Stocking Cap

In knitting news, I did manage to finish that stocking cap a few weeks ago. The thing is, I stitched it up while playing a game at Jenn and Leonard's house so I gave it right to them and never got to take a picture of it.

Jenn just sent me this picture today. Man, their kid is cute!




:)

I have found my next victim...

Tell me if you like it.



Because I can't find blinding yellow sweater!!! He must be upstairs somewhere, but at the moment he is MIA.

I'm paying $10 for it, though, more than I normally would because I'm a cheapass. I haven't been able to find very many sweaters at the thrift shops lately, it still being cold and all. Hopefully I'll be able to stock up around August.

Ridiculously excited

Last night I finally decided to try hacking apart a recycled sweater and see what I could make. I've been collecting the damned things for a year, now, and have never had the guts to do anything with them.

Look what I made!

No pattern, no model, just me and some scissors and my sewing machine. Broke four needles getting the handles on - lesson learned.

Let me know what you think!


(added pic to entry)



*EDIT(: Um, wow, like wow...thank you for the mad props, I am uber flattered. I was just in the other room hacking some sweaters apart to make into a funky blanket, decided to check my email and it's been bought! Like, wow. I'm so pleased I could spit!

I'm off to buy more needles as I only have one left, but for those who expressed an argyle fetish, this will be my next victim...





...those playing the home game will remember Blinding Yellow Sweater, he is next to go under the shears.

Thanks everyone, you made my grey gloomy Sunday.

Midnight oil, burned. Out.

I am staying up far too late every night embroidering, blending tea, and watching bad movies. As in Scooby-Doo AND Scooby-Doo 2 bad. Oh yes. I admit it.

Jinkies!

Zoiks!

This Etsy thing is kind of taking off. It's scaring me. I've not been making a million bucks, but I have talked to a lot of people and had many requests for custom items. Lots of new ideas, too, which have me ridiculously excited.

Met with Madeline, my knitting friend, again today at lunch. On Tuesday we had one of the "regulars" from the Portland SnB group meet with us, and today we had the woman who helped to start the Portland SnB drop by! All because I put the invite on the group calendar! Totally awesome. I feel popular. It's great because I'm finally meeting people and getting out and doing stuff.

Madeline loved the embroidered wipes and ordered five for herself. She was wearing handmade jewelry as was the other woman I met today, Tina. It was stuff I could so easily make. Hm. But anyway, Madeline also complimented the backpack I made for Michael a while back, as did Joy when I talked to her on IM later. Hm.

Got some interest for collaboration from a few other Etsy sellers...I'm getting in touch with them to find out what they're looking for. It's very exciting! I'm also working on some stuff for withAUGUST in my spare time...ha, spare time.

I do believe that I need to be doing more sleeping, however.

I've also found that I am increasingly encouraged by the feedback I'm getting as well as the pace of Etsy...since I'm talking to people and drumming up business (quite unintentionally, but it's just working out that way) it's forcing me to create, but instead of it being a chore it's exciting and fun again. I don't feel isolated any more! It's also encouraging me to create MORE, and I've started thinking a lot about creating actual art and not just cunning craft projects. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy making things that are attractive and functional, but I've started thinking bigger. Quality instead of quantity. I wonder where I could go with that?

In any case, it's exciting.

Easily distracted.

Ever since I've gotten on this Etsy kick I have been extremely busy. Aside from my full-time job and take care of/hanging out with kidlet, a lot of midnight oil has been burned at my house.



My shop isn't taking off like gangbusters, but I've had a few little sales so that's encouraging. Best of all, I've met a lot of cool crafty types on the site and have made a few trades, which I almost like better than money. I've traded for soap, lotion, and cloth menstrual pads.

The most amusing thing is that my most popular items are my tea blends, and I only added those because I thought it might be cool to have them there and they're fun to make - I'm already tossing something together nearly every day. Who knew? Last night I had to go to the co-op to get more herbs...I'm starting to think I might need to inquire about buying wholesale because between what I'm selling, what I'm drinking and what I give away to friends, I go through stuff like peppermint and nettle really quickly.

I've requested catalogs from Frontier Organics and Associated Buyers, so if there's anyone out there interested in forming a buying club to get a discount, let me know. I'm going to see if buying through the co-op or setting up my own account with the vendors is the most cost-effective.

Now I'm encouraged to make a few new blends and offer a sampler pack or something. For everyone that has bought my tea, I'm including samples of the other blends I offer to try and entice them. Since I didn't think tea would be popular, I wasn't prepared and have had to use plastic ziplock bags...serviceable but not very pretty. Last night I found a distributor that sells some pretty cheap muslin and organza bags with drawstrings and I placed a minimum order to see if I like them. I really like the organza colors...they're not exactly organic or even a natural fiber, but they look cool. Maybe I'll put the muslin bags inside of them? I got some in Moss Green, Old Willow, Rose, and Toffee.

With all of this reinforcement I'm seriously thinking about taking my tea on the road and selling at local farmer's markets this Summer. Would that not be cool? I could have a hot pot with me and let people try something out before committing to buy it.

I absolutely must give a quick shout-out to Joy, whose Kaleidoscope rainbow-dyed yarn made the front page of Etsy this morning! Woo hoo! If you want to see it you'd better go quick, because I'm positive it will sell in no time.

Etsy front page
Joy's yarn, in case it sells

Among the Etsy crowd being featured on the front page is a big deal, so booyah for her!

EDIT: Someone bought the yarn! Yaaaay! I'm so thrilled for her!

The latest thing I've been working on craftwise are flannel wipes. Last Summer I made a metric ton of the things for around the house, and at one point bought a bunch more flannel to make more. It occurred to me not long ago that we have enough flannel wipes to last us pretty much forever. We use them for Michael's diaper changes, as washcloths, napkins, cleaning the kitchen, you name it.

Anyway, I asked if anyone thought there would be a market for flannel wipes and got great feedback - even funnier, people seemed enthusasitc about custom embroidery. Therefore, I bring you...

Flannel wipes, standard:



and flannel wipes, embroidered:



Oh, I crack myself up.

Get it? Ha!

That's actually one of my first attempts at embroidery, at least words, and I'm pretty happy with how they came out. I have enough cloth cut out at home to make at least a few dozen more wipes, if not more. I've made up a bunch of sets of standard ones without embroidery that are cheaper, the "Butt" ones are more of a novelty. I've already got a trade in the works for Butt wipes. Go figure!

Knittin'

Ok, ready for some yarn pr0n? Check it out!

Made the Flora hat a few months ago, still haven't added the flowers, though. This is that crazy Louisa Harding yarn that feels weird to knit, but the finished result really is quite cool.



Here's a picture from the book of the Bzzz Hat For Queen Bees:



I searched high and low to find just the right yarn to fit this project, and it took a while but I was successful. This hat is turning out to be a lot larger and floppier than I had expected, but I don't think it looks half bad.

(Please excuse the angle - it's really hard to take a picture of yourself while bending your neck down and to the side at the same time to show the top of your head.)



It might look done, but here's the secret escape hatch!



I also looked for a long time to find the right buttons - metal, hand painted, small, unique. I love these things though they cost me an arm and a leg ($3 apiece, yipes!):



These are the mittens I've been working on (well, one mitten) using that Korall Fancy I found on sale. I love this stuff. It sucks that this yarn is discontinued. Figures.

Modeling my mostly-done mitten is Hermie the Dress Dummy, who also happens to have articulated hands, which I think is amazingly cool. He also has some water damage, obtained before he came to live with me, one of these days I'll get around to recovering him:





I wanted to make a stocking cap for Jenn's baby, Katy. Except I thought I was soooo smart and would use circular needles instead of straight needles, and then I misread the pattern and some wacky-ass decreasing mishap occurred and I ended up with this:



It certainly won't fit Katy - maybe I'll Etsy it.

Here's the stocking cap, second attempt. I've got it all knit up, I'm about halfway done weaving in the ends, the bane of my existance, then I'll sew it up. Bleah. I much prefer working in the round because I'm lazy. It's going to be dang cute, though.





Last but not least, a test pattern for a teensy weensy blankie on size 3s for a certain someone :)

New knitting friend!

Today's been a good day - first, I got in touch with a woman who works nearby and arranged to meet her at JavaNet for lunch knitting! I was really nervous to meet her, and even now I have some worries as she's psychologist...though she says she doesn't work over lunch so hopefully she doesn't think I'm crazy. Anyway, she turned out to be really nice, we had so much to talk about! She has a 14-month old son who is just so adorable, so we even have the young child thing in common. What a trip! We've arranged to meet again on Thursday and will probably make it a regular thing 1-2 times a week. We even talked about getting together on the weekend! How cool would that be? I wonder if she'd come up to my house and I could get my SIL to come watch the kids?