Invincible! - Well, Almost

Excited, that's what I am. I had two sales this week. I sold two purses that were a special order..that's two wonderful things in one sweet package.

Two of the five bling purses I had for sale are gone off to someone who wants them..asked for them..requested them.

Two sales is good and when someone asks you to do something specific for them that raises you to the level of couture: you will so have to make an appointment to speak with me in the future - unless you become one of my posse, my crew, my entourage.

Even if you don't sell your stuff, it's really nice to have people ask you to make something for them. Especially if you're a knitter and you're going to have a stockpile of things - because that's what happens when you knit: things get made. It's good to have a place other than your own to put them. It is that much sweeter when someone is really to give you some legal tender.

Of course, that comes with responsibility - I will soon be posting an interview I did with someone on Etsy who - get this - has had multiple sales every day for more than a month. You read right, EVERY DAY, multiple sales - as in more than one, more than two. Looking at her shop and reading her interview has given me some ideas to help boost my sales as well as promote the handmade movement. (You know i multi-task whenever I can!)

The interview will be up on this site in short order and I am sure you will find Leanna just as inspiring, creative and modest as I do. In the meantime, my day is pretty clear except I am going to tackle the stash in my office. It's down to three boxes - remember it was about six - I am going to try and get it down to (gulp) zero to one and that one box will go in the basement with the rest of the stash. I know, I dream big.

So, What's Up With the New Look?

Here's the deal: I'm falling in love with the business side of knitting and writing.
I have to fall in love with it because my bank account is getting lower and if I have to start in on the joint accounts, Mr. Honey is going to have a problem with it. It's taken ten years to go through my funds and I think he's in the habit of thinking of our money as my inheritance instead of something he needs to budget for while he's walking the earth. So, I have to look at the background stuff.

I've decided to add Project Wonderful ads after weighing whether or not I wanted to sell the ads on my own. I would keep more of the money if I sold the ads myself - but that would be because I have to do all the work - including the marketing. Project Wonderful gives artisans the chance to advertise - sometimes for free and they do all the heavy lifting. I think that's a fair trade off for the space. Leaving me more time to do writing and knitting - which is kinda the whole point.

I also like the 3 column layout. It seems more..what? Grown up? I think more grown up. But don't worry..I'm just as immature as ever. So we'll see how it goes. I mean, come on, I've already received five ads and I just put the ads up this afternoon. (If you follow my blog, grab some free ad space...if you know someone who has a shop, let them know there's some free space available. )

I've also designed a cute little gift certificate and will offer them on this site for my Etsy shop. And get this - they all come with a 20% bonus - a $10 gift certificate gets $12 worth of merchandise, etc. etc. etc. That should be live in a day or two.

But now, back to the knitting--Here are the latest two babies in the stable and one of them is a special order - where they both were but, silly me, put the wrong sequins on one of the bags so I had to make another one - that's ok, cuz it's cute and the correct one is made - I just have taken it's mug shot yet. Did you catch that? A special order - gads! how happy can a girl get?

Yes, I know, you still want to see the yarn and the yarn tote. It's coming up, I promise. I am not teasing you. It's just I've been doing some other stuff (like promoting the site and stuff) it will all come back to normal very soon and then you'll see the yarn. If it's any comfort to you, I haven't seen it myself in almost a week and it's right in the next room!

Sugar, Sugar

Seriously, any cuter and we'd have to put a warning label to diabetics on it. I don't think the plan was to make one so small, but it was just so cute I let it go through. Sometimes you have to take the path in front of you not the one you made.

This would make such a cute bag for a little girl with the bracelet handles and the fun fur edge. I have the thought of a grown up version that would incorporate the fur and it can be a Mommy and Me purse set.


I will have to take it upstairs to do the glam shots for the shop but that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

In the meantime, the scarf that must be made is coming along quite nicely. I was telling it I thought it would be nice as a neck warmer, small and cozy and it told me it was going to be a long scarf with fu-fu fur on both ends. Long....as in 80 inches total. Well, I guess it told me. It is well on the way to becoming 80 inches long. I suppose the silver lining is that it will use up the Caron by the Pound. It's always good to be able to show the hubby that not only can I buy yarn but I can actually use it up. Hard point to make when I still have some of the yarn from my very first yarn buy still in the house. Hey, I'll use it eventually.

Our Second Annual Sit and Knit is this Saturday and I will be putting together the goody bags and I have to design a brochure, get it to and from the printers by this weekend - but there's no pressure! We have about 40 folks who have RSVP'd and that will be about a 20% increase over the folks who came last year so I am feeling grateful and excited that we might actually have something started. I will post photos as I don't expect to be saddled behind a registration table this year. I'm looking forward to it!!

This Love of Mine

Didn't I say I was a purse knitting fool? I also told you I was making a purse and I knew her name was Carly. And here she is!

Goodness gracious, I love knitting. It kind of snuck up on me when I wasn't looking. I mean I remember why we started the group and I am sure I've told the story somewhere in here before, but who knew it would turn into this great and wonderful thing?

Do you know, there were times when I was constantly thinking about knitting? And it was very specific. I remember sitting in the choir loft at church, thinking about knitting with Lion Brand Thick and Quick yarn - in the Pumpkin color. I can see it in my head clear as day. Finally I did knit with it and so that part is gone, but I still think a great deal about knitting. I've been known to obsess about something and then it disappears off my radar screen but this has stuck with me - so much so that I have now incorporated it into trying to make a living. And not just on the shop. (I love that yarn, by the way. It takes a great deal of arm strength to knit an afghan with it because it's so thick and heavy. It could harm a small child should they run into it.)

I do three things with some degree of skill: I write, I knit and I sing. And it has taken me this long to realize I can and should use these skills for the enrichment of body and soul. (This is yet another reason why youth is wasted on the young.)

Well, I don't know what to do. I don't have any pending projects. Everything has been completed; the needles are empty. I do have an idea for another purse. This one a little bigger than the last three. A tote bag with different kinds of handles and I'm thinking of buttons. I am also ruminating on a purse with a flap with a beaded band. I also have some writing to do for a couple of clients. So, I guess I do have stuff to do.

And to top it all off: It's the Cubs season opener today!

It's a wonderful life.

We're In This Love Together

Let me say how much I appreciate all you guys. I woke up this morning and went to my email and Twitter box and there were such lovely private tweets and emails that it just me smile with tears of joy. Earlier, I was talking with one of my very best friends on this planet and he said to me he was in the dumps and talking to me lifted him up.

You have no idea how much you've lifted my spirits especially after yesterday when someone tried to bring them down. (Don't worry, they didn't succeed too much.)

These forums have been such a great way to get to know some truly splendid people and I'm so honored you are part of my life.

Want to see what I've finished?


I'm in love with this bag! I searched and searched for the paillettes and finally found them at Hobby Lobby (that is going to be my new #1 craft store.) Come on, admit it, it's cute.
And I blocked out the cable afghan. I love my little steamer, I think I gave myself a facial when I was steaming the afghan. If someone can tell me how to make the deep purple photograph true in digital photography, I'd appreciate it.

This afghan is so soft and it blocked out to a very generous 54x64. That's a nice size afghan for anybody. It isn't something I would be placing in the shop now because it's more of a fall thing, but I'm thinking it might make a nice present for a graduate going off to school in the fall. And who doesn't love purple?

These will be both go on sale in the shop.

Even Bigger Than the Inaugural

What could possibly be bigger today than the inaugural? My first sale on my etsy shop!

This bag, which was a cause for grief, was my first sale. Rather fitting for my first sale and rather fitting for my sale on this day. It is triumph overcoming adversity.
This is definitely a day to celebrate!!

Beach (or Grocery) Bag

This was a pretty quick knit, but doing the bottom of this bag required some assistance from Toknitorknot from Ravelry. She explained the awful diagram in the pattern and I still didn't get it but sleeping on it and rereading it made it all click.

This bag can hold two skeins of Sensations yarn which is about 12 oz each. (There's a skein of Sensations and 1/2 skein of Caron by the Pound in the pic.) Imagine all the clothes and groceries it could hold. It will stretch but it is rather strong. I didn't make it out of cotton opting for a thicker yarn. I can see myself taking this to the grocery store or using it for a yarn bag or even a gym bag. (Wait, that last part was funny cuz I work out at home.)

When The Knitting Fairy Smiles Upon You...

you get two finished objects in about as many days. Ladies and Gents (cuz I know there are some of you out there lurking) I give you: The cabled purse! This took only a few hours to knit. The thing that nearly killed me was trying to line it. I stayed up until 6:45am trying to get a lining in it. I read all the articles about how easy it is to line a knitted or crocheted purse and I couldn't do it. This morning (I got up before noon) I called Lois, who is our group's ace seamstress and the person who usually lines my bags and asked her to talk me through it.
"Lining bags is easy." says she. "An idiot can do it."
Well, that explains it.

I'm not an idiot.

She talked me through it and it does look a lot better but not perfect. So she and I will look it over on Sunday and she will teach me how to do what an idiot can do. I am not sure if I will be raised or lowered to the level of an idiot but I will learn how to do a lining so I don't have to rely on the incredibly busy Lois. But come on you have to admit that, lining or no lining, the bag is gorgeous!

And then there's: the hooded baby blanket! This was probably a quicker knit than the purse. I finished it this evening and I think I started it yesterday (the last 24-48 hours are something of a blur) perhaps the day before. I know it was started the morning after I finished the bag and I finished that on Monday. So the blanket was started on Tuesday and finished on Wednesday evening. (Excuse me while I talk to myself.)

I had this Baby Clouds yarn because I was going to use that to make the Funkalicious Wrap and decided it wasn't the best use of the yarn. So when this pattern came up and it was supposed to be made with a dual strand of worsted weight on size 10.5 needles; I thought I could make up my own version of the pattern. So swap out the worsted weight for super chunky. Ditch the 10.5s for 15s decrease the number of stitches, calculate the correct number of stitches and there you are: a soft, cuddly hooded blanket for a baby.

And in case you're wondering: there are two different models in the photos. Belle is posing with the purse and Gannon is posing with the baby blanket - though I don't imagine he liked being photographed with a baby blanket. But we all sometimes have to do what we have to do (even if we don't like it) to be able to do what we want to do.

Let that be a lesson to you.