Selling Out

Recently I've gone through a bit of personal struggle over my business. Part of me wanted to be a purest and only sell yarn. The other part of me wanted to diversify to reach new clients by offering knitted goods. I didn't want to make my dyeing seem less important but, frankly, if this business is going to support me, I need to sell more stuff. And I've always considered myself a Knitter first (with a capital K) and a dyer second. While dying has definitely become more and more important to me (and even more so over the last 8 months) I still love knitting deep down at the core. I could sit all day and knit and be perfectly content. I do love to spend all day dyeing but it's just not as pleasurable to me. Not that I don't get a great deal of pleasure from it, don't get me wrong. But there is still an aspect of work there for me. In knitting, even when I'm making things to sell, it really doesn't seem like work. It seems like I'm enjoying myself while (potentially) making money. The only issue comes when I don't want to make something that I think will sell. I mean, there are only so many washcloths a girl can make before she starts to get a little bleary eyed.

 Baby booties, another thing that might make you go bleary eyed if made in large quantities.

So, there was a little struggle. But in the end, the diversify side won. If you look at the dyers that are out there very few only wear the hat of Dyer. Most are also designers, button and shawl pin makers, or spinners as well. And some started with one of these other areas and moved into dyeing. And that's just talking about the lucky few who do this full time. Many more have dyeing as a hobby that makes a little spending money. So, why can't I offer my knitting? I'm no master but it doesn't take a whole lot of skill to make some felted coasters or baby booties. But people like that kind of stuff. There are a lot of people who are looking for something unique and handmade. Something that's not mass produced. Something with a little character. I could be that person. If that seems like I'm selling out or selling my dye abilities short, well, that's something I may have to deal with down the road. In the meantime maybe I can actually make knitting into a profitable venture.

Pile of knitted things to be felted.


On a side note: I will be at the Inman Park Festival April 30th and May 1st in Atlanta, GA and the Snellville Days Festival May 7th and 8th in Snellville, GA. If you're in the area please stop by! Inman Park looks to be a huge event with a Street Market and juried Arts and Crafts Market (I'll be in the Street Market). Snellville Days is a bit smaller and more folksy but they are both worth the trip.

Achievements

Exactly one week ago today I had surgery to remove my tonsils and adenoids, fix my deviated septum, clear my sinuses, and remove some polyps from my sinus cavities. Everything I have managed to do since that time has been chalked up as a major achievement since pretty much every day since then something has been hurting, irritating me, or not doing the job I think it should be doing (I'm looking at you pain medications). Here, in no particular order are some things I've done that I feel are press worthy:

1. I took a shower. On Tuesday but still. I took a shower.

2. I ate chicken nuggets. 10 in all. Over a period of three days.

3. I did not pass out. Not when they took out my tubes (which were three inches long with butterfly wings on the sides). Not when I had to leave the office after taking out my tubes. Not when I hadn't eaten anything in two days except medicine and Powerade. Not yet.

4. I finished a blanket.

It's just a little one made from scraps of my hand dyed yarn but I like it and I think it will be lovely and warm once it's blocked out.

5. I made some booties.

Again, nothing big and huge but right now I can't really handle big and huge.

6. I worked almost a full repeat on my Red Dragon socks.

I never understood what pregnant women meant by not being able to knit because it makes them queasy. Now, I totally get it.

7. I started a pattern. It will be for a set of items with a chevron theme to them. A hat with a chevron band, mittens with a chevron design on the back and a multi-directional chevron scarf. I did that one at 2 in the morning so I really think I should get a prize for it or something. I'm telling you about it because I want to be held accountable for actually finishing the pattern. I want to offer it as part of the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project's Game, Set, Match! campaign where we are collected matching hats and other knitted items for orphans. So, if you don't see updates about the chevron set in a few days start asking questions.

Now, I'm off to take another nap because I've been up for a total of 20 minutes and I'm exhausted.

Super Productive

For the last 3 days I've been stuck in my house due to ice and snow. Tomorrow I'll be stuck here as well. The snow is melting, a little. We still have between 3-5" piled up around my complex. The roads are the problem. If things warm up even a little it all freezes over during the night when the temperatures dip back into the teens (Fahrenheit). I haven't minded at all actually because I've been working on a lot of things. On Monday I updated the shop with new yarns and plan to add some more tomorrow.

 

In case you missed the update, this is Swamp Thing.

Tuesday I picked up and cleaned the entire apartment. I mean mopped, did the laundry, dusted, rearranged, the whole nine yards. The place looks awesome now! I even managed to do a good deal of work in the office which is by far the least organized room in the apartment.

Today (Wednesday) I spent most of the morning finishing up some assignments for grad school then I finished vacuuming and mopping. The rest of the day was for working on the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project website and setting up a Facebook page for EEROP. And I did more laundry. I think laundry might be my least favorite chore. It takes forever to do and by the end of the week the hamper is full again and you have to start all over! Surprisingly I still had time to knit some. I started a pair of simple wristers from 60 Quick Knits yesterday and I've worked a little more on them tonight. I'm not using Cascade 220 as suggested but some gifted DK weight yarn. These are turning out a bit smaller than originally planned but can still go towards Mitten Madness.

Tomorrow I'm hoping that it will clear up ever so slightly. While I've appreciated the time to get some things done in the house we are almost out of cat food and sugar. Penelope will need to eat and I can't function without my morning cup of tea! For now I'm debating putting in a movie. It's 9:15 but I don't have anywhere to go tomorrow :)

So Much To Show You!

I've been meaning to post for the past 2 or 3 days but I keep seeming to get busy with one thing or another and then blogging goes on the back burner. But today I had ample time to get ahead at a lot of things that I've been wanting to spend time on. I was able to dye yarn and work on the store today and tomorrow will be full of cleaning the house and continuing to try and get ahead with grad school work. Why all the time on my hands suddenly? Snow!

It started Sunday night around 9:45 or so.

And by 10:15 I would say we had almost an inch.

This morning was a winter wonderland.

Total for our area was about 5 inches. I know that most Northerners scoff at 5 inches but we Southerners are not prepared for this type of weather! The whole city of Atlanta has been shut down for the day. And it's pretty much shut down for tomorrow too. Roads are starting to ice over where people have driven on them and there is freezing rain and possibly more snow expected for tomorrow. I'm having a 4 day weekend!

I had to go to my car this morning to get some paperwork out and was able to get an idea of just how much snow had fallen.

I'd say that's quite a bit! The first thing that happened when I walked outside was I stepped off the curb into a 7" pile of snow, ice, and slush that filled my shoe. I thought that would be the end of my snow adventures but I kept reading about everyone sledding and making snow angels so I went out later to put some mail in the box. The consensus? It was cold. And my feet got wet again. And there was some idiot trying to drive who was skidding all over the ice and I thought I was going to get hit. So I stayed in for the rest of the day. And dyed yarn! New yarn will be going in my shop tonight!

This is a little sneak peek of Booberry, a one of a kind, limited edition yarn. Also listing some washcloths in the shop as well. I'm going to start carrying a few little knitted items to try and expand my clientele. In fact one of my recent knitting projects will go in there (as soon as it's finished).

A single button little girl's cardigan.

Since I spent so much time on the shop today I'm thinking tomorrow will be a good time to tackle some charity knitting :)

I Have Thumbs!

Ok, so I've always had thumbs (both of them, thankfully) but now my mittens do as well! In the span of a week my charity mittens went from this:

To this:

Yay! One set of mittens for Mitten Madness complete! Of course that means I had to start another pair. I decided to do some game knitting fingerless mittens/ninja gloves. I started with this:

And ended with these:
"Front"

 "Back"

 Me modeling one.

Game knitting is a lot like a drinking game. You watch a show or movie and whenever a much expected action or line is performed you change the way you're knitting. The game knitting booklet that I purchased has a bunch of base designs like these mitts and a few hats and scarves and such to choose from. The real fun is the various ways you can mix up your knitting. I chose to change the ribbing pattern on these as I watched Family Guy every night. It was pretty fun and definitely quick knitting. Next I want to try a short row hat. In addition to making a lot of knits for charity I've also been working on my Wyvern socks which I decided long ago to name the Red Dragon Socks.

Started with these:

And now have these:

Which look almost exactly the same. I never said I was quickly knitting on these. Just a few more inches and I'll be ready for the short row heel. I know I've done a short row heel but I don't do it very often so I can never remember the particulars of how to do them. At least I still have a little time to look up the directions!

Tonight I'm dyeing some yarn for the store. The online store will probably go down for a few days but while I get the new yarn photographed and listed but it will be back shortly. I had a major problem last night with my skein winder, 3 cones of sock yarn, and a my digital scale so that's set the release of my sock yarns back a little bit but they will be coming! In the meantime please follow the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project on Twitter and learn about all the cool things we have coming up :)

Flurries Don't Count

Flurries don't count as real snowfall unless they stick. 11 days ago we were having tornadoes and now we have the first snow-type activity of the year. But it's not sticking. It's just making everything wet. And now it's even colder than it was when I woke up this morning. Maybe we'll have a white Christmas! It makes me want to start vacation today. Only one more week of work though! 40 hours....5 days...3 tests...1 winter party....1 pajama day....and a partridge in a pear tree. Then I'm free for two weeks! And my grad school classes will finish for the quarter this Friday as well and won't start for another few weeks either so I will truly have a break. Then I can catch up on all the things that need doing. Hopefully I will get the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project webpage updated. I've tried 3 times now without success. No idea what's going wrong but I will conquer it yet! One of our group members just took over 250 items of clothing to Romania to hand out to orphans and Gypsies. She should be arriving back in the U.S. shortly and, hopefully, she will have pictures to share (which I would love to post on the website if it will cooperate). What a wonderful out pouring of generosity from our group members to help make this possible! I did finally send out the last of the prizes for the EEROP/Project Hope Christmas clothing drive that we held over the summer. I custom dyed some yarn for the "winner" of the contest who knit a ridiculous amount of stuff (42 items) for the drive (for which we are all extremely thankful). This is a picture of her custom yarn:

Also been working on Christmas knitting but I can't show you that. I did finish one project that I'm incredibly stoked about and really want to show you but can't. I feel so clever having finished it. It's down to crunch time though so knitting has become an Olympic sport around here with a motto of "Go all the way or get tendonitis trying."

Hiking

Yesterday a friend and I went up to North Georgia for a bit of hiking at Tallulah Gorge State Park (I call it hiking even though we technically never left a trail and our packs both weighed less than 50 lbs.).

It was a great day for hiking, 70 F/21 C and overcast, and the views were spectacular. We decided to hike down into the gorge to see some of the falls better.

There's a suspension bridge across the gorge. Very cool looking even though the swinging motion made me a little nervous.

There are over 1000 steps down into the gorge but it was worth it. Isn't this picture amazing?

The trails around the rim of the gorge were lovely with all the falling leaves.

Before we stopped for lunch we decided to hike to Inspiration Point.

Inspiration Point is perched almost at the very tip top of a 1000 foot bluff.

Not many people can say this was their view for lunch yesterday:

Just as we finished up lunch it started drizzling and by the time we got to the car it was starting to rain. We timed everything perfectly and were on the road back home by the time it really started to come down.

Needless to say, I needed a lengthy nap yesterday.

Today I'm dyeing up some yarn. I have a custom order of Juniper Moon Farm cormo that needs to be done as a prize from the EEROP/Project Hope Christmas knitting drive from over the summer. I'm also going to dye some yarn for myself (something that doesn't happen very often)! There is a new mystery knit along designed by LISMI that I'm hoping to get around to during the Christmas holidays that I would like to use my self dyed yarn for. I would like to start it before then but I still have Christmas knitting to get to, though it is coming along nicely. Oh, and I have to start Thanksgiving cooking today too :)

Sometimes I Over Do It

I wish that statement applied to making cakes or exercising or even online gaming but it does, in fact, refer to my tendency to try and juggle as many balls at once as I possibly can. You can imagine the outcome. At some point along the way my body will just throws up it's hands and says "Enough! You won't slow down? I will make you slow down!" and then I get grossly sick. Like strep for the 4th time this year sick. Like tossing and turning all night because I felt feverish sick. Like waking up with body aches sick. Yeah, something like that. Oh, and did I mention I was supposed to be baby-sitting all weekend? Um, yeah...Not happening. At least not until tonight when my antibiotics have had a chance to fully kick in and make me feel less like a zombie. Let's focus on happier things shall we?

When I was at SAFF I started making some fingerless gloves for myself. It was freezing there and fingerless gloves seemed like something that would be good for the cold. And I had a little sample yarn left over from dyeing to try.

Well, this is the almost finished product but you get the idea (they have been completed since this picture was taken). This is in my Olive: I Love colorway and I've really fallen in love with this color and dye job.

Still working on grad school stuff which pretty much takes up the majority of my free time. There's a ton of reading to do and then 4 one page long discussion postings I have to make a week. I'm enjoying it but that does mean my other activities are severely limited and mostly relegated to eating and sleeping.

I did manage to start my Christmas knitting last week. I've got quite a few things I'm ambitiously thinking I can finish in just 6 (or less) short weeks. Won't show you the projects here because there are quite a few gift recipients who read this blog but I will show you the nice project bag I got from Joann's Fabric and Craft store for buying a butt load of yarn.

SAFF Confessional

So, I have to confess something...until yesterday I wasn't really looking forward to SAFF.

I know, I know...sacrilege! Before you string me up by my toes let me explain.

1. I'm going this year as a vendor. This means I won't have as much time for perusing wares. And everyone knows I love a good fiber festival. But me in a room full of yarn and I'm like an alcoholic in a brewery, I just have to have some.
2. I'm not a salesperson. This sorta hurts the whole vendor thing. It's not like I won't tell you everything you want to know about my yarn but you have to ask first. I'm not about to hard sell you as soon as you come within shouting distance of my booth.
3. I'm not competitive. At least not in the sense that I'm looking to be the next Sanguine Griffin or Holiday Yarns or Miss Babs or any of a dozen other indie dyers. I work an 8-4 job everyday. I'm starting a non-profit. I'm involved in my church. I go to knit nights. I'm a full time grad student. Oh, and one day I'd like to have a social life.
4. I'm a Knitter. With a capital K. Not a Dyer. Dyeing is my hobby. I just happen to dye a lot so I have extra to sell. Not as much as someone who spends hours a week dyeing, week in and week out. But more than a healthy hobby should accumulate. And I'm ok with that. But see #3 above.

So basically I was feeling all uninspired about going to sell my yarn and feeling like everything I dye is sub-par and just being super critical of myself. This, of course, did nothing to help my enthusiasm for heading to a major fiber festival.

And then I booked my room.

And I starting thinking about the North Carolina mountains in the fall.

See more breathtaking photos here.
And I remembered the alpacas.

And the llamas.

I love this picture so much.
And the bunnies.

And the market.

And then I remembered the best part of all...

the fair food.

Suddenly I'm ready to go.

Looking Up

Since my last post about how crappy my day had been, things have been looking better on the job front :::knock on wood:::. Thank you for the kind words in the comments. I hate to throw my little pity party but it was so nice to hear people encouraging me to just hang in there. I have to keep reminding myself that no job is perfect and I'm very lucky to even have a job. And, of course, knitting helps. Today, I actually came home feeling pretty energetic instead of falling over from exhaustion. Could it be that I have (finally) caught up on my sleep? Or maybe it's just that I've been walking out of work each night as soon as I'm off the clock (instead of sticking around for another hour or so) and leaving it all behind me. Probably a combination of both. Anyways, I was feeling revved up so I did some chores and then dyed a little yarn.

Pink spaghetti! The color is actually a bit darker in real life. It's still a shade of pastel though. I'm thinking of calling it Bubble Gum. Hoping to post this yarn and another shade I dyed a few weeks ago in the store soon.

Still knitting along on a stealth project for Project Hope (stealth because it appears to be working out and I don't want to jinx anything by talking about it). Also planning on making a hat out of the rest of this yarn:

I think I can get another out of what I have left. That would make 3 hats from this yarn! Oh wait, I never told you about the second hat, did I? Hmmm...well, I was reading Knitting Rules! by the Yarn Harlot and in there it talks about teaching people to knit by having them knit a rectangle and sewing one of the sides together. It's the same principle as knitting a scarf, just on a smaller scale. For some reason it made me really want to try that technique. So I did. And, of course, I made it a little too long (remember I've been on a tear of sub-par hat making).

I've been pouting a little about this hat since I had such high hopes for it. And it's a beginners technique for goodness sake! This is supposed to be fail proof!

I guess I should know I can mutilate any pattern no matter how simple at this point. But today, as I was trying on the hat for a little photo shoot, I decided to try turning up the brim a bit. I'd tried it before but for some reason I couldn't get the length of the brim just right. Today, however, the stars must have aligned just so because I think I got it...

Looks pretty good now! Hopefully I've broken my streak of bad hats because I kind of agreed to make one more... We had someone in our EEROP group develop carpal tunnel and wasn't able to finish several projects she had hoped to contribute. It's truly unfortunate but now I have a purpose for the mittens I made and the fair isle sweater with the too small neck (I still have to fix it but now I have a reason to).

Unproductively Productive

I'm feeling as though I have accomplished nothing today despite the fact that I have actually done a lot.

I started today by skeining 2 pounds of sock yarn for dyeing (I did 1 pound last night).

 Still life with left over sock yarn bits, scale, empty cone and partial swift.

My arms were absolutely killing me from having to push the skeiner and the swift by hand. At least I'll have killer upper arm muscles. The only thing I'm asking for for my birthday this year is an electric skeiner. So everybody just pitch in and get me the best one you can afford (preferably the 2 yard, motorized one with the electronic counter...).

After skeining I took a small break to finish up the little girl's vest I have been working on.

It's a (very) slightly modified Keep Me Warm vest and will go to the Adoption Center of Washington.

The vest turned out super cute but I almost passed out when I realized how many ends I had to weave in. I think there were 19,765. Yep, pretty sure that's how many there were. Just check out the underarm of one of the sleeves.

And, if you don't believe me, here's the underarm of the other sleeve.

And that's just for the front side!

When I'd finished up the vest I ran some errands for supplies. Some for a secret project.

And some office supplies for mailing off my taxes. Then it was off to the post office to mail said tax information. Ran into some friends while there and chatted for a bit. Back to the apartment. Dye 3 pounds of yarn. Begin work on secret project. Change clothes and get ready for dinner with a friend.

So, today was actually productive. My mind is just trying to be tricksy since I'm on Spring Break and not working the usual 9-5 (or 8-4 as the case may be).

A side note: If you are looking for a quick and easy charity project take a look at the April/May KAL on the Eastern European and Russian Orphanages Project group on Ravelry. The scarf pattern I picked is easy but not boring and the owner of my LYS has offered to donate yarn if anyone needs some! Plus there are pictures of cute kids and beautiful countrysides so you should stop by and take a look anyways :)