Check out the yarn swift I made last night!

For $12 CDN!!





General idea was borrowed from Crafty Diversions. Thanks!!!

Display

Look at the display of my stitch markers at the store!!!
It looks so good!!!!!




And I went to the other LYS today at lunch, to pick up some yarn, and I got stopped by the owner, who asked me about the stitch markers, too! She asked me if I happened to have any samples on me, and when I said no, that I'd sold everything to the other store just yesterday, she seemed a little disappointed. She said that she would like to sit down with me sometime next week and work out an order!
I'm so pumped!!!

She bought them all!!!

I took my stitch markers to the LYS today at lunch, and sat down to go through them with the owner, Mona. I fully expected her to pick and choose from among them, and maybe take 1/3 or 1/2 of my stock.
Nope.
She bought them all! Every. Last. One. WOW!!!
She was even worried that she'd be taking all of my stock, but I told her that I'd be more than happy to sell them all to her - I can always make more!
She also bought 14 of my pattern magnets, which is all of the ones that I brought, too!
I can't believe it!

I'm super excited!!!
I hope that they sell well for her and that this is the beginning of something great!

On another note, this is the weather here today:



Don't the tulips just look sad, all buried in snow?



I took a walk this afternoon, and it's already beginning to melt, but still. What a way to end April. (Almost, anyway.)

Some knitting, for a change

I keep forgetting to post updates of my knitting here, because I keep thinking that if you want to see my knitting, you could just click on the Ravelry progress bar links on the right and see it all for yourself.
Silly me, I should remember that not all of you are on Ravelry!
And so, for your viewing pleasure, here is a photo of my Ribbon Scarf that I'm working on right now.



It's about 2/3 of the way done, and I can't wait to have it finished! It'll be done just in time for summer. Good timing. Although, if things keep on going the way they seem to be going, we're going to have scarf weather for a week or so to come. Apparently, we might even get up to 20cm of snow tonight!!!
It's the pattern from Knitty, but I'm making it out of Manos del Uruguay, and I'm only doing 2 pattern repeats instead of, what, 5 or 6 in the original pattern. I really like the way it's turning out!
I tried getting a better photo, one that would show the pattern off a little more, but it's really curling up, and I can't get it to lay flat enough to see the pattern without having both of my hands on it, stretching it out. I promise better photos once it's finished and blocked.

I've also cast on for Rogue, but I'm not working on that very much right now. I think it may go dormant while I finish my Ribbon Scarf, and while I cast on and knit a cotton tank top for the summer. Rogue can wait a few months; I just want to have it finished for August/September, when the weather starts turning again.

And in other news, I'm organizing a field trip for the girls in our local SnB! We started as a facebook group, and meet on Wednesday nights at a local pub. I was at a local conservation area a few weekends ago, and they had an "artisan and craft show" in their interpretive centre. One of the artisans was a lady who was spinning her own yarn, and selling roving, yarn and knitted/felted garments. I bought some yarn from her, and asked about spinning lessons and farm tours. Well, we're going to be going as a group on June 7th!! We'll car pool out there (it's about 2 hours from the city), have a tour of the farm, pet the sheep, have lunch, and then have a 3 or 4 hour spinning lesson. We'll be mainly working with drop spindles, but she'll have 3 wheels for us to share and try out. I really want to learn how to spin, and don't mind spending $20 on a drop spindle, but I can't see myself spending $1000 (or even just $500, which she says she could get us a wheel for) on a spinning wheel. Not unless I got really good, and could see myself being able to make some kind of money at it. Or got to the point where I really really enjoyed it, and had the room to store it. In a 1-bedroom apartment, it would have to become part of the decor!

Stitch Markers

I'm going to link to this post in the side bar, so that I don't need to post every time I have an addition to my stitch marker catalogue.
Thanks to everyone for their support and interest!!

I got my findings!

They were delivered yesterday, which means that I can start making the stitch markers that my LYS will buy from me!
I'm going to take photos of them all before I sell them, and will get them added to the album below as soon as I can.
Today is really sunny here, and while that's awesome in general, it's making a properly exposed photo hard to come by.
:)

Another LYS?

I took my stitch markers to another LYS today, and it looks like they're interested, too!
Things are really starting to come along...!

Stitch Markers!!

Check it out!!!!
Here's a link to some photos of my Stitch Markers!

Stitch Markers

I'm so excited that the LYS is going to be stocking them for me!!!
AND last night I donated some as door prizes at our Bobmas Eve meet-up, and everyone seemed to like them, which is awesome! Although I know that I like them, the same thing goes for these as for my photos - it's always nice to get some positive feedback from people "in the know".

I'm just waiting on a shipment of the findings, and I should have them in the store in 2 weeks!
Things are moving along nicely...!

Etsy!

I'm starting to get some of my greeting cards up on my Etsy site!!!

Check it out!

Custom requests are more than welcome!
I'm not sure how many to post up there, and don't want to put all 50...that would cost too much for me just to see if people are interested.
I'm also not sure how to put sets of cards up without limiting which cards are in that set...that's something I still need to think about.
I'm going to try and get a "catalogue" pdf file up on my own website, and maybe honour requests through Etsy, but not post them up "just because".
I don't know...any of you have any suggestions?

On another note, sort of, the LYS is going to stock my stitch markers and pattern magnets!
2 dozen sets of stitch markers, and 1 dozen pattern magnets, all bought outright!
I've also decided to not go with a set price per stitch marker, but to price them according to what they cost me to make. That way, I won't be limiting my choices to ones that would fall within that set price, but will be able to explore new options, even if they're a little more expensive.
I'm thinking that I'll sell them in sets of 2 and 3, and have multiples of the sets available if people want a set of 4+.
I was considering putting them on Etsy, too, but so many people sell stitch markers on Etsy that I think the market is a little flooded already. I think I'll stay local for now.

Thank-you to everyone for being so supportive of my creative endeavours!!!!

And a photo to leave you with: a scan of my most popular photo card:

As promised

Here is a photo of my finished Tree Jacket!
But first, a photo of the 2 different sleeves:

It's pretty obvious, but just in case, the right sleeve (left side of photo) is the huge one that I frogged, and the left sleeve is the re-knit smaller version.

This photo is a double-whammy: My finished Tree Jacket, AND my homemade Easter bread!


Pattern: Tree Jacket, by the Zephyr Girls
Ravelry Link
Yarn: Patons Decor in Chocolate Taupe
Gauge: No Idea
Size: Large (40" bust) with sleeve mods, and 0.5mm smaller needles for the waist-to-bottom portion of the body.

Love the sweater (now that it's finally finished)!!!!

What I would do differently: I'd knit more garter at the top so that the lace part started after my bust line. If I don't pull at it, the garter-lace line lies right at the middle of my boobs! Not ideal, but it doesn't bother me enough to frog and reknit, or to cut and knit and graft. It's done.