recent orders

After SS, I took a few days off, and then wrapped up a couple of orders that I wasn't able to finish before the show. This morning I dropped off a small sock yarn order for Apple Yarns. I was a little startled to see that the 60-plus skeins that I delivered in March and May have dwindled down to six. Thanks, knitters and crocheters! I'm not sure how long this new stock will last. They're mostly apple colorways, which has really put me in the mood for autumn.



Earlier this week, I shipped off a group order. This one had some older colorways, which were interesting to revisit.



Several new projects, big and small, are in the works. It should be an interesting fall!

wholesale order

Brought 50 skeins of Willow sock yarn (80% BFL, 20% nylon) to Apple Yarns today.



Left to right: McIntosh (Apple Yarns exclusive), Snowfall, Limitless, Persimmon, Spruce, Tropical Bloom (top), Inked, and Slate.

McIntosh and Snowfall are restocks of two colorways from late summer that sold out really quickly. If you want 'em, now's the time. :)

wholesale orders

I've been dyeing a lot, despite my empty store (which is empty because I haven't had time to do year-end inventory and I didn't want to confuse myself by selling stuff before I'd had a chance to take stock. My brain, it is easily baffled these days). The latest Loopy Ewe order went out yesterday, and when I passed the FedEx Ground truck on the highway south last night, on my way to bell choir rehearsal, I felt a warm little glow knowing that my yarn was safely on its way.

I also dyed up some pretties for Pulling at Strings, and I expect those to go up sometime this month.

I know this post is totally worthless without photos, but I didn't take any (for shame!). With both orders, I was racing to get everything packed up, and I didn't have time to snap any pictures. But I do have a photo of my first TLE order, which I finished last November. 256 skeins, baby:



Now it's on to yarn club colorways. Two for my own, two for Pulling at Strings. I've got one in mind for PaS, as well as some ideas for colorways for what I'm planning to call my Luminous series. Those will be multiple colors, layered on top of one another. My knitting interests have shifted to lace since Sock Summit, having seen so many incredible shawls there, and my dyeing interests are going in the same direction. I want colorways that are rich in color yet subtle enough to stay out of the way of complex stitch patterns. I'm really looking forward to doing some experimentation!

I've also decided on shows for the year:

Black Sheep Gathering, Oregon, June 18-20. This is assuming I get in, as there's a waiting list for new vendors.

Midwest Folk & Fiber, Illinois, July 16-18. My sister lives nearby, so it will be a great chance to see her and meet some online friends.

Oregon Flock & Fiber, Oregon, Sept 24-26. I went as a shopper in 2008, and it had such a lovely laid-back feel to it. I think it will be really fun to be a vendor.

It's going to be a busy year!

let the Tour begin!

The Puget Sound LYS Tour begins tomorrow, and my Trillium merino is the featured yarn at Apple Yarns. Today I stopped by to take a photo.



Pretty awesome that what started off as a "sure, I'll knit some socks for you" three years ago has evolved into this. Andrea (the owner) asked if I had any more because she's thinking they might sell out, so I'm going to dye her up a bit more tomorrow.

Next up: my SF/fantasy-themed stocking next week (5/21). I have some sparkly sock yarn with actual silver spun into it to dye up in a Twilight-inspired colorway (apparently vampires sparkle in this series? so says my husband, who made it through the whole movie, unlike me), plus some Battlestar Galactica and possibly Lord of the Rings colorways to do. My friend Diane of Bugsnugger, June of Rising Sun Earthworks, and Denise of Zen Moon will be coming to my geeky little party. Time to celebrate our inner nerds!

store news

I have dyed a lot of yarn (for me) in the last two weeks. 60 skeins, I think? The biggest single batch was the most recent Apple Yarns order, part 1. This is McIntosh, an exclusive colorway for them:



A closeup:



Also, some yarns that are going live tomorrow, including these:





And a lot more that are for my current group order. Yet, surprisingly, I am not completely exhausted and/or insane. Maybe putting together 600-1000 skeins for Sock Summit won't be as impossible as I thought?

Except maybe for the cash flow thing. I realized today that I am going to have to front a lot of money for the inventory. I know this is totally obvious, but I had been so focused on the cost of the booth, lodging, display materials, etc. and the time it was going to take to dye everything that it didn't even occur to me how much the base yarn was going to cost. Um, duh. Most of my capital is tied up in worsted, aran, and bulky undyed yarns. So I will need to do a huge flurry of non-sock dyeing after the LYS Tour madness has subsided, in order to raise funds to buy sock weight base yarns. My timeframe for dyeing has just gotten even shorter. Eeeek.

fiber show wrap-up and my first wholesale order

It's a milestone weekend for Huckleberry Knits--my first fiber show and my first wholesale order delivery.

The fiber show went well. There is very little overhead with this show--no lodging or meals, no booth to set up, and no need to acquire a credit card merchant account, as the guild handles all the transactions. So I'm happy with my net. I also have a better idea of what to bring next year. I think that shoppers at this particular show are more interested in finished items, so I'll try to bring some knits next time. I saw a bunch of people that I knew, none of them knitters, spinners, or weavers, so I should have a way to tap into that audience.

Also, I think I'll put some marketing copy on my labels to help describe the yarns. I think that's a skill that I can bring over from writing online listings to selling in real-world venues.

Here's my first wholesale order: eight pounds of soft squishy yarn.



I like how my first wholesale order turned out. I was a little nervous about the timing because I had to wait for my base yarns to come in and I wanted to finish the order before leaving town. The weather is now cold and rainy, so I thought yarn drying time would be really slow. Then it occurred to me that I could put a drying rack right above the heating vent in my bedroom. Voila! Dry yarn in 24-36 hours.