Category: The Twisted Purl

December 7, 2013

It’s almost Christmas Time!

It’s finals time here at school, which means stress stress stress! It also means a very irregular schedule for me at The Twisted Purl. Luckily, next semester I will have very particular hours and will have lots to write about each week. Sadly, it also means that my time at The Twisted Purl is coming to a close for the semester. 🙁 These past couple weeks, I went home for Thanksgiving break and got sufficiently fat and happy, and then returned to school only to get straight to work on numerous art projects, Spanish tests, and papers. I also came back and helped make soaps! Cyndi had over 60 orders coming in at one point! That is a lot of soap, considering some of those orders were for 50 or more soaps.

With the ice storm that hit us this weekend, I was on strict orders from my Mom, and Cyndi, that I was not to intern when the bad weather hit. Which means that this past Thursday was my last day for the semester. I’m cleaning my hands of the felted soap work for 2013, but will be ready to come back in full swing in 2014. Next semester not only will I be interning on a very particular schedule, but I will also be learning things on a schedule! Cyndi made a really fabulous intern “syllabus” to follow, and we have only been able to touch on some of the subjects, since the soap business has been booming. I’ll get to help with dying fibers next semester, and will also make sure I get to learn how to spin wool into yarn. 🙂

I hope that everyone has a fun Christmas with their families. (Mine has yet to put up our Christmas tree, whoops!) Going to head home and get ready to eat and eat and eat! See you all next semester.

-ZoeB

November 30, 2013

Felted Soap Stocking Stuffers and the post Dazzle Daze Haze

The last few weeks I’ve been consumed with Felted Soap making. Tons and tons of soap! With Dazzle Daze behind us and Christmas creeping around the corner, everyone wants a bar or two of soap to stuff in stockings and give out to family and friends.

If you want to get a bar or two of Felted Soap please check out our Etsy Page and be sure to order before December 15th for Christmas Delivery.I had a massive dye day on Wednesday just to keep up with all the fiber needed to fill the orders. Above is the fiber hanging out to dry. We are still making about 150-200 soaps a day just trying to keep up with orders. My new intern, Zoe, is a rock star and TONS of help!!! Dazzle Daze 2013 is now just a memory but it sure was a successful show and I had an absolute blast. Thank you so much for coming out to see me! Above is an overview of our entire booth. Below was the front display of our Felted Soaps.We also had an inside felted soap display using an old suitcase found at a second-hand store. It’s my favorite way to display the soaps.I could not have done this huge three-day event without help and I have to give a tremendous thanks to my booth helpers. Girls night out Jeanetta and I giggled our way through the evening. Claudia and I counted boots and had a blast Friday morning and part of the afternoon. My step mom, Debbie, relieved Claudia on Friday afternoon and was a huge help all night. Saturday was sister day in The Twisted Purl booth. Yeah, we are a bit goofy (Twisted Sisters haha)! We had too much fun and Meg helped support the other vendors and checked lots of things off her Christmas Shopping list.Above is a few of the skeins of yarn I created while in my booth. A few of them sold before I could snap pics…one even sold while it was still on the bobbin! I hope everyone enjoys the yarn and all the goodies bought during the show and I appreciate your business more than words can express. Thank you!!! There will be a shop update on Monday with new skeins of handspun yarn and a few scarves too!

November 21, 2013

Second Week as an Intern and Dazzle Daze

Hey Everyone!

I know it’s only Wednesday, but today concludes my second week as an intern at The Twisted Purl. I’m going home tomorrow to go to a concert with my family, and then the next week is Thanksgiving break! But never fear, I’ll be back to my Twisted Purl ways at the beginning of December.

This week Cyndi and I were crafting and crafting and crafting. So much felted soap! I think she said that she typically makes 100 a week, and that we had made 500 that week. Wow! And lots and lots of labeling, since there were 500 soaps to label, and some which needed to be shipped to various destinations. I even helped with an international shipment! Today I also helped Cyndi and her husband set up for the Dazzle Daze show. I helped arrange product, and set up the booth. I’ve been promised a photo of the finished booth!

Here is a photo of all of the packages Cyndi took to the post office one day.

Here are tons of dryer ball labels that I helped make!

And here is the image of labeling felted soap after soap.

Well, I’ll be sure to eat lots of good Thanksgiving food while I’m home and I’m sure all of the readers will do the same. (Today was Thanksgiving day in the cafeteria here at my college, and I ate sooooo much pumpkin pie which really prepared me for next Thursday.)

Thanks for reading!

Zoe B

November 15, 2013

First Week as an Intern

Hey everybody,

I hope you all read my introductory post that Cyndi posted earlier in the week. I’m excited to have everybody along side me through my Twisted Purl journey. I’m just finishing up my first week as an intern at The Twisted Purl, and can’t be happier that I was selected for this amazing opportunity. I’m already learning so many new terms, and learning how to make so many new things. I don’t know how many of you guys know what a carded batt is, or what a drum carder does, but I sure didn’t before this week. Next week I get to learn how to dye fibers, and maybe will get to learn how to spin on a spinning wheel, woo! Right now, all I know is that I’m sure I’ll know a little more about spinning past my current knowledge (provided by Sleeping Beauty, of course.)

Here are some of the carded batts I made this week!

With Dazzle Daze just around the corner, I’ve been put right to work learning how to make felted soap. I’ve helped make the essential materials, and helped package and label the soaps, and I’ve even watched the HUGE delivery truck bring us more soaps to felt! I’m really excited to try a felted soap for myself. (I’ll be sure to report back with how awesome it is, because I’m sure it’s life changing soap.) I’ve also really enjoyed getting to know Cyndi. Turns out, we both have strong roots in California, and we watch most of the same TV shows. It gives us a lot to talk about and share while we work, and keeps us from going insane by way of felted soap. 🙂

It’s really exciting for me to be a part of The Twisted Purl. Besides learning how to make many interesting fiber creations, I’m also learning first hand how to run a business. The organization skills you have to have to keep track of all of the orders and the time management skills you have to possess to fill the orders in a timely manner are crazy, and I’m so impressed that Cyndi has been doing all of it, while keeping the truly important quality of hand made intact. I’m grateful to be able to learn from her, and also ready to help her with anything The Twisted Purl does, especially during such a busy time of the year.

I hope you all stick with me through this journey, and maybe even learn a little bit along side me.

I get back to felting on Monday. Until next week,

Zoe B.

November 11, 2013

Please Welcome Zoe our New Twisted Purl Intern

The Twisted Purl, especially in the Felted Soap department, has been booming. We have been very blessed with more new retail stores purchasing Felted Soaps (we are now up to 53). Woohoo!

With the added Holiday Shopping season approaching and Dazzle Daze just around the corner, I’ve felt just a tad bit overwhelmed. There is only so much one person can do, especially in the handmade field. I hate not getting the orders out in a more timely manner. Just having an extra set of hands to help package, blend fibers, and label would be a tremendous help.

I reached out to one of our local colleges, Hendrix, in the hopes of establishing an internship program that would be mutually beneficial to both the college student and my business. You can learn more about The Twisted Purl Internship Program here.

Plus, fiber arts is something you can not just learn about anywhere. Being able to pass on my passion and the hands on knowledge it’s taken me a few years to acquire will be a blast.

After just a short time of interviewing, I’m thrilled to have found our very first intern. With the timing of the semester being so wonky, she’ll be with us for a few weeks this year and then start again after winter break.

Very excited to announce the addition of Zoe to our fiber family. Below is her introductory post. She will be posting on our blog every week and sharing the different experiences with you. Today is her very first day!!!

Hi everybody,

My name is Zoe. I’m a junior at Hendrix College studying studio art and Spanish language. I’m interested in a future of design and writing, (in both Spanish and English,) and also one involving making art, whatever medium I may choose. I love my position working on the yearbook here at Hendrix, and am thrilled that both of my majors allow me to pursue my many passions and interests. Although everything I’ve said is true of me, I would much rather say it in a more interesting fashion. I prefer to summarize it in the simple phrase “College student, creative writer, life designer, musician, nature lover, creature catcher, star gazer.”

As an art student at Hendrix College, I’m able to learn new art techniques daily. I do this by taking classes in varying medias such as printmaking or ceramics, and also by experimenting through art without the fear of failure. There is nothing more exciting than seeing a piece of art or a component of art, and learning how to do that particular project on your own. I would be ecstatic to intern at The Twisted Purl because I would love to learn about a type of art that I am not able to pursue here at Hendrix. I am also extremely interested in learning about the ins and outs of a local, home-run business through first hand experience.

By interning at The Twisted Purl, I would hope to leave with not only a newly acquired skill, but also a new passion and interest that would allow for more artistic growth, and might also aide with a future job. I would also hope to be able to show others the personable nature of a handmade product. Nothing is better than experiencing something handmade. When you touch or hold the item, you can almost imagine yourself there with the person as they are making it. Being a part of such a intimate experience has been so exciting for me during my art career, whether this be while using a handmade sheet of paper or making my own clay, and I hope to be able to bring the amazing idea of “handmade” to many more people.

Keep on learning, creating, and growing.

Zoe B