A Scarf, a book and an Etsy Sale!

Jan25

Today’s post will be quick and a bit scrambled, I think, much like my brain today. First, some happy news: I finished the scarf commission, hooray! It will ship out tomorrow and complete that order. Now I can move on to finishing my eight other WIPs without guilt. Here’s a terrible photo that doesn’t show any good details…because it’s so darn hard to photograph black yarn. But just to prove that I’m not a complete and utter photo slouch, here’s a better one that I took last night. I’m pleased with it; it’s soft and cozy.

Second, I’m taking my manuscript and handing it off to my first co-worker reader! It’s a little scary and a little exciting at the same time. I hope she likes it, but I also hope I get good feedback. We’re having lunch too, which is why I don’t have time for a long post today.

Finally, I decided to do a sale on my Etsy shop for Valentine’s Day! I try to keep my prices affordable all the time, so I very rarely do discounts, but I figured, what the heck. Let’s try it and see what happens. So I’ve done a Facebook boost to hit a bigger audience, and you can see that here. Fingers crossed!

Happy Monday, friends!

I bought more yarn

Jan24

This proves it: I am weak. I couldn’t even go a month without buying new yarn. I lasted 23 days. Then I made the mistake of going to Michaels. I was just going to get some Yoda green yarn to have on hand, and darn it, all the yarn was on sale. Even with that, I resisted until the very end, when I found some lovely variegated bulky skeins. Mostly acrylic but with a nice wooly feel to them. Then I found a display with these value packs, two skeins (1060 yards total) for $5.99. That seemed like too good a deal to resist. Sure it’s all acrylic, but they’ll make great inexpensive pieces for kids and my craft shows. The bags were sealed but someone had torn one open so I made sure to get a feel for the yarn before I bought it. Aren’t these awesome colors?

That wasn’t too terrible, but then yesterday we took a day trip to northwest Missouri. The girl was in an all-day honor band at Northwest Missouri State in Maryville, which is about an hour and a half away from us. At first we figured we’d stay in Maryville…but even the lone Starbucks inside the library was closed, and the biggest attraction in town was Walmart. So instead we drove to St. Joseph for the day, where we toured four antique malls and a real live yarn store! The Red Barn Yarn Farm was small but had a fantastic selection of yarns, and the staff was super friendly and helpful. Of course I needed some souvenir yarn, right?Malabrigo Worsted in Periwinkle. Malabrigo Worsted in Pink Frost.This Lustra isn’t the softest yarn against my cheek but I adore the color and the sheen. It won’t be something for me but I had to have some to play with.

I did have a bit of knitting time too. I wanted to work on this hat but forgot to bring the bigger needles for when it was time to switch to the body, oops! Fortunately, I’d brought my black scarf commission with me and I made good progress on that. I forgot! I found buttons at the antique mall too! Most of the time they’re loose in jars and I don’t want to pay $15 for a jar of tiny random buttons. But I love it when I find the cards of vintage buttons for a good price.So yeah, I broke my streak big time. But it sure was fun! And I’m back in the mode of “Knit all the things NOW!” I’ve got so many WIPs on my needles and so many ideas for new projects that I think it’s the tiniest bit overwhelming. Today I might focus on the scarf; that’s the highest priority and getting done will ease my mind. What do you think, can I knit 3/4 of a scarf in one day?

Photo Editing of Yarn Stuff

Jan22

Yesterday was spent without yarn in my hands and strangely, it felt okay. That’s not to say I avoided yarn completely. Instead, I worked on photos for my Bonny Knits business. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while but wasn’t sure what apps or programs would be best. Photoshop is the obvious one, but it’s too expensive for my needs.

Thanks to a fellow fiber friend, I discovered PicMonkey and started playing around with the free Basic version. It has a good variety of effects, overlays, themes and fonts for free, which is great. The biggest flaw is how slowly it runs on my computer, and I’m not sure how much to blame on the site and how much on my laptop. When there’s nothing else open on my computer, I can use it without too much frustration. Here are a couple of early attempts. yoda Heartbeat LoveHat Sadly, this one has a wee typo (should be ‘shop’, not ‘shops’) and I couldn’t go back and edit once I saved. It would have to be re-done completely. I don’t know if that’s something that’s different in the paid services, but it would be nice to keep the images in a library and edit them easily.

Then I tried Foto Editor Lite, another free app, this time on my phone. There were some different filters that I liked a lot, ones that seemed to alter the background without changing the focus of the photo too much. The text was easy to add and alter, but the app crashed a few times while I was editing text, and I’d lose everything I’d done. Still, I liked it well enough for a quick edit of photos on my phone that I could then easily post on Twitter or Instagram.

Then I moved to the iPad and played with LiPix, another free app. It’s easy to use with a ton of variety in frames and shapes. You can alter the colors yourself to get just the right shade. It has just as many filters as Instagram, if not more. Adding text was simple, with great options for color and font. There were stickers you could add, which were fun, probably not something I’d use for this kind of thing but great for personal photos. I think this might have been my favorite of the three. It was easier for me to work on the iPad than the phone, it didn’t crash once, it had a ton of variety for free, and the photos were easy to save and share. There you have it, if you’ve been looking for ways to spice up your photos but like me, didn’t know where to start. I’m looking forward to all the fun images I can create!

Back to the Hats

Jan18

Today I am holed up in my bedroom because it’s 10 degrees outside and the heat pump in this house can’t keep up. My bedroom gets lots of lovely sunlight and somehow is the warmest room in the house, so here is where I will be until the temperature in my living room rises above 60.

After spending most of last week working on my book, I spent Saturday on the hard part: the query letter! Ugh. It’s so hard to condense it down to a really intriguing summary. I also worked on Twitter pitches, since I see lots of contests there, and that’s even harder! Once I had a good start on those, I decided to take a break and spend the rest of the weekend with yarn. I have already finished 11 projects this year, and all of it them have been from stash yarn! That’s a good start, I think, and it’s already been 18 days. Whew! Wonder how long I’ll make it before I weaken and buy yarn again.

Anyway, new hats! First one is a newsboy cap in gray acrylic. I ran out of yarn during the making of the brim but thankfully I had a tiny ball of the same yarn in my leftover bin. And that, my friends, is why I keep all the yarn leftover from a project. You just never know when it will save a project! It was nice to switch to crochet, especially bulky yarn with a big hook. This hat worked up so quickly!

Second hat was another slouchy broken rib beanie with the rest of the denim blue KnitPicks Brava bulky. It took me exactly as long as Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire. After that, I wanted to use up the last of the pink Brava. I started a hat, got most of the way through, and realized I didn’t have enough yarn. I frogged and started over with a smaller size, and then Jack said I needed to cuddle with him instead of knit.Once he’d had enough, I finished, and had an adorable baby-size slouch hat!I wish I had a baby girl in my family to model it! Instead, it’ll go in my Etsy/craft show inventory.

Until tomorrow, friends! Wishing you all a peaceful Monday!

A Knitted Mug & a Bulky Cowl

Jan12

Yesterday the mother and I went to Hallmark to investigate the after-Christmas sale, and though it was pretty picked over, I found one thing that made the whole trip worthwhile: It’s a mug that looks KNITTED!! Isn’t that so cool? It was the only one left, and it came with this nifty napkin too:with a “knitted” snowflake design! But wait, there’s more that makes this an amazing find…IT MATCHES MY TEAPOT!! This is the teapot I got for Christmas a year ago, and now it’s a fabulous set. Plus, I only paid $4.25 for the mug. Sighhh. I love sales, don’t you?

After the shopping, I came home and finished the red bulky cowl during Jeopardy. This one is definitely kid-sized. I now have a backlog of 5 items that need to be photographed and added to my Etsy shop. I guess that should be my agenda today…once I remove the dog hairs. Oops! There is clearly much shedding going on in my house right now. Oh, who am I kidding? There’s always much shedding in my house. Note to self: buy more lint rollers.

A Bulky Baby Hat

Jan11

I’m having fun using up my stash of bulky acrylic. I’ve had all this KnitPicks Brava Bulky just hanging around, and I think I was saving it in case I needed it for something. Nope, I don’t know what. Yep, it’s a silly idea. So now I’m using it! It knits up quickly on big needles, meaning less stress on my elbow, and it gives me some inexpensive inventory for my Etsy shop. Yesterday I made a little baby hat in a couple of hours.It joins the two cowls already made. Last night I cast on for another cowl, red this time, while I watched the Golden Globes (that was NOT a good show, am I right?). But what I really want to cast on is the Color Block Wrap, because I got the last color of yarn I needed! Just look how gorgeous these colors are: I’m trying very hard to tell myself I have to wait until I finish some WIPs first. We’ll see how well that works out; this yarn is calling my name pretty loudly. Happy Monday, friends!

A Cowl on a Puppy

Jan9

I didn’t go to Michaels yesterday. That feels like a triumph. I could have. I had the car, the freedom, the time, the coupons. But I didn’t. I didn’t need anything from there. I have yarn galore, better yarn than I’d get there. I have needles galore, better needles than they have. So I did my grocery shopping and went home, where after lunch I started a quickie project with yarn from my stash. I had an urge to make a chunky cowl that would work for older kids, so I grabbed two skeins of denim blue Knit Picks Brava Bulky and cast on for a simple cowl. I held two strands together and used size 17 needles, and a couple of hours later, I had a finished object. Jack was my first model. I can’t stand how cute he is here. Now I understand why people put their dogs in sweaters and snoods and things. I can’t, because Grace would chew this up in seconds. But oh, it was adorable while it lasted.This Christmas tree is coming in handy, since it’s right by the big bay windows. Good lighting. Too bad we’re finally going to take it down today!

That’s all the progress for today, kids. I think I need to take a short break from knitting. My elbow has been paining me the last few days, so I told myself last night that I would go a full week without knitting. Of course, in the light of day, I’m second guessing myself, and I don’t know if I’ll make it. But now that the foot is (mostly) healed, I’ve started taking some ibuprofen to reduce the inflammation, and I’m going to keep icing it because that seems to help a lot. So I’ll play it by ear, and let you know…maybe you’ll see knitting, maybe you won’t! But you’ll always see cute puppies. This is what happens whenever I sit on the couch. Puppy friends are the best of friends!

A Hat and A Scarf

Jan8

I got some lovely, kind comments to yesterday’s Being a Unicorn post; thank you so much! It felt good to write, and I’m feeling more confident about my choices. On a related note, I’ve been playing around with paid posts on Facebook, and they actually seem to work. I’ve done two $5 boosts, and both times I got lots of clicks, post likes, and two page likes. They haven’t made any money for me yet, but given time, they might. Every bit of exposure could lead to those people who love handmade yarn treasures.

Today’s post will be what I was intending to write yesterday before my unicorn self took over. I have two finished projects to show you! A few days ago I wrote about pulling out some old WIPs, and I frogged one and kept one. I actually finished the one I kept that day, and I have no idea why I set it aside before. It was simpler than I remembered, and the yarn is just so soft. I ran out of yarn and had to omit the last two rows of the pattern, but I don’t think it hurt much. It still needs blocked, and then I’ll try to get a good photo of it actually on a person. It’s called the Gallatin Scarf, and here are my Ravelry notes.

I also made another Summer Combination hat, this time with that silky black pima cotton. The only downside to black yarn, other than actually working with black yarn, is trying to photograph it. I’m seriously considering investing in one of those glass mannequin heads. Yep, that’s a bit of dog hair. Obviously this one hasn’t been washed yet.Yep, that’s my Christmas tree. Still up. Whatever.

Oh! Oh, I almost forgot! I have marvelous news! Look, look at this: Those are MY feet! My feet, and both of them are in real shoes! I went to the orthopedist yesterday for my nine-week followup, and the x-rays showed a bony union and I was released from his care. Woohoo!! I don’t have full pain-free range of motion yet, but I don’t know if that’s because it’s not 100% healed or the muscles just need time and work, but I can walk and I can drive! I think my husband was more relieved than I was. Now I just need to remember how to go down stairs like an adult and not a two year old. So what am I doing with my first day of independent freedom? What any mom would do: go to the grocery store! … which happens to be right across the street from Michaels…

Being a Unicorn

Jan7

It’s no secret that I sell my yarny things. You guys all know about my Etsy shop; heaven knows I talk about it enough. And I’ve talked about the struggles of making it successful, the struggles of pricing and marketing and what to make. I’m always trying to find the ONE THING that will make it click.

Yesterday I saw an Instagram post from a newer Etsy seller, photos of orders she was mailing out. Orders, plural. That rarely happens for me. Of course I went to her shop, and she has beautiful things and lovely photos. Her prices were a tiny bit lower than mine. I was immediately filled with an urge to do what she was doing. I needed to take new photos with a plain background, knit simple things in neutral colors, lower my prices, and I needed to do it NOW!

Then I took a deep breath and returned to normal. I looked at her descriptions, and discovered she’s using a wool/acrylic blend. That can be great yarn; I’ve used it too. But I primarily use high-end all-natural fibers when possible, and those are more expensive. I use patterns that have more detail to them, and those take more time. I often use yarns that aren’t super bulky, and it takes more yarn and more time.

I looked again: her pieces were ivory, gray, white, black, navy. My shop is full of color. Lots of color. Color in the yarn, color in the backgrounds. Rainbow, variegated, stripes–I use a lot of color. It makes me happy. It’s what attracts me to a yarn.

Please understand, none of this is to say that my things are superior in any way. Quite the opposite: most of the time I feel like I’m an amateur on a website full of professionals. Truly, her items were lovely and I’d love to make some similar ones. But it is to say that mine are DIFFERENT, and I have to realize that that’s OKAY. (I’m sorry, I’m capitalizing a lot because these are important ideas for me.)

I need to be a unicorn.

Recently, I was browsing through Etsy’s how-to articles for sellers, and one of them was about how to stand out, and the thing that jumped out at me was “Be a Unicorn”. Be the thing that you don’t see everywhere. Be something unusual and beautiful and interesting. Be yourself. You hear that a lot in a lot of different contexts, but it works well here too.

People buy handmade for a variety of reasons, and one of the biggest is the story. Customers like to be involved, they like the interaction to feel more personal than just a sale, they like to support interesting, passionate makers. If I try to do something just because it works for someone else, I will fail every time. It won’t be authentic. My pieces won’t stand out because they won’t be a product of passion. I cannot copy someone else.

I need to be a unicorn.

So I will continue to use bright, colorful yarns and make bright, colorful pieces that are typically one of a kind. I will continue to make things that spark my creativity rather than things that are “likely to sell” (although I will also continue to hope that someday those two things will be one and the same). I will continue to photograph them on my beautiful daughter outside where you can see a hint of the natural world.

My shop is little, but it’s growing. I’ve gotten glowing reviews and had return customers, and that has to mean something. It means a lot to me as a maker, that’s for sure. Maybe my Etsy shop will never bring me riches. That’s okay. If it allows me to do what I love, if it supports itself, surely that’s enough. After all, success isn’t money. Success is happiness. By that token, I’m successful already.

What about you? Have you embraced your unicorn self?

A Finished Scarf

Jan6

I did it, yesterday I finished a scarf! I have a commission for two scarves and it’s been going slowly. I made up a pattern using a butterfly stitch to match the butterfly hats I made before Christmas. I can’t share it just yet, because I’d rather the recipient see it first. But the important thing is that finishing one of them freed me to work a bit on some other things. I know, I know, I still need to do the second scarf, but the pressure has eased a bit. The result is this, the beginning of a Honey Cowl in Frolicking Feet DK. Isn’t it just the best thing ever? I could knit this yarn every day and never get tired of it. I’m using size 6 needles to make a dense fabric, and cast on 190 for a longer cowl.

Strange thing, though: this morning I felt the urge to revisit some old WIPs. Back in August, I’d cast on for a Retro Knitting bag but set it aside for craft show knitting. This is the beginning of the bag bottom.Lovely, eh? I do like it. I love the color, and I had visions of a denim lining and clear acrylic handles. But now, after using butterfly stitch to make two hats and a scarf, plus the promise of another scarf, I can’t imagine ever wanting to do this much butterfly stitch again. It has now been frogged. It might still become a bag, but certainly another pattern.

I found my Gallatin scarf project too, which I also started in August. This is lovely Malabrigo Worsted on bigger 10 1/2 needles, and this definitely won’t be frogged! I’ve got it set out so it can become a FO soon. I still have five other WIPs that need attention, but I need to pace myself, right? Especially since I also want to make another slouch hat with this silky pima cotton. The life of a knitter, right? You no sooner finish one project then add two more to your list!

Finally, here’s Jack, waiting as patiently as I for the husband to box up the last Christmas tree. It’s blocking his window view, you see.

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