New Etsy Stock

Since I had guild retreat and an event at Heritage Farm, I've got some new Etsy store items ready to be listed. And I've gotten rid of a few older things that have been hanging around. It was eye opening. Things that have never really sold on my Etsy store, flew off of the display at guild. I think I might look into more local things. The problem is a lot of my items are of a very narrow focus (knitters, spinners, fiber people) that I don't do so well with the general public. I guess I could do fiber events, but I'm not really that scale yet.

I do have a random idea, but I need to research the logistics of it. I read a lot of blogs, most of them crafty. On the fiber ones, I see a lot of pictures of WIP's in project bags. I need to find out the protocol in getting a few of my bags into the hands of some better known bloggers. Can I just send them out and cross my fingers that they end up in a picture with one of their WIP's? I would probably feel guilty sending it as a "present" when my intentions are not nearly that selfless.

But the real reason for this post is because all of the stuff I've been doing means new stuff in the store.  Yay!  I will be adding new stuff for a while, probably over the next week.  I try to space it out to get more exposure on the newly listed page.  But I love this bag.  I have two of them up now.  I think I am going to have to go get more of this fabric to make my own bag (for once).

And these are a new item.  Just about the perfect size to be a business card holder.  I have one in my knitting bag to hold business cards and one in my purse to hold stitch markers for the current purse knitting project (my yoga/belly dance socks).  Cute and fairly easy to make.  In fact most of the ones I've made have come from scraps from making the bags. 

And I have a page for the store on Facebook now.  You get a boring link instead of a like button because I can't figure out how to make it give me the code. 

Guild Retreat

Guild Retreat was in the middle of April. I know, I am behind. I'm slowly getting caught up.

But guild retreat was amazing. The perfect weekend getaway. And exactly what I needed. We had so much fun.

Where to start.  The games were amazing and hilarious.  The sheep fashion show was the highlight for me.  We have such creative and funny women in our group.  I love getting the chance to spend time with them.  And in such a serene setting.  I even went for a run.  The wind was a bit crazy. 

And in true guild retreat fashion, I did come away with quite the stash.  Heidi is guarding it for me. 

How about a list with some linkage:

• Brittany Needles- Size G crochet hook.  So pretty.  Almost scared to use it.  I'm not exactly gentle on my crochet hooks
• Ewe and I originals- City Lights Sock Pattern.  Such a nice pattern.  I can't wait to give it a try.
• Figheadh- Chiagoo crochet hook.  I love the chiagoo needles I have, I imagine the crochet hook will be just as lovely.
• Good News Llamas- This one holds a special place in my heart.  The Kniddy Knoddy I got came with a lovely story and it is my first real kniddy knoddy.  My other one I made myself out of pvc pipe.  And Judy traded me some yarn for fiber from their amazing llama, Gilligan.  I literally sit there with my hand in the bag and drool. 

• Nistock Farm- 8oz Cotswold Fiber.  I'm excited about this.  I've never used Cotswold fiber and it looks lovely.  And the dye job on the wool is beautiful.  I did a bit of research and I haven't spun a lot of long wools (except for Romney) so I am excited to get to play with it.

• Overland Hand Crafts- Threading hook.  It is tiny and matches my wheel.  Super excited.  Love it!
• Spinderella- Gift Certificates.  The best part is I won and traded to get these certificates without knowing what their store had.  And I was complaining about needing to get some fleece processed all weekend.  Turns out, they process fleece.  Win!
• Textile Garden- shawl pins.  Oh yes, these will be used.  Summer is shawl weather for me because of the air conditioning around here.  A pin or two will be very handy.  And they are gorgeous.

• Slipped Stitch Studios- Cupcake bag of awesome.  I am a bag hoar.  I love project bags.  I make and sell project bags, but I like nothing more than an adorable project bag.  And it has cupcakes!!!

• Firefly Fields-Finn/Silk Roving.  I'm not very familiar with the Finn breed, but if it all feels like this stuff, I will be hooked.  And the silk makes it so luscious. 

• Cathy Flashman- Quiviut.  Oh yeah baby, I got me some quiviut.  It is as amazing in person as it is in my dreams. 

And that is just the stuff I won in the door prizes.  Our goodie bags were loaded this year.  Yarn and fiber samples, soap lotions, full magazines, bokmarks, felting kits, WPI tools.  So many amazing things.  We had quite the list of sponsors this year.

Since this blog is supposed to be about things I make

A little update on what I've been working on. March and April were months were I was supposed to be working on things that have been languishing. I did stick to that, but I didn't really ever finish anything except a hat I can't show you yet. I just bounced around from project to project and did a bit of work on a lot of different things. This post is all going to be things I've recently finished or am working on. Notice none of them are knit or crochet. I've lost a bit of that mojo. I think in the past week I have cast on and ripped out about 4 or 5 projects. All very very different from each other. Thank goodness I do a lot of other crafts.


Such as jewelry making. A present for my Mom for Mother's day. It was made from this tutorial. Very easy. I wish I wore jewelry.

And I'm sewing. Actually I'm hemming. This summer we are supposed to be doing some veil work in my belly dance class. Super Excited! So I've started working on my veil. It is blue and sparkly!!! But I forgot how much fun it is to do a proper hem on chiffon (insert sarcasm here).

I lied, this is crochet. Beaded crochet. But notice I don't have much done on either piece. I am going to use them as demonstration pieces when I show my guild how to do beaded crochet. It is so much fun. And these will really show over how using different size beads can really make it look cool.

And some embroidery. Again for bellydance. I needed a bag to carry around my hip scarf (and soon my veil). I think it needs some shiny added. I ripped out my last hip scarf I made because it was too big (yay) and I'm thinking the sequins need to be added to this bag. I also need to wash it to get off the transfer lines, but I keep using it.

And the results from that potholder swap I was in. I sent 5 potholders out and got these 5 in return. Love them. I need to say thank you on Ravelry. Then I can remove the tags and get them into rotation.

La la la la...I can't hear you

Since I'm ignoring the 3 or so in progress blog posts sitting in my queue taunting me, waiting to be finished, I am going to post something random that doesn't require much work. Mostly so I can come back to all these tutorials/links to do them at some point in the future. But these were too cute to just email the links to myself so I thought I would share.

I think I have to make this stamp. Maybe a lot of them. Who wouldn't want a card that looked cross stitched? And who doesn't have a box of unsharpened pencils lying around, just waiting to be turned into stamps?

This bookmark made me cackle out loud. Want! So bad! No tutorial. Maybe with enough prodding she would make one. I could probably wing it, but I have no idea how to attach them to a bookmark.

I very rarely wear jewelry other than my standard gold necklace. But this necklace is adorable. Looks like someone in my life who wears jewelry is getting a present soon. ::checks birthday list::

I want all of the molecules from this Etsy store. The St. Patrick's Day Mr. Ethanol is my favorite.

Debbie Stoller's Stitch Nation has a new superwash wool out. ::crosses fingers that AC Moore will carry it soon:: And with the new yarn came some new patterns. I love the bunny and the adirondak slippers.

Yay for lazy posts!

Happy Birthday, Heidi!

I hope being 6 is as wonderful to you as being 5 was.
And don't let anyone tell you, that you are getting old.

"Who you callin' old?"

Tabby Thursday plus a tagalong

Hello there again. I've stolen the camera and the blog again. This is me giving Nadine a bit of sass since she doesn't let me outside and she wouldn't open the window to let me sit in it. Something about it being cold and raining for the past month or so.

And then she makes me model things. The shame. At least it looks good with my red hair.

And I have to put up with this thing now. How ridiculous? She will do anything for attention. And she tries to play with me. Apparently I remind her of her old friend, Ashes. I can't imagine there is a cat alive that would play with a dog, but Heidi insists.So I stare longingly out the window. I sort of miss being an indoor/outdoor cat. But I suppose it does look a little soggy outside. I'll just curl up in her bed and steal her spot."Wait...you don't like me? Heidi haz a sad. See this is my sad face."

Multiples Swap

I did a swap on Ravelry that involved making a bunch of the same thing, sending it off and getting back a bunch of different things.

I made a bunch of fabric bookmarks that I didn't get a picture of before they wandered off, but they were made from this pattern. I got back some super awesome stuff in return.

The first pictures I took where everything was artfully styled and all there, well, they sucked. So before I ran out of the house that morning, I threw everything on the couch and ran around the house taking pictures of stuff that had already moved on. So super awesome list of what I got.

ElizabethSABLE- zippered pouch, which has already become my notions bag

H3Dakota- donut of doom (it is a pin cushion, but I didn't realize that at first and squeezed it)

Terasa- Little red bag with the cutest fabric ever

Dreadsci- stitchmarkers! yay!

Slickery- Flower magnet and candy, candy eaten magnet on the fridge

Maprice- super pretty beads and holders and stitchmarkers

KnittingReader- om nom nom almonds

OneNeedleKnitting- an octopus to attach to something. Must find the perfect thing

Cloverflowers- scissors and case (ps I have a set of these scissors already and I love them so much, so excited about having another pair)

Mehitabel- pillowcase, which went with my to my guild retreat and has been properly drooled on

Snowmagnolia- More stitch markers! Yay! I like stitch markers

Manderly- felted bowl, already holding stuff on the table in my crafting corner.

So thank you everyone. I loved it all. I can't wait for the next one. I'm already planning.