It's Sunday!

Actually, I'm low on pictures. This week seemed to speed away with practically no time to dye. My fault, really. I must learn how to schedule better.

I will mention that I'm now one of the moderators and bloggers for the Etsy Knitters Street Team. It seemed I had just signed up for the team when a message came out that the current moderators were planning to shut down the team unless some new folks volunteered to help. I thought about it and wondered if I should volunteer? Here I am, starting a new business, what could I do? I have much to learn myself. I realized that the current moderators all felt like that at one time, and hopefully I wouldn't be the only one to volunteer. There is a new team, although I think we've all been a little reluctant to step up. It feels a bit presumptious to just leap in, but I started leaping today. I've updated the blog for the Etsy Knitters this morning, and I'll spend some time this week making sure I'm well immersed in all that's going on. (Yes, it does sound like more admin time. I'm working on my calendar in just a little while and getting everything into its time slot. I must start treating my life truly as that of a small business owner and not a crafty lady who lunches.)

I will mention too that Sivia Harding will be at the Atlanta Knitting Guild this week as our Superstar. She's the main part of Thursday night's program, and she's teaching workshops all weekend long. You can get more information about all that here.

Different fibers, same dyes

I've been very busy these past few weeks.

I did go out of town for a nearly a week with Gale to go to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival. That was a lot of fun. I really like that show.

I've had some administrative tasks for Fiber Charmer, such as registering the name as a trade name and getting my business license.

I got sneak attacked on etsy the same night I got back into town from the show. I was so excited to pack up all those orders and get them mailed out. In fact, go check out Handmade Movement and join in a sneak attack or two. It is an amazing boost to the new artist or crafter to get those sales.

I dyed up enough yarn to send out 71 samples to the Phat Fiber Box for their October Steampunk themed box. 70 are mini skeins ranging in length from 15 to about 30 yards long. Most are 25 yards. I'd started with 15 as it was the minimum suggested, but they looked too skimpy, so I only did a few of them before boosting it to 25 yards. If I was near the end of the skein from which I was winding, I just kept going which is why there are a few that are larger. I had one short skein that was about 200 yards, so I just sent it in as is.

I just started getting back into gear and dyeing again a day or two ago. As you can see from the photos, I tried Steampunk on two other bases. I'm nearing the end of the Chris Sock yarn. On the left is a 100% merino, worsted weight yarn. I didn't really like it in the skein, but once it was dyed up and bloomed, my goodness! The one on the right is that seductive blend, MCN, which is superwash merino, cashmere and nylon. Let me say that yarn is a dye hog. It didn't look quite so splotchy when I was dyeing it, but I had run out of dyes, so I decided to just see what would happen. As you can clearly see, it needs a lot more dye. It's getting more, and luckily I have some time to decide on whether I'll overdye it by immersion or handpaint it some more.

I do have another skein of the MCN which I dyed with other colors, and while it's not so splotchy, it's not good either. The not so good experiences do tend to teach us more, don't they?

I'm really hoping to have my logo next week. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I will be selling at the Atlanta Knitting Guild each month, starting in October. I'll have one of a kind yarns there from test dyeing, or yarns that I'm having a lot of difficulty getting the colors to photograph well.

I'll be working on getting my Artfire store up and running later this week too. I'll post the link when I've got it set up.

Have a great weekend, what's left of it.

How a color is born

You may wonder how a dyer comes up with color ideas. I can only speak for myself in this department, although I have been reading up to see how other dyers' minds work.

I'm joining the Phat Fiber Box, and if you're a knitter or spinner who doesn't know about this, go check it out. Now! I'll still be here when you get back.

See, here I am. Still sitting here with my coffee, in front of my computer, which is under an open window that has a cat sleeping in it. It's actually a lovely day here in Georgia after a summer of most miserable heat, but I digress. Back to how ideas occur.

The Phat Fiber Boxes have themes each month, and while a dyer doesn't have to slavishly follow the theme, it does give you a jumping off point. I've spent some time researching October's theme, Steampunk, online and getting ideas about the sorts of colors to use. Taking that information, I decided to use Gale's way of testing new colors, which is mixing tiny amounts in an ice cube tray. She says to use small pieces of silk to dye, but I've also read where you can put dots of color on a paper towel or coffee filter. And that's what I did. I mixed colors and put spots on a paper towel. I wrote my formula for each by it (again on the paper towel), then came and held them by the computer to see how close I was getting. When all was said and done, I had an ice cube tray with tiny amounts of dye that I could a)throw out, b)mix together and use later, or c)apply to one of the short skeins I had sitting around just for that purpose.

Needless to say, I went with c, and painted up the short skein. I painted it, put in into to steam, and after some time, perhaps 40 minutes, turned off the heat as I had somewhere to go. I left it in there to cool while I was gone.

When I got home, I rinsed it and hung it to dry. It's one of those yarns where I can't decide if I like all the colors or not, but as it's just a sample, it doesn't matter.

I'll admit that when I take something new from the pot, I look at it a lot. Every time I pass the bathroom where they are drying from the shower rod, I go in and look. While I know that's about as helpful as watching and waiting for a pot to boil, I haven't been able to stop myself.

Now, this sample yarn was just to use up all the test dyes, and it let's me see that this particular batch of black has a blue cast to it (great), but looking at it as I went to and fro this morning led to an idea popping into my head. I had glanced at it, and the words "blue ring octopus" popped into mind.

Let's be honest, the colors aren't that much like a blue ringed octopus. I think it was a combination of things. The white areas as I didn't have enough dye to totally cover this skein, and I sure wasn't going to mix any more just to do that. After all, this is merely a color study for me.

As I mentioned, and you can see here, I was aiming for a grey color, but my black has blue/lavender undertones. Most of my greys had some blue in them, although that could also be from the fact that I didn't clean syringe I was using to apply colors between colors, so maybe some of the blue was just contamination.

Frankly, that doesn't really matter. Just something about that particular yarn made those words pop into my head, and now I'm wondering about basing a yarn color on a blue ringed octopus.

Or maybe not. The point of all this is you have to be open for inspiration to strike you when you least expect it. It can't be forced, but it's out there, waiting to surprise you.

Let me close with a gratuitous cat picture. Here is Lily, aka Lilydammint!, photobombing as I wasn't petting or feeding her. You can also see her paws in the middle picture in this post.

About my yarn pictures

I met with Beth yesterday. She designs both knitted and crocheted items, which you can find on her etsy shop.

It was quite interesting when I showed her my yarns that I'd brought. She had really liked the pictures of Swampwater I'd posted in my Facebook group, but she said they looked very different from what she was expecting. The photos of yarn that I'd posted in etsy didn't surprise her the same way, and that got me to thinking.

If you're a fan of Fiber Charmer on Facebook, you get to see raw, unedited photos. I take the yarns outside and photograph them on a stone bench that I've got. The cats all love that bench, so usually there are cat pictures with the yarn pictures. Lily, Grey and Hopalong (the stray) all love to get up there and see what I'm doing. I call them my quality control inspectors. I also use one of our point and shoot cameras to take those pictures.

The pictures on etsy are taken inside the house in a makeshift studio on a card table with a borrowed camera. In fact, the tan background is a padded fleece blanket that worked better than the white flannel I'd purchased especially for background fabric.

We worked pretty hard on getting the etsy photos to look like the yarns, but even all that work can't take into account monitor differences. Think about what the yarn pictures go through. The camera translates them into a digital image, which may or may not look differently once I upload it into the computer. I then edit the photos, although I didn't adjust any colors with the batch that went onto etsy last weekend. I just cropped and scaled them. The digital images then travel across glass or metal wires, or perhaps they just bounce off a satelite to end up in front of you. Your computer monitor probably shows the colors a little differently from how mine does, and we won't talk about how the colors look on your smartphone.

I do my best to portray colors faithfully, and I'll admit to buying yarn off the internet only to be really surprised when I received it. It happens. What do I do when that happens? This is me, but I toss them into my stash. Eventually, if it doesn't grow on me, I'll turn around and resell it. I've destashed both on Ravelry and ebay, but I honestly think I've only decided to sell 2 or 3 yarns that way. Interestingly enough, they were commercial yarns, although Sheri at The Loopy Ewe loves blue, and I have considered selling a couple of yarns that came in kits, but then again, I've got a husband to knit for too.

I hope this helps you when you're looking at a yarn and wondering about why it looks so differently on etsy. You're always welcome to send me a convo on etsy. I do check the shop at least twice a day.

Photography and dyeing

I've been dyeing semi-solids and solids over the past week or so while I tried a couple of other yarn bases.

They're nice, but I misread the yardage on one, and I'd like to find a worsted with more yardage.

I'm adding yarns to my etsy shop today. I borrowed a Canon Digital Rebel from a friend, and I'm much more pleased with the pictures. The colors look truer to life than any I've taken so far. Hubby took about 200 pictures for me yesterday that I have to look through. I've got to find the ones that look best and edit them before posting them to etsy. Honestly, that takes awhile. Longer than I thought. I imagine I'll be sitting here in front of the computer quite a bit today.

I also spent some quality time printing labels, then cutting them apart, and labelling yarn yesterday. I'm not finished with that! At least I can cut and label yarn with a movie going in the background, so it's not totally boring.

Look for more new yarns soon! I'm ordering some really scrumptious bases to try out. I can't believe just how soft some of them are.

Dyeing August 8 and 9, 2010

IMG_2826
Originally uploaded by Fiber Charmer

I've uploaded pictures to my flickr this morning showing the results of the past two days.

I've also uploaded the same pictures to my Facebook page with commentary.

The search for base yarns

Today I'm planning to go through my list and start calling wholesalers for information and hopefully some sample kits.

The Chris Sock yarn was a one time buy for me. I'm down from 4 bins to 1 bin of it, so I'll need to find some new bases. In the meantime, Webs is having their big summer sale, and I bought some worsted weight and bulky weight yarns from them. Their pricing was really great, and this way I can fill the gap, should there be one, between running out of Chris sock and placing an order for new yarn.

I'm also planning, time permitting, to start working on some more dye recipes today. However, I went to pick tomatoes from my garden this morning, and homemade tomato soup is very high on the agenda. I filled my large colander, and I still have more tomatoes to go pick. I already have some inside that need to be used ASAP also. I'm not sure I'll get around to canning. Canning takes longer than just whipping up some soup, then putting it in the freezer. We'll see how today goes.

I did add a few more yarns to etsy last week. I need to spend some quality time here with the computer and update the shop some more. I also need to catch up on labelling things. Before I know it, I'll be going with Gale to the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool Festival, leaving hubby in charge of everything. I've got to make sure it will be easy for him to keep up with it.