Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I must be insane

As if my life is not busy enough, I've decided to embark on the craziest venture yet -- I'm going into business with a couple friends whom I have never met. Internet forums are funny things. They provide an intimacy with people who are in a similar place in life as you are, and it breeds an unique and powerful bond.

Come mid-July, Lea, Lamar and I will be opening up an internet shop called Tiny Lady Cooperative. We will be selling hand-painted and kettle-dyed yarn, roving and handspun. Lea has been spinning for nearly a year now and has gotten to be incredibly good in a remarkably short time. Lamar isn't spinning yet, but Lea and I vow to drag her kicking and screaming over to the Darker Side! I just recently purchased a Lendrum DT complete! I bought her from a gal in Maryland who is raising money for her honeymoon in France. I definitely feel that we transacted a good bit of business. She got a nice amount of money and I got a lovely, gently-used wheel and a buttload of fiber! I've decided to name my wheel Adelaide. It just came to me and I thought it fit beautifully. I will post pics soon, but the weather here in central Massachusetts has been less than ideal.

Back to the fiber biz -- we will be carrying a great selection of yarns -- BFL, Ramboulliet, an environmentally sustainable farm yarn (it is organic, but the farmer chose not to bother with the expense and hassle of being certified. His practices are actually more strict than the certified organic label requires, and it is mule-spun, so it is a delish, squishy, springy yarn. This is the yarn that will turn the so-called "wool-haters" (like my sister) into wool lovers! And it is soft enough for babies too), a 100% BFL sock yarn and a merino/tencel sock yarn. I've got lots of colorways -- mostly related to the colors of nature that are part of the New England landscape, but I will have some fun with bright and funky colorways inspired by my Lilly Pulitzer collection!

My first public display of sock yarn can be seen at Claudia's Blog -- I donated a skein of yarn and a set of Brittany DPNs for her MS Ride raffle.

Please email me if you would like to know when we officially open our virtual doors! All three of us are very excited about bringing fabulous fiber to the knitting community!

7 comments:

Vanessa said...

ooh, oh I'd love to know when you ladies have your shop set up!! My Hubby may not be so pleased...LOL!!

I have a soaker q for ya-can you get a EWS out of a skein of zenstring? I noticed you have trim on yours and I do know the pattern calls for 5 oz...I asked on the woolsoaker group and the reply I got was that the 218 yds should be enough-but I'd like to know more clearly, 'cause if not I'll maybe do a provisional cast on, and knit the body of the soaker and hope I can snag a zenstring slot for customs and get a solid half skein... I did a MWS and loved the pattern!
TIA!

Sam said...

Oh, of course I'm emailing you!

Are you going to tell us where Claudia's blog is? I want to see but am in too much of a migraine induced haze to track it down:)

Spiffy Knits! said...

Vanessa -- I ended up with a skein leftover and some trim color as well. I will weigh the soaker and the yarn to see how much I used. I tend to knit right to gauge (pattern calls for 6s and I will get gauge on 6s.), so it will be interesting to see how much it weighs!

Sam -- I was going to go back and add the link last night and I ended up with the elastic band breaking on my plying head on the wheel so plying took me until nearly midnight! I did fix my wheel, but had no time for links! I will be sure to add them today when my son goes down for his AM nap!

We are aiming for a mid-July opening, so we hope to have previews up by the 1st of July. Thanks for your interest -- we really appreciate it!

Kathy said...

Please let me know when you open your online shop: kathoadraytube@gmail.com. Thanks.

Robyn - Red Bird Knits said...

Your beautiful skein of BFL (love love love BFL) brought me to your blog. Great good luck on your venture!

Suzanne said...

Your venture sounds very exciting. Please keep me in the loop. If I ever have any extra money, I'd love to spend it on fine yarns!

Lucy said...

I just hopped over from ms3 - I was trying to figure out where in MA you were just by the amount of time it took for you to get to MA sheep and wool... I'm down south/west on 91. So is the store site up yet? :)