AWWWW..so cute

Wordless Wednesday

New knitting obsession

Just what I needed a new crafting obsession. I thought I learned my lesson when I finally completed the 365 craft a day challenge on Flickr and then when Flickr unilaterally deleted all my photos, I was devastated.

At least with my new obsession, the sock yarn blanket, I should have a product at the end that will be all mine and can't be deleted from cyberspace. It may be a pillow rather than a blanket, we'll see how quickly it progresses. I went to my LYS last night and got the pattern and a start. I made three "practice" squares which were smaller than the pattern calls for, then came home and started to knit the actual blocks. I completed five! This is a fun knit, you make one mitered square, then another, then a third which joins them, by picking up along the side of the other two. Another customer donated a couple of huge bags of sock yarn to the LYS which is a good thing because I have only one measly skein of sock yarn in my stash. I'm just not a sock knitter. It's a knitting obsession I've avoided thus far. And if I had to buy all the yarn for this project, it would cost a fortune. It's enough that it is going to take me forever to knit it.

Here is the blog, The Heathen Housewife, which got the sock yarn blanket started in case you want to take a look and start one for yourself. She figures it took 368 hours of her life just to knit the squares. Did I mention that you knit it on teeny needles, like 2's? So like I said, I may be lucky to end up with a pillow. If you check Ravelry, you will find no less than 923 projects for this pattern.

I'm in a Treasury

It seems like it's been a long time since I've been in a treasury, check out all these great items from Etsy Bloggers put together by LacyTCrochet.

My best Central Park Hoodie

Believe it or not, I've knit this sweater four times. Once for my sister, once for my daughter, and once for myself. This fourth sweater is for my daughter in law. I like it so much, I may just have to make another sometime.

Pattern: Central Park Hoodie
Yarn: Cascade 220 super wash
Knit in size 36, but with size 7 rather than 8 needles to make it about a size 33

A Banner Week

This week, I passed 300 sales in my Etsy shop! I took a screen shot to post here, but just noticed that it doesn't show the completed sales. Now that I'm at 301 sales, it hardly seems worth sharing a screen shot of that.

I did a little analysis of my Etsy sales data as follows:
First sale on Etsy: June 25, 2007 I sold two items
Since that time, I've sold 227 knitting patterns
I've sold 29 of my hand knitted neck warmers
I've sold 44 other items
Lesson learned: I need to find time to create more knitting patterns. They are also incredibly easy to sell because they can be emailed to the buyer and don't require shipping or the purchase of materials.

Also, this week I had the second of my two glass bead making classes. This was at the local college craft shop. There were five students in the class, and I was the one who made the fewest beads in our two sessions. The photo above shows my product from two weeks' classes. I did manage to make two somewhat odd buttons which was my motivation for learning glass bead making. I wanted to see if it was a viable option for making buttons. I do think it could be although fused glass may be an even better option. To do it right I would have to invest a considerable amount in equipment and materials and I don't think I'm ready for that.