel, which did as expected generate a lot of interest. Especially with little kids, whose parents were all excited to show them a spinning wheel. And I was delighted to show them how it worked as well.

All in all it was a great day. I sold a bunch of yarn; I made back the cost of the booth and then some. I'm not sure how much profit was made, yet, but it was a great start and I was able to give out my cards to lots of people and meet really interesting folks, both women and men, who use yarn for art and craft. I'm so glad I did it and I hope I can do it again soon!
 

Getting ready for the Craftacular

I spent the morning retagging my yarns with the new tags I got - just in time for this event. I've also ordered a poster/banner with my company name and image, which will be ready JUST in time for it (as in, tomorrow morning on the way to the Craftacular I will stop at Kinko's to pick it up). I didn't think of it until late in the week; I was going to order it today but thought last night, oh, maybe I should go over there now instead of waiting till tomorrow. Good thing I did! I didn't realize there is a proof you have to approve and it takes a while to make the thing. Anyway, lucky me; I'll have a sign now and won't look like a total n00b.

I am scared about this - what if I get questions I can't answer like "what could you make with this?" Actually as I was tagging the yarns I kept thinking about the yardage and the fiber content (because I had to write it down) and thinking of ideas for the yarns. Some would make great scarves or throws, others I had in mind for myself to use for a Baby Surprise Jacket, etc. So maybe I'll be okay with that question. It might be a good idea to bring some kind of reference book with me, if I can dig out the right one from my bookshelf. Something that says "a vest takes 700 yards, a sweater takes 1500 yards, a scarf takes 400-1000 yards, a BSJ takes about 2-300 yards." Actually, except for the vest, I know those numbers are reasonable.

Also, what if nobody buys my stuff? What if I sit at my booth, smiling at everybody who walks by, and nobody stops to look at the yarns or buys them? (What if I am last picked for Dodge Ball?)

What if my prices are all wrong? I am pretty sure they are all over the map, some are too high, some are too low, and they are also inconsistent as far as yardage to price. Of course, you have to factor in what fiber it is made from. Another worry: Right now I have a bunch of yarns that are two or three skeins in a bunch, tied together with ribbon and priced as a unit. What if people want to buy only one skein in the bunch? Okay, I can handle that - I will just sell the one, and reprice whatever's left.

Never having done this before, I am insecure about the amount of yarn I am bringing to sell. I am literally bringing everything saleable. I'm also bringing another big plastic tub with my unspun fiber in it, which Adam suggested as a way to make it look like I have a lot more that I just haven't put out to sell yet. Fake it till you make it, right?

Obviously I am just nervous because it's the first time I've done a craft fair. I'm sure that whatever happens, it will be fine. The day will pass as it would no matter what, by the end I will have either broken even or not, maybe I'll make a little profit on the cost of the fair; in any event if you factor in the cost of goods sold, I will not make a profit. This is not a way to get rich. This is a way to support my fiber habit.