Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Inspirational Reading

Two of the several books I've recently ordered arrived yesterday "200 Crochet Blocks for Blankets, Throws and Afghans" and "Decorative Knitting." One is full of wonderful knitting applique and embroidery design ideas - including the use of embroidery floss, bobbles, hand applique and other cool ways to enhance your knitted items. The other book is crochet eye-candy - 200 crochet square patterns, with projects and more. I'm thinking about starting a blanket and these books are giving me great inspiration for designs, textures and colors.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Cool site of the week - 3/23/09

Look at me, on time for a change! Yes, it does happen ocassionally :)

Today's cool site of the week is one that's near and dear to my heart. I've recently ordered a new Majacraft Rose spinning wheel and I'm sooooo anxious for its arrival. Majacrafts are excellent wheels - smooth, beautiful, long lasting and high quality. Their parts and accessories are pretty much interchangeble between most of their wheels and they are very flexible in terms of positioning. For example, you can choose to have the flyer set up for right or left handed spinning. You can angle the the orifice, raise or lower the head, use a delta orifice or a fine fiber orifice, change whorls and ratios and more. I fell in love with Majacraft wheels after I received my first Alpaca wheel back in January (I purchased used from a fellow Raveler). Unfortunately, that wheel arrived damaged and had to be replaced, this is how I came in contact with Tracy at Woolly Designs.

Ok, I know you're thinking - "what's so great about another spinning wheel dealer...?" Well, there's a lot that's great about Woolly Designs. Tracy and Jean are fabulous! Majacraft directed me to Tracy (their designated US repairer/dealer) for information on fixing my damaged wheel. Tracy however realized that the broken base would require a total replacement and that the new base would need to be shipped from New Zealand. He also advised me there was a chance the new base would not fit my wheel perfectly. He gave me all the pros and cons and left the decision up to me - no pressure. Once I realized the cost to replace would be about the same as the cost to repair, it was a no brainer, I was getting a new wheel!

Tracy created a very detailed document outlining the costs and risks involved in both replacement and repair options. I submitted the document to my carrier for my insurance claim and they accepted it and sent me a check for my new wheel. Since Woolly Designs prices their wheels based on the current rate of exchange of the New Zealand dollar, I saved over $250 on my new wheel! Yes, that's right... two hundred and fifty dollars. YES - you read correctly! Here's how it works...

Most dealers offer Majacraft wheels for the average suggested price of let's say, $850 for a Rose wheel. Woolly Designs looks at the rate of exchange based on the New Zealand dollar. At the time I purchased my wheel the exchange rate was about $2 NZ for every one US dollar. That made my $850 NZ wheel, about $425! Woolly charges about $100 shipping from NZ + plus a small profit for them and voila! I pay $596 for my Rose. That's a savings of $254! Yes, its true. Woolly Designs has basically chosen to make less of a profit on the sale of Majacraft wheels so they can pass the savings onto the buyer. You gotta love that! I used the extra cash to buy a High Speed Head and a Lace Kit. My new Rose wheel is on its way with accessories, for less than I paid for my Suzie Alpaca wheel. This is why Woolly Designs has earned today's cool site of the week award! http://www.woollydesigns.com/

If you're interested in a Majacraft wheel, please contact Woolly Designs. That is of course if you want excellent service, support and have a desire to save money :)

Saturday, March 21, 2009

On the Ashford 3.21.09

Merino commercially dyed fibers - some stripes and heathers, blended on my Clemes hand carders.

Vanessa

Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Cool site of the week - 3/16/09

Late again :)

Here's my cool site of the week for BlackBerry users - Tetherberry! http://www.tetherberry.com/.
A sweet BlackBerry app that let's your phone become a usb modem. Introductory pricing is $29.99 for the PC software (currently works on PC only) and the device app.

I purchased this software over the weekend and was able to tether my phone to my laptop and surf the web at really good speeds on my phone's Sprint Rev A network. From what I hear, the app uses your phone's data connection so you don't need to purchase any phone-as-modem service from your carrier. I had a similar app for my Windows Mobile phone (PDAnet).

Excellent app, works great at a very fair price.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Supple stitch markers

While cruising Ravelry about a week ago I came across an ad for some cool stitch markers. They're made from colored beaded chains. I think they're not only very clever and inexpensive (I got 12 for about $10 incl. shipping) but they're adorable!

Get yours at www.rycrafty.etsy.com

Vanessa

Sent on the Now Network™ from my Sprint® BlackBerry