A follow up on the 18 yards of handspun...challenge?

[untonuggan]

Note: copying some of this from what I posted on wordpress as a follow up to a recent post about knitting with 18 yards of handspun yarn. Today, apparently, my hands wanted to be used, but gently. Thus I now have a handmade business card holder embellished with handspun yarn.

How far does 18 yards of handspun yarn go if you mix it with other yarns? Well I’m here to tell you that I got not one, not two, but three projects out of 18 yards of my handspun, and I still have a yard or so left over. Huzzah!

Here they are, in order of knitting:


A green hat knit with Cascade 128 superwash merino and 2 stripes of handspun cream targhee yarn. The hat is a fairly simple design, with about an inch or so of 1×1 ribbing followed by stockinette and then decreases about 6″ up the length of the hat. The striping is centered along the length of the hat: 2 rows of cream, a row of green, and 2 rows of cream. When I knit this I expected to use up all of the handspun, but I underestimated how far it would go. (Note: this hat is currently available on my Etsy shop.)


A bracelet made from two strands of i-cord twisted together: one of targhee, one of the green cascade 220. They are fastened by a bobble of green (on one end) and a loop of green yarn (on the other end). I also sewed an “X” of yarn on each end to keep the i-cords from untwisting from each other. Debating whether to keep this or put it up on Etsy. So luscious and soft!


A business card holder made out of two-toned merino Shepherd’s wool (red and pink) closed with a purple button. I used the white handspun to embellish the bag with a smiley face and some edging. The bag is resting on a pile of buttons I had poured out to choose from; the remaining handspun is above it. This one is definitely for me to keep, as I’d been planning on making something homemade to house my business cards for awhile. Huzzah for finally finishing it!

The following is a small amount of market research. Feel free to ignore, sorry to stick it in an otherwise purely knitting/spinning related post but it seemed relevant and I didn't want to just post two things right on top of one another.

Poll #13744 Small Batch Handspun on Etsy

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 9

If Liz sold small amounts of handspun on Etsy for less $, I would...

Buy some!
3 (37.5%)

Tell other people!
4 (50.0%)

Don't use yarn, so not relevant to me.
1 (12.5%)

Not interested in buying it for other reasons.
1 (12.5%)

Postage is too big a barrier.
4 (50.0%)

What yardages/prices would you be most interested in?

50 yards for $18 + postage
2 (66.7%)

40 yard for $15 + postage
2 (66.7%)

30 yards for $12 + postage
2 (66.7%)

sampler of 10 yards each of 3 yarns for $15 + postage
3 (100.0%)

something else I will detail in comments
0 (0.0%)

Every poll needs a...

duck!
1 (11.1%)

kitty!
2 (22.2%)

puppy!
2 (22.2%)

piping plover!
0 (0.0%)

owl!
4 (44.4%)

Comments

[pipisafoat]

I would buy some and/or recommend your store, depending on a lot of factors, most of which are not related to how you do your store/pricing/etc! (most of my yarn-inclined friends are either already overstocked on yarn and have asked not to be told of new sources or already have their own homespun sources and are extremely unlikely to change unless something major happened with their current supplier. i have no money to buy yarn and am also overstocked and not even making much of anything in the last year or so!)

but you know that i feel everything needs more owls.

(also as a general rule, yardage would rely on project, and projects don't exist. and i would be less likely to buy your yarn just to have; i would almost certainly only buy it for a specific purpose. so i'm really unhelpful.)

[untonuggan]

Really great info to have, thank you. ^_^ Thanks for taking the time to share!