Wednesday, September 29, 2010

New Stash for me!

One of my farm share stashes arrived today in the mail.  Wonderful fibers!  2 natural shetland colors, mohair locks, suri alpaca batt, angora batt and large border leichester batt!  Now I just need time to play!



Regards,
Karen
OPYF

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

September Sale Almost Over!

Hello One Planet Fans,
The First Day of Fall Sale ends on Thursday at Midnight.  See my last blog for details.

Here are some things we did this past week-

Special dye lot of my own handpainted roving in Corriedale X as requested by one of my Sharptalk Handcrafts customers-

Here's what she did with the previous lot on a drop spindle-

On a personal note, 3 in my family participated in the Walk for the Cure 5K run this past weekend.  We really enjoyed ourselves, despite how hot it was.  My husband took second place in his age group.  I am so proud of him!  It was his first ever 5K.


Regards,
Karen
OPYF

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

First Day of Fall Sale

First Day of Fall Sale
  1. 15% off all orders over $ 89.00 - USE Coupon Code: Sept15
  2. 20% off all orders over $ 129.00 - USE Coupon Code: Fall20
  3. Free Shipping on all USA orders over $ 99.   Automatic - no coupon. New 1st class international shipping option for most countries reduces your shipping in half.
  4. First class shipping for single skeins of yarn, patterns or orders that weigh 13 oz or less with packaging materials. Automatic - no coupon code.
  5. PLEASE SIGN UP FOR OUR MAILING LIST! We will be having additional special 1 - 3 day sales during the year on various items........
  6. ****Make sure to check the "ON SALE/CLOSE OUT" section of our website regularly because we are going to be adding new things each week. 
About the coupon codes:You can use either code but they are not valid with any other discount codes. Codes
valid to 9/30/2010.  Please see restrictions below.
We are sorry but there are no retroactive discounts.
(Coupons NOT valid towards LaLana Knit Kits-please do not use these for LaLana items. If you have trouble with a code please email us before finishing your order as we can't do retroactive discounts. Coupons cannot be combined with any other offers besides those in this newsletter. All products in on-sale and close-out sections are final sales -no returns)

New Yarns From Natural Dye Studio!!
IMPORTANT! Make sure to follow us on Facebook, our Ravelry Group, our Twitter posts and our Blog .


Thank You for Shopping At One Planet Yarn and Fiber.

Sunday, September 19, 2010

Noni Designs Patterns Being Added This Week



I am in the process of adding Noni Designs patterns to the website.  What wonderful design ideas Nora has.
  


I've got about 4 patterns up, but more are coming.



The yarn is on it's way from Stonehenge and the hardware is already here from JUL silver which Nora's sister Laura owns. 






I love family businesses!


Regards,
Karen

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Lantern Moon products now available!





Well, it took me forever to build the pages.  First the internet kept dropping out on me and then the cable modem died all together.  So, I finally finished building the pages a few minutes ago.

It gave me such pleasure to add these products to the store.  There will be many more images coming once my daughter can spare her poor mother a few minutes to re-shoot, but please enjoy what we have in the meantime.




Best Regards,
Karen

Monday, September 13, 2010

Have you met the in house mascots?

Here are pictures of my furry gang.  They stay near me when I'm working in the office.   They follow me if I go in search of yarn for an order  Sometimes the smaller ones even end up on my lap while I'm typing.

Hunter



Lady Bug


Ranger
Wee Bear

Best Regards,
Karen

Monday, September 06, 2010

Fleece Artist, Handmaiden and Natural Dye Studio




Fleece Artist
I hope you are all having a wonderful Labor Day weekend.  I took some time away from the shop on Friday and Saturday and I feel refreshed and ready to go.

I wanted to give you a sneak peek at what will be added to the website in the next week.

From Fleece Artist-12 BIG balls of wonderfully dyed merino roving.



Handmaiden Lady Godiva
From Handmaiden-several new skeins of Lady Godiva.











And finally, from the Natural Dye Studio in England-beautiful, natural dyed yarns.  I received many different types and colors.  One skein each.  So when you see them on the website you only have one shot at these yarns.  I will be reordering from them again soon, but this helps me to test the waters.
Natural Dye Studio Angel Alpaca, Cashmere, Silk

Natural Dye Studio Dazzle BFL
I am so impressed with the yarns from Natural Dye Studio that we are going to have a "Sock of the Month Club" starting January 1st.  Each month we will offer an exclusive color and yarn for you.  You'll be able to sign up for the club for 3, 6, 9 or 12 months.  More details to come.

I will also be offering a "Fiber of the Month Club" too.  Again, more details to come as I flesh this out.
Natural Dye Studio Precious Silk

Happy Barbecuing!

Karen
One Planet Yarn and Fiber.

Friday, September 03, 2010

12 balls of Merino sliver arrived today from Fleece Artist.  I also received a refresh on the Handmaiden Lady Godiva yarn.  I'll get this up on the website this coming week along with the Natural Dye Studio yarns.

There is a box headed this way from Urban Gypz with 36! 4oz slivers in fantastic fibers and colors.  I so need to get to photography!

Regards,
Karen

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Day 2 and I have added a few new items!

LaLana Wools Streakers! Sad Song Pink

I made it through Day One and I am very happy about that.  I have received 2 shipments from artists so far.  

LaLana Wools sent me more Streakers yarns, including one new color.  I also restocked some patterns and there are 3 new ones!  These are now available for sale on the website. 

I also received my first order from a new company from England-


LaLana Wools- 4 Directions Poncho
Natural Dye Studio uses historical plant dyes which produce an astounding spectrum of beautiful subtle colour.  Their aim is to produce desirable luxury yarns in as ethical and enviromentally friendly way as possible.  They dye using the plants rather than the extracts as its much more fun!  They have an exclusive Dazzle British Blue Faced Leicester is licensed by the British Wool Marketing Board to carry the prestigious British Wool mark. All of their exotic yarns come from a family run mill in Peru.

I'll be posting images from Natural Dye Studio yarns to the website as soon as I have images available.

The yarns that are here from them are-
LaLana Wools-Mellow Yellow Tunic
DAZZLE Sport
DAZZLE HT Fingering
DAZZLE Worsted

ANGLE Lace

PRECIOUS Lace
PRECIOUS Fingering

Regards,
Karen
One Planet Yarn and Fiber

LaLana Wools-Penelope Purple

Wednesday, September 01, 2010

We're Open!

http://www.oneplanetyarnandfiber.com/

Grand Ribbon Cutting! Happy September 1st!

Greetings to all from a very excited new owner-Karen!

One Planet Yarn and Fiber was opened about four years ago by Lis and Jodi. It has been a great success for them since the day they opened the website.  They succeeded in supporting smaller independent fiber companies and designers. 

Because I have similar interests and 30 years of business experience, Lis and Jodi felt I was a good match to take over the helm. 
My husband and I have been self-employed since the day we were married.  In our first business, we were Bureau of Indian Affairs licensed Reservation traders.  We traveled 5 states and did four trade shows a year.  We worked directly with Native American artists and crafts people.

Our next business we worked directly with artists and crafts people in the custom knife business.  We bought and sold handmade pocket knives from artists around the globe.  We attended 12 shows a year to purchase product. 

The business after this we owned a retail fine jewelry store.  Again we worked directly with artists and crafts people to create product for the store.

For the last three years my husband and I have run our own fine pen store.  The store is called Scottsdale Pen.  We are the only store of its kind in the Phoenix metro area.  Again, we work with artists and crafts people,  as well as manufacturers to supply the store.  The store is doing great.

My husband has always asked me as we are getting ready to start new businesses what I would like to do.  Since I always worked with him I told him that I would know when the right thing was when it happened.

Since I was a child, I watched my grandfather, who was a professional tailor, and my grandmother, who spent ALL her time knitting and crocheting.  It seems I inherited their passion.   I started crocheting and knitting as a small child.  I learned to sew in middle school.  I learned to needlepoint in high school. 

I continued these things until my time was taken up with other things.  Recently, because of my 18 year old daughter, I started to knit again.  Then I decided to learn to weave and bought a rigid heddle loom and learned to use it.  I posted what I was doing on Ravelry while I was weaving a beaded shawl and was asked to teach that to the rigid heddle group there.  Pictures and all appear there.  Then I decided to learn to spin.

Now I am in trouble.  I had a wonderful teacher.  She taught us to spin from the ground up.  No kidding.  I started with dirty fleece off the sheep.  I learned to wash it, tease it, hand card it and spin it.  So now I wanted to learn how to dye it.  Natural dye class, very messy.  I learned to use acid dyes.  Lots of fun. 

So now I have 2 fleeces and several pounds of sheep and alpaca that still need cleaning, dye pots and lots of yarn.  I own three farm shares and help support and Alpaca rescue in Southern Arizona.

In come Lis and Jodi.  They see that I really love this art form, have the experience to run and grow a business, and a husband who loves to see that I have such a great passion for the subject.

I have placed several orders in the last week or so.  I just received my first box from LaLana Wool.  I have ordered from Fleece
Artist/Handmaiden and Urban Gypz.  I have placed inquiries with more of our current vendors to see what’s new.

I am adding in new vendors too.  I have orders coming in from Lantern Moon.  I just love their needles and notions.  The Dye Studio from England is sending me some yarn.  I also ordered from Philosopher’s Wool in Canada.  If anyone has read the book “Fair Isle Sweaters Made Simple”  you will know that Eugene and Anne have been a driving force in Canada to restart the Canadian  sheep fleece industry for small farmers in that country.  How could I resist ordering some of their product.  There are several sweater and shawl kits arriving soon as well as beautiful wooden buttons that they import to support craftspeople in Africa.

Melissa is staying on as Artistic Director.  Lis and Jodi are hovering in my background to offer support to me.
I am happy to be cutting the virtual ribbon today to reopen the store.    One Planet Yarn and Fiber has a Facebook fan page, Twitter, a Ravelry page, and blog site that I try to update a few times a week.

The website is open 24/7 as usual, with an added benefit.  You can reach me by phone 10:00am to 6:00pm Monday through Friday.  480-250-0188.

New features for the store include an MCommerce site.  If you have an iPhone or Droid, you can use those devices to view the website, optimized for those devices. 

I am happy to announce the One Planet Yarn and Fiber My Rewards program.  From now until December 31, 2010 for each purchase you make, excluding tax and shipping, you will receive one point for each dollar spent.  There is nothing that you have to do to participate in this program.  Every dollar counts as a point.  After 30 days the points will be released into your account for you to use.  Once you reach 100 points you can begin to start redeeming points against purchases.  You can let the points build up or you can spend them every time you reach 100 points.  There is no limit to the number of points you can accrue.  Once the program ends on December 31, 2010 for accrual, you will have until January 31, 2011 to use them up.  After that point, any unused points will expire

One Planet Yarn and Fiber
Best Regards,
Karen