Interview with Jamie from Suenosdejmi

Here's the next amazing fiber artist in my regular feature. She is another one of my fellow Etsy Off the Wall Ladies so you never know what you'll hear from her next.

Meet Jamie of SuenosdeJmi

Blue-Green Knitted Cowl

Where are you from and where are you now?

I'm actually from where I am now, small town east Tennessee. I was born in the same city I'm living in now, but I grew up about 2 hours north of here near the VA border.


How did you get started working with yarn?

There's always been someone in my life who works with yarn. My mom and my paternal grandmother both crocheted when I was little, so I've known how to crochet for as long as I can remember. I crocheted randomly through my childhood and teenage years, and then picked it back up again about 4 years ago. I was in college at the time, and two of my weekly classes were at night, so I started making scarves in class. And before I knew it I was knee deep in yarn and scarves, and I found my way onto Etsy from there.


What inspires you? What inspires your work?

I'm inspired and uplifted by a lot of things. Sunsets, a gorgeous cloud-filled sky, wind, rain, snow...music, poetry, those life insurance commercials where there's a chain of people helping each other. When it comes to crafting, color inspires me more than anything. I love to get the brightest colors I can find, and then mix them together to see what happens. I really enjoy mixing colors that others wouldn't mix, and it's rare that I'm displeased with the results. I often find myself trying to capture color patterns I see in other places, like a fall centerpiece or a colorful set of summer plates.


What pieces in your shop are you most proud of and why?

Lately I'm really proud of my knitting. I only learned in August after several unsuccessful attempts over the last few years, and I've had a blast exploring this new craft. I recently used colorwork to put text in a pair of gloves, which was really neat! I only have a few knitted items right now, but there are several more coming.


What handmade items do you admire or want to try making?

I really lust over yarn that's handspun or handdyed. Spining is still quite a scary concept to me, but I have plans to experiment with my first overdyes in the next few weeks. Those yarns will find their way to my shop as something soft and rainbow colored, and I'm really excited about that. Eventually, I would like to have a small line of handdyed yarns for sale, but I'll have to get tired of keeping it all first, and that might take a while!

I also really admire people who are skilled seamstresses, because I'm definitely not one, and I love some of the gorgeous sewn things I find on Etsy!

Rainbow Wool Fingerless Gloves

And Now for Something Completely Different

Happy New Year everyone!


I just posted some of my crocheted hats on HooksandEyes Esty shop. I've been sitting on these for awhile now (not literally don't worry) . I finally got off my backside and took some photos this weekend.


These are part of my overall plan for HooksandEyes to include crocheted, sewn and handspun items. To share all the things I love to do the best with all of you.


Here's a peek:
Natasha, Elaina, and Claire



Now, to post some scarves I've been working on....

Happy Dance

Yay! I had two sales on Etsy today! I am doing a happy dance. Just when things were feeling kind of slow since the craft fair this weekend was a bummer I get a great pick-me-up.

Thank you shoppers! You are in my happy thoughts tonight as I head off to dream land.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everyone is having a lovely day with family and friends. I posted a few sister skeins this week and did a tiny bit of spinning so I'll be doing photography again this weekend.



If you are doing some Etsy shopping on Monday check out my showcase spot on the Supplies main page. I'll be up there all day.



Next weekend December 5th I'll be at the 2nd Annual Craft Fair at the Brooks Avenue Church of Christ in Raleigh come see me there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photography Weekend

I didn't do a whole lot of spinning this weekend. Instead I worked on a cowl for a Christmas gift, took photos of my sister skeins and went to the Renaissance Festival. We had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful and there were some amazing vendors there so it was like a giant party for art/craft-0-philes.

I've been wrestling with how to post sister skeins. Skeins that are spun from the same dye lot, batt, etc. . I don't want the shop to look boring and even considered not posting them at all. In the end I think that I'll post them. Enough times I've liked a handspun yarn only to find that it doesn't have enough yardage for me to use. I hope that knowing there is a bit more yardage available might be useful for some shoppers.

I'm planning to post these lovelies throughout this week so keep an eye on the shop.

I put a new gadget up on the blog today too so you can get a mini view of what's up in the shop and link right to the shop if you find something irresistible.

If you have any special requests for colors, spinning styles, etc., please comment, I'd love to hear them.

Spin, spin, spin

After spending too much time window shopping on Etsy.com I have been dying to order more batts and roving. That, combined with the opening of my shop and selling a couple skeins of yarn, has the potential for some serious plastic abuse. So, to combat that, I've resolved to spin up a good portion of my growing fiber stash before I go out and shop until I drop.

I guess I needed the motivation so I've been spinning like crazy lately. In the last 3 days I spun 6 skeins, which is a lot considering I have work and kids to manage too. One skein was a total flop, but I learned a lot. This one will be kept in a safe place so as not to hurt anyone. Four of other 5 will be photographed for posting in my shop and one will be made into something nice for an upcoming craft fair.

I'll be posting photos of some of these beauties once I get my light box and camera out for a photo shoot.

Shop is Up and Running!

So I got a kick in the pants this weekend and measured my yarns for WPI (Wraps per Inch) and yardage. I even started a spreadsheet!

I know, how organized was I?! Anyway, I finished the exercise of measuring so that I could begin working on my write ups for listings. The little blurbs you read that describe the yarn are harder to write than I thought. How does one sound clever and interesting while describing yarn?

Well, I did some preliminary write ups and then I was feeling saucy so I went for it. I posted a small sample of yarns up for sale in my shop, 4 to be exact. I was so pleased with myself I had to do a little dance. While I was admiring my work, I checked email only to find, you guessed it, I sold a skein!

Yep, I sold a skein of yarn in the first half hour of existence. I received a note from my first customer requesting a center pull ball winding and offered her a chance to purchase a matching skein I hadn't had time to list yet. She said she'd take it!

So, day one was a complete success in my new little corner of the internet marketplace! Okay, I can't retire just yet, but it is a great feeling to sell something I made. I am going to go right out and list some more!

New Shop Coming Soon

I put on my photographer hat these days. You would be surprised at how many ways one can photograph yarn. I think I've hit on a good formula so now it is just a matter of taking photography time. I'll call it studio time since that sounds much more interesting.


Usually I have more help than I really need from my 5 year old daughter taking photos so it may mean waiting until after bed time to get some actual work done. I'm excited since I am that much closer to getting my etsy shop up and running. I am aiming for a December opening so that I might capture some Christmas holiday traffic and some New Year Resolution purchases.


Just to whet your appetite, I'm posting a few of my trial photos.

Winter in the Evergreens-
Green, black and white merino and silk blend





Misty Roses-
Red and purple merino and silk blend

Pumpkin Patch-

Yellow, copper, orange and brown merino