CMC News

We have just listed 2 new yarn bowls in our Etsy shop. These bowls are sized to hold a standard yarn ball or cake. Each yarn bowl is individually hand turned without use of patterns or templates. Each one is unique. Our bowls are made of various exotic and domestic hard woods and finished in clear finishes, they are not stained or otherwise artificially colored.

Check out our new yarn bowl listings in our Etsy shop.

Benjamin A. Cooper

Following customer feedback and additional testing, we have decided to replace the foot pedal control of our electric Skein Winders with a hand operated turn knob control. The new turn knob provides considerably finer speed control and an instant press on, press off function. It is now possible to set a desired speed and press the knob to start and stop the winder without having to readjust the speed. Since the speed control is in it's own housing with a 3.5 foot cord, it can be placed on either side of the winder to suit your needs, or it can be used handheld.

Customers who have purchased a winder with the foot pedal control are eligible for a free upgrade. Simply send us back your foot pedal (or just the cord set, removed from the pedal) and we will send you the upgraded knob control. Send us an email to make arrangements.

Benjamin A. Cooper

This weekend was our first trip to the SLV Folk Art and Fiber Festival, in Monte Vista, Colorado. We had a great time and even made a bit of money. Laura and Crystal put on a very nice show. Everyone was laid back and friendly, and the show was nicely organized.

We drove down to Monte Vista Friday afternoon. The drive was pleasant and took about three and a half hours. When we arrived in town, we searched for the Dairy Queen (apparently a major landmark in Monte Vista) and found our way across the street to the Rio Grande Motel. Each room was decorated with different wildlife, and we got the ducks. There were tapestries on the walls with ducks, paintings with ducks, duck book ends, even a duck quilt. The motel is old but clean and generally well maintained, and the price was pretty good. Apparently there was no AC, but there was a ceiling fan, which we had to unscrew the light bulbs from so we could leave it on through the night (the pull chain was broken). Half way through the night I realized that we had left my centerpiece framed, hand printed, 11x14 B&W photograph, Grassy Rock Garden, #2 of 10, hanging on the wall at home. It was hard to get back to sleep after that.

After much lying awake for hours in the muggy atmosphere it became time to get up, and we made our way to the park. Marsh Park is a nice pleasant little park, long and narrow, with a few trees and a lovely lush and level lawn. Parking was easy for setup since there is a road on each side and there are no fences. You couldn't ask for a better venue for a festival. We unloaded the Element and got our tent and displays set up. We didn't have to wait long for the customers to start coming by. Throughout the day customers came by every 10 minutes or so. Business was not extraordinary, but it was steady. There were plenty of other wonderful vendors covering a nice range of crafts and art. We entered a braid of roving in the roving contest, which was voted on by the visitors. Unfortunately we didn't win.

After closing up for the evening, we headed back to the motel for a short rest before dinner and cake. While sitting on the bed, I noticed a white electrical cord running up the wall behind one of the duck tapestries. I thought it was odd since the only thing electrical anywhere near it was a wall lamp. But the lamp had a black cord, and this was white. I asked Christy what it could be and she went to investigate. Upon lifting the tapestry she discovered an air conditioner, and a window! Boy did we feel a bit studip. After discovering the AC, we went to find some food. We settled on JB's Burger Stand which was ok. The entire interior of the restaurant was completely covered with paintings, all by one woman. I have never seen so many paintings by one person in my life. After dinner we drove all around Monte Vista (several times) trying to kill some time before the SLV Fest reception (free cake). I stopped and took some pictures of some awesome old train cars that are just sitting on some old side tracks in the middle of town. Once the time was sufficiently dead we made out way to the Monte Vista Information Center for the reception and our free cake. There we hung out with the organizers and some of the other vendors. Afterwards we went back to our now air conditioned motel room.

On Sunday business was every bit as good as Saturday. The weather was once again pleasant, not too hot, and not cold, with a intermittent overcast for shade, but no rain. About midday they held a spinning competition which Christy joined. The first round was spinning for length. Christy started well, but about half way through the rubber band on her brake band broke. She still finished with a considerable length of yarn, about in the middle of the pack. The winner though had what must have been a mile of yarn. The other rounds were for weight, blindfolded, and spinning with a partner. Christy had a wonderful time, and the customers all seamed fascinated by the spinning demonstration. Later in the day they drew the winner for the spinning wheel raffle.

As we were all packing up, I managed to trade the two pine display shelves I had brought for a statue of a crane and 60 hand made glass beads! This was perhaps the best thing from the entire festival, since I didn't like these shelves since the day we got them.

The drive home was uneventful. We came home with 3 skein winders needing to be build and shipped, so Monday was quite busy.

All in all this was a great show. I especially like that being a hybrid show of art and fiber, we were able to bring a much broader range of our products. Most general audience shows are not suitable for yarn and roving, most normal people just don't know what to do with it. And most fiber shows specifically forbid anything that isn't directly fiber related, some even forbid anything that isn't made from local sheep. We will definitely be going back next year, and strongly recommend you do to, be it as a vendor, or just as a visitor, you will certainly have a good time.

Benjamin A. Cooper

We have added a wonderful, fine laceweight merino wool yarn to our line up. SpiderMonkey is sold in 100g skeins, measuring approximatly 1100 yards per skein. Check out our current offerings on Etsy.

Benjamin A. Cooper

On Saturday we attended the first annual Kabibi Mei Craft Show, put on by Etsy's Kabibi Mei. The show was held at her house and ran for 5 hours. At first I was a little trepidatious about going to a craft show in someone's home, but it seamed to work out pretty well. We had a lovely spot in the back yard. The weather was quite nice, but a little windy, and just a tad chilly. There were a total of 35 vendors! Which is actually better turn out than some formal shows we've been to. Cory was a wonderful host, and all the vendors were very friendly. All in all it was a very pleasant day.

We only had one sale though. But it was a decent sale, so we more than covered our costs. Naturally some vendors did better than others. The glass jewelry vendor in front of me seamed to have plenty of interest, and the other vendors around me got leads for some custom orders. As far as our sales were concerned, I think we were hurt most by not having finished objects. It would seam that normal people, who are not specifically going to a show to buy yarn don't really know what to do with raw yarn. We are slowly building up our selection of finished objects, scarfs, shawls, bowls, boxes, bags, etc. So the next show we go to should be great!

Benjamin A. Cooper