Well, I’m a failure, I guess.  Okay, no I’m not really a failure.  (Anybody who keeps working along for 18+ years isn’t really a failure.)  But I just spent the good part of the afternoon staging yarns, collecting my thoughts (more like gathering my thoughts into a jumbled pile), and then recording a video showing how to combine colorways from a yarn stash into a project.

This is the yarn pile I was working with.

These are all the yarns from all the bins available and ready to ship from the Blog Reader Specials page.  I know I have a face for radio and I’m not always the suave and glib speaker, but I was getting into it a bit. I had a good time pulling a random yarn and seeing what else would go with it, either coordinating or contrasting.

With two or three or four of these yarns, you could make shawls, cowls, scarves, or baby blankets in a wide array of knitting techniques — granny squares or miter squares for a baby cover, or one of those Find -Your-Fade shawls popular on Ravelry a while back.

Just for example, right in the center of the pile is a Twinset in a rich teal solid and I combined it with a nearby teal gradient fade that would look smashing together.  I pulled out a half-dozen or more various combinations.

Then I went to edit the resulting video.  I had the camera stationary with the ring light to ensure the camera could see the array of yarns as well as the ones I was holding up.  The video quality was just so-so, but the audio was nearly impossible to hear.  All that effort was for naught.  I need to buy one of those fancy clip-on microphones YouTubers are using these day.  They aren’t expensive, just out of reach until after the holidays.

Anyway, the whole (or main) point of this effort is that I must send all these yarns shipping out this week if possible.  Sales have been down and my monthly bills are not only overdue but seem to be increasing month to month as well. It’s an ongoing struggle.

All yarns on the Blog Reader Specials page at 15% off.  But, if you take any two or more, you’ll get 20% off.  Just claim the ones you want and send me an email.  I take emails in the order they are received, and will mark your requests off first, then send your PayPal invoice.  Upon payment I will pay and print your shipping label so your yarns can go out with the next pass of my local mail carrier.  I can’t travel to the post office to drop off packages, but they’re usually pretty good about picking up if I put in a request online.

If you are outside the U.S., I can ship up to six skeins for the flat rate of $37.50 (oddly it doesn’t matter if it is one skein or six).   The increase in U.S. postage means I can ship a flat-rate Priority box for $16.50 — normally, 12 skeins can be squeezed into such a box, but I’ve been known to “strongly encourage” up to 14 skeins to snuggle closely.   I mention this because it is easier and less expensive to send a lot of yarns to a single address.  If you have several knitting friends local to you, I am more than happy to make a group box to your address — you and your friends can get 20% off their individual requests AND chip in for a shared postage rate inside the U.S.  Not a bad deal, really.

I post regularly to Facebook and Instagram, have begun showing again on Ravelry, and just recently joined Blue Sky.  My sister is trying to get me on TikTok as well, but I’m having a hard time figuring it out and accessing my page there, and that platform is very video-centric.   If you are on any of these platforms, please do share my links there so others have a connection to find me.

And, of course, there is my Blog here, and the Knitivity Insider mailing list, but that list has dwindled to fewer than 250 as people’s interests change and they unsubscribe.  I only use the Insider list to show the newest yarns each week so that  those who are really interested can get First-Look and get an extra discount before I show on Facebook and other platforms.

I understand that not everyone wants or needs yarns right now.  Out of a sense of need, I have opened an account at Buy Me A Coffee, so that those who feel so inclined are invited to pitch in an amount of your choosing. Or, for those who use Zelle, that’s another way to support an indie artist if you don’t need yarn right now; Zelle is connected to my personal email or phone (just ask if you need it), and Zelle doesn’t deduct a percentage fee like BMAC or Paypal.

If I could sell every yarn every week, I would be okay, but with so many yarns still available, this is clearly not happening.  The only way I can think of to increase sales is to increase exposure.  I need more eyeballs rolling over my yarns regularly.   Feel free to share this Blog post or Insider email with your friends.

I’ll be dyeing again next weekend, so you can expect a new collection of Blog Reader Specials.