Tuesday, October 5, 2010

New Territory

I have decided to venture into some new territory.  I am adding other weights of yarn to my offerings.  I have purchased approximately 20 skeins each of DK, worsted, and bulky weight yarns.  However, I don't have the space (or the cash flow) to dye every yarn in every color at the moment.  So, I will dye to order.  I will be revamping my Etsy listings in the near future. I will post a listing for what I actually have in stock for each weight, a listing for each weight of all the possible colorways (this will be a dyed-to-order listing and so will take longer to get to the customer), and I will also post information in the shop news (maybe separate listings but I am not sure yet) about designing your own colorways.

The design-your-own thing is something that I have been moving towards.  I mentioned earlier that I am going to do mini-skeins in all of my solid colors to go with my hand painted colorways.  One of the reasons for wanting to dye some solids is to use the yarn as a design/idea aid for future creations.  It helps to have the yarn in front of me to see how certain colors work side by side.  And, if I have the colors in front of me, I might as well put them in front of you as well.  

All of the Limited Edition colorways have been created with input from someone else; a shop owner, an author, or a friend.  I have certain colors that I gravitate towards and find that sometimes it is a lot easier to have someone else give me a list of colors rather than have to pick and choose on my own.  So, why not let you in on some of the fun too?

Because it takes the same amount of time to do one skein of yarn as it does to do a full batch of five or six, there will have to be a cost incentive to buying a full batch rather than just one skein.  So, put simply, if you want just one skein I will gladly do that. However, the cost per skein will be more expensive for just one.  

The other consideration is that no matter how much planning you put into this kind of thing, it is extremely difficult to predict what the finished result will look like or how it will knit up.  Thankfully, I am almost always pleasantly surprised.  That said, once the yarn is dyed there is no turning back.  I will give you plenty of opportunity to select your colors and make any special requests beforehand but there has to be a point where it's a done deal.

As you may have figured out by now, there is not a whole lot of method going on around here but a whole lot of madness.  I have no doubt that there will be some minor glitches in this new hair-brained idea of mine.  I also have no doubt that it will be worth it.  Or, at the very least an interesting ride.  So, if you have any thoughts or ideas on any of this, please leave a comment.  Or send an email to me [Dyed Bright Here (all one word) at google mail dot com] or tweet me at Bright Eyed Dyer (again, all one word).

2 comments:

  1. Mmmm, I have something I would love, but to make it the length I'd want I'd need around 2000 yards of worsted weight...

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  2. Oh, very fun!! Bulky and super bulky are my favs to work with...especially hand spun. Can't wait to see what you come up with!

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