Etsy Feedback and a giveaway…. Now closed

I have received 500 positive feedbacks on the sales in my Etsy Shop! Wow!! You lot are so supportive and encouraging in what I thought would be a little dabble into the world of retail.

How things have moved on for me though, the first feedback I received was in April 2009, I can’t tell you how it felt to read it.  That feedback was essential for me to progress into the busy shop I have these days.  I was very nervous about selling my first fibre but it sold, slowly, and the feedback kept rolling in. in dribs and drabs and my confidence rose…

The first tops I dyed was not as well dyed as it is these days. It was such a steep learning curve but gradually, I have learnt to keep the fibre open and ready for spinning, some of it required no pre drafting, as the blends themselves keep the fibres free from compression* or even dare I say it felting!! There is nothing worse, in my opinion that trying to spin prettily dyed top that won’t give. I put loads of dyed fibre in the bin, to me it simply wasn’t worth the effort of trying to spin it. The ones that I did struggle with produced yarn that never pleased me.

*other than the normal compression caused by organising the top into a practical size for photos and storage purposes

I also learned to ‘cook’ my dyed fibres longer, until the dyes were fully exhausted, this was a tricky business, so many factors had to be realised, how long to soak the blends, how wet to leave it, how strong to make the dye for the depth of colour I was after. The cooking method….Different fibres and blends need different treatments…a lot of time and devotion to the craft has been spent getting to where I am today.

It is all part of the process of spinning for me, a luxurious hobby, I simply adore luxury blends and have many of my blends specially commissioned for Fluff-n-Stuff. I always ask for the fibres to be well blended into my tops, it makes everything work so much better. No sudden clumps of silk for example, which will suddenly pull away from you. Mind you, sometimes this is exactly what you want it to do, but I try and keep that experience for the arty batts I like to make from time to time.  Never do I use felted fibre for my batts either, the fibres look dull and becomes brittle and broken, not good for a drapey yarn with a sheen  from all the attentive spinning at all.  Simply not worth the effort of spinning in my opinion, I am more fussy than most, I have to say, and in the past I knew no better and probably put up with the problems associated with my poorly dyed fibres thinking it was my spinning technique, sometimes I was just too tired at the end of a spinning session to realise that I had been putting far to much effort into getting the yarn on the bobbin. I know better now…

Test spinning my blends is a real treat for me, as it is probably the only time I have for spinning at the moment

Anyway, I feel we need to celebrate the fact that I have received 500 feedbacks so I have decided to hold a giveaway to say thank you to all my customers and future customers

All you have to do is leave a comment to this post, even a smiley face will get you a place in the hat for a voucher for £30 to be used in my shop, which will continue to be filled with yummy things. I am on a real sewing kick at the moment so the voucher could be used towards one of my Double Interchangeable Needle Organisers or one of my lovely big tote bags, I love working with my customers to create something uniquely theirs, so you don’t even need to wait for me to put new stock in the shop, you can message me with whatever it is you’d like…..the decision will be up to the winner

This competition will close in one weeks time, 12noon, UK time on Friday 12th August which incidentally, happens to be my Birthday, such fun!! (in Miranda’s Mother’s voice)

I’ll leave you with my favourite photo of last Sunday taken at Wells-Next-The-Sea, simply because I don’t like posts without pictures haha

Good luck! Oh and here’s the 500th feedback comment which I received yesterday on one of my Needle Organisers:-

“Gorgeous! The quality and workmanship is just exquisite! I love this product and this Etsy seller — so nice to work with and an amazing person.”

Aww, made me go all warm inside too