This past week, I decided to check out the site Tophatter.com . I get periodic emails from handmadeology, and a lot of the time they have good pointers. When an email came this past week talking about how good tophatter.com is and how it can help get your name out there, I thought I'd check it out.
So...what is tophatter? To me, is like a souped up highly interactive version of Ebay. Anyone can list an item on there. From antiques, fine art work, to supplies for your own crafts. After you decide which item you want to auction off, you write up a description of your item and type in a starting bid. Then you schedule your item to be auctioned off in one of the corresponding live auctions. I decided to try auctioning off a skein of my yarn just to see how it works. I listed my starting bid at $10. A few days later I logged into the supplies auction where my yarn was being auctioned and watched how it worked.
It truly is a live auction! Everyone who is interested in items being auctioned off log in live. A real auctioneer stands at the front of the crowd of cute avatars, and starts asking for bids on each item. My yarn came up after awhile, and it did indeed sell.
My overall review and opinions on tophatter is this. Tophatter is a great place to make sure you get your items sold. But I have come to the conclusion that it is better to auction of items that aren't selling on Etsy, or you have had listed for a long time without getting sold. Listing new items that haven't had a long time to get exposure isn't a good idea. The skein of yarn that I sold ended up selling for less than what I spent on making it in the first place. The lady who bought my 273 yards of pink, orange, and yellow rambouillet hand spun for $10 got a STEAL.
Marketing handmade items, and networking to your name out there is a huge learning curve. For tophatter, I went, I tried, I left disappointed. I have another yarn up for auction tomorrow at 10 PT, but this time I am listing a skein that hasn't sold or had a good amount of views on Etsy.
Tophatter is a great place to sell things you need to destash, but not a good site to depend on for all of your handmade sales.
This last weekend, Madeline and I had the opportunity to do a spinning demo and lead a small knitting class. This was our first time ever doing a spinning demo. We were nervous, but it turned out pretty good!
We set up a small table, and laid out all of our items. The week before Madeline and I spent some time putting together as many fiber samples as we could. We also made little pictures of the plant or animal that the fiber came from.
It was fun being able to pass around all of these different fibers, and be able to explain a little about each of them. The biggest hit was the bamboo. Who would have thought such a soft silky fiber could come from a bamboo tree?
I took the ladies through the process of gathering the raw fleece, washing it, carding it, then spinning it. Madeline and her best friend Emma also gave a demonstration on how they spin.
After we were done with the spinning demo, I taught a small group of ladies how to knit. I was hoping for a bigger turn out, but at least the ladies who did turn up now know how to correctly cast on and do some stitches.
I put together a quick hand out that explained the stitches along with pictures and poems to help the ladies remember.
We had a lot of fun at the expo! We were even able to join in a couple of the other craft classes. We made earrings, and I learned how to crochet flowers.
If you would like to learn how to knit, and have your own copy of the hand out, click here. Or go to www.knittinghelp.com for in depth videos on every stitch imaginable.
What do you do, when you live in town but desperately want to raise some sort of fiber pet to appease your fiber cravings? Get Angora rabbits!
We have been raising Angoras for about 3 years now. They are by far the best pets we have ever had. They are quiet, cuddly, and easy to clean up after.
There are different breeds within the Angora breed. Germans, German Giants, French, Satin, and English. I started off with a German/French Hybrid, then acquired an English. English wasn't the right breed for me, so from there I got a French. German/French hybrids are nice, and I love them. But after I felt a 100% German, and learned that they give up to 5 POUNDS of fiber a year, my heart was stolen.
Did you know, that Angora fiber is 7 times warmer than wool and has a micron count of 10-13?That means it is incredibly soft. Another great interesting fact is that angora fiber doesn't need to be washed. Rabbits are surprisingly clean animals.
Every 90 days, angora rabbits are ready to "blow" their coats, or be sheared. When a rabbit starts to blow it's coat, it means it's time to pluck their hair. Plucking doesn't hurt them. Like a dog sheds it's coat, so does certain breeds of angoras. A gentle pull, and the hair comes out easily.
Angoras also come in a variety of colors. Which makes kindling time really fun! Peaking into a next box after kindling, is like opening up a box of jewels. You never know what you are going to find. There are chocolates, blacks, whites, chinchilla, blue, lilac, fawn, red, chestnut, torts, and a mixture of these. All of the different colors, means different colors to blend and play with.
Angoras are truly the pets that give back. One rabbit, will give you not only gobs of fiber every 90 days, but you get wonderful fertilizer for your garden, meat (if you choose to butcher), and breeding them is easy so you get even more fiber and fertilizer from the babies. Occasionally we do run into other fiber artists who want to buy the babies too. That makes me happy knowing that I am helping spread the love for the craft of spinning.
If you are a fiber artist who lives in city limits, and you desire to have some sort of fiber pet, try the angora! You will not be disappointed.
It is a beautiful day here in Oregon! The winter has been long, cold and VERY wet. It brightens up the heart to finally see sun. Even the bunnies are are happy spring is here!
We had a very nice day yesterday celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. We spent the day up at my parents house enjoying time with family. The kids played hard and came home dirty. Sam was especially dirty. I am going to be picking dirt and small pieces of gravel out of his curly hair for days!
SO..onto the fun part. The giveaway! I had 36 comments left altogether, and used Random.org to pick a winner. The lucky number was number 23!
The 23rd comment was Lisa Reitz. Congratulations Lisa! Contact me right away so I can get your prize sent off to you.
I wish I could give you ALL 8 oz. of locks. There will be locks available in my Etsy store soon, so be on the look out for that.
When you think of yarn, the first thing that comes to mind are those nice acrylic skeins of Red Heart that you see at Wal-Mart. When I was first introduced to spinning, a whole new world was opened up to me. Yarn wasn't just Red Heart or Lion Brand. Yarn was art.
The beginning spinner wants to create a very uniform smooth yarn without lumps or bumps. It is a hard technique to get down. After a while though, all you can do is spin smoothly. For years now that is what I did. I made tons of smooth uniform yarn.
This past year though, I was exposed to yet another side of spinning. Spinning art yarn. Could spinning lumpy, noiled, and nepped yarn really be valuable? The answer is yes! So now I am in reverse. Once wanting to make something smooth and uniform, has turned into wanting to make the most lumpy and unique piece of art with my spinning.
I have been so blessed and encouraged to be a part of a Facebook group that is FULL of these fiber artists. They make the most beautiful yarns I have ever seen. Did you know that you can spin virtually anything? Paper, feathers, sequins, ribbons, shoelaces, bits of mylar balloons, bamboo, pieces of sari silk...the list is endless!
To start my journey toward artistic yarn, I decided to start with core spinning. This is where you take a piece of scrap yarn or string, and while spinning you let your fiber wrap itself around the scrap yarn. So instead of the normal barber pole look, you get a yarn that is solid and wrapped.
By far, the most fun artistic yarn I have spun yet, HAS to be the lock spun. This is where you take fiber (most likely from an animal whose hair grows in locks, ie Lincoln, Angora Goat, Blue Faced Leicester, Wenslydale, Teeswater..there are many!) locks and spin them, not caring or worrying too much about the uniformity. The goal is to get a yarn that is full of texture and curls.
This is my process. First you get a hold of some delicious locks. For this particular yarn I used BFL (Blue Faced Leicester). Here they are. Beautiful, greasy, dirty, raw locks.
After the fiber is dry, the fun part begins! I get my wheel set up using my jumbo flyer and bobbin, and then grab handfuls of the locks. I pull the fiber apart (picking) getting it all fluffy and loose. Then start spinning it. I gently draft the easily drafted pieces, while letting the tighter curlier pieces twist and spin in the way they want.
By letting the locks do what they want and form how they want to form, you end up getting some thick and thin parts. One part may end up more uniform, but then you get a part that is very thick and curly.
It felt foreign to me at first, because I have been so used to spinning smooth yarns. But when you see the locks wrapping up beautifully on your bobbin, it's very gratifying.
The end result is like nothing else. Not only do you have the softest most textured yarn, but you get a yarn that really cannot be duplicated. It is unique, and one of a kind.
Here is a great resource on lock spinning, from my most favorite and inspirational fiber artist.
Would you like to try to do some lock spinning on your own? Or are you out of locks and need more? Now is your chance! I am giving away 8 ounces of these same BFL locks, dyed in a similar color scheme, to one of my readers. Red, orange, pink, and yellow!
Wanna win this handful of goodness? Here is what you can do! (leave a comment for each entry)
1. Leave a comment here, telling me what YOU would do with the finished yarn. What would you make with it?
2. Follow Ewe and Me Handmades on Twitter, and tweet this contest. Tweet once a day and get extra entries!
5. Share the giveaway on your Facebook page or group.
This giveaway will close Monday April 9. So hurry! Get as many entries as you can.
ETA: Not everyone is a spinner. I have something for you non spinners to win! For the non spinners, you can get entries to win THIS knitted hat. Knit from my own hand spun wool/llama blend yarn.
The giveaway is closed! Come back to see who the winner is! The winner will have 1 day to contact me either by email or FB to claim their prize. I plan on shipping your locks to you as soon as hear from you!
As many of my readers know, my daughter Madeline and I are crazy crafters. When we come across some sort of new craft we just HAVE to give it a try.
This past week, while watching some amazing videos on lock spinning , we ran into another video about making your own paper beads. I knew I stumbled across something good when Madeline gasped and looked at me with wide eyes. We quickly jotted down what supplies we would need, and headed off to Joann Fabrics to buy our goods.
We bought some glue, some acrylic glaze (we used Modge Podge, because that is all we could find. Diamond Glaze is supposed to be the best but we couldn't find it.), a variety of colored sharpie markers, and some toothpicks. This was also an inexpensive craft. We had our 50% Joann Fabrics coupon which made our whole purchase come out to $15! Can't beat that.
When we got home, we gave our new craft a try. We ended up making some really pretty beads! The craft quickly became a hit. Before I knew it Madeline had all of the girls in our neighborhood sitting outside making beads.
This craft was very fun, and not at all hard. What made it even better, was the fact that even though some of the colored pieces of paper weren't the perfect triangle shape, or looked like it might be ugly colors together, each bead turned out beautiful and took on it's own uniqueness. This is the video we watched. There are tons of tutorials on how to make your own beads on You Tube. Take a look! You might get hooked on it just like us.
The next step in making a one of a kind yarn, is carding and dyeing. For years I had a pair of hand carders. Hand carders are fun to use, but it takes quite a bit of time to get enough rolags made to actually spin up a good amount of yarn. Now I use a Louet Jr. drum carder. Boy does that make a difference!
Now that I have my mini batts, it is time to get the dye pots going. With this particular suffolk yarn, I used a natural dye process. This time around I used Marigolds and Turmeric. Since we had an abundance of marigolds blooming this year, it was the perfect time to make yellow yarn. I had my kids go through our garden area and front yard, and pick as many marigolds as they could.
Next we picked the flowers apart and removed as much of the green stems as possible. The flowers were then put into a pot with enough water to cover the flowers. Marigold stew!
After I had our beautiful Marigold stew ready to cook, I turned on the stove and let the flowers simmer until the water was a nice yellow color. Then I strained the liquid from the flowers and placed the yellow dye water into canning jars. Next I added about a tablespoon of salt to each jar. Then it was time to squish all of that lovely wool roving into the jars.
After stuffing the wool in, I filled the jars about two inches from the top with hot tap water. Then put in a couple of glugs of vinegar, filling it to the necks of the jars. I gave it a good stir making sure that the vinegar was dispersed through out the jar, and then placed the jars into a big pot filled with water. The jars were then placed inside the pot of water, and the whole thing was boiled for an hour. Just like you would water bath can.
After an hour, the wool is pulled out, rinsed, wrung in a dry towel, and laid out flat to dry. The end results are amazing! (the red in the picture is not red from the marigolds. I actually squirted a few squirts of food coloring in with the marigold dye and got the red orange effect.)
When the wool is dry, the fun part begins! The dry wool was ran through the drum carder again, and then spun up on my Ashford spinning wheel. After the yarn was spun, and twist was set, my beautiful yarn was finished!
Roving ready to be spun
Finished yarn “sunburst”
There are lots of beautiful yarns for sale on Etsy, and there are also many stores that sell fiber ready to be spun into your own yarn. You can even see our small selection of hand spun yarns in our etsy store.
