The Ebbs and Flows of a Yarn Business

If you’ve ever heard one of my presentations at a fiber festival or LYS trunk show, you know that bringing a yarn to market has a whole lot of steps in the process.  And a whole lot of the process is completely out of my hands–something this control freak of a project manager struggles with.

If you’ve been a fan of Shepherd’s Wool made in East Jordan, Michigan at Stonehedge, you may know that supply chain issues have forced their business to shift this year.  They’ve gone from producing large quantities of yarn and shipping out to locations all over the country to reimagining what their business might look like smaller.  And guess what mill we have been using to spin Welcome Home?  Yep.  Stonehenge.

We love the relationship we have developed with the mill, and have grown used to waiting many months for them to work their magic with the wool that Mary’s sheep grow.  When I dropped off the 2021 clip last March, I anticipated that we would have yarn in hand by October.  

October has come and gone.  And so has November, December, and January.  As Stonehedge has adjusted, so have timelines.  I like to think the 2022 clip will be seasoned over time, like a fine wine.  We’re trying to be patient, but are super excited about how colors will be blended this year to add new dusky colors to our mix.  Waiting is HARD.

As of this writing, the 2022 Clip of Welcome Home is still at the mill.  It’s been started. . .and we had hoped to have it in hand by the end of January, so to say we’re a little anxious about it is an understatement.  However, we are moving ahead as though it’ll arrive any day and Julia and Sarah have been especially gracious about adjusting their dyeing schedules so that we can have some of the new product with us at spring shows.  

There is truly no such thing as a yarn EMERGENCY. . .but it does mean that stock might have some unusual ebbs and flows this year.  And it means that we may not have sweater quantities of dyed colors at events right away. . .but as soon as I can, I’ll have sample photos taken and it’ll be up on the website.  I promise.

In the meantime, I’ve been putting together a few new kits, and I’ll have photos to share soon.  I’ve been enjoying some of my older patterns, and have been knitting some fun items from other designers.  Mostly, I just love working with this wool.

But most exciting is a special Welcome Home Striping yarn that I’ve just gotten back from Julia.  I’ve often had a limited edition yarn dyed to match a bag for special events. . .but this time the yarn is our very own Welcome Home. . .250 yards of stripes to match some  psychedelic sheep bags!  We’ll have them with us at YarnCon in early April.  But for now, I get to knit a sample.  

What should we name these stripes?