Advertising Dilemmas

Thanks to a recent donation to my business I will be able to put an advertisement into the fall issue of Venus Zine! Having an advertisement in this magazine is something I've dreamed about, I just never knew exactly what it was that I wanted to advertise! Business is really slow right now, I am going to guess that is due to the failing economy. I am just thankful that there are places like etsy at the moment, and I have a day job. Otherwise I would not have any way to support myself. I have been posting business cards up everywhere! I can only hope that someone sees them and wants to look at my store!

I need to bust my butt, I have containers full of yarn, but haven't dyed any of it! I need to get on that!

Omg, I totally came across this today on Cafe Press! What a hilarious logo! I love crocheting, I was reading up on it. Did you know more people know how to crochet than knit? And yet the insufficient update in patterns is staggering. I have been so disillusioned with the amount of awesome crochet patterns. I want to be able to crochet cut things, not just doilies and unfortunate looking doll/baby dresses. Any who If you are a crocheter! Crochet today and the Interweave crochet both just put out awesome spring patterns! Check em out!

Looking for Advertisement

So, I've spent the last two weeks trying to keep stuff at home a little more stable. Between working 3rd shift, having crazy things happening left and right, a full load of graduate classes to deal with, more specifically their homework, finding time to dye yarn has been troublesome. I haven't in fact dyed any more yarn, except the yarn that I had an order for. I have at least 12 skeins to dye currently, but the 12 skeins I've posted are not selling! I need to get my butt in gear with advertising.

I priced some advertising with some of the knit and crochet magazines. I swear those things are highway robbery! It's anywhere from $3,000-$10,000 to put an advertisement in their magazines. I did however find out that one of my favorite magazines has a deal for a small add space for only $200. Which is pretty affordable. There in lies the problem. I have to actually sell yarn in order to afford the advertising. Currently I am having issues. I think I might just go out with a huge stack of my business cards and start asking businesses if I can post them. Does anyone else have suggestions? I need really inexpensive advertising for now!

So as all business women must...

I have to of course offer my shameless plug! Go check out my store! www.syrupthreads.etsy.com.I just got done dying some new yarns! I buy fisherman's wool and break up the larger skeins in order to test out color-ways I don't want to use on the more expensive yarn. I wanted to be able to offer at least a small project worth of yarn at a lower price so that everyone could enjoy it!

This one is called Caramel Candy Apple. I think I misspelled it on Etsy, :-0 oops! It's a worsted weight, machine washable wool!

Mermaid Margarita, one of my very first skeins!

This one so named after my favorite adult beverage. Tequila sunrise. I made an adorable Robot Love hot water bottle cozy out of a skein of this. it knits up so pretty!

Citrus Salad. This one is actually more rich in color than this photo lets on. I had a lot of trouble capturing a good color saturation photo of this one.

Go check 'em out!

Introductions

My name is Jessica, I prefer to be called Jess or Jessie. I started researching what it would take to start a crafting business and equipped myself with all the necessary evils. Books, planners, ideas, research. I am not that big on blogging, mostly because the last blog I had was about some existential crisis I was having that seemed like a really big deal at the time, but now looking back on it was more appropriate for a private journal that I would later burn. However, after being in business through Etsy now for two months I've come to realize that blogging is a necessary evil. Just like other things that I feel are too broad and controversial to mention.

So what is Syrup Threads you ask? Where did it come from? And why should you care?

I had been crocheting on and off for a few years, mostly scarves, really lopsided ugly scarves. But hey my friends and family had the sense to lie to me and tell me how beautiful they were. I have always had a passion for art and textiles and since I had trouble finding a school with a textile art program that I could afford I started a degree in fashion design. The summer before I started my masters in fashion merchandising, my girlfriend re-introduced me to my love of crochet and by way of this introduced me to yarn stores and knitting. *drool* Yarn stores have become my obsession/happy place/ bankruptcy. Just joking, but seriously!

My beef with yarn stores came down to this frustration of not finding yarns in colors that I enjoyed working with. And then she introduced me to dying your own yarns! What a wonderful concept. Anyway, after I dyed my first skein and it turned out the color of sewer sludge, I tried again and my results were fantastic. The yarn was vibrant, soft, absolutely wonderful.

So how did it all come together?

As many of us who work incredible crappy jobs (*note the time in which I am writting this 4:37am, I am at work) I decided I needed to try. I had always wanted to start a business but just hadn't found my passion. My passion being yarn turned into this business.

Why Syrup you ask?

I had no idea what to call my business I agonized over it for weeks! Finally I consulted my friend, the random word generator, and Syrup popped up. Yarn when wound comes in cakes. Syrup implies a heavy substance that makes things sweet. My color-ways are rich and sweet as well! Well in my opinion anyway. And so became SyrupThreads. All of my yarn names stem from food sources because of the yarn cake and the name I generated and it all seemed to come together from there! In 2 months I had my first shipment of really nice yarn and a list of small obtainable goals!

So why buy SyrupThreads?

Well for now my store is only offering yarn. But as a textile artist I'm sure in time it will grow. I try to use sustainable methods of dying, by using vegetable based dyes, limit my waste. I try to use post consumer recycled fabrics or 100% recyclable materials for my packaging and am constantly researching new ways to keep things a little more green! So I know my yarns are a little bit pricy, but hey, you help me, you help the environment, you have a luxurious yarn to touch and use! I hope to eventually donate some of my proceeds to a charity, but having not enough revenue to pay for all my start up costs yet, and having done little to no research on how to go about this process it might be a while, but it's definitely on my list of musts!

With the economy as bad as it is, I would really like to put the money back into one of my communities programs. I want to be a procurer of knitting with a conscience!