Life's an Expedition

How to make felted wool coasters in 700 easy steps.

2011-11-18T10:06:00.001-06:00

It's easy to make felted wool coasters following these simple steps.

First, find that awesome handwoven wool poncho that you made. (I've tried to find a photo of it. It's gone. Just trust me, it was amazing. It was hanging in a tree with fall foliage fluttering around it.)

List the poncho online for $80.
Wait a year or so for it to sell.
Get impatient.
Unlist it.
Run it through the washer and dryer (hot water wash, then cold water rinse, then hot dryer) and voila! It becomes somewhat felted and fluffy.

Plop it on the floor to see how it looks.

It looks pretty nice, but it is fuzzy. That won't feel good when exiting the shower with wet feet.

So take the $80 poncho rug and repeat that whole hot water wash, cold water rinse, trip through the hot dryer. Ten times.

Now it's a lot smaller, a lot thicker, and you can cut it with scissors.

Use a ruler, cutting mat, pair of scissors, slide rule, calculator, home theater rear projection system, string cheese, broom handle, chicken wire, duct tape, styrofoam and a socket wrench to make perfectly even squares. When they turn out less than perfectly even, keep trimming them until they are almost too small and you wasted all your effort.

Now cut out some letters from some other felted wool that you may or may not have felted deliberately and I do not want to talk about that, so just leave it alone, okay?

Sew those letters to your small-to-medium sized (but very thick!) coasters and you have:

Make several sets. List 'em in your Etsy shop. Wait, no, don't do that! This is MY idea! Mine, I tell you!

dj runnels
Please hang out with me on Google+.

Free shipping offer from Life's an Expedition*

2011-07-29T11:13:00.000-05:00

*Get free shipping on Life's an Expedition merchandise now through August 5, 2011, midnight CST. That is, it will be free for shipment within the United States and discounted for global destinations. Here's how to qualify:

First, become a Facebook fan by logging into your Facebook account from your personal account (as opposed to a business account) and clicking the LIKE button on this page.

Next, place an order of $75 or more in merchandise from one of these Life's an Expedition shopping sites:

http://www.ZIBBET.com/LifesAnExpedition < This is where we park our yarn.

http://www.ETSY.com/shop/LifesAnExpedition < Scarves, housewares, garden, bags, ethnic jewelry and more.

http://lifesanexpedition.ECRATER.com/ < Books, sheet music and vintage paper ephemera.

And we do have some rules:

One offer per Facebook fan, household or address.
Order needs to be paid in full with one payment via Paypal.
When you pay, please type FACEBOOK into the comments section of the Paypal form. If your name on your personal Facebook account differs from the name to whom we are shipping the package, please specify what your personal Facebook account name is so we can find it in our records.

If you live in the United States and specify shipment to an address within the United States, or an APO address, we will rebate all of the shipping you paid on the day of shipment.
If you specify shipment to an address in Canada, you will receive 60% of the shipping you paid in the form of a rebate on the day we ship.
If you specify shipment to an address in Europe, you will receive 40% of the shipping you paid in the form of a rebate on the day we ship.
If you specify shipment to an address in Australia, you will receive 30% of the shipping you paid in the form of a rebate on the day we ship.

The $75 merchandise total (before shipping) needs to be from one site, e.g.: not a $35 Zibbet order combined with a $40 Etsy order. Ouch! My brain!
EXCEPTIONS: We have a heavy Native American style painted mirror for which we cannot extend this offer. And we have some stonework garden castles on which we will award half of the expected rebate amount, due to the weight.
Offer cannot be applied retroactively to past purchases.
Please note that we do not have shipping set up to all countries on all of the sites for all items, sometimes due to customs restrictions.
Buyers outside the United States are responsible for any possible customs fees upon receipt.
All packages will go out via United States Postal Service. Seller chooses the shipping method.

Well, that was pretty boring to read, wasn't it? Just remember to type in FACEBOOK on your Paypal form and we'll work it all out. Let the shopping begin!

dj runnels

Silk to dye for.

2011-07-29T09:57:00.001-05:00

I have been busily acquiring silk sari fabric and over-dying it with other colors to give it a rustic, mottled look. Then I freeform crochet the fabric mixed with some Life's an Expedition yarns and come up with scarf-like creations.

This scarf-thing, above, was made with yellow silk that I dyed blue to get a wonderful bronze. Then I finished up with Life's an Expedition Italian Vineyard yarn. I named it Sakkara.

Today's project involves a big jar of tomato leaves and other plants, vinegar and water, in which I am soaking some vintage cotton with lace. The jar is out in the hot sun to ripen. Sort of like making sun tea. Fingers crossed that I get something more interesting than a giant tea stain.

dj runnels

Life's an Expedition

ACK! I hate photography!

2011-06-23T15:37:00.000-05:00

Good news, bad news. I have created one of my favorite scarves of all time. But I can't seem to photograph it the way it really is. It's a wonderful, dramatic mix of greens with magenta and other colors. But every photo either looks lifeless or too blue. I have taken about 50 photos so far, indoors and out, overcast and not, with and without a flash, and I keep getting more variety, but not more truth.

I just uploaded a few of the photos I have (above) and I am appalled by how lame they are. It's okay. I'll get over it. It's not like I don't have money to pay the rent or my dog died.

dj runnels

Join us here for commentary: http://www.Facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition

My summer projects, in preparation for fall.

2011-05-31T14:45:00.000-05:00

For years, I've made yarns for everyone else. In the past year or so, I have been using them myself in projects for resale. Last year I went on a woven scarf binge. Currently, I am exploring freeform fiber techniques. Here is a ribbon necklace with African bead that didn't quite turn out as I'd hoped, so I am keeping it.

Other recent creations did make the cut and are listed on Zibbet and/or Etsy.

Here is my Purple Escape freeform knit-crochet-felted wool piece. The flower is felted cashmere. Much of the yarn is Genevieve, a discontinued Life's an Expedition yarn that I loved for its rich variety of purples.

At least four other scarves are in progress and going very well.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Making what is "good" v. making what sells.

2011-04-19T14:00:00.003-05:00

Chinchilla yarn by Life's an Expedition.

Every day, I face the same dilemma. Should I make what people want? Or make what I know will sell? Or should I make what I know is good, even if it doesn't sell? Or both? I am sure you know what I'm talking about, no matter what line of work you are in.

Well, here is what it is like as a yarn designer: I learned years ago which gauges and color combinations sell the best. If I want to have a more lucrative business, I will stick with purples, teals and greens. People scarf those up in a heartbeat.

But in my heart, I know that the average yarn buyer does not necessarily look good in purple. It takes a certain complexion and hair color range to wear it, e.g.: Women of Color or Caucasian brunettes with brown eyes and dark hair.

A pale blonde, on the other hand, does not really wear purple well; purple wears her. A pale blonde often looks outstanding in peach. But peach yarn is the kiss of death. I have made peach color combinations that took over a year to sell out.

And peach is far from being the least popular. Pastels in general do not sell as quickly as bright colors. Gray is worse. I have a wool blend yarn called Paiolo that I think is to die for, but it is gray and copper, so it sells slowly. And gray is nothing--NOTHING--compared to maroon and navy. I rue the day I created a maroon, navy, silver yarn that echoed the New England Patriots colors. It was a stunning, dramatic yarn but took three years to sell.

I know I cannot change the buying public. But I wish I could hold little workshops and show people which colors work best with their coloring and which fibers work best for certain applications. That fuzzy purple acrylic from Walmart may be easy on the wallet, but it will look very cheap worked up as a child's sweater and will start pilling after a few washes. It's not a bargain. I have non-fuzzy acrylic strands in my yarn studio that do not pill and add strength to any garment. I'm sure I repel the purists by using it, but I know that when I mix it with cotton, it makes the yarn easier to knit, whereas 100% cotton yarn can be so stiff, it makes your hands ache. And when mixed with wool, it adds strength.

Sorry, I digress. I was talking about color.

Chinchilla, the yarn at the top and bottom of this post, is a great example of what I mean. I put a lot of thought into it. I used gray, beige, taupe and ivory to give it lots of texture and depth. The gray or beige alone would have been boring, but the two together, especially with the multi-color beige/tan strand I used, make it a fascinating yarn. I put a thin green rayon in there for pizazz, without disrupting the overall muted quality. The ivory is an odd crinkly wool that gives the yarn a bit of fluffy excitement without going overboard into a chunky, mohair fluff extravaganza which is unflattering in a sweater--although fluffy can be very nice in a hat. Chinchilla could be stunning on a man or woman with graying hair or anyone with muted coloring. It's also a classic, dignified, sophisticated palette. But it's going to languish in my shop for some time, I feel sure, since it isn't a neon shade of purple that makes your jaw drop and your heart pound.

What about you? What do you make that you know in your heart is wonderful, high quality and right for so many people, but will largely go unnoticed? Comments welcome on Facebook.

dj runnels

Life's an Expedition

The synchronous puppy dream

2011-04-07T12:18:00.000-05:00

Last night, I had an extremely detailed dream about a rescue dog program. I saw men in camoflage uniforms logging in data entries and checking out special dogs that were about to go out on assignment and save people's lives.

I awoke at 3am with the sense that this was an important dream that I should tell my husband about. I found DH on the computer and told him what I had dreamed, adding that it felt as if there were some important message in this dream, as if we should be helping these men and the dogs. Moments earlier, DH had read an email from one of the soldiers at one of the combat support hospitals he works with overseas via Soldiers' Angels. In the email, the soldier tells DH about a dog they are using to help wounded soldiers cope with extreme stress.

DH and I have had other similar incidents in which one of us was dreaming while the other one was watching TV or using the computer and encountering images or information similar to the content of the dream. And a few times, we were both asleep, dreaming similar things.

These are for sale although they have nothing whatsoever to do with this story. I used the photo because there were dogs in it.

dj runnels
Comments welcome at http://www.facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition.

Dear makers of protein bars, meal replacement bars, nutrition bars, etc.

2011-03-25T11:56:00.000-05:00

Dear manufacturers of protein bars, etc.:

Enough with the mint chocolate double fudge crap. Quit trying to fool us into thinking they are candy bars. They're not.

What I want in a protein bar is: a high percentage of protein, high fiber, low refined sugar, reasonably low fat, some potassium to make up for all the sodium crammed in there and zero high fructose corn syrup.

This can be made palatable. I will buy carrot, cranberry, almond, blueberry, etc. But the grocery stores do not typically stock many of these great basic flavors because they are too busy stocking up on those mint chocolate double fudge marshmallow cupcake flavors you insist on making. Knock it off. Don't make me come up there.

Peanut butter is okay. I'd prefer something with less fat, but fine, if you must have a variety of flavors, then go with peanut butter. Just remember you are not a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and furthermore, the American consumer doesn't need more candy choices.

Be what you are.

dj runnels

Comments? http://www.facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition

$80 poncho turned into a rug

2011-03-21T16:15:00.002-05:00

I made handwoven ponchos a few years ago, when they were all the rage, and still had some left. This tan one in particular was a nice, thick wool. I had been asking $80 for it as a poncho. But I decided to sew up the neck opening and turn it into a bathroom rug. Not exactly economical, but woo-hoo, is it ever soft. That's because I felted the daylights out of it. DH is putting a bit of non-slip tape under it to keep it secure. It looks better in real life.

Everything can be turned into something else.

dj runnels

Old and pretty: contradiction in terms?

2011-03-20T16:27:00.002-05:00

Why are aging women expected to live up to an almost impossible ideal of beauty?

If a man looks above average, doesn't gain too many pounds and manages to keep most of his hair, people will think he's increasingly distinguished-looking after age 40, in a Paul Newmanish kind of way. Wrinkles won't change that image, nor will reading glasses. In fact, if he wears glasses and puts on a sport coat, he will look distinguished AND intellectual.

Okay, now think of the average woman over 40. Add minimal extra weight and a pair of glasses. That should put her on equal par with an aging man. But unless she looks like Cher Bono, most people will consider her a frump. Put a sport coat on her and everyone will think she's a sexless frump. The glasses do not make her look intellectual. They put her in the grandma category. Add wrinkles and people will sort of curl up their lips when they see her. And if, God forbid, she has the poor taste to turn 60, she should start digging her grave.

I am not saying that men age better than women.
I am complaining that our culture views older men as better-looking than older women. We have been taught to view aging differently in men than in women.

This makes me more uneasy with each birthday I reach. My husband looks increasingly like Al Pacino to the rest of the world. But I am increasingly invisible. No one looks at me any more. I'm pretty sure I disappeared at age 33. If this continues, I'll be able to get into movie theaters for free. But how will I be able to stop the other theater-goers from sitting on me? Get off me! Go sit on somebody who's had botox!

I want this to change. C'mon. I'm getting older. My husband is getting older. We are ALL getting older. And I am not wrong or unimportant or sexless. I shouldn't be invisible. I refuse to be apologetic. I also won't divulge my age until you people get it right. Nyah!

dj runnels

Comment soon, before I am dead: http://www.Facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition

Crocus adorned with stinging insect

2011-03-19T11:59:00.000-05:00

I took two photos for you. One shows a somewhat close view of a bee and one does not. Scroll down quickly if you don't like bees.

And here's the other one.

I pruned the daylights out of my garden, which is time-consuming, since I have more garden than lawn. Now it's a barren landscape out there, but that is temporary, of course.

Happy Spring,

dj runnels

I renamed all the streets in my neighborhood and here is why.

2011-03-16T15:43:00.001-05:00

Today is the birthday of my nephew, Ethan, and since he was a bike guy extraordinaire, I decided to take my first bike ride of the season to commemorate him.

This was an ambitious endeavor, since it followed a night of insomnia and two hours of intensive yard work. We passed up any notion of traversing Heart Attack Hill--our nickname for a particularly steep street near our house. But we did glide past Pulmonary Plateau, pedaled meaningfully through Osteo Avenue and came to a pathetic halt around Coronary Corridor.

As I told my husband, "My goal is to be so freaking sore tomorrow that I won't be able to tell which aches are from which activity." I am confident that I will get my wish.

Happy Birthday, Ethan. I miss you.

dj runnels

Comments are welcome at http://www.Facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition

A houseful of faux painting

2011-03-07T12:31:00.000-06:00

The background of this blog appealed to me strongly because of the wall paint. Much of my house is painted in faux finishes.

My office and its adjoining bathroom are a sort of French custard color over which I used a gold paint mixed with glaze, applied with newspaper. I smeared the newspaper pages across the wall and let some of the newsprint ink seep into the paint/glaze. When I removed the paper, I inspected each section to make sure I didn't have a Carson's yellow dot sale embedded in my wall. A few times, the newsprint was legible and I had to do it over. Twice, I saw my hand print from where I had pressed the newspaper into place, so I had to remove that, too. The Chinese characters shown above are part of a commercially available wallpaper border. I could not believe my good luck in finding that border, as it matched the wall so well.

My dining room (above) has an irregular wall surface to begin with, so painting it was no special feat. I merely used several colors of beige using a special sponge roller.

My yarn studio (above) is painted in layers of green, over which I applied beige and glaze, covered it with sheer plastic drop cloths, then removed. It's a brighter, more varied color than you see in this photo.

My kitchen is painted a flat blue-gray-green, but I am using leaf rubber stamps around the back splash. This isn't finished yet. This section shows mostly oak leaves and I need to overlap some other leaf shapes and tone down the blatant colors.

My living room has the same irregular surface that my dining room has. It was painted a dayglo orange when we bought the house. And when I say dayglo orange, I am not exaggerating. It was the brightest orange wall color I have ever seen. McDonald's pales by comparison. I did not think I would be able to cover it completely, so I decided to work with it rather than against it. I layered four shades of pumpkin, rust, gold, etc. over it and you can still see tiny bits of orange peeking through, especially where the wall meets the ceiling. The photograph doesn't do justice to the results. It is the warmest, coziest, most autumnal room you could imagine. Like a baked pumpkin pie. And I use a lot of foliage in my decorating, so it feels especially cozy in there in September, October and November.

Okay, thanks for letting me share.

dj runnels

10 minutes that changed my life

2011-02-27T13:19:00.001-06:00

I don't have the greatest amount of will power in the world. [insert audience laugh track] But I have come up with ways to make myself follow through on a project.

For example, I have written six novels. I also wrote six children's books and six short stories. Put 'em all together and you get 666 and therein may lie the problem to my difficulty in getting published, but I digress.

Do you have any idea how challenging it is to write a novel? You have to scope out the plot, come up with characters, create a time line, make sure you know where each character is at any given point in time, because chances are, there will be flashbacks and people's paths will cross...and that's just for starters. The actual writing of each chapter takes a very long time. In total, it is difficult to write a complete novel in less than a year. If it's an historical novel or something that involves a lot of background research, figure on two or three years, minimum.

That means you sit down at the computer each morning thinking, "Holy crap! I can't do this!" So I used to say, "Well, dj, just sit here for ten minutes and write what you can. Work on chapter three a little. Edit that last scene you wrote yesterday. Whatever. Just tough it out for ten minutes. If after ten minutes, you still think you cannot possibly work on this today, then you can get up and come back to it tomorrow."

In the decades that I've been using this Ten-Minute trick, I have never walked away. I use the Ten-Minute technique to get me through writing, yarn-winding, filing documents, counting inventory, eating broccoli, clipping my toenails, exercising, etc.

dj runnels

Comments? Questions? Digestive complaints? Talk about it here: FACEBOOK.

Get your negative vibes outta here. I'm in Pollyanna mode.

2011-02-23T14:58:00.001-06:00

My husband and I were watching someone perform a sport on TV--let's say it was tennis --and he turned to me and said, "Too bad Mike isn't here. He would have told us everything this guy did wrong."

"Mike," whose name I have changed to prevent World War III, is a tennis buff. Okay, he's not really a tennis buff, because I am changing the sport, too, but the principle is the same. Mike plays tennis every chance he gets and knows all there is to know about a proper serve, how to stand, brands of rackets, which court surface is the best and so on, to the point where I wonder if anyone has ever played a game of tennis that lived up to his standards. I actually do care about Mike, but I cringe when the subject of tennis comes up, because I know there will be a painful yet brief lecture laced with sarcasm and negativity.

What worries me is that Mike seems unaware of how he sounds when he does this. If I am put off by his negativity--and I really care about him!--how must others respond? It's not my place to tell him or correct his behavior, but sometimes I wish I could gently let him know that he is turning away the positive responses he might get from others if he were to convey positive thoughts to begin with.

In contrast, I had a wonderful exchange with someone in an email the other day. She radiates happiness, charm and optimism. She shared with me her joy of crafting. Like attracts like. I found a kindred spirit in her. I basked in the glow of her creativity and she basked in mine. I want to foster this in others, but if I don't always succeed, I at least want to share what I feel and connect at some level. If someone sneers at my weaving (or my tennis serve), I back away and do not let them daunt me.

But just as I am somewhat impervious to negativity, so is Mike somewhat impervious to positive vibes. He lives in an unhappy universe, I'm afraid, unless he decides there is another way to be.

dj runnels

W and Mrs. Bush greeting soldiers in Dallas

2011-02-22T12:17:00.001-06:00

Former President George W. Bush and Laura Bush were spotted greeting returning troops at the Dallas-Ft. Worth airport recently.

Got this from one of those viral emails that's going around.

dj runnels

Life's an Expedition

Comments are welcome on Facebook.

So we're all in agreement, right? Right? RIGHT?!

2011-02-16T11:15:00.002-06:00

Something I've learned in my 7+ years of selling online: No matter how fervently you cling to a cherished belief that you feel is universal, it isn't. Examples:

A birthday card in the mail is better than an eCard, right? Somebody picked out the card especially for you, wrote a personal note and slapped a stamp on it. Isn't that better than an emailed version? But there are people who are horrified by cards in the mail--on an ecological level--because they use up paper.

Or take shipping. When I sell a choker, I ship it by first class mail, which is suitable for anything up to 13 oz. It saves the buyer a few dollars in postage and arrives within a week. I was surprised to learn that many jewelry makers ship Priority Mail, which costs $5 or so and arrives in about three days. I'm scratching my head over this. Would someone rather pay several dollars more to get the package in three days instead of five? If it were for a wedding, sure. But just an everyday choker? Maybe most people do prefer that. I don't know.

Another example regarding shipping fees:

I tend to set a basic shipping fee for a ball of yarn. If the yarn happens to be heavier or lighter than most of my yarns, I will adjust the cost of the yarn itself. When I list yarns for sale on Zibbet, it is much faster for me to select YARN on the drop down shipping profile menu and then skew the price a few cents higher or lower if I think I need to. It's not a huge adjustment. Most yarns weigh around four ounces, but some weigh three or six. Most customers seem to have no problem with this concept since the end result is sort of a wash. But some people are adamant that the product is the product and the shipping is the shipping and they hate it when sellers do not fine-tune their prices to be very precise.

I saw a heated discussion of this in an online forum and it surprised me. One seller in particular was vehement about it. But anyone who has sold a wide variety of merchandise online knows that shape, weight, packaging, fragility, insurance, zip code, distance from the seller, customs laws, etc. can wreak havoc on the best shipping policies and end up costing the seller or buyer a little extra (or a little less) money.

But come on, this is not rocket science, nor is it Ethics 101. If customer A buys a yarn from me for $10 and customer B buys the same yarn a year later for $5 because it went on sale, well, where's the fairness of that? It was purely a matter of who bought it when and how much in demand it was. And whether or not there was a recession.

Anyway, not a month goes by that I do not hear of someone's outrage over a practice or principle that I thought was universally accepted or at least tolerated. No such animal.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Comments are welcome at Life's an Expedition on Facebook.

Finally! I have a reason to like Valentine's Day.

2011-02-14T17:22:00.002-06:00

I was always a pink and red hearts-and-roses kind of woman, but the past decade has led me to dislike Valentine's Day.

One year my father died during Valentine's week, necessitating several days of travel for a wake, funeral and burial held in different locations. The day before his funeral, my wonderful husband hid foil-wrapped chocolate hearts around our motel room for me to find. I will always appreciate his touching gesture. But my thoughts were elsewhere.

Another year, a gunman opened fire at Northern Illinois University, not far from my house, killing half a dozen students. That prompted me to make a commemorative button. (I had trouble photographing this clearly until Judy of Portable Graffiti gave me valuable advice.)

Another year, my nephew went missing in a canoe accident. His body wasn't found until Easter. That incident still stuns me to my core.

So when Valentine's Day approaches each year, I have the February variation of "Bah, Humbug" coursing through my veins.

This year was different.

Zibbet decided to interview me as their featured artisan and it hit their front page today. By the time you read this, the interview will be here. The response from friends and family has been wonderful. But the accolades from other artisans and strangers has really surprised and delighted me. It's almost like having a birthday, only bigger. I am running around thanking everyone individually. I am so honored by this, I cannot even begin to convey it, but I will certainly try.

Happy Valentine's Day to a world of sweethearts.

This blog is read-only, but your comments are welcome on my Facebook business page.

djrunnels
Life's an Expedition

If your power goes out during a blizzard or ice storm

2011-02-01T11:53:00.001-06:00

It has been a while since I've experienced a power outage in winter, but I am rehearsing in my mind which precautions to take. I am keeping candles and matches at the ready. Since the water heater should continue to work, I will be able to make lukewarm tea to make up for the lack of a coffeemaker.

And I remember some years ago being without refrigeration. This is always a judgment call, depending on the insulation of the house and outside temperature.

If the power is out for a day, the food inside a refrigerator will stay cold as long as no one holds the door open for any period of time. The food in the freezer will start to thaw a little. Looking at the ice cubes is a good way to gauge how rapidly the meat is thawing. Once it thaws, it will have to be eaten soon.
After a few days, the food inside a refrigerator will start to spoil unless the temperature in the house is in the 30's, by which time you may have to evacuate.

But here is a trick I learned one sad winter when I was without refrigeration for three days. Placing food in a cooler and putting the cooler outdoors in freezing temperatures will preserve it as long as temperatures stay below freezing. You may need to lock or tie it up to keep dogs or woodland creatures out of it.

I kept a second cooler of food in the garage and it kept my refrigerator contents at an adequate temperature for three days. Here, I was lucky. This location is more variable in terms of temperature fluctuations. Fortunately, I have a "gift" for knowing when milk is about to go bad 24 hours before it actually does.

Obviously, the bigger issue is staying warm. But I figure everyone writes about that, so I chose a less commonly addressed consideration.

The blizzard that is headed for Chicago as I write this is predicted to be the third worst blizzard in recorded history. And it may affect a third of the country. Stay warm out there, my friends.

dj runnels

Soldiers going hungry in Afghanistan this past week

2011-01-29T13:17:00.001-06:00

The Air Force CASF evacuation unit at Bagram, Afghanistan gets over 200 patients per week needing medical evacuation. Since these patients face a seven-hour flight to Germany, the medical base asked for snacks of all kinds to give them. Members of the Soldiers' Angels Medical Support Team have stepped forward to assist. With the help of many donors, including the Harry & David Store located in Geneva, Illinois, we have shipped over 30 cases of snacks in 10 days.

For some reason, we have gotten requests from several medical units in the past week or two asking for food. One unit lost their dining tent due to artillery fire. Another one lost supplies that were interrupted somehow en route to their camp. It would be great if people would send over a package via Soldiers' Angels.

Just to clarify: this does not mean you should write an angry letter to your congressman demanding to know why the U.S. Army isn't feeding our troops, okay? Just pop some jars of peanut butter and a box of crackers into a Priority flat rate box and send it over. Even though it is going overseas, a flat rate box only costs $11 to ship. Email me and I'll give you an address (I don't want to post them on the internet). Or sign up in the Soldiers' Angels group on Facebook.

dj runnels

My knitted hat confession (I'm so ashamed)

2011-01-12T09:32:00.000-06:00

I have a terrible secret to share with you. My knitting isn't all that great. It's not easy for a yarn seller to admit that, but I like to build the self-esteem of others, so WTH. I admit it. My stitches are fine. But I daydream and cannot follow directions well so my results are usually such that I hold my handiwork up to the light and grimace. "Hmmmm. Well, I guess I'll just wear this around the house."

The hats I knit are unusually lame. It's kind of embarrassing, since I am a supporter of Halos of Hope, which makes and donates hats to chemo patients. I keep thinking I should make hats for them but I have to question whether anyone would wear them.

Today I am cleaning out a drawer full of winter hats that I made. I found two hats that are fairly presentable only because the wool felted, making it impossible to see how funky my decreases were near the crown. They are far too warm for chemo patients, since I think they would keep someone warm at the polar ice caps. Maybe I will donate them to Afghanistan. It is much colder in that country than most people realize and we donate goods to the military and locals there all the time.

That sweater above? That's a sweater I made while daydreaming. The fit is strange, but the drape is wonderful. I made that using one of my yarns called Baked Alaska.

Back to whatever I was doing. Ta ta.

BTW: My current yarn clearance is doing well, if you knit/crochet. Some of the best deals you will ever see, from me or anyone.

dj runnels

Recycling CD's

2010-12-29T10:42:00.001-06:00

Sadly, 90% of my blog posts never make it to my blog. I write part of the post in my head and never find the time to write it down. But this week, I am writing one down.

I received a cool clock made out of a CD by The Golfing Dolphin. It has a U.S. Army motif and the hands of a clock on one side of the CD. On the back, you'll find the battery-operated guts of the clock. That got me started on thinking about CD's and the various ways I have used them.

I have nailed them to things outdoors, such as mailbox posts, because the shiny side is so reflective, it helps drivers see obstacles at night.

I have also used push pins to place a row of CD's along the basement stairs. They will not take the place of a light or night light, but they help draw attention to dark corners and angles in my home.

There have been other uses, but I can't think of them right now. And that's the main reason why I don't write up 90% of my blog posts. I want the complete information included, not some half-assed post that sort of dwindles in mid-sent...

Whatever.

dj runnels

2010-12-07T13:57:00.002-06:00

It's official. Our Zibbet store is now the Life's an Expedition yarn shop.

I have long had a theory that people who knit and crochet do not want to wade through a lot of non-yarn listings when they shop. Yarn is confusing enough, because the artisan must decide on color, fiber and gauge all at once, all the while thinking about what this new project will be. So having books, bookends, beads and a lot of other hoopla on the page can be distracting to someone in search of yarn. On the other hand, I like for knitters to see the neck warmer I made out of Nightscape on the same site as my listing for Nightscape yarn. So Zibbet is predominantly yarn, surrounded by my fiber projects. And I am more than happy to name which yarn I used in a project, if I still have it in stock.

The other part of my theory is that people who do NOT knit or crochet must feel annoyed to see so freaking many yarns on a page when they absolutely cannot use the stuff. That is why Life's an Expedition on eCrater is becoming the site for old books, maps, sheet music and other paper ephemera. Here, I walk a tightrope. Many of these items appeal to readers. Many appeal to scrapbookers, card makers and mixed media artisans who are going to gleefully hack the thing to ribbons. I speak out of both sides of my mouth when I write each listing, since I want to show paper artisans the creative potential without alarming the readers who consider books sacrosanct.

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays. As always, this blog is read-only, but each blog entry appears on Facebook, where you may comment to your heart's content without having to proclaim me as your friend.

Edited August 5, 2011.

Peace,
dj runnels

Whattaya get when you blend Istanbul with Bangkok?

2010-12-03T13:55:00.006-06:00

If you blend a couple of vintage maps of those cities, you get something like this. Part of Istanbul is on the left. Most of the banner is Bangkok. Neither map was quite right for my needs, so I merged them. It turns out that this banner is too large, but I will tinker with it some more. The books have moved to eCrater with a focus on new, used, vintage and rare books, plus old maps, bookplates and vintage ephemera for collectors and artisans who use such materials for scrap booking, card making, decoupage and other papercrafts.

Revised 3-19.11.

The UnMoving of the Blog

2010-11-24T09:32:00.000-06:00

To make a long story short, I guess I need to move back to using this blog. As before, this blog will be read-only and will feed to the Life's an Expedition FACEBOOK page. That means you won't be able to comment here, but you can comment up a storm on Facebook. See you there!

Ta ta!
dj runnels

The Moving of the Blog

2010-07-06T14:17:00.000-05:00

Well, two things. One is that I'm featured in this Etsy treasury.

And the other is that Blogger won't let me upload pictures directly from my PC any more, so I'm switching over to use this blog instead.

Ta ta!
dj runnels

Bizarre past inventions--complete with cool photos

2010-07-04T14:35:00.000-05:00

I got a good laugh out of these strange inventions.

Catalog Living parody blog

2010-07-04T12:03:00.000-05:00

Hard to explain this parody blog. Imagine if the catalogs you get in the mail contained photos taken by real people in their real homes. Now imagine that said people were blogging about their lives. Kudos to Kristan for finding it.

Alas, you cannot post in my blog, but you can on my Facebook page. And this blog feeds to that page.

I was out for a while with medical issues. Good to be back in business.

dj runnels

stuff I make

Weird fabric I created -- Yes, I know, it's ...well, weird

2010-05-28T18:41:00.000-05:00

What is it with me and fabric? I can walk into a humongous fabric store or sift through an enormous fabric web site or comb Artfire or eBay and STILL not find a single one I like, at any price. I don't want teal or purple or magenta. Okay, I lied, I like those, too. But what I am always looking for is a rustic, funky, earth tone woven with slubs in it. If I find anything remotely like that, it is always for draperies and not machine washable. I want washable cottons and linens that look as if they tumbled off a camel's back while it sauntered along in a caravan in Northern Africa. I want the color to look like something in my spice cabinet. And I want to make tunics and long robes and drawstring pants out of it, so machine washing is required. I have all these ideas in my head waiting to be translated into clothing, but I cannot find the materials I need.

Does anyone know of any online stores with rustic, textured and/or woven fabrics? This blog is read-only, but you can reply on Facebook.

Anyway, in a fit of frustration, today I took a bed sheet that started out as sateen but has faded and weathered to something unrecognizable. I ran it through the washer with Rit dye and later bleach. Several cycles later, I finally have something funky, soft and brown. Kind of a lot of effort to invest in used fabric, but at least it's comfy and broken in.

This isn't it. In the photo, I mean. My eyes are not quite able to shoot photos this week.

dj runnels

ARTFIRE PARTY on Twitter May 23

2010-05-23T11:44:00.002-05:00

If you are an Artfire artisan or an Artfire customer or shopper reading this thread on Sunday, May 23, I implore you to get over to www.twitter.com and tweet your ever-lovin' heart out right now. We want #AFP (Artfire Parade) to trend today and we need everybody with a pulse. If you're a seller, this event is for you. It's for every time you have ever uttered the phrase, "I wish Artfire had more traffic." This is your chance to get traffic.

dj runnels

“Do or do not... there is no try.” --Yoda

Artfire Twitter Event

2010-05-20T10:20:00.002-05:00

A violation of our privacy

2010-05-14T21:44:00.001-05:00

Go here http://www.spokeo.com and type in your name.
If you are as freaked out over your listing as I was over mine:
cut and paste the link
click on HELP
find the link that says you want your listing removed
then confirm it by email.

Now the bad news. There are other sites like this. And it takes time to remove your private information from all of them. I find this whole thing disgusting.

dj runnels

Artfire artisan losing her sight

2010-05-10T13:46:00.000-05:00

I was horrified to hear that one of our Artfire artisans has a medical condition in which she is losing her sight. Read her blog. Mel is a wonderful, witty person and I am just crushed by this news. I knew she had been offline for a few weeks, and had been in the hospital, but I am heartsick at the thought of what she is going through now. If anyone can help, please donate on her blog or purchase from her Artfire shop here http://bit.ly/14QKGv

Also, please spread the word in whatever way you can, through your own blog or Twitter or whatever. Thank you for helping in whatever way that you can.
dj runnels

It's okay to not like Twitter.

2010-04-30T13:56:00.000-05:00

I'm having major discussions with people lately about social media and inevitably someone will wonder which one is best. I don't think anyone can answer that for you, but what the heck, since when do I keep quiet when it's time to render an opinion? So here's my two cents' worth:

If you use social media just to meet people you can probably choose whatever route works best for you. Some offer more privacy than others. Some are more geared to lengthy interaction. Just trust your gut instinct.

If you are promoting a business, there is still no single right answer. I like Facebook because I sell crafts and need to use photos. Blogging seems to work well for me because I can write long posts that hold people's interests...although, admittedly, this isn't one of them.

And Twitter...well, I just can't explain Twitter. I can't post photos there without using links, but somehow I have the hang of using it. Whenever I type in LifeExpedition using an app or web site that gauges my twitter success or type of interaction, I get glowing reports. On one site, I was deemed within the top 2% most popular Tweeters. But truly, I cannot explain why I mesh well there. And more than that, I cannot say that it is boosting my business immensely. A little, yes. A lot, no.

And I feel a little sad for people who keep trying to get the hang of Twitter but repeatedly conclude that they either don't like it or don't get it. No biggie! It's a strange, giant cocktail party in which you hold conversations with hundreds of people at once. If you don't enjoy that premise, I hardly think there's anything wrong with you.

dj runnels

A wacky way to increase store traffic

2010-03-30T12:25:00.006-05:00

This is such a good tip, I'm almost afraid to share it with you. But please read it thoroughly and don't abuse it, okay?

When I began my yarn business on eBay, no one had heard of Life's an Expedition yarn and therefore no one was searching for Life's an Expedition yarn. Since most of my yarn is blended colors and blended fibers, I wasn't even coming up in searches for "cotton yarn" or "red yarn." So I tracked down some wholesales for Noro, Laines du Nord, Sirdar and other famous yarn brands and listed those as supplies. That way, people looking for Noro Kureyon, for example, would wander into my eBay store and see the Life's an Expedition yarn.

This is sort of a circuitous route to increasing traffic, I admit, and it's not as sound as having sought-after merchandise with good key words. But sometimes you have a product or series of products that are not searched-on or do not have great key words. Or maybe the tags are so over-used that they do not benefit you. Then your store sits there without traffic. So I brainstormed some ideas that could apply to these offbeat stores or products. These ideas do not replace using good tags and social media and all the other things we know to do. We're just playing "what if."

If you sell milk soap, you already know that people will search on that term. But what if you are getting lost in the huge sea of milk soap listings? Perhaps you can come up with some unusual scents to supplement your line and get a little attention. While it's true that more people are going to search for lemon or cucumber or vanilla, that doesn't help you if you are coming up low in Google searches. I know of a soap maker who created a beer soap. Before you shreik, "ew!" hear me out. Granted, most people will not search on beer soap, but when they do, she will be higher in the ranks than her competitors. Can you come up with an offbeat flavor or variation to supplement your normal line of whatever you sell?

I have struggled for years to sell my odd, peculiar, unconventional handbags. You would think that having something different would make them popular with a smaller segment of people, but it's been tricky. I don't even bother to use unique as a tag. People tag their merchandise as unique all the time and 95% of the time, it isn't unique at all. So for some products--such as my bags--I have found that it is beneficial to tag according to ambience or the character of the piece. For my bags, I use such tags as hippie, gypsy, bohemian. It helps a little. I know that purse, messenger bag and clutch are practically useless in the vast internet sea of bags. Okay, so I'm still floundering with this concept, but maybe you can apply it to your own shop. Can you come up with a theme to some of your products? Something beyond vintage or retro.
If you sell jewelry, you know that a tag such as bracelet or necklace is like a drop of water in the ocean. You might try creating a torc or a circlet or something with a name that is unusual. This presumes that the piece you are promoting really IS a torc. If you are thinking, "Who the heck searches for a torc?!" well, you see that woman in the front row wildly waving her hand in the air? Yes, that would be me. I search on torc. I search on whatever offbeat jewelry name I can think of because when I want jewelry, I want something really unusual and often I have trouble finding anything unusual. Again, typing in unique or unusual doesn't work. Most of the pieces tagged with those words are not unusual.

What do you do if your product is a _____? Something that has no name?

Ah, the great unnamed hard-to-tag gizmo. I've got several of those. They are the kiss of death in Google searches. I make handwoven wall pockets that no one else makes, anywhere. At a craft show, people flock to these things. But I don't even know what to call them. No one searches on wall pockets, but wall decor is too vague. One solution I've tried in the past is to list wall mirrors, coat racks, etc., in the hope that people searching on those will browse my store and see the wall pockets. Can you think of any related items that you could make and sell--items with searchable names--that will bring people to look at your uncategorizable or unnameable items?
Remember my dilemma with yarn. Can you stock up on supplies of a famous brand name that pertains to your craft? Or you could do a little destash once in a while just to bring people in. Maybe customers will forget they were looking for Grumbacher oil paints when they see the drop-dead amazing painting you did. Maybe a destash of a famous fabric brand will lure someone into looking at those wacky quilted thing-a-ma-jigs you invented.

Some of these ideas will not help you in Google much. For example, there are so many hits for oil paint... eh, forget it. But within your own hosted venue, it might help.
WAIT. Before you run off and ruin the tagging universe, please realize that a targeted search using solid key words that pertain to your product is what shoppers want. Please don't sabotage that ideal by abusing tags. There's a big difference between getting creative and getting abusive with this.

For example, it just isn't right to tag your handknit scarf as a sweater on the off chance that someone looking for a sweater will like your scarf. Instead, you will attract someone looking for a sweater, sees your scarf instead, gets mad and leaves.
A more creative and legitimate approach would be to add felted wool leaves to several of your scarves and start a whole nature theme. Or adding leaves in shades of purple and black, instead of the more predictable green or autumn shades. Or using gingko leaf designs--something specific--because although many more people will search on leaves instead of gingko, you will stand out in searches when someone really does type in gingko. Or even coming up with work that incorporates name variations, such as gingko biloba.

Or if you were using maple leaves, you could use...umm...whatever the Latin word for maple might be. Acer? Yes, I realize that people are more likely to search on maple than acer, but the point I'm making is that if you are desperately scrounging for legitimate tags, adding a personal touch to a product and adding an unusual tag might just help. In other words--brace yourself for another tree pun--we are talking about branching out in your product base or tagging. Not cheating with your tagging.

I am afraid that people will misinterpret some of what I have written here, so I feel compelled to add this: Please read Etsy rules about tag abuse before you go out there and create chaos, okay?

And also, if you are going to give funky names to your products, watch out for copyrights. I named a yarn Godzilla without realizing that name is not available and now I have to rename and relabel it. (Hanging my head in shame.) But you know, a yarn named Steve is very unlikely to violate any copyright. I'm not saying a yarn SHOULD be named Carl, but at least it's different.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Want to start a blog? And/or enter a blog contest?

2010-03-27T15:49:00.004-05:00

Martha Stewart's The Martha Blog gives tips for setting up and you can enter a blog contest.

dj's tunic -- easy beginner knitting pattern... sort of

2010-03-19T12:51:00.019-05:00

I call this "sort of" a pattern, because I do not literally use or write knitting patterns. I draw schematics and go from there. But to my ADHD mind, this is much easier than trying to read those laborious k2p2 lists of directions in 8 pt. type. SCREAM! I hate those. Also, cut me some slack here. It is free, after all.

The dj tunic is knit in one straight piece. Straight garter stitch. No increases or decreases. You will need to cast off for the neck and use a couple of stitch holders, then cast back on when the back of the neck resumes. If you can visualize that and if you can get comfortable with my penchant for stream-of-consciousness non-directions, you can do this.

I made a large tunic, not because I am overweight, but because I am temporarily not svelte so just deal with it, sister. So whereas everything I write is for a large size, if your own hips are slimmer or larger than size 14, then please adjust accordingly. And if they are smaller, btw, I hate your guts. There. It had to be said.

Please select a yarn that is dk gauge or smaller. I have some here. You want a nice, soft drape to the garment, so that the drop shoulders will flutter off into cap sleeves, perhaps revealing one strap of your tasteful camisole worn underneath. Length falls to low hip on me. Size large requires roughly 1100 yards.

Do a swatch of the yarn of your choice on the needles of your choice and figure out your stitches per inch.

Let's say you have chosen a yarn and needle combination that gives you 5 st per inch. My size large tunic has a 50-inch hip measurement, which is a generous, loose fit. But the front hem is only half of the circumference of the tunic, so you will cast on 25 inches worth of stitches. 25 inches x 5 st per inch = 125 st.

FRONT: If you would like a more finished edge that will not curl, cast on a number that is divisible by 4 and work in k2, p2 ribbing for half an inch. Then switch over to straight knit, all the way across, every row, which is what we call garter stitch. But if you don't feel like doing a ribbing, just use garter stitch throughout. When the piece is about 18 inches long--or roughly from crotch to armhole--divide the stitches by three. Use your judgment here. I'm short in height and I'm short-waisted. You may want the length shorter or longer, according to taste.

NECKLINE: You are dividing the stitches into thirds. Put one shoulder on a stitch holder. Cast off the center third to make room for your noggin. The other shoulder stays on your needles. Continue knitting it for five inches. When you finish with one shoulder, put that on a stitch holder and knit the other shoulder for five inches. When the shoulders appear even, it is time to join them by casting on the same number of stitches that you cast off five inches ago. I don't get too precise with these numbers when I work. If I divided the stitches into approximate thirds, then casting on about 1/3 will work fine. If anybody gets so close to me that he is staring at my neckline and counting the stitches, it's time to poke his eyes out. Ya know what I mean? Here is a turquoise work in progress that looks a bit squished, but it isn't. I had to scooch up the stitches to keep them on the needles for the photo.

BACK: Knit in garter stitch until the total piece measures 43 inches. Allow a little room for the k2, p2 ribbing at the end if you started with ribbing. If not, just knit your heart out to the very end.

The five-inch neck opening is off-center in this piece. I've got about 3.5 inches skewed to the front while 1.5 inches of the neck opening are skewed to the back. I did this so that the back of the tunic wouldn't be high up against the back of my neck. You don't have to do it this way. Heck, like I'm going to tell you what to do? I think not. You can have the neck centered between the front and back, closer to a tabard. Or you can have the neck opening entirely in the front. If you have a low neckline in the front, you will reveal more skin or more undergarment, so take that into consideration. I didn't design this to be worn alone. It has a low neckline and wide armholes on me.

When you are finished, try the tunic on with the side seams pinned together. Mark where armholes should go. The lower they are, the more slouchy and airy the tunic will be, but you will also be showing more of the shirt or whatever you plan to wear underneath. Then sew the side seams with matching yarn.

If you crochet, this would be a great variation in a loose, open crochet stitch. Make sure you use a soft, light, pliant yarn or you'll end up with a bulletproof vest.

Best wishes!

dj runnels

Steve the Tree

2010-03-18T15:38:00.003-05:00

We had a volunteer evergreen sprouting near the driveway, where I knew it would not have room to grow. So my husband transplanted it to another location in our yard. I named it Steve. (The tree. Not my husband.) Sadly, the photo I took of Steve did not turn out well, so here is a picture of some crocuses that are within a few inches of Steve. The crocuses seem happy enough. I hope Steve will take comfort in them.

Reflections on my nephew Ethan

2010-03-16T11:33:00.007-05:00

I excel at procrastination of difficult tasks and this one is more difficult than most. I want to pay tribute to my late nephew, whose birthday is today.

It is agonizing to have to go through February, March and April all in a row. We lost Ethan February 14, 2009. His birthday is in March. His body was found Easter Sunday, 2009. And if you've ever gone through bereavement, you know that the first year of holidays is painful. But the second year is something of a shock because you realize--oh, great--we get to go through the same holidays again and he still isn't here and it will be this way every year from now on. While the rest of the world is aglow with red hearts, birthday cakes and Easter eggs, my family feels a collective lump in the throat and a dread of turning the calendar page.

Not that it matters. Because Ethan is gone every day, regardless of the month. And we miss him all the time, not just on his birthday.

Still, a birthday is a birthday and just because Hallmark never seems to come up with a card that conveys the right thoughts for this sort of occasion, I will give it a shot.

Ethan: I cannot wish you a Happy Birthday. It doesn't sound right at all. There is nothing happy about a birthday--or any day--without you on this planet. But that's our failing, not yours. That's just the miserable human feeling of being a surviving family member. I want to think bigger than that. I want to honor you and your memory and stop whining about how I feel. Happy or not, Birthday or not, this day is still about you. You brought a great deal to this world, to your friends, your family, your causes. And to my heart, in particular. While it is bittersweet to write this, I know that the world is a better place for having had you in it and that deserves to be said. It must be written and damn it, I will write it, even if I must look through my tears and feel past the lump in my throat. I am blessed with having known you.

My mind starts to get jumpy now with emotion. This is so hard. I have been meaning for so long to write a tribute to you. I don't see how I will ever do it. The scope of the task overwhelms me and makes me wonder if I should just write about you in short blurbs instead. I don't know the answer. I'm losing my train of thought. Pick a specific, dj. Something specific.

I had a dream about half a year before your accident. I have it written down somewhere. It was a dream about a frontiersman or naturalist in the woods and he was warning us about impending death. When I dreamed this, I thought of you, but the character in the dream didn't look like you. Or at least, I didn't think, "Oh, there's Ethan," when I had this dream. I just remember that the naturalist in this dream reminded me of you, that he was very savvy about backwoods survivalist training, that he knew the woods very well, that he knew we were all in danger and we needed our wits about us to get through what was coming. The dream foretold doom. I knew that much. But I certainly never foresaw losing you. Now when I think about this dream, I wonder what it meant and what, if anything, I should have done differently.

Probably nothing.

Because I don't think you would have lived your life differently. You lived it to the fullest and it was through your various trials and your closely-held ideals that you reached the point you were at in the final months of your life. Maybe that is the lesson to be learned here: live according to what you believe. Better to grab all the adventure that life has to offer than to reach age 90 without having reached out. Better to take risks than feel safe and bored. Is that the message?

No. This isn't it. And that's okay because if I failed to capture what you stood for at this point, March 16, 2010, 11:55 CST then...fine. I'll give it another shot another day. I must try again another day.

Until then, Ethan-Pie...is it okay if I call you that in public? Well, you cannot stop me, can you? I think I see a slight grin as I call you that. You love audacity in others and you will not quench mine.

aunt dj

Paper mache mannequin heads

2010-03-14T12:02:00.011-05:00

People have been asking how to cover a styrofoam mannequin head with papier mache. I have mannequins for sale, so I am guessing these people want to emulate my technique and make their own. I mentioned this to my husband, who is known for his wit, and he instantly replied, "First, take a wire brush and give the styrofoam a good scrubbing. Next, take some battery acid..."

I'm pretty sure you can see why I married him.

I have four left, most of them papier mache, so I am reluctant to impart my techniques just yet. If you can make one, why would you buy one from me? But maybe after all my mannequins are sold, I will write a tutorial. It is a fair amount of work and my papier mache skills have evolved over time, so with the exception of people who have used this craft technique before, I'm not sure this project is for everyone.

I began in papier mache...oh, don't roll your eyes like that! You tell long stories, too! And anyway, my stories are funnier than yours. Nyah. I began making papier mache puppets as a child. My mother had a lengthy magazine article about how to make puppet heads, sew costumes for them, construct a stage and so on. There was even a storyline, a cohesive theme and an actual script to go with these puppets. But mostly I remember the puppets.

OMG. I was going to write a tutorial about how to make puppets but I suddenly realized that I would like to make puppets and sell them. Rats. Jotting this down as idea #572 and I don't know when I will get around to the first 571 on the list. Never mind that I can barely walk through my yarn studio or my inventory room. Gotta go!

dj runnels

Free lip color when you order by April 15

2010-03-10T15:06:00.006-06:00

Deleted this. It was a promotion for my Facebook fans.

-dj runnels

I must apologize to Guatemala.

2010-03-04T10:04:00.011-06:00

Since 2004, I have imported and sold handwoven Guatemalan goods on eBay--primarily tablecloths, place mats, table runners, napkins. Every time I unpack a new shipment, I am astonished once again by the skilled craftsmanship. The threads, the colors, the precision of the weaving process, the flat smoothness of the finished piece--all exceed my expectations of that which is handmade. It just doesn't seem humanly possible to create these weavings, let alone to create them under impoverished conditions, using primitive supplies, against a backdrop of political uncertainty and natural disasters.

Hurricane Stan was one of those natural disasters. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, as the United States tried to recover from the overwhelming destruction left in her wake, there were other hurricanes in other countries. Hurricane Stan was one of them. Few focused on this latter storm, yet it swept through middle America in October 2005 and annihilated entire villages, including the villages where "my" weavers lived.

Some of the weavers barely escaped with the clothes on their backs. Others were not that fortunate. Hurricane Stan brought horrific mudslides that entombed villagers within their very homes, leading government officials to declare some of these areas graveyards.

I cried when I heard this. In my Chicago suburb so far from that disaster, I held in my hands spectacular linens of a quality that I will never match, stunned by the intricate designs I will never master. I realized these linens were created in a backdrop of severe poverty, at a level I will never experience. And I read the tags that many of these linens bore: "Handmade by ____." In many cases, the weaver signed his or her first name on the tag.

The weaver's work reaches me through Fair Trade, an organization that ensures that its member artisans receive fair wages for their work. Without Fair Trade, wholesalers can gather up these goods for pennies and make enormous profits in resale. But weavers allied with Fair Trade make more income than they would make selling their cloth in local markets. I whole-heartedly support Fair Trade and feel this is the least I can do to help make up for the fact that I get to buy and resell these goods.

This week, I am acutely aware of these weavers, their wares, their lives, their deaths. That's because I took about 20 hand woven dinner napkins and painted designs on them. I wanted to move this merchandise off of eBay (where the seller's fees are very high) and list them on Zibbet. I am not allowed to do this unless I either (1) categorize them as craft supplies or (2) impart my handmade touch. I chose the latter. Using fabric paint and permanent ink, I sketched some cave paintings, primitive designs and trees. But I know my paint and ink, although heat set, will fade sooner than the vibrant color of the cloth. Even worse, my artistry pales (an unwanted pun) to that of the Maya.

I listed the napkins but thought at length about the original weavers. I thank them for what they contribute to our world. I honor my sisters and brothers who continue to weave for the comparatively rich Americans who will never know the depth of their sacrifices. I apologize for daring to doodle on their cloth, because I fear I may have diminished, rather than enhanced, its beauty. And I pray that the money I pay through Fair Trade is enriching their lives enough to justify what I do.

One of my designs is a tree. It's a dj runnels kind of tree. I have drawn similar trees for years, countless times, in notebooks and paintings. I've drawn these trees on driveways with sidewalk chalk, surrounded by my children. I've drawn trees without leaves so that my children could fill in the leaves. I've drawn trees with blank leaves that my children could decorate or color in. The dj runnels trees have a long history. These trees now grace some of these Guatemalan napkins and my thoughts ran in two directions as I drew them. One thought was, "Gee, I hope I'm not ruining this perfectly good napkin." And the other recurring thought was the phrase "tree of life."

By tree of life, I mean the sense of connection I have to the weavers of these napkins. We are connected, the weavers and I. But also you and I. And you and they. We are all connected along the branches of humanity. Our ancestors form the roots of our current existence. We live and die, nurture and decay, interconnected in lives that network across the globe. Woven blessings pass through my hands and into yours. Or in some cases, woven blessings pass from them to me and I scribble on them and THEN they go to you. I feel I owe Guatemala an apology for this. But on the other hand, I like that I am sharing their precious work with you, even if the middleman or middlewoman just had to put her two cents' worth in there.

Did I participate in the creative endeavor? Or did I desecrate it?

Or maybe, as my 8th grade algebra teacher so often urged me to do, I can reduce it to even simpler terms: Maybe it was wrong, but I enjoyed doing it, anyway.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Felted wool handbags and such

2010-02-23T11:06:00.008-06:00

I'm in felting mode lately. Made this bag recently and listed it here. Also found this site about felting. The writer is cheerful and informative. You'll read all sorts of useful info about making wool felted handbags and more, even if you do not know how to knit or crochet.

Edited 3/18/10: bag now listed on Etsy, so I revised the link. Edited 5/2/10: bag moved back to Artfire, so I revised the link. I'm not exactly patient about waiting for something to sell. Sigh!

Creative snobbery or some other reason?

2010-02-21T13:08:00.013-06:00

This is a follow-up to the last post.

I am receiving a variety of reactions to what I wrote, ranging from, "YEAH! You're right!" to "Huh?" to "I love your yarn! You have every right to be on Artfire." While I appreciate everyone's support--and I especially appreciate the fact that the townspeople have refrained from marching towards my house with flaming torches and hatchets--I wanted to add a few more insights to this topic. You are welcome to add insights, too. But not on my Blogger. This blog is read-only. Find me on FACEBOOK. No flaming allowed, please.

Back to those insights:

I believe in what I do and what I make. No one can make me prouder of it. No one can deprive me of my pride. No one can make me feel less worthy OR more worthy. I already feel worthy. And while the positive comments are nice, I think it is important for an artisan to feel good about his or her work to begin with, whether the compliments are forthcoming or not. Ya gotta be who ya gotta be. To put it another way, "Build it and they will come." Your work will resonate with somebody, somewhere, whether you are mainstream or totally Froot Loops, whether you create fine art or assemble purple barrette bows for toddlers. What bothered me about this thread was a sense of hierarchy. Where does this hierarchy stem from? Are crafters judging each other based on ability? Value? Dollars? What?

The people who wanted the list broken into categories were handmade crafters. They did not want supplies, vintage, etc. on this list. To them, perhaps having the other sellers on that list was comparing apples to oranges. I'd like to believe that. Yet they did want to include fine artists on their list. Why would they want that? That is not comparing like to like. Perhaps some crafters view themselves as almost like fine artists but I am pretty sure the fine artists do not consider themselves in the same league. A fine artist with an art degree is almost certainly more artistically skilled than a homemaker making purple barrette bows. More to the point, a skilled oil painter is better at painting than a bow maker is at painting. On the other hand, a mischievous sort of person such as I might also point out that a bow maker likely makes better bows than the painter. At this point, the painter might roll his/her eyes and say, "Who cares? They're just bows!" And I'd like to think that the bow-maker has enough self-esteem to smirk and say, "Yeah, well, I make more money per month than the painter does. Ha!"

Which brings us to the matter of value and dollars. We all know they are not the same thing. The point of the Artfire Top Sellers list was to enable those who sell well to feel good about the status they have attained or to commend themselves for their hard work. Sales figures also serve as a goal for the newbies. It's a promise that One Day, I Will Also Be On That List, Too. In fact, many crafters wrote in to say, "Good job, crafters! I admire you and hope to join you." That was cool.

But I fail to see how a crafter can compare her jewelry sales stats to someone's soap sales stats and come away with any meaningful information.

If I were a soap maker, for example, I would be asking myself different questions:

Who else is selling soap on my venue?
What types of soaps?
What is the price range?
How many ounces to the bar?
Is there a larger inventory than what I have?
Is there a wider variety of products?
Is there a wider variety of scents?
Which scents sell the best?
Do other vendors have more sales?
Do they charge the same for shipping?
Have they been on the site longer than I have?
Have they been in business longer?
Did they start out on another web site?
Do they sell from multiple sites?
Do they use social media?
Do they network?
Do they run banner ads?
Do they offer freebies? Samplers? Package deals? Soap of the month?
Do they focus on scent, color or packaging?
Do they have killer photography?
Is their banner professional looking?
Do they write charismatic listings?
Can they spell?
Are they friendly?
What are they doing that I am not doing?
What do they do better than I do?
What do I do better than they do?
Is their number of sales necessarily an indication of more dollars? Or just more sales?
Were these sales each larger or smaller than my average sale?
Should I care?
Am I in this business for the long haul?
Am I willing to invest more time or money in this enterprise to achieve what these other vendors have achieved?

I'll tell you what I would not care about. I would not care how my soap sales compare to someone's jewelry sales. But just for the sake of argument, let's say there is some reason why soap makers wants to know how their sales compare to the sales of non-soap-making crafters. Maybe they want to see how popular soap is compared to jewelry. Whatever. Is there a good motivation for wanting to be on such a list?

Yes.

I can't speak for everyone, but my reasons for wanted inclusion on this list of Top Sellers is this: I want to be able to tell my customers that I am one of the top sellers on Artfire. Period. The reason I want to tell them this is because it is a quick, Twitterific sound byte that states, "My stuff sells, therefore it is good." Or "Other people buy my stuff so you can have confidence in it, too." Customers want reassurance, so being able to offer it to a customer is no small thing. If you poke around my Artfire store, you will see other quotes and comments that speak to this premise. I have a lot of repeat business, for example, so I mention that often. And I am a Top Rated Seller on eBay, which means I have made eBayers happy for years, and honey, if you have ever owned an eBay store, you know how excruciatingly difficult it is to maintain a good reputation on eBay. As they say about New York, if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.

So, yes, despite having a healthy sense of self-esteem and some years in the biz, I wanted to be on this list and I wanted a numerical rank to sort of wrap my mind around. Fortunately, I can guess at where I fall on this handmade list because I am armed with the following information.

I see how many sales these people have.
And I see how many sales I have.

Plug the second number into the list of the first numbers and VOILA! That satisfies the question of "How am I doing compared to some of the other Artfire sellers?" To find out how I am doing compared to all other Artfire sellers, I will have to combine the lists that others compile for vintage, suppliers, etc., if anyone volunteers to compile them.

Just for the record, I will not be that someone. And the reason I will not be that someone is because I feel the segregated lists are a form of snobbery.

Unless you can come up with another reason. Yes? No? Please tell me. No one has given me an answer and my life experience has shown me thus far that whenever there is a painful silence with no one willing to step forward and answer the question, it often means that the true answer is embarrassing. Maybe they think my handmade work is crap. Whoa! That is embarrassing. But it doesn't hurt my self-esteem. Maybe they went through my store, determined that I sell a lot of yarn and they think my yarn is crap; but I have sales, so I can't get upset over what they think. Maybe a lot of people writing in this thread just didn't want to get involved. I can understand that. I'm pretty annoyed that I even read that thread.

Here's my hypothesis: Maybe some handmade crafters think yarn--whether handspun or commercial--is a supply and supplies of any kind are either easy to make or just aren't as hard to make as ______. (Fill in the blank with whatever it is that you yourself make.) And because ______ is harder to make, then hand wound or homespun yarn has less value. Or maybe all yarn has less value. Heck, if you don't knit, are you going to get excited about yarn? But that shouldn't be a factor. I don't wear pierced earrings and I don't look down my nose on earring makers. Or earring suppliers! But I digress.

Now we are no longer talking dollars. We are talking craftsmanship, effort, value. I'm going back to the soap maker example, but please understand that I have no quibble with any soap maker on the planet, on or off Artfire. I am merely using soap as an example. I love handmade soap. I buy and use handmade soap. I despise grocery store soap. All clear on this? I cannot be emphatic enough. I have zero issues with soap makers. It's just an example that I can use while still protecting myself from the townspeople with their torches, because I am a #1 fan of handmade soap and have been for years.

Which is more valuable? A $5 bar of soap or a $5 skein of yarn?

Some would say they are equal because they are both $5. My marketing instincts disagree. I would say it depends on how many people want the soap versus how many want the yarn. Supply and demand determine price and value in a capitalist society. If more people want the soap, then the soap has value to more people. Soap has more appeal to the widest market. Virtually everyone in the US uses soap. Not everyone uses yarn. If the yarn is the same price and is outselling the soap, then either more people want that particular yarn than that particular soap or I do a damn fine job of marketing my wares. :o) This still doesn't mean the soap or the yarn is more important. What's important to one customer may not be important to the next. Nor does it mean that the yarn designer or the soap maker is more talented.

Well, enough philosophical marketing diatribe. Intelligent comments are welcome. I would love for someone to tell me that Artfire is an egalitarian marketplace in which fine artists rub elbows with earring wire sellers and vintage booksellers and yarn suppliers and we all root for the same side. But I suspect that is not the case. I would also like to say that this experience hasn't changed my approach one bit, that I will continue to tweet up a storm and post links for my fellow artisans as I have done for years. But I have a sour taste in my mouth and it isn't from a bar of soap.

dj runnels

United we stand, divided we sound stupid.

2010-02-19T19:04:00.005-06:00

There's a brouhaha in the Artfire forums at the moment. Go search on TOP SELLERS and you'll find it. Someone pulled statistics on the vendors with the most sales. It turns out that suppliers were among the top sellers. I didn't take a close look at who these suppliers were or what they sell. Maybe some of them sell commercial supplies only. Maybe some sell both handmade and commercial supplies. I don't know.

But some of the handmade sellers wanted to see a list of handmade crafters--without the suppliers on the list. And then I guess they wanted to exclude vintage sellers, too. So even though I have a lot of sales, including handmade, but mostly handmade supplies that are not commercially available elsewhere, I was rejected for consideration of being on this list. I tried to let it go. I tried to find excuses for being ostracized. I kept quiet until tonight, when I saw that a fabric seller was puzzled as to why she continues to be excluded from the top seller list, too. When I read her post, my reaction was, "Okay, so it's NOT just me." This is a kind of slap in the face to suppliers, isn't it?

I am somewhat bi-partisan in this matter. I sell handwovens, other handmade, handmade supplies, vintage supplies, antiquarian books, handmade journals made out of antiquarian recycled books, vintage and so on. I have not exhausted all the possibilities, since a list of what I sell is long and varied and I sell on five web sites. I fit a lot of categories.

But why do I need to be categorized? Why would any Artfire vendor--whether handmade crafter, supplier, media seller or vintage seller--believe it is in the best interests of Artfire to draw divisive lines among us? Suppliers need handmade crafters to stay in business. Handmade crafters need supplies. And don't even start with me about vintage. I'm sick to death of hearing how handmade crafters on some sites had the gall to tell vintage sellers that they didn't belong on their site. The pettiness of this mindset makes me sick.

I have a reputation via Facebook, http://www.twitter.com/LifeExpedition and other sites for my track record of writing, blogging, tweeting, networking with, trading among and supporting sellers in all groups. That's what I thought Artfire, Etsy, Zibbet, 1000 Markets and like-minded sites were all about.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Online customers I have known and loved

2010-01-22T22:49:00.007-06:00

10:49 PM
I'm waiting for an eBay customer to pay me so I can put a shipping label on her package and order a carrier pickup for Saturday morning. I have another order going out, but it's a large, 14-pound box of yarn and the customer chose Parcel Post--wisely, I believe, since it cut her shipping fees in half--but I can't ask for pickup on it unless someone else pays me for a Priority order. Too much detail for you? Sorry.

But as I'm sitting here next to this 14-pound box of yarn, I am reminded of a customer I loved--not because she ordered large amounts of yarn at a time, although that didn't hurt. :o) She had a serious medical condition and spent a great deal of time knitting and crocheting. I think she was bed-ridden a fair amount and probably spent some time in hospitals and in doctor's waiting rooms, yet she never complained and seldom mentioned her illness. I think perhaps she didn't want to burden me, but it was no burden. She was a tower of strength and it was inspiring to talk with her through sporadic emails.

I try not to latch onto customers too much. They will tell me little things about their personal lives, but it's still a business arrangement, so I have no business asking endless questions about why they are in the hospital or why they are making so many chemo hats. I listen to them. I tell them that I admire what they do. I treat them like any interesting person. But all too often, they will slip away and--I'm completely sincere when I say this--it's not their yarn orders I miss. It's not about the money at all.

This customer I am thinking of would sometimes tell me how frustrated she was because Paypal wasn't working for her and she could not make a payment. Sometimes she would buy $500 or $1600 worth of yarn at a time, and... well, Paypal can get a bit crazy with large payments, especially on a large shipment going to another country. Early on in my relationship with this customer, I said something that now strikes me as very stupid. I whimsically said, "It's okay! Relax! It's just yarn. Not a liver transplant."

That was when she confessed that I was right, that she was too stressed, that it is, indeed, just yarn. And that she wasn't being much use to her clients when she was in this state of mind. She never did volunteer to me what she did for a living, but it was around this time that she mentioned that she had a tumor. I felt like a total jerk for my crack about a liver transplant. I have not made such a mistake often, because I learned not to say such things. You never know what a customer is going through. Divorce. Bereavement. Cancer. You just never know.

She ordered yarn from me several times a year, for years. I tried to listen and accept whatever she did choose to tell me. One of my last orders from her went unpaid for a few weeks. I was terribly worried and wanted to know if she was okay. I sent emails that went unanswered. I had no business calling her. Well, okay, I suppose eBay does allow that. But what if she had died? Can you imagine an eBay seller calling you right after a family member has died? Just what you need, people hounding you for money in your hour of grief! I don't know. Maybe the family would have taken it as a friendly call. More likely they would have seen me as a pushy seller wanting her money and I wasn't willing to risk being perceived that way. When this woman did finally contact me, it turns out she had, indeed, been in the hospital. I cried to learn that she was still alive.

But the day did come when she stopped ordering. I went to her eBay feedback page every week or so, but the feedback stopped appearing and she stopped ordering from everyone--not just me. I had grown to care about a woman I had never met, a woman whose career was a mystery to me, yet a woman for whom I had created affectionate nicknames and with whom I felt a bond as she went through various medical incidents and household crises.

I will not send a letter to the woman's family to ask if she still lives. The fact that she no longer answers emails makes it likely that she no longer does. But I carry a special place for her in my heart. She sometimes told me that she was having such a rotten day that the only thing that went right was receiving a box of yarn from me. She meant it, too. I made a difference in her life and she made a difference in mine. I will never forget her.

I wish that were the end of this story, but it isn't. I used the plural of "customers" in the headline. There have been others. A woman in New York had diabetes, lung cancer and Lyme disease. I once named a yarn after her and she got a kick out of that. A woman in San Francisco nursed her father with cancer. A long list indeed. These women knitted up a storm and donated time to nursing the sick. Sometimes they were the sick. I packed those yarn orders with a lot of love. I hope they felt the love and not just the yarn.

dj runnels

Yarn sales to help Red Cross efforts / Haiti

2010-01-17T11:05:00.003-06:00

PROCEEDS GO TO HAITI (Red Cross) on this top-selling yarn. http://bit.ly/7SwlJy

Normally, I prefer to sell yarn on Artfire, but one feature eBay does offer is a bonafide, honest charity operation wherein I can donate proceeds from the sale of this yarn to the American Red Cross and know that the money actually WILL go to the Red Cross (I've participated in this program before) and that the Red Cross knows how to get that money to where it is needed and will do the most good, e.g.: to the survivors in Haiti.

Please consider purchasing this yarn. Italian Vineyard is one of my best. I've even marked it on sale in addition to donating 30% of the sale to the Red Cross.

God bless you.

dj runnels

Handmade birthday cards

2009-12-31T14:48:00.004-06:00

"Good" birthday cards are $2 or $4 at the drugstore, yet the inexpensive fifty-cent cards from the party stores are sort of flimsy and generic. Although I do buy those, I think it's really more fun and very easy to make my own.

Here's a fast and simple way to make cards. You will need 8 1/2 x 11 inch card stock or heavy paper from a business supply store or even Walmart. Cut the sheets in half so that they are 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. Or you can trim recycled or new file folders into the appropriate shape. When folded, it will be 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches.

For the envelope, you can buy what they call A2 or invitation sized envelopes. Ask someone at the business supply store where to find the A2's or read the shelf tags. An A2 envelope is 4 3/8 x 5 3/4 inches. Columbian makes a very nice grip-seal envelope that I like. Your folded cards will fit in here with a little room to spare.

Take an old book filled with illustrations and cut out pictures that are smaller than 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches, or the front of your card(s). You may as well make more than one card, because then you will have a supply handy when you need one. The best illustrations are from very old books or children's books. If the picture makes you smile, you are on the right track. If you can think of a witty caption to go with the picture, go ahead and write that on the front or inside the card.

Glue the picture to the front of the card. I like to use a can of spray adhesive for this purpose, available at office supply and art supply stores. But a glue stick will work well and so will rubber cement. Elmer's white glue in a squirt bottle will also work, but be sure to brush it on in smooth even strokes so it won't warp your illustration. You can use a Q-tip for this purpose and then throw it away when you are finished. Or use a paintbrush and wash it out well afterwards.

Take a gel or glitter pen to write a caption and/or Happy Birthday inside. Use the same pen to write the address on the envelope. Or just use a regular pen, if you like. A felt-tip pen is nicer than ballpoint.

Voila! Your handmade card is far more personal and carries some of your wit along with it to the recipient.

If you don't want to invest in card stock, you can also take an 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper and fold it in half, then in half again. You will end up with the same size and it will fit easily in the A2 envelope.

If you don't want to cut up a book, borrow a small child to color pictures on the cards. Everyone will think they're adorable.

dj runnels

Felting fanaticism

2009-12-28T12:43:00.011-06:00

Omigosh, I've got the felting bug big time. Mostly, I am making coasters. They are sooooo soft. And they absorb the drips from the drink, instead of dumping them in my lap. That's a plus. These are all listed at http://www.zibbet.com/LifesAnExpedition if you want to see them in detail.

These look sort of Native American to me.

I have a thing for leaves and stars.

Free Giveaway: dragon pendant of lead-free pewter

2009-12-15T11:33:00.007-06:00

(EDITED DECEMBER 20: Whoa! Looks like I picked the wrong week to run this promotion! Everyone is too busy. I'll run it again another time.)

Life's an Expedition is giving away a dragon pendant, handmade (but not by me) of lead-free pewter. It's ...um, I don't know, a couple of inches in diameter and on a black silky cord.

To register for the giveaway, please visit the new Life's an Expedition store on Zibbet, pick out your favorite thing and write a comment about it on the Life's an Expedition Facebook fan page by dj runnels.

You will have to click on BECOME A FAN on that page if you are not a fan already, but you need not divulge your private Facebook info, wall or friend's list. By becoming a fan, you are free to visit us whenever you log into Facebook. But we will never send you email spam or "updates." We merely post messages on the Facebook page and as a part of our creative community, you are welcome to do the same (or not) as you desire.

No purchase necessary.

You may also place additional entries by mentioning
(1) Life's an Expedition's Zibbet store and (2) this link http://www.zibbet.com/LifesAnExpedition via your Twitter, MySpace or blog. Make sure it is, indeed, your own account. Please don't write a spammy comment on someone else's blog! Then place a link to where you did so on the same Facebook fan page: http://www.facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition .

Please use a separate post for each comment about LAE merchandise on Zibbit and links to a comments about LAE merchandise on Zibbit. On [date postponed] I will assign a number to each post and choose one in a random drawing. The winner will be announced on the Facebook page, probably on [date postponed], depending on the state of my liver. The winner will need to check this page, contact me and provide an accurate address for first class mailing. The mailing address the winner provides will not be used for promotional purposes.

If the winner does not contact us within two weeks, we may be forced to send an email message via Facebook; but under normal circumstances, we will never resort to this. You may also set your privacy settings to block such emails at any time, according to Facebook rules. Life's an Expedition considers it a privilege to have you as a fan. It is never our intention to send you spam of any kind. Blood relatives of dj runnels, anyone with the last name of Runnels and/or current or past employees of Life's an Expedition are disqualified from this giveaway.

Traffic is at a near standstill on some of my shopping sites, Facebook, etc, so everyone must be super busy with the holidays. I'll run this promotion another time. You will love this pendant. It's been a big seller for us. :o)

Merry, merry!
dj runnels

Primary color blending in your crafts

2009-12-09T10:12:00.009-06:00

In my last post, I wrote about mixing pastels and promised to give examples of yarn and color mixing in my work. Despite my short memory, I have not yet forgotten that promise (yippee!) and now I'm going to show something with primary colors.

You probably already know this, but for those who don't: red, blue and yellow are primary colors on the color wheel. These colors can be mixed to create secondary colors. Red and blue makes purple. Blue and yellow makes green. Red and yellow makes orange.

An easy way to remember these is to envision the classic 8-pack of Crayola crayons. If you omit the black and brown, these are the six colors you have left. The crayons in this pack are bright and saturated and that is why they will often go together in your artwork, home decorating and wardrobe planning.

If you were wearing a blue and yellow summer outfit, for example, you would probably want both the blue and yellow to be bright or both to be pastel or both to be muted. That doesn't mean you are locked into this rule, but if you aren't sure, the bright-with-bright, pastel-with-pastel and muted-with-muted is a good rule of thumb to follow.

In home decorating, imagine a living room decorated in medium light blue and medium light yellow in a sort of French country to Provencal scheme. Or think of a children's room, decorated in bright blue and yellow. For the exterior of a house, you might choose a muted smoky blue and very muted yellow trim.

Often small accents can tolerate a smattering of colors, whereas the backdrop will only use one or two. A pillow in red, blue and yellow--I had a photo here, but lost it, long story--works well as an accent. But you would probably not decorate a room using all of these colors. Perhaps the pillow would serve as an accent on a royal blue sofa. Maybe there is a red side chair across the room. An Oriental carpet might tie the colors together in a dark navy with flecks of red, blue and green. Some houseplants would echo the green in the carpet and in the pillow.

Similarly, in your wardrobe, you instinctively know that when you put on a navy wool suit, you can get away with a vivid red, blue, yellow paisley scarf and perhaps some garnet jewelry.

Men might choose a navy suit, yellow dress shirt with a navy rep tie. Perhaps you are tempted to point out that navy is a muted color and the yellow shirt a man would most likely wear would be a pastel yellow and that this contradicts what I said earlier. That is because I have no freaking idea what I am talking about.

But I can usually wing it. Except for the time when I was pregnant and shopping for dress fabric and a contrasting floral collar fabric with my mother. The dress fabric was peach. And I thought the collar fabric was peach, blue and white until I got it home and saw it was rose, blue and white. "Why did you let me buy that?" I wailed to my mother, who has a master's degree in art. She said he hadn't wanted to argue with me. And maybe that is also a good rule of thumb. If you think you know what you are doing, trust your instincts and don't let people talk you out of them. But don't help me shop for maternity fabric, okay?!

dj runnels

An example of yarn blending

2009-12-07T13:09:00.006-06:00

I still receive puzzled questions from knitters about yarn blending, so I thought I would start posting more of my project photos. Yarns do not literally have to match when you blend them. For example, the two blue yarns in this photo are not identical blues. And the pinks are not identical either. But when you hold two strands of yarn together as you knit or crochet, that sort of forces them to go together...

Well, within reason. Forest green and bright orange are always going to look like a sports team. But if you keep pastels with pastels, earth tones with earth tones, brights with brights, that will help you avoid some glaring color combinations.

All yarns shown in these photos are available in our online yarn store.

dj runnels

What people say about LAE yarn:

2009-12-03T13:46:00.004-06:00

I'm finding quotes around the internet from people who have used Life's an Expedition yarn blends and what they have to say about us.

http://behindbllueeyes.com/default.aspx

http://askville.amazon.com/find-types-yarn/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=6349669

From Cheesiesmom: "I've purchased from her. I thought her yarns were nice and a little unusual. Her service was fast and she was very nice to work with....I would have no problem recommending her." I deleted a mention that we sell on eBay, because our yarn has mostly moved to Artfire.

Thanks go out to To Knit A New Life and to The Orange Yarn, Please for the links. I am always very touched when I read good mentions about our yarn.

dj runnels

Free nail or lip color for December January purchases

2009-11-24T12:24:00.009-06:00

Dated info. Removing it.

http://LifesAnExpedition.ETSY.com

Why do online sellers charge handling fees?

2009-11-13T20:17:00.001-06:00

I want to vehemently state that Life's an Expedition did NOT wrap this package. We KNOW how to wrap a package. You need a blowtorch to open our packages, baby. But I love this photo. It makes a nice visual, huh?

Someone wrote a guide on eBay that said sellers should NEVER charge a handling fee. I wrote a rebuttal there and I'm adding one here.

If a seller is cleaning out Grandma's attic, hopes to make more profit than they would at a garage sale, has access to a furniture store giving away free bubble wrap, lives within a mile of a post office and feels capable of giving customers what we call ACTUAL SHIPPING--in other words, charging no more for shipping than the seller must pay to ship the item at the post office window--I salute that seller. This is a great policy. The buyers will love it.

But if you are a seller who is running a business, who must buy wholesale goods to resell, you may not be able to adopt this business model. If you are an artisan who buys materials for crafts, makes said products and must factor in materials, labor, shipping and packaging, I think it is unlikely you will be able to charge actual shipping and stay in business. Wait, I'm getting to the best part. If you are said artisan who receives many small orders that ship in small envelopes with a lot of bubble wrap, just kiss off the idea of charging actual shipping. You will have to factor these expenses into your shipping and handling or your merchandise. Period. Am I wrong? Anyone out there able to refute me? If you have found a way, share it. But I assert that handmade artisans won't be able to keep product prices low and maintain an Actual Shipping policy for very long. The constant search for free packaging materials will wear you out unless you are receiving goods in the mail every day. Even then, did you ever try to recycle TAPE? Uh-uh, darlin', it will not stick.

I do charge a handling fee and the fee varies depending on the merchandise. I came by my fee structure honestly. I added up what we spend on tape, boxes, bubble wrap, etc. in the course of a year and divided that dollar amount by the number of packages we ship in a year. When I did this back around 2004 or 2005, this math equation told me to charge US $3.00 per package. So I implemented a US $3.00 handling fee. The recession has made that impossible so now I charge around US $1.00 or less. "Gee," you may ask, "isn't that hurting your business?" That's an understatement. The bottom line isn't pretty, but I am hoping to wait out the economy. That could be another entire blog post, so we won't go into that now.

BACK TO HANDLING FEES. There are some variables I take into consideration. When I wrap a handmade stone castle that requires a lot of TLC and bubble wrap, I will usually charge a higher handling fee. The more fragile an item, the more likely I am to charge up to US $5.00 for packaging. I don't go over US $5.00 yet I know there are people who charge more than that. If I order from someone who charges more than US $5.00 for handling, I assume they have their reasons and I will generally accept their judgment.

But once I ordered some toiletries for which I paid a US $10.00 handling fee. I assumed the seller's handling fee was justified until two plastic bottles arrived in a Tyvek envelope without cushioning. That, my dears, is just plain wrong.

I think the variable that kills a budget the most is the tendency to receive small orders. Orders that weigh over 13 oz., require Priority packaging in the United States if they go through the postal service. You can get those boxes and envelopes for free from the post office. But if you sell lots of breakable glass beads, requiring a small bubble mailer, maybe an extra layer of bubble wrap and/or a gift box, you must pay for those packaging components yourself and those things are not only expensive, they add up quickly. Jewelry designers have my sympathy. So do soap makers, whose shipments are always somewhere between a little bit heavy to a lot heavy to...sinking a battleship heavy.

Okay, dollars and cents.

Here are some of the expenses I consider when I calculate a handling fee. These are amounts I collected a couple of years ago, so they are just approximations:

US $27.00 or so for a six-roll pack of cheap, clear packaging tape. The stronger kind of packaging tape costs more. Strapping tape is even more expensive. And please do not even think about using masking tape. It falls off in the mail. Ditto for "scotch tape" unless you use the old-fashioned, hard-to-find, very shiny scotch tape. It's usually sold in a red plaid carton or package. Not the green plaid; that is "magic disappearing" tape and that is fine for wrapping a birthday present, but not for mailing packages. Tape is a big issue. I use tape on everypackage I mail. The cost for one of the components used to make packaging tape went up a few years ago and therefore the cost of tape rose.
US $3.00 to US $4.00 for a ream of printer paper. Recycled is cheaper but thinner. I use paper for printing mailing labels off my computer.
US $15.00 to US $49.00 for a pack of 25 bubble wrap mailers for books and blank journals. The biggest of such envelopes can cost almost US $2.00 each, but they are more durable and stable versus brown kraft paper over bubble wrap. I use first class plastic or Tyvek envelopes for yarn and the latter is pricey but if you ship yarn in a paper envelope, the envelope can break open, the yarn can roll out, the package can get wet and ruin the yarn and so on. Sometimes I use two manila envelopes, one over the other for strength, and use extra tape. Depends on what I'm mailing. I have had a very high success rate with my packaging--and by that, I mean, minimal complaints come through--although once in a while someone will tell me I over-package. But I'd rather have a complaint for over-packaging than for under-packaging.
Up to US $3.05 for a cardboard box. Fortunately, we usually skirt that cost by either recycling the boxes that come into our home or by using Priority Mail boxes that the post office provides free of charge. By the way, I have had dozens of eBay customers insist on Parcel Post rather than Priority Mail because they think it will save them money. Surprisingly, Parcel Post might raise the packaging fee, might cost the same or even more in shipping, might save them only 38 cents, and/or take up to three or four weeks to arrive. Sometimes I patiently explain this to the buyer and they understand and they trust me. Other times, I write up an invoice for them showing the Parcel Post option as legitimately higher than the Priority option and just let them choose. Okay, I'm a smart-aleck. I admit it.
26 cents per square foot for bubble wrap.That sounds cheap until you realize how many square feet it takes to cover a birdhouse.
US $20.00 a bag for loose fill packing peanuts.
Around US $20.00 to US $75.00 for one or two printer ink cartridges, depending on type, brand, quantity, etc. Long story on this one. I find that recycled ink cartridges either burn out more quickly or do not work at all. That's just my experience.
US $16.00 a month to have an eBay store although I have since closed it. You can sell on eBay with or without a store. See their site for a detailed explanation. And when I had a store, I paid about US $60.00 a month to list 500 inventory items in addition to auctions. Note that this US $60.00 estimate changes somewhat depending on whether you use gallery photos, list items for under US $25.00 versus over US $25.00 and/or you are a powerseller. These fees have changed for me since I now list much more of my merchandise on other web sites. But those other web sites also have fees.
Commissions to the web site if something sells, depending on which site we're talking about. Not all sites charge a commission.
Another commission to Paypal and I realize many people are not fond of Paypal, but for a seller, it is a godsend because it eliminates a lot of bookkeeping. If I must spend time on bookkeeping, that is time I could have spent finding, designing, creating, investing in or shipping merchandise.
US $10.00 a month for a business checking account. Plus the cost for blank checks.

The worst expenses of all are computer expenses. Printer ink tops the list. If only we could use Chanel No5 in our printers instead, we would save a bundle there. Then there are hardware, software and internet expenses. Since beginning this business, I have had to replace my computer once and my camera and printer twice. My funky old monitor is still hanging on but that cannot last forever. I use McAfee virus protection, file back-up services, Comcast internet connection, a Yahoo web site and picture hosting, etc. Overall, it's a lot. In fact, I grow disgruntled writing this, so I will stop for now.

No, wait, a word about the post office.

Travel to and from the post office varies in cost. It was a huge eye-opener for me when I learned about a seller in an urban area who must take packages to the post office by bus. What a hassle! I can just see him making his way down the aisle of the bus and banging each and every knee with his humongous shopping bags filled with packages to mail. Do you think that seller is making a ton of money and should absorb the cost of bus fare? Most buyers would say, "Yeah!" Well, be careful what you wish for. If that seller IS absorbing the cost, he may go out of business soon if he's not careful. I sure hope you didn't like his merchandise too much, since it may not be available next year.

I have been getting my packages picked up off my doorstep for years now and love the convenience of it. The one type of package the USPS will not pick up is International First Class, which saves customers money, but actually costs the seller more in terms of time, money and effort. I rely on someone to take those packages to the post office for me and I cannot necessarily get these mailed within 24 hours.

Are you thinking, "So what? I live in Australia, and I will not pay for faster Priority mail just so you can get free package pick-up!" No, you are not saying that because my Australian customers are super nice and patient and are happy to pay whatever it takes for shipping. Since 2003, I have never had a disgruntled Australian customer. They trust me. They say "cheers!" a lot and I like that. And if I offer to save them money by using First Class, they wait patiently until I can get someone to take their package in. Bless those Aussies!

But my point about package pickup and post office visits is this: just because it is easy for me or for you to get to the post office doesn't mean it is easy for everyone. Just because your post office is close by doesn't mean some seller in North Dakota isn't having to drive 20 miles round trip. So sellers, please take this into consideration when you set up your online business. And buyers, please cut your seller some slack when you are thinking, "Just take it to the post office! What's the big deal?" Your life in your town and your gasoline prices are not the same as everyone else's. And did you ever consider that a number of buyers and sellers are disabled? Maybe that's why they like to shop online.

Any seller who is running a business must pass part of the cost onto the buyer and this is just obvious. How you pass the cost along is up to the seller. But if you don't do it, you will go out of business. My advice is to be honest, pass along whatever cost seems fair, apply the cost to the merchandise or the shipping or both, hope people like your products enough to pay a decent amount for it and then....well, then bite your lip when someone gets snippy. Sometimes a customer places a large order with me and the shipping calculator goes through the roof. I take pleasure in giving that person a hefty rebate. Often they appreciate it and often that is the best I can do for them. So perhaps what it boils down to is this: calculate your costs and do the best you can for as long as you can. The day you learn you are giving away too much for too little is the day you will wonder if you need to fold the business.

dj runnels

Life's an Expedition

Book covers

2009-11-10T16:04:00.004-06:00

What does one do with old hardcover book covers? I will soon have quite a pile of them to recycle and I am open to ideas. The pages are torn out, leaving only the cover.

Of course, you cannot share your ideas on my read-only blog, but you CAN answer on my Facebook page.

dj runnels

Free Soap Offer for LAE Facebook Fans

2009-11-05T13:15:00.015-06:00

Deleting old info.

Unusual yarn combo

2009-11-04T13:14:00.003-06:00

A neck warmer I am making. Can't sell it because I made a mistake in one row. Guess I'll have to keep it. Too bad. :o)

Do this & you'll never run out of yarn again.

2009-10-28T12:45:00.008-05:00

Yet another customer wrote to me to say she had run out of such-and-such yarn. Did I have any of that color? She needs it for a project she is working on.

[banging my head against a wall]

WHY does it have to be that same color and same dye lot? Because she started with Famous Brand Boring Beige #11111 and by golly, she needs to finish with Famous Brand Boring Beige #11111 even though the results are going to be just as predictably boring as any of us can imagine.

I'm not trying to tell knitters or crocheters what to do, but honestly, if you CONSIDER this piece of advice, you will never have this problem again.

Look at your project and figure out how much yarn you need.

Find three or four color-coordinated yarns in the gauge you think you will need--keeping in mind that you will have to test that gauge and/or use a different size needle.

Buy 20% more yardage than you estimated.

Now, it just so happens that I sell yarn on Zibbet in harmonizing color families. I have a huge selection in my own home, so running out of yarn is inconceivable to me. But if you get a whole gaggle of color-related yarn, you can use whichever yarns you liked best, add a pocket later, change the collar, whatever, and likely still have some leftover. Save the leftovers for a hat or something.

Today, I am wearing a brown sweater that I knitted from a vast assortment of brown yarns that I sell. Many of them were close in color or from the same color family, but many were not. They were just brown. And I could gaze at this sweater all day. I am gazing at it now as my fingers slip off the keys and ,u tu[omg siffers as a resi;t/

Do you think it was hard to make this? My knitting skills are near nil. I never learned to do intarsia, cables, entrelac or any of that stuff. I just use straight garter stitch or stockinette or maybe if I'm in a really fancy mood, I will do a seed stitch. I knit while I watch TV and I scarcely look at what I am doing. And no one has sweaters that look like mine. Well, okay, in a few cases, that is probably a good thing, because I make mistakes while I work and often refuse to unravel, but still... I have the most creative sweaters in my neighborhood, I promise you. And I never, ever, ever run out of whatever yarn I was using, because I use a wild hodgepodge of ONE COLOR FAMILY and make sure I have extras.

If I did not have extras--this doesn't happen, but if it did--I wouldn't hesitate to shift to another yarn that sort of harmonizes and just repeat that yarn somewhere else on the project. What is wrong with having a sweater with slightly contrasting collar, cuffs, pockets? That is tame compared to some of my projects, where I make the sleeves different colors and the front and the back are different lengths. Or the hem deliberately slopes to the left.

You CAN get wild and funky, people. But if that is not your taste, that's okay. I know some people like classic, traditional clothing. But please, at least contemplate knitting outside the dull beige box. Please. You will never run out of yarn again, but more than that, it will be good for your soul!

dj runnels

Spam

2009-10-15T16:05:00.006-05:00

Just listed a cutter quilt. It has a flaw in the corner, otherwise I would sell it as a vintage quilt. I was going to make pillow covers out of it but my project list is in serious, serious backlog.

Not feeling well today, but I did want to post a list of what I sell and/or am working on. It's a cut-and-paste, which is as much as I can handle right now.

handwoven handbags, pillows, wall pockets, scarves, handknit bags, neckwarmers, rugs, hats, hoods, belts, eyeglass cases, primitive chokers, hippie necklaces, trader beads, jewelry findings and gift boxes for jewelry makers, handmade polymer clay scarabs and other pendants, papier mache bowls, potpourri holders, handpainted boxes and wooden housewares, ethnic and cultural antiques or vintage house wares, rare and antiquarian books, maps, sheet music, ephemera for paper crafts, handmade zombie journals, garden journals, arts and crafts and design books, supplies for professional crafters such as shopping bags, mannequin heads, candle holders, empty jewelry boxes, garden castles, birdhouses, bird feeders, garden stakes, bookends—these last few products in conjunction with my husband, the woodworker.

dj runnels

Rustic wooden bowl, painted & sanded

2009-10-12T16:30:00.002-05:00

Gosh, I'd like to remove this. But for some reason, I cannot.

Yarn Mixing 101

2009-10-09T11:22:00.003-05:00

Originally posted on my website and on eBay:

Everyone asks me how I blend my yarns. I normally reply that I use a pitchfork, bacon grease and 3D glasses. But after a few slaps to the head, I behave and give more intelligent advice. This guide will be about switching yarns while knitting. I realize some of you will read this and say, "Duh!" but I would not be writing this if I had not been asked for advice. Others are having trouble with the concept so if you know all of this already, try to sit still and be quiet. Or run out and get Starbucks for all of us.

The easiest way to explain what I do is to have you try a swatch. This should only take 20 minutes. Even less if you've been drinking Starbucks. Choose three worsted weight yarns that look completely different in terms of color. Yeah. We're going to make an ugly swatch so you can see what it is you did and how you did it. Next select a needle size that is about a size larger than the yarn calls for. Designate your colors A, B and C.

Cast on 12 stitches with A.

Row 1: knit across. In fact, knit all the odd rows.

Row 2: purl across. You will purl across all the even rows.

Row 3: knit across.

Row 4: Leave A hanging there. Make a slip knot with a three-inch "tail" with B. Purl across working the tail into your knitting. It will be bulkier than the other rows. I'll address that in a minute.

Row 5: knit across with B.

Row 6: purl across holding A and B together.

Row 7: knit across with B only.

Row 8: leave B hanging. Make a slip knot with a three-inch "tail" with C. Purl across working the tail into your work. It will be bulkier here, too. And now you will have strands hanging all over creation.

Row 9: knit across with A.

Row 10: purl across with B.

Row 11: knit across with C.

Keep going until you feel you are getting the hang of it. At any time, if A, B and C are creating a humongous tangle, cut one off at the seam and tie a knot that won't show when you sew the seams together which is sort of the beginner method. OR create a slit knot and work the tail into your knitting. The more distinct your colors are and the more often you switch at the end of a row, the more striped your results will be. The more you alternate between A, B, C and D and E and however many yarns you have, plus the more SIMILAR your colors are and the more you work the tails into your work, the more blended the effects will be.

But before you start making a coat the size of a Buick, please do this: measure your gauge. I asked you to use slightly larger needles to allow for those bulky double-yarn rows. How did they turn out? If you're using worsted weight yarn and you're getting 4 stitches to the inch on every row, that's great. If some rows are wider than others, you will likely need to swap needle sizes now and then as you work...unless you like the results you are getting. Also look at the color changes that started on knit rows versus the color changes that started on purl rows. If you always swap colors on a purl row, you'll have a nicer look on the "right" side of the piece. But if you don't mind the dotted lines or if you're doing straight knit on both sides, then don't worry about what everyone says you "should" do. Rely on what you like. It's your work. You go, girl.

This is not the only way to blend yarns. It is one way and it is intended to simplify the mystery for beginners who are nervous about this sort of thing. If you feel encouraged by this swatch test, try it again with yarns similar in color and texture and you will like your results much better. If you're familiar with the yarn in my store, THIS, my darlings, is what it is all about. This is why I create yarns in color families and this is how I knit every day of my life. I haven't made a solid-color anything in over a decade. This is what the rest of us have been doing with yarn-mixing, or at least one way of doing it. Good luck. Experiment. There is much more to knitting than following concise directions and I hope you enjoy this great adventure that awaits you. Stephanie, I wrote this for you and in honor of your grandmother.

djrunnels

Trying to connect my blog to Facebook

2009-10-06T11:44:00.002-05:00

I am trying to link this blog with my Facebook fan page (instead of my private profile) and Facebook asked for nine of my FB friends to confirm who I am. So I hope no one gets mad at me. Or wonders why I am blonde one week and not the next.

dj runnels

Zombieland, the movie

2009-10-03T18:37:00.004-05:00

Saw the Zombieland movie.
Briefly:
The male leads are funny.
The female leads are okay.
Ya gotta love Bill Murray.

I laughed out loud over a dozen times but regretted that I was eating popcorn, because the grossness was just too gross.

dj

This blog is read-only

2009-10-02T11:22:00.008-05:00

New mannequin head for sale.

I made this using papier mache techniques over styrofoam. I will write more about it soon.

My blog is read-only, but I have a Facebook fan page you can join without revealing your profile or info page.

dj runnels

Who's fanning you back on Facebook?

2009-09-18T14:36:00.011-05:00

EDITED FEBRUARY 24, 2011: Twitter and Facebook have changed, so this post is no longer accurate.

This article is prompted by my relatively popular blog article about the easiest way to see who follows you back on Twitter (archived).

If you have a Facebook account, registration, wall, profile, etc. in your first and last name, that is your profile. Your profile links to your wall and your information or info. Many, many people have a Facebook account with a profile. And you can wander around facebook looking for groups, networks, schools, etc. that you can join. When you join these, you become a fan of that PAGE. You are not sharing your personal profile or info. You are becoming a fan without becoming a friend or letting that group become your friend.

Let's say you also have a business. It can be a construction business or a rock band or a yarn store online. Or a group such as Mothers Against Drunk Drivers. Or Fathers Against Drunk Cheerleaders. Or Young Republicans Against Young Drunk Democrats. Whatever. You want to promote this business or group or rock band so you set up a PAGE that serves as an adjunct to your regular Facebook account.

If you do not have such a PAGE serving as an adjunct, you can skip this article entirely. It probably won't interest you. There! I saved you five minutes! ((((hugs!!))))

But if you have both a Facebook profile and Facebook PAGE, and you want to know if the other PAGE owners are reciprocating your request to become mutual fans, you will soon learn that this is very tricky to determine.

Example: If Jane Doe joined Facebook with an individual name--Jane Doe--and then set up a business "PAGE" called Wild Art Inc. and you have many names to keep track of, you may not remember that Jane Doe = Wild Art. You cannot look through your fans for Wild Art because she is listed as Jane Doe. And you can't search through your PAGES of which you are a fan to see if Jane Doe is there because she is only listed there as Wild Art.

So here is what I do.

Everyone time I fan someone's PAGE, I leave a cheery note, often with a link back to my PAGE. Sometimes the program won't let me leave a link. Either way, I leave a friendly note that says Dee Jay Runnels was here and your jewelry is cute and omigosh, you live in UK and other chatty things. (I do not spell my name DeeJay, but Facebook insisted dj was not a name, so...) A few weeks may elapse. When I have a moment, I will go to my own fan PAGE and go to the top of the page and click FRIENDS.

Now on the left navigation bar, I click PAGES with the flag icon next to it.

Now I see a list of everyone I chose to "fan."

I click on a name and it will take me to their PAGE.

I then do a page search for RUNNELS. I am looking for my witty little "hello" and whatever else I have written in the past few weeks.

If I can't find anything, I click on just fans under the blank message box.

If I still can't find my last name, I scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on older posts.

If I stilllllllllll can't find my name anywhere on the page--except at the extreme top right corner of the page (because it is always up there) or in the list of fans--my conclusion is that my friendship or fanship or commentary means so little that the owner of this PAGE purged all evidence of my existence. I do not care for that. If I like this person, I may continue to be a fan. If I feel lukewarm about them, I will go to the lower left corner of the page and click on Remove Me From Fans. Because to me, whether they became my fan or not, I feel more depersonalized that they do not care what their own fans think. It's as if I am merely boosting their fans number and nothing more. I feel used. I don't care to come back. The end. Admittedly, this procedure will not identify who fans you back, but it is quicker and it will tell you who doesn't give a rat's *ss what you think. To me, that is more important.

dj runnels
http://www.facebook.com/LifesAnExpedition

By the way, I read what my fans post on my facebook PAGE and I encourage participation. That doesn't mean you should post your You Tube videos, an entire photo album of your own work, shamelessly plug yourself every week and/or tell me how you love somebody else's yarn better than mine! But general commentary about creative subjects is welcome.

eBay Powerseller Myths Debunked

2009-09-18T13:17:00.011-05:00

This originally appeared on my web site, then on eBay. I am re-posting it here with the consent of the author (me) because both buyers and sellers tend to find the information valuable.
Ebayers make assumptions about sellers and powersellers that are absolutely untrue.
For example: MOST POWERSELLERS make six figures in gross income, right? ::snort:: Gimme a break. We're online retailers, not Bill Gates. The few who make this kind of money are the exception, not the rule. The requirements for becoming a powerseller are pretty low. Sellers needs to average $1,000 a month in gross sales over a three-month period, which means $12,000 a year gross. (This rule has been modified. More on that below.) If they run a very streamlined business, find merchandise at low cost, sell it for double what they paid, sell most stuff from an ebay store with minimal effort or through eagerly sought-out auctions in which customers clobber each other to buy goods... and that's asking a lot... best case scenario would be to take that $12,000 and subtract at least 60% to cover ebay and paypal fees and cost of goods. Net income is now $4,800 per year. Now deduct taxes based on household earnings tax bracket. At 25%, that leaves $3,600 a year. Ouch.
A $3,000/month average minus 60% fees is $14,400 net, which leaves $10,800 after taxes. Ouch again.

IS THAT TYPICAL? I can't say for certain, as most powersellers do not want to talk about this. It's personal and embarrassing. But I've conducted informal surveys and gathered estimated sales figures on closed auctions for specific sellers. To the best of my knowledge, powersellers tend to be in the $12K to 36K gross income range. Assuming they sell goods acquired honestly, live in the US, have operating costs (as opposed to services they gain "free" at the office) and pay income taxes, they could be making as little as $4,800 to $10,800 net per year or worse.
Why am I telling you this? Because buyers accost me as if I were stingy and wealthy--which gets tiresome--and keep asking me for discounts and deals. And because would-be sellers are dying to know if they can quit their day jobs and make a living at this. I found a statistic somewhere saying 420,000 Americans support themselves on ebay without additional income. That number is lower than I thought it would be. Can you become # 420,001? Well, I've tried as hard as anyone I know to achieve that, yet I failed. So my advice to you is to give it a try for a few years before you commit full-time. I'm giving you realistic facts and educated impressions, but your own experiences will give you reality.

My husband made a valid observation that helped me put eBay in perspective: they take a percentage of your earnings. That means as you thrive, so do they, in geometric proportions. If you own a bricks and mortar store and business is going well, your rent, utilities, advertising, printer ink, etc., will not rise in proportion to your increased income. But if you sell more on eBay, they take a big percentage that rises in proportion to your gross income. You are actually paying a heavier penalty for doing well. I think this is why the most lucrative sellers (if there are any!) use eBay as a promotional vehicle to draw new customers into their online store.

WHAT ABOUT ARTICLES ABOUT MAKING HUGE INCOME on ebay? I'm sure there are exceptions to what I am telling you. But when were these articles written? Competition on eBay is fierce. According to medved.net, at the start of the year 2000, there were 2.5 million auctions running. January 2007 showed roughly 12-19 million running per day. Newbie sellers on the eBay blogs wail, "Why didn't my item sell? I started bidding at 99 cents and it's worth way more than that! What am I doing wrong?" The answer is: probably nothing. But you have FAR more competition than you realize.

SO HOW CAN YOU MAKE POWERSELLER STATUS? Study the email tutorials, the methods of other sellers, ended listings, articles about ebay on the internet and books about ecommerce. Tinker with headline wording, categories, prices, different products. Make sure your product is searchable in any search engine. Develop a little business savvy and a lot of patience. Be friendly and go the extra mile for customers. And be willing to devote months or years just to reach $36K gross ($10K net) depending on how popular your chosen merchandise is. If you want to earn Big Bucks, i.e.: more than the figures I have given, you will probably need multiple online venues, some social networking programs such as Facebook and Twitter, plus more smarts and perseverance than I have. I work my butt off and have little to show for it.
THEN WHY ARE EBAY SELLERS selling books and tapes revealing secrets of making huge money? Because those products sell better than their original merchandise did. Those sellers will be mad I said that. I don't care.
WHY AM I TRASHING EBAY? Whoaaaaa, hold it right there. I am absolutely NOT trashing ebay. I enjoy selling stuff. I am only debunking the notion that all powersellers are wealthy and a few other stereotypes. Take for example this belief that powersellers are arrogant. Okay, I am. But the other powersellers are super nice because if they weren't, their feedback would be lousy and no one would buy from them. Trust me on this. The powersellers are good people. Your bias against them, if you have one, is ill-founded. If you are biased against them because of wealth, that is ill-founded. If you are biased against them because they seem arrogant, I suggest to you that you have not rubbed elbows with enough of them to figure out that they are very nice, professional, conscientious people. Arrogant, mean sellers go out of business FAST on eBay.
However, I admit that an ambitious seller can reach powerseller status quickly, rake in too many negative feedbacks, get shut down by eBay or simply close up shop, then turn around and open a new shop under a new name. To avoid that sort of person, read feedback and be wary of the newest sellers.

WHY DO SOME POWERSELLERS ACT AS IF THEY NEVER EVEN READ YOUR LAST EMAIL? It's nothing personal! Larger businesses have more customers and more red tape. I am not one of the largest, busiest powersellers, yet I receive an onslaught of emails on eBay.
WHY DO SELLERS TAKE FOREVER TO SHIP? Short answer: they don't.
Long answer: Take a look at the date your payment cleared. No, not the date you sent payment. The date it CLEARED Paypal or the two weeks it took your personal check to clear the bank. Allow for mail delivery, too. Don't cheat. Come up with an honest date.
Now compare that date to the date the seller shipped, which appears on the shipping label. By federal law and according to ebay protocol, these two dates should be less than 30 days apart. I can practically hear you choking. Yes, 30 days. That's a huge window, isn't it? And that's why you will usually find the two dates are closer together than that. If you think the gap is too large, check the bottom of the seller's listing for the words "Usually ships within _ business days of cleared payment." If seller met that time frame, meaning you (the buyer) was told in advance what to expect, then the buyer is wrong to leave negative feedback or a low star ranking for shipping time. Normally, this is the part where I pause while standing on my soapbox and say, "Feel free to disagree." But in this case, I won't, because you have no right to disagree. Wipe that look off your face. Look me in the eye. Your bid signified your willingness to follow terms. If the seller fulfilled the terms and you ding their feedback anyway because you WISH the terms had been different, you are morally wrong. And so is your dog.

PARADOX: buyers who ask for Media Mail or Parcel Post tend to believe the seller shipped slowly, whereas those who ask for Priority Mail think the seller shipped quickly. My feedback confirms this perception and it is wrong. I tend to ship everything within 48 hours. It's just that one arrives faster than the other BECAUSE OF THE POSTAL SYSTEM. It has nothing to do with anything I did. Yet time and again, my orders that were shipped Priority Mail receive great feedback and my orders that were shipped Media Mail show a more tepid response. In essence, customers judge me and rate me for the performance of the U.S. Postal Service, even though their performance is completely outside my control.

HOW COME THE POWERSELLER SAID they no longer have this thing in stock? Why did they even list it if they don't have it? [I'm pausing for you to spew some swear words, cuz I know that makes you feel better.] No, sweetie, it's not a scam. It's hard to keep track of tons of merchandise. You will never understand this until you become an online seller with more than 100 listings. Go fill up two spare rooms in your house with $20,000 worth of merchandise and keep exact track of what you sell and what you ship for a year. It's more difficult than you might think. Do this for a year and then we'll talk about. --dj runnels (c) 2007 but edited periodically since then.

NOTE added September 17, 2009: eBay's powerseller criteria, rules and terms are changing rapidly. I don't mean for this guide to be out of date, but it will be from time to time. Currently, it is far easier to become a powerseller and remain one if you provide excellent customer service. I applaud that change, because the buyer doesn't care about doing business with the seller who makes the most money; the buyer wants the most reliable seller and the newer criteria reflect this. When you shop on eBay, look for Top-Rated Sellers. You will more likely get the best service from these people. Again, there will be exceptions, but as I said, read the feedback and scrutinize new sellers.

Another thing that is changing: the label of "powerseller" will designate a probable lower income than ever before. My monthly gross sales for August 2009 = $16 and from that sixteen dollars, I must subtract my net eBay and Paypal fees ($7.84) as well as my office expenses. I point out that I do not have very many listings on eBay at the moment, since I moved most of my inventory. Yet I remain a powerseller. Well, the economy bites right now and I doubt if anybody is getting rich off of anybody else.

NOTE to crafters: I do not recommend selling on eBay. The shoppers do not normally seek, appreciate or value handmade goods. But craft supplies sell pretty well since eBay gets HUGE traffic and buyers tend to search on name brands. If you are running Unknown Ceramic Buttonmakers of America, you will have a rough time there. If you are selling McCall's and Simplicity sewing patterns, you are searchable. If you are selling handmade handbags, don't even try; that's money down the drain. Think SEARCHABLE and BRAND NAME. Maybe you could list a few items and set up an ABOUT ME page that links to your other sites. Any promotions to your other wares on other sites must be on ABOUT ME. See eBay for details on this.

Hope you found this info useful. I love sharing information with professional crafters, craft hobbyists, buyers, sellers, SAHMs, artists and/or anyone with just enough creativity to paint their own toenails. Please consider joining my Facebook page. You won't have to divulge any personal information about yourself or add me as a friend. See link upper left on this page. Happy crafting, sweetie!

Note added March 2, 2011: I now have two growing shops on eCrater. If you are contemplating a presence on eBay, consider one on eCrater instead. As of this writing, there are no fees on eCrater. Here is my home goods store. And here is my bookstore.

dj runnels

This blog is read-only, but comments are encouraged on the Life's an Expedition Facebook page.

Sock Knitting 101

2009-08-29T14:52:00.008-05:00

Hooray! Someone told me this explained the process very clearly for her! I feel almost valuable or something!

I think the most difficult task of making a pair of socks is imagining how the heel turns and trying to visualize it from the directions. Once you knit a pair—or someone shows you how—it all becomes more obvious.

So my goal in writing this is to give you an idea of how the sock creation process works. You can actually knit a pair using my directions. I do it all the time because I loathe following directions. But be forewarned: my socks come out less than perfect. Ideally, if you can grasp my description and then find some easy-to-follow directions, you will be better off.

Here’s how I make socks. I generally use about 200 yards of a sport weight yarn or two strands of fingering held together. I cast on 48 stitches onto THREE size 6 double-pointed needles, using a FOURTH needle to work the stitches onto. I also have a FIFTH needle nearby that I will use later. I use a knit 2, purl 2 ribbing. Ribbing is nice for the ankle section because it helps the socks stay up. I use this ribbing pattern all the way around on three needles, which form a triangle, being careful not to twist the stitches when I return to my starting point. That’s one mistake beginner sock makers tend to make: twisting the stitches. With me so far? I am hoping the photos that I took will help you visualize it.

Whenever I make the transition from one needle to the next, I snug up the first stitch on the next needle. If you don’t do this, you end up with a sort of ladder-like gap running the length of the sock. But if that's too much information for now, don't worry about it. Try your hand at knitting socks and you will quickly see the ladder showing up and then you will smack your forehead and say, "THAT's what she was talking about!" Then come back here and re-read this. Snugging up the first stitch on each needle is one method to avoid that gap.

Another method to avoiding the ladder gap is to go ahead and transfer four stitches over to the previous needle. This is a little more technical, but don't panic. Try to envision this: let's say I k 2, p 2 three times, which makes a total of 12 stitches. Then I am about to move onto the next needle. But instead of moving on, I skootch four stitches over to the one I'm still using. In other words, I will k2, p2 the first four onto the needle I am currently on. THEN start a fresh needle as I work around the triangle. So I am sort of sneaking future stitches onto the current needle. If this is just too darn hard to understand, don’t berate yourself. You are doing fine. It’s hard to explain. You can get by with using the first technique I described and figure this out later.

Personally, I use both techniques. With a little practice, you will be able to do so as well. I hope I don't sound as if I am addressing you as an eight-year-old. I don't mean to. I am just trying to explain it as carefully as I can. I have complete faith in you being able to get the hang of this!

I continue the k2, p2 circular pattern around the three double-pointed needles, using a 4th needle to work the stitches onto, until the cuff is the length I like. If you like knee socks or if you are making large adult socks, you are going to need more than 200 yards. But if you are a size 6 ½ like me, or making children's socks, or are okay with short ankle sections, 200 yards ought to be enough. Don’t hold me to this, okay? It's just a ballpark estimate.

I now have a nice ribbed ankle section hanging off three needles. I am through using the ribbing pattern. I will put 24 stitches on a stitch holder and work the remaining 24 stitches back and forth on two needles while the other needles are idle. I knit across and then purl my way back. As I work, my sock is inside out and I keep it inside out the whole time.

I know to knit when I can peek inside the sock at the “right side.”
When the inside of the sock is turned away from me, I purl across.

I continue doing this for about 2 ½ inches. Guess what we just made? It's the infamous heel flap you hear so much about. So many knitters freak out when it's time to turn the heel because it seems to make no sense. This flap will go on my heel when I wear the completed socks. There is a better way to make this heel flap and you will learn it when you follow a real sock pattern. But my sock diatribe here is for beginners or cheaters or those who just want an overview before they start working with an actual pattern. It will still produce a sock, but it probably won’t be the perfect sock. Can I tell you something, though? Your first sock probably won't be perfect anyway. You may as well make a cheater sock in cheap yarn before tackling a real pattern. Use the cheater sock as a dust rag when you are through.

You're looking at my photos, right?

Notice we now have a ribbed ankle that ends in a stitch holder on one side. Opposite that, we have a heel flap whose last row is on a needle. Then there are two other sides of this rectangular (almost square) shape we are looking at. And those two other sides are the sides of the heel flap. I am going to pick up and knit (or purl) off those sides. Okay, how do I know whether to knit or purl? Repeating what I said earlier:

I know to knit when I can peek inside the sock at the “right side.”
When the inside of the sock is turned away from me, I purl across.
This is still true.

I start with the needle end of the heel flap. I will either purl or knit across--according to the rule I just stated. Now I will pick up and work one side of the heel flap. Then the stitches on the stitch holder. Then the other side of the heel flap. I am back where I started. Ta da! My four needles (I'm using four now because I have more stitches to juggle) form a square. My 5th needle is for working the stitches.

At this point, regardless of whether I have been knitting or purling, no matter which direction I have been going, I will now pick up my work so that I can see the inside of my lovely sock. I now knit across all my stitches, every row, continually, with my project inside out, going around 4 needles and using a fifth needle for the current stitches. I’m still using size 6 double-pointed needles. I stopped using a ribbing pattern. I am using stockinette, the way I did on the heel flap.

We can tell this is stockinette because there are V's on the right side of the sock and U's on the wrong side. And again, the sock is inside out, so the right side is inside this tubelike shape I am making. I will continue to use stockinette (straight K across) for the rest of the sock. Stay with me! We are past the hardest part!

Since my foot tapers, I am going to periodically knit 2 together or decrease so that the foot of my sock will get smaller and narrower as I go. Because I am not following a pattern, I really don't know if I am decreasing often enough or not. So I will carefully try on the sock. That's right. I am going to slip my foot in there. It’s a riot. Don’t let any stitches fall off the needles.

When it looks as though I have enough to encompass my foot, I begin to cast off. And hopefully, at this point, I have far fewer stitches than I had near the heel flap. I then stitch the toe shut by hand. If I were to photograph this sock without my foot in it, it would resemble a balloon-like sock and we would all get a good laugh. But when I put my foot in it, it looks better. And after it’s been worn and been through the wash a few times, it will probably fit reasonably well...or at least well enough to wear with boots, because that’s what these are: thick boot socks that few people will see except for the cuff or ankle and, btw, I did a great job on that ankle so I don't care a whole lot what the foot look like. Nyah!

Hope this helps you get an overview of the mystery of sock knitting. I’ve made a few dozen pairs like this. Good luck!

This article is copyrighted (c) August 2009 to dj runnels, owner of Life's an Expedition. Plagiarists will be hanged. But you are more than welcome to link to it.

Ta for now.
dj runnels

Godzilla

2009-08-23T16:51:00.004-05:00

We're in autumnal mode. Find Godzilla yarn here.

dj runnels

Castles

2009-08-20T20:33:00.002-05:00

What a great day! I got my first feedback on Artfire. (It's sort of tricky to figure out how to leave feedback there. I'm not criticizing it because I like the system MUCH better than that of eBay, but it takes a little rooting around.) And the woman who left the feedback for me was very kind, a wonderful customer.

Also, I just got an email from TiLT Treasures saying one of Roger's castles is featured.

There is nothing more wonderful than sharing creativity with other artisans. It makes my heart sing!

dj runnels
directory of my stuff

Are they following you back on Twitter? An easy way to check.

2009-08-05T17:12:00.006-05:00

Everybody wants to know if the people they follow on Twitter are also following them back. There are probably programs that will help you find out, but I don't like using those things. Some of them ask for your password and then start churning out spam under YOUR NAME because they have access to your account. Not cool.

Anyway, I was tinkering around on Twitter and found a relatively easy way to see which of the people whom you follow are also following you. It takes a few minutes. If you have over a thousand followers, it may take 20 to 40 minutes. Rough estimate. It also depends on how many people are using Twitter at that moment, since it slows down when traffic is heavy. But this technique does work and if you are the sort of person who wants to indignantly unfollow these non-followers, hey, go for it. You will be able to do so instantly.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS.
Open your Twitter account. Do this online at Twitter because I am not sure if this works from TweetDeck or any other program.
Click on PROFILE in the upper right corner.
Drift down a few inches.
See the word FOLLOWING under the number of people you follow? Click that.
It will take you to a page of the people YOU follow.
There are two icons in the upper left end of a pale gray bar.
Select the second icon, which is called LIST.
Now you see a condensed list of people you follow.
Across from these names, over on the right, is a column entitled "ACTIONS."
The ACTION column contains buttons showing a picture of a sun or something.
For each person, click on that SUN button.
It will give you a choice of 3 or 4 actions you can take.
If it gives you 4 choices, the second choice will be sending a Direct Message to that person.
But if it only gives you THREE CHOICES--and sending a Direct Message is not one of the choices--then this person either STOPPED FOLLOWING YOU or has never followed you.

Now you must decide: is it important that they follow you? Some people believe it is irrelevant. But if you wish, you can UNfollow them on the spot, because that will be one of the three choices you are given. I do not endorse this behavior, but hey, people DO want to know and that's why I'm letting you know. Something to keep in mind is that some people do not add new followers every day. If you only recently added a person, maybe they have not seen you yet. You might want to give them a couple of weeks.

dj runnels

Knitting without directions

2009-07-28T20:53:00.005-05:00

Somebody was asking how to translate a pattern from chunky to worsted. I can't even wrap my brain around that. I would toss out the pattern directions and keep the schematic or sketch. Figure out the dimensions and write them down in inches. For example, let's say you have a sketch of a sweater. Look at the hem. Maybe it's a size large and the hem is 40 inches in circumference, worked up on circular needles.

Next test your yarn and needles and get a gauge. If you see that the yarn you want to use on a particular circular needle is worsted gauge, or 4 st to the inch, then you will want to cast on 4 st x 40 inches. So you cast on 160 st. If the schematic says the length from the hem to the armpit is 20 inches, then keep knitting until it is 20 inches long. At this point, you probably need to divide the stitches onto non-circular needles. Perhaps you will put the back on stitch holders and continue working the front. You might decrease three inches at each armhole. Since you are working in worsted, then you will need to dec 4 st per inch or 12 st on each side.

Does this make sense? If not, then you probably NEED directions to follow and there is nothing wrong with that. Your work will come out more precisely. If you are averse to following directions and/or if you tend to work better from visuals, you may like my way better. Socks are a challenge because you must envision how that heel flap works. I will see if I can draw it or something. Unless of course I forget completely or wander off to eat a sandwich. [Edited November 16, 2011 to add: I did follow through and write about the socks. Avid knitters who were always confused by socks have written wonderful things about that particular blog post without my having to bribe them or anything.]

Ta!
dj runnels
Most of my yarn is on Zibbet and there's a very, very good chance that you WANT my yarn.
Most of my non-yarn is on Etsy.

Blankets recycled

2009-07-26T19:03:00.003-05:00

Kris from the Resweater blog mentioned a great use for old wool blankets: recycle them into mattress pad covers. Let me think... you could sew a blanket to a fitted sheet and sort of quilt it into place. Then put your regular sheets over it. Voila! A nice toasty bed for winter.

I have an old wool blanket I am planning to make into a winter coat. Yep. #563 on my list of things to do.

dj runnels
what I make and where I sell it

Newest handwoven scarf

2009-07-20T15:48:00.002-05:00

Ooops. Found a dead link.

Comments for this blog

2009-07-08T13:53:00.008-05:00

When I joined Google+, there was a slight mishap and many of my blog photos disappeared, since my blog and my G+ account are linked. That's why I had to either replace photos or, if the photo was unavailable, delete the post. Yeah, yeah, I know. You wish you had my problems.

dj runnels
what I do

scarves, blogs and Michael Jackson

2009-07-07T13:10:00.005-05:00

The photo you see here is completely unrelated to what I am about to say, but if you read me regularly, you might want to just sorta get used to that. Heh.

I'm exploring blogs today. Check out the Scarf a Day blog, especially the woven scarf photo posted May 27. I just wanted to jump into that rack.

As for Michael Jackson, I am not following the memorial service, as I think I will get too sad. Normally, although I refrain from using the word "judge" or "assess," I tend to assess or view people in the Big Picture. The whole enchilada. I am that way with most people. But with MJ, I cannot reconcile the enormous debts or adverse media coverage about his alleged sex life. So I am compartmentalizing my view of him. Regardless of whatever else he may or may not have done, I will go on record as saying that I consider MJ the best performer, musician, singer, dancer, artist and creative icon of the past hundred years, if not longer. If I can think of a better one, I'll let you know. I have frequently said, "I want to write the way that man sings." I still feel that way, even though I have shifted from a life as a writer to a life as an artist. If you disagree with any part of this paragraph, I am fine with that. I just know in my heart that I must stick with my convictions and not alter myself to gain mass approval or to avoid controversy. I am saddened by the loss of a great creative genius.

dj runnels
what I make and where it is

Ringsurf links

2009-07-06T14:32:00.003-05:00

I'm having trouble figuring out how to add this code, so don't yell at me.

Yarn Addicts Unite!
Powered By Ringsurf

WeaveCommunity
Powered By Ringsurf

Um, I did post these though, okay? Hello? Weavers and yarn addicts?

Note to Hippiewear: thank you for mentioning me on your blog. I will add you to my list. :o) Back-scratching is alive and well!

dj runnels
what I sell and where it is

Etsy mini

2009-07-04T20:58:00.001-05:00

I kept hearing about the Etsy mini, but never figured out what it was. Duh! It's very cool. I'm such an airhead for not investigating this sooner.

The Life of Ethan, part 1

2009-07-02T11:50:00.011-05:00

I have been procrastinating writing this because it is so painful, but that is no excuse. It all has to be said and you can skip over it if you want, but you will be missing out on an extraordinary human being.

My nephew Ethan Runnels, born in 1983, was a cherubic blond child who eventually went through the typical teen-aged angst...and then some. I hope I do not offend anyone by mentioning that Ethan dropped out of high school (but later got his GED). And that he sort of "borrowed" his father's car in Indianapolis without permission. The police in Nebraska were kind enough to inform my brother that they had located my nephew and the car. But hey, whose kids are perfect?

Okay, there were some other incidents, too. Some of them a bit scary. But no matter. It was a phase Ethan was going through and not one that we condemned him for, because he was a good person at heart and we hoped he would find himself, as they say. I mention that he had issues, because it will make this story all the more meaningful to you when you learn how he later turned out. I can't have you reading this and thinking, "Oh, yeah, sure, those privileged kids always have it made. He never had to suffer."

Ethan did suffer although we are not entirely sure how or why. He was a typical, middle-class kid. Things were not handed to him on a silver platter. He had a good home and good parents and went to a good school. But that boy had major issues. Perhaps another person, in his shoes, would have gone straight into alcoholism or other serious problems, dragging everyone down with him. But Ethan took the time to think. His introspection served him well and he overcame many of his issues. And with his good heart, he blossomed into an even better person over time.

By the time he was in his early twenties, he was picking apart bicycles, tinkering with them, developing an appreciation for nature, getting a feel for his Native American roots--although by my estimate, if I am 1/32 Native American at the most, that puts Ethan at 1/64. No matter. There is a segment of our clan that loves gardening, nature, all things botanical, Native American lore, etc. And Ethan was part of that mindset. No, he was more than part of it. He was a leader for those who bothered to listen.

So when Ethan participated in some kind of Outward Bound program to get his head on straight, and evolved from there to participating in other nature programs, we were all proud of him and started to have wonderful conversations with him. My husband and stepson had many long talks with Ethan about camping and survival skills.

And when Ethan chose to spend half a year honing those skills out west in 2008, his family and his friends all said, "Cool! Go, Ethan!" I received sporadic updates on his adventures, including a rented house that accidentally caught fire and an incident with some road kill. See photo of Ethan with a deer. He did NOT kill that deer nor did he feel insensitive about its death. But he found it dead and simply did not want to pass up the photo op. That's why he is mugging for the camera.

In late August, 2008, Ethan announced that his car was kaput so he decided to sell it and ride his bicycle from Montana back to Indianapolis. This trip was at least 1,800 miles. And despite some issues I have about visitors--which are completely unrelated to Ethan or this story, so I will not elaborate--I insisted that my nephew stay with me in the Chicago area in his last few legs of the journey home. Up to this point, it felt to me as if my husband and stepson had bonded with Ethan better than I had. I felt left out. Something told me that I MUST spend time with him, find out what made him tick, what he valued, who he had grown into. He was 25 and it was time to re-meet my own nephew.

So in the last days of August and early September, Ethan kept me posted as to his whereabouts. He emailed me from libraries and checked his cell phone once in a while as he got close to Chicago. This cell phone, if I am understanding correctly, was one of the few electronic possessions Ethan owned. In recent years, he had been giving away possessions and paring down his life to keep himself connected to That Which Mattered Most and this was just one of a long list of attributes I wanted to learn more about.

And learn I did. When Ethan was about to leave Wisconsin, I emailed maps to him to help him find his way down a bike trail from Crystal Lake, Illinois, along the Fox River, down to my home in suburban Chicago. The man who rang my front doorbell was lean and unevenly tanned from being on a bike day after day. We watched him eat two hamburgers, half a pizza, two pieces of apple pie and numerous bottles of water. We talked until we were all hoarse. We made him spend the night. (Oh, yes, we insisted he shower first, as he was so rank!) And then we talked his ears off the next day, too. We literally did not want him to leave. Please believe that I am not exaggerating when I say that I was awestruck by his persona. I hugged him goodbye with tears in my eyes and told my husband that we had been given a precious gift. That was how I viewed two days with this man--September 10 and 11, 2008--a precious gift. Roger took photos of him right before he left and as he rode away. (See below.) A few days later, after some of the heaviest rains seen in the midwest in a long time, Ethan soggily made it within 50 miles of Indianapolis before too many bike repairs made it necessary for him to call his dad for a ride.

I saw Ethan very briefly once more, in Indianapolis, but I was too preoccupied with a family crisis to give him the attention he deserved.

Then on February 14, 2009, my mother, Ethan's grandmother, called to tell me that there had been an accident. Ethan had gone canoeing with a friend in the White River that runs through Indianapolis. If you want to know more about it, google the name Ethan James Runnels and you'll find plenty of hits.

Please remember, Ethan was a very accomplished and confident survivalist. He took classes in survival skills and taught these skills to others. He had given a class in hypothermia two weeks prior to the accident, wherein he cut a hole in the ice in this same river and jumped in, then showed his students what to do in case such a thing ever happened. If you google his name and read about the accident, you will learn that the media focused heavily on the fact that Ethan was not wearing a life jacket when he drowned. Yes, he should have worn one, but perhaps due to overconfidence, he didn't. He got in the boat that afternoon and skillfully navigated six miles in choppy water, wearing hiking boots and a winter coat. Then just as he reached his destination, he got caught in some low tree branches and capsized a few feet from shore. His companion, a strong swimmer, made it out. But the strong current exerted thousands of pounds of pressure on Ethan and pulled him downstream and underwater. The winter coat and hiking boots probably absorbed a lot of water. A life jacket may or may not have saved his life, but we will never know. His body was found two months later, on Easter Sunday, washed up on a sandbar near the Indianapolis Museum of Art.

I will say no more about the accident, nor will I allow any insensitive or disrespectful comments to be written about it on this blog.

The family is still in shock. We cannot fathom how the best survivalist of our family did not survive. Valentine's Day and Easter Sunday are forever ruined for us. Many people grieve for Ethan, especially his father, mother and sister. But also my brother's extended family... my sister-in-law's extended family... Ethan's many friends.

I am just one of many people who feels the grief and I do not place myself high in the pecking order of those who are saddened. Yet I think of him every day. I cannot see a bike without thinking of him. The river near my house reminds me of him. Any discussion of bicycle parts or mechanics upsets me. I cry when I see a canoe, even if it's on TV. Yet I am willing to sit here with tears running down my face and dredge up awful memories and fill you in on the background of this story because the world deserves to know what an amazing person Ethan was. And in my mind, still is. His philosophy lives in us still.

So to paraphrase my cousin Allen, I will talk no more about how Ethan died. I will talk about how Ethan lived. And this story will continue in a blog post that I will entitle, The Life of Ethan, part 2. And it will continue until I have said all I can think of, but even then, I will never be able to say it all. I love you, Ethan.

aunt dj

Yo.

2009-06-29T19:58:00.000-05:00

I'm still here. I've been offline.

Modular knitting and crocheting

2009-06-02T16:10:00.010-05:00

My customers often send me photos of their projects. Here is one from a woman who crochets up a storm. She's been making squares of this sort and assembling them into garments such as boleros for her daughter and the daughter's friends. Many of my yarns are shown in this photo, but since she mixes the colors--Yes! That's okay to do!--I can't honestly tell which yarns these are. I think she told me she used some silk sari blends I used to sell.

I predict this sort of piecework knitting and crocheting will increase in popularity. Western society is mobile and this craft lends itself to being on the road. Did you ever try to make lampwork beads in an airplane? Or shove a floor loom into the back seat of a Jetta? Even if it was your Jetta? I'll bet you've been arrested less often than I have, too. Knitting and crochet are so portable compared to other crafts. Even if this were not one of my primary hobbies, I would probably do it as a lesser hobby, just to have something portable to do during school recitals and road trips. Especially if I am not driving.

I am grateful to see that the piecework knitting / crocheting repertoire has extended beyond granny squares, as they used to be called back in the day. There are some excellent books out there--I believe one is called Domino Knitting--that show you the many wonderful newer options. You can make intricate squares, triangles, bargello-looking patterns and more out of single color yarn that really show off your skills. Or, if you're more like me, you can make simple squares out of intricate yarn and no one will know what your skill level is because they'll be too mesmerized by the colors.
There are many benefits of modular knitting, which is another term I've heard applied to this method:

If you totally mess up a square, you can toss it out, if you are not adverse to doing so. That's a lot easier than ripping and backtracking, which I loathe.
If you don't like how the colors look compared to the other squares in your project, you can save the piece for another project. No work goes to waste and you are exonerated in your quest to be Green.
It's portable. Take a little or several yarns with you in a tote bag to the doctor's office or your kid's soccer field. Much nicer than lugging a large sweater around and you can skewer the opposing team's soccer ball with a knitting needle if you feel especially rowdy that day. (At the police station, tell them your name is D.J. Runnels.)
One of the most onerous tasks in knitting a garment is in continually measuring it or trying it on or double-checking your gauge. With modular squares, you can set one square on top of another and say, "Yep! Looks good to me."
You can add to the piece later, especially if it's an afghan or baby blanket. You could be 75% done and start using the so-called finished piece and just keep adding to it when you feel like it. Imagine making a baby blanket for a new mom and adding another row in a different color when mom has another baby. Imagine a four-foot winter scarf becoming a five-footer or six-footer as your schedule permits.

Yarn sold in our Etsy store.

A few disadvantages or considerations:

It's easy to come up with a garment that screams of 1970. You see this sort of thing at estate sales all the time and it often smells like moth repellent. Ewww. Maybe you want that. Maybe you don't. Several ways to avoid this trap are to use good wool instead of cheap acrylic--and darlin', I would hope you are not wasting your time with cheap Walmart acrylic when there are so many worthwhile yarns out there that will do your work justice. Secondly, you might knit instead of crochet the squares. Seed stitch would look lovely. Thirdly, carefully consider what you are making. An afghan made of squares makes a great deal of sense. A vest is likely to look like a throwback to an earlier decade, but then again, maybe you WANT that '70's look and that's okay if it's what you want. But you could also make modular rectangles, stripes or triangles instead and that will update your look considerably.
I tend to feel that modular crochet has more substance to it than modular knitting. Not always but often. Crocheters, feel free to whoop triumphantly. I am a knitter, so you just scored a victory here.
There's a lot more assembly involved. Some people hate piecing their work together. I kind of like it. You will do more fitting and measuring at this stage that you were able to avoid earlier, but at least you can make modifications.
What if you're all done knitting and now you're piecing together, say, a jacket and it's just a little too big around. The typical person might go ahead and leave it too big rather than take out some squares and end up with something too small. Okay, fine, I'll confess, that person would be me. Or I might make some "half-squares" to go into the side seam to get a better fit. Or what if you leave off one square on the sleeves and add some extra-long ribbing? We can be flexible with modular knitting and be willing to break the rules when needed. So what if it's not entirely made of squares. The jacket is there to serve you, not vice versa.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition directory of what I sell and where the hell it is

New pattern books

2009-06-01T17:13:00.014-05:00

I'm beaming with pride because I have followers who know how to follow my blog, plus I have figured out how to follow blogs through Google friends. The other methods confuse me. Whatever. I will get the hang of it eventually, unless, of course, I am distracted by an enticing sandwich or something. (Pausing to bask in the glow.)

I listed pattern books today. I have never sold pattern books before because I find patterns too confusing. But I know other people out there do not have ADD and can follow a pattern successfully without creating a sweater with one arm longer than the other.

The two new books are from Laines du Nord and one is more hip than the other one. It is called Simple Knits Book 4 by Jane Ellison.

Coming soon: I'm making a bizarre, rustic, autumnal table runner. My husband swears it is cool, although I had my doubts.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Playing with felted wool this week.

2009-05-31T12:42:00.008-05:00

Photo lost. Sigh.
dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

How to paint a raspberry

2009-05-29T09:40:00.010-05:00

My painting project yesterday went smoothly and I learned a little about how to paint a raspberry. Sorry if this sounds rudimentary, but I am not a painter, so this was groundbreaking for me. I studied a photo on the internet and noticed that raspberries tend to be formed of many shade of red while still ripening. Then there tends to be a light highlight on each "bubble" of the raspberry, originating from its light source. So I used a stiff rounded brush and composed each raspberry of dots in different reds and mauves and wine shades, then added a gleam to most of the bubbles. I started out using a stencil but ended up freeforming the whole thing.

Let's upload photos of the raspberries I painted. I have to put my name on the photo because people in Indonesia keep "borrowing" my photos. I can't stop them from doing it, but by golly, they will promote me as long as they are at it.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Find wool blend sweaters for your felting crafts

2009-05-22T15:48:00.005-05:00

Someone in my home town sells recycled sweaters on Artfire. You can unravel / frog some of them and use the yarn. Or shrink them into wondrous felted pieces. Or--what the heck!--just wear the things. She has a huge supply. Here is her blog.

Okay, the sweater in this photo? That is one that I made. Not trying to mislead you, honestly. It isn't for sale.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

Summer Activity List for Kids

2009-05-11T13:21:00.008-05:00

School will soon let out for the summer and the little cherubs will be whining, "I'm borrrrrred" and "I don't have anything to doooooo." I suggest setting aside a few minutes to make a list of activities and post it on the refrigerator. Add to the list as you think of new activities. Ideally, the to-do list should include both family and solitary events, with and without school friends, indoors and outdoors, special events, cheap excursions and a few useful chores disguised as fun.

I would not bother to list TV or video games, since kids will gravitate toward those too often without any prompting from you.

Some suggestions for your list:

library
swimming
email Grandma
find a penpal in another country
learn a new language
plant flowers
zoo
write a story
make wrapping paper
make fruit juice popsicles
play Clue or other board games
collect cans for a food pantry
start a neighborhood newspaper
museums
search for fossils or interesting rocks
learn to identify trees by their leaves
start a vegetable garden
make birthday cards
write to soldiers in Iraq
collect used clothing for kids in Afghanistan
learn to knit
wash the car
clean out the inside of the car
go to yard sales
visit a pet store
learn soccer
bake muffins for a neighbor
cut long sleeve tees into tanks
cut long pants into shorts
make a birdhouse
make place mats from paper and rubber stamps

catch and release butterflies
cut out newspaper coupons
make a piggy bank out of a salt box
play t-ball
ride a bike
take a walk
organize family photos
have a garage sale
paint toenails
use sidewalk chalk outside
play in the sprinkler
hide & seek
play tag
make something out of a huge box

So when you hear, "I'm bored," your correct response is "let's go look at the refrigerator list."

BTW: the birdhouse shown in the photo is no longer available, but we DO sell birdhouses on Etsy and Artfire. My husband makes them and I paint some of them. The birds themselves will nest in them; we can't take credit for that part.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition
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Knitting rag rugs

2009-05-09T13:54:00.012-05:00

Lately, I have been recycling good clean t-shirts by cutting them into neat ribbons and knitting them into rugs. Actually, I have done this for years, with a variety of fabrics, but I have gotten very savvy about reclaiming every last scrap and using it as a rug.

This is a rug I named Stagecoach. I had it for sale in my eBay store, but I worried that whoever bought it might be unhappy with it because it was lumpy. (Can't let an eBayer go unhappy! I've had nightmares about my powerseller feedback going down the toilet. ) Eventually I decided I had to keep the rug rather than risk having somebody buy the rug and flame me over it.

Turns out, it was never a problem. The lumps flattened within a short period of time. Not only that, but it became flatter and more stable with extended use. I have had it in an extremely high-traffic area of my home for 3 1/2 years and it still looks wonderful. I had heard that rag rugs last a long time, but I am shocked by how resilient this one is, since it was my first knitted rug.

More recently, I made a rectangular rug. Again, I had intended to list it for sale, this time on Etsy. But when it began to turn out crooked, I decided there was no way it would sell. It is in my bedroom now.

The rectangular rugs with straight garter knit are the easiest to make. Cutting the fabric strips of uniform width helps. I generally aim for 3/8" because narrower strips tend to break and wider strips get bulky. But if you are cutting a particular fabric and notice it is bulkier than another fabric you are using in the same project, you might want to shave a fraction of an inch off that cutting width.

I use size 13 or 15 needles and cast on up to 60 stitches, depending on the width I want. Plastic needles seem to work better than other types; you want the least friction you can achieve. Then I knit a straight garter stitch and keep it loose. T-shirt and knit fabrics stretch pretty well, but if you knit tightly, your hands will hurt after awhile. Another way to get more stretch out of the fabric is to cut strips on the bias.

If you are a purist and do not want that dotted line that appears when you add a new color, be sure to add a new color ONLY when the right side of the rug is facing you. Otherwise, you can add colors willy-nilly and consider the rug to be reversible. Tra la! I love them.

The circular rugs require considerably more detailed instructions, which I will try to get to...um...sometime before I die. I have one almost completed somewhere in my yarn studio. I named it Taos because that is the town I was in when I began making it. I hope to find that before I die, too. As I recall, it's almost four or five feet in diameter.

dj runnels
Life's an Expedition

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www.djrunnels.com website and directory of my handmade wares and supplies

Resurrect old tees into wearable ones

2009-04-22T14:08:00.018-05:00

This was a t-shirt that I got from a garage sale for 50 cents. No, not the performer. The monetary amount, as in half a dollar.

I loved the top of the shirt but the bottom always twisted sideways for some reason. So I cut off the bottom--from the rib cage on down--and sewed on a long piece of fabric and wore it as a dress. I used a t-shirt scrap to make a patch pocket on the right side and added a decorative tan wooden button. Ten years later, it was still in excellent condition, so I shortened the hem and I now wear it as a shirt over jeans. It's one of my favorite tops of all time. The sleeves look wrinkled on me because I had them pushed up above my elbows, as is my habit.

Find more remakes of t-shirts, along with directions.

dj runnels

How, when, why to Tweet on Twitter

2009-04-16T14:13:00.015-05:00

I've been on Twitter for about three weeks now and while I am by no means an expert, here is what I've learned.

People use Twitter for various reasons.
(1)To stay in touch with friends/family, (2) To make new friends/find dates,
(3) To promote themselves (e.g.: celebrities),
(4) To promote a viewpoint (e.g. pro-lifers), and
(5) To promote a company that sells wares or services. I may have left out some groups and if so, I will revise this later. Eat some cookies while you wait. But before we continue, please understand that I am not saying any of these reasons is right or wrong, but each could involve a more effective approach than the one you are using.

How, when and why you "tweet" (post a one-line message), what you tweet about, whom you follow or unfollow depends on why you are there.

If you are connecting with friends and family, you can pretty much do whatever you. You might consider locking your account for privacy. If you are using it as a dating network, make damn sure your profile is witty, your photo is good and you give your location. If you have a cherished moral or political view you're obsessed with, consider using an icon instead of a photo. If you're a celebrity, run the account yourself or don't freaking bother; we can tell if it's you or not. Now on to the last group--promoting your company--because that is my focus and who is writing this thing, anyway? You or me? We'll decide that later.

I'm a sole proprietor of a yarn design business. I sell what I make, but 95% of what I sell is what artists and crafters use to make what THEY sell. I call myself a craft enabler. You may call me something else. Go ahead...Is that the best ya got? Heh. I've been called worse. ...Well, as a business owner, I have noted specific things that other Tweeters do that attract or repel me. Just in case you are a business owner, I share those thoughts now for your benefit. If you do not run a business, you may as well move on to the next post.

First of all, try not to be obsessed with the number of followers you have. It makes you look desperate. You don't need me. I need you. Take that attitude and be confident and make me want to read what you write.

Even more pertinent, there is no reason to freak or get mad if someone specific stops following you. As someone who sometimes "unfollows," I can give you many reasons why this may happen. Mostly it is because I have limited time for Twitter and I am selective. It's nothing personal against you. I have not yet unfollowed anyone because they made me angry. I unfollowed one artist whose very frequent references to her sexual activities bored me. I unfollowed a couple of people who spammed endlessly and never wrote any non-spam. And I unfollowed a couple of people who never responded to my messages to them, which is okay if it happens a few times, but when it hits a high number, the follower must ask him/herself, "Is this person's posts so great that I am willing to follow anyway?" Often the answer is Yes. Sometimes No.

If your posts are mainly written to connect with your former co-workers or your high school pals, your Tweets are probably just fine for them but not for me. I may remove you. Again, it's nothing wrong with you. It only means my criteria is different from that of your buddies. I may choose to follow your blog instead of your tweets. Or I may follow the goings-on in your Etsy shop instead. So puh-leeeeeze don't launch an anti-djrunnels campaign. I'm still recovering from the previous ones! Here, look at my neck. Did I get all the tar and feathers off?

I tend to follow marketing, advertising, online retail gurus and I wouldn't rant at you if you quit following them. They may not interest you at all. This obvious premise brings me to the lunacy of Follow Friday, wherein people on Twitter post recommendations to others on Twitter. How can you recommend someone for me to follow unless you know what criteria I follow? The answer is: you can't. Just because I like following you doesn't mean I will like following your friends. On the other hand, if you do make recommendations, that doesn't annoy me and I will not unfollow you for it. And if you recommend me, I will beam happily. But here is a better method: I click on the profile of someone whom I have enjoyed following and see who they follow. Then I click on those profiles. If the profile sounds halfway interesting, I will follow them for a week or two or longer. If they continue to pique my interest, I keep them on the list. If they do not pique my interest, I remove them and again, it isn't personal. They just do not meet my criteria.

So, are you with me so far? If you are a business twitterer (versus someone tweeting your bff) I recommend that you decide why you are on Twitter (see list above) and then set some criteria for:
(1) the type of person you wish to attract and
(2) the type of person you wish to follow. And some of these latter people may be, as they say, off-topic. Just because I sell fiber art supplies doesn't mean I cannot follow CNN. You can get a smidgen of a clue about these people by checking out their profile.

As for whom to attract, what do you have to say that your desired followers will want to read? Someone on Twitter gave this bit of advice: write about what you know. That sounds like a good idea to me. Of course, I also know about archaeology and crinoid stems and some things that you may not want to read. Since I want to attract artisans, I make sure that a certain percentage of my posts point people to my wares on Etsy and Artfire shops, but if I post ads and nothing else, I will lose followers in droves. (Duh!) If I post about what I had for dinner, I will also lose people, not because it is wrong to write about what you had for dinner, but because I am not writing for my neighbor Cheryl. I am writing for creative people who need inspiration and supplies. I try to always think: what will creative people want to see? Also, since I am a member of Etsy street teams and Artfire guilds, I will sometimes post links for their wares, not just my own. It's part of my implicit arrangement wherein they scratch my back and I scratch theirs, plus some of my creative readers may want their wares.

I make a point of writing some creative grist for the mill on my blog and point followers here via a link. But I do not waste their time by linking to every blog post I create. Some posts will interest many people. Some will interest only a few. Some are perhaps best left unposted and I may delete them later.

I avoid writing vague Tweets. I will not Tweet something like, "Oh, I guess I'll post in my blog now." Big yawn. There goes ten seconds of your life that you will never get back. And when I do post a link to my blog, I give a rough idea about the topic so you can decide whether or not to read that post. Teasing you with a vague headline such as, "You guys have got to read my blog!" is the same as saying, "I just wrote something boring as hell and couldn't think of a good way to draw you in." I can't tell you not to do this, but it isn't effective.

Similarly, if I Tweet a link to something I sell, I will not coyly remark, "Look what I just listed! It's cool!" I will tell you whether it is a book or a garden stake or yarn or at least give you a hint that a buzzard is involved, just in case you are wild and wacky. And btw, I have always liked that side of you. I may even use exclamation points on Twitter, even though I do not use them in my writing much. They are amateurish, but on Twitter, we are there to have fun and be warm and engaging--even if we are there on business--and if I am on a roll and exchanging silliness with a friend, I will cut loose with my emotions.

What else turns me off on Twitter? You're still reading this, so you're either a glutton for punishment or you actually want my opinions, bless your heart. As I mentioned earlier, I may abandon you if I repeatedly Tweet you and you ignore me. Not right away. I give it time. But if I try to connect with you numerous times and get no response, it makes me feel as if you only want to talk about you and do not care about me. Maybe sometimes you have no response and that is okay. I will not take it personally. But if it keeps happening, I may wonder if you are reading me at all. I will feel unheard. Our relationship is on the rocks. Watch out for that jagged one over there.

Recently I tweeted that my nephew's body was found. I did not expect everyone to see it and respond. But when you have 120 followers and only one person comments on a rather shocking tweet, I see that as a red flag. On the other hand, the one person who did respond made a big impression on me. I remember her name and that she lives in Phoenix. I look at her Etsy store. I care. You can make this sort of impression on your followers, too, just by making a comment to them now and then. Later I learned to my embarrassment that people were, indeed, answering me but I was not finding their messages. I joined Tweetdeck and found the missing messages and wrote each of these people a warm thank you or an apology or both. If you are having similar problems or feel as if you are shouting in the dark and no one is listening, I urge you to consider Tweetdeck or a similar program. There are at least three or four out there.

Talking to yourself on Twitter, failing to answer messages, blurting endless quotes or spam, are misuses of the program. You will eventually feel unheard and give up, wondering what the heck you did wrong.

Other Tweeters I avoid: sometimes, despite your good intentions and whatever else you may have going for you, I may find that your Tweets make no sense to me. There are not a lot of people who lose me, but sometimes I will read a Tweeter's posts for days and days and realize, "I have no idea what she is talking about." Usually it is some political issue I have not been following.

A Tweet behavior that mystifies me is repetition of the same Tweet several times. I guess you feared I missed it the first time around, huh? I didn't. I read it and remembered it and now you are slinging it back to me and I have enough problems without you making me wonder if I am developing a premature case of Alzheimer's. Stop scaring me like that.

I WILL read your ads. But please don't promote similar wares one after another. I follow someone who will post a link for duck feathers that she has for sale... then another link for chicken feathers... then another link for goose feathers and so on, maybe six in a row. I get it. You sell feathers. If I need feathers, you will attract me with one link, not six.

Enough for now. Someone just tweeted that people on Twitter complain that others are "doing it wrong," so now, as the purple dinosaur toy said in Toy Story, "I have guilt." I am not trying to say that anyone is doing anything wrong. I am merely trying to say that your tweeting can be more effective if you tweet the most effective tweets to your target audience.

dj runnels

You sent the wrong #@%!# color!

2009-04-04T19:26:00.014-05:00

UPDATE August 5, 2011: I sell very little on eBay any more. Mostly I list destash and a handful of things. But some of the complaints people came up with when I was a powerseller--and their extreme over-reaction to issues--really stunned me. This is one of those stories.

One big misconception about the internet is that the color you see on the screen is the color it is in real life. That is virtually impossible to guarantee on the internet OR on television, for several reasons.

You can put two computer monitors or TV sets side by side--same brand, same model, same year, same everything--and see a product displayed in different colors on each screen. No two monitors can be exactly alike in how they portray color, ever. If you are shopping for something RED and the shade of red matters little to you, this is probably not a problem. But for some buyers (and sellers) this issue is a huge problem. And what are the odds that buyer and seller are even using the same brand of monitor, anyway?
Aside from make/model, the seller can also ADJUST his/her monitor so that colors look accurate to him/her... yet customers, who are using all different types of monitors with all different settings, cannot adjust their monitors in exactly the same way because that is impossible to do. It's not the seller's fault or the buyer's fault. This is just reality.
Now add LIGHTING to the equation. Your favorite fabric seller may have taken her photographs of that supposedly bright red fleece with a Sony or a Nikon (my Sony had a tendency to distort certain shades of red), a high-end megapixel or a low-end, a digicam or a still camera, outdoors in bright sunlight or indoors in bright light or indoors under poor light. Or at the bottom of the Grand Canyon at dusk while riding a mule. I'm sorry, but no two photos will show the same bright red and that's assuming it IS a bright red according to all who look at the fabric. Which brings me to the next point...

PERCEPTION varies widely. Your seller may tell you those shoes you saw online are denim blue, but how do we know what they mean by denim blue? To you, denim blue may be deep indigo or stonewashed or a faded blue. What does denim blue mean to the seller? You do not know. You can ask. But even if they say, "Dark blue," what does dark blue mean? What you call dark blue may not be the same as what anyone else on the planet calls dark blue.
DISCREPANCIES: What if the color shown in the photo looks lime green and the seller describes it in text as olive green? Which one should you believe? Photo or description? If you trust the description instead of the photo and the product arrives looking lime green, then what? Accuse the seller of lying?
DEFINITION: What if the seller says the color is orange-red and the photo does indeed look orange-red (to you)... but the seller also says, "It's not nearly as orange as shown," what are you supposed to believe? Is the seller wrong? Is the photo wrong? Is your monitor adjusted poorly? Is the seller's monitor set poorly? Or is the seller's definition of red-orange different than yours? Are we talking about bright red-orange or more of a rust red-orange?

VISION ABNORMALITIES: What if the buyer or seller has cataracts, doesn't know it, and perceives colors differently than most people?
RIGHT v. LEFT EYE. What if the buyer or seller's left eye sees color differently than the right eye? It is my understanding that everyone's left eye does, indeed, see differently from his/her right eye.
CLOSE-UP, LIFE SIZE, DISTANCE: What if the close-up of the product looks different than a view of the product from four feet away? It almost certainly will. The color of a product will vary depending on the distance between the camera and the product, especially considering lighting, type of camera, etc. plus whether or not the product has a pattern to it. I recently got a comment from a buyer who said the close-up of my yarn was deceiving. Well, a far-away photo would also be deceiving once you inspected it closely. So I have begun showing both a close-up AND a faraway shot of my yarns. Sounds like a good solution, doesn't it? Now I have customers asking me, well, which one is right? Both of them! No, they do not want to hear that, because they like the close-up more than the faraway shot. What can I tell them now? "After you knit the sweater, stand right up next to people and do not let them walk away so that all they ever see is the yarn in close-up." I predict that people who try that will eventually get arrested for standing way too close to the wrong person.

Color accuracy on the internet is not generally a problem for people who buy and sell books, CDs, anything in which the color is going to be predictable, uniform or irrelevant. People want to know that the DVD is new or in mint condition. They won't care if the DVD case is a slightly different color than expected.

But color is a HUGE problem for anyone selling or buying fabric, yarn, almost any type of fashion or jewelry that isn't black (few people disagree over black), handbags, cosmetics, artwork, home decor and more. I get many questions about my yarn and I answer to the best of my ability. Over 99% of my customers are either happy with the color or realistic enough to deal with it.

For the other less than 1%, nothing I do will ever be enough.

Last year, I received a ranting email from an eBay customer. When I say "ranting," I mean, she really ripped me a new one. Over a tube of inexpensive lipstick. She said the lipstick I sent her was red, not pink. She wanted pink. The photo in the listing had shown a deep pink lipstick with a photo flash on it that gave the impression it was dark pink except in that one spot. Most people could tell it was photo flash and the customer even mentioned the photo flash as part of my "evil marketing scheme." That's a direct quote. I am not making up this story. And the NAME of the lipstick color included the word fuchsia. And that name came from the manufacturer, not me. Most people who see the lipstick or the photo agree that it is, indeed, a deep pink, magenta or fuchsia. Every customer who has ordered this fuchsia lipstick has been happy with it ... until now. This woman screamed that it was red. What would you say to someone in this scenario? "Sorry, ma'am, but you must have cataracts." Or how about this: "Return the lipstick for a full refund and I will sell it to someone else who will never suspect that you opened the tube and applied it to your germ-free lips." Eeeeeewwwww. I think not. What I wanted to say was, "Ma'am, your email has convinced me that selling anything on eBay is a sheer waste of my time and talent. Furthermore, it goes against my Life Goals. That's it. I'm done. Finito. You have single-handedly put Life's an Expedition out of business. Take this guilt with you to your grave."

If you buy or sell merchandise in which color description or photography is a large factor, I have very little advice to give you, but having sold over 5,000 things thus far, I am offering the benefit of my experience and the few solutions I have ever been able to think of:

SELLERS: Be prepared to offer a refund policy. This is not a good solution for every seller, because if your product cannot be resold--i.e.: opened lipstick--you may get so many returns, you will go out of business. It is also not a good solution for sellers whose acceptance of returns is iffy. I would accept yarn returns if I knew that every customer could be counted on to return the yarn unused and not exposed to smoke or pet hair. If I did accept returns, what am I to do if the returned yarn reeks of cigarette smoke? Charge less for it? What if it smells like expensive perfume? Charge more for it?

For sellers of clothing, I urge you to at least affix a sales tag to each garment such that it cannot be removed and reattached. Tell the buyer they must return the garment unworn with the tag still attached. That way, if they wear it, they either must wear it WITH the tag dangling from it or try to reattach it. Just make sure the tag is in a place they will not like wearing it, like over a nipple or something. And when that garment arrives covered in cat hair, you had best have a ready answer for your customer who is impatiently drumming her fingers waiting for that refund.

If you offer a no-questions-asked guarantee, you will likely have to raise the cost of your merchandise to compensate for returns. Sadly, your satisfied customers will have to pay more for the privilege of having your return policy. The bargain hunters will not like that. I do not know what to advise you.

BUYERS: My solutions for you are not nearly as good as the advice I gave sellers. For that, I apologize. I am truly searching for solutions because I am faced with this dilemma every day. Here is all I could come up with:

Shop with sellers who take the clearest photos AND write the most detailed description ...and then, for crying out loud, read and study both of them. A high percentage of my buyers look at the photos without reading the entire description. How do I know this? By the questions they ask. Repeatedly, I receive questions whose answers are stated clearly in the listing. Most of these buyers are trustworthy and honest enough to admit that they did not read the listing carefully and they will not leave a nasty feedback. I love you guys for your understanding, but please, just read the listing and you will be disappointed far less often.
Continue shopping with the sellers whose goods you have purchased and have been happy with.
Shop with sellers whose DESCRIPTION star rating or karma rating or whatever on their feedback page is pretty high. That means that most people found the listing or the photo (or both) to be very accurate. If the seller has not earned much feedback yet, try to cut them some slack.
Try to be realistic. If you want a pair of shoes that exactly match a skirt, you are taking a risk. Do not trash the seller for a photo or description that seems a little off. It may be your computer monitor or your vision that is a little off. Remember the woman who bought fuchsia lipstick from me and swears it is red? I'm sorry, but everyone else says that baby is PINK. It's hard to hear the truth, but the erroneous perception may, indeed, be yours if we put it to a vote.

-- dj runnels (c) 2008-2009
Owner of Life's an Expedition

Etsy stuff that I make.
My yarn is on Zibbet.