brand new year

It's a brand new year and I feel so refreshed after a long vacation. I wish I wouldn't have ended vacation with the flu, but I'm learning to accept the rotten fact that this hermetic lifestyle leaves me prone to catching everything that my daughter brings home from school.

I just sent out the options for the ArtBatt January installment with the theme Cake Walk, and I'm really excited to hear back from my subscribers on which of the cakes they'd like to have batted-up.

This weekend, I'll also be working on the HobbledeCLUBs, and everything ships out on 1/9. I have capped both clubs at 10 subscribers each at any given time, so that I can not only ship within the first two weeks of each month, but so that I can also really put the extra time into making sure the Clubs are extra special. In previous years, I bit off more than I could chew with subscriptions. Never again!

My next update, originally scheduled for 1/7, will probably have to be postponed until 1/10 due to this flu-bug. I lost out on all three of my work days this week since my kiddo was ill. Most likely, it will be a small update: ClassicBatts, a handful of Rovings, a small set of ArtBatts, a few tinies, and dyed silk hankies. I realize I have postponed updates time and time again, and I can't decide whether I should just announce them on the day they're going to occur, or continue to try and plan specific dates and accept that 25% of the time, I'll have to re-schedule. Suggestions/preferences?

one more week!

I had a great shop update this weekend, but must apologize to newsletter subscribers- I hit save instead of send and didn't realize until this morning. I am so sorry. I did post about it on my Facebook page, so I highly recommend following that (I update it most frequently) if you're looking for shop update news and more.

I've got one more update before Christmas on 12/23 scheduled, but after that- Christmas Vacation!!! I'll be *away* from woolyworking from 12/24-1/2, and will resume carding in the new year. My shop will still be shop-able and fiber will ship out within 2-3 business days as usual, but my carders will be off-line and my dyepots dormant for about a week and a half.

Next year, I'm going to be doing something a little different- just once. I'm going to have an update consisting of earthy/subtle/natural colors only. Of course, my naturally colored fibers are limited, so I'll be dyeing various shades of soft browns, charcoals, blacks, reds, greens, and very gentle floral tones. This update will probably be the first one of 2012. It's a challenge to myself to try something out of my usual palette, though I know I'll return to brights and saturated hues quickly afterwards.

In other news, my little Ingrid turned two this month. All of the cliche phrases fit- she's the light of my life, my little ray of sunshine, and my reason for chugging along when life throws me rough spots. I can't imagine how my life existed without her, and I feel so lucky to have an opportunity to be a Mum.

I'd also like to wish you all a very Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, and a Fabulous New Year! May all of your winter days be filled with the warmth of love and the joy of drama-free family get-togethers. Thank you all for being my friends, family, "co-workers," and inspirations.

sneak peak

Tonight, 9pm EST, a huge woolly update will begin (and later continue Saturday night). Tonight I'm adding ArtBatts, Tinies, roving, and ClassicBatts with possibly a few handpsun thrown in. Tomorrow: more handspun, more Tinies, and RollyBatts. The theme is "Fanciful Dreams" since I've been daydreaming while working instead of listening to audiobooks as I usually do. The names range from wild to wacky, and the colorways are mostly vivid and highly saturated!

cyber monday + monstrous update info

This November has been my busiest online month EVER, and I'm loving it! Everything has been running smoothly for the most part and my shipping timetable is still holding steady at 2-3 business days (though I'm often shipping same day with as frequently as I go to the PO).

I'm offering a little Cyber Monday deal: $12 off the HobbledeCLUB and $16 off the ArtBatt Club. The prices have already been discounted, no code needed!

3 months for $72 + shipping

Because my virtual shelves are looking bare at the moment, I'm whipping up a gigantic update for this weekend: 20+ ArtBatts, a dozen new ClassicBatt sets, over a dozen handspun, a huge batch of Tinies, 4 new RollyBatt colorways, and fresh Roving. I missed last week's update because the first half of the week was too rainy for photos and the second half of the week was designated wool-free family time. I'm really trying to focus on creating a large amount of darker jewel-toned items for this next update too, think purples, navy blue, dark spruce green, and saturated dark cherry red, stuff like this popular RollyBatt colorway perhaps:

"Thunder" RollyBatt -- 3.3 oz. last one available

If you are hoping to get a huge batch of Hobbledefluff before Christmas, I'd recommend dropping by this weekend to see what's getting added. As of December 1st, I'll officially have to discontinue accepting custom orders and requests (though any request accepted before then is fine and will not be cancelled).

Though December will be packed with family events, I'll still be rolling out something new: dyed silk hankies! I'm excited to try some of my favorite colorways on them, and to knit with unspun hankies as well.

have a sweet wooly week, friends!
xoxo

anticipation!

If anybody regularly reads my irregular blog, they should know I'm not too much of a braggy person. I think my batts are swell, but I also think that other sellers have terrific batts.

HOWEVER.. This batch of ArtBatts really is crazy awesome. There are 20 of them, all dazzling and twinkling and taunting me! There were 25, but I had to keep an armload of gold/yellow ones.

I've also got 4 new colorways of RollyBatts to rolly on out- some are similar to ones I've done in the past, maybe with different fibers or color orders though.

I dyed up about 35lbs. of assorted fibers for the batts including merino top, cormo fleece, corriedale fleece, baby suri alpaca, bamboo, tencel, tussah silk, tussah silk noil, loose bamboo, soysilk staple, banana silk, milk fiber (my current favorite!) and glitz.  Here's a wee sample of all that, mostly this pic shows tencel top and silk noil.

So here's the details:

BATTY UPDATE: Tomorrow (Saturday) November 19th, starting at 9pm: RollyBatts, ArtBatts, Classic Batts, and several sets of Garden Compost batts. See you there!

so sari

FINALLY. I've gotten my hands on a larger portion of pulled sari silk. I'm going to start importing it next month because I don't think I can keep on chugging along without an occasional rainbow-sprinkled ArtBatt. I listed a few items in my shop last night with the fabulous stuff in it, and most of it sold right away!

Here's an example of that fabulous stuff in action:

"Magician" ArtBatt

And here's how it blends when run through my Strauch Petite twice:

"Good Fortune" classic batts

 I only spun a tiny sample of the stuff so far, though I've got a large box of dyed merino top which is just waiting to get blended with a little bit of tussah silk, sari silk, and milk fiber.

I'm also working on incorporating more hand-processed fleeces into my ArtBatts. I'm very very very  picky when it comes to farm wools, not that I expect perfection, but I've been super-disappointed in the past by breaking fibers, dandruff, or excessive VM in bargain fleeces. I invested in a really sweet Corriedale fleece last week and am ordering Cormo this weekend from a poor ewe who was attacked and needed funds raised for vet bills, so hopefully some super-fluffy-crimpy batts will be in the works!

Oh, I've got an offer for Free Shipping available in my Etsy store. Take a peek if you've got room in the stash ;)

Shop move: Complete!

On Friday, I completed my great e-commerce SWITCHEROO and am now happily settled into Etsy again. My main site is going to take a while to transform, and honestly, it's not at the top of my priority list with the fast sell-out rate of my batts and rovings on Etsy. I've got to replenish the stock already!

During the great change, I deleted about a dozen products that had sat too long in my shop and added them to my personal stash. I have no desire to sell anything that has possibly felted in the bag, so I'll probably spin them myself after assuring the fibers' conditions.

My next project for the week- update my shipping amounts to better reflect actual charges.

I'll also be working on more batts of every type, battlings, rovings, and tinies, and I hope to have a large scheduled update at the end of the week.

On a personal note, I'm still having a bit of a rough time with this mystery illness :( I'm waiting on lab results, though I suspect it's long-term sleep deprivation, thanks to a child who seems to wake frequently at night, feel chipper at 3:30 AM, and spends her nap time protesting sleep. OhmyZZZZzzs. I sometimes feel like I've tried everything: co-sleeping (which had to end because she spends the night pinching me), crying it out, solid routines, quiet activities before bed, warm milk, lovies, white noise, you name it! After nearly two years of sleeplessness, I can't even stay asleep, even when the child spends the night with her grandma. On the flipside, she is very well behaved 90% of the time, which is great for a toddler in my opinion, is extremely verbally advanced, and is a happy little extrovert. I guess I've got to accept the crazies with the awesomes and resign to the probability that "this too shall pass."