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Tinking Turtle Raverly Profile

Tinking Turtle

Four Pillars

Tinking Turtle Raverly

Updates to the Business

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I’m currently experiencing a high number of potential clients reaching out for repair estimates. While I’m looking into hiring a digital assistant, please be aware that I will be extremely slow to get back to new client communications. This will extend through the end of February, as I finish two very large repair projects.

I will also be on vacation Mid December through the first week in January.

 

The Longer Explanation

I’ve been honored to be trusted by a few clients in the past year to work on creative, large projects that have taken up the majority of my time. It has been refreshing to be able to do repairs that are in a slightly different wheelhouse. Meanwhile, the practical side of running my business: responding to emails and generating estimates and billing clients has become to wear on me.

It’s never been my forte, but in the past, Mr. Turtle has been able to pick up the administrative slack. However, between his commitments to the Navy Reserves and an increase in responsibilities for his day job, he hasn’t been able to help with that side of the business. I’ve been putting off hiring someone to take over those tasks, and thus they have been falling to the wayside. It’s not ideal, and I have some time set aside the beginning of March to figure out how to hire a part time assistant. (Do you know someone? Reach out to me! I’d love a suggestion or two!) Hiring an assistant will mean training them and figuring out what tasks I’d like to offload. It has seemed like a daunting task.

An Example of a Great Repair Request

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Have you ever wondered what goes on before I take on a project to repair?

Before I accept an item to fix, I like to have a dialogue with clients about the piece, their goals, and my ability. All of this starts with the Repair Request I have on my Contact Me Page.

So what makes a good repair request? I often have to clarify to potential clients what I need to come up with an accurate estimate to repair the item they’d like me to work on. When you, the client, fills out our contact form, it asks you a series of questions such as:

  • How important is matching color or matching fiber content?
  • How important is it to you that the repair be machine washable vs. needing to be washed by hand?
  • How are you intending to use the item?
  • How fragile does the fabric appear?
  • How important to you is cost?
  • How important is it for you to preserve as much of the textile as possible?

When you answer these questions, they help me understand where your priorities lie in the the repair. Some repairs can be functionally stable, but the color or fiber content might not be the best match. Finding a good color match can be time consuming – are you willing to reimburse me as I purchase different yarns to find the best match for the repair? If you are intending to put the item on display vs use it everyday, that may influence how much of the object needs to be repaired – daily use means I should also prioritize areas I see are going thin, because with more use they may easily become holes soon.

One of the best ways I can get a sense of the item (aside from sending it to me) is to take good photographs. Take a look at the photos below as I show what was really helpful about them.

This is a great overall photo of the piece. I can see the pieces of paper that mark the holes, and I know where the holes are in relation to each other. It gives me a sense of the scale of the piece, the overall pattern, and if there are any edgings or other factors I have to take into account while working.

Great photo with a number. The ruler provides a lot of detail for me: I can tell the size of the yarn and how big the hole is. The hole is filling enough of the frame that I can zoom in to look at how the fibers are worn away (ie: frayed, cut, ragged).

Again, the ruler is super helpful. I can also tell the customer had their hands on either side stretching the fabric slightly so I could see everything.

So helpful to have number 3 and 4, which are close together, numbered! In cases where holes are close together, the location of the holes can impact how I approach the repairs, so it’s helpful to see that relational information.

Here the hole was small enough that I couldn’t see it in the overall picture, but can see it here. It was so helpful!

 

One of the other things this client did was mark each hole with a piece of string. This really saves both of us time. While sometimes people don’t realize there is a hole that I catch, the time it takes for me to find holes that the client already knows about is time I could use on doing repairs. Ultimately it saves us both time, and in the end, the client money.

Got a piece you’d like me to look at? Now that you have a sense of what I’m looking for, head over to Let’s Connect, and get the conversation started.

2021 Changes and Prices

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This post is going to be a bit of a tone change, but I hope you’ll bear with me. It’s something I’ve been putting off writing about for the past two weeks, as it’s not the fun part of talking about the pieces I get to work on and posting beautiful pictures.  Instead, this is more the realm of the business side of Tinking Turtle, which is something I honestly prefer to leave to Mr. Turtle most of the time.  But, I’m the owner and face of the business, so this is a decision I need to own up to.

As 2020 draws to a close and we begin a New Year, it’s time for me to take stock of the business and the direction it has been going.  We’ve seen some big changes to Tinking Turtle in the last 2 years, as we’ve added to our family and pivoted away from design work to more repair work.  It’s been a tough thing for me, as I honestly love designing, but the tight deadlines were killing both our family life and my hands.  I’m no longer able to pull an all-nighter to finish a shawl that needs to be sent into the magazine in two days!

Which brings me to the purpose of this post: I’m going to be changing my pricing, and I wanted to share some of the reasons I’ve come to this decision.

What Changed?

  • The type of work I’ve been doing has been shifting.  I’m doing a lot more larger and more complicated and specialized repairs.  I’ve built up relationships with other individuals in the knit/crochet industry, and have been happy to pass comission knitting their way when it’s been more standard.  But I’m doing more specialty art projects and handling more heavily damaged pieces, and I want my pricing to reflect that I’ve shifted to a much more specialized sort of work.
  • I‘ve made investments to be able to take on more damaged pieces. Over the past five years I’ve develped a special space to store and process pieces as they come in.  I’ve invested in specialized equipment, like the ozone generator to treat pieces damaged by odors, smoke, moths, and other materials. I’ve invested in other behind-the-scenes tools to better protect and preserve the heirlooms I’m working on.
  • I’ve also made changes to how we handle pieces from a liabality standpoint; with this I am taking on more risk, and hence, have higher insurance prices and other risk mitigating expenses.
  • My volume of projects has increased! Now, don’t get me wrong – I’m happy about this. BUT! The reality is that knitting, crocheting, seaming, blocking, pinning, etc are all hand and arm heavy activities. I’ve been transparent about how this year I had to have surgery for my wrist.  I’m not saying my career was entirely the reason I had to have the surgery, but I have to be careful and take time to stretch and take care of my hands.
  • I’ve gotten better. As I practice more and learn more, the quality of my finishing and repair has increased, and I believe that my expertise is worth it!

What does this mean for you, the Customer?

  1. Coming January 1st, my prices will be increasing on Finishing & Repair work.  My hourly rate will increase from $60 to $70.  Many of the categories in my Finishing line of services will also change – some won’t change as much as my hourly rate, and some won’t change at all.  But most things will be increasing by a little.
  2. Note: for any of you who have been issued a codeword, as long as you have filled out the customer intake form, you are set! Your projects will be charged under the old system. Unable to fill out the form and get your piece in the mail? Drop me a note and we can work with you.

Got questions about the changes?  As always, you can leave me a comment, or drop me an email, and I’ll be happy to answer them!

Thank you so much for being loyal customers!

Welcome Turtlette

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The Tinking Turtle family would like to welcome Turtelette, aka Morgan Winfield, into our family!  Turtlette joined us Friday, February 16th, and both she, her big sister Little Turtle, and Jennifer are doing fine.

Turtlette

Turtlette

 

Going Forward

As previously announced, Jennifer will be taking time away from the business to focus on bringing Turtlette into our family.  We anticipate returning to teaching, finishing, and designing sometime mid-summer.  You can always sign up to our Newsletter on our home page to be informed when services will be resuming.  If you have a finishing or repair project you would like to add to our waiting list, please use our Finishing Contact Form to be added to the waitlist.

While she is out,  Jennifer will be responding to a very limited amount of emails, as she learns how to balance the business with two small children.

As such, please direct requests or email to info@tinkingturtle.com, rather than jennifer@tinkingturtle.com.  This ensures that I (Mr. Turtle) will also get a copy of the email, as I will be aiding in answering emails to clients as I am able.

Thank you for your understanding!

~ Mr. Turtle

Important Updates and News

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Balloon LogoMuch has been going on behind the scenes of Tinking Turtle recently, but it’s left me with precious little time to update the blog!  I’m going to be endeavoring to fix this oversight in the next few days with a series of updates, since some exciting things are happening this fall.

But the biggest news that Mr. Turtle and I would like to share is that we will be adding another small member to our family in late February – a second girl.  We’re very excited to share this news with you!

How will this affect the running of Tinking Turtle?  Well, following the end of the year I’ll be starting to wind things down in anticipation of going on maternity leave.  What we discovered last time was that I didn’t give myself enough time to wrap things up before Little Turtle’s birth, and it left me having to tie up the ends of a few projects after she was born.  We’re trying to avoid that situation this year.  There’ll be the normal holiday pricing for finishing and repairs, and we’ll have a waiting list for people interested in my services after I finish my maternity leave.  Going into the New Year, I’ll be cutting back my teaching obligations too.  I’ll keep you posted with more updates as we get closer to February!

Thank you so much for supporting Tinking Turtle and our growing family.

Stitch Adventure Sale at Dances with Wool

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jennifer+Raymond+teachingI’ve talked a little bit about my new partnership with Dances With Wool, a yarn store just outside of Richmond, VA.  I’m super excited to be able to teach at this wonderful, vibrant new store.  It’s been a while since I’ve been able to teach weekly classes, and to develop many of the relationships that I loved when I taught at Woolwinders.

This week we’re running a sale on a particular type of class – our inaugural Stitch Adventure class.  What is Stitch Adventure?  It’s a class that gives you the benefits of a private lesson – flexibility and ability to cover a variety of topics, with the community aspect of a class.

Stitch Adventure classes can be a great way to tackle a new project that you need a little help on.  If you want to be held accountable to finishing a project up, we can do that.  And if you need help picking a project and finding the right yarn, the instructor is right there for you.  Each class you can bring in a new project – it doesn’t matter if it is knitting or crochet, since I can help you with both!

Right now the Stitch Adventure class is discounted 25% off – so sign up before we start on February 1st.  The class with run Wednesdays, Feb 1, 8, 15, 22  7-8 PM.

I’ll see you there!

Progress Report: Tinking Turtle Post Baby

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32195098356_fa3b4980bf_bI was once told by a friend that was proficient in email market that you should never acknowledge when you’ve been away from your blog for a while… merely you should continue as you mean to go on, and pick up blogging/tweeting/social networking as if you’d never been away.  But in this case, I think it’s worth a little note.

First a quick general life update: the Turtle household has been moving along at a fairly good clip.  We’ve managed to keep ourselves and our new child fed and alive, and got through the holidays with a minimum of drama.  But everything non-essential has been shunted to the side.

The state of things now looks like this: I’ve been wrapping up the last of my designs that I’ve had under contract, and contemplating how my business is going to pivot with Little Turtle’s needs growing and changing.  I knew, conceptually, that this business was going to change after a child, but the plan was rather vague.  We kept the plan vague on purpose.  I didn’t know what parts of the business I’d be able to work in and which parts I wouldn’t be able to.  Now, with nearly 8 months under our belts, I’ve come to some conclusions.

  1. I want to keep teaching. I love teaching students, and it is much more manageable to work teaching into post-baby life.  I can plan to have a weekend where I teach and Mr. Turtle takes Little Turtle.  I can plan to have every Wednesday night off so I can teach at local venues.  I can plan for fiber festivals and retreats and traveling to other locations.  I have a repertoire of classes, samples and worksheets, and can lean on all the work I’ve done the last couple of years to deliver classes that are great.
  2. I’ll keep up the repair and finishing. I like the challenge of working on different projects, and the repair and finishing provides a steady income, which helps.  I can also work on these projects around Little Turtle.
  3. I’ll be dialing back designing for magazines. I’m discovering that designing, for me, is really really difficult around Little Turtle.  Designing was always one of the things I did better when I had long stretches of times to work – to think out the math of a piece, to draw and sketch out proposals.  I need time to dream and think ahead, and that’s really really difficult to do these days.  My last two designs that I had due after Rebecca were born were really stressful, and I don’t think it’s the best return on investment right now.
  4. Instead, I’ll be working on some designs to support my teaching. I’ve found there are techniques I want to teach where I’ve had a hard time finding a design to teach off of that meets my needs.  Instead of making things work, I’m going to be working on self-publishing some pieces that will support the classes I want to teach.

… And meanwhile, Mr. Turtle will be making sure I blog more.

Looking to Interview & Hire Sample Crocheter

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If you’re just here for the crafty goodness, this may be a post to skip.  If you’re based in the Richmond, VA area and you’re looking to earn some money with your crocheting skills, I’d love to talk to you.  Here’s the deal.  As you know, about 4 months ago I gave birth to my daughter, and I’m finding that my time for my business has shifted. I’m looking to hire a sample crocheter that would crochet some of my designs for me. These pieces would be featured in magazines such as Interweave Crochet and Annie’s Crochet World. I’d prefer someone in the Richmond area, as there would be times where in-person meetings would be necessary.Raymond_Foundation-Crochet_3

Compensation would be based on yardage used and complexity, to be negotiated on a project-by-project basis. Samples would be retained by either Tinking Turtle or the magazines.

If you’re interested in this collaboration, please contact me with the following information:

  • Examples of previous projects you’ve done and crochet techniques you are familiar with. I’m especially interested if you’ve worked broomstick lace, hairpin lace, Tunisian (AKA afghan) crochet, and other forms of lace.
  • You’d have to be able to meet deadlines with sometimes quick turnarounds. If you can, please give examples of projects you’ve worked on under a deadline, and the time it took you to complete them.
  • Please send me a link to your Ravelry profile or send me photographs of projects you’ve finished.
  • I’m looking for someone who follows directions exactly – this is not the time to take liberties with the pattern. If there’s a problem I’d prefer for you to contact me right away. Clear and prompt communication is key. Attention to detail is very important – mistakes need to be corrected, this is not a project where you can fudge the details.

For the most part, you’d be doing the body of the work and leaving the finishing details to me – I’d be weaving in ends, blocking, seaming and working edgings.

If this is an opportunity you’d be interested in, I’d love to hear from you!  Please email me at info@tinkingturtle.com with the subject line Sample Crocheter.

Unwind Recap

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This past weekend a number of wonderful coincidences coalesced into the amazing experience of teaching at Unwind Retreat, 20160430_7695in Blowing Rock, NC.  Friday morning Mr. Turtle and I packed up the car and made our way (leisurely) to Blowing Rock.  We took back roads, ate at a hole-in-the-wall barbeque place (much to Michael’s delight), and pulled into the hotel around 4 in the afternoon.

The trip was not made without nervousness.  I had scheduled the retreat long before we knew that Little Turtle was coming.  One of my first questions to my Midwife was her feeling about us traveling 4-ish weeks before due date: was it feasible, smart, and physically okay?  About a month later I contacted the organizers of Unwind, asking if it’d be OK if I brought Michael with me, and informing them about the situation.  But really, there wasn’t much that we could do – as first-time parents, we had no clue how I’d handle the ending of pregnancy – if I’d have the energy or ability.  But I SO wanted to teach at Unwind – the retreat had an excellent reputation, the location was supposed to be amazing, and I love working with students.

So we made it work.  I prepped as much as I could beforehand.  Michael was coming to take many of the stressors off of me – I could focus on teaching, and not worrying about getting my materials from car to hotel room to classroom.  Having him drive would take much of the physical pressure off.

The weekend itself was amazing.  There’s that moment when you enter a large group of people you don’t know, where you get nervous.  But then I remembered why I love events like this – I may not know every person there, but we had something in common: a deep and abiding love of yarn.  Where the question “What are you working on?” always has an interesting answer.  Where everyone had a “knitting story.”

Nancy and Sue, the organizers of Unwind do an amazing job making the weekend feel intimate and open.  Events are booked with room to “breathe.”  There’s a two-hour break for lunch, another break after the last classes before dinner.  Everyone, even the instructors, have one period where they aren’t teaching/taking a class.  It allows people the time and space to truly Unwind – be that hanging out on the porch knitting, going shopping in town, or taking a nap.

While there are many highlights from the weekend, I thought I’d share just one:

20160430_7707

On Saturday night, Michael and I got to set up a table after dinner to show off projects being done at the classes, sell kits, and give people a sneak peek at some upcoming patterns.  I got to show off a giant replica of my logo that my mother and sister sewed for Little Turtle.

Maternity and Parental Leave III: Informing your Customers

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As I mentioned in the last post in what has now become far more of a series than I had imagined, having a well crafted and working plan internally for your business is only half the challenge.  In order to maintain the trust and loyalty of your customers, preparing them for any changes in your business operations is key to ensuring this joyous time is as stress-free as possible for both the new parents and the business owner.

Balloon LogoDepending on your business model, this notification, and how you change your own operations, can vary significantly.  For a retail shop, it could very well be that the day-to-day operations for the casual customers are unaffected.  Perhaps it’s only those specialty orders or specific classes that will take a bit longer to fill or offer.  Alternatively, for a single-performer organization like Tinking Turtle, there are significant changes we needed to let our client base know about.  Specifically, for Classes & Instruction, Jennifer would be unavailable for either contract teaching or private lessons for a period of several months, and for our Finishing and Repair Services, we have already closed project intake and started a waiting list.

In order to ensure sufficient lead time for notification, we believed in  spreading the message about our new schedule and/or services early.  We’ve found that our customers- especially those who are repeat visitors and with whom we have an established relationship – are extremely willing to work with you to adapt to your “new normal”.  Having a child is an exciting time in almost everyone’s life, and framing the communication to reflect this can breed a great amount of good will among everyone your business interacts with.

Because our stakeholder base is fairly varied, we utilized a multi-tiered approach to ensure everyone was informed.  You can never (or almost never) reach every possible individual with whom you interact, so identifying the individuals you need to contact into “buckets” and then tailoring a communication out to each bucket would be a good first step.  For us that consisted of the following:

  • A pair of Blog Posts and an email notification out to our mailing list to notify individuals of the exciting news and potential changes.
  • Updating on our website service pages as early as possible to socialize the new schedule of offerings with individuals
  • Direct Outreach via email or phone call to our key vendor partners including publishers, LYS’s, and Fair, Festival, and Retreat contacts informing them of the changes

Additionally, we’ve tried to be as transparent as possible both through subsequent blog posts (like this series) and in our followup conversations responding to inquiries to keep everyone appraised of our future plans.

This brings everything full circle to where we are today; at this point plans are in place, customers are informed, and now it’s a matter of routine upkeep of the plan until the happy day arrives!

Have any questions about aspects of maternity or parental leave that I haven’t touched on?  Want to see anything more in-depth?  Leave me a note in the comments and maybe it can be the focus of a future installment in this series!

~ Mr. Turtle

 

 

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