Wholesale...What I learned

Well, I finished my wholesale order this week and sent if off. It was my first wholesale experience and I learned a few lessons that I thought I'd share with other newbies.

Lesson #1: Give yourself a lot of time. They'll wait if they value quality handmade items.
I gave an anticipated finish date to the buyer and then my grandmother died and I had a job interview to prepare for. Granted those are unusual circumstances but I also didn't want to be knitting 24/7 and wanted to have a weekend but I couldn't because I had given a date and I hate it when people change dates on me so I didn't want to push it back too much. I did end up having to push the date back a little and it all worked out but I was a bit stressed and it took more time than I thought it would.

Lesson #2: Limitations keep you sane!
This order was for 50 cozies and I've now decided I can't do any more than 40 per order.

Lesson #3: Don't estimate shipping until you have the box packed.
I unfortunately underestimated the size of the package I would need and really under charged for the shipping. I charged $15 based on the box I thought it would fit into and the box was way too small. Silly me it ended up costing $75! I don't know what I was thinking but I definitely wasn't expecting it to cost so much. I also hadn't thought about tracking and insurance because I don't usually ship with either of those but thought I should for this because it was going so far (Australia) and it was such a big order I'd hate to have it lost.

I did work out a good pricing system for the order that I am happy with and will use again. I will definitely do another wholesale order if the opportunity arises but I have learned what not to do again and I'm happy for that experience.

Knit, knit, purl, knit, purl...

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy, relatively speaking. I was in Ontario for 5 days and then I had to prepare for an interview. I also have a deadline looming for my wholesale order.

I'm delighted to be knitting 50 argyle coffee cozies to send to the Black Star Coffee Roastery. This is my first wholesale order and I wasn't sure if it would be worthwhile at first but I'm really happy to have someone interested in my cozies and I think it's pretty awesome that my cozies will be selling on the other side of the world. I have 22 partially done (as seen in the photos) and I'm loving all the colour combinations. Once I send out the wholesale order I hope to add some of these great cozies to my shop.

Who doesn't love free shipping?

To celebrate Canada Day and the 4th of July I'm offering free shipping on all of my coffee cozies from June 27 until July 5.

Yesterday I sold all of my bookmarks!! Yay! I'm now up to 36 sales, I can't believe it! I'll be busy this week painstakingly cutting circles out of felt but it will be worth it!

My dear grandmother fell last weekend and hit her head, broke her arm, and possibly fractured her pelvis so she is staying in respite care at the nursing home to get physio and hopefully return home soon. This past week I've been spending every spare moment knitting her a lap blanket and it's finally done! I've never knit an afghan style blanket before but I used a really simple chevron stitch and I really like how it turned out. I'll be mailing it off to grandma tomorrow!