Chickenlips Knitting

A few days ago, my Etsy shop was featured on Lime & Violet's Daily Chum as the Etsy Shop of the Day! (now I know what ESotD means, heh.) That was like, right on the heels of Rush appearing on Colbert Report, so I was so jacked I was barely coherent! I got several orders in rapid succession, which was awesome. Then yesterday, having found some nice dyeable yarn on sale at a small LYS in the Pearl District (no, not the one that a lot of people think is an Irish pub, the other one :P), I told the owner I'm a dyer, bought all the sale dyeable wool she had and gave her a sample of my kettle dyed. She is very interested in either wholesale or consignment, since her shop is very small (but charming), and now I know I made a wise decision to offer various yarn weights and kettle dyed in addition to handpainted. So I've found yet another LYS owner who wants to offer her customers local products, because that's what they ask for, and that makes me glad.

But wait, that's not all! (That part, if it had been spoken rather than written, I would have used my cheesy TV announcer's voice.) You may remember I found T-Spot, a lovely new yarn, tea and chocolate shop in Manzanita at the coast, and my sock yarn is for sale there? Hang on to your hats people, 'cause little old me has been hired to teach a beginning sock class at that shop next month! Road trip to the coast? Write off all expenses because they're business related? Hells yes!

OK, time to settle in, because I'm planning a long-ass yarn rap. But there will be pictures, so that should break up the monotony. Here is the dyeing progress I've made so far on the kids' sock kits yarn.

The back row is "Toucan Rainforest", and up front (it's actually my "Rock the Casbah" colorway adapted for small circumference knitting,) is what I was going to call "Arabian Princess" but I'm thinking of dumping the Princess theme idea and calling it "Magic Lamp". There will be two more girly, fairy tale themed colorways and two more wildlife themed ones. So if this sort of thing turns yer crank, keep it right here!

I have found it's extremely difficult to sell a yarn kit without a pattern, so I'm working on a little girl sock and a little boy sock. And designing is so not my forte! Yeah, I know, I've had a couple patterns published, but it's the pattern writing that I find a bitch. However, I need kit patterns, so I soldiered on and did a test knit of a lace rib sock.