Second Hat from My Pattern

January 25, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 4 Comments

This is the second hat that I’m knitting from a pattern I created for a hat, taking my inspiration from a free infinity scarf pattern . I am wearing the first one myself, I like the weight of it but didn’t feel the tri-colored yarn that I used showed the pattern to it’s best advantage.

Green and Brown hat started with spiraled green stitch

This is one of the reasons I knit with my hand spun yarn, to better know which type of yarn is more suitable to which style of pattern. This hat is being knit from a hand dyed pastel green paired with a dark brown wool yarn. What do you think, compared to the first one?

First spiraled hat

Organization of Inventory

January 21, 2016January 22, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 16 Comments

One of my goals this year is to improve my organization of inventory. As a business I need to have control of my inventory. Although most of what I make has a long shelf life, instead of making what I enjoy, and struggling to make more of other things before the next show, I’ve decided to better track the specifics of things I sell and develop an inventory par level, to relieve some of the stress between back-to-back shows. Of course I will still be developing new projects as well as tweaking older ones, since another part of business is constant change. With a better inventory system I should be better able to see where I’ve been as well as where I’m going.

Last year I made a spread sheet for candle inventory. Instead of just writing down the scents I sold at each show (as I had in years past) I began by listing all of my scents (over 100), included my beginning inventory, my sales of each for each month, and the number of each made each month. Then I had a running inventory to tell which ones needed to be made next. (Yes, this could be done in excel, but was easier for me to track by paper & pencil/pen on a columnar pad.) This year I have plans for slight changes which should make inventory keeping easier yet.

Free smells of Soy Candles

Now at the end of the year, I have a complete picture, not only of my best sellers (which tend to vary from year to year) but also of the monthly and seasonal variations which will allow me to better tailor my production for this year.

With candles somewhat under control, I decided that yarn needs to be my next challenge…..I spin a lot more than I realized, both at craft shows and at home.

I have more than five 18gal totes of yarn that I have spun over the last several years. (Plus a smaller amount that I have listed here and here. Starting with the five craft show totes, I emptied them on the table, one at a time, sorting them by color.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Then I started taking each color and dividing the skeins into families by color (dye lot) and fiber type, assigning a “parent” number and sub-numbers, and recording the pertinent information on a spread sheet. This way with a quick look at the parent number, I can tell a customer how many skeins of a particular yarn is available, whether it is in my back stock or listed on line.

sorted into reds and greens

The greens and the reds are completed (unless I find more in hiding). I am pulling some skeins to use in knitting hats and cowls. It’s a good way to display how well the yarn works, and gives me a better idea of the yardage needed for a project (although this will vary with pattern and individual gauges.) But best of all, I have the enjoyment of ~~working~~ knitting with my own yarn; A skein with no knots, easy to wind into a ball without tangles because of the way I wind my skeins from my spools. And I see how the shades of color work together to enhance the pattern, forming an unique project.

Some of my added stash

(Hover mouse on pictures below to read captions)

Greens starting to find their families

reds, pinks, and peppermint twists

reds, mauve, and hot pinks

marls and other reds

Organization is a lot of work, especially when I get distracted with knitting 🙂 Two totes turned into two and a half, plus a bag of stash for me. I have only three totes plus a small box left to do. It is progressing quicker than when I was handwriting everything on my old labels.

new yellow tags ready to replace the old handwritten ones.

yarn and my inventory tools

Once finished I will know which colors I need to dye more of to spin. This leads to the roving totes that will next need to be “organized”! Then there’s hats etc that need their own spreadsheet!

As I create, I’ve also created “the never-ending organizing-inventory monster”! (I do like red though 🙂 All a part of growing a business I guess!

What inventory and organizing secrets have you discovered? Please share in a comment.

And It’s Finished!

January 17, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 5 Comments

The hat that I showed you as a work in progress is finished!

finished cranberry and fun fur hat.

I realize it doesn’t look quite done, and it’s not! This hat now joins the two others, that I have knitted recently, for their hot water felting bath. After their bath, and a day or two of air drying, I will take the final finished pictures. The mobius cowl (that matches the wildberry hat) will be left unfelted, so at least one of the four objects is complete and ready to label. It’s so nice and soft that I’m almost tempted to keep it for myself, but I’m running out of closet room!

Cranberry, Wildberry, and Colonial blend Hats, Plus knitted cowl

New Work in Progress

January 16, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 1 Comment

This is a WIP that I started the other day. It’s a hand spun, hand dyed shaded cranberry wool yarn that I’m combining with a fun fur for another hat to felt and add to my inventory.

hand spun, hand dyed yarn for a felted hat

Shaded Cranberry yarn as the start of a hat.

So far I am meeting or exceeding my inventory building goals. Now to make time to work on the rest of them (but knitting is too much like fun!)

Another Hat on my Needles

January 12, 2016mulchandmorecrafts 2 Comments

The other day I started organizing my hand spun yarn inventory that I carry to craft shows with me. Of course a few of the skeins jumped out and said “use me, keep me, knit me”

There were three skeins that I had spun from colonial wool in a colorway called Wildberry, so of course these were among the keepers! The color is deep and rich, with all the tones that one would get when combining blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, mulberries and others into a mixed berry jam….but non-fattening.

wildberry hand spun yarn

I started a hat which I will felt. I bought larger needles to make a matching cowl. I may even make some finger-less gloves if there’s still yarn left! Yes I really like the texture and color of this yarn, so am treating myself to some fun knitting. Naturally the results will join my craft show inventory, but at least the yarn gets a little outing and is replaced in a different tote with more hat friends 😉

Wondering Wednesdays #3

December 2, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 9 Comments

Today I’ve decided to share what I am wondering about.

I recently found a free knitting pattern here that I really liked the looks of and decided to try with some of my hand spun yarn. I chose two skeins that co-ordinate, one a dark navy blue, the other the navy plied with a single of gray and light blue.

Hand Spun Wool

I’m on row 9 of 21 and I’m wondering how it is going to look? Should I have chosen yarn with more contrast? As you can see from the work on my needles, it’s too crowded on the 32 inch needles to really tell exactly how it will look when finished. So I will keep knitting and maybe try a different color combination for another one. It is a fun pattern.

Cowl on needles

And in case you are wondering, here are two hats that I have knitted to felt. I’ll try to remember to post follow-up pictures, after they are felted/shrunk to show what a big difference hot water and agitation can make.

brown wide brim hat to felt

gold and light brown(mohair &wool) with dark wool band to felt

Retirement or Just Plain Tired

November 5, 2015November 21, 2015mulchandmorecrafts 4 Comments

This last Spring I gave a month’s notice that I had decided to retire! After more than five years as a part-time waitress at a local restaurant I knew I would miss the regulars who had become friends over the years. But after having my craft business on the back burner for over twenty years, we decided it was time to bring it to a boil.

Inspiration to follow our dream

I don’t know how I ever had time to work! We displayed and sold at about 20 shows this year. For most 2-day shows we were gone 3 days, for 4-day shows we always set up the day before. That left 2-4 days between shows for drying tents, making more of low inventory items, washing dusty table cloths, etc. I repeat, I don’t know how I had time to work even a day or two between shows.

Son’s corner

Hand painted scarves and wood burning.

Needle felted ornaments

Soy Candles

Husband had his own tent.

My boss called in September, to see if my shows were over and if I might want to work a day or two each week during the off-season…… I “nicely” turned him down while wanting to shout “I’m retired, I don’t have time!” This while thinking of the shows I had left, including the 3 hour workshop I taught at one on processing flax into linen. Still have two 1 day shows to do and a blog to learn how to run, as well as two on-line shops to stock!

Last week I finished spinning and plying these yarns

two ply hand spun merino wool

Now the 18 skeins are waiting to be labeled and listed or added to show inventory.

I also made a few batches of soy candles. I carry over 100 different scents.

Free smells of Soy Candles

Need to dye more roving, unique colors done in small batches, that I can replicate but not duplicate:)

Rainbow dyed roving and top.

If you are a knitter, crocheter, or weaver, you will understand my reference to the slight differences in dye lots. You may also notice that my skeins vary in yardage. This is because I wind all of my skeins with no knots, but may have several skeins of the same colorway or of coordinating colors. This gives you better quantity choices depending on the size of your project. I love playing with colors and seeing the differences made by combining various colors, in dyeing, in spinning and in plying.

In the future you will see many of our craft show products pictured in sections of the gallery. This way you can browse and if you can’t make it to our shows, I can list it for your purchase on my Handmade Artists shop, if it’s still available. My on-line shop listings aren’t taken to the shows with me to avoid selling the same unique item twice at the same time.

I’ve only mentioned a few details of the fiber and craft show part of our business and already feel this post is way too long. In the future look for more information about my husband’s art