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Today, I want to celebrate the awesome-ness of knitters. The following knitters each made a fantastic hat-ness from a single skein of handspun. Hat + Scarf by the darling Marian Firke Drew’s Hat by AtomKitty Game Hat by the wonderfully silly Kim Werker. Looking over yarnies’ (this is what I call super-small indie-yarn-makers) websites today, trying to find just the right ones for A Novel Yarn (my real-life yarn shop), is frustrating. I love handmade yarn and I love yarnies. I want to help them all. I want to see them all succeed. I do NOT want to say No. But the most frustrating part is – the yarnies left me no other option. Based on what they’ve given me, I can’t say yes. Why am I saying No? There are 7 mistakes yarnies (and all sorts of crafters) are making, so I turned on my recorder and ranted a bit. You can download it here: 7 Reasons I Say No (right click and Save As…to save to your own computer) The first step to getting your goods onto a shelf in a shop? Stop doing these 7 things! The . . . → Read More: 7 Reasons You Get a No While getting ready for tomorrow’s How to Rock a Craft Show class, I surveyed a bunch of crafters and asked them for their craft show questions. The most-oft asked question: Do you make any money at it? How much? Did it REALLY help you quit your dayjob? To answer this, I think it’s best to look at hard numbers. What percent of last year’s income came from craft shows? Could I have quit my dayjob without that income? To figure it out, I added up all my sales both online and off of yarn + fiber + lessons. Then I added up my craft show sales. I divided my craft show sales by my total sales to get the percentage. (Note to the more-math-minded…did I do this right?) I got .48 48% of my sales came from . . . → Read More: But do you make any money? Craft Shows have been a part of BCB since I first knew I wanted to quit my dayjob. I got to talking about it last week with some other crafters on Twitter. It got me thinking back to my first craft show and thought I remembered that I wrote a post after that first show. Sure enough, I wrote of the most popular posts on this site, 5 1/2 Shocking Facts about Craft Fairs. I reread it and I’m delighted by my exuberance. That feeling hasn’t faded in the last 2 years of doing shows; in fact, it’s only grown stronger (and has grown into selling at my own shop). As I prepared for my second show (which was much bigger than the first), I wrote another post about preparing for craft shows. In it, I link to a lot of great basic resources. It’s funny to reread . . . → Read More: Growing with Craft Shows Happy Valentine’s Day! Today’s the last day of the Month of Love and here are the final yarns: Booth+Brennan (Inspired by Bones, suggested by fraksmom) Holmes+Watson (Inspired by, well you know, suggested by Amy) Lorelai + Rory (Inspired by Gilmore Girls, suggested by Minnie) Liz + Jack Already sold! I’ve really enjoyed this Month of Love, thank you SO much to all who played along! Another contest? I’d like to do another Month of Yarn like this in the next few weeks…what do YOU think the theme should be? Suggest the winning theme (in today’s comments) and you’ll get free shipping on your next order! _____ If you were one of this week’s winners – claim your prize by putting MOL when you buy your . . . → Read More: Month of Love – Final Happy Month of Love!Have you suggested a yarn yet? Read the contest details here! Adama + Roslin Commander:PresidentNavy Uniform:Burgandy suit Read more here… Baltar + 6Human:Cylon Selfish:Faithful Pinstripe suit:Red dressRead more here… Luke + Leia (already sold!) Don + Betty Draper Heartlessly handsome:Perfectly prettyGray suits:Pink Dresses Read more here… This week’s winners are Steph, who suggested Adama+Roslin and Kim, who sugested Don + Betty. Steph and Kim – claim your prize by putting MOL when you buy your skein and wait for a corrected (50% off!) Paypal invoice. Suggest a couple (or group) AND specific colors in the comments of this contest post and if I . . . → Read More: Month of Love – Week 3 I just read this post on Make + Meaning, about commenting and interacting with commenters. The article reminded me how much I love this space and got me thinking about how I like to interact with you all in the comments. The Month of Love Contest is the MOST fun I’ve ever had in the comments. You all are clever and funny and sweet! On the other hand, sometimes I avoid writing about a topic, because I want to avoid un-wanted advice or criticism in the comments. But I’m uncomfortable with that, because I trust you to be kind and considerate. So last Friday, I tried something new. I tried telling you what I didn’t want. In fact, I was pretty pointed about what I didn’t want in the comments. I wrote it in a hurry, from my mom’s couch when we were supposed to be celebrating her birthday. . . . → Read More: Thank you! |
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