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You people are smart, help me out!

So this weekend?  I bought a printer.  A color laser printer.  The whole weekend has been sort of overshadowed by it.  This probably shows my tendancy to place greater importance on little things, but this printer signifies to me the venture into printing paper patterns.  This is scary for one major reason.  Money.  It means investment in something that I’m not sure will be successful.  And it’s not that I don’t think yarn stores will want my patterns, it’s that I think that I may not be able to keep up with this stuff while keeping my sanity…. but I’ve got some strategies and hopefully it won’t be too bad.  Here’s a bit of a warning though….  I haven’t quite figured out the pricing stucture yet.  I need to figure in all my costs, so I may have to raise the prices in my online store (at least on the shawls) so I don’t outsell the yarn stores.

It goes something like this:

Cost of paper + cost of new cartridges per page + cost of printer ammortized over first 320 copies = cost of goods sold (COGS)

COGS + Profit = Wholesale Price

Where Wholesale Price x 2 (retail stores generally mark up patterns 100% from their cost)< or = $7.00.

I know that not many knitters would be willing to pay more than $7 for a pattern, so I’m trying to keep everything under that mark.  And the sock patterns (seeing as they are smaller and don’t require as much paper) will be less, probably $6.  Granted, once the printer is paid off, my profit will go up by about $1 per pattern, but frankly, I am not getting rich with this venture, but it does give more exposure and the chance to sell MORE patterns even though I make less profit.
So here’s where I need your help….  do any of you smart people know of a spreadsheet template or something of the sort that I can use for invoicing.  I will be selling with net 30 terms to yarn stores, so they will need invoices so they can pay me.  Now to set up all the other stuff… gotta get my business license from the city (I’m already registered) and I open a business checking account, and switch paypal over to that account…. oh lord… is that water getting a little high to anyone else?  Should I be building an ark?
M

Hannah finished her Adamas shawl!  Go look at her pictures taken in the Arizona desert!  I LOVE the West!

Adrienne finished a beautiful Icarus shawl in white!  It looks fabulous!

Posted 16 October 2006 † Mim § Designing § Others FO's ‡ Comments (15) °

The Silver Lining

So the stickiness all washed out just fine, and the piece is dry now… but I discovered something I didn’t expect.  This cashmere gets SO MUCH SOFTER when you wash it!  For those of you who have pawed it with me, it’s very hard to believe… but it blooms a bit, and drapes AMAZINGLY and gets so soft that you want to roll around naked on it!  Quite lovely!  I’m wondering if I couldn’t make lingerie out of this stuff!  It would be HEAVENLY!

Posted 15 October 2006 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (13) °

Disaster Strikes!

As I type this, the Cashmere wrap and most of the second skein is hanging to dry in the bathroom.

Yesterday evening, at my friend’s house, one of the many strangers there spilled something sticky onto my knitting.  I am assuming that it was a stranger because any of the people there who know me would know to tell me immediately because my knitting is so important to me.  But anyway, yes, when I went home (I was rolling sushi all night and therefore not able to knit) I found that my knitting was sticky and wet.  Not only that, but the ball of yarn as well.  So I let it dry overnight hoping I would be able to knit on and then wash it out at the end.  But alas, that was not to be.  The yarn was literally stuck to the needles (and FYI, yarn stuck to KnitPicks Options needles takes the shiny finish off).  So I just tossed the whole thing in warm water with a bit of dish soap.  And then I skeined up the remaining yarn with my niddy noddy and washed that too.  Hopefully it will dry quickly so I can get back to it… otherwise the sock might get a lot of play.

Miriam

Posted 14 October 2006 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (20) °

Tidying up a bit….

In an effort to clean up things that I just haven’t gotten around to blogging about, here’s my purge! There’s some excitement and some acquisitions and some plain old every day stuff too 🙂

To start off with, I know this happened a long time ago (like… a month ago), but better late than never, right? I won the blue ribbon in the Utah State Fair! The ribbon was for Lightweight Mountain Peaks, which you may recall did very well at the County Fair.
I also won a blog contest at Heather’s place and this is the prize package she sent me! Click through to flickr for details. Thanks Heather! What a GREAT package! I especially am plotting what to do with the triple spiral charm!
I saw Carole’s link to Leggy Creations and found that they would do special order sock blockers! So I e-mailed Becky and asked about getting some with just a Cherry Wood finish. I love them! They’re just the right size and they’re TALL! Meaning that I could block just about any socks (short of knee socks) on them without any problem. YAY!
And since the spinning bug has bit me HARD, I bought some BFL roving from Spunky Eclectic in the Red Maple color. Oh.My.God… this stuff is BEAUTIFUL! I haven’t spun any yet (I don’t want to ruin it) but I am plotting to be able to make a tightly spun 3 ply for socks.
And finally, the yarn that will break my Knitting Monogomy. I have been working on this second Black Pearl Yarns design for almost the whole week (1 foot down, only 4.5 or 5 more to go… argh), and frankly the miles of k2p2 ribbing is making me a bit punchy, so this Manos del Uruguay will become a lengthwise scarf for my friend Joseph who is having his first gallery show a week from today. Blue and serene like calm waters to lend him strength and a sense of peace. And for good luck so he can sell a lot of paintings and make a bunch of money!M

Andrea has finished her Icarus shawl! Her blog is in Spanish, but the pictures are universal. 🙂 It looks lovely!

Posted 13 October 2006 † Mim § Acquisitions § Knitting § Others FO's § Spinning ‡ Comments (11) °

When Stupid Sock Creatures Attack!

First off, you have to see the button Marsha made for all of us who still blog even though we don’t have knitting content!

Perfect! Thanks Marsha!Now on to other distracting blog fodder! And quite appropriate for Socktober Fest, I think.

While browsing the craft book section of the bookstore, I found this AWESOME book! Stupid Sock Creatures: Making Quirky, Lovable Figures from Cast-off Socks by John Murphy. This book is fantastic! Included are patterns, schematics and fabulous pictures of the strange alien-like creatures created by John Murphy during a period when he was laid off.
Each of his strange sock concoctions is named something different; from innocuous names like “Jordan” to “Claude Grénache” and “Red Wetty” who speaks in gibberish according to the cartoons that accompany the pattern for him. The first one I will attempt is Owlsley who looks like this:
I’m not sure why he needs a bit of tie making a loop on the top of his head, so maybe I’ll leave that out… or make him a tie to go around his neck… but I’m endlessly intrigued by the idea of cutting up store bought socks and making stupid sock creatures. I think I’ll be making some (from the socks shown in the first picture) for my nieces and nephews for Christmas. I’ll keep you posted on my progress.M

Posted 11 October 2006 † Mim § Acquisitions § Misc. Crafting § Socktober Fest ‡ Comments (12) °

Sleight of Hand

I can’t show you knitting, so I’ll show you spinning instead!

Here is a blurry picture of the corriedale roving I’ve spun up. I’m only including it because the true color is somewhere between that picture and THIS one. Unfortunately, my desk is not the best lighted place for taking accurate colored photographs.

All said and done, I have about 80 yards of heavy-ish laceweight yarn. In some places it’s more like a fingering weight, but still, quite fine. And it’s basically balanced, which was the goal of this skein. And, what I learned from this skein is that if I want to make sock yarn, I need to twist EVEN MORE, so that my plying will be tight and still make a balanced yarn. Also, don’t try to spin while holding a collapsed niddy noddy under your arm and walking down the stairs from your apartment….. you’ll drop your spindle on the concrete and ding the finish *pout*

M

Check out Alison‘s finished shawls in action at her sister’s wedding! And also check out her finished Icarus shawl in the previous post. All of them are fabulous!

Posted 10 October 2006 † Mim § Knitting § Others FO's § Spinning ‡ Comments (7) °

Look! Over there!!!

In the first of installments of my “Grand Scheme To Keep You Distracted While Knitting Un-Showable Pieces” – aka GSTKYDWKUSP – aka Operation “Look Over There!”, I now present to you some pictures from the depths of my camera’s digital memory card.

This first one, C took. Just a Saturday (or possibly Sunday) sky as seen through the trees around our house. I’m jealous that he managed to capture a lens flare as I’ve always wanted to do that.

The next one is the view of the Salt Lake Valley that we were graced with as we went to dinner on Saturday. The one after that is the grand view (the first was done with a zoom lens) where you can see the whole sky.

And the final photo is what we saw as we left dinner on Saturday. We both stopped in our tracks toward the car and C said (in his best Ian McKellan voice) “The fires of Mordor have awakened!”

I have finished one (the smaller) of the Black Pearl Yarns Cashmere pieces, but I’ve still got a lot of knitting ahead of me to finish the other. I have been interspersing spinning with the knitting, mostly as a reason to rest my hands (spinning works different muscles and tendons than knitting does for me) and my spindle is just about full with the Corriedale singles. Which is good because I’m just itching to spin up some of the other stuff I got! But at the same time, I can’t wait to see how this corriedale ends up. It looks like it will probably be between lace and fingering weight, but who knows.

M

Posted 09 October 2006 † Mim § Designing § Knitting § Spinning ‡ Comments (7) °

SocktoberFest Kickoff!

Since I joined Socktoberfest, I figured it would be good to do the mememememe, eh? Make sure not to miss the last question… I shocked myself with my answer!

When did you start making socks?

I think my Junior year of high school… I had been knitting for a year or two, crochetting and cross stitching in there and crafting only on and off and not every day…. and then after some garter stitch scarf knitting and some ribbed scarf knitting, and then I said to myself “Self, let’s try some socks!”.

What was your first pair? How have they held up over time?
My first pair of socks was adapted from a pattern that I found in a book my sister owned full of scary 80’s patterns, and they had a pair of knee high socks with a turned down colorwork cuff and a pair of ankle socks with a slightly different motif. But I didn’t like the motif. Looking back, I see how incredibly stupid fearless I was because I not only made the socks with a turned down colorwork cuff, but I swapped out the motif for some hand charted ARGYLE that I tweaked to fit in the number of stitches provided. First socks, first colorwork, AND I made up stuff as I went along.

They turned out pretty well though. I didn’t like the floppy turned down cuff, and the only 2 yarns I had that were the same weight were a white and a yellow acrylic. I HATE white socks, and I HATE yellow and I HATE floppy socks, and I dislike Acrylic yarn.

As I recall I had a hard time finding the right size needles (US 2’s) becuase none of my usually craft stores carried them. I had to special order them through a needle point shop that I ordered some more sock yarn through (that never showed up).

They’ve held up very well. Probably because I never wear them for the above mentioned HATRED reasons. But I turned that heel and I was HOOKED!

What would you have done differently?
Using Wool would have been a good place to start 😉 Or knitting on smaller needles (I usually knit socks at no larger than a US 1.5 (2.5mm).

What yarns have you particularly enjoyed?
I really enjoy Trekking! It feels good to knit and make sturdy, soft and lovely socks. My newest socky love is probably Jawoll, but there is also a place in my heart for the semi-solid Lorna’s Laces. I generally don’t like variegated yarns for socks unless they’re subtley shifting stripey variegated like some of the Trekking colorways.

Do you like to crochet your socks? Or knit them on dpns, 2 circulars, or magic loop?
I knit socks on dpns. I LOVE 6″ bamboo dpns. They are light and bendy so my hands don’t hurt (I knit for a bit with metal double points again and decided it was bad when my hands started cramping up), and they are easy to tuck into a bag. I love being able to just finish a needle full of stitches and put it down without seriously interrupting things.

Which kind of heel do you prefer?
A short row heel just doesn’t fit me very well as I have a narrow heel. The heel flap and turn cups my narrow heel and feels secure and snug, and as I like my socks snug, that is a good thing. I have tried toe-up heel flap, and think with a few adaptations it could be quite comfortable… but I still need to tweak it for me. I knit socks for myself cuff down and socks for C toe up.

How many pairs have you made?

Oh God…. I’ll have to guess…. just this year I’ve made…. 15 pairs? Something like that… and I’m sure I’ve made at LEAST that many in the time I’ve been blogging BEFORE this year of 200Sox… and then there’s all the other years… I’ve probably made about 50 pair all told. I LOVE socks and I love giving them away to people. Handmade socks are my gift of choice to my knit-loving family.
M

Posted 06 October 2006 † Mim § Knitting § Socktober Fest ‡ Comments (2) °

On Pipe Dreams

My lovely, wonderful, good friend Kim (still miss you!) is in the process of posting some really great things about Pipe Dreams and daydreaming in general, and she asked for readers to post their own “pipe dreams”, especially if they could do anything at all for a living with no worry about money, then what you would do.
She really got me thinking as I’m FULL of daydreams (which now that I think about it is why I end up pursuing a million different hobbies), but I thought I’d narrow it down to a few career dreams. Needless to say, being an Executive Secretary isn’t my dream, but it pays the bills, and it gives me a clear cut home and work life, which affords me the time to pursue my other hobbies and loves in the after-work and weekend hours. But here are some things I would do if money were no object:

1. Preservationist for Ancient Celtic Texts. The idea of being a preservationist and conserving books is something that I actually have seriously considered doing with my future, but preserving Celtic texts would be the pinnacle of cool for me. Plus I’d probably get to live in Ireland 😀

2. Knit and design full time. It’s possible that this might be in my future, but probably not likely unless I teach as well. It would be great to be able to make a comfortable living off what I love doing, but it really isn’t practical and all I can hope for at this point is that maybe I’ll be able to someday cut back to part time and then design more.

3. Own and Operate a Bed & Breakfast. My mom always told me that I should do this, probably because I always excelled at making Breakfast Foods over any other kind of meal.

Make sure you go read what Kim is writing about dreams. My brain is too tired to really say anything fantastic, and her posts and the comments are really good.

But here’s fiber content!

I promised a picture of my spindle, and here it is. This image doesn’t do it justice, but it’s really lovely. I have started spinning some brown Corriedale that Anne sent via Susan in a big bag full of generous samples of different fibers including some alpaca blended with her own bunny Hank‘s fur! Anne, you spoil me! And then Juno offered wool in the comments yesterday! I think spinners are crazy! You start spinning and they just send you stuff!
Also, there has been knitting (although not as much as there SHOULD have been due to spinning fever). I worked for a few days on the new socks pattern (seen there in the creamy flecked wool), but then the CASHMERE arrived! The gray is the color “Singapore Smoke”. Hard to tell from the picture, but it is the perfect dove gray! And it is so soft that I hardly mind the MILES of k2p2 ribbing I’m working. The stuff above it is the “Polynesian Plum” color that I’ll be using for a coordinating wrap. Be warned! This yarn is HEAVENLY! I hand it to people to touch and they end up petting it and rubbing it on their necks. Even non-knitters pet it! I would highly recommend buying some of this yarn, or at least saving up for it so you can buy it with my pattern 😉 It’s really nice. The scarf I’m designing will be made with only 2 skeins, and the wrap PROBABLY with 5 or 6. Not sure yet. But I can’t reveal too much before the pattern is done, so pictures of knitting will probably be thin on the ground here (“and thin in the air, pretty much generally quite trim” *love you Eddie Izzard!*) until the Black Pearl knitting is done. I’m sure you understand :)And if you haven’t seen it, go check out Kate Gilbert’s new Festive Bag Pattern! It’s Great! I love the devilish side myself!

M

Tina finished her Hidcote Shawl and I am SO proud of her! Just a few months back she was saying how she would never knit from charts, and I managed to corrupt convert her. Go look at her shawl! It’s GORGEOUS!Local SnB friend Eliza finished her Icarus on account of being sick. It looks GREAT Eliza and I hope you’re feeling better!

Janna finished her Seraphim shawl in Elann’s Peruvian Collection Baby Silk! It looks so great and very cozy!

Posted 05 October 2006 † Mim § Designing § Knitting § Others FO's § Spinning ‡ Comments (10) °

The dulcet tones of an Transplanted Valley Girl

Wanna hear what I sound like? The new episode of KnittyD & The City is up, and there’s a phone interview with me! Go here if you want to hear it. And in the future, the link to JUST the phone interview is here *edited to add the correct link*. I just listened to it and I’m really nervous and sort of stupid-sounding at the beginning, but then it gets better closer to the middle. And I didn’t think I had an accent – more like regional speech patterns – until I heard it on a podcast. And I alternate between pronunciations of skein (“skeeeen” or “skain”). Hmm…. strange.

Thanks for the interview Wendy! It was fun!

M

Posted 04 October 2006 † Mim § Knitting ‡ Comments (9) °