I Finally Have New Yarn!

For the first time in ages, it seems like. Okay, I know I bought the yarn for the booties and blankies, but other than that, it's been a while.

I got ten balls of yarn from the $1.99 sale at Herrschners, specifically for the making of bags for sale. If I do two a week, that's new pron for five weeks! (I thought ten weeks might be stretching it.)

The first two: Universal Opal in Iris and Tiger Lily. (As of today, it seems to still be on sale!)

Sold!

I've been neglecting my blog for Etsy, I know....but I made my first sale tonight! Just over a week after I started!

Granted, after the fees I think I'm going to make about $2.50 or so, but it's a start.

RJ's breaking out the scotch to toast me.

FO: Booties x6!

• Pattern: Saartje's Booties
• Yarn: KP Shine Sport in Cream (bottoms) and Willow, Grass, and Sand (tops from L to R)
• Yardage: I got all six bottoms from one ball of Cream!
• Needles: US 1
• Gauge: didn't check
• Modifications: none

The blankies are still a disaster--the second one, too, is not going to lie flat. (Dammit, I thought I knew how to design things!) But I caught it before I finished, so there's time to fix it.

However, that didn't mean I wasn't frustrated or that I didn't want to set it aside...so I finished all the booties in one fell swoop Friday night, which consisted off knitting three from the ground up, sewing up those three and one more I had already knit, and putting the buttons on all six.

The buttons were a nightmare--I don't have a needle with an eye both big enough for the yarn and small enough to fit through the buttons' holes. In fact, I think those two conditions might be mutually exclusive. So I had to use the needle to get the sewing yarn through the bootie, take off the needle, force the yarn through two of the holes, put the needle back on, then do all of it over again one more time for that button. Then repeat the whole process eleven more times for the other booties.

Labor of love, indeed. But I do love my unborn niece and nephews!

***

In Etsy news, I've listed the first three bags I knit this summer when the Etsy idea got planted in my brain. Go check them out! (And yes, at least at first, while I'm still excited about this, I'm going to mention new listings at the end of my entries. I need exposure! <3)

Leaves of Yarn

No new yarn to show off this week, so I'm going artsy again. The leaves are just starting to turn--despite the weather being unseasonably warm!--so I pulled out my fall colors.

Here's my Autumn Still Life:



The players in my artsy game:


KP Crayon in Orange (top) and Scachenmayr Micro Color in Phoenix (bottom)


Unknown red cotton chenille from a trade (top) and KP Crayon in Red (bottom)


Unknown bulky acrylic from a trade (I did know what this was at some point, but the label is long gone)

On the Zomg! Babies! front, yesterday I found out the unofficial ruling on the gender of the triplets--two boys and one girl. According to the tale passed along by my mother, one is definitely female, one male, and the other shy, but the doctor got one glimpse and thinks #3 is also male. The next ultrasound may give them more conclusive results, or may not--I imagine with triplets, it can be hard to get a good look at all three.

Blankie #2 is zooming along, despite fresh worries that it, too, will not lie flat.

FO pics of the booties this weekend, promise!

And, finally, two new items in the shop this morning. It would have been four, but I can not seem to get consistently well-focused pictures of things that small, so even after redoing the two that didn't work out on the first pass, I still have nothing to show for it. And I have to be at work in an hour, so they'll just have to wait their turn!

I'm in Business!

I have my first items listed in my brand-spanking new etsy shop, dots and lines. I'm so excited, I can hardly stand it! After I post this, I'm off to make myself a button for my sidebar, then probably draw and color more stuff.

It's kind of odd to me that I intended to start with all the bags I've been knitting--which I do still plan to sell--but I ended up whipping up entirely new stuff to open my shop with. I guess the drawing bug has bit me again--I really enjoyed ArtSoMoFo last year, though I'm not committing to it again this year--and when the bug bites, I usually do have to scratch.

I'm still knitting, don't you worry. All six baby booties are done now. The first blanket is a disaster--it doesn't lie flat. So I'm trying a different approach for the second one, which seems to be working well so far. Should it continue to be successful, I'll frog the first and redo it like the second.

My mother, the rational grandma-to-be, insists that my brother will love whatever I make him, and the babies won't know to care. But I want my gifts to be just right, so it bothers me. And I still have until January to get this all done!

Progress Has Been Made

I thought of a name. I registered as a seller. I made a banner, wrote up and posted my bio and store policies.

Now, I'm waiting on the camera dock. A little investigating showed me that the holdup is so incredibly silly--the damn thing isn't plugged in! I didn't know that when RJ pulled out my tower to put in the new power supply, some of my trailing bits and pieces hooked up to the back didn't get reconnected.

I should very well have pictures for tomorrow's YPF post, and my first items might very well go in the shop tonight. If not tonight, then likely over the weekend.

Yes, I will tell you my shop name...once there's something in it!

Arrrrrgh

Camera trouble, computer trouble, car trouble, money trouble....

These are the things that make me not want to blog. I don't want to whine. So I won't.

The money trouble just bad enough to have me worried without throwing me into constant panic attacks. I'm revisiting the Etsy idea with more enthusiasm now, but I don't want to get myself too excited, because there's the distinct possibility that once I get up and running, I won't make any money anyway.

That said, I purchased a composition notebook today, one of the sturdy ones since I couldn't find a real ledger, and wrote down in the book that I had bought the book. My business exists now--it's my first business expense.

The funny thing is, the stumbling block before was my fear of paperwork--now it's that I don't have a name, and can't think of one for the life of me! (My darling husband, being the Simpsons afficiando that he is, immediately suggested Flancrest Enterprises. Uh.....no.)

I'm all ready to start making my banner for the shop, and setting stuff up, and taking a million pictures of what I have ready to sell until I get good ones.....but I have no name!!!!

And, I still have to figure out why my camera dock isn't working. The camera, at least, seems to be just fine. Hmph.