Esty Stores?

I'm curious what most of you think of Etsy compared to EBay? I have sold on EBay for years, usually antiques when I had my store. I haven't had much luck selling fiber on EBay as there seem to be alot of vendors that can sell things for nothing! I'm thinking they are going for volume. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but I am a one gal show and can't even begin to keep up with that! I like Etsy too, I think maybe it is limited to who shops their. So I'm wondering if it would be worth getting my own site? I know alot of people that use a blog for their store, maybe I should start a blog just for business. I don't want this to be that type of blog as I would really like to be able to post personal things. I need that right now. So I guess what I am asking of the few of you that actually visit my blog, what do you think? Do you go to blogs that just sell? Do you prefer stores? Do you shop on Etsy?
Now doing just that, getting down to personal stuff :)
I am really having trouble with my hands :( I know I have carple tunnel and have been avoiding getting it taked care of, but now my artheritus is starting to bother me more. I think it is all the combing I have been doing with longer wools. I have to pull harder to get it thru the diz. I combed that whole Llama blanket last week and my hands are paying for it this week. So I have used Tiger balm,Alieve,Heat,Tylenol. Maybe Advil? It's not that I can't stand it, it just that I am dropping everything and can't close my hand all the way. I am going to comb some more today, would like to do some Alpaca, that is a little easier.
I need to take some pictures today too, doesn't it get boring just to hear someone ramble?
The new group is doing well, everyone has done just wonderful and full of info.
I have a table loom for sale, I will get pics up this afternoon. It's a nice little LeClerc Dorotyhy 8 harness. It can hold up to 16 harnesses. It does have one small crack on the second harness set, but I have glued it and it is stronger than before. It is also reinforced by the rubber dowel that runs thru the shafts, LeClerc did a good job in making sure their boxes for the shafts was strong. I am aking 400 including shipping. I have 4 floor looms right now and don't have room for the table loom. It has been sitting on my kitchen table for months and haven't even looked at it nor have I found a place for it!

Two New Pets:))

Well I was visiting another site and she had a little lamb. No her name isn't Mary :) So I checked it out and picked up Marty and Licorice. You can pet Marty, he will follow your cursor. Licorice eats alot and scratches. Now if she bothers you, as I am finding her scratching can , please go down and push her sound button and she will just eat and stop her scratching!
Had a very busy week end. Got some drainage put in the front before winter so it won't erode so bad. We have sand here and it will wash off until you get to the harder sand stone and then it will wash from there into deep ruts. Our property has a slight grade down to the creek, so if we get really bad rains, which it has been know to do here, it can be a mess. So we have planted some rye grass around the yard and in the pastures and graveled the drive. Also have been getting the storage shed cleaned out. We moved from a 3800 sq. foot house so we have lots of stuff. It's almost all going way! I am so tired of having so many things, I want everything to be simple and useful and that's all! I'd rather spend my time doing things I like at this point of my life and with no family around (that we get to see :( ), won't be having all those family dinners and get together either. It's hard sometimes to look at something and think, oh maybe I should keep that. Haven't used it for 5 years! But now all of a sudden I will need it :0. Not anymore! I finally kicked hubby out of the shed and started going through it all alone. He is worse than I am.
Also got some really pretty things listed on my site and had a several sales this week end so I am behind at the beginning of the week. That's okay, now I will have to go out and work on some more Alpaca and other pretty things :))
I listed some combing wastes for felting, last time I sold these so fasts and got really good feedback on them. But I think maybe I priced it to high, so this afternoon I'm going to lower it to 60 cent an oz. It's really very nice, if I had the time and enjoyed spinning more novelty yarns I would keep it and spin it up. But my time is better spent doing more of what I enjoy. I started adding blogs I enjoy, not that I have just started enjoying them, I just forget to add them! Like movies I watch, I forget the names before I can get it listed and then I think, oh that was a good movie what was the name of that? Yes it's called age!
So I guess I best get it going, do something productive, beside clean house!

New Group!!

I decided to start a Yahoo Group! It is called handpreparedfibers. I was hoping a few people would have the same interest I do and like to talk about it. It just seemed like so many people had questions or were intimidated to work with raw fleece. Alot of people were having trouble with Angora, oh so pretty! What do you do with cotton bolls? If you want to grow flax, then what?? Well, much to my suprise, there are over 160 members so far! Everyone has been so nice, staying on topic, only advertising on Monday and Thursday like I requested and only promoting those thing that have to do with raw fibers or processing them. I already let it be known, this moderator is not doing much moderating :) I belong to one group, I can't even get a message posted, no matter how much I beg or remove my sig line. That is discouraging. All I have done so far is check in a couple times a day, check links and pics. So far the are all so considerate. And what a wealth of knowledge! I can see where a few are still alittle conservative in their posting, not wanting to post links or make suggestions, but they are loosening up as the notice they aren't getting scolded :)

So what have I been doing? Well I have a beautiful lamb fleece from the batt lady, white Salish. It wasn't coated so it is alittle dirty, but it is washing up wonderfully and it is oh so soft. It's mine I tell you all mine! Here's a picture before and after.

Then I combed up some Polypay to ply with a muticolored single I have, it also combed up so soft and pretty

Then I had a bobbin of mixed wool, I called it kitchen sink. It was a muti sack of colors, alittle day of this and that. So I spun it up in sections and spun up a little thicker strand of silver Salish and plied them together. I am really please how it turned out. Then I had a small amount of Lavender left so I made a cordinating skein to go with it. I just love the Salish wool.

Then I combed up some Llama, he was a big boy and so soft! Very long staple, I really expected it to spin up a little course as I only pulled out few guard hairs, but look how it spun up! So soft. It's going on my Etsy site for someone that wants to spin up some wonderful soft singles. I don't think it will lend it's self to thin yarn.

So today I need to get all my scraps together and put on my Etsy site. I have so many combings left over. I wasn't really sure some of it would felt, and as you know I don't felt so I don't really know what I am doing. So I brought in some of the LLama I combed, and the Merino I had left over and started trying to felt. Well much to my surprise the Llama felted almost instantly! The Merino felted but not as fast. I had heard that Llama didn't felt well, but this sure does! I have gotten good feed back from my scrapes and they seem to sell quickly. Several of the lady's that purchased them have actually spun some novelty yarns. I don't put in anything that has veggie matter so it is all clean. and at 1$ an oz I guess it's cheaper than buying fiber to felt at the hobby stores.

So if you read my blog from time to time stop by the new group

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/handpreparedfibers/

a very nice and interesting group of people.

This Month

Well, no pictures today. This is one of the hardest months, other than December which is Jeffery's birthday. I try so hard to keep busy this month, but grief sneaks up on me anyway. We don't talk about it often, it's like you open a damn when you do. I miss Jeffery so much, and his children also. I have drafted a letter to send Jane his wife to ask for pictures of him and the kids. Like so many people, I wasn't very careful with the pictures I had of him and the kids, I lost the most precious ones off one of our computers right after he died. They were of his last Christmas and my email dumped. I am crushed. Then I was getting copies of all the pictures Jane had, and now with no contact I haven't gotten those either. I have been wanting to start a scrapbook for the kids, showing what their daddy was like when he was their age, but every time I start working on it, I am in a teary state for days. I know 2 years sounds like a long time, but it seems like yesterday. I still get this awful hurt in my gut that is so deep at times you wonder if you will live thru it. Then you wonder if you want to. I know I am here for a reason, I know he was here for a reason, I can look at those 4 little kids and see why! I can't wait till we get to see them again.
Well this was a yucky post, but sometimes I just need to write it down and I feel better.