Triumph over toe up socks

Have been poking away this weekend at toe up socks.

I mean i kind of like the old way. It's like driving a standard transmission, there's more action on the journey.

But it's true, they go a lot faster.

Am not real happy with my turkish cast on. it should look more seamless. I may have to revert to sock monkey mouth, or the tried and true 2-3 stitches per 3 needles.

Wasn't happy with the holes along short row heel. But i think i like the finish on the wrap and turn on 2nd half of heel. Still fooling with the rejoin at the instep - make one before the new needle, then kn st 1 plus mo together helps on one side. Need to keep fiddling with the other. Getting close anyway.

Motivated enough to order some new sock yarn colours from mm.

Currently on the pins - Cabin Fever's Jane Austen shawl. My niece has a bd in late Feb, and is prez of the Jane Austen fan club. She's not a college kid any more, but might appreciate a cozy alpaca shoulder wrap in JA style. It's going pretty quickly in chunky on 10 mm needles. My soon to be 18 yr old is the vp of the JA fan club. Here's hoping she doesn't claim it first!

Herdsy

Well, the first rant of 2012 is long overdue. Topic - the herd mentality on the front page of Etsy.

Don't get me wrong - there are many things i respect and admire about the hand craft/artisan site.

But I am really board by the grey love on the home page. And spare me - this stupid funny glasses case in grey felt. Running stitch in a glasses shape on a boring grey rectangle stuck on a hand in front of your eyes. My 6 year old could come up with that. I've seen this un-funny glasses case at least twice in the last 24 hrs. For 24 bucks no less.

And how many times do i have to look at that fargin rip off coffee bean coffee cosy in its plethora of colours. Ok, so you know how to knit a 4 inch strip with a cable in the middle and garter stitch edges, and stitch on a 'super cute' button. Big whip. My all thumbs 15 yr old daughter can do that. Worth 17 frickin 50. That scrap of yarn might be the equivalent of 50 cents. She was looking for some winter income to supplement busking in the summer. I'll tell her to stock up on grey. It goes with everything.

I mean, there's so much actual good stuff on there - can't we do better?!

And why grey. It's winter, the sky is grey. I don't want to look at bloody boring grey. I've seen 2 grey treasuries in the last 24 hours.

And what's with the geometrics. All the angry triangles are aggravating my vertigo. Yeah, i want a whole houseful of what the cuss geometrics.

And i'm sorry that video on cat hair crafts - i had to take a double antihistimine after that one.

Somebody, please, anyone, come up with something creative, skillful, interesting and pleasant to look at.

Come on Etsy. It's enough to turn people off artisan work right at the front door.

Mid Dec Revu

Well friends, this year is showing signs of a degree of fiscal harshness that i don't think we felt as keenly around these parts last yr.

Recent discussion with a family member about how to support my enterprising soul during the pre-Christmas season led me to urge her to buy our books rather than knitwear. Summary - I would rather plunk 10 done deal books in the mail than stay up late knitting pairs of socks.

I've known for a while I have to let my ss curric website go. I've tried to keep that service free for several years. But it becomes more viable to post the lessons as pdfs to Createspace or Lulu than wait til the day i can't carry the site.

I'm okay with that. I have Adsense on the site, and just am not comfortable with how junky the ads make a page look. Better to have content and aesthetic control and offer at an affordable rate than lose the whole shootin match. Shame to lose my site with more than 100,000 hits. But these are the times we live in.

Signs are that Goodyarns will be going more the way of tales than fibre, and that's okay. I've been backing away from this inevitability all my life. Time to stare it down now.

Obvs will still work with sticks and string for friends fam and personal decompression. But time is going to have to be spent on the ink of goodyarnsink. Just so you know.

So here we sit in the eye of the storm for now, waiting for the blustery days of Jan to send us careering into our future... Wish us well!

Yay - local media story about our book launch!

Well, out at Beavers last nite - and sometimes in the hubbub I don't bring the Thurs paper in til Friday. Skimming thru this am, I found a sweet little release about our book launch, with thumbnail of book cover even, inside. Seriously, 6 column inches when there's so much Christmas bumpf going on, is pretty darn good! Just the shot in the arm I needed to get going on prep for the launch.

Continuing to work on stuff for our Occupy Christmas trunk sale. One of my vendor pals made me feel a bit self conscious about the name - until Stan brought home the news that Ad Age last week - so a good couple of weeks after me, i'm just saying - had adopted the slogan for this xmas season of 'Occupy Christmas.' Sometimes I scare myself with how ahead of the curve I am !!! ; ) !!!

And one more thing while i'm all avant garde and everything - just for the record, I don't think Black Friday sales mesh with handmades. Like what, I'm going to crank out Weasley sweaters then try to mass produce the billions people will buy off me?!? I mean isn't the meaning of hand made how much TLC gets put into a few well wrought pieces? So sorry folks, if you're looking for Black Friday deals, you won't find them in my shop. I'm slowly and steadily at work on a few nice pieces for loved ones. Occupy Christmas - oh yeah!

Test Driving an Etsy Mini

Saw a reference to this. Why not give it a whirl...Noice!

Christmas shopping has begun - even for me!

What I mean is I don't sell volumes of stuff. But 3 items in a week is a sign that things have begun.

My thanks to Nicola in the UK for purchasing a simple cream coloured chunky scarf with maple leafs - reminded me that expat Canucks are looking for Canadiana on the giving or receiving end of international shipping.

Had a nice email exchange with John re an HP tie. He notes that gold and burg are the colours of the U of Southern California. Had a great tip about an essay on the value of hand made by Octavio Paz. I have already added this to my wish list on Amazon ; ) . Even the reference put me in mind of the PK Page glosa based on Neruda's 'In Praise of Ironing.' I love that pairing of poems so much - have pulled it out to review when I get time.

Trunk sale is shaping up nicely. Have 6 vendors now. Had the brainstorm to knit 1 more HP sweater in chunky and raffle off. Diane at GYC helped me with the conversion of Alison Hansel's sweater to chunky. If I can shave a bit of time off the making of it, perhaps I can list for less. But what the hey - it's handmade, it is what it is - you just can't rush it.

Fundraising calendars should be here soon. Received shipping advisory. Can't wait to see them. The kids did phenomenal work. Maybe this is a good place for a sneak preview. Good idea. Will upload a pic... Ok what you see here is Holly's dream catcher, blending in the golden acorn idea from the book. Isn't she a wonder?!

Think that's it for now. Gotta start Benny's cereal sogging...

Philanthropy

I find my shop changing complexion a little bit. I think the fundraising activity of my various friends is having much to do with that. It started with Nick's Cwood hospital marathon, then Kevin's Christmas in Cambodia challenge. Discovered with Nick's run that it's much more immediate to donate funds in my PayPal account to a charity thru Canada Helps than taking it off my credit card.

Solution - build up more funds in my PP account to support the charitable initiatives of my friends.

Next - create an item specifically dedicated to my 'pet' charities where all or portions of sales from such can be transferred directly over.

Also wanted an easy to dash off item that can go on a Christmas sale table and become the item identified with that charity.

Hence the Kevin's Kids Cap was born. In Kevin's online pics is a photo of a little kid in Oudong village wearing a baseball style cap. As long as I can dash it off in an evening or a sitting, I don't mind dedicating the funds to charity.

I have one dedicated to WICM, an earflap hat, 100 % wool. The idea here would be that if I make extra and they don't sell, they can obviously be sent out to the mission. For these I wouldn't do in pick your own colour, but stick to the on sale colours I find at GT yarn and crafts. Am thinking a photo of the current working colour at end of listing should do the trick.

And then given my family's history with kidney disease and transplants, I thought I could do a 'kidney beanie.' This would work up best in the royal and white KF of C company colours. Am thinking a kidney/peanut shaped tassel topper. Maybe not all proceeds from this, but say half is fair. Next step - prototype.

Now that I think of it, my inspiration goes farther back. I love Frankie Brown's patterns on Ravelry. She works it that her patterns are free, but you can give a free will donation on her UK Giving Page, which is linked in to her dedicated charity, the research foundation. I see that her donations are up over 2,600 pounds (sorry, don't know the html symbol). So what's that, + $5000? Amazing! I totally want to be like Frankie when I grow up!

So now that I have all these philanthropy ventures I need a place to put them. As a result, my trunk sale idea is going quite well. I'm getting the church booked for Dec. 3. My friends Tye Dye Daddy 0 and Erika are in. We're all getting pretty pumped about it. Of course I will have my books for the mission trip available. More as we get closer!