Tag Archive | hats

Fear and Self-Loathing

Most of us have days when we’re full of those two emotions, am I right? Today is one of those days for me. Besides my life as a mom and wife, I have my passions: my yarn craft, my writing, my proofreading. If I’m not succeeding at those, I feel like I’m failing as a person. Whether that’s right or wrong doesn’t matter. It just is. The brain doesn’t function that way, or at least mine doesn’t. I need to train myself to define “success” more loosely.

So yesterday, you might have seen, I posted about starting a sale on my Etsy shop. I wrote about it here, and I posted a photo on Facebook. I tried to boost the photo but it was rejected, so I tried again with a different photo. Maybe I was obnoxious about it because someone unliked my page yesterday. This morning, I found that I’d lost two more likes. Does it matter? It shouldn’t. It’s not a comment on ME. Except that my knitting IS me, so a rejection of that does feel personal. Thankfully, I also got two new likes (YAY) so that made me feel better. Maybe I should get rid of the Facebook page and just focus on Etsy. I get so caught up in the numbers that I lose focus of what really matters.

Those of you with small crafty businesses, what do you do? Does FB help or hinder you?

Also, rejection just sucks, doesn’t it?

Yesterday, I also handed off my manuscript to a new reader, a former co-worker, and I’m anxious to hear her feedback. What if it’s horrible? I don’t always think it is, but today I do. And soon, I’ll be sending this piece of myself out to agents to critique, and reject.

Yes, rejection sucks. But I guess that’s the risk you take when you put yourself out there, isn’t it? And you just have to keep going to find the reward: those people who truly love what you’re doing and who aren’t shy about saying so. It’s too bad those voices are less frequent and harder to hear/believe.

But here’s the bright spot of my day: I have a potential proofreading client, and as much I love proofreading, I think I need to bump that up in my priorities. I love being that person who helps others shine. So getting a basic website up is on my To Do list, and soon. I’m sure I’ll share it when it’s up!

I’ll close with another highlight. I finished another project last night, a fun slouch hat with some of my newer yarn. I love it, can’t wait to get some better photos so I can list it on Etsy.

I have my knitting, but what about you? How do you cope with rejection, with fear and self-loathing?

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!

Watch me WIP!

Oct23

I have SO many works in progress right now, it’s crazy. Maybe not, maybe everyone else has 10 unfinished projects hanging around. Do you? I tell myself it’s okay because one is in deep hibernation, and six are for me that need to be on hold while I finish some money-making projects. So really, that only leaves three, and that sounds a lot better!

I did finish the Royals gloves and earwarmer and delivered those yesterday, and I’m proud to say that for the very first time I was able to make two gloves that matched each other in size! Not only that, I did it TWICE. Whoooa, that’s serious knitting success for me. Fresh off that high, I decided to jump off the deep end and start my biggest project: a crochet mermaid afghan. I’m sure you’ve all seen the photos. Well, it’s my turn to make one. I’m using Knit Picks Brava Worsted in two shades of purple and one shade of teal. Funny story: I picked up my crochet hook and my yarn to make my chain…and froze. I’d kind of forgotten how to chain! I did two stitches like a knitting cast on before my brain was like, No, stop, I got this. Fortunately, once I got going, I realized it’s not really a difficult pattern. The hard part for me will just be keeping myself interested enough to make something blanket-sized! But I’ve got a deadline so I feel confident.

Of course, I’ve also got a couple of hats on the needles. My Knit Picks Preciosa has just started to become a hat. I’m trying the Spiraltini pattern because it’s a simple pattern that looks more complicated than it is. I’m not at the fun part yet, though. It’s still in the ribbing phase. Last night the girl had a choir concert and I needed something super simple and portable so I grabbed a skein of Cascade Eco Cloud and cast on for another Broken Rib Slouch hat. I love how the chained texture gives it such awesome stitch definition. I’ll probably finish this up today when I need a break from the mermaid. Gray and rainy day means a day spent with my yarn! Except I’m out of wine, and that’s a problem…

Ouch. And also, Happy I Love Yarn Day!

Oct17

I did a LOT of knitting yesterday. I finished the Where’s Waldo hat…

wove in tails on a cute kid’s hat…

Started a new slouch hat during the Royals-Blue Jays pregame show…

And finished it by the end of the sixth inning. I’m thinking red buttons, what about you?

Then I cast on for another hat with the Borealis…

and things were going smoothly until I realized my elbow felt a little tight. I straightened it and yep, there was the tendinitis twinge. Oops. So I put the knitting down, and today I’ll take a break from knitting and instead go to Joann to stock up on some buttons. And since it’s also I Love Yarn Day, I might go to the yarn store. Maybe. Just maybe. What’s on your agenda this fine fall weekend?

Keep The Momentum Going

Oct15

Wow, this has been a crazy wonderful week! So I last blogged about the craft show, and since then, I’ve had a lovely flurry of custom orders and Etsy orders and nice messages. The best was from a woman who bought one of the button slouch hats at the show. I attach a tag to all my items with my website, etsy shop, etc, and she actually took the time to find me online and found the blog post where I wrote about making her hat. She loved getting the backstory, and asked me to make her another hat. How cool is that?? I swear, I had a smile for hours from that, just that my hat and I made that good an impression on her. Even better, I had the perfect yarn for the second hat she wanted, my last skein of this purple/red/black/gray Borealis. But before I could do that, I had another special order to finish. My Yoda hats are my most popular items on Etsy, and someone who’d bought one messaged me after receiving it. She loved it, and since I’d done such nice work and was so quick and friendly, could I make a Princess Leia headband for her daughter? Well, of course I could! I could and did, and though it wasn’t as easy as Yoda, I liked how it turned out and I really hope she was pleased too. Then another message from a satisfied craft show customer: she loves her hat, can I make her a Where’s Waldo hat? Oh yes, that sounds fun! That’s on my needles right now, actually. And during all this, my Etsy app kept dinging at me: Ding, a hat sold! Ding, a hat sold! Ding, a scarf sold! Oh my stars! It’s been SO MUCH FUN. I wish it could always be like this, but I know it won’t. Still, I’m going to keep doing craft shows and getting my name out there, and I’m going to keep making fun, unusual stuff for my Etsy shop, and maybe someday I’ll get back to knitting things for myself. As I sit here typing, I keep glancing at these skeins of Chateau, which have been wound for several days waiting to be knit into a cushy cowl. Don’t worry, little yarns, I’ll get to you soon enough.

Just a few photos today

Oct8

I’m not feeling very wordy today and I’ve got a lot to do, so today’s post will be mostly photos.

Location of this morning’s newspaper. Yep, that’s the street.

Grace’s new favorite thing is lounging in the greenery to watch the street.

Tubs are packed with inventory and props for today’s craft show set-up.

Included are these 4 new Royal blue hats to celebrate my KC Royals in the post-season!

I managed to make not one but TWO super bulky striped hats yesterday! That was fun. Don’t know that I’ll get much knitting time today, what with setting up my booth, stopping at Costco for dog food, and the boy’s choir concert tonight. But I’ll be sure to post photos of the craft show once it’s all done!

Stupid Hat is Done

May14

Thank goodness that’s over! I finished the hat this morning and sent it off this afternoon. It was nothing but trouble from start to finish, so I’m very relieved that I can put it behind me and move on to something more fun. The yarn was softer than I expected, and knit up fine. Had good stitch definition. The pattern came out quite lovely. But I struggled to get gauge, I made mistakes left and right, and I didn’t care for how the decreases were done. I can’t imagine I’ll ever make this hat again. Now, back to my sister’s bag I go!

Stupid Hat

May13

I’m not terribly happy with this darn Everdeen beanie. I thought I’d make great progress yesterday and maybe even finish it up today, but I don’t see that happening now. Remember yesterday, I mentioned I needed to tink a couple of rows? Well, I did that, and I even put in a lifeline and all was good. I knit for two episodes of Gilmore Girls and got eight rows done, whee. Then I somehow dropped a yarnover or something and everything went to heck in a handbasket and I had to tink another three rows. ARGH. I officially hate this hat now. But I was able to move my lifeline up a couple of rows and it’s ready for me to work on today. I’m still hoping I can finish it soon, maybe tomorrow? I’d like to say today, but I have to go get milk, take milk to the mother, work out, and tonight is a loss because the girl has some silly mandatory informational night at school about AP classes. Whatever. At least the puppies are being somewhat agreeable.

Making Stuff. Also, being smarter than the puppies.

May8

Guys, the bag I’m making for my sister is SO cool. I’m loving it and am totally going to make one for myself too. BUT. I still can’t show you, I’m so sorry. I’m about halfway through the knitting portion, then I have to find fabric and line it, then attach the handles. So it might be a little while still. In the meantime, the cotton/linen Juniper Farms Zooey yarn I ordered arrived yesterday and I’ve already cast on. This is a custom order from Etsy so I want to get it done promptly. I’m making the hat on the cover here.The pattern says to start with a cable cast on. I tried it. Didn’t like it. So I said the heck with it and went back to the long-tail cast on. It’s fine for hats, never had a problem with it. Stay tuned, this should be done in a couple of days.

Oh, and hey, here’s the scarf I finished a few days ago. I finally managed to snap a couple of photos yesterday. This is Oh, Helen! and I LOVE it! It’s as simple as can be. The slanted edge happens naturally with the pattern and it’s just so lightweight and airy. This is with pima cotton so it’s nice and soft too. I’m already in the process of making a light gray one too.

Besides knitting, I did a bit of rearranging yesterday. The puppies are kind of destroying the couch that sits in front of the big window. They love to lay on top and growl at the dogs and squirrels and people and cats and leaves. They love to bound through the house and LEAP onto the couch. So yeah, this couch has seen better days. But I’d like it to last another couple of years, so the girl and I moved things around.
It looks weird to me, and the couch is blocking the fireplace now, but we never use the fireplace and even if we did, it’s too warm now. The important thing is that the puppies are not abusing the couch now. Oh, they still jump on it and lay on top, but it’s a much lower level of activity. They’re not thrilled with the change.Their view is impaired now. They can’t see as well over the stone wall of the porch so it’s more difficult to maintain their guard dog duties. Ah well, we all have a cross to bear, right?

Thrift Store Finds

Apr14

Today, while I was running errands, I hit two thrift stores in search of good fixtures to use as displays for my craft shows. One was a bust, but the other yielded several goodies. Check them out:I don’t really know what most of them are, except the taller metal one in the back which I can tell is a candlestick. But now, they will display my handknits!That gold one on the left will be great for purses and scarves. I’ll set it up on a box, higher than the table, so the pieces can hang down nicely. The others aren’t perfect hat stands, but I think they’ll show the hats off better than just laying flat. I can’t wait to do my next table display now!

I also stopped by the LYS to get some yarn. I had a good reason, I promise! My sister has commissioned a lined project bag with wooden handles, and I needed to get the yarn for it. I have the perfect handles and the perfect closure and now I have the perfect yarn! I wish I could show them off, but she reads my blog (I think) and I want it to be a surprise, so you’ll have to wait along with her. I’ll do my best to knit fast, but it won’t go as fast as these hats:I have two more I want to make, a red and a blue, and then I’ll be ready to move on to something else. This is the first pattern I’ve made so many times. Guess it must be a good one!