“Now What?” Update: Old Favorite WIP

Mar12

Remember that pink and gray Hogan Infinity scarf I was struggling with? I started it a couple of days ago, didn’t have enough pink, and frogged it. This morning I blogged about *why* I was running out of yarn, and a couple of comments supported my instinct to reknit it with a smaller needle.

So I cast on this morning with size 9s (instead of size 10) and made it through 8 of the first 11 rows before weighing my yarn. I’ve used exactly half of the pink yarn. Yep. That means I don’t have enough for the last three rows of the pink section, not if I want to repeat it on the other side. Sighhhh. So now what?

I have a few options: 1) knit it as a single loop cowl. 2) Eliminate two or three rows in the pink section. Not crazy about this, because I love the full pop of pink. 3) Add a third color. I do have another ball of the yarn in a winter white named Snow, so I could do the outermost 5-row edge in Snow, then the Fuchsia, then the Shale. When I bought them, I envisioned using them together. So why am I resisting? I just love the look of the original so much that I’m afraid the white tone will change it too much. What would you do?

My NEW new favorite WIP

Mar11

Yep. Yesterday’s favorite WIP, the pink and gray infinity scarf, has been frogged again. 144 stitches was not long enough to double. And I kept going back to the pattern and the projects and I could not (can not) for the life of me figure out why my project is not working right. Everybody else was able to knit it with 50 grams or less of the accent color, so why not me?? Well, I did figure out part of it: I was using size 10 1/2 needles instead of 10; I just accidentally grabbed the wrong tips from my interchangeable set. Would that be enough to use up that much more yarn? Seriously. I don’t have a clue. Now, the pattern calls for sport weight, and I’m using DK, but other people have used DK with the same stitch counts and same amount of yarn, so I should be able to as well. So here’s my question: should I knit to the pattern with the 10s? Or should I go down a needle size? Will that use less yarn? You’d think I would know these things but I don’t so I’m counting on some of you knitting experts to help me out here.

Since that project stalled, I did go out to my LYS yesterday and it was very refreshing. I got to wander on my own for a while, and then the nice lady asked what I was working on. Well. I’ve been wanting a white and black striped cowl for a while now, and my SIL and I both want to make one with chevrons. I want to use a natural fiber. Well, she showed me every yarn she could think of that might work. Some had white but no black, some had black but no white. Some I liked, some I…didn’t. Some I liked but didn’t want to pay $14/skein. I told her I’d ponder for a while and kept browsing. This store is unusual in that it’s in a big warehouse, and it’s actually two yarn stores in one with a tape line dividing the two. I ended up on the other side (because you have to look at *all* the yarn, of course) and happened upon some Cascade Ultra Pima. DK weight, black and white, natural fiber, nice sheen, $10 for 220 yards. It was perfect for the warm weather cowl I’m envisioning. I felt bad buying from the other store when the first lady had spent so much time helping me but it was the right yarn, and that’s the most important thing, right? I did buy some Plymouth Baby Alpaca Grande from her because it was on sale. It’s just awkward sometimes, having two stores in one place. We knitters are nice, thoughtful people, which means we are more likely to spend more so nobody feels bad. Maybe that’s their plan?!?

Okay, okay. I got home with my new yarn, and in talking to my SIL, we decided we both wanted a reversible cowl, one knit like a tube so the stockinette was all the way around. I played around with a lot of stitch counts and pattern repeats until I finally FINALLY ended up with something that pleases me. It’s fun, and it’s really cool that I just doing these simple things and out comes this nifty pattern. I mean, it’s just increases and decreases! How easy is that? Plus! Since it’s knit in the round, I don’t have to worry about carrying up the yarn neatly because it’s all inside. I did have to learn the provisional cast on, which was fine since I crochet and have picked up stitches before. And I will have to learn kitchener at the end to graft the two ends together to make a seamless circle. But I’m not thinking about that right now. So yeah, this is my new favorite WIP. It will travel around with me today on all my errands, and maybe tomorrow I’ll have lots of progress to show off.

My new favorite WIP

Mar10

Yesterday was kind of a rough day. I had errands to run and insensitive comments to absorb, and the latter was a bit difficult. It didn’t help that I didn’t get much knitting time, and what time I did get was spent mostly frogging and starting over.

My newest project is the Hogan Infinity Scarf, which is this really striking cowl done in dark pink and gray with a lovely lacy chevron pattern. I happened to have some Rowan DK in my stash in just the right colors, and supposedly the right amounts. I immediately cast on the 198 stitches and set about knitting. It has a border of pink on both sides, and I noticed as I finished the first pink border that my ball of yarn was awfully small. I weighed it and discovered I’d used 35 of the 50 grams on just one border. Clearly I wouldn’t have enough for the second. Well. I had to think about this.

The pattern makes a rather long scarf, and it’s done in multiples of 9. I did some math that made sense at the time (but seems suspicious now) and decided I would start over with 144 stitches. So I frogged the 11 completed rows and now have 5 rows with the new stitch count. The nice thing is that it knits up quickly, so if I get more done and it doesn’t seem long enough, I won’t mind too much starting over again.So yeah, this bit of knitting didn’t do much to improve my state of mind. After dinner I decided to go to Joann for retail therapy. It failed miserably. They didn’t have the handles I want for my blue/pink silk bag. They’d sold out of the clearance yarn I wanted to get more of. And none of the full-price yarn called my name. I tried. I picked up skein after skein and nothing happened. I didn’t want to buy yarn just to buy yarn. I left the store empty-handed…but with the understanding that I would visit my LYS today. Good solution, isn’t it? I’ll let you know tomorrow what comes home with me.

I’ll finish by sharing some beauty shots. Puppies had a photo shoot the other day and they posed wonderfully.

Jack

Grace

One Little, Two Little, Three Little Yodas

Mar9

Oh my people, I have been gone for days and I have missed you! I had some crazy busy days that sadly could not involve much knitting, let alone writing about knitting. See, here’s the thing: the girl turned 15 yesterday! Yikes! Big, wonderful day. For her birthday present, she wants to redecorate her room, so last week we did some shopping for bedding. Then of course I had to do some solo shopping because she *had* to have some presents to open on her birthday (EOS lip balms, chocolate, bobby pins, headbands, just little things).

I also took Puppy 1 to the vet to get his nails trimmed, and that was an adventure. He’s not a fan of the nail trimming. The vet tech handed me a muzzle, and I was all offended, because my puppy is not mean. He was just scared. And he didn’t want to wear it. So the guy helper hoisted him onto the table (he’s a big dog, around 70 pounds, I think. Guessing because he was too scared to get on the big scale). Somehow this process ended up expressing some certain glands that other dog owners are probably aware of but I wasn’t, really. I am now though! Anyway, he held puppy down, I talked to puppy, and the nails got trimmed. And he was fine. Didn’t even try to snap at anyone; his tail was wagging the whole time. (I TOLD you my puppy’s not mean.)

So! That’s why the end of last week got lost. And on Saturday, the girl (who is a flutist extraordinaire) had a solo and ensemble contest. She was taking both a solo and a flute quartet, so we spent the day inside a high school filled with musicians. It was actually pretty fun. I really love band/orchestra kids. They’re so interesting, so strange and often so confident in their quirkiness. Maybe lots of teenagers are like that; I know theater kids are too. And the hallways were full of funny flyers, and this one was my fave.Obviously my girl is not evil, just fabulous. I know this because despite all her fretting and worrying, she scored a 1 ranking on her solo (rankings are 1-5, one being the best) which means she gets to move on to the state level. Woohoo! Of course I did knit that day while we waited and waited. I worked on little Yoda hats. I worked on little Yoda hats yesterday too, with the little knitting time I had. Since it was the birthday, we had to do presents, go bowling (I won 2 out of 3 games) and go out to dinner. But with all the little bits of time here and there, I managed to knit three Yoda hats, and this morning I sewed on the ears and they are complete.I only love them a little. Ok. A lot. It’s a happy little baby family of Yoda hats. They’re Ravelled here if you want more details. My only sadness comes because this used the rest of my Yoda green yarn, and that color’s no longer available. I will have a find a new Yoda yarn. These little hats will probably go on my Etsy shop, and if they don’t sell there, they’ll travel to a show I’m doing at the end of April.

So there you go! Now you know why I’ve been MIA for several days. But now you’re stuck with me because I’ve got a new WIP that I’m in love with so I’ll be sharing that in the near future. Until then, happy knitting!

We had a knitting casualty

Mar4

Yesterday was a sad day in my house. I had to bid farewell to a Knitter’s Pride knitting needle. These are the size 7 14″ needles from the big set I got as a gift last year. I love these needles. But if you’ll remember, I have two puppies.They’re both around a year old, between 60 and 70 pounds, and they love to play. I was sitting on the couch yesterday, knitting along while chatting with my SIL who’d come over for a crafternoon, and the puppies started roughhousing. They love to chase each other around the house, nipping and chewing and falling and bumping. They jumped on the couch where I was sitting, and rammed into me. I was irritated at first because they made me drop a few stitches. I pushed the dogs off, picked up the stitches, and knit on to the end of the row. As I turned the work to start the next, I noticed the needle was bent. My dogs have more power than I realized. (My mother’s reaction: “Do you realize you could have been seriously hurt?”) Anyway, fortunately I have another set of metal size 7s, just not the fancy Knitter’s Pride, and I was able to continue on my Gradient Cowl.That’s the extent of my knitting yesterday. It was not a good yarn today. I do hope today is better. But I will share the photo of my finished Heartbeat Cowl.The pattern is called River Deep, Mountain High but the red made me think of heartbeats. It still needs blocking and will look much better after that, but I adore this color. Makes me want to start wearing red so I can keep it for myself!

Nothing to do but knit

Mar2

Gosh, there are so many things I *could* do this morning (go buy milk, go buy more dog food) but I can’t. Thanks to a minor fender bender in which NOBODY WAS HURT (thank goodness) my husband’s truck is out of commission. Since his job kind of pays the bills around here, he’s driving my car today and I’m stuck at home. I’d pretend to be sad, but really, it’s fine by me. I like to be home by myself anyway. What to do with my time but knit?

I went out to one of my LYS yesterday to get some Eucalan. I’ve never used it and I’ve read it can help with the felting process, so I’m going to give it a whirl. I love felting, and I’ve been so frustrated with my lack of felting skills that I’ll try almost anything. But I can’t start felting my silk bag yet because I still don’t have the handle issue sorted. I want to do wood handles, but I need to get them so I know where to sew on the handle tabs before I felt the bag. Plus I’m thinking, the bag will shrink when it felts, so if I sew on tabs beforehand, won’t they be in the wrong place after felting? I’m not sure about this. Has anybody done this before? Obviously if I bought handles that could go through the felting process, it’d be fine. I guess I just need to wait and see what I can find at Joann.

Until then, I’ll console myself with the Malabrigo I bought yesterday. Come on, you didn’t really think I’d go to a yarn store and not buy yarn, did you? Just two skeins, though; I was good! One skein of pink wool from the sale section, and then the Malabrio. It’s Rios in Ravelry Red. How can one resist it with a name like that? I wound it as soon as I got home, found a pattern I liked, and cast on last night.This will a River Deep, Mountain High cowl. I’ve got the ribbing and two pattern rows done and anticipate making much progress today. And speaking of progress, I knitted more on my Gradient cowl yesterday and got two more sections done. It’s coming along quite nicely. I must take a picture and show you tomorrow.

Oh, and yesterday I did something else fun but not knitting-related at all: I bought tickets for us all to go to Planet Comic-Con next weekend! The husband and kids are so excited because Amy Pond (Karen Gillan) will be there, and I’m excited because Cary Elwes will be there. I have a copy of The Princess Bride (the book) that I might take for him to sign, if I decide I want it badly enough to spend $40 on it. John Barrowman was supposed to be there too, but he’s canceled, sadly. And Mitch Pileggi will be there too, which is really only cool for me because he’s been on Grey’s Anatomy. Anyway, should be fun. My son’s already planning to dress up at the 11th Doctor, and my daughter will wear her nerd girl glasses. I will not be in costume at all, I’m sorry to say. I will be the one marveling at all the other people in costumes. But until then, off to my knitting!

Successful Snow Day

Mar1

We got the snow as promised, all day yesterday and more overnight. But only 3-4 inches, so I can’t complain too much. The puppies are loving it, spending half the day outside and wearing each other out. I spent the day with a Twilight marathon and knitting, and it was delightful. I pulled out the yarn from a bag I’d frogged three months ago, determined to make progress.

I had one skein of Kathmandu silk in blue and fuchsia, and one skein of Cascade 220 in a coordinating indigo blue. I’d started a bucket bag way back in early December, got it about halfway knit and decided I didn’t like it. No real reason, it just didn’t seem right for the yarn. I frogged it, picked out another pattern, and then the yarn sat there for ages. So yesterday I started knitting that second pattern, and it was going swimmingly, until I realized my silk yarn was diminishing quickly and I wasn’t close the end. I looked again at the yarn requirements. What the heck was I thinking? I didn’t have enough yarn for this. Sigh. Back to the drawing board. Thanks to Ravelry and my own library, I decided I’d try another Vintage Bubble Bag. No, I didn’t have enough to make a full-size bag, but that was okay because the bag was too big anyway. Time to improvise and modify! I merrily knit along during my movies and this morning I finished up the decreases and bind-off. All my notes are Ravelled here. Now I just have to decide what to do for handles. The pattern calls for i-cord handles, which is what I did the first time I made this bag. But I used up all the silk, so the handles would be solid blue. I’m tempted to buy some handles, wood or plastic or something. I like how they hold up without stretching. But I have to decide before I felt the bag, and I want to felt the bag soon, so I need to figure it out. Anyone want to weigh in?

And no blog post of mine is complete without a hat, so here’s the Swirl hat I finished on Friday. It used almost the whole skein, and the brim is nice and snug on my head. I do enjoy this pattern! Not too bad for two days’ knitting, eh? Today I might work on my gradient cowl. We’re all going for haircuts so I’ll have plenty of sitting & knitting time. How about you? Making good crafting progress during this stupid snowy winter?

Back to the knitting

Feb28

I’m getting back into my knitting groove, but it’s slow going. I’m still not feeling the same constant urge to knit that I used to feel; I’m willing to read or play games on my phone or just watch TV. But at least the knitting is coming back to me. It helps when I finish something and really like it. Like yesterday, when I made another Vermonter.I seriously love this pattern. It uses super bulky yarn so it works up so darn quickly. I started it yesterday morning, worked on it on and off throughout the day, and finished it in the afternoon. This time I used the recommended needle size. I haven’t tried it on yet because it’s just so cute before it gets stretched.

Since that was done, I decided I’d work on another hat I’d started the other day. This is the hot pink Simpliworsted and it’s going to be another Swirl hat, like the TARDIS blue one I made. (And if you go in to look at that pattern, you might notice that three of the photos on her project page…yeah, they’re mine. So happy!) Since it’s for me, I used smaller needles to make a slightly smaller hat. It’s going more slowly than the Vermonter but I still love the yarn and the color.The most encouraging sign of recovery, though, is that I’ve got ideas swirling around in my brain again. I want to make another Vermonter, maybe two, with different color combinations. I want to get back to the bag I was making with recycled silk yarn, though I am a little irritated with felting right now.

I started felting the peach/green clutch and it’s not going well. I kind of hate my washer for that reason. But the bag has already shrunk shorter than I wanted it to be, and it still has way too much stitch definition. I think I’m going to take it to my sister’s house and borrow her washer, since it has a center agitator and that seems to make a huge difference. It’s so frustrating, because I love felting. I love seeing something go from a huge, floppy mess to a neat, tidy FO. I need to find a reliable felting process. I’ve tried it in the sink with a wooden spoon, but maybe I need to buy a clean bucket and new plunger and try that. If my sister’s washer fails, that’ll be my next step.

We’re expecting snow this weekend, maybe 4-5 inches, so I’m expecting to have plenty of knitting time. Might be a great time to cast on some fun new projects! What are you working on this weekend?

Etsy, Again

Feb27

Wow, my post yesterday about Etsy generated some great conversation! I got some solid feedback and have already made some changes: I updated my profile, filled out the Policies page and de-activated all promoted listings. Best of all, I figured out how to add an Etsy widget to my blog page. I’d been waiting, thinking I’d get my techie hubby to help me, but decided I could do it myself, by golly. I’m not sure I did it exactly right, but hey, it works and that’s what matters.

I have more changes in mind: I want to update the photographs by using my daughter as a model, outside with better lighting and interesting backgrounds. Once I get those done, I’ll be adding more pieces to my shop. I have several things made but don’t want to list them until I have great photos for the listing. Once I get more pieces online, I want to create categories so people can just look at Hats, or Bags, or whatever.

But I’m still pretty sure that Etsy won’t be my main focus. I want to be more active in craft fairs, where I can talk to people about what makes each piece special, where they can actually *feel* what makes each piece special. With that in mind, I know I’ll be participating in the monthly Etsy at the Exchange events at our local downtown. I’ve got the big 2-day Oktoberfest coming up, and I’m hoping to be a part of a craft show held by my husband’s company this fall too. So I have options, and I have time to make more pieces.

Some of the comments made me realize how important it is to be patient. I need to put myself out there as much as possible, and then keep it going. So I’ll keep on trucking, trying to get my name out there a little at a time. I’m so grateful for everyone who chimed in; thank you for the kind words and encouragement and advice and suggestions. This is partly why I love the creative community so much: we support each other. We want each other to succeed, and we’ll do what we can to help. I love that. Thank you.

“You should sell that on Etsy!”

Feb26

I love yarn in all its fibers and colors and weights (except fingering and lace weights which are terrible). I love knitting needles and crochet hooks in wood and metal and plastic. And most of all, I love to knit and crochet things with yarn and hooks and needles. I love the process as much as, if not more than, the finished products. It’s so relaxing when I get in the groove and my hands automatically make the motions and out comes this smooth fabric. I can make attractive, useful things out of string, and that’s awesome to me.

Because of all of that, I end up with a lot of knitted and crocheted things. My kids have a lovely assortment of hats, a few scarves, some fingerless gloves. Even the husband, who doesn’t typically wear these things, has some. I have some, my siblings and mothers and nieces and nephews, they all have been on the receiving end of my yarn-loving habit. I love it when I wear my knitted items out in public and get compliments, especially the surprised look when I say I made them myself. What usually follows is some variation of “You should sell those on Etsy!”

Well. Yes. Believe me, I try. I know these people mean well, and I do take it as a compliment because they’re saying they think people would pay money for something I’ve made, and I appreciate that. But it’s also frustrating, because it implies a simplicity that’s not there. I’ve been on Etsy for several months now, with 22 items currently listed. I’ve paid for promoted listings, not a lot but some, and in that time I’ve sold a whopping two items. I’ve made $3 more than I paid to promote the listings. I know there are a lot of factors at play here: am I listing the right kind of items? Am I tagging well enough? Is my ad budget high enough? Am I not being patient enough? I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. All I know is that it doesn’t appear to be the right business model for me, at least right now.

I’ve done several craft shows, and all of them have been more successful than Etsy has been. For my stuff, it’s about the colors, touch, the feel, the fit–those are the things that make my pieces sell. I use high-quality fibers that make my prices a bit higher than things made from acrylic, but it’s hard for someone to see the difference on a computer screen. And even in craft shows, my booth is different than a lot of the other yarn booths because there’s so much variety on my table. I don’t pick two things and make them in every color. It’s rare for me to have even two of anything. I create based on the yarn, and very few yarns want to be the same thing. I know I would probably benefit from some duplication, and there a few hats I want to make in other colors, but I’m never going to be the booth with stacks of the same hat. I’m not disparaging that, don’t get me wrong, it’s just not how I like to work. I don’t want to make stuff based on what I think people want. I want people to want what I make.

So I’m a little discouraged right now. I’m struggling to figure out where to focus my business energy right now. There’s a handmade market in a really cool downtown area that’s looking for vendors, and I’m seriously considering submitting an application. You set up the booth and they man the store and process sales. The monthly fee, plus commission, is less than I’d pay for the average craft show. Really, the only hitch right now is that I don’t have any furniture to set up in a booth. But I can see that in my future. You sign a three-month contract, and based on the traffic I’ve seen out there, it would totally be worth it. And today I signed up for a big, well-known, three-day craft show in October.

I guess I’ve got my answer. I need to step back from Etsy and focus on the personal connections. I’ll keep Etsy open, but I won’t do more promoted listings. Instead I’ll invest my money in booth fees where I know people will actually see my pieces. But for now, since I’ve got a little time, I think I’ll spend a little more time making stuff for me.

What are your tips for a successful knit/crochet business?

bonnyknits

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