The store is live

Announcing the opening of my etsy store. I have placed just a few things for sale so far. But you can check it out at www.spunshinefibers.etsy.com

come on by and see whats going on

dont forget to tell all your friends to stop by.

new things....

I have had lots of fun this week. A new yarn shiopment with some different fibers and weights. A chance to play afround with more colors. I have been experimenting alot with the depth of colors available and have been surprised with some of my results. All in a good way.

My husband has spent alot of time getting my logo done and buisness cards printed for me and we are hoping to get labels for the yarns done this week. He has been amazing through all of this. Even when I get unsure of weather or not I can make it.

I have been checking out places to sell my yarns along with my etsy store. I am looking into a booth at the Oakland Fiber festival but am unsure, the cost seems quite prohibitive for someone just starting out and I am not sure I can fill a booth the size they have laid out. I will also need a table and a gazebo thing and am not sure I want to outlay that much for something I may never do again. when I started this journey I had decided that I did not want to do craft fairs , as been there done that with other things in the past and have had little or no luck at them. However the fiber industry is much different and it seems to all be about the indie dyers. If I could do this it would give me alot of exposure and I would be able to get my name out there. On the other hand it may back fire horribly and I may make nothing and fail miserably, ( my worst fears). So I will continue to ponder and hopefully talk to him a little more about it when he returns from Europe. He does after all hold the purse strings in all of this

The sun is shining

The sun is shining. Let the dyeing commence...

Its raining...

Rain rain rain this week. I have not been able to get much done this week due to the rain. It means I have no chance to get anything dry. I have not been idle though, I have spent the week readying supplies in order to dye dye dye when the weather turns nice again. Hopefully tomorow or friday.

I have done one or two new things but no sun to take pics in. A couple of new swatches to put up and a couple new fibers along with one new skein of yarn all await eargerly the chance to be photographed.

I just took delivery of a huge box of new yarns and cant wait to get going. 3 different types of sock yarn. a bulky and a worsted also.

I have had my paper work sent to the state for my license and it should only be a matter of days now before it comes back. My husband has designed the perfect logo for me and I hope to be printing out yarn labels tonight along with business cards.

Also I have been offered the chance to set up an etsy day at the local coffee shop and waiting to hear back from etsy sellers in Morgan Hill in order to get this going . It should be a good opportunity for some sales as this coffee shop has alot of traffic over the weekends and there are restuarants and ice cream shops there too. I am excited by this and hope we can do it before the kids finish school for the summer.

I am also hoping to be accepted to send samples into Phat Fiber either for the may session or the june one again it depends on the state office filling out my forms.... and we all know how long they take to do anything.

So even though the weather is not playing nice there is tons going one behind the scenes. I really want to get going now.

The Pics.

Also managed to dye up a lot of fiber yesterday it is dry , braided and looking great. The sun cooperated for pictures today so follows pics of most of what I have done including one skein of hanspun which I am relunctant to list as it came out soo good.

A little more

I had been given soem polworth yarn a while ago and I thought I would see how it dyed up. Not the softest yarn but I think it will be a good hat yarn. I have 2 skeins each 240yrds. iT took the dye wonderfully and I am very pleased with how they both came out. One an amber hweat color and the second one that reminds me of stormy seas, all churned up green and blues and whites.

The sun came out

The sun came out

The sun finally came out enough for me to take some pics of all the new things I have been working on.

A new fiber to try out corriedale did not dissapoint it took the dye beautifully and came out better than I could have hoped. Some new colors soft and delicate and others more intense.

These wil all be available in the shop soon. DBA came back as name is ok so far a couple more checks and we should be good to go. It is coming along fast and I am excited to make a start with the shop.

A good start to the week.

Monday and the week is starting on a very good note. Saturday was spent at the spin weave dye expo. I purchased many yummy things including some really yummy corriedale fiber for dyeing. I have big plans for that. Also watch out for some soft soft soft handpsun angora, i purchased 8oz of it and cant wait to put it on my wheel. Alogn with some yak and silk blend in beautiful turquoise colors but I think daughter wants that for herself

This morning out for coffee at my local coffee shop and I took along my stuff to show a friend and see what she thought. SHe loved loved loved it and took a sample to try out and see how it comes out. whilst there the lady who runs the coffee shop asked what we were talking about and I showed her very impressed she goes on to tell me a while ago lady cam in talking about wanting to get a few etsy sellers together and have a sale of goods. I perk up at this and ask if she had the ladys name so i could get in on it. And was told she never came back to set it up but coffee shop lady was very interested in getting something going and would be more than happy to have us there. So once my etsy shop is live I plan to ask around and get it going. We could really make it a good day there is tons of space to set up and it is very busy during that weekend days.

This is just what I had been thinking of trying to organise and it seems that it will be well recieved by locals. I plan to advertise both in town and on the web, Ravelry and etsy alike along with Face book. Should be good.

I have applied for my licenses and they should be done with in a week.

I have new stuff being syed all the time and cant wait for the sun shine so i can take more pics.

anyway just a quick catch up and some new info.

SpunShine Fibers is on its way

SpunShine is born

I am starting this blog to detail my account of my fiber obsession and how it has grown from a small basket by the side of the couch to the huge out of control monster it has become today.

I have decided that my obsession of knitting and spinning is not enough, along with running a house and 3 kids, and after not very careful consideration have decided to dye my own fiber and yarns. I have done a little in the past but now want to go and see if I can sell what I make. I love how the colors in your mind can make plain yarn and fiber sing.

So where am I in the process. I have decided on a company name, I have made roads though not completed the application for DBA and hope to finish that this week. I have the forms ready to go for the sellers permit and application for Id number for sales tax.

I have even started to get some stock together. This morning dyed up 3 different fiber colors and yesterday some small sample skeins of yarn about 20 yrds each.

The yarn was done in mostly purple and yesterday was not sure I liked it today after putting it back into tiny skiens it looks great.

The fiber were done in "strawberry lemonade", "sour apple green candy", and " Berry Blast" all currently drying in the California sunshine, they look great vibrant and exciting.

I also have about 4 ounces of merino top on the wheel and hope to be able to take that off maybe tonight or tomorow. In a gorgeous Muberry wine color shot through with blues and maroons. It is spinning up about a lace to light fingering and will be plied with itself to make a fingering to sport weight.

So thats today and waiting on delivery of more yarn and a couple more dyes to get me going I hope to achieve more later this week.

Am also excited to be attending the CNCH.org this weekend in hopes of finding some fun fibers for handspinning.

I am looking forward to keeping this updated with regular additions and hope to be able to get my online sales up and live with in 6 weeks or so.