Mid Dec Revu

Well friends, this year is showing signs of a degree of fiscal harshness that i don't think we felt as keenly around these parts last yr.

Recent discussion with a family member about how to support my enterprising soul during the pre-Christmas season led me to urge her to buy our books rather than knitwear. Summary - I would rather plunk 10 done deal books in the mail than stay up late knitting pairs of socks.

I've known for a while I have to let my ss curric website go. I've tried to keep that service free for several years. But it becomes more viable to post the lessons as pdfs to Createspace or Lulu than wait til the day i can't carry the site.

I'm okay with that. I have Adsense on the site, and just am not comfortable with how junky the ads make a page look. Better to have content and aesthetic control and offer at an affordable rate than lose the whole shootin match. Shame to lose my site with more than 100,000 hits. But these are the times we live in.

Signs are that Goodyarns will be going more the way of tales than fibre, and that's okay. I've been backing away from this inevitability all my life. Time to stare it down now.

Obvs will still work with sticks and string for friends fam and personal decompression. But time is going to have to be spent on the ink of goodyarnsink. Just so you know.

So here we sit in the eye of the storm for now, waiting for the blustery days of Jan to send us careering into our future... Wish us well!

Yay - local media story about our book launch!

Well, out at Beavers last nite - and sometimes in the hubbub I don't bring the Thurs paper in til Friday. Skimming thru this am, I found a sweet little release about our book launch, with thumbnail of book cover even, inside. Seriously, 6 column inches when there's so much Christmas bumpf going on, is pretty darn good! Just the shot in the arm I needed to get going on prep for the launch.

Continuing to work on stuff for our Occupy Christmas trunk sale. One of my vendor pals made me feel a bit self conscious about the name - until Stan brought home the news that Ad Age last week - so a good couple of weeks after me, i'm just saying - had adopted the slogan for this xmas season of 'Occupy Christmas.' Sometimes I scare myself with how ahead of the curve I am !!! ; ) !!!

And one more thing while i'm all avant garde and everything - just for the record, I don't think Black Friday sales mesh with handmades. Like what, I'm going to crank out Weasley sweaters then try to mass produce the billions people will buy off me?!? I mean isn't the meaning of hand made how much TLC gets put into a few well wrought pieces? So sorry folks, if you're looking for Black Friday deals, you won't find them in my shop. I'm slowly and steadily at work on a few nice pieces for loved ones. Occupy Christmas - oh yeah!

Test Driving an Etsy Mini

Saw a reference to this. Why not give it a whirl...Noice!

Christmas shopping has begun - even for me!

What I mean is I don't sell volumes of stuff. But 3 items in a week is a sign that things have begun.

My thanks to Nicola in the UK for purchasing a simple cream coloured chunky scarf with maple leafs - reminded me that expat Canucks are looking for Canadiana on the giving or receiving end of international shipping.

Had a nice email exchange with John re an HP tie. He notes that gold and burg are the colours of the U of Southern California. Had a great tip about an essay on the value of hand made by Octavio Paz. I have already added this to my wish list on Amazon ; ) . Even the reference put me in mind of the PK Page glosa based on Neruda's 'In Praise of Ironing.' I love that pairing of poems so much - have pulled it out to review when I get time.

Trunk sale is shaping up nicely. Have 6 vendors now. Had the brainstorm to knit 1 more HP sweater in chunky and raffle off. Diane at GYC helped me with the conversion of Alison Hansel's sweater to chunky. If I can shave a bit of time off the making of it, perhaps I can list for less. But what the hey - it's handmade, it is what it is - you just can't rush it.

Fundraising calendars should be here soon. Received shipping advisory. Can't wait to see them. The kids did phenomenal work. Maybe this is a good place for a sneak preview. Good idea. Will upload a pic... Ok what you see here is Holly's dream catcher, blending in the golden acorn idea from the book. Isn't she a wonder?!

Think that's it for now. Gotta start Benny's cereal sogging...

Philanthropy

I find my shop changing complexion a little bit. I think the fundraising activity of my various friends is having much to do with that. It started with Nick's Cwood hospital marathon, then Kevin's Christmas in Cambodia challenge. Discovered with Nick's run that it's much more immediate to donate funds in my PayPal account to a charity thru Canada Helps than taking it off my credit card.

Solution - build up more funds in my PP account to support the charitable initiatives of my friends.

Next - create an item specifically dedicated to my 'pet' charities where all or portions of sales from such can be transferred directly over.

Also wanted an easy to dash off item that can go on a Christmas sale table and become the item identified with that charity.

Hence the Kevin's Kids Cap was born. In Kevin's online pics is a photo of a little kid in Oudong village wearing a baseball style cap. As long as I can dash it off in an evening or a sitting, I don't mind dedicating the funds to charity.

I have one dedicated to WICM, an earflap hat, 100 % wool. The idea here would be that if I make extra and they don't sell, they can obviously be sent out to the mission. For these I wouldn't do in pick your own colour, but stick to the on sale colours I find at GT yarn and crafts. Am thinking a photo of the current working colour at end of listing should do the trick.

And then given my family's history with kidney disease and transplants, I thought I could do a 'kidney beanie.' This would work up best in the royal and white KF of C company colours. Am thinking a kidney/peanut shaped tassel topper. Maybe not all proceeds from this, but say half is fair. Next step - prototype.

Now that I think of it, my inspiration goes farther back. I love Frankie Brown's patterns on Ravelry. She works it that her patterns are free, but you can give a free will donation on her UK Giving Page, which is linked in to her dedicated charity, the research foundation. I see that her donations are up over 2,600 pounds (sorry, don't know the html symbol). So what's that, + $5000? Amazing! I totally want to be like Frankie when I grow up!

So now that I have all these philanthropy ventures I need a place to put them. As a result, my trunk sale idea is going quite well. I'm getting the church booked for Dec. 3. My friends Tye Dye Daddy 0 and Erika are in. We're all getting pretty pumped about it. Of course I will have my books for the mission trip available. More as we get closer!

Headin' back to Winnipeg!

So happy - got word today we received the grant we hoped for from the Youth in Mission branch of the Pres Church of Canada - God love 'em!

Some well wishers of GoodYarns may know of our loyalty to Winnipeg Inner City Missions since coordinating a youth humanitarian trip there last year to help with WICM's programs.

The bonds built were powerfully strong, and all felt a deep compulsion to return.

So we've developed a proposal for doing it completely on the cheap, but it relied heavily on getting this grant from YIM/PCC.

It wasn't a shoe-in that we would get it since naturally YIM/PCC wants others to have the experience.

With a 3 day road trip on either end, vs our previous 2 hr flight, it's a no brainer this will be a different experience.

So we have fresh wind in our sail, new resolve to get out there and sell our book, etc. All participants are so looking forward to catching up with new/old friends next summer!

Thanks so much YIM/PCC!!!

Gotta love 100 Mile Finds!

Nice little ego boost found in my inbox this morning - featured on 100MileFinds blog for last minute Halloween dress up ideas! Gotta love 100MileFinds!

Find the blog entry HERE.

Christmas gift idea from Kevin Knight in Cambodia

We've long been admirers of Bill McKibben's 100 Dollar Holiday. Now that most of our kids are out of the piles of toys phase, we're in a good place to hear and act on messages like this one from a grade school buddy of mine, Kevin Knight, who is working with a relocated impoverished community at the foot of Oudong Mountain in Cambodia. Read Kevin's latest blog entry - much food for thought on Christmas giving...

Kevin's Christmas message

fresh ink - new book!

Well it's always nice to add some fresh ink to the GoodYarns inventory, and this week we've done it. Our new fundraising book is hot off the presses - it's to raise money for a teen humanitarian trip helping with the programs of our favourite organization, Winnipeg Inner City Missions.

I dashed off a little story, partly in fun last fall, but it turned out to be fairly popular. And as it puts a spotlight on WICM, I thought it was just the right piece to turn into the cornerstone fundraising project for our next visit.

It's called, The Golden Acorn Project, and features a little girl named Junebug. She's named for the mom of the grade school friend that I kabitz with on FB, an animal lover who engendered this clearly profoundly in her own daughters, one a vet and one the ED of Boston Terrier Rescue - gave a suggestion on what Benny and I should do with all the acorns we had collected.

I've created an online order and info page. It's published thru Createspace - I'm really pleased with the 24 page, 4-colour book, pretty professional looking. The author copies are really cheap - way cheaper than my first run done at a local print shop. Tho I wanted to shop local, unit costs per book were $9 a copy for 100 copies. Thru CS, author copies were $3.65 (with ProPlan upgrade). Shipping from Texas costs a bit, but bumps the unit cost to a whopping $4.95 ea, so still cheaper this way. I make almost $15 a book for the cause rather than $11. Plus the added distribution channels of Amazon +. And the book looks better done than the quaint plastic coil bound version of first print run.

Anyway, just wanted to share from a creator's point of view. We have some great ideas for the launch. Benny and I were out collecting acorns yet - a feature of the launch will be to create the golden acorn necklace Junebug wears at the end of the book. Thinking gold acrylic paint, cord and some variation on needlefelted nut.

For your reference, here's the link to the order/info page:

http://web.me.com/lisadmckenzie/Golden_Acorn_Book/Order_Golden_Acorn.html

I may even re-order some copies of our fundraising book for the launch. Could make us another $500!

For fun, here's the link to the book on Amazon. Altho I did subscribe to Look inside, I also uploaded my own pages. Wanted people to be able to see more of the illustrations than leave that to chance. Plus uploading customer files let me make notes, which I found helpful:

http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Acorn-Project-not-just-children/dp/146636890X/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

Hope this helps some of you out there contemplating fundraising projects!

Cute little shop in the Junction - Kid Culture

Another terrific spin off from 100 mile finds - received a msg from Clare, who has opened a sweet little kids shop in the Junction neighbourhood of Toronto - called Kid Culture. Clare has taken some of my HP knits on commission, so friends if you want to see the pieces live and in person, check out Kid Culture. Some of my critters are there - Hegwig, Scabbers, Pidwidgeon, Crookshank - along with lots of burgundy and gold striped items - scarf, tie, tam, pom pom beanie, fingerless gloves and more. Check out the pic Clare sent of the HP display - looks awesome. Thanks so much Clare!

Featured seller on 100 Mile Finds today!

Pretty exciting! Many thanks to the good folk at 100 Mile Finds for a great writeup. However, I feel one point needs elaboration.

I'm pretty sure yarn diva Diane Crawford from Georgetown Yarn & Crafts would agree that it's never too warm for knits!

If you're a knitter/crocheted, summertime when you're lifeguarding by the pool or beach and the glare off your lakeside paperback has become too strong for your eyes, you want your fave project bag around.

As for the warmth of the projects, there are so many fun things to knit from cotton yarn. I'm just blocking out a really cool fishing hat for a small boy - better post pic when it's done - in off white cotton worsted. I love doing hybrid dresses for little girls. If you knit the bodice in cotton, it's more stretchy and forgiving than sewing about expanding to fit sweaty little bodies. Whip off a skirt in remaindered cotton gingham, a quick few hand stitches to the bodice, and you've got a lovely light sundress. Bernat online, I believe, has a free sun top in cotton with adjustable tie straps - just start it at the waist, and this is your basic dress bodice. You can top with a frilly ruffle hat in yarn ends if you want to go for the matched ensemble.

Even if the project requires a warmer fibre, like wool or alpaca, summer can be a great time for dashing off small items that aren't heavy in your lap. I think this time last year I was making a mountain of natural fibre earflap hats and mittens to take with us on a humanitarian trip with Winnipeg Inner City Missions. The director had suggested natural neutrals that men or women could wear during the cold Winnipeg winter.

And summer time is a great time for scrounging for deals on heavier weight fibres at aforementioned GT Yarns & Crafts. Diane has a fabulous discount wall where I find great naturals at fab prices right now.

As for HP and Canadiana knitwear in summer, I can tell you that in the 'heat' of the moment, as it were, when people are looking for an HP or maple leaf accessory - ie scarf or cap - to fly their colours, they never care if it's an acrylic knit - they just gotta have it!

So there you have it - the myth of summer knits summarily busted.

Thanks 100 Mile Finds for prompting this little tidbit of food for thought!

Vendor Opportunity

Now here's something interesting. My friend Lisa, who lives in lovely Blyth in southwestern Ont., has been pitching me on going in as a vendor to an artist co-op in town, called Maple and Moose. (Is it 100 miles from GT - I don't know. But with family on Blue Mountain and the inlaws history with Sauble Beach, it's within 100 miles of my heart!) The co-op is housed in a lovely historic building, and gets lots of traffic due to the Blyth Theatre Festival. And the rates seem do-able. For the 9 months that the shop is open, rental rates for 1 vendor average out to $27 a week. That's a bit stiff if you don't have a strong sense of how much you would sell. But to team up on a space would cost half of that, so $13 and change, and that looks more in striking range. Hubby and I are going over to see a play at the end of the month, and will scope out the shop. Definitely food for thought....

Well, i've put in my application to one of the local farmer's markets. Pretty nervous about that. Way too much regular scheduling for this stay at homie. Oh well, gotta try to support my habits.

Have been testing how fast i can whip items up, thinking summer now. But that hasn't stopped me from starting new pair of chunky fingerless gloves and starting a half carton of knitted happy easter eggs.

There are pics i should take, maybe after the rain forecast for the next 3 days.

However am pretty excited to have ordered a pair of nordic walking poles and vibram shoes (?) so that i can try to approximate my newfound love affair with snowshoeing once the snow is gone.

So pretty much same old - so many big ideas, so little time!