Stitch Markers, handspun, and the Yarn Harlot's New Book

1. WIPs

More of the same from the last post, methinks, but progress is exciting.


My Gandalf scarf for the Etsy shop is coming along nicely. I had to take a break due to running out of yarn and shiny stuff. I'm terrible at estimating what I need for weaving. I'm getting better at estimating for knitting, but weaving? Pfft. It'll be a while before I sort that out in my brain.



Some alpaca handspun that will also be up in the Etsy shop. Can you tell I'm planning a shop update soon? I'm shooting for a bunch of new things for April 1st. I haven't decided what to call this one yet and I don't have photos ready for it yet, but it's a really cool yarn. The off-white ply actually has tiny little slivers of copper that match the coppery brown roving in the other ply. It's really cool up close. I just hope I can get some photos that can show that.



2. Stitch Markers


One of the things I've really been working on these past couple of weeks in preparation for a shop update is stitch markers. These guys have really taken off. I'm surprised at how quickly some of them sell. So I've been working on some of those, including these new ones:



Star Trek TOS stitch markers!

I ended up with a lot of failed attempts for these guys. I was trying to make them have shirt colored backgrounds, or the different colors in the badge, but either the yellow was too light or the blue was WAY TOO DARK. I couldn't really win with the colors for all of them, so Command gets to be black instead of yellow or green-ish. But they look good to me, so we'll see how they do in the shop later.


And I made these for myself out of some spare beads:


Those plastic beads are supposed to glow in the dark. I've had them since sophomore year of highschool (... almost ten years now...), so I'm not sure if they still work, but they look fine on their own, methinks. I'm pretty pumped about my crayon and troll, though. I'm throwing this set into my new knit bag.


Speaking of....


3. I Bought Things


I ordered these two beauties from the lovely Tangerine Designs. A Star Wars comics knitting bag (which is the perfect size for socks and hats and things) and a little hedgehog magnetic needle/pin catcher thing, so I don't lose needles and pins underfoot.


Also, there was a craft fair over the weekend at one of the local high schools. I like to go to those as often as I can to support local crafts and tradesfolk, so after the Grand Opening party at a new Jo-Ann Fabric and Crafts store (aw yeah, Torrington; just two minutes from the movie theater) where I got a $20 gift card for being one of the first 100 people through the door, I re-familiarized myself with some back roads up to Bristol for the craft fair at St. Paul's High School.


Aw yeah. Dark chocolate covered pretzels, a heating/cooling pad thing, and 2 oz of black alpaca roving from a local alpaca. I wish I had remembered to grab a business card or something from the wool ladies because they seemed like really nice ladies, but I didn't. Shame on me. But I ate all of those pretzels that same day and I'm really excited about spinning that alpaca.


4. The Amazing Thing About the Way It Goes: Stories of Tidiness, Self-Esteem, and Other Things I Gave Up On by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee

The Yarn Harlot! I adore her blog and have most of her books crammed into my bookshelves (possibly all of them by now), so I ordered this one as soon as I heard she had a new book out. It's different because it's not really about knitting specifically, but it's the same type of stories that are told in her other books. Just not about knitting. Mostly about raising kids, trying things despite the evidence of defeat, cohabitation, and reality vs. perception. It's still her writing voice throughout, so if you've liked previous books of hers or enjoy the blog, you'll like this book.

Etsy Shop Update!

Etsy shop update! These new items and the classic red lace Amy Pond scarf are up for sale!

http://freakishlemon.etsy.com!

Stitch Markers, Organizing... Again..., Scarf, and HawkGuy

I meant to post this first part all last week, but I think we're all familiar with how well I manage to get things up on here. Time, man. Time. It's crazy.


1. Stitch Markers

Last weekend was time to play with new stitch marker designs for my shop! (Also, make some more Supernatural ones because I sold out of them. :D )


I also tested that orange silicon baking sheet thingy. I usually do the Shrinky Dinks on parchment paper, but they don't way enough to keep the paper from curling and I've had only limited success with weighing the paper down with oven safe objects. I saw this thing in Target for pretty cheap, so I picked it up.

But you can see in that picture that I'm playing with some new designs from Doctor Who, Star Wars, various superheroes, and shtuff like that.


And there they are all shrunken. This never gets old. It's still crazy to me that this works.



And there they are sealed and ringed and placed nicely in a bowl with a picture of a spoon on it. The purple marker bled when I sealed it and the blue on the TARDIS and DW ones are a little fuzzy, but not bad for a first run.



I also found these charms in a clearance bin at Jo-Ann's, so I grabbed them and made some markers for myself.



2. Organizing... Again...

I think I've reorganized this craft drawer thingy (kind of like this one) a half a dozen times now. I'm pretty sure I've only owned it for a year. Oh boy.

It was prompted by my inability to grab a paint brush quickly. I had some in a case and some in some ziploc bags. Everything could fit into the drawers, but I end up taking things out of the drawers a lot to get to other things.

So I found myself wandering around a Kmart and I found a bin meant for cutlery that is the right size for paint brushes and I reorganized craft things around that. All tubes of paint that were still in their boxes got dumped into a plastic tub together. Colored pencils and crayons and markers went into recycled Bertucci's take away tubs (my sister's worked there for a couple of years. We have a lot of those plastic tubs. XD), so those boxes and bags could be recycled. I didn't realize how much the original packaging caused an issue in craft bin. This system works much better for me right now.

It'll probably change again in two weeks when I do something different with my craft projects. It happens a lot.


3. Scarf!


Scarf! All these colors have been a part of my Sherlock and John BBC plushies. Those plushies are fun, but they take a long time sometimes and have a lot of small parts, so I'm not aiming to make more of them. Well... unless anyone wants to commission them. But I ended up with a lot of yarn in those colors and I like how those colors go together and I'm aiming to bust some stash this year, so I made myself a scarf.


4. HawkGuy

I've been seeing many good things about the current run of Hawkeye, so I hopped into my Comixology account and made sure I still knew my way around and bought issue# 1.

I intended to read just that one and get #2 next week. A sort of a one-comic-per-paycheck deal.

Oh, me. I really should know myself better. I have the worst self control when I like a story. THE. WORST.

So I ended up buying all eight issues that are currently out and reading them on my iPod in an IHOP while I ate Swedish crepes. It was pretty fantastic.

Also, I've been snagging some of my favourite panels to use as log in screens.



Clint and Sokka might be soul mates. Also, Kate Bishop wins my life in this series.

Etsy Store Renewal for My Birthday!

I turn 25 today. And I've been building up inventory for my Etsy store for almost the entirety of 2012. My birthday present to myself is listing all of those things I've been making on Etsy.

It's like a Hobbit birthday party, except that I have to pay for the listing and the party goers have to pay for the items.

The point is that I have made things! And now you (or your friends or your neighbors or anyone you'd like to tell, if you want to) can have these things!



Yes. Go! http://freakishlemon.etsy.com! Peruse! Click on some things! Possibly buy some things!

For now, I'm going to go see a movie with my brother that I predict will be both terrible and amazing.