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.

I'm getting there

Well, I've taken the initiative and started trying to get local stores to stock my photo greeting cards!
First I went to a hair salon/shop, and she's going to take one each of my local shots (so 14 cards) and sell them on consignment. A good start.
Then I went to another local shop that sells more cards than the first. They seemed interested, but already have a person who sells them photo cards, and the owner wasn't in, so I have to go back next week.
Same with the third store I went into, minus the already-have-a-person thing.
The last place I went into yesterday was a framing place that sells art. My mom goes in there to get things framed, and suggested I see if they'd be interested. The owner was in, and we talked for almost 15 minutes! I took my cards out, and he went through them all, spreading them out on his work table. He said a number of times that they were really good, and a completely different style than the photographer he currently works with (he already had some photo cards in stock, but they were very different from mine). Although friends and family have been telling me that they're good, and that I'm a good photographer with a good eye, it's always nice to get some positive feedback from a professional. He told me to come back at the end of April with all of my local shots, too, and he'll buy them outright from me. With the kind of inventory that he stocks, he's not worried about tying money up in cards, not when compared to oil paintings and pottery and such.

So, now I'm going to get working on getting some of them up in my etsy store! I have the store pretty much organized, and I have all of the cards scanned. The thing that's holding me back is figuring out how to offer "custom" card sets for sale, or offering multiples for less money. I don't know if I'm going to be able to do that, so I think I'll just have to get some singles up and see how that goes.
When the store is stocked, I'll put the link up for everyone to see!!!!!

(And I promise that I'm going to get some photos up of my finished sweater soon!!)

It's Done!!!!

It's done, it's done, it's done!!!!
And it worked and it looks good!

That's it. :)

(Pics to be posted later, when the light is better for taking them.)

Cursed Tree Jacket

I swear, my Tree Jacket is cursed! (Link to pattern. The Original.)
Either that, or there's some kind of force in the universe that doesn't want me to finish it while the weather is still cold enough to wear it this season. Which amounts to the same thing: a curse.

I have now knit 5 sleeves-worth for that sweater. The first one, I accept as pattern-modification testing. I decided to knit the sleeves in the yarn-over pattern instead of the garter stitch, and the first sleeve was a test-sleeve.
Fine.
So the second and third sleeves got me a completed sweater! BUT the sleeves were WAY too huge. They dangled, and really annoyed me. So I ripped them out and re-knit them, decreasing 12 sts in the 24 rows right at the underarm. (See mod description on Ravelry here.) Now that was better.
And then there were 4 sleeves worth.
(Note: that fourth sleeve took me a few months to work, as I couldn't decide how I wanted to proceed with yet more pattern modification.)
Now that I had the re-modification all worked out, I figured the fifth - and last - sleeve should go by in a jiffy. Well, it did! And I got it finished tonight!
Alas, when I went to take apart my Denise needles, I realized that the needle tips I had been using were the (smaller) ones I had used to pick up the sleeve stitches at the underarm, and not the ones I was meant to use to actually knit the sleeve!!! GRRRRRRRR!!!!
And RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIPPPPPPPPP!!
Again.

Now my Tree Jacket is waiting patiently for me on my footstool, waiting for me to start knitting the sixth (and f*cking LAST) sleeve.

*sigh*

Note to self: double and triple check the needle tips on the cord BEFORE stating to knit, when using an interchangeable set.

Yay vacations!

Yes, it's been a while. Sorry...!
I was on vacation for a week, visiting my sister in Pittsburgh for part of her spring break! She's taking her master's in clarinet performance at Carnegie Mellon, and I haven't yet visited her down there, so I thought it was about time.
I also....went yarn shopping!!! I googled yarn stored in Pittsburgh before I went down there, and there was one not too far from where she lives, so that was where I went! And I went 3 times in 5 days...teehee!
It's called Knit One, and it's an awesome store! I was looking for some yarn to make Rogue, but I had forgotten the pattern in my suitcase, so couldn't remember what weight or how much I'd need. I feel really bad, because I can't remember her name, but one of the girls at the store really helped me out! She went onto Ravelry and found the pattern, and got me all the details I needed in order to make sure that I bought the right yarn and enough of it! I went with Ella Rae (classic, worsted wool) in a nice steel grey colour. Hey - if I'm going to put that much work into making a sweater, I'm going to make it in a neutral colour so that I can wear it with everything!
I also bought my poor student of a knitter-sister some gorgeous Ella Rae Bamboo Silk. Mmmmmmmm. There's no way that she'd ever buy that for herself, and she's really enjoying making a scarf for herself with it. (My job as big sister is done. lol)

AND, I've finally made some progress on the sleeves of my Tree Jacket! I finished one last night, and I now have the alterations worked out, so the second sleeve should zoom by. That's what was really holding me up with the first sleeve...figuring out just how I was going to modify the pattern so that it would fit properly! In hindsight, I should have made one size smaller and used short rows to accommodate my bust, because it's folding a little at the underarms, but frankly, I'm just happy that I'm almost done! It doesn't bother me enough that I wouldn't wear it, so I'm leaving it. And my first sweater is almost done and wearable!!!!!!!
(pictures to follow. I haven't had time or daylight to take a photo of it yet.)

Upgrades

So, while I've decided that there was nothing particularly "wrong" with my table display at the craft show, it is a little "busy", and I have decided that some improvements are required.
Namely, the following:
- make a 6' tall pegboard instead of 4'
- install lights on the top of pegboard to properly illuminate photos
- paint pegboard black to better highlight the photos
- make a table runner to draw more attention to the table (lace? bamboo placemats?)
- buy little baskets and/or boxes to put the cards in, in categories, rather than propping each and every card up on the table all meli-melo (that'd be a French expression meaning all "mish mash", or "at random", or "with no particular order"). This also means that as I add to my collection, I won't run out of table space. Or at least, not right away, anyway.
- get boxes to be able to sell packages of cards, whether "custom" or "themed"
- make some "other" photo products, such as jigsaw puzzles, coasters, calendars, etc. to sell, so that people have more choice in how they display my photography
- properly print and frame my logo, pricing, themes, etc.

I also need to put together a price/product list and an order for. Before I go to stores and try to get them to stock (or outright buy) my cards. Because a) it won't look very professional to use post-it notes on the backs of the cards they want to order and b) then I can have a comprehensive listing of all of my available prints and products! And how is that a bad thing, right?
That's my goal for the weekend - get a product/price list together, and finish scanning the sample cards so that I can upload them to my etsy site. Which I will then provide a link to! (And also so that I can pass them on to my web designer so that she can get my website designed and up and running!!!!)

Things are coming along...

Disappointment

I had my first table at a craft show yesterday.
Everybody who stopped by my table (and that was pretty much everybody who came to the show) said that my photos were beautiful, or that I had a great eye for photography, or that such and such a photo was amazing, but NO ONE bought anything! One guy even asked to come around the table so that he could get a better look at one of my prints, and said (quite convincingly) that he'd be back, but I saw him wandering around for a while, and then he and his wife left!
Well, I didn't sell *nothing*. A friend came by and she and her boyfriend's son each bought a card, and I do really appreciate it, but that's almost like a pity-buy, you know?
It's so hard to put yourself and something that's so personal out there for the masses to either love or hate. And I almost think that it would have been easier if people *hadn't* liked my photos. At least then I'd be able to give up easily, admit that it won't work.
But having people say that they really liked my photos and then not buy anything, well, that makes it really hard to just give up. People DID like my stuff, but maybe it wasn't the right audience for buyers. I mean, for a 7 hour day, we only had ~450 people attend, and most of the day there were more exhibitors in the hall than there were buyers. And I do know that this show was a small show, and that it's not as well attended as the Christmas show in the same hall, which is why I wanted to get a table at this show, so that my name is on the list for the Christmas show.
But, but, but.
It's just so frustrating!! To get so many compliments, and no one buying.
Grrrrrrr.

Ah well.
Here's what my table at the craft show looked like. It's my first table, so I know that there are many things to learn, and ways to evolve to make it look better and attract more buyers, so I'd appreciate any constructive criticism that you readers have. (If there are any readers out there?? lol) The pegboard is 4' high, which is pretty much all that fits in my car's backseat. I'm going to see if I can fit a 6' length in my car with the seats down, but we didn't have time to work that out for this show. Oh, and the signage will be better and more professional next time. I actually forgot about making signage this time, and was rushing to get some made at midnight at my friend's place the night before the show.


I'm also working on scanning my cards so that I can list then on my etsy site. Maybe I'll get some interest there?

*sigh*

A probable hiatus...

Good News: I have taken the first couple of steps in starting my own business!
Bad News: I won't have nearly as much time (or energy) to blog as I usually would (which isn't much to begin with.)

I have reserved my business name, have the name registration and home-business registration applications all filled out (will probably submit them Tuesday), have my table reserved at a local spring craft show, and have a domain and website hosting plan purchased. I've also got an etsy site ready to go, but that will have to wait until I have some samples to take photos of and post. And I've hopefully got an appointment with my accountant this week to get the tax crap all sorted out. No point in doing it wrong all year only to get completely stressed out in 1 year's time, right?
I got the e-mail set up and working with Thunderbird tonight, and am going to move onto getting a basic web site up and running next.
I also have to choose photos and get supplies so that I can get my cards made in time for the show!
And I have 3 weeks to do all this in!! (So I'm sure you understand why I might not be back here in a while...)
I will try my best to keep up with Blogstalking (although I couldn't see a post on what we were to post about this week), and keep you updated as to my progress in getting my business up and running.

Wish me luck!