I have one copy of Handmade Marketplace to give away,
read to the bottom to learn how to win.

(photo from karichapin.com)

Oh, I can not tell you HOW excited I am about this book!

I was honored to be interviewed for it, to serve as part of the “Creative Collective” – the group of makers who contributed bits of our own experiences.

That was crazy exciting, but then I got the book in my hands.

And oh, I’m far beyond excited to be included in it, I’m thrilled that this book exists.
I’m thrilled I have something to recommend, as a complete resource, when someone asks “How do I start a crafty biz?”

It has everything a crafter needs to know/think about/plan for in selling their crafts. Craft shows, marketing, making their thing, wholesale, everything!

I have read a loooot of business books.
Most of them are geared to big businesses.
A few are aimed at truly tiny businesses (my favorite: The Boss of You)
Even fewer are about craft businesses (and the best, by Barbara Brabec are over 20 years old)

But this is the first book  for us.
Crafters who blog. And podcast. And sell online.

Obviously my review is wildly biased because the book is filled with people I adore (Kari! Kim! Diane!)…but my mom (who is totally out of the online-craft-world loop) called me last night to say “I can NOT put this book down! It’s teaching me SO much!”

Thanks to the kind people at Storey, I have one book to give away to a commenter!

To enter: leave a comment with your business question and I’ll choose one commenter randomly and announce the winner next Friday!

PS. I met the author (and everyone else mentioned in this post) on Twitter. Being a part of this book is just one of the fabulous side-effects of loving Twitter.

Sure, it’s National Craft Month, but I really spend most of my time on two non-crafty “crafts”:

Writing.
Business.

I love both, but sometimes combining them feels like…work.
I always want to avoid sales-y, ick-y business writing and sometimes even the NAME of a business sales-y thing grosses me out.

Like “launches”. Long ago, I started calling them “brunches”.
Because isn’t brunching the most relaxing thing ever? No stress! No waiting! Just piles of tastiness and conversation!

Last week I was getting ready to write something business-y (for the brunch of my Twitter class) and I got stuck. On the word.

Sales Page.

A totally icky word for what is a pretty simple thing: a description of what you are offering.

But as much as I love writing and I love sharing my thing, I always put off writing sales pages.
It just sounds painful and icky and sales-y, you know?

So let’s metaphor-mouse it (that’s a Havi thing):

Current relationship (sales page =?)
-icky
-salesy
-convincing
-”persuasive writing” assignments in school
-explanatory
+sharing my thing
+putting words to an idea
-static
-work
-”should”
-certain technique that I’m not doing and therefore “LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE” (ugh, I hate that saying)
-sticky
-should should should

Reminds me Of..
writing that is a “should” – school assignments, homework, wondering if I’m doing it “right”

My ideal metaphor (X=?)
+ease
+fun
+putting words to ideas
+sharing what I love
+confidence
+not scary
+no “right” way
+extra doses of me-ness

What happens when…
What happens when there aren’t any expectations of what I *should* be doing? What does that look like?

That feels like I’m dancing around in my kitchen, as an adult (ie, not a kid doing homework), putting my favorite ingredients together, confident in my skill.

*bing*

When sales page = homework:
I feel:
like a kid
worried of getting in trouble
trying to please…the big kids? the experts?

When sales page = my baking
I feel:
like an adult
responsible to myself
confident
free
I want to share all the tasty goodness!

Sales Page = Baking!

Do We Have Metaphor?
Yes!
For me, baking=sharing, fun, having a party, inviting everyone, woo!
Baking for someone is a lot more fun than trying to sell them something (ick!)

—–

And once I had the metaphor, it wasn’t long at all before I baked up a description of my new De-Ick Twitter class.
Which is funny because this metaphor-ing is something we’ll do to de-ick all the shoulds around Twitter!

Is there a word you don’t like? Would finding a better metaphor make it more enjoyable?

And the winner of a free skein of hemp lacweight is….

Gerri Newfry!

She will get one skein of hemp in the color she suggested which is…black!

I’m calling the new shade Midnight and it is now available in the shop.

So many of you suggested yellow (or gold or sunshine), that I’ve also added that to the line-up.

Daffodil

And several of you requested a red (or wine or pomegranate), so we have this:

Pomegranate

Pumpkin got a bit of a makeover and is slightly brighter to welcome Spring:

Pumpkin

You can find all these shades and your old favorites, in the shop, until they sell out! Check them out here.

(Scroll down to learn how to win a free skein of yarn!)

Hemp Laceweight is easily the most popular yarn I dye.

As soon as I list it in the shop, it sells out.
As soon as I bring it to A Novel Yarn, it sells out.

Because of it’s fly-off-the-shelf qualities, I’ve been dyeing the same 5 colors:

Grape

Azalea

Pumpkin

Leaf

Fog

And now I have a big cone of unddyed hemp and I’m ready to try something new!

Is one of the above your favorites or would you like a different color?

Leave your suggestion in the comments below and NEXT Friday I’ll choose 1 response (randomly).

The winner will win a free skein of hemp in the color they suggest and that color will be available in the next hemp update (whether it’s a new color or current color doesn’t matter, just tell me what you like!)

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 second step:

Figure out what to do, how to do it and how to ROCK it in this Wednesday’s class,
How to Rock the Shop.

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 skein and wait for a corrected (50% off!) Paypal invoice.

You can see past week’s Month of Love yarns here:

Week 1
Week 2
Week 3

Happy Month of Love!
Have you suggested a yarn yet? Read the contest details here!

Adama + Roslin

Commander:President
Navy Uniform:Burgandy suit
Read more here…

Baltar + 6
Human:Cylon
Selfish:Faithful
Pinstripe suit:Red dress
Read more here…

Luke + Leia (already sold!)

Don + Betty Draper
Heartlessly handsome:Perfectly pretty
Gray 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 spin it, you’ll win 50% off!

—

You can see past week’s Month of Love yarns here:

Week 1
Week 2

This week’s month of love contributions is a smidge abbreviated because I’ve had a rough week.

Our house was broken into. Again.
They stole nothing this time, just rifled through cabinets, breaking cups and squashing any sense of safety.

I thought about skipping this all together, but I love yarn, I love the Month of Love and more than anything, I love sharing it with you.

So, let’s get to the good stuff.

Legolas + Gimli

Luke + Lorelai (already sold!)

———-

This week’s winner  is commenter Wordlily, who suggested both the color and the concept for Luke+Lorelai.

Suggest a couple (or group) AND specific colors in the comments of this contest post and if I spin it, you’ll win 50% off!

_________________

PS. I appreciate your good thoughts, sweet comments and concern. I would greatly appreciate it if you could refrain from sharing advice or ’shoulds’. Thanks!

Happy Month of Love!
Have you suggested a yarn yet? Read the contest details here!

It started simply enough, with Sesame Street:

But Month of Love morphed into Geek Week with lot of sci-fi type inspiration.

This week is all Lord of the Rings-inspiration with Celeborn + Galadriel:

Arwen + Aragorn

and Legolas + Gimli (coming tomorrow!)

Just to solidfy my geek-cred, we have Spock + Kirk:

Next week, the geekery continues with Battlestar-inspired yarns (along with a few other, less geeky TV shows, like Gilmore Girls and Mad Men). Catch them all here, a new one every day!

———

This week’s winner  is Karma, who suggested both the color and the name for Galadriel+Celeborn. Aragorn + Arwen were mentioned in the comments but with different colors and I had already spun this yarn with them in mind.

Suggest a couple (or group) AND specific colors in the comments of this contest post and if I spin it, you’ll win 50% off!

Did you know Valentine’s day is a month away?

I’m not a big fan of V-day, but I do LOVE thinking about love and how we change with it and how we change it.
And of course, when I think about something, it seeps into my yarn.

All this love-thinking birthed the Month Of Love series of yarns, 2 years ago.

Month of Love is a month-long yarn-party from 1/15 to 2/14 (Valentine’s Day!); I make a yarn representing a famous pairing or couple (and this year: group) every weekday for the entire month and share it the very next day.

Last year I asked for your suggestions and that post became the MOST popular post on my entire website. I got so many great ideas and awarded so many prizes and the whole thing was SO much fun, that I’ve been dying to do it again this year!

And here it is, the day before the Month of Love!

Let’s get this love-y party started!

I think I said it pretty well last year:

I’m interested in how this interplay of colors and how the addition of a color (or person) to a yarn (or your life) can change a color or at least, the perception of that color. And some couples, they just have a single color to symbolize the pairing (ex. Cheech +  Chong = green). Of course, this applies to more than just romantic couples; it happens with any sort of pairing: PB & J or Bert & Ernie.

(PB&J, from last year’s Month Of Love)

I need help thinking up these couples AND the colors associated with them!

If you suggest a couple + color that I choose to use, you will win 50% off any skein in my shop.

To enter the contest: leave a comment below this post with both a COUPLE and their COLOR(S). You must include your email (no one will see it) so I can let you know if you’ve won. You may suggest as many couples as you like and if any couples are duplicated, the winner will be the first who mentioned both that couple and the colors I use.

For example: Sesame Street: red for Elmo, yellow for Big Bird, blue for Cookie Monster, green for Oscar
(note: I already made that yarn, so don’t suggest it!)

PS. To keep up with Month of Love yarns, you can see them on the blog every Friday and you can getthem in this section of the shop. Last year, the yarns sold out pretty much as soon as I listed them, so I’m thinking they won’t hang around for long!