Good News

I just found out that my application for a trademark on the name The Painted Sheep and the little hand colored sheep logo is going through! I don't think it will formally be trademarked for a year or something crazy like that, but since my application has been sent in and everything is in line, no one else can apply for it. Officially, its "pending" (I think). Anyway, what it all means is that the name and the logo are mine! This doesn't seem like a big deal, I'm sure, but it is a huge relief for me.

More Yarn PrOn

Look what just finished drying. I reskeined it and set it down on the table, preparing to twist it into manageable little skeins but it just looked so pretty laying there, how could I resist sharing a picture with you?



One of the skeins in the picture above is the last skein to add to my very first whole sale order (picture below)! 20 skeins of Foot Prints will be headed out to Wool and Company in Geneva, Illinois. If you are in the area, stop by and check it out. If you happen to not like in Illinois but would still like to see Painted Sheep yarn at your LYS, let me know and I'll send a sample pack to the shop.

There is no yarn so beautiful as hand spun, especially hand painted, hand spun. I myself very rarely spin, and the result isn't usually very pretty, but thankfully my mom is a wonderful spinner. And, thankfully, is always happy to spin up samples of roving I have dyed. She says that she is unhappy with how lumpy these samples came out, but I think they are beautiful. These little sample skeins aren't big enough to knit anything out of but they are beautiful to look at and touch.

Wedding Plans

Ok, this isn't really knitting related, but I want as many opinions as I can get. Chris and I are starting to think about where we want to have our wedding. Remember, the wedding won't be for another 2 years (Summer 2009...probably), but we have busy lives that are likely to just become busier, so its probably a good idea to start planning now. The first thing, of course, is to find a location. Right now we are thinking that we would like to have it in the mountains. We both like the idea of having an outdoor wedding and something that is more casual and fun than formal. No churches. No generic formal banquet halls. We also don't want to spend a fortune. Its probably not going to be huge, but since our families have a lot of friends it will be more than 50 people (not a very precise estimate, I know). So, mountains of North Carolina. No churches. Outdoor ceremony, indoor/outdoor options for the reception (in case the weather is too hot, too cold, too dry or too wet). A grand old mansion or manor house with a broad front porch leading to a expansive lawn with ancient trees and flower gardens would be ideal.

Any Suggestions on the perfect place????

Oh, and to keep this somewhat knitting related, I think that I (and any other knitters who want to help me!) might knit a bunch of felted flowers to use in some decorative manner, haven't decided exactly how yet. Also open for suggestions.

Progress

1. The Twisted Mitts pattern is now written up and ready to be tested. Hopefully there aren't any mistakes but I'm not holding my breath.
   
2. The Todos Blanket pattern is almost ready.
   
3. The free patterns for the mini sock and the worsted weight sock are on the website.
4. The chart for the twisted socks is almost done, still need to write up the pattern though.
5. A shipment of the yarn for Foot Prints and a new silk/merino blend arrived today. Will start dyeing it this afternoon.
6. The website is functional, I think. There are tons of mistakes and its missing a lot of pictures and text but I think it is ready to accept orders. I imagine I will discover lots of problems once people start placing orders, but I can't find them or fix them until then. For those interested, I am going with Pay Pal for my shopping cart, at least for the time being. We shall see...
   

On the to-do list for this afternoon:

1. Dye more yarn! Yay! Chris is coming over to dye up some of his colors. And I have a new silk blend to experiment with.
   
2. Write up Todos and Twisted Socks patterns.
   
3. Prepare wholesale info packages to be mailed out to yarn shops
4. Prepare sample packages to be mailed out to designers/bloggers/podcasters (if you have a suggestion about who might be the more influential people to send samples to, please let me know. So far my list includes Brenda from Cast On, Lime and Violet, Eunny Jang and Cookie)

*note: since the first thing on my to-do list is to dye yarn, the rest of the list may or may not be ignored completely, at least for today.

Help!!

I need help. I thought I could do it myself. But I don't think I can. Now thats not something you are going to hear me admit to often. Its this whole e-commerce website thing. I built myself a nice little website that I'm happy enough about. I'm sure it could be prettier, could be fancier, but those things can come later as The Painted Sheep grows. I'm okay with that. But this e-commerce bit, accepting credit card, deciding on a shopping cart and then figuring out how to use it....its all just a bit beyond me. Now, keep in mind that the website is supposed to be open for business on July 16th-- 1 day less than 2 weeks from now. What am I going to do? I guess I need to hire someone to do it for me but to be honest, I'm not making money off this yarn yet so funds are a little tight. Especially after seeing how high the fees for many of these shopping cart programs are! And as of yet I haven't found any web designers who are willing to accept yarn (or perhaps some soft, warm mittens) as payment.

If you know of anyone who does this, either as a hobby or professionally, and could point me in the right direction or just do it for me, for a reasonable fee, please let me know ASAP. Here is information they may need to know:
My product line contains about a dozen different items offered in about a dozen colors (so about 124 individual items). I use Quickbooks Pro as my accounting software and am signed up for their Merchant account. I currently have been experimenting with Netstores and I like how it interfaces with my website but have no idea if it will work with Quickbooks and, if so, how to make it work. I would love to be able to just stick buttons into the website I already have, if thats at all possible.


Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me...I'm feeling desperate and all of this computer confusion is really cutting into my dyeing and designing time and I really want to have a lot of yarn dyed and patterns ready for my grand opening in two weeks.


Update (7-5): I have decided to go with paypal for the time being. It doesn't do a lot of the fancy stuff (like interface with Quickbooks) that some of the other programs do- at least as far as I can tell--but its cheap and easy and will at least get me started. Looks like things will be good to go on July 16th!!

More Harry Potter

Just a few more pictures of Harry Potter projects. I finished the second of the House Scarf bookmarks, this one in Hufflepuff colors, and started on the mini-Weasley sweater ornaments. The little sweaters are going to be pretty cute I think. They will have letters (I am doing H for Hufflepuff, G for Gryffindor, etc) duplicate stitched on the fronts. Standing at only 2.5" tall they are very quick knits!