2025 was our first year selling fiber arts tools online. What started with a few sales each month over the summer had ballooned into barely being able to keep up with demand come Black Friday! To say I was underprepared was a gross understatement lol. But we survived! And at the beginning of the month I was still blissfully unaware of what was coming, and having a blast using the lathe to see some of my ideas come to life, and playing with a ton of wool!
I dipped my toes into selling wool. And I did a whole bunch of experiments in marketing to figure out what I wanted to do!
A local hand dyer wanted to liquidate their business, and I wasn’t able to take all of it, but I did take a bunch off their hands.
It’s very high quality, a mix of premium fibers including wool, angora, and even camel!
Looking at the popularity of spinners advent kits, and wondering why they don’t seem to include any guided meditations, I put a kit together.
It was up for sale for a few weeks when I decided not to go that direction.
I think this might do better in an in person retreat rather than an at home retreat.
I did 5 different colorways, spun an ounce of each, and then loaded up before-and-after reels onto social media. They actually did quite well as far as views went, one of them nearing 10k, but no wool sales!
I experimented with French spindle designs. A thin, whorl-less, suspended spindle.
I’m learning that a lot of people purchase these tools not yet knowing how to use them, and the response to this one is always confusion at how light it is – even when they are happy with it!
So I’ve backed off making these, and am reconsidering them.
In use, I really like them! They just require some extra flicking until the copp adds some outward shape to it.
Another experiment here.
This is a mini batt product I am still playing with, where it arrives wrapped around a cardboard holder all prepared to move straight to a distaff.
Are there enough distaff users in the world to want it?
I also have wanted to offer paddle or flat shaped distaffs like the Eastern European models.
This one is made of oak, and I’ve sold a handful of them with rave reviews. It’s probably the most fun distaff to hold in hand, and it can carry quite a lot of wool!
The painted motifs are also very fun.
I’ve since decided to let go of my plans to sell fiber. The month of November taught me that there’s enough demand for spindles and distaffs to keep me plenty busy!
And I know from my own work with hand dying that that process is also time heavy and would be difficult to carry on in the future.
This was another French spindle design, a hybrid between French suspended spindles and Indian goddess spindles – and it has mushrooms!
November was a big time for testing ideas and a number have taken a back seat – hopefully to return again!
I try to complete one fiber arts project a month, something I have carried on into the new year!
By Novembers end I was only about 1/3 of the way through making a ton of granny squares from all those 1 ounce wool samples, in hopes of making a granny square sweater.
AND!! I made some beautiful wood crochet hooks!
They aren’t doing well online, but I’m looking forward to trying them at in-person events, because crochet isn’t as represented in the spinning community!
It was a wild month in the sales department and I was on the lathe and at the post office just about daily!
We also had a nice Thanksgiving and the lessons I learned from this month alone are now life long! Both in memories and maybe some small business Black Friday PTSD.
As always, thanks for being here and
Happy Spinning!
The Apple Creek Farm 
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