New Spindles

Oh Boy!! The last couple of weeks have been awesome. I've been branching out by opening a webstore and have been introducing some new spindles.

I've been putting some glass spindles in my store lately. The sweet little millefiori glass spindles spin like a tornado and weigh about .5 oz. A friend of mine loved spinning silk hankies with one. I've also been putting some murano foil glass spindles in my stores. They are so much fun and are heavier than the millefiori glass ones at about 1 oz. Although I haven't listed any like this yet, if I turn my shaft upside down with no hook, the murano glass spindles make a wonderful supported spindle. You don't even need a hook, just spin off the tip.

Last week I listed some spindles with removable Italian resin whorls. They were an immediate hit. I had to reorder the brown openwork ones because I sold so many last week. (Of course, I had to make one for myself!!)

I have been wanting to make some spindles with polymer clay whorls, but I've never worked with polymer clay. I found this fabulous Etsy seller who makes the most beautiful polymer clay canes and beads. She is in Israel and her shop is at http://www.marsdesign.etsy.com/. She made custom whorls for me and each one is different and gloriously beautiful. I have listed a couple in my shop now.

This is just too much fun!! Thanks everyone!!!

Grand Opening!!

Okay....I decided to branch out. I finally opened a webstore. You can find it at http://www.butterflygirldesigns.net/.

I went through Yahoo! because even though I have to pay a monthly fee, they have all the tools I need to set up my store without me having to buy some other program to manage my shop. The good thing about the webstore is that I can list my fiber by the ounce and people can order the amount they want from the website.

I'm going to keep my Etsy shop open as well. Etsy has been too good to me, I can't give it up. I will be updating both my Etsy shop and my wesite regularly.

Most of the fibers will be the same on both sites. There will be some fibers that stay exclusively with Etsy. There will be an assortment of spindles on each site.

Oh...I also started a spindle and fiber club. It is for 3 months and you get a drop spindle and 3 oz of fiber each month. This will be a way to get a variety of spindles from my shop and save some money as well.

Keep watching....I have some new type spindles that will be listed in the next couple of weeks!! They will be fabulous!!

Short update, no pics today, sorry!!

Happy New Year!! (Isn't that cliche???)

As I sit here with a kitty kat in my lap......I'm thinking the new year has definitely been good so far.

I've been spending way TOO much time on Ravelry. The forums are great and I've made a lot of new friends. It's also helped me improve my spindles. Based on comments/observations by others on Ravelry, I've now changed a couple of things about my spindles to make them even better.

All my spindles now will have a hand bent swan style hook on them. (see pic)
Although my spindles spun great before, the new hook makes them spin even smoother!! Thanks to Kri on Ravelry for that tip.

Also, I'm now going to offer to notch the whorls on the customer's request. I'm not going to do it as a matter of course, because I think the un-notched circle of the stone looks quite beautiful and the spindle can easily be used without the notch. But for those of you who really want a notch, you've got it.





I "discovered" a great fiber!! Bamboo!!! LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!! I bought some batts from Loop! and spun them up with one ply as bamboo and the other spun firestar. (see pic)






I am now addicted to it.
I have posted some new batts
in my shop with this awesome fiber.










FUTURE TOPIC: The case for the bottom whorl spindle!!!

After Thanksgiving

Whew!!!! I need to take a deep breath after the last few weeks and gear up for Christmas.

Spindle-making is going great!! I'm having soooo much fun. I just added some seashell whorl spindles to my stone spindles and the reception has been terrific. I had to make a paua shell one for myself...it's one of my favorite shells. I have a watch and sarong pins out of it.

Ok, Elemmaciltur, this is for YOU....I finally got a light box setup so that my pictures don't look so humdrum next to yours. What do you think????

I'm so excited. Gosh Yarn It! (https://www.goshyarnit.com/) is going to carry some of my spindles on their site!! Whoopee!!

I went to Kid N Ewe earlier this month. Met a lot of nice people and picked up some great mohair, bamboo (from the Fiberlady) and books. I got a lot more superwash wool in the mail so it's time to start creating some more batts to spin.

I've been out of town a lot this month, so at least I've gotten to work on some projects. I've spun part of my batts of a turquoise alpaca/silk/firestar blend that I'm going to use for the Peacock Feathers shawl one day. I also started knitting on the Wisp shawl from Knitty.com this summer with a brushed suri yarn that looks just like mohair, but feels like alpaca. I hope to start spinning some of my Extravagance batts for another shawl, but I don't know when I'll get to that!!!

Thanks for reading!!

Ravelry

Well it's been a good and bad day.

Early this morning I got my invite to Ravelry!! Whopee!! It is so cool!!!!

So many people have said nice things about my Etsy shop. It's nice to know my items can give joy to others.

However, someone that I did a custom order for posted a bad review of the spindle on Ravelry. I can understand her being disappointed if the spindle did not meet her expectations, but wish that she had contacted me before making a posting. I refunded her money and hopefully that will make her feel better.

I received a spindle that I had purchased today that was a bead type top-whorl. It didn't spin very well until I added a matching stone that I have and now it spins great!!

Ohhh....I almost forgot....I discovered rave reviews about this spindlemaker named Golding. I went to the site and ended up ordering not one, not two, but THREE spindles. I've been disappointed by so many spindles that I guess I should have waited to see what one was like, but everyone seemed to like them so much I couldn't resist. One of the ones I ordered was a butterfly. OF COURSE!!

I also made a HUGE spindle this afternoon. If found a stone that is almost 4" across. I put it on a shaft with the rubber grommet and then added smaller stones on the top and the bottom. It is gorgeous and spins wonderfully!! It's kinda heavy though, and will mainly be for plying or thicker singles. I drilled holes in both ends of the shaft, so I can use as either top or bottom whorl by moving the hook. I don't think I am going to list this one on etsy...I like it too much!!(pictures are above)

I also got a request for a custom spindle set today. I put them together tonight and sent pics. I hope the buyer likes them!!

Life in Etsyland

Wow!!! That's all I can think of to say. I started my etsy shop 4 months ago tomorrow and it has been tiring but great!!

I owe it all to my friend Knitnick who got me started on this spinning craze and who has been so supportive. Thanks!!!!

It all started when I wanted a cute bottom whorl drop spindle. I had bought a stone drop spindle from someone else, but the shaft was curved so I was kinda disappointed. So I decided to try to make one myself.

I made one and LOVED it!!! So I ordered some more stones and made some more. Then I gotta kinda out of control buying fiber and my husband felt it was his duty to ask, "What are you going to to with all this STUFFF?"

So I told him I was going to see if I could sell some of my creations. I started out selling a few spindles on eBay and then some yarn. But I was rather frustrated because their listing fees are so high and you can't list for very long at a time without opening a store which is even more money in addition to the fees and their cut.

Then I remembered Etsy. So I signed up, listed a few spindles and from there things have been terrific.

I found an excuse to buy a drum carder so I could add fiber to my shop and I am having a marvelous time. Of course things are so busy now that I am finding it difficult to spin much.

My spindles have been the greatest hit. There are others out there who make gorgeous stone spindles as well. I'm trying to keep my prices as low as possible, because I want people to have some pretty stone spindles to use without having to sacrifice too much to buy one. My least expensive, most popular and probably most practical are the convertible spindles that allow you to use the whorl anywhere on the shaft. These are the ones I use the most.

I am also excited because 2 shops started carrying my spindles this week:

Knitty Couture - http://www.knittycouture.com/
Spunky Eclectic - http://www.spunkyeclectic.com/

Okay...Thanks for reading my first rant. Hopefully I can keep it up.