Gails Yarns, Hooks & Needles

A newsletter just went out to notify and remind customers of Gail’s Yarns, Hooks, and Needles that the store will close on February 10, and that everything in the store is now 30% off, for orders of over $15. I may have forgotten to point out the $15 minimum. Sorry! It’s on the front page of the store.

I see in the last post I predicted that the leftovers will go to eBay, but there’s a good chance I’ll just keep it. I never bought anything I didn’t like.

January 31 is the last day to use credit cards directly. It’s the end of a billing cycle, so I said, stop my monthly payments then. I will still have PayPal, which accepts everything under the sun, and you don’t need a PayPal account.

February 1 is the first day of 30% off the whole store, as long as you spend at least $15.

February 10 is the last day of the store, unless all the goods are gone before that! There will be a “the page you are looking for is no longer here” message for at least a couple of days after that.

If there’s anything left to sell, it will go to eBay before the end of March. Taxes need to be filed quarterly, and if I’m done selling by the end of March, I’ll only have to file state taxes once this year. Win!

I keep waiting to feel sad, but I think I passed through it and I’m looking forward to whatever comes next.

Hello, Blog Readers!

After months of consideration, I have decided to close my online store, probably mid-February.

That’s the bad news. The good news is I have a coupon code just for blog readers, so you can help me clear out these virtual shelves!

Enter GYBLOG into the Coupon Code field during checkout for 20% off any order over $15.00. This code is good until about February 2, when all sales over $15 will have a discount of 30%. When the store goes off-line, anything left (that I don’t want to keep for myself) will probably go to eBay at a fixed price.

I had a blast making and tending this store, but it is time to move on, especially since it can’t pay its bills. My business plan says by now, I have an office outside my home and at least two employees, which was way too ambitious, but I’m grateful to everyone who helped me have fun.

Thanks.

My plan worked out well, selling on eBay to collect cash to buy more Kauni. It is bought and has arrived! Unfortunately the prices are going up, mine and the Kauni distributor’s. Sorry.

Also, I have changed the way I sell the Kauni yarn, to be more like everyone else. Since I now buy this yarn by the skein, and the skeins of effektyarn have variable weights, I sell by weight. Practice putting yarn in your cart, checking for the “out of stock” notice as you go. I do not have all weights in all colors.

My goals in sending old store items to eBay was to create a cash balance and move out the non-movers. It worked. Now there’s nothing much left at eBay, just two sets of knitting needles I re-listed, but I have realized I can clear out more items, so I will look for more things to auction.

Keep an eye out, and watch the store itself for reduced prices. It could happen.

I have just spent an hour virtually puttering about the virtual store, removing categories and deleting items that are long gone, and also setting a few things aside for eBay.

So, more items will be found shortly at eBay, like the few remaining Laurel Hill knitting needles, and the Lantern Moon bags.

I hate to do it, but it is helping cash flow for new things.

All my crochet cotton has now been listed at eBay. Size 5 is gone, and size 10 is all up, as of today. It was getting hard to justify the space they were taking up, so I’ll be glad to see it go.

There are also a couple of handmade crochet hooks, normally selling for $25 and up, both will auction for less than $5 in a few hours. There are some nice exotic hardwood knitting needles also, starting at a dollar plus shipping.

That is all I have found so far, but now a couple of boxes are out of the way, there will be more.

Good luck and thanks for looking!

Keep an eye out this month at eBay for some ancient items from Gail’s Yarns, Hooks, and Needles. I realized that there are some things not even listed online that I bought for this store, and I need to move them along for reasons of space and cash flow! I do not plan to make an eBay store; these will be regular auctions by nosenabook.

First up will be America’s Best Crochet Thread from Pisgah, size 5, which is a thicker thread. Size ten will be next, which is the regular crochet thread, and after that who knows what might turn up? I have to go look.

This weekend will be full of fiber in Fletcher, North Carolina, which is where the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair is held each year at this time. It’s a wonderful way to meet vendors, many of whom are nationally known, and enjoy fiber in many forms, from the animals themselves all the way to garments and rugs. Workshops are offered for all three days; this year there are two Beginning Spinning classes going at all times.

If you are in the Asheville area and want to take a look around SAFF, go to the Western NC Ag Center, pay your $3 admission to park, and look into McGough Arena for a program and the main block of vendors. More vendors are in the Sales Arena, and the workshops have all moved to the Expo Center. If you are interested in a workshop, you can check descriptions on the SAFF website, and then check availability at the Expo Center. There are designated information booths, but you can ask anybody, the people are friendly and helpful.

There’s a SAFF group at Ravelry where more information can be found, such as favorite area restaurants and get-togethers. I’ll hope to see you there.

This shawl is designed by Rosemary Hill. The yarn is loudly orange, and came from stash. I may never wear it because I’m not sure how, but it makes me happy to look at it.

First, let me tell you “my boy” Seth Harwood has another book at Podiobooks.com, called In Broad Daylight. You’re welcome.

Last, my project is now available at Podiobooks, too, only I am the producer, not the author, of The Money Moon: A Romance. I am happy to have the opportunity to spread this lovely audiobook around.

Thanks to Librivox, I was able to take an audiobook already recorded in the Public Domain and tweak it into a Podiobook. Podiobooks.com has a standard different from the Librivox.org standard, hence the tweaking. The title is The Money Moon: A Romance; it was particularly well read by John Lieder, and I wanted to get it where more people would notice and enjoy it. I hope Mr. Lieder is pleased, or at least not annoyed.

Evo has this novel scheduled for release on September 28, a Wednesday. I am pleased.

After a while, I will consider more titles from the sidebar for release this way. I don’t want to forget how!

Last weekend I took up the challenge of turning a Librivox story into a Podiobooks story.  First, Evo says, read the instructions on the Podiobooks.com Authors page. Not hard, and it sounds easy. I’ll just start.

The first hurdle, getting an episode from iTunes to Audacity, was very easy. Once there, however, I couldn’t see how to make changes. Turns out you just change the label and export. I had to ask for help several times, but I’m good at that, so no problem. The trick is knowing where the settings are. After that, it’s a matter of clicking the right button or choosing the right option from a drop-down menu. I wrote up my findings and made it into a blog post at Podiobooks Community site. It will be there whenever I want it. Also, anybody can see it, here. If you want to comment, join the community. There’s much better help elsewhere on the site, if you are a writer and interested.

So anyway, I got the first episode made to spec, and it was approved so now I have many new instructions to follow in order to get the story from my computer to the Podiobooks site, live and listenable. I soon learned that taking one episode from the beginning to the end of instructions was a long journey, long enough I had to re-learn every step for every trip. I deleted everything and started over, which is when I related the process to knitting. If it isn’t right, it can be done over.

At this point, I have most of the story (The Money Moon by Jeffery Farnol, from the sidebar at right) ready to go to the next step. I decided short steps make sense, I can repeat a simpler sequence over and over, then begin a new simple sequence. I can only marvel at how hard it would be if I had actually written and read the entire thing myself. Layers and layers of complexity.

Over at the store, I am trying to keep things neat. I am often surprised at how easy it is to leave misinformation lying around. So easy to write something so useful you won’t ever forget it, then never think of it again.

I left town to do some chauffeuring for my parents, and so was in Virginia for the earthquake. We were slightly south of the epicenter, in a car, and didn’t notice. It was way more exciting farther north, but I am not complaining.

I returned to NC just in time for the hurricane. All we have to show for it is leaf litter and an hour of no power yesterday, and I am grateful it was mostly another non-event.

I am sorry for all the people who had and are having a rougher time, through no fault of their own. It’s hard, and I wish them all the best.

I’ve been on Ravelry since 2007 and told many other people about it. Today was the first time someone else told me. It was very cool. We talked knitting until I was called out of the waiting room, and quite enjoyable it was.

Here’s what started the conversation: