Ravelry!

CheeryCherry is now on Ravelry! I love the concept of social networks for knitters/crafters and it's about time I joined the revolution. Facebook is too broad a segment to meet people interested in knitting, patterns, yarn and fiber the way Ravelry allows. What really slowed me down most in getting my Ravelry account going was the taking of photos of my projects and stash. Well that's something I've been working on and getting better at because of the Etsy shop, so this month I decided it wasn't such a difficult task after all.

I've added a few CheeryCherry yarns to Ravelry which will hopefully provide an added place to find customers and also get advice and new techniques to improve my yarns. I'm very excited to take a more active role in the Ravelry community.

In other news, my fiber stash is dwindling. I've spun up two new yarns that are drying after setting the twist and they are great (photos coming soon)! Based on purples from Greener Shades one is domestic wool and one is merino. I have bamboo yarn piling up and bamboo fiber disappearing. Unfortunately my favorite fiber supplier is on vacation! I could order from someone else perhaps but I love the selection and prices offered by my supplier. I will perhaps order a few test quantities of fibers that aren't offered by my supplier. Maybe I'll find something new that I didn't expect. It's also motivating me to diversify my supply chain and find what other products are offered at similar prices.

I am really looking forward to the alpacas! My dad will be getting four (it started with "oh we'll just get two" I wonder how many we'll really end up getting :) in the spring to help keep the pasture well trimmed. I can't wait to get my hands on fiber from our own family farm. My sister has already been scoping out local yarn shops and fiber festivals, and I've been checking out web-hosting and web-shop deals. The farm currently has a variety of animals (horses, dogs, cats, a snake, chickens) and organic vegetables though my sister is more excited about the chickens than anything so we'll have eggs as well. (I'm more excited about the alpacas obviously).

My spinning abilities continue to improve and I'm thinking about getting a small lace spindle to begin working on fine, lace weight and sock yarn. I've been making very fine yarn on my current spindle but I think I may be able to spin even finer yarn on a lighter spindle. More on that when I pick one out.

Adventures in Business

So the shop has been open for a little over a month. I've had two sales! Yay! But page views and hit have been slow so I've decided to explore the different facets of running an online business. I opened up a Google Analytics account and have begun tracking pageviews and hits, referring sites etc. Hopefully I can use this to spend my advertising and listing budget wisely and learn more about what my friends in yarn are looking for or interested in. Next experiment is AdWords!

I'm also working on some pattern designs to go with the bamboo yarn - I can't stop making this bamboo and I've ordered a HUGE lot of fiber. I plan on rounding out my personal stash as well as having a good sized stock for anyone interested in buying it. It doesn't dye well using the Greener Shades dyes that I used on the merino, so I've ordered more merino to expand the color palette of the yarns I offer, and I just love dying! I'm looking for better dyes that work on plant fibers including bamboo so that I can make this lovely, shiny, shimmery yarn into something more colourful!

Hello Etsy!!

CheeryCherry is now open, under the shop name chelsera!

Also, ulta soft luxury merino has arrived and spinning has begun! I received 3lbs of 100% merino that is so soft and delicious I can't keep my hands off of it. I also now have 1lb of a gorgeous, chocolate brown wool. I haven't opened it to find out if it's as soft as the merino yet, though it would surprise me. I spun a whole skein last night of 90 yards of the merino and it is pure luxury.

I've also dyed some standard wool and some tussah silk. It is currently drying and I'll find out how it turned out shortly.

Still waiting on the heavy metal free dyes and looking forward to trying them out on some merino!

Pre-Opening Post

Welcome to CheeryCherry! A blog about yarn, spinning, crafting and more. I have a stash of yarn, and too much knitting (is such a thing possible?) and have decided to open an Etsy shop to sell my hand spun yarn. As a poor grad student I've got to find a way to pay for my spinning and knitting habits! And maybe save for a spinning wheel!

I recently acquired a large amount of domestic wool top. From mixed sources it's tough and springy and spins up in a jiffy! I made four 100 yard skeins (~4oz each). Two of which I dyed a cherry red/pink and one I left as a sweet bubble gum pink. The fourth I have left as pictured in natural white/cream. I'm working on a fifth skein and hope to open my Etsy shop soon with a group of neutral, dyed by me and dyed by others (but hand spun by me) yarns.

I'm torn between leaving them single ply and having a larger number of the same type of yarn (better for people wanting to make a larger project), or plying them together, reducing my stock but making better yarn. I suppose single ply is also pretty good for knit felting projects as well, though for straight knitting I like double ply. It's just a personal preference I guess.

My little drop spindle is a work horse! But man I would LOVE a wheel. I love the iPad, but I think asking for a spinning wheel for Christmas/Birthday, might have been a more practical way to go. Oh, boy... you know your a geek when a SPINNING WHEEL, seems like a practical gift! I enjoy reading and web browsing on the iPad though so I'm glad I got it!

Plans for the Holiday: Write an iPad/iPhone app, spin my 5 lbs (!) of wool, make my crocheted flowers into hair pin Christmas gifts for my girl friends, find Christmas like beer for my guy friends and maybe do a bit of skiing. Looks like I need multiple weeks for all of this and not just one!