It's going to be good

So I'm on the road for a few days this week for work, and as usual at a hotel, I'm not sleeping well. I think the fridge made some kind of weird noise at 3am which woke me up and I just couldn't fall asleep again. I should have had the sleepy time tea my mom gave me! I feel like that really does help me stay asleep longer.

I laid there for awhile and eventually decided to catch up on my blog reading. I need to figure out a way to mark the posts that I love and really want to comment on. I think I should start using the bookmark feature on feedly to remind myself to go back and comment. I feel like when I'm reading blogs, I'm just not in a headspace to make the thoughtful comment that I want to, so ultimately I don't. Plus when I'm reading on my phone, some blog platforms aren't all that friendly to phone commenting. I can't tell you how many great comments have been eaten by my phone! Then there are some blogs that just don't like me - I wanted to comment on Erin's (http://pbsandwch.wordpress.com) blog to congratulate her on baby #3, but it always asks me to sign into a wordpress account I don't have! 

Anyway, that was a long tangent that devolved into a different post I've been meaning to write, about how I would love to be more thoughtful about the blogs I love and am inspired by. So two for one I guess. My ORIGINAL point is that after about 30 minutes of reading, I gave up and resigned myself to the fact that I wasn't going to get any more sleep. Yesterday was a long day of meetings with a brutally early start, some went better than others, but ultimately I think will resolve well. I had a pretty good dinner with coworkers. I'm missing my family like CRAZY and can't WAIT to see them and squeeze them tonight, especially with a bout of illness in our household. I've got a to do list a mile long and there's nothing I can do about it now. 

And yet. With so much on my mind, totally exhausted, I just had this incredible feeling of....I don't even know. Hope. Happiness. Contentment. Love. Just so much positivity washed over me and it's so unlike me to say any of that but there you go. Nothing specific. Just good. I dashed off a quick text to let my husband know I was thinking of him. I got up and decided to make the most of my newfound time by taking a leisurely shower and having a cup of hotel coffee. I've got more than enough time to finish up the order for Julie (https://www.etsy.com/listing/165587253/hand-knit-toddlerchildrens-mittens) that will go out Saturday, though I wish I'd planned ahead enough to bring the yarn for my next slipper order (https://www.etsy.com/listing/118129146/tall-womens-cottage-slipper-socks)! And with that I'm going to try to hold on to that good feeling through another long day. Hopefully by putting that good energy out there, it'll come back to me. :)

(Also I kind of want a nutribullet now. Darn you hotel infomercials!)

Year End Thoughts

I've taken an unintentional break from the internet these past few weeks. It was an unusually busy end of year at work, with a huge design effort culminating in back to back week trips (one 2 days, the other a sort of massive 4 days....the week before Christmas). Most years it seems that projects kind of wind down before the holidays and end of year because there simply aren't the people around to pay them proper attention on the clients' side due to travel and vacations and such, so deadlines simply get set for sometime in January. But this year that was not the case, so that alone has me feeling a bit turned around. I mean....I had to have my husband address our Christmas cards! I did the list for him, but now in hindsight I can think of a handful of people I would have added had I been doing them myself, but you just have to do what you can do and let the rest go sometimes.

On top of the sort of odd frenzy at work, my little shop has had sort of an incredible year! I felt like I was a knitting machine these past few weeks (which has me thinking a bit how I'll want to differently handle next year's holiday season), and I finally had a chance to look at the numbers while I found myself awake at a sort of ungodly hour. I ended up sending out 17 hand knit or crochet goodies from November to beginning of December, plus another 2.5 on deck. (For fun, this compares to just 6 orders last year plus another 3 that came in just after the holidays through the end of January, with roughly the same non-existent level of marketing.) At one point earlier this month I was actually feeling simultaneously thrilled and a bit sick at the thought of it that I actually backed out of a craft fair I was supposed to do back on December 7, which is SO not like me. (Oh man, that actually reminds me that I didn't even include craft fair numbers in that count!) I set an order deadline for the shop to promise orders by Christmas and then I kept a close eye on the posted ship dates for USPS to deliver by Christmas Eve. Thank goodness they didn't seem to have the delivery issues that UPS and FedEx reported this year! In a fashion that is again, seriously unlike me, I found myself flying off to the post office minutes before they closed on multiple days before Christmas to get packages out on time. I even had to go so far to have to express just one of two pairs of legwarmers to my cousin, which would account for the "half" order on deck. I feel terrible about that, but I guess in trying to make the best of it I can adjust the fit of the second pair if needed, and there will certainly be some extra goodies in the second package for her little girl!


I had a hard time falling asleep last night as well, with tons of post ideas rolling around in my head, most of which I of course cannot remember now. One of them was definitely how I'd like to change up my shop process for next year. For starters, I think I need to pre-make some of my more popular items. While I definitely like the option for people to pick and choose their color and size, and will continue to offer that option, I bet I could take a little pressure off myself by examining the trends so far. The cottage slipper socks were definitely my most popular item both this year and last, and the colors trended sort of the same way as well - mostly the oatmeal color that's pictured as well as charcoal gray, and mostly size medium. They are probably the most expensive item in my shop on my end in terms of materials, which has always stopped me from keeping them in stock, but now that they've sold pretty steadily for two seasons, I'd be ok making up a few pairs in advance.

 

Last year I sold several of the long tail elf hats, but only a few this year via Etsy - I sold a few more at craft shows. Those are pretty low impact to make up ahead though, and I feel like the color options are more limited for the "standard" item - mainly reds and greens for Christmas colors, and it wouldn't hurt to have some newborn sizes in pink and blue around as well.

Toddler mittens were sort of a whim for me - basically I toyed around with a few different designs because I needed some, and listed them on the site for kicks. They've been flying! It sort of boggles my mind that people don't seem hesitant to pay $18 for kid's mittens, but that's a fairly middling price compared to others I've seen around on Etsy. There also doesn't seem to be a ton in the standard chain stores (from my super limited search) for an every day mitten that isn't the hardcore, playing in the snow for hours, enormous puffy deal. Definitely a time and place for those, but the run to daycare really isn't it. So while these are more time intensive than the elf hats, they've been pretty solid and are lower in cost for materials as I can make several pairs from a single ball or skein of yarn, that's another one I think I would consider keeping in stock. Especially since I had to turn down an inquiry for a bulk order! That one bummed me out, because I'd have loved to help this person out....there was just no way to do it before the end of the year. It's just me over here! As much as I enjoy knitting and this brave new retail world, I can't let myself take on too much to the detriment of my family life.

To sort of spin off that last line...I'm a little jealous of all of my customers! I have some generously gifted sock yarn just sitting in my disaster of a craft room/ office/ let's face it, it's the cat's room that I would love to turn into socks for myself...but the time just isn't there! Standard socks....while they are seemingly a staple for many knitters, they've always intimidated me. I'm not exactly sure why! I make the slipper socks, so I probably know all the techniques. But the yarn and needles I use for that are many times larger than those for real socks that are actually meant to fit inside shoes lol. I guess I worry that when working with such small tools that it won't feel like I ever make any progress? I definitely enjoy knitting as a hobby, but lately life has been all about deadlines, so the thought of knitting on a longer turn around is a little scandalous to me!

In addition to my apparently guilty pleasure, personal sock knitting, I have at LEAST 2 other things I'd like to make for my nearest and dearest....plus new ideas for the shop. I've got my sister testing out a new product, er, Christmas present....an earwarmer headband thing. I made a few earlier this year that I wasn't happy with, and whipped out this new one just in time for Christmas. Literally...I mean like hours before I gave it to her! Given that amount of development, I'm not ready to list it yet, so I'll have to see what she thinks. Always trust little sisters to give you true, honest feedback! Plus I want to develop a shorter, slip-on slipper. I LOVE my tall slippers, but they really only work with leggings, skinny jeans/jeggings, or tights. I want more of an every day deal to leave lying by the back door that I can put on when I get home from work with normal pants. Bonus to self - I would get to keep the samples for myself! I also have a charity hat to knit (that I was supposed to have done by December 16! Ouch!) that will really move to the very top of my list after my paid orders are out the door. More than I need a nice pair of socks....a warm hat for someone in need is certainly more important this winter. So with that....since sleep doesn't look likely and who has time for proofreading...off to knitting!

Madness

Madness is certainly an apt description of life of late. Madness is also how I might describe the decision to do 3 craft shows, 2 weeks apart, with 2 weeks of initial prep. And shall we also add in entirely new products? And we can't forget that the Etsy shop is in full swing of the holiday rush! These are all not bad problems to have in the scope of things though, that's for sure. Every spare moment it seems has been spent with busy hands, knitting, sewing, crocheting, oh boy, is my house a mess and have we ever been eating a lot of delivery food! And as it happens, otherwise occupied hands make for a blog full of crickets. I'm quite sure that I actually took a bunch more photos with my good camera with all intentions of blogging about them, but as it turns out I can't seem to connect any time to blog with access to those photos, so a few phone shots to catch up it is!

So here we have 2 new items that haven't yet made it into the Etsy shop, but did do the rounds at 2 of 3 craft fairs so far. The mug cozy is something that I initially thought was just cute and would be quick to whip up several of them in order to actually have some stock to offer at these shows. But wouldn't you know it....they actually work!?! I have a habit of making myself a cup of tea at work, getting distracted, and remembering it's there only to take a sip and it's gross and cold. This little wrap though actually keeps it warm for about 45 minutes and drinkable and not gross for an hour! Holy cow. So I hope to have some more of these ready to go in the shop before x-mas, as I think they would make a cute stocking stuffer. I also took time during the shows to keep crafting, and came up with these sweet little flowers. I sold them as hair clips, but I would love to add them to some hats - I think it could really "girl" up something like the newsboy hat. (Also, shellac manicures DO last a really long time without chipping! They also give you some mad noticeable grow-out if you find yourself without the time to properly remove it, haha)

 

This is unrelated to anything, but I ordered this rug from West Elm....and it's totally crooked on one side. I haven't decided if it bugs me enough to return or exchange it. I ordered it before it went down to the final sale price on the website....so I think I could still exchange? It's not so bad laid out as is, with the crooked side toward the door. But I can't really rotate it (it's a runner) without that crooked part looking me in the eye, so I guess if I keep it, it just won't wear evenly. Which....for the $40 I spent....maybe that's ok? Maybe it's time to just get the rug pads out for it so it stops slipping all over the place and call it a day? And find a rug for the living room and stop living in musical rugs madness (that's a whole other story!).

 

 

One (of many) pairs of sweet little mittens going out the door. These have been crazy popular in the shop. I think I have 4 pairs to make in the next week!!

Oh boy. I shouldn't be sent to the store with no time limits.......

But I think it was worth it! I've started making these tote bags after discovering a miraculous source of those awesome, funky printed coffee sacks (and chocolate too! Those are coming!). I'm totally digging them. They are super roomy inside, big enough for a laptop, with all kinds of inside pockets for cords, and phone, and whatnot, with a magnetic clip on top to keep it all contained. The front and bottom are super durable burlap material, cut to include all the cool printing, and pre-washed and dried to soften them up. Then I made the back out of this soft fleece with some added interfacing for strength, tough cotton webbing for the straps, and contrasting lining fabric! So far these have been craft show exclusive, but after my last show on Dec. 7, I plan on listing anything left (and any more I'm able to make) in the shop as ready to ship items. Most of what I do knit-wise is made to order so that I can customize colors and sizes, but since these prints are unique, it's tough to do custom. Bright side though is that there's no lag time, so they would also make good x-mas gifts!

 

And finally, just some shots from this weekend that pretty much typify what I'm doing when I'm not here. Watching the rain, filling the house with fall scents (I love this "mountain lodge" candle from Yankee Candle - it is such a light scent that it smells like nothing in the sensory overload of the store, but is juuuust right when you get it home. I hate overpowering smells, even good ones!), and settling in with a hot cup of tea to work on more Etsy orders (that's a cottage slipper sock). At least until the end of naptime!

Of Late

Wow. How do those daily/multiple times per week bloggers do it!? I feel like I've been so busy with life in general that there simply isn't time to upload photos, have a thought, write a post....but I've definitely been up to some things, so here's a snapshot. Or two.

We took serious advantage of a "fill your car for just $28" special at a local farm, and Halloween'ed up the cottage. I think I'll have time to carve approximately zero of these pumpkins, but I'm still enjoying the way the pumpkins make the untrimmed planting beds look almost on purpose. However this might not look quite so cute in February....since I doubt we'll actually get them cleaned up before the snow falls!

 

We found an amazing deal on a place to stay through my friend's aunt's friend (got that?) in Manhattan, so we were NYC-bound for a long weekend to celebrate our 6th wedding anniversary! We had the most ridiculously good weather for mid-October. It was nice enough to walk around without jackets most of the time! I've been there twice before, but I haven't done the really touristy stuff either time, either because I was "too cool" or too cheap. But this time we went to the top of several buildings as well as visiting the Statue of Liberty which re-opened during the government shutdown just in the nick of time.

 

Pretty much the entire results of my garden...all grown without any assistance from me. The herbs that I'm drying (holy cow, how domestic am I?!) are entirely self seeding, and the little pumpkins and gourds are kind of weeds. I guess my compost doesn't get hot enough, and squash sort of comes up willy nilly, but this year I actually got some little pumpkins! The potted herbs I've actually managed to keep alive indoors all summer, which is a small miracle. Turns out houseplants like water! Who knew!

Finally in the background, I've always thought that doing a craft fair might be fun. I rejoined the devil known as facebook, and saw that a friend was doing a couple. I asked if she might be interested in a booth buddy, and she said she was! So since then, I've been busily knitting and crocheting my fingers to the bone to try to build up some sort of inventory that I hope people will like. Because I'm not super bright and the first show is in less than two weeks!! Worse comes to worse, it will be a fun way to figure out if I want to do any more of these in the future and it will basically be a win if I can sell enough to cover my half of the booth fee. Plus if things don't sell I can always put them up as ready to ship items in my shop! (and omg I'm not actually going to be selling socks at these craft fairs - that's a book that one of my knitting group members generously lent me. I would love to be able to knit my own socks, but I think I'll have time for that in approximately 3 years.)

So! Whew! That really does feel like a lot going on lately!

It's October!

Ahhh, can't you just smell the pumpkin spice latte in the air?! (I was at a non-Starbucks coffee establishment last night, and asked for a pumpkin spice latte and the girl looked at me as if I'd asked for something unheard of. It wasn't on the menu, but they DID have pumpkin chai. Is it possible the entire world DOESN'T anxiously await pumpkin spiced everything season like I do?)

So anyway, now that it's all officially fall and everything, I just wanted to put up a little note about Halloween hats. I have 3 (er, 4) available in the shop right now! I'll put up a more definitive deadline closer to Halloween as it's somewhat dependent on workload, but I think orders will need to be placed within the next THREE WEEKS to guarantee delivery by Halloween. (And keep in mind that you may need to order earlier if your community does trick-or-treating the weekend before like mine does. Halloween falls on a Thursday this year!)

The perennial classic pumpkin head:

The "boo" earflap hat:

And the newest addition, the monster hat! (This one is pink as it was a custom order, which is obviously not always the scariest color, unless you are a 5 year old boy - then pink might be downright terrifying! As pretty much everything in my shop is made to order, color options are always up to you!)

And this one isn't strictly Halloween, but darn it, I just like this owl hat! :) It could be partly costume.

Weekend Productivity

 This was my favorite kind of weekend - no real plans, gorgeous weather, and a full list of projects!

And wine. Love wine. :) I'm a red wine kind of gal all year round, but something about it in the crisp fall weather is just the best. I'm probably showing signs of my age, but the above photo was from Friday night. And it was perfect. A little crafting, nice glass (just kidding, it's not a nice wine - two buck chuck!) of wine, junky tv show, quiet, lovely.

Putting the finishing touches on a newsboy hat. This is before I noticed that I put the button strap on at an angle. Argh! Just grab the seam ripper. :)

It's so nice to actually be able to gather a bunch of finished hats up and SEE how much I got done! I finished up the monster hat that I started last week, the gray is the newsboy hat, and I managed to start AND finish a little elf hat for a new December baby! Plus I have the brown swatch in the back that has a bunch of stitch experimenting for a project I'm about to cast on. AND I made a couple meals this weekend - I felt like superwoman! That is before I figured out that I didn't actually turn on the dishwasher after I loaded it. Right back down to earth.

I took a couple of new photos of the newsboy hat to update the listing. I had a rare combination of daylight, time and finished items so I tried to take advantage. I also grabbed some shots of a new listing - the monster hat! This is a topper for a Halloween costume, so it seemed right to make it a little....nuts. Silly googly eyes, mouth full of pointy teeth, and all in pink, purple and green to match a little girl's costume. Can't wait it ship 'er out!

 

In development

Apparently I'm a little bit of a liar. A few weeks ago when I met with my knitting group, we were all discussing what kind of things we make. Some of the ladies, who are immensely more talented than me, were talking about patterns they had written. When someone asked me if I ever write my own, I just said, oh, no, I don't really do that. I said that I design all day, so why would I want to keep doing that in my off hours?!

Lies.

I'm working out some stitch patterns for one of those newborn cocoons for photo props. Someone contacted me to see if I could make something like that, but I just couldn't find something out there on the internet that I really liked. She specified that she was interested in something that was more like a sleeping bag than a nest, and something more lacy and delicate than a ribbed pattern, as well as some color preferences. And, well, that darn designer in me just won't stand down! I'm noodling around a few ideas, and will probably end up incorporating bits and pieces of a few different patterns and putting my own twist on it. I can't wait to have some consecutive hours this weekend to work out some more of the details!

I've also had a request for a monster hat to finish off a Halloween costume! This one will build off of the basic shape of the earflap hat that I used for the sleepy owl and the boo hat, but I have some ideas to take it to a different level. We're aiming for something sort of Monsters, Inc-esque, but still pretty and girly. Hence the pink, lol. I had the yarn for the body of the hat on hand so I was able to get that going right away. I'll have to head to the store this weekend pick up the other colors the buyer wanted.

So yeah, I lied. Much as I try to take the easy way and just follow pre-written patterns...I just can't seem to help changing this detail here, or tweaking that over there, or, oh heck, just throw it all to the wind and start from scratch! It's really great actually at this stage in my shop, because most of the items I have listed started from someone's custom request. It gives me a concrete task to focus on and play with until it's just right, and if it turns out well and the buyer is happy, well then I know I have something special that might be just right for someone else! And if it's not just right, well, we can always tweak it a little farther!

(and also, I just have to say that I'm totally floored by some of the blogs I read that have the most gorgeous pictures of some of the tiniest details of their days. I'm all for pulling out my big camera and pretending like I have a clue what I'm doing for events or outings or finished product photos....but beyond that, man, it's just SO much easier to grab the iPhone! I would loooove if I were able to express my ideas and frame my life in such a lovely way. But I just can't seem to manage it!)

Boo!

 

 I have a new item in the shop! But first let me back up a little, and take you through some trial and error.

I had this vision in my head for a new series of earflap hats with embroidered lettering. The hat itself was simple enough as I've made it in a solid color a few times before. The lettering....oh the lettering though. I knew the look of the lettering I was looking for, but I wasn't sure exactly how to achieve it. 

I started with the middle "o" so that no matter how big they ended up, the letters would be centered.

 

Looks ok from the front.....

 

But it looks like crap from the back. Not to mention that all that bulk would be pretty irritating on little foreheads! 

So I tore that out and went back to the drawing board.

 

I thought that embroidery thread might still be the right thickness so that the letters would pop against the crocheted background. Of course I couldn't find a needle with an eye large enough for the embroidery thread (and I broke my needle threader in the process of trying to make it fit), so I tried pulling apart the plies of the thread. This worked....but totally disappeared into the yarn of the hat. So I thought that maybe if I went over the stitching a few times.....well yeah, that looks terrible. (This experiment would be the center "o" in the picture above.) Then I tried again with the yarn to make the "b", but only went through the stitches on the front side of the hat. This at least smoothed out the back side, but was super bulky on the front, and not really the cursive look that I was going for. So I tried one more time by basically stitching the yarn onto the front of the hat using regular old needle and thread...and found a look I liked on the final "o"! This gave me the boldness of text I wanted, but nothing bulky or itchy on the inside.

It turned out pretty darn close to my vision! I'm loving the earflaps and straps in an effort to actually keep the hat ON those little heads! I fear the pumpkin hat might be a bit of a struggle in our case, though I will still insist on it for trick or treating at the very least! Please visit my shop to see more details!