Green Prairie Fibers Redo

Once again I realize that I’ve fallen into the abyss of etsy shop neglect. I feel really bad about this for several reasons.
1)I don’t get orders as often when I don’t update my shops on a regular basis
2)I feel guilty for promising updates that don’t come
3)Getting orders is a big moral booster when you are working alone about 98% of the week (2% spent teaching class). So when I don’t update my shop I don’t get as many orders and my moral goes down.

So why have a let my shops fall into disrepair? Well a few reasons. In the beginning it was simply the fact that I didn’t have enough time. I was stretching myself too thin. And now I’m not (at least not nearly as much) so what’s the hold up? Well, disorganization is a huge factor. Since it’s been awhile since the last update I’m not sure what I have, what needs to be added, what I could make, where all my supplies are. I mean, I know what I have in the shop right now, but when it came time to renew, I realized maybe somethings that were inactive listings had been given as gifts, while others just needed corrections in the listings.

I want to get back on the straight and narrow and start updating regularly again. It’s fun, I enjoy it. And now it’s officially part of my primary source of income so I better take myself and my business more seriously. Up until now it’s been a nice suplementary income, but now it’s more important than ever that I do (take it seriously and update regularly. Expenses keep piling up in general.

I’m starting with Green Prairie Fibers, then working on the Craft Leftovers shop, and then the Kro Studio shop.

My plan for Green Prairie Fibers:

1) Organize – inventory, policies, supplies

2) New Look – banner, tags, business cards, gift cards

3) Photograph new yarns and new photos of old yarns that need updating since my photo skills have improved.

4) Make more stitch markers – I’m finally getting the hang of it and can’t wait to get some better ones listed.

5) Green Prairie Fibers Patterns – socks, bags, shawls, hats, mittens, and scarves will be on the upcoming list to write and add.

6) Finish first woven fabrics and add to the shop – I had to put my weaving on hold because of only having access to a spinning wheel for a limited time and I’m ready to dress my loom and get started again.

7) Knit and crochet more with my own yarns.

The last one on the list is one I’m especially looking forward to, haha. But seriously, I think I lost sight of how important it is to work with the yarns that I dye. It allows quality control for one and creative process for another (it’s hard to know what a dyeing pattern will pool/varigate like when knit just by looking at a skein of it). And egotisticly, it’s one of my favorite yarn brands and is always in my favorite colors. And if I want to write patterns for the shop, well, it should be made from Green Prairie Fibers yarn don’t you think?

The market bag pattern that I’ve been going on about will be the first and then two simple sock patterns (free with purchase of sock yarn) – one is toe up and one is toe down.

So today I added a new yarn that I hadn’t listed yet, it’s a semi solid orange that I kettle dyed. Because it’s kettle dyed instead of hand painted and semi solid instead of multicolored it’s priced a little lower than my other yarns. You should take a look at it. This dk merino yarn has great yardage – 400 yards per skein.

And then I redid the banner to match the new tags (shown above):

And now I’m going to delve into making sure that what I have in my “in the shop” bin is actually in the shop.

In other news I finished the bella mittens for my friend Emily yesterday and they are now blocked and drying. I’ll take a picture of them on Sunday before I pack them up. And I did a big studio purge/clean up/organize (which is #1 on the list of the all the shops – getting my supplies and stock into easily acessible order). I’m feeling pretty good about these thing and am looking forward to more shop sucesses. It always seems like when I dedicate myself to it (etsy), I do really well. So I just need to be diligent and keep on top of things.

My folks are coming in to town tomorrow, so I won’t be posting, maybe on Sunday though.

See you all soon!
Kristin

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Tags: dyeing, etsy, handmade, hand_dyed, organize, pattern_writing, redo, shop, weaving, yarn