Monday, March 19, 2007

Monday At The Cottage Industry

It's the kids' spring break week off school, and it was raining today, so everybody was home. I had them all employed at one time or another.

Colin earned some money winding up skeins for me. There was no point showing his face. That's what it looks like anyway: a flop of hair.



Hayley showed Colin how to do what is normally her job. She graciously allowed him a chance to earn today.



Hayley likes "stomping" on the wet yarn rolled up in towels. Hayley only weighs about 50 pounds, so it's a pretty gentle stomping.



I received a special gift from one of my yarn clients this weekend. JC is a graphic artist and emailed me an image of labels she had designed for me to attach to my yarn. Doug printed them off on glossy card-stock, and now I won't have to use my tacky hand-printed ones anymore. Thank you JC!!!



And what did I do? Well, I dyed yarn of course. And now that I'm feeling on top of the game, I dyed some yarn for ME. That's right, me. I dyed two skeins of Galway worsted in my fave Canadian Maple colorway. I'll probably need more for my project, but this will get me started. Now I wish they would hurry up and dry.



I received an email this evening from the first person to receive dyed yarn in the mail from my shop. That means that a bunch of other yarn should be reaching destinations soon.

Don't forget to enter my April 9 contest. If you want to know the details of the contest, click HERE.

14 comments:

Les said...

Jayne - the pics of the kids helping really made me smile! Must be such a help with the skeining!
Les

Joan said...

Love your Canadian Maple colorway! It's pretty much New England Maple too. Only 7 more months til the leaves start changing. Ha.

The kids are a riot. Would love to read Hayley's blog about her adventures with mom's yarn. ;-}

Jennifer said...

I love seeing families work together. What wonderful kids to help mom. The cards turned out very nice too. Happy Knitting!

Anonymous said...

It looks like fun at your house, Jayne. Love that the kids are involved in the process too. Has Hayley asked to dye her own yarn yet?

Anonymous said...

Jayne,
trust me, your hand-printed tags are not tacky
Trish BCG

jayne said...

The kids have surprised me with their involvement. They like earning a bit of money, but more than that, they seem very interested in the whole process. Colin warmed my heart yesterday by noticing (immediately) when he switched from a basic worsted to a super-soft merino one.

C: This one's different mom.

Me:(thinking it's acting up) what's up?

C: It's mmmmmm...softer.

LOL, anonymous, Hayley has earmarked a skein for her to dye, and then I'm supposed to knit and felt slippers for her.

Thanks, Trish. :)

Anonymous said...

Oops, Jayne, I'm the anonymous today. I think the pressure of getting the word verification rattled me. I usually have to have at least two tries. :-} It will be fun to see the colors Hayley chooses for her skein.

jayne said...

I can tell you already, Benne, that it will be purples and blues. She loves them. I'm going to let her at it all on her own, but she's a shrewd one and has been watching me closely. Betcha she comes up with something fun.

CatBookMom said...

WHat great pictures! It's so good that the kids are interested in helping, and that even DS is learning about the yarns. Hayley looks so cute 'stomping' the yarns.

And the labels look wonderful! I haven't received my yarn yet, but I'm with Trish; knowing you, the hand-done labels would never be 'tacky.'

PS - I just got a 3rd query from the Blogger techies. There may be hope yet~!

jayne said...

Oh, I hope so, CBM. I can't wait to read your blog again.

Your package will be about a week. It just went out today. And you have samples of both types of tags.

Rosie Perera said...

I love your colored yarns and your new blog tagline adapted from Shawshank Redemption. I've told my sister about your yarn shop. I don't knit, but she might be interested.

I also love it that your whole family participates in this cottage industry with you.

Now you need to ask your techie DH to register you a domain name (www.seejayneknit.com) and build you a website just for the shop.

jayne said...

Hi, Rosie!

Now you know why I've been so quiet. I'm WORKING. Can you believe it?

My techie-husband has a billion plans, including (I think he has already grabbed the domain in Canada). I tell him to keep his major excitement to himself until I'm ready for it or he'll burn me out. I think he's going to channel some of that energy into starting a blog of his own (instead of living vicariously through mine, ha ha).

Thanks for coming by. You'll be in my contest, and if you win, you can give the yarn to your sister. :)

LisaW. said...

wow you are just taking off like a rocket! so much artistic talent...and so much fun there at jayne's..it's to dye for...i crack me up again!

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