Saturday, July 31, 2010

Color Choices (in poetry)

A rainbow of choices
to create
whatever I wish
quick!
pick a color. 

Close your eyes
be color blind
make random choices
there are no rights or wrongs
in child's play.

Dark days
of blue and black
soul bruises
Memphis music
no turning back. 

Tranquility
a cool stillness
blue, green, teal
rippling waters
soothing me.

Brown dirt
tan rocks and sand
rusty red clay
the colors of Mother Earth
cradle and comfort.

Sultry, slinky, sex appeal
lavender and lace
a passion for purple
aubergine erotica
my favorite color. 

Funky, fruity
mango, lime, and grape
Caribbean colors
Bermuda triad
silly yet sexy.

Red hots
fire engines
blood red nails
drop dead gorgeous
sex appeal.

Tangerine and lemon
fresh and clean
smell the citrus zest
I'm going to knit socks
that need to be juiced.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Help Design the "Dyer's Club"

I am a think-out-loud kind of person.  A quality I have grown to loathe as I have a 6 yr. old who verbalizes every thought that wanders into his brain.  However, I still find "talking things through" helpful when I'm trying to figure something out.


I am an alchemist.  Alchemists were pseudo-scientists back in the day who thought you could transform one thing into another.  The goal was to turn things into gold.  I am taking my love of yarn, my love of sock knitting and in particular sock yarn, my love of color, my hobby of dyeing my own sock yarn, my penchant for experimenting in the kitchen with my dyes, and the fact that I am currently unemployed and transforming all of these things into one brand new amazing thing....a thriving company, one that I can support myself with.

Dyed Bright Here is my company.  Well, technically it's still a hobby.  Yes, I am starting to make a name for myself. Yes, I am working at moving into selling wholesale to local yarn shops so that I can get my gorgeous  colors into the hands of more knitters.  But I have a long way to go before I can support myself by doing this.

So today, the thing I am thinking-out-loud about is a "Dyer's Club".  I have seen some amazing sock clubs and fiber clubs.  While I would love to eventually do something like that, I am not proficient enough in my pattern writing skills (nor have I had much knitting time at all let alone design time) to feel that I could consistently offer a quality product along those lines.  And my first goal is to always deliver a quality product.  

I sell my yarn wholesale to yarn shops and also retail straight to you the consumer through my Etsy shop.  Obviously, there is a difference in how much money I make from these two ventures.  Selling straight to the consumer is much more lucrative.  However, the sales are much smaller and it takes a lot longer to get my name out there.  I make a lot less per skein when I sell to the yarn shops.  However, on that side we're talking much larger orders plus my name is out there in front of a lot more knitters a lot faster.

Either way, one of the most important things for me in terms of getting more people to find me, look at my products, try my products and recommend me and my stuff to other people is just getting some good old fashion buzz going.  That's what this space is for.  I also use Twitter, and to a much lesser extent, Facebook and Ravelry.  I need to work on that more, and I need your help.

I recently went through the steps to get myself added as a "Yarnie" on Ravelry.  I added photos of most, if not all, of my colorways.  People have stashed my yarn.  There is a completed project made from my yarn.  This is a great start.  But, I would love to see it happen a LOT more.  And that is where you come in...

The "Dyer's Club" that I'm thinking of is more like a reward system for you for helping me spread the word.  I need PR people, I need mentions, I need blog posts, I need more yarn stashed on Ravelry, I need more projects done in my yarn and posted on Ravelry, and most importantly, I need more retail sales.  That's a lot of I need, I need, I need...  So, I'm working through ways to reward all of those things without creating a pile of work for myself in the process.

One of the things I am considering is some sort of point system for all of the above things with the reward being that the points are redeemable for discounts on future purchases and/or free yarn.

Another thing I am considering is special colorways available only to those who participate.

And, finally, special sales only for those who participate.

This was all going to start with new retail sales as of a certain date.  You buy a skein and you are automatically registered.  The problem with that is that there are a number of people out there who have been very loyal supporters of mine who have already bought a number of skeins.  And while, I firmly believe that buying sock yarn doesn't "count" in terms of stash diets and "You can never have too much sock yarn" should be written on my walls, the truth is that times are tough all over and money is tight for a lot of us.  The last thing I would ever want to do is tell those who have supported me thus far that they can't play too unless they spend more money.  That's insane from a business perspective and just not nice as a human being.

That said, I really do need to generate sales.  So, my first instinct is to reward sales the most.  After that, posting completed projects on Ravelry that were done with my yarn seems like the next best kind of publicity.  Blog posts, Facebook posts, Stashing on Ravelry, Tweets, and links back here are all components too.  

So, with all of that said, what would you like to be rewarded with?  Are you willing to sign on as a PR person for me?  Can you help me get some more exposure and sales?  Would you like it to be a contest of sorts?  Should I reward those who do more on a different scale?  Would you like discounts on future purchases or special colors or sales not available to just anyone?

Please leave a comment to let me know your thoughts.  I appreciate your help!

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Welcome Hilary & Jill (The Yarn Garden in Carlisle, PA)

Yesterday I delivered the first order of Dyed Bright Here High Society Sock Yarn to the lovely ladies of the Yarn Garden in Carlisle, PA.  We talked about some possibilities for their first LE colorway...I'll be working on that later this week.  If you are in the Carlisle Area or the West Shore of the Harrisburg Area stop in and see them (and my yarns!).  Their address, phone number, shop hours, and a link to their web site is on the "Shops that carry..." page.



















I have also redesigned the "Colorways" page.   With the growing number of colorways I changed a lot of the pictures to make scrolling through the page a bit faster.  I also alphabetized them.....  This page is constantly under construction as I am always playing in the colors; creating new and exciting colorways.  There are also some swatch and finished items there too so you can see what some of these yarns will do in terms of pooling, spiraling, and complex striping.

If you have photographs of a finished item or swatch using my yarns I would love to feature it here.  You can email me a copy at DyedBrightHere@gmail.com (just let me know if I can post it here and how you would like it attributed).

Sunday, July 4, 2010

4th of July SALE

Happy 4th of July!!  This is always a special time of year at our house.  Besides being our Nation's birthday, the 4th is also our oldest son Max's birthday.  And, our anniversary is on the 6th.  So, in honor of all of these things, I will be having a sale for the entire week.  Everything in the shop is at least 25% off (I rounded down to even dollars).

I have been working on getting my inventory up lately so I have some colors that I have a quite a few skeins of.  Others, however, only have 1 or 2 available as I have not done the new batches for everything yet.  So, if you see it and like it you might want to grab it while it is on sale.  No, I'm no telling which are well stocked, and which are almost extinct...

Anyway, the sale will run for the entire week.  So, from today through Saturday July 10th...everything is on sale.  Happy Holidays to all!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

The Lovelyarns Limited Edition Colorway Is Now Available

The first Limited Edition (LE) colorway for the Lovelyarns shop in Baltimore is now available!!  The shop colors are a soft mint green and lavender.  Sue decided to use those colors (or my approximations) and add some turquoise for pizazz.  I used a new light green I had just got (love it!) and created a special lavender from my usual stock colors.  The new lavender has been named "Lovely" rather aptly I think.  Turquoise is turquoise...one of my favorite colors and the bane of my dyeing existence (somehow it gets everywhere no matter what precautions I take) but I still love it unconditionally.  Anyway, the end result is awesome (if I do say so myself).  I used twice as much green and lavender as the turquoise and dyed it in such a way as to produce what seems to be becoming one of my signature color characteristics...swirling stripes.  





































































846 W. 36th Street      Baltimore, MD 21211
(410) 662 - YARN (9276)
Email: lovelyarns@verizon.net

Owner: Sue Caldwell


Store Hours
Closed Mon & Tues
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday 11:00--5:30
Saturday 11:00--6:00
Sunday 11:00--4:00