Another one of those "this is something I wrote elsewhere and wanted to keep a record of so I'm reposting it here" kind of posts. There is a lot more I could say on the topic, but I need to leave something for me to write about in the future. For now, good enough is good enough.
Selling yarn in person! I'm so glad you are thinking about this. It's so much fun!
Some things that help:
- Make stuff with your yarn! Seriously. This is the best way to improve your spinning by working with your yarn and learning how to improve it.
- Have samples of what you made so people can see how the yarn behaves.
- Make yarn in large batches. My batch size is one kilo. People want to feel confident they have enough yarn for their project.
- Make the skeins all the same size and price (400yds is enough for a pair of socks and is a good length for most yarn)
- Have ball winder and swift on hand and offer free use of them (get the ball started, and get the person winding their own if things are too busy)
- Price according to the time it actually takes. Don't take less than minimum wage.
- Hint, if you don't know how much your time is worth, use the 'broken arm' standard. If you had a big order and you broke your arm, how much would it cost to hire someone to make the same quality yarn?
- Do some time and motion studies on yourself. Get a stopwatch if you don't have a phone that can do this. Find out how long it really takes.
- Pricing too low often (subconsciously) indicates the quality will be low and people don't want to buy it
- Specialize - make only sock yarn or only sweater yarn until you are perfect at it. Make knitting yarn or crochet yarn.
Most important of all:
Learn to FINISH the yarn.
Finishing includes many steps, but basically, we are handling the yarn several times over distance. So when I take my yarn off my bobbin, my skeiner (a click reel because I'm measuring at this stage because the other stages expand the length of the yarn by about 3% and I want the customer to get the best value) is about 8 yards away from my bobbin. Then I wash the wool and block it. To block, I put it on the swift and put the blocker at least 8 yards away from the swift and rewind it.
The distance helps distribute the twist and handling it each time helps you see if there are any flaws.
If you are selling to weavers, wind under tension so that if the yarn will break, it will do so now, not on the loom. fix the break by tieing a knot big enough for the fingers to find when the weaver is working with the yarn.
If you are selling to knitters, a splice is better as they don't like dealing with knots.
From my experiments, garments made from finished yarn pill less and last about 6 years longer than ones made from 'right off the bobbin' yarn.
Also, you are going to get people complaining about the price - no matter what the price is.
When this happens I offer to teach them how to make their own.
They reply: oh, I couldn't possibly have the time or the skill to make that.
I stay silent and try to keep my face friendly and confident. maybe nod slightly.
They usually buy the yarn.
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