From The Sparrow House

This is such a tricky question to answer for many makers, myself included. How do you fairly price your labours to reflect what they cost you to make - materials and time? One of the fundamental problems encountered is that unless your items are purchased by someone who also makes, then a good majority of your customers may have absolutely no idea what goes in to something that is 'hand made', Here is a rough break down of what one of my 'hand made' items entails.  For this example I am going to use yarn I have hand dyed. 1) Preparation of yarn for dyeing - this includes winding, skeining and soaking the yarn. 2) Dyeing - including rinsing, washing and drying. 3) Choosing colours - getting the colour choices right often requires me to swatch the colours together to make sure that they work. 4) Choosing a design, then swatching again and finally  making a chart to use. 5) Knitting the mittens/hand warmers. Every single stitch in the picture below is knit by hand...

I opened my Etsy shop on 13th September. It was exciting and kinda awful all at the same time. Lucky for me I made a sale and then another which helped me feel that I am doing the right thing. Small steps yes? For anyone who reads this and who like to take a look you can find my shop  Here  I hope you like it. Please favourite it and spread the word if you can - thank you. If you follow me on social media - I am running a giveaway of a pair of 100% Pure Shetland Wool hand knit hand-warmers all you have to do is like and comment to be in the random draw which will take place on 20/09/18. Find me as Sparrow House Knits on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Lastly on this vein the first few orders will get an extra goodie sent to them as a thank you for helping me on my way. I am still knitting up new designs and colours and have so many ideas my head might well burst. In other news it is a funny week as my Mum is going in for surgery today and it is a big thing for a la...

I'm back after some time off with my best bloke. It wasn't  exactly relaxing as we had stuff to do and Mike was really busy, but it was still nice to have him home and his work mobile switched off. We made sure to take some time out, just the two of us, and that was so good for us as a couple. We are approaching our 31st Wedding Anniversary and I still have no idea how he puts up with me. We took an evening stroll at Mill Hill and saw the most vibrant sunset - just look at those colours. Truly stunning. We also both took time out to spend on hobbies - he does ceramics and art and I also draw and paint. It felt good just to have time to spend together whilst being creative. I did also knit mittens though. There's a surprise, and this week I am officially opening my Etsy shop which I am very excited about, hence the blog post title. These two pairs of traditional Fair Isle patterned hand warmers will be listed. I had so much fun making these.  And most of the i...

Hello again. Hope you are all well, and if in the UK looking forward to the Bank Holiday Weekend. I know I am. It is time for a serious haircut as my fringe is tickling my nose and really annoying me. Problem is I can't decide what to 'do' for a 'do'. I think it is time for a change. On the progress front it has been a weird one this week. I have felt a bit under the weather. I thought I was incubating a cold or a throat infection, and that feeling kept coming and going. Then I thought it was hormones (and it could well be that) but still not sure, and then to add insult to injury my back started twinging as well. However, besides all of the above I have managed to get a lot done. Two pairs of mittens off the needles, loads of new photos taken and edited, though I still need to do the modelled shots. I need Mike for that, hopefully we will have time this weekend.  I got to do some sewing too, and  I have also kept up with my daily yoga and meditation practise whic...

Last week I decided to take a week off and just be. Thinking space was needed and some time to just let my world fall into place and if I can't do that when I am at home and not working for 'the man', then when can I? I decided to not post on social media from Monday to Friday (though I did still look once a day normally whilst drinking my after dinner coffee), and I stuck to it. There was one sad exception where I felt I needed to be seen and comment, but apart from that I didn't share my life with the world on line. The result of this was one the most productive weeks ever. And yes I ended up working on mittens, but I just got so much done. I dyed yarn and fabric. I made one full pair of mittens and two pairs of hand warmers, I started a new drawing, I read, I caught on pod casts and some TV. It was amazing and such an eye opener on what a time suck things like Twitter, Instagram and Face Book can be - or for me they are. I also felt calmer and slept better - bu...

Thought I would post a little about my process or working week. I start the week with a target or goal in mind - this week was to have three or four things off of the needles. I planned  three smaller projects and one larger or more time consuming. For the three smaller I decided (roughly) on style and colour palette and went from there. I keep a stock list of the yarns I have, the amounts and colours, that said I still played 'yarn chicken' with one of them being left with 10cm of the main colour after binding off! Other weeks if I am dyeing my own colours then I start the week with skeining from the cone and dyeing early in the week so if I'm not happy with what I produce I can over dye of try again later in the week. I am rather thankful (due to the heat) that I had no dyeing planned this week - phew! For this week it was mainly about deciding patterns, charting or adapting existing charts and then knitting. Thing is I am a fidget so I can't just sit and kni...

Hi and thanks for dropping by. At the moment I am busy making and doing preparing to  launch in the Autumn. But I thought I would take a moment to make a post on here and explain what I am up to, and a little bit about me. Mainly so if you stumble here by accident it doesn't look like an abandoned space and also because the time felt right. Sparrow House Knits is an idea I came up with a while back and didn't have the time to actually do anything with, but  a change in life circumstances (I decided to quit my job) and having the backing of friends and family, along with the bonus of time, I decided to go ahead, and to try and make my dream of having my own small business and working from home a reality. The idea is to make knitted accessories, primarily, for those who cannot or don't want to knit for themselves. I noticed how many of my non-knitting friends were often commenting on what I make and saying how they would love the have these things but had neither time, in...