These 7  Handspun Yarns will be available today directly through The Twisted Purl Handmade Yarn Facebook Page. The upload will start May 16, 2013 at 1:00 PM CST.

All Yarn will be posted with yardage, price, and fiber content.

Looking back over the Battle of the Brands competition, I learned a tremendous amount about myself and a lot about my company.  If you would like to read my concluding thoughts on winning the statewide competition, Arkansas Sourcelink has it posted here.

I realized just why my little handmade yarn company and other handmade companies around the world mean so much to me.

When you hold a handmade item in your hand, you hold the heart of the Artisan. The creation took thought, love, and passion to come to life. It gives you a glimpse into the creator’s mind. Yes, Handmade may cost more than a $5 skein of yarn, a $20 blanket, or a pair of earrings at the dollar store…but there is a story behind the creation. A story you take part  in just by owning the item. A story you can share with generations to come. There is a real person and real thought behind each handmade item.I for one need more handmade and less mass-produced items.  I have tons of commercially produced items all over. But I can tell you, the items I treasure the most are all handmade. Pictured above are a few of my favorite things.  A goofy set of Sheep Salt & Pepper Shakers created especially for me by Chris Massingill.  A Yarn Knitting Bowl created by The Punk-n-Patch.  A hand wrapped and sewn bowl made by my ever so crafty step mom, Debbie Ayres.  My American Vintage Pillow, a splendid design by Jeanetta Darley.  Jeanetta also drew to life The Twisted Purl’s adored yarn wrapped sheep logo.  These are but a few handmade goodies you can find around my house.

Above is a picture of a quilt made by my grandmother, Eva Ayres.  “Meadow Lily” created in 2000.  For a long time, I just kept the quilt in a special pillow case so it would not get messed up.  Then I realized, I was missing out on the joy of owning this handmade treasure.  It now goes back and forth from my bed to the couch.  It’s my favorite blanket to snuggle up with on a cold winter’s day.  My grandmother’s hands cut the cloth, made the design, and stitched this masterpiece together.  It will undoubtedly be treasured for generations.

This is a blanket my grandmother, Thelma Cox crocheted.  She is no longer with us and this blanket is the only one I have made by her lovely hands.  My grandmother passed when I was a wild and rebellious teenager, before I even realized my passion for yarn.  I know in my heart she was the one that planted the yarn seed.  There was rarely a time she wasn’t sitting in her chair crocheting beautiful pieces for everyone she loved.  This handmade baby blanket I treasure the very most.  Her fingers ran along every stitch.  Her hook wove back and forth between countless loops creating the pattern. I wish I could give her a skein of my yarn and watch what she could do with it.  I’ll be content holding her blanket and knowing she is smiling down watching my creations.

My handmade story starts with fiber.  I dye the colors I’d like to see.  Blend the fibers together through a drum carder to get the various textures.  Take the carded batt from the drum carder and spin it into yarn on my spinning wheel.  I leave my finger prints on every inch of string I create.  But my part is only the beginning of the yarn’s handmade journey.  You take it and give it life by turning it into your own handmade creation.  You complete the handmade story. 

I take fluff and turn it into string so you can make clothes and other pretty things. 

Handmade is heart, passion, and treasured for generations.

Handmade is a story that must be told.

What is your handmade story?

I’d love to hear about your handmade story, please join us on Facebook and share your journey and join in ours. ♥

We have been selling a lot of Felted Soap to many Retail Stores worldwide. Recently, my online source for soaps ran out.  Oh no!  I had to figure out a place to get my soaps and fast.  I knew one place I had to order from in very large quantities, spending a very large amount of cash at a time, and having to wire transfer money to the company for payment.  Seriously, in this day and age…who doesn’t take credit cards?   I went ahead and put in the large order.

Now, I always think things are going to take longer than they actually do.  I guessed it’d be a couple of weeks before I’d see the soapy boxes and figured I had all the time in the world to clean out space in my cluttered garage.

The rumble of the HUGE Big Rig stopping in front of my house this afternoon told me otherwise.  Now, today was a felting day (so I was pretty messy) but I made a mad dash for shoes and ran outside to greet a very burly bearded gentleman.  I would not have been surprised if he told me he was kin to the Duck Dynasty crew.  Huge guy, but a real sweetheart.

He was given the wrong address and of course was expecting a business address, not a residential.  Really?  Who gets 1,392 bars of soap delivered to their door? Maybe doomsday preparers, Kate plus 8, and just me!

I ran out and squeaked “You have soap for me?”

He replied in a gruff, manly voice “I don’t know what I got but are YOU The Twisted Purl???”

I giggled and said “Yes sir!!!”

Guess he had already called the company and they told him to return the soap.  So thankful I had run out right when I did!  I explained I didn’t think he was coming for a week or so and apologized for not having the help for him to unload.  He said it was just a little pallet, so no biggie.

I watched him hop in the lift of his truck and open it up.  In the very back of the huge truck sat my pallet.  It definitely looked small compared to the massive inside of his truck and the size of the man unloading.  He pushed the pallet up my driveway and set it down next to the garage.  I thanked him kindly and he said he was just happy to not have to take it back and still had time for lunch.

Once the pallet was in front of my garage and almost the same size as the front of my Tahoe I knew this wasn’t a “Small Pallet”.  I quickly made space in the garage for the pallet and up-wrapped the plastic.  Wow!  29 boxes, each weighing about 15 pounds was some heavy lifting.  I had to move all the boxes off the pallet, move the pallet into the garage, then move all the boxes back onto the pallet.

Weight training for the day done!  My boys arrived home shortly after all the heavy lifting was done.  They hopped up on the boxes and demanding photos be taken of them with all the soap.

They are just super lucky the nice delivery man didn’t come an hour later.  I’d have put them to work!  Before today, the most soaps I had ever ordered at one time was close to 200 bars.

Now the real work begins!  Time to start felting 1,392 bars of soap.  Whew!

Yes it’s true, our small, one woman run, Handmade Fiber Company has WON the Battle of the Brands competition hosted by Arkansas Sourcelink.

We made it past Round One (StraightRight Boxing & Fitness), Round Two (Diamond Bear Brewery),  Round Three (Daisy Outdoor Products), Round 4 (Mountain Valley Spring Water), & Round 5 (Guillermo’s Gourmet Grounds), & Round 6 beat the delicious Whole Hog Cafe to win the title of Emperor of Entrepreneurship!!  Thank you for your help!

I am but only one crafty business gal, on a mission

to spread the love & passion of handmade fiber arts.

My voice is small, but when joined with yours

we shout loud & the world hears

“Handmade all the way!”

Thank you!!!

Thank you to our terrific Fans, Fiber Friends, Family, and Supporters for helping this Handmade Business of one take the win.  Special thanks to our competitors for a fun filled battle.  Of course lots of thanks also to Arkansas Sourcelink for putting together such an inspiring competition.

The last few days have been a blur but I would like to quickly congratulate Mandi Yelland for winning our Whole line Giveaway Sharing contest!  Thank you so much!!!  I’ll be contacting you shortly to see which prize you would like.

Now everything can get back to normal…well my sort of crazy normal.

Battle of the Brands Celebration

Final Round:  The Twisted Purl vs Whole Hog Cafe

Help us win this!!!

What a fun ride this has been!  In case you haven’t already seen me squealing everywhere I can about this competition, Arkansas Sourcelink hosted an epic Battle of the Brands for our entire state.  The Twisted Purl has been the underdog from the start and has surprisingly landed in the final round.  Everyone loves handmade!  If you would like to learn more about our journey please check out this previous blog post.

We’re in one last head to head battle versus the oh so yummy Whole Hog Cafe. Voting is still live until April 12 at 4pm CST and I really could use a quick 2 second vote.  Click here to help take handmade yarn all the way and vote for The Twisted Purl.

HELP US WIN BY SPREADING THE WORD!

If you do any of the following you’ll be entered to win your choice of a skein of Handspun Yarn, a bar of Felted Soap, or a set of our Felted Dryer Balls.  Winner Randomly selected after voting for this final round of Battle of the Brands is over on April 13, 2013 at 4:00 pm CST.  You can enter as many times as you like!  You can do one of these things, or do them all!  Each counts as an entry to the giveaway.

TWEET IT!  Tweet about The Twisted Purl in the Battle of the Brands and be sure to include @TheTwistedPurl so I see you.  OR you can simply Re-Tweet this:

I just helped @TheTwistedPurl in the #BattleoftheBrands with a quick vote: arksourcelink.com/brands and you can too. Handmade for the win!

PIN IT! Pin any photo from this page and be sure to include @The Twisted Purl in your comment. (make sure you follow me on Pinterest so I see the tag)

INSTAGRAM IT!  Share a picture from our page and tag us @TheTwistedPurl use the hashtag #TheTwistedPurl or make your own funny Meme about Why Yarn is better than BBQ…or say something on Notepad….or…well you get the picture.  I just want to see it!

COMMENT ON IT!  Leave a comment on this blog post and let us know you voted.  Share the voting link: arksourcelink.com/brands and have people vote for The Twisted Purl.  In a comment below let us know where you shared it and that’s another entry for the Giveaway.

 Tell anyone & everyone

Handmade all the way for the win!!!

Please share and tell everyone you know!!! We need lots of help this week. Voting ends at 4:00 pm CST on Friday, April 5th. The Twisted Purl is an independently owned, handmade yarn and fiber company. It only takes a couple seconds to vote. Please go to http://arksourcelink.com/brands and help this small company get to the top two brands in the state. The Twisted Purl has already come so far!!! Thank you for the help.

Today’s the very last day of Round 4 in the Arkansas Battle of the Brands.  I have to say I am just absolutely blown away to have made it as far as I have. This could not have happened without you.  THANK YOU!!!  For a Fiber Business of one to make it into the Epic Top 8 Brands in the entire state is absolutely mind-blowing!

To recap, if you are just joining us…in Round One we beat out Straightright Boxing and Fitness company in Little Rock.  So, yay!  We beat the boxers!!!

Round Two, we were up against the oh so yummy Diamond Bear Brewery.  We pushed and pushed for votes and somehow got through the week.  I raise a toast to the best Brewery in our state.

Round Three, The Twisted Purl had to look down the barrel of the creators of the infamous Red Ryder BB Gun from The Christmas Story.  Daisy Outdoor Products was tough competition but we got through without any bullet wounds.

Round Three was exciting.  We Yarn Bombed a Daisy Red Ryder BB Gun:

There was an article on the FRONT PAGE of the Log Cabin Democrat about The Twisted Purl and our Battle so far.  That article can be found here.

The gentlemen running the contest from Arkansas Sourcelink were also on THV channel 11 and they talked a lot about The Twisted Purl.  That video is here.

To learn more about my competition this week, Mountain Valley Spring Water, and my company as well.  Arkansas Sourcelink released a blog post about our companies.  That post is found here.

I need you NOW more than ever:

Voting ends today at 4pm CST for Round 4.  If you have not already cast a simple vote for The Twisted Purl in Bracket 3 at http://www.arksourcelink.com/brands

A huge thank you to our wonderful Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers, Pinterest Repinners, and Instagram Peeps. Lots of love to all of my phenomenal friends and family who have posted and reposted getting everyone they know voting.

Also, another big thank you to Natalie Redding of Namaste Farms, who helped me spread the word and was generous enough to host a giveaway for any of her fans who voted for The Twisted Purl.  Nat you are amazing!!!  By the way, if you EVER need fiber, she has the most exquisite in the world.

Without all of you we would have not even made it past the first round.  You guys rock!!!

Let’s see if we can get The Twisted Purl into the Final 4!!!  Please vote!!!

What a great weekend! On Friday, we found out The Twisted Purl beat Daisy Outdoor Products in the Battle of the Brands. We still need you help! Please vote for The Twisted Purl in Bracket 3 at http://arksourcelink.com/brands

This week we are up against Mountain Valley Spring Water.  That’s another BIG BRAND!  I am still just in shock and amazement my little ole company of one has made it this far in the competition.  We could not have done this without you.  Here are a few funny meme photos fans have made for us:

Here’s a beautifully chosen basket of fluff selected by Jeanetta Darley.  It turned into the below yarn:

This yarn is available here.