What’s Cookin’?

The kids are at Nana’s, the wife has gone to DQ to get yummy treats, and I’m enjoying the sweet sound of silence.  No noises…except the kitchen timer going off.  No that’s not dinner.  It’s hand painted superwash merino.  The Mrs. and I dyed up a pound of fiber this evening.  You should be able to view it on our Etsy store tomorrow or Monday (if I’m lazy). 

We are beginning to get precise in our measurements, so that we can duplicate exact colors and color patterns.  Taking notes on everything we do.  A recipe for the color lot.  So if a particular color scheme sells well, we can recreate it.  Of course, being hand painted, no two bumps will be exactly alike.  I’ll post some picks once it is complete.

We sold a couple of things, and listed a couple more things on Craigslist.  Still trying to raise money for the future fiber store.  It’s difficult to start a store from nothing.  It really tries the patience (as if I have much of that anyway).  We are only putting money into this store that we can raise with fiber or selling things we no longer need.  It’s a safe, but slow, way of doing things.  Why can’t I just grab the thousand in our Christmas fund, buy a bunch of stuff and get this thing going.  Sure, I’ll have it back way before Christmas.  Right?

Guess I’ll have to make do with the couple hundred we have for this.  That’s still enough to order about 10 POUNDS of fiber.  Hopefully placing that order Monday.  So in a couple of weeks the Etsy store should be very well stocked.  Getting excited again.

Baby steps to a store…

I am now getting really good at casting on.  The knitting part still trips me up after a couple stitches.  I’ll keep working on it : )

My wife got a whole fleece about a week ago for FREE.  It’s filthy and smelly and nasty and sheepy and… you get the picture.  It seems this fleece is destined to be my “scratch paper”.  Something for me to learn with.  So I washed a pound of fleece (which is actually quite a bit).  Then I washed it again, and again, and again.  Then I got to do something fun!  I dyed (no, not died)!!!  I dyed 5 different colors: redish, blue, green, yellow, and fire orange!  This was interesting stuff.  The precise measurements, a little of this changes that.  I can really go crazy with my nerdy self and some dye.   Maybe I’ll make a spreadsheet!!

Today we listed the dyed fiber, and some raw too, on our Etsy store.  Check it out at http://www.etsy.com/shop/woolsandtools

Only five more pounds to go!

And it begins…

So my wife, Jennifer, came up with an exciting idea of opening a spinning and knitting shop.  Sounds great!  How do you do it?  That is the question we are currently seeking answers to.  Of course if I am going to own this shop, I should probably learn to spin and knit.  I crocheted a huge granny square once, but that was a decade ago.   I really haven’t done anything “crafty” since.

As you can tell, we sat around for a few days brainstorming and came up with our future business name: “Wools & Tools”.  I spent several hours this week securing our website domain, etsy store page, email (woolandtools@hotmail.com), and our dba is now registered.  We have our tax id, and also have gotton the sales & tax registration.  So technically, we exists.  Strange feeling having a business that is real, but feeling really far from actually getting it going.

So now that all the fun and exciting stuff is done, it is time to drown myself in a business and financial plan.  Not to mention, trying to figure our how this whole knitting thing works.  Hopefully this will go as smoothly as everything else.  My wife is a pro with all things yarn and fiber.  That is, she is a great spinner and an even better knitter.  She has taken raw fleece from nasty, smelley, dirty fiber and turned it into a beautiful sweater (and every step in between).  Even my 13 year old son is about to finish his first pair of socks.  I have some catching up to do.  I better get to work…