eBay, oh eBay

 

one of the lace books I listed today

Well, I am *really* glad I did a 'practice' auction on eBay!

The last time I did an auction was 10 years ago, and of course...things had changed.

I had intended to share a link to all my listings so that the guild weaving books would be easy to find, but that was not particularly easy to discover.

However with the assistance of a guild member who has a better grasp of how software programs work than I do, she was able to figure out how to find my 'page' and take a look at my listings.

After uploading the 10 lace books I wanted to sell, I now have a much better grasp of what I need to do to prepare myself in order to make the guild listings go more easily.  (I hope!)

A number of the guild books have sold and instead of +100 books, there are now fewer than 70.  With another 10 days to run of the pre-sale for guild members, that number may go down some more.  I may also withdraw some of them from the auction as I was unsure if they would sell, or for so little money it would not be worth anyone's time (mine) to bother with them.  

I still have a few more administrivia things to deal with, but I'm tired and I've wrestled enough with computers and software programs and websites that aren't particularly intuitive enough for one day, so I will just share a link to 'my' page in case anyone wants to 'follow' me to find me more easily once I begin launching the guild books in a couple of weeks.

Just a reminder - prices are in Canadian dollars.  The lowest rate I can get to ship a parcel is $22 (and that doesn't even quite cover it), but if anyone is interested in more than one book I'm willing to hold off shipping until the guild auction is done or I'm told someone is done.  

I will be listing 10 books a day and the auctions will run for 7 days.  There are a number of payment options and eBay now processes all payments.  This may - or may not - make my life a bit simpler.  Time will tell...

Soothing

The end of the navy (almost black) cottolin and the beginning of the purple cottolin.

A quick-ish change in the tie up and here is the more traditional 'snails trails and cat's paws'.

And here is the back side - which in both cases will likely become the 'right' side of the towels.  This is a 16 shaft design and in order to weave it 'right side up' would require lifting 10 shafts.  Weaving it 'upside down' requires just 6.

I like both designs but will more than likely finish the warp - once the purple cottolin is used up - with a pale yellow cotton in the cat's paws - it should look a little like flowers on a green field?  It seems that this time I have wound a warp long enough to use up all the rest of the cottolin from the summer tops I wove last year.

Of course, I've just ordered more cottolin for a special order and no doubt will have yarn left over from that project!  Never seems to end, somehow.

This is the warp I had to stop and re-thread about 2/3's of because I relied on my memory to hold the threading repeat accurately.  Big mistake when I'm this tired and stressed.  Seems like memory is the first thing to go when you get to be my age.  Actually, it's always the first thing to go - doesn't matter what age you are.

But never mind, once the lease sticks were in, it was a fairly simple matter to get it re-threaded - this time double checking each repeat before moving on to the next.

The warp is 30 yards and it isn't likely I will come close to finishing it before we leave again.  Tomorrow the first eBay auction ends with the second one ending on Friday.  I am hoping (really hoping hard) that I can get paid for everything so it can all get shipped by Monday at the latest.  That will clear one volunteer obligation off my schedule.

What with the guild sale happening this weekend, it isn't likely that I will get much loom time for the next few days, either.  But hopefully once the trip south is done I can concentrate on doing the experiment for the Handwoven article, finalize the class at John C. Campbell Folk School - it was looking promising that the Boot Camp at least would have enough to 'go' - work on the Project That Cannot Be Named - and who knows, maybe even take a few days 'off'.  I've got a stack of books and some jigsaw puzzles I'd like to veg with for a day or two.

My calendar for the first 6 months of 2014 is full to bursting.  I'm going to have to stay on my game in order to not slip up and miss a deadline or two.

Now that I finally have everything 'right' - and the loom is behaving - it has been very soothing to just go to the loom and weave.  My 'happy place'.  :)

Under The Hammer

Prairie Wool Companion - 5 issues

Weavers - the first 4 of many

A local guild member, inspired by dealing with Jean's weaving 'estate' decided to down size her studio, too.  She delivered two bunches of magazines today - Handwoven and Weavers.  

Since I'm already running an auction on eBay, I decided I'd simply carry on and just finished listing the 5 issues of Prairie Wool Companion as one item, and Weavers in bundles of 4, except for issues 43 and 44 which are listed as a pair.

And I realized I'd neglected my reading list, so since last time I included my reading materials I have finished Kathy Reichs' latest (title escaping me at the minute)  Raising Cubby by John Elder Robison and started Mercedes Lackey's Steadfast.  I have very little time or energy to read right now but I do try to fit a few minutes in here and there - at the doctor's office yesterday, the lab this morning, a few minutes before bed.

I am really hoping that when we've done with Lynn's yarns I can take a few days 'off' to recuperate from what has become an amazing year - all the trips, all the deadlines, all the stress.  The latest is Doug's step-mom who fell and broke her hip and is currently either still waiting for, or is in, surgery.

Any chance the shipment of 'boring' is arriving soon?  I could use a little.  Either that or a crate of energy.

Volunteering

Where would we be without people willing to give freely of their time and energies?  A lot poorer, I'm sure.

On the other hand, it seems like the same few people always step up to the plate when something needs doing....

I seem to have a lot of 'volunteer' obligations going on at the minute.  Not that I'm doing as much as I ought to, time being a rather precious commodity around here, this time of year....

It was especially appreciated that two of the guild members pitched in last night and worked on recording the details of the books that are going up for eBay auction in the next few days.  Instead of doing their own work, they took the time to assess the condition of the books, set down title, author and rate them so that once I start entering the items on eBay I won't have to take the time to do it.

In fact, I called on another friend who said she was willing to come tomorrow and get started on doing that part of the job, which will allow me to dig into what needs doing in the studio.

eBay has changed their format so I will go through it with her tomorrow morning, then hopefully she can go ahead and do the auction stuff for me without any further input, but if needed I will only be a call away.

The auction came about because the guild had a Collingwood rug that needed to be sold.  A re-arrangement of the room meant we no longer had wall space to hang it.  At the same time a weaving friend in another community entered hospice.  Her son needed to put his mom in hospice and his dad in care.  A mutual friend started by helping him find homes for her many spinning wheels, looms, yarns and books.  And a Peter Collingwood rug AND macro-gauze.  Since I was going to do an auction for the guild rug, I offered to do hers as well.  Then when the guild received her books, many were duplicates to what the guild already had, some of which are out of print and still sought after.  So, what the heck - why not auction them, too.

What I forgot was how much time doing an auction was going to be.  Not to mention the sudden acquisition of my other friend's yarn stash!

But I was able to get photos of everything last night, today they were edited and saved for the listings.  I am not sure when the auction will go 'live'.  I have to review the eBay auction format, etc., but I am hoping to get everything dealt with before Christmas.

Here is a sampling of what will be coming up:

guild's rug - I believe it has horse hair and wool

Jean's rug - I believe it has mohair and wool

macro-gauze 

macro-gauze detail - beautifully finished, of course