#i'm going to make another one in a cotton yarn which i think will be better (plus it'll be in my favourite colour)

[uncanny-tranny]

This is my first finished project (well, mostly, I just have to give it a final edge and then weave my ends in), I found a crochet hook holder a while back and really liked how it looks; it's crazy that I could replicate it, even if it's not technically great. If you don't look too hard or scrutinize it, you might be impressed (so please don't look close)

If you want to watch somebody who's competent in crochet, watch the video where I followed the pattern!

[woollyrhinocrafts]

Real talk time:

I've had these bags in my shop for two years now and haven't sold a single one. I've tried different price points, doing discounts, paying for Etsy ads, and they are still languishing. They're in my way in real life and clearly bags are a bust so I'm cutting the cord on them. Pricing of similar bags on Etsy are all over the place and it looks like everyone tried bags so it's mega-oversaturated. My bags don't even appear on the first three pages of search results and I have an established shop, Star Seller, etc. so I usually get some priority even without paying for ads.

I'm willing to part with each of them at cost (approximate materials) if you DM me. I'll take Venmo or PayPal. Shipping will be calculated by weight and I'll ship cheapest option available (unless you want something else), but you have to pay it, because they are heavier items, and I'm going to let you have them for 5-20$ and I don't want to come out in the negatives because of shipping, which will be more than $5 for the smallest, you see.

Any bags that are not sold by Christmas will be taken apart for a Great Yarn Reclaimation and I'll just be another dirty reseller and resell all of the handles for profit because I bought them in bulk thinking I'd be making a bunch of cool bags. I'd really like the bags to get homes though, if possible.

Teal Daisy Bag 12x16" - 10$

Pastel Rainbow and Black Tote 11x15" - 5$

Purple/Blue and Black Tote 11x14" - 5$

Blue and Black Tote 11x14" - 5$

Monochrome Tote 12x14" - 5$

100% Cotton Rainbow and Black Mesh Bag - 15$

100% Cotton Spring Colors/Beige Bag - 15$

100% Cotton Blue/Black Stained Glass Panel Bag 12x12" - 15$

Square Spiral Fall Colors Bag 12x14" - 5$

Everything is first come, first serve. Share this in case someone you know wants a handmade bag, that took hours to make, at a price that makes me want to be unalive. Let me know if you have questions about a particular bag or whatever. I'll respond ASAP unless I'm asleep and my sleep is pretty wonky right now. lol

I'll try to edit this post if bags are sold, but I can't always edit my tumblr posts and I don't know why, but I'm old and tired, and I want these bags out of my way.

Here is my Etsy shop if you want to buy something else from me.

[rayshippouuchiha]

*rolls up sleeves* buckle in peeps, this is gonna be long. as promised, pics of all the yarn at and related things to it! Also Ray, fellow void, if you want anything in particular, just holler at me. 👍First the wips!

From left to right: pillow cover in checkerboard stitch using bulky super wash merino wool (cause I wanted to try something new) blanket for stepdad in bamboo stitch with acrylic yarn blanket for mom in broken rib stitch ( I wanna have this done by mother's day but I dunno yet), also in acrylic,and place mat for a friend in basic garter stitch, again in acrylic.

Next is completed stuff!

From left to right: scarf in stockinette stitch for my sis, who likes it despite me being a picky bitch about how it got out of control and definitely not what I intended, argh. Also it's hard to see, but there's beads in there as well. 2nd pic is headband (need to seam the ends together actually), and 2 dishcloths (the holes are intentional on the blue one, since I knitted that diagonally). Then dishtowel in woven stitch, potholders in.. I think I did moss stitch on those. And a facecloth in sand stitch. Then dishtowel in 2x2 rib stitch. I don't remember what I did for the dishcloths, but I DO remember kicking myself cause if I'd thought of it earlier I could've put beads in the pink part to make them watermelon-themed! All of the kitchen-type items were made from cotton/cotton blends. I also have another stack of completed kitchen-type stuff for relatives and friends, but I don't have pics of them at the moment.

Last but not least, the yarn hoard! The stack of 5 cakes was the recent order that was on sale and will eventually become a blanket for my sis. The small tubs are super wash merino wool skeins, they will become various things once I figure out exactly what I wanna make. 🤷‍♀️ so many ideas and patterns, and I'm so indecisive, augh. The tub beneath it is acrylic/acrylic blends, then there's the cotton/cotton blends with a needle case full of spare needles. Last tub is regular wool that was a gift from my mom, a sick kit, and yarn that's was a gift from a nurse I work with (she crochets!) who received it from someone and didn't know what to do with it, asked if I wanted it, and said if i couldn't/didn't want to use it, I could always pass it along as well. And then there's the little roller shelf cart that I keep by my chair so I can organize things while I work on them, and a hat kit! Which I will attempt at some point once I finally get the hang of knitting in the round! Which is supposed to be easy but my fingers don't like to cooperate sometimes! 😒 there are some people who may say that all that yarn isn't necessary, that I may have a problem. To which I say lies and slander and I DON'T have a problem I can stop anytime I want, really. <.<; I was always an arts and crafts kid anyway, this is just...a bigger version of that and I get to make useful things! 😀

Babe!!! Babe!!! you've got so many gorgeous projects going on and so much gorgeous yarn in stock!!

Seriously the color choices you're throwing down are superb!! Everything looks so fucking good!!

And the completed stuff!?! Seriously fantastic too. And I agree with the watermelon thing. They turned out great as is but they would have been beyond cute with the beads in !! Hey that's always something you can go for next time.

I love seeing your art like this because you're doing so good!!

[foxgloveinspace]

@thoseeyeslikefire @absentviolet @kyloreno-911 (if anyone else wants to be tagged in my knitting updates and wants to tag me/us in their knitting updates just shoot me an ask!! And I'll try to remember to do so! Also If I'm supposed to be tagging you and I'm not, just tell me please!)

This is a long one!! And It's in the middle of the week cause I was waiting for yesterday, cause I got a little yarn haul, and then I was super excited and cast on with some of the yarn lmao.

I'm talking a lot about knitting plans today too, along with some of my w.i.p.s.

Firstly, my halloween/skulls cardigan is on hold for the moment, just cause I don't have enough yarn to finish it. I am almost done with side one, and I have used two and a half skeins, and I only have two left, and I'm on row 27? I think, of 31. I think. So I'm gonna get another skein this week when we go grocery shopping, and hope that it will be enough lol.

the first pics of the post, lol. You may be going 'Fox, didn't you just finish this hat?' the answer is yes! But while i was making it, my mom fell in love with it, and so I cast on another one immediately after. I am probably gonna finish this up today, but I decided to include pics, cause I'm keeping it in this really cute halloween bag my aunt gave me.

I am not mad about making another of these hats, I love the pattern (its the Ryegate Hat), and this yarn. I am so in love with this yarn, it's the Light Weight Essential Cotton Yarn by K+C. I love it so much in fact that I think I have more knitting plans with it. In this color too, cause it will be perfect for the project I have in mind.*

next we have part of the yarn haul, lmao. I was too excited when I got new sock yarn and immediately cast on a new pair of socks. I am making A Little Hocus Pocus socks, and I am making them with Paton's Kroy Socks Yarn in the color Midnight Orchid. It reminds me a lot of the genderqueer flag, but that wasn't the reason I got the yarn lol. I honestly just saw it an fell in love with the colors, and it didn't hit me that it matches my flag until I cast it on. I just thought it looked very magical.

the second part of my yarn haul are these beautiful skeins of Fishermen's Wool from Lion's Brand, in the color oatmeal. This is also kicking off my knitting plans for the future part of the post this week. This yarn is going to be used for a Gaia Shawl, which will be my Birthday Shawl for this year. Last year I started a tradition of casting on a shawl on my birthday, I made a Campfire Cozy shawl, and I knit on it during November and December and then I lived in it in January and February. I'm very excited to have a new shawl in the family tbh, even though I mostly wear them around the house. I don't know if this one will take me as long, and the Campfire Cozy has SO many textures, and the 'lace' portion was so complicated I started it over at least twice. I was also watching The Musketeers while knitting that lol, so that didn't help my concentration.

But because I can't cast that on until the 26th, I'm going to be picking back up my pass the honey cardigan, its been off to the side for a couple months now. I think I was just frustrated with it tbh. I like it a lot, but it was going to be a gift, and now it's just...... Here. And while I do like it a lot, I also feel a bit guilty about it?? Cause I tried so hard to make something my sister will enjoy wearing, and I couldn't find it at all. Very sad about that. But I do want to finish it, and I also think I have an idea about something I could make her in the future. But yes, I do want to finish that cause I think it will be great to wear in January.

*And Lastly, going back to the Light Weight Essential Cotton Yarn by K+C, Next month, a sweater pattern from the.creabea (Rebecca) called the Stick Season sweater will be coming out. And I am head over heels in love with this sweater. So I am going to be knitting it in the same yarn as the hats I've been making (both cause I have some left over, and because I think it will be amazing in this yarn). She also just has some absolutely beautiful knitting patterns, and I want to knit her patterns that are coming out for advent season this year too. I think her other sweater pattern that just came out, the Alder Sweater, is absolutely beautiful, but I am very intimidated by it, lol. Maybe one day I'll give it a try.

And that's it from me this week! Thanks for reading if you made it to the end, happy knitting and crocheting y'all!

[kris-mage-fics]

2, 7, and 33 for the writing asks! -em

Weird Questions for Writers post

2. If you had to give up your keyboard and write your stories exclusively by hand, could you do it? If you already write everything by hand, a) are you a wizard and b) pen or pencil?

Nope, I couldn't! This is purely an accessibility issue for me. I can't write by hand for very long before my hand really starts to hurt. Also my spelling is sooo much worse. When I'm typing I rely a lot on muscle memory to spell words correctly, but when I'm doing it by hand the dyslexia is really a problem. Like m/w get switched, or b/d, b/p, d/a, d/q, p/q, f/t, i/j, even u/v. Sure I know I want to write an 'm', but I might end up writing a 'w' because it's the same letter just mirrored. Or I'm trying to write 'a' but my hand keeps going so now it's a 'd'.

The thing is, I didn't even realize I was dyslexic until a few years ago! So until my late 30’s I struggled so much with any kind of writing and didn’t know why it was so hard. If I mentioned to anyone that spelling was really hard for me they’d always say stuff like “But you’re so good at reading!” So I thought I was stupid or not trying hard enough, even though deep down I knew there was something going on that wasn’t my fault. Writing by hand actually gives me a lot of anxiety because of all those years being judged for something I didn’t have control over. And honestly, I don’t think I would’ve ever trying writing if I didn’t know I was dyslexic. Because I still would’ve been blaming myself for being neurodivergent.

7. What is your deepest joy about writing?

Answered here.

33. Do you practice any other art besides writing? Does that art ever tie into your writing, or is it entirely separate?

Yes I do! I’ve done a ton of different arts and crafts over the years. My grandma taught me to crochet when I was 8, and that’s something I’ve done on and off ever since. Generally I crochet lace because the feeling of most yarn as it passes over my fingers gets really irritating, and fine cotton doesn’t. Also I like to challenge myself to make tiny, tedious things! I used to draw, but gave that up in my late teens because of how quickly my hand would start to hurt. Though I really miss it. I’ve dabbled in quite a few different types of embroidery: cross stitch, needlepoint, and drawn thread work. But my favorite is black work/double running stitch/Holbein stitch which I always make completely reversible with no visible knots because I’m nuts like that. I know how to sew, both by machine and hand. I’m not an expert at it, but I can do basic fitting and make clothing that isn’t very complicated. Quilting is something I’ve dabbled in, and would like to do more of, it’s so different than sewing clothing! Another thing I want to do more of is making chain maille jewelry, I’ve done a bit of it and it was really fun! (I’m purposefully leaving out quite a few things I’ve done because it’s already a long list, lol!)

My favorite art form besides writing is bead work! There is something so satisfying to me about working with beads. For one I love jewelry, which I think is a large part my grandpa’s fault (he was a rock hound/amateur lapidary artist, and he used to make jewelry for me). And I love both the technical/mechanical side of bead work, and the artistic/design side of it! It doesn’t matter if it’s bead weaving, if it’s stringing beads, or combining beads with wirework! I love all of it! Working with beads just clicks on a deeper level for me than most art forms I’ve tried.

As to whether it ties in to my writing, I guess that depends on how you interpret that question. I use a lot of lessons I’ve learned about creativity and my own creative process when I write. The way I approach writing is heavy informed by how I work in other mediums. And if it makes sense in the story, I will absolutely use knowledge about other types of art in my writing. Though I haven’t had much opportunity to do so yet. That’s only a matter of time, I usually give my own characters a hobby I’m at least a little knowledgeable about, so it will come up at some point or another.

Thanks for the ask, Em! Also I turned this into more essays, lol!

Oh, man I was looking for examples of some of my work, but I have hardly any photos of things I've made! Well, I did find a couple I can show.

This was done for a drawing class I took when I was 18. While I have regrets about adding color to it, I still think it turned out pretty well. I used a photograph of some rhododendrons from an old National Geographic as reference.

I made these earrings for my mom back in 2015. They're sterling silver and apatite with silk thread woven through the fine chain to add more color. The silver beads next to the drops are 2mm, and the total length is only 1.5 inches/3.8 cm, so you can see I tend to work small.

[0xo]

i made a bandana!!!!! my metamour gifted me some truboo yarn, it's bamboo based and i love it. i used the bulk of the three colors they gave me to make a shawl (which is just two rows from finished, i need to get another full ball bc i underestimated. but i love any excuse to pick up more yarn!) i combined the leftovers from that with some other truboo scraps i had floating around!

i think the colors all go together really nicely, and the yarn itself is such a lovely texture. so soft and silky! this one will be perfect for summer because bamboo rests at a lower temperature than cotton, so it'll keep my head cooler than my cotton bandanas. it feels really nice to wear, very light and dreamy.

i'm really happy with how this pattern turned out, i made it up based on the amount of each color i had. played a lot of yarn chicken but i won! it's very simple, and i think it's cute!!! it will match the shawl really well :,)

[negative-ease]

sunrise... sunset... sangria... dance sweat

project diary cast on entry follows ~

oooooo it's driving me crazy how uneven that square is!!! but that's just test square #1 so it's ok. I sort of figure I'll redo it at the very end -- I never crochet and I've just picked it up again after many years, so my tension is bound to improve over the course of the few dozen of these I'm about to make.

Here are the stats.

-it's a throw. it's for my sister's bday in 4 months.

-it uses the bones of the citrus slice pattern from "the modern guide to granny squares"

-all squares will have the same background (same color as the pith) and a gradient border

-after assembly, the blanket will reverse the gradient border, so another sc row of yellow going back out to the darker pink

-squares are 8x8. to make throw-sized i believe it'll be 6x7, or 42 squares. this feels very doable; i can easily do one square in a day without any clue what i'm doing. once i have the hang of it, 2-3 squares in a day would be fine.

-the yarn is "scheepjes soft fun". i looked at sooo many options before going with this one, but i'm really happy with it. i just couldn't find any natural yarn that had all the specific colors i wanted... i didn't want to mix and match, and i was also wary of price because crochet is so yarn thirsty compared to knitting. the scheepjes skeins are less than $4 for 140m which is fantastic. it's 60% cotton and 40% acrylic. i never work with cotton and i never work with acrylic. but i am enjoying it and really happy with my choice.

-to start with i ordered 5x of the pith/bg and 3x of all other colors. i know i will need more. according to my kitchen scale, after the first test square i'd used about 10g of the pith/bg and about 5g of the slice color. i'll need to do a little more before i'm confident enough to make a second (hopefully final) order. i'm not too worried about dye lots because the squares are discrete, so if i wash before assembly (for example) i should be able to offset any color variance during assembly.

-here was my planning before the yarn search... after confirming i could actually crochet this, i mocked up a really basic diagram and then pulled out the colored pencils. was testing on 2008 babette blanket cascade 220 yarns.... yuuuuup!

-the book has been great to practice reading charts & written instructions, which were always sort of bewildering for me. because i've made a few changes in the outer rounds, i figured i'd try to rewrite the chart (also there are a few minor errors in the printed charts I think? not positive. but to my untrained eye it seems so.) so i've been messing with stitch fiddle with... interesting results lol. placing symbols individually..... i'm sure there's a better way to do it but what am i gonna do, read a manual? grow up. i might just bust out the colored pencils again.

just showing a small part because i'm only rewriting, but... lol. god it's a mess. but i'm learning!

-the lime green i have is on the yellowish side so i think it will work. that's the second test square i'm working on now.

-fun fact: the real reason i picked crochet up again was that i am desperate to make this mosaic throw. but my first attempts were awful, so i decided i needed a lot more practice to get the muscle memory back (and TENSION!!!! ugh). so that's how i ended up here. there's a couple other stashbusting projects i have in mind, too. i'll try the mosaic again eventually!

-last thing for now, it feels criminal that this book, which is super colorful - and does not use varigated yarns in its examples - does not even discuss methods to avoid or mitigate weaving in ends. come on! in my first square, i didn't weave in any. in my second test, i'm working over the ends to see how that looks, works, and how secure it is. so far so good! thank you to the many reddit posts about the pros and cons of all these methods... for me... i know i will die if i'm weaving in 20+ ends per square. ...x42... and it's going to a childless, catless adult so like. i think it will be safe.

everything else about the book is lovely and i'd recommend it to beginning & intermediate crocheters in a heartbeat! i'm a sucker for rainbow colors... the charts and instructions are great and the reference in the back is also very clear.

ok... bye until there is fun or interesting progress to report!

[goldenhypen]

i knoooowww they're so expensive and i have a job 🥲 i wanna try different types of yarn but so far i can only find acrylic and cotton yarn. i've seen so many more types of yarn

also i saw a tiktok of an &team member dancing and he wore a nice batwing type of sweater so now.. i'm making myself one 🤣

yesss right?? i’ve mostly only tried cotton and acrylic too as well as wool and this bamboo rayon one which was so soft and silky,, so nice :’> but i knitted w that one and so i struggled a bit sjsjdj omg which speaking of,, i have soo many unfinished projects cuz by the time i get midway through a long project i’ll find another project i wanna work on more which just leads to tons of unfinished projects hahaha so these days i’ve been going for the smaller projects lol

ahhh i LOVEEE &team pls i think ik which sweater youre talking about omg that’ll be sooo cool. next i think i wanna make one of those mesh tops cuz as a dancer myself i think it’d be super cool

[befuddledbrynntrovert]

After a few months of having the main body portion completed, I got around to crocheting and attaching the sleeves of the cotton summer cardigan (by Hey Carrie on YT) I was working on, and it's finally finished!

This is the first proper garment I've made outside of hats and scarves, and I think it's actually pretty cool! It's definitely a thing that I would wear a lot, if not for the fact that I promised it to my sister lol. Maybe I'll make another though, or something else that's similar. For now, however, I've decided to try my first knit project, which I've impulsively determined will be a sweater for my brother. Hopefully it goes well, though it's certainly going to be a challenge as a first project for knitting. I'm going to only use simpler stitches for this one (no cabling or anything like that), but instead I'll marl a black and dark red yarn together to create some visual interest. I already made a swatch and he was very happy with the colors, so that's good. I'll just have to make/redo a few more to ensure that I can maintain proper tension control and avoid making holes or dropping stitches lol.

[vincentbriggs]

Seeing as you're incredibly knowledgeable regarding all things textile-related, might I ask if you have any tips for dyeing a long cotton dress? I bought a late 1790s/early1800s daydress off another customer and it's a horrible shade of fuchsia instead of red as they claimed. The dress is otherwise very nice, but that colour is an eyesore. That's why I want to dye it a darker red, but am a little afraid to mess it up, thus ruining the dress for good. I would be incredibly thankful for any tips!

Well I am definitely not knowledgeable about all the things, but I do have some experience dyeing, and my mother teaches it, so I can give some advice!

1. Soak it in water before dyeing it. If you put dry fabric into a dye bath it's much more likely to come out uneven, with little light patches where the dye/water took longer to get to the fabric. But if you've got the fabric all thoroughly wet first then when you put it in the dye bath it'll soak in quickly and evenly. When we dyed wool roving in college we first let it soak in big buckets of cold water with just a tiny drop of dish soap to break the surface tension.

2. Frequent stirring is important! The fabric needs to keep moving around to get the most even colour, sitting still for too long can give you dark patches, especially if you're dyeing it in a pot on a heat source. (But I never use a heat source when using fibre reactive dyes.) When I'm dyeing something in a bit tub I just sit there with a pair of tongs and swoosh it around and turn it over frequently until the required amount of time has passed.

3. Take precautions to avoid touching or breathing in dye. I don't know what kind of dye you've got, but it's best to be careful with chemical dyes. They're not something that'll poising you instantly or anything like that, but long term exposure is bad, so masks and gloves are good. In college we always had to be under a huge fume hood when weighing out the dye powders, and laid down a big sheet of newsprint sprayed with water first, so stray particles in the air would stick to the wet paper. You also want to make sure the powder is thoroughly mixed into the water, because little lumps of un-dissoled dye will also cause unevenness. There's also a very strict rule about not using the same dishes for dyeing and food. The dyeing spoons and pots and measuring cups are only for dye! We used the PRO MX fibre reactive stuff (for plant fibres, and usually for silk. We used acid dyes too but they only work on animal fibres) and weighed out & mixed up the dye activator and some other chemicals separately to add to the water, and I have no experience with the stuff the fabric and craft stores sell so I don't know how it compares.

I'd add pictures of my dye instruction sheets but they're at my parents house.

I've seen some people on the internet use fibre reactive dyes in a pot on the stove, but I think that's weird, and have only ever used acid and natural dyes on the stove. For fibre reactive ones I mix it up in a big plastic storage bin (which is never used for food, so it's fine, and I wash it out after and it can go back to storing books or yarn or whatever) and use room temperature or warmish water.

Unfortunately red is the worst colour for dye bleeding, and it might be worthwhile to get a little bottle of dyeset concentrate to help encourage it to not do that when you're rinsing it after.

Ordinarily I would also say "samples are good, always do samples!" but when you're overdyeing a garment that's already a dark colour and presumably don't have any spare scraps that's not really an option.

I hope this was helpful! I'm worried it might have come off sounding a bit overcomplicated and scary, but as I said I don't know what the normal dyes from the store are like compared to what we did in Textiles.

Good luck!!

[topicprinter]

Hey /r/Entrepreneur, I’m Denver, aka /u/LoomaHome!I’ve lurked here for a very long time, and being a follower of this subreddit + /r/MaleLivingSpace has been a big part of starting my business, so I’m excited to share.Along with my business partner, Ishaan, I’m a co-founder at Looma, makers of expertly curated and ethically-sourced bedding sets (and more decor stuff soon). We’ve been working on the business for almost a year now and we just launched yesterday!We’ve been on two quests: building a modular ecosystem of bedding and home decor products that fit seamlessly together and figuring out how to sell the softest possible organic, and fair-trade products for half the price of everyone else, and we think we nailed it.One of my favorite things are “How I did it” posts, getting an insider perspective on how Redditors have built their businesses, usually in industries I don’t know anything about. Since /r/Entrepreneur has helped me during this journey, I’d like to lay out my “Mental Framework” for how I approached business, in hopes that it could give someone out there a starting point for chasing their big idea too.But first, a little context, so you know how I got started. Backstory[TL;DR below]After graduating from college, I bounced around between the East and West coasts for different jobs. With every move, I’d go through my stuff and ask, “Is this really worth taking with me?”Usually the answer was “no.” So, I was arriving in my new city with few belongings, which meant I had to start all over to furnish my space. I’d get a few cheap things, live in the new city for a while, take another job offer, move again, leave behind all the cheap stuff, repeat. I absolutely hated redecorating, because it was so hard to make each new place feel like home. First a bedframe and mattress, then sheets, an area rug, side table, desk, wall art, and so on. I was becoming Ikea/Target’s #1 customer. Browsing aisle by aisle had become an obligatory pastime, and I kept asking myself “Why is this such a painful process?” and “How can I find someone else to do this for me?”Around that same time of my bedroom/existential breakdown, I had a month and a half between my move and my job’s start date, so I visited my one of my best friends from college, Ishaan, who’s from India. I had planned on spending a week with Ishaan then tour around to see all of the big sites (obligatory Taj Mahal pic). But instead of touring the country, I was mostly fascinated by Ishaan’s family business. He had gone back after college to run the textile mill his grandfather’s grandfather had started in the 1800s. Coming from a world of corporate offices and Excel spreadsheets, I was fascinated by the processes, the people, and the business behind textiles. Watching raw materials go in one side and finished products come out the other was incredibly satisfying.Back in the US, I was still thinking about that mill, while sitting in my studio apartment filled with hodge-podge decor that never quite right. Like Steve Jobs’ once said in one of my favorite speeches ever, the dots only connect when you’re looking backward. It hit me: What if Ishaan and I started a business that provided modular decor? You pick a theme you like, and then simply buy everything, from sheets to rugs and small decorations, that’s been curated for you in that same theme?Given that Ishaan could manage the raw materials & production aspects, and that bedding is one of the easiest and fastest ways to change the look of an entire room, I figured that bedding would be the logical first step, and then we could expand our offerings from there. I pitched my plan to Ishaan, he was onboard, and Looma was born!TL;DR version: Recent college grad got tired of figuring out how to redecorate every time he moved for a new job. Goes to visit friend in India while between jobs. Finds out friend’s family is in textiles, becomes fascinated by the business. Goes back to the States and starts a company with friend, to help people easily decorate their spaces with curated looks, and figures bedding is a good place to start. Looma begins! Analyzing the MarketWe had a vision for the customer pain point we wanted to solve, but we still needed to figure out exactly where we would fit into the broader market, and how things operate today. We broke down our market research into 3 buckets: supply chain, distribution, and consumer behavior.If you’re wondering where to find this type of info a great start is a google search of: “industry primer”First a size check: We knew the market was big, but not this big. In the US alone, home textiles (bedding, rugs & bath) is a $15 billion market annually.Supply Chain: Despite online & direct to consumer models starting to pop up, we found the vast majority of volume of the global home textile market is via outsourced manufacturing and brand licensing agreements. Much like Luxxotica owns 90% of the eyewear market, the same 4/5 manufacturers own 90% of the brands you’ve bought bedding from. It works like this: Manufacturer A pays Brand X, Y and Z to sell sheets with the Brand X, Y or Z labels on it. Brands love it because its free money for zero effort, but the problem for consumers is that most manufacturers are more concerned with volume than quality, with the overall effect being a reduction in competition – causing prices to steadily rise while quality doesn’t.So I can assure you, Tommy Hilfiger didn’t actually design any beds, someone at Indocount or Himatsingka did.Distribution: The distribution split in home goods is around 75% in-store 25% online, with the online portion growing extremely rapidly (less than 20% of sales 3 years ago). In-store distribution is split between big box brands who wholesale other brand’s products (Target, Bed Bath & Beyond) and specialty retail (West Elm, Crate & Barrel, etc.) who primarily sell their own brand. Online is split between Amazon and independent e-commerce (Brooklinen, Parachute, et al.).Consumer Behavior: Consumers repurchase rates are moderate tending to replace sheets every 18-24 months. There were fewer resources that specifically catalogued consumer behavior when it came specifically to bedding, so we used SurveyMonkey & Google Surveys to gather our own data. Based on our survey work we found that consumers brand recall & brand loyalty is extremely low. The surveys also showed that the future of online sales was bright with over 55% of customers considering purchasing bedding online for their next buying cycle.Our major takeaways from the research were:· The overall market is massive· The supply chain is dominated by incumbents with no incentive to improve quality· Online is the minority today but explodingEach finding pointed to the huge growth prospects for digital-first brands. Despite how overhyped “Millennials are killing [x]” headlines are, new buying habits (online) paired with general distain for the current players means a huge opportunity to cater to consumers in a new way.We want to create a brand that delights consumers, creates loyalty, and will become the no brainer go-to when buying anything for a bedroom. To do that, we know we have to do things that others aren’t. The Business BlueprintPutting the pieces together, we centered everything around one question: how do we delight the new breed of digital-first customers?Product: How do we delight customers with our product?The first step was to think of product as not just the physical goods, but the buying experience too. As I thought about my own hatred for decorating, it really boiled down to not knowing how to put pieces together in a cohesive way. We wanted to bring the same curation & ease-of-purchase focus that is so popular in Apparel (“shop this look”), to home goods. Today, whether it’s online or in-store, most bedding is sold piece by piece in separate sheet sets, duvet covers, comforters, blankets, throws, pillows etc. So we created a product line is focused on bundling and pre-curated bedroom “recipes” that are guaranteed to look good together. By making our product both the physical item and the more streamlined path to purchasing it, we're hoping to set ourselves apart from the average buying experience.Price & Quality: How can we delight customers with high quality materials and a mass market price?The vast majority of people we surveyed were “meh” on their bedding, except the group in the luxury segment. The luxury consumers totally reversed the trend with strong brand recall and loyalty. The takeaway: quality benefits exist, but you have to really spend to get it.So the question was: how to bring luxury bedding quality & loyalty at a price point that the other 98% of the market can afford? Brands like Parachute and Boll & Branch successfully brought Frette quality ($1,200+ sets) to the $450-650 price range by going direct to consumer and cutting out the retail/wholesale markups, but to bring that quality to the $250-$350 price point would require far more than changing sales channels from offline to online.This happens to be our secret sauce. Back to the origin story, Ishaan & his family have been in Textiles for over 100 years. I came to him to ask if it was possible to bring that $1,000 sheets quality to the mass market. The answer was no. Not if we went to the outsourced manufacturers like in-store brands and the other direct to consumer brands like Parachute. The only possible way would be to deal with the farmers growing the ultra-lux organic cotton directly rather than buying from regional or national cotton traders (not an easy task, most organic cotton is grown on small independent farms, so we’d have to reach out to a number of them individually), then we’d have to bring most of the major finishing processes in-house (like spinning the cotton yarn, weaving it, and cutting & sewing it). People outsource for a reason: it’s much easier. But with every outsourced process comes another markup, and we couldn’t afford that.So we followed the plan. We’re bringing the absolute highest quality GOTS Organic, Fair-Trade Certified linens to the market at a price that is literally unbeatable. Check out a quick comparison chart. Our complete foundation set (sheet set + duvet cover) is just $279. Compare that to Parachute at $550 (Organic but not Fair Trade), and Brooklinen at $249 (Not Organic, Not Fair Trade, Value Quality at Premium Price).ChannelWhere to sell? Amazon, wholesale, our own website? Where can we best meet our customer to give them a delightful experience?Right off the bat Wholesale wouldn’t work for us. Typically when brands sell wholesale they have to take a 40-60% cut on their regular retail price. So that effectively means brands that wholesale spend less than 30% of the retail price of the product on the actual materials & construction.Amazon has a ton of benefits, primarily built-in foot traffic. It’s a marketplace with high intent customers that are already searching for bedding and probably already have their payment information saved. On top of that, if you use Fulfilled By Amazon, they take the headache out of shipping. That’s super compelling. On the downside, Amazon takes a fat commission on sales, limits customization of the listing page, knows your exact sales data & popularity (Hello new Amazon Brand in your category), and generally owns the user experience throughout the purchase. In the end it’s something we’re going to continue to consider, but not right for us at this point.So we settled on selling via our own e-commerce website. Pros for us were the ability to customize the user experience with things like style quiz flows, owning all of our user data, and most importantly no marketplace commissions on our sales, but the cost was high, and not for everyone. When choosing independent e-com you have to balance with knowing it’s very expensive to bring traffic to your site, there’s a big upfront cost to developing a scale-ready website, and other headaches like integrating your sales systems with logistics systems. Sourcing & Other ResourcesIn Looma’s case, we haven’t had to search for manufacturing partners the same way most new companies do, but after working with manufacturers for non-core pieces of the business (like packaging) here are my thoughts on sources & best practices for reaching out:Alibaba: There are entire guides for this, but 1) always check how long each supplier has been in business + what their revenue last year was. If it’s less than 2 years old and/or their revenue is under $1 million, that can be a red flag that they’re not a reliable supplier, or too new to know their reputation. There are probably 10 other options in the same category with a more reliable background, reach out to them. 2) Reach out to at least 5 suppliers with your list of requirements for any product you’re looking for – even if you see a listing that looks perfect. A lot can be learned from the speed and level of professionalism in responses. After you narrow down to a few attentive suppliers don’t be afraid to push back on Price or Minimum Order Quantities. These responses are valuable too for determining who might be a good long term partner, not just supplier.IndiaMART: The Alibaba of India. Unfortunately they are much less organized and don’t have an internal chat feature like Alibaba. Be prepared to receive 10s of calls from suppliers if you give them your number. One big upside is that it can be a great place to source if you put in the effort, and a lot of the time I’ve found suppliers on IndiaMart are more willing to lower MOQs for new accounts.PortExaminer.com: While this isn’t a source supplier, you still shouldn’t overlook this resource. This is a bit of an insider secret, but import records into the United States are public record. That means you can look up your competitors and figure out exactly who they’re buying from!Sometimes you can’t find the exact records you’re searching for, but if you can, you can contact the same source suppliers your competitors are using, and ask for quotes for products that are similar to your competitor’s. Once you have a quote, you know how much your competitor is spending to manufacture their product, and you can figure out if you’re able to beat that price, and with higher quality.PackagingThere are two ways to go here. US companies like BoxUp.com, Packlane.com or Lumi.com tend to be expensive, or you could test the waters of direct from China packaging on Alibaba. For the seasoned expert, Alibaba makes sense, but if you’re just getting started, I 100% recommend a more expensive US option who will ensure quality.LogisticsGreat! Now your product is in a cool box, ready to be delivered by...someone. By far, my favorite freight forwarder is Flexport. Hands down the easiest, most intuitive, and modern freight forwarding service out there; I highly recommend them.PlatformFor our eCommerce we decided to use Shopify. They had the lowest barriers to entry and offered acceptable levels of customization.For our inventory management, we chose Ordoro. Shoutout to /u/gdpics from Ordoro for the great customer service! Final ThoughtsWhatever your plans and budget are, know that it will take 3x as long and cost 10x as much. Figure out your costs and estimate your schedule, and then pump it up. Give yourself plenty of buffer, because you will hit unexpected costs and scheduling holdups, and if you’re not prepared, it’ll knock you flat.Have a strong list of advisors and try to get as big and diverse of a roster as you can. I cold emailed so many people I considered to be my “Dream Experts,” but I also reached out to some people who I knew excelled at the lower-level functioning stuff, too.I wrote my emails to these people like, “This is what I’m up to, and this is why I’d love to have your expertise on this.” I was honestly shocked at how many people responded to me, and I now have an incredible board of advisors I can contact about different concerns and questions: Zander Lurie (CEO of Surveymonkey), Kory Stevens (CEO of Taft /u/therealtaftclothing), Brian Magida (Performance Marketing at Warby Parker), and a ton of others. Find those people, show them that you’re serious and know what you’re talking about, and you might be surprised how many of them are willing to help you, if you’re respectful of their time.Founding a company is a mental health game, and you need to take that seriously. Even though I’m technically a co-founder with one of my best friends, he’s on the other side of the world handling logistics over there, so sometimes it can feel like I’m a solo founder. Find someone — preferably a friend who isn’t involved in your business — who is willing to be a listening ear and sympathizer for those moments when you’re overwhelmed.Finally, once you’re at an acceptable level, just launch. You could go bankrupt trying to make everything absolutely perfect. There are still some things about Looma I want to tweak and change, but really, it’s ready for the next phase, so we’re pulling the lever and we’re rolling! /r/Entrepreneur, thanks for listening, and I really hope this was interesting for you guys. Thanks for being such a great community, and please, if there’s anything in this overview that you’d like more specific info on, ask! As for Looma, we launched yesterday on Kickstarter, and we we're already 75% funded!! Go grab an earlybird discount while the stock lasts!