Spin-along

Hey everybody,

I am thinking of doing a spin-along. I've never done one before, but they look like lots of fun. Basically the way it works is everyone gets a batt set that's designed just for the spin-along, and everyone receives their batts at the same time. With your batts, you'll also receive a link to our Ravelry thread, so we can all chat and post pictures of our progress as we spin. The goal is to finish up your spinning by a certain date (usually a month from when you receive your fiber), and there is generally something cool for folks who finish.

Sometimes it's a coupon to use in the shop, sometimes it's an entry into a drawing for a free batt set, and some spin-alongs even have prizes for various categories like "most creative" or "most evenly spun," etc.

There are a lot of variations on spin-alongs, and I've seen some really cool and creative ones out there. With some, everyone gets fiber that's exactly the same, and it's fun to see how different it looks when it's spun up by different people using different styles & spinning techniques. One person might do a thick & thin single, one person might do 3-ply laceweight, and one person might do a crazy art yarn filled with beehives. At the end, we all stand back and are amazed at the variety that came from one simple colorway.

Other spin-alongs send a different batt set to each participant, with all the colorways fitting a theme. They might all be inspired by different world cities, famous paintings, or characters from a book or TV series.

I have a lot of ideas for series that I've been wanting to do. So I really like the idea of having a spin-along where I get to do lots of different batt sets along a theme & whisk them off to happy homes across the world.

Because this is my first spin-along, I'd like to keep it pretty simple. So how about this: Everyone's batts will be inspired by a different semiprecious stone. This way there are lots of different color options, and you can let me know if you prefer pastels, bright colors, dark colors, or neutrals (white, browns, grays, black). You can let me know if you like your batts all one color, or made up of several colors. Or you can tell me you like surprises. (Which means you can't think of ANY color combo I could possibly send you that would make you anything short of gleeful.)

I think 50/50 merino-tencel blends lend themselves especially well to semi-precious stones. So that's what most colorways will be made up of. A few colorways might also have extra fiber in them, like tussah silk, bamboo, firestar, angelina, or bamboo noil, if I think those things go well with the texture or color patterns of that particular stone.

The default option will be 4 oz. of smoothly-textured batts plus a small specimen of the stone they're based on, for $24. If you want more or less fiber, or prefer chunky art-style batts, that can be easily arranged. Shipping will be 1st Class, so it'll be $3 for US orders, $4 to Canada, and $6 to everywhere else in the world.

Tenative timeline: I'll keep sign-ups open for a week or two, then order fiber based on how many people we have signed up. Once it gets here, the dyeing and carding will commence, & batts will ship out about a month from now.

So... what do you think? Love the theme? Hate the theme? Too long of a wait? Had your heart set on different fibers? Tell me in the comments!

The Bakery Analogy: Or, Why I'm Emily, Even Though My Name Is Rachel

A while back, someone who does not knit or spin asked me what I do. And I told him, but probably didn't do a very good job of explaining. Because I am not very good at talking about what I do to people who aren't involved in the fiber arts. Which is a thing I need to work on, but that's not the point right now. The point is, I explained to this person (who had never met a spinner before) that what I do for money is dye and blend unspun spinning fiber, and sell it to spinners who would like to turn it into yarn.

And he was confused. (And not just because he had never met a spinner before, but I'm sure that wasn't helping him any.) And he said to me, not in an unkind way, but in a truly baffled way, "But, isn't what you make available to your customers cheaper commercially?"

And I kind of froze for a second. And I said yes, and I tried to explain why there is still a place in the universe for the things I make. And he was still confused, and didn't look at all convinced, which is probably because I didn't do a very good job of explaining, because I am not very good at talking about what I do to people who aren't involved in the fiber arts. (Sigh.)

But today, long after the fact, I came up with the perfect analogy to explain to non-fiber folks why there is a place in the universe for the things I make, even though similar things are available cheaper commercially. Of course now I will probably never see this guy again, but that's okay, the analogy will still be useful. Because I get this question a lot.

Here's the thing. This would work a lot better as a comic strip, but I can't draw at all. So you're going to have to use your imagination. I know you have one, or you wouldn't be here. Ready? Awesome. Let's do this thing.

A guy walks into a small, independently-owned bakery. You know, the kind that is tucked away in a cozy little nook somewhere between a couple shops and owned by a friendly girl named Emily who does all the baking herself every morning and runs the cash register in the afternoon. The kind of girl who rides her bike around town with a loaf of French bread and a bouquet of red tulips in her bike basket.

The guy stands in front of the display case for a moment, taking in all the different breads for sale: white, wheat, sourdough, rye, oat, challah, baguettes, pan loaves, shaped and laminated breads, and he looks up at at Emily and says,

"Wouldn't it be cheaper for your customers to go buy a loaf of Wonder Bread at the grocery store?"

Emily blinks twice. There is a pause.

"Well, yes."

Another pause.

"But you can think of some reasons why they might not want to do that, right? They might want this instead."

The light bulb illuminates. He gets it. Because he is a person who has eaten bread before, he understands.

"You can't find as many kinds of bread at the grocery store. There are a lot of different brands, and they each have a white and a wheat, but they're all pretty much the same. And even when you do find a sourdough, it's flat and uninteresting. If you manage to find a challah, it'll be thick and gummy without much flavor. There's nothing at all that has a perfect crisp crackly crust like these rustic loaves. And none of it was baked this morning.

Of course, there are times when you want those store-bought breads. Sometimes you are flat broke and don't want to spend $4.50 on a loaf of bread. Sometimes you'll be using it for a purpose where it won't matter if it's the very best bread -- like making breadcrumbs for meatloaf, or feeding the ducks at the park. And if for some reason you were to find yourself needing 15 loaves of bread that were all perfectly identical, you'd probably want 15 one-dollar loaves, instead of 15 $4.50-loaves.

But sometimes you want the very best bread. Sometimes you want bread that was made this morning.

Sometimes you want bread that's not quite like any of the breads in the grocery store.

Sometimes you're allergic to an ingredient, and want a baker who can make a loaf just for you.

And sometimes you find a little bakery that makes a certain kind of bread just the way you like it, and you come back for it whenever you're in town, as a special treat for yourself. Sometimes you're happy to pay more for it, because it's your favorite and you can only find it at that one little place.

Sometimes you want bread from a grocery store. And sometimes you want bread from me."

That's why I have customers. That's why my little shop exists. That's why it's not stupid for me to think that anyone would ever buy something from me.

Because sometimes you want mass-produced spinning fiber. And sometimes you want spinning fiber from me.

p.s. -- It is probably a good thing I didn't try to turn this into a comic strip. Turns out, Emily is as wordy as I am! Who'd'a thunk? ;-)

p.p.s -- If you do want spinning fiber from me, of course you can always find it here.

Let's get rid of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

I'm not sure I like Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Don't get me wrong, he was a great guy. And he did a lot of good in the world. But, I'm not sure it's a good thing to have a federal holiday for his birthday. For several reasons.

I'm sure he saw his work as more important than himself. If we're going to celebrate him, doesn't it make more sense to celebrate the anniversary of something he did or accomplished, rather than his birthday? (And especially rather than the third Monday in January, which is approximately his birthday?)

And honestly, I'm not sure we should celebrate him when we don't celebrate other people who also did a lot of good in the world. We don't have a federal holiday for Rosa Parks, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, William Shakespeare, Leonardo da Vinci, Ghandhi, or Mother Theresa.

If you want to disqualify those last 5 because they made the world a better place but were foreigners, then maybe we ought to talk about the fact that while we have no federal holidays that honor women, American Indians, Latinos, Asians, or members of any minority, we do have one for Christopher Columbus, who was both a foreigner and a cruel and violent man. Also, he didn't discover America and wasn't unique in his opinion that the Earth is round. (I'm not wild about the lies that surround Thanksgiving either, but I like the idea of a day of giving thanks. And if you take out the happy friendly pilgrims & Indians and just give thanks, I'm down with that. But there's not really any part of Columbus Day worth keeping.)

Martin Luther King, Jr. did a lot of good work. Instead of celebrating him and his work, I think he'd want us to celebrate civil rights. I think he'd want us to remember the race relations problems our country used to have, and to take a moment to be grateful for the fact that a lot of them have improved. And then I think he'd want us to look at the race relations problems our country still has. And I think he'd want us to look at all the groups of people in our country who are still fighting for equal rights, even when those groups aren't defined by race. And I think he'd want us to sit down together and figure out what we plan to do about that.

And once we've solved those problems, I think he'd want us to look at all the other social problems we have. Like the fact that a lot of people in our country don't have access to affordable healthcare. Like the fact that there are people in our country living on the streets. Like the fact that our infant mortality rate is almost three times higher than Singapore's. Like the fact that the infant mortality rate for black Americans is almost three times higher than the infant mortality rate for white Americans. Like the fact that we have the highest teen pregnancy rate in the developed world. Like the fact that we don't have enough schools, and a lot of the schools we do have are in bad need of repairs. Like the fact that our prison system is overcrowded and overburdened. Like the fact that a disproportionate number of the people in our prison system are black or mentally ill. And I think he'd want us to sit down together and figure out what we plan to do about that. Because that was his thing.

Let's replace Martin Luther King, Jr. Day with Civil Rights Day. (New Hampshire kind of already does this.) Or even better, Let's Fix Shit Day. (We'll need to rename that one so it can be celebrated in elementary schools.)

And if we are going to add one of those days and still celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, let's make it a public holiday, but not a government holiday. If for no other reason than the fact that today, in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, my city drastically reduced the public transit service -- making it harder for poor people to get to work.

Discuss, people.

Look what I made!

Hey, people.

Time for another shop update.

My goal this week was to get 10 new batt sets dyed, carded, and in the shop, plus re-photo several older batt sets. Well... I fell a little short of my goal. Which is okay, because I knew it was going to be a stretch, and I am happy with what I've gotten done so far. I made several new pretties, and am now ready to start working on a few housekeeping things like neatening up my shop a bit and getting my act together to launch my new fiber club this weekend.

But until then, here are this week's awesomenesses:

If you think one of them wants to come live with you,

you can stop by the shop and snatch it up

and take it home with you

and turn it into beautiful handspun goodness.

:-D

My wheel is here!

Today was the best mail day ever.

My Phat Fiber box came, and it is amazing.

Beautiful, incredibly soft batts came from my swap partner.

And my first spinning wheel arrived.

Technically, the week and a half I was out of town on vacation were several great mail days, but the point is, I got everything today. So it still counts as the best mail day ever. :-D I mean really. EVER.

Did I mention my wheel has a quill? Because my wheel... has a quill. And it's a big deal.

Because I learned point spinning first, and it's how I roll, baby. Don't get me wrong. I love "normal" wheel spinning, too. But I love speed and efficiency, and the prospect of being able to spin long draw a yard at a time as fast as I want without having to stop every 3 seconds to go backwards and wind on manually makes my inner point-spinning speed demon cackle with glee.

Also, no orifice = no restrictions on my art yarn. Hells yes. Because, hello? Restrictions? On art yarn? Unacceptable. And most spinning wheel makers don't seem to get that.

So, I haz a happy. In this wheel, I get a basic spinning wheel for a great price, and a travel wheel, and a charkha on steroids. All at the same time.

Three words:

Cheaper

than

therapy.

Bright Colors & Soft Colors

Here are a few relatively new things, some newer than others:

All available at Serendipity, of course.

Gift Certificates, u can haz them!

It can be hard to shop for a spinner if you don't spin yourself.

You thought it would be easy, right?

I mean, how hard could it *possibly* be?

So you headed on over to Etsy and you searched for "spinning fiber"...

...And then you realized that there's batts and top and roving and clouds and sliver and silk hankies and loose handfuls of curly mohair or wool locks, and you're pretty sure that at some point in your searching you saw actual silk cocoons dyed with a worm quite possibly still inside them, and you have NO idea what a person would do with a silk cocoon dyed bright colors with a dead worm in it. Except that they must be good for something, because they're for sale and people buy them.

But you persevered! You picked a type of fiber. Batts. Or top. Or loose fiber. Whatever your choice, you made a choice. Go you! Mission accomplished!

...But, then you realized that there's wool and mohair and silk and alpaca and llama and cotton and angora and bamboo and flax and hemp and you're pretty sure at some point you saw actual camel fur for sale. And you figure it must be good for something, because it's for sale and people buy it, but there's a little tiny part of you that is afraid that it might not be a good idea to buy your loved one several handfuls of camel fur for Christmas.

It's not that you don't trust the shopkeepers, it's just that, you know, you're trying to think of a worse Christmas present someone could give YOU than several handfuls of camel fur, and you're just not coming up with much.

So you decided to keep it simple and go with wool.

Excellent choice.

...But then you realized that there are several hundred breeds of sheep, and apparently they are all different. Merino and BFL and Punta and Falklands and Corriedale and Cheviot and Targhee and Shetland and on and on and on... and then there are crosses that combine more than one of the breeds... and then there's something called "superwash" which doesn't sound like a kind of sheep at all...

...And now you're ready to buy a gift certificate.

Good news! Spinners love gift certificates! As a matter of fact, store credit at a fiber shop is pretty much the best present you can get a spinner. Your beloved yarn-maker gets exactly what he or she likes best, and you only have to click one button. Everyone wins.

So I decided I ought to make some for my shop.

And I did.

And they are here, and you can buy them if you want.

Yay!