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Post by elizabeth on Feb 17, 2015 17:23:44 GMT
Zed, I don't see anything currently in your shop other than finished pieces. As a new felter, I totally agree with Teri Berry's list. As you can see in my most recent purchase from Outback, I went for a variety of colors and items. I might be drawn to a 'Beyond your comfort zone' pack with different fibers and a couple of quick suggestions on how to use them. Good luck!
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Post by zed on Feb 18, 2015 11:35:56 GMT
Thanks, Zara and Elizabeth. You two would be my ideal target felters really, open minded, no fixed ideas about what 'works' and what doesn't. A lot of people get fixed ideas before too long, on one hand thinking you can't (or mostly can't) control the outcome of felting, like it's some random occurring event, but at the same time thinking something only 'works' or 'felts' if it looks the same as most things they've seen before.
I think I have to find the balance between how much money I put into it, and how much time and effort. People in Europe tend to have no problem searching the web (world) for different things and have a lot of access, yet in the US where everything is twice the price, people tend to buy small, and often, and from the US.
Maybe it's because we're all used to so many different currencies it isn't so daunting.
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Post by MTRuth on Feb 18, 2015 18:32:58 GMT
Yes, in general I think, most Americans don't know much about other currencies.
Most web searches here do not bring up foreign country sales items. They are all in the US. When I want to research what's available in the UK, I have to put 'UK' in the search.
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Post by Shepherdess on Feb 19, 2015 14:33:06 GMT
its the same here in Canada. searches come up with mostly American sites even if you put Canada in the search. I think its because in both the US and Canada we use .com most often. Google just grabs any US site that will ship to Canada.
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Post by elizabeth on Feb 19, 2015 17:00:30 GMT
Interesting theory, Zed. Thanks for the tip, Ruth. I never thought about that. I've always assumed that the cost would be prohibitively more to order from the EU. I can deal with the currencies OK, as long as I have my trusty spreadsheets :-) What I can't deal with are confusing websites - I found Woolknoll that way. Unlike most people in the state of Texas, I have a small house; my husband is also a pack rat. I would not think of ordering large quantities of fiber as I'd have no place to store them. And finally, I've decided that I want to focus on the art, not the process, so I'll skip most of the dying.
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Post by zed on Feb 20, 2015 9:04:39 GMT
I live in a tiny house too. I have taken over half the living room recently and spread out more, but for years I had everything crammed into two plastic tubs and 'spare' stuff crammed into pillowcases. I can't afford to buy in small quantities. wollknoll was a little confusing, most items were priced per kilo, but they sold in 100g quantities. On a couple of pages they mixed the 100g prices and kilo prices. Other than that, it was ok, maybe I spent so long on there it got familiar World of Wool has all its prices in US dollars as well as GBP.
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Post by Ali Iceloff on Feb 26, 2015 19:02:11 GMT
Thanks, Zara and Elizabeth. You two would be my ideal target felters really, open minded, no fixed ideas about what 'works' and what doesn't. A lot of people get fixed ideas before too long, on one hand thinking you can't (or mostly can't) control the outcome of felting, like it's some random occurring event, but at the same time thinking something only 'works' or 'felts' if it looks the same as most things they've seen before. I think I have to find the balance between how much money I put into it, and how much time and effort. People in Europe tend to have no problem searching the web (world) for different things and have a lot of access, yet in the US where everything is twice the price, people tend to buy small, and often, and from the US. Maybe it's because we're all used to so many different currencies it isn't so daunting. I have another theory...I often find that Canadian and uk locations have the items I'm looking for at a good price. But then I have to consider shipping costs and more important: shipping TIME! It's hard to beat the instant gratification of the fiber in your hands within the week...often sooner. When I was knitting, I used to buy wollmeise yarn from Germany ....now it was fabulous and worth the wait...but it also took three weeks to get here. Eta: please don't smack me for being impatient! (:
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Post by elizabeth on Feb 26, 2015 19:19:40 GMT
Ali, you are a bad influence! I read your post about the bats from Opulent Fibers and immediately went there and filled up a large shopping cart. It didn't help that I found out I was getting a nice bonus at work!!! WEEEEE!!
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Feb 26, 2015 19:43:34 GMT
I have enjoyed all fibers I have purchased from Opulent, especially their silky merino and short fiber batts. Very nice stuff. I usually wait for their sales.
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Post by Frances on Feb 26, 2015 20:37:05 GMT
I have enjoyed all fibers I have purchased from Opulent, especially their silky merino and short fiber batts. Very nice stuff. I usually wait for their sales. Cathy do you find it hard to add Opulent's merino/tussah silk blend to a piece that is partially felted. I am working on a project now (gloves) where I had some thin places and when I add more roving it does not want to felt in. I have had better sucess drying the piece and then going back and adding more roving but that is such a slow process. Thank you - Frances
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Post by luvswool and dyestuff on Feb 27, 2015 1:01:10 GMT
I have never tried to do that, Frances. Usually when I layer fibers, let’s say for a scarf, I would wet down the fiber and then add the merino/tussah before felting. If you have found thin places, then you could probably partially needle-felt fibers in and then re-felt. Does that make sense? Let it dry first, of course.
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Post by zed on Feb 27, 2015 11:14:50 GMT
I have to wait around a week for delivery from World of Wool, it's expected though, they're a family business and very busy. On Cathy's thread about WoW, we were talking about Shipping costs, If you only pay $5 shipping and it clearly costs more, they are obviously adding it to the price of the fibres, they aren't being kind and chipping in out of their own pockets. They never offer us a few dollars off for posting here though, so non US buyers are subbing you too. Also, if you're saving £50+ on a few items, paying actual shipping hardly matters. I'd wait a month for that saving
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Post by Shepherdess on Feb 28, 2015 0:19:39 GMT
World of wool stuff arrives fast here in Canada
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Post by Ali Iceloff on Feb 28, 2015 2:29:28 GMT
Shepherdess ...how fast? (: and what are your favorite things to buy?
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Post by jwugg on Feb 28, 2015 20:04:52 GMT
I've done quite a few World of Wool orders & they get to Crete in around a week to 10 days, which is faster than letter post often takes. I placed an order with Aurelia wool from Canada but it came overland & took more than 2 months to arrive! I had given up on it a couple of weeks earlier & had tried to email them several times but with no luck. I'm so glad it finally came as I was about to go through a paypal dispute process, which I really didn't want to do! I do some small orders for handpainted roving through Etsy, that's mostly from US & they usually take 3 weeks or so. So, it's WOW for everyday stuff for me. Such great value. & they have enough variety to keep me happy for quite some time
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