Well, after much deliberation, foot-dragging, and hesitation, I finally bit the bullet and put up a Facebook page. Although I've been on Facebook for a couple of years, and have really enjoyed keeping in touch with family and friends that way, the thought of doing a knitlady page was just downright intimidating. I've been contemplating it for over a year now, since talking with a fellow vendor at the 2010 Benld Fall Festival. She assured me that it wasn't at all difficult to set up a page and encouraged me to try it out.
And so, without further ado, I give you my brand new theknitlady Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/theknitlady. I've posted a few items in the photo albums but still have more work to do there. Also I'll be posting my craft fair schedule, other events, and anything else that seems appropriate. Check it out and see what you think. At this point it is still very much a work in progress, and I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Something to do in my "spare" time
The other day a Facebook friend who knows that I knit posted a link to a fundraising project by Heart for Africa.org. Apparently her sister is heavily involved with this charity and brought this to her attention. They are asking knitters to make small "DUDUZA" dolls to be donated to children in Swaziland.
Here is the link to the project page. It's a perfect fit for me, because I have quite a lot of "scrap" yarn, small bits and pieces that aren't necessarily big enough for a large project but too big to just throw out. Of course it could be a bit of a challenge to fit these in with all the other knitting I'm doing (STILL trying to get a show sample of the Double Hearts blanket made, have 9 Christmas stockings to finish before Thanksgiving, not to mention three more craft fairs in November AND a wedding gift and some Christmas gifts) but I'm sure I'll welcome the change occasionally. My goal is to make at least six before December 1 (the shipping deadline for Christmas distribution). If anyone else in the area wants to participate, let me know and we can split the shipping.
Oops! Time to get off the computer and get knitting!
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| DUDUZA (comfort) dolls |
Oops! Time to get off the computer and get knitting!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
A Long Hiatus and a New Toy
Unfortunately it has been a really long time since I've posted - atrociously long, in fact. I've actually written many blog posts in my head in the interim, but therein lies the difficulty - I have not yet discovered an efficient method for transcribing the mentally-written posts to my computer keyboard.
That said, it has been a crazy busy year, with lots of knitting, an incredible amount of snow (earlier), an outlandishly miserable heat wave (hopefully mostly over now), a broken ankle, and many other distractions keeping me from actually posting. However, I have now set up a reminder in my cell phone calendar which will actually remind me if I haven't posted to the blog for too long.
Meanwhile, I have purchased a new toy - an antique Legare 400 hand-cranked circular sock-knitting machine. I haven't had nearly enough time available to work with it as I would like, but I've successfully cranked out several pairs of socks and am really getting the hang of using the machine. I'm thinking that this may be the year when handmade socks are in everyone's Christmas stocking, although I'm not making any promises at this point.
In May I attended my very first crank-in, a gathering of "crankers" and their sock machines, in Warrenton, Missouri. It was a fabulous weekend which I enjoyed immensely. It was very educational to walk around a room full of people with their variety of antique machines (and a display model of a new machine that is now being manufactured), and awesome to meet an entire new group of people that shared this interest.
Other recent knitting includes the completion of my sixth Double Hearts blanket for sale, and a plethora of dishcloths and kitchen towels. I'm also working on a special order for FIVE Christmas stockings for this coming year, although that project is firmly relegated to "work at home" status since it's just not practical to cart a project around with that many different colors and strands of yarn. Still waiting to be started: yet another attempt at producing a show sample of the Double Hearts blanket (so far I haven't succeeded in completing one before it has sold), two new original baby blanket patterns, two more blankets that I've done before but in different colors this time, and lots of smaller stuff in preparation for the fall craft fairs. Now if I could only figure out how to blog and knit simultaneously I'd have it made!
That said, it has been a crazy busy year, with lots of knitting, an incredible amount of snow (earlier), an outlandishly miserable heat wave (hopefully mostly over now), a broken ankle, and many other distractions keeping me from actually posting. However, I have now set up a reminder in my cell phone calendar which will actually remind me if I haven't posted to the blog for too long.
Meanwhile, I have purchased a new toy - an antique Legare 400 hand-cranked circular sock-knitting machine. I haven't had nearly enough time available to work with it as I would like, but I've successfully cranked out several pairs of socks and am really getting the hang of using the machine. I'm thinking that this may be the year when handmade socks are in everyone's Christmas stocking, although I'm not making any promises at this point.
In May I attended my very first crank-in, a gathering of "crankers" and their sock machines, in Warrenton, Missouri. It was a fabulous weekend which I enjoyed immensely. It was very educational to walk around a room full of people with their variety of antique machines (and a display model of a new machine that is now being manufactured), and awesome to meet an entire new group of people that shared this interest.
Other recent knitting includes the completion of my sixth Double Hearts blanket for sale, and a plethora of dishcloths and kitchen towels. I'm also working on a special order for FIVE Christmas stockings for this coming year, although that project is firmly relegated to "work at home" status since it's just not practical to cart a project around with that many different colors and strands of yarn. Still waiting to be started: yet another attempt at producing a show sample of the Double Hearts blanket (so far I haven't succeeded in completing one before it has sold), two new original baby blanket patterns, two more blankets that I've done before but in different colors this time, and lots of smaller stuff in preparation for the fall craft fairs. Now if I could only figure out how to blog and knit simultaneously I'd have it made!
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Without Further Ado......
This will by necessity be a short post, but I didn't want to wait any longer before posting it. So, without further ado, here are the custom ordered Christmas stockings that I finished for this year.
The first one I completed was the mate to the stocking in this post from last year:
Then I worked on a pair of stockings for two children, which were patterned after the stockings that were done for the parents by the mom's aunt many years ago:
In retrospect I wish I'd taken a photo of the two new stockings alongside the original ones that they were patterned after.
And I'm not done. I had someone ask me on Thanksgiving weekend (!) if I'd knit two more stockings like the ones I'd made for her a couple of years ago. I told her that I'd be more than happy to do the stockings but there was no possible way that I'd have them finished in time for Christmas. So, more than likely they'll be popping up on these pages sometime around Valentine's Day.
The first one I completed was the mate to the stocking in this post from last year:
Then I worked on a pair of stockings for two children, which were patterned after the stockings that were done for the parents by the mom's aunt many years ago:
In retrospect I wish I'd taken a photo of the two new stockings alongside the original ones that they were patterned after.
And I'm not done. I had someone ask me on Thanksgiving weekend (!) if I'd knit two more stockings like the ones I'd made for her a couple of years ago. I told her that I'd be more than happy to do the stockings but there was no possible way that I'd have them finished in time for Christmas. So, more than likely they'll be popping up on these pages sometime around Valentine's Day.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Happy (not so) New Year!
I can't believe it's already the 18th of January. Of course time has flown during the last six months of absolute craziness. I keep hoping that things will calm down at least to a dull roar, but so far that hasn't happened. I spent a good deal of the fall keeping very busy with craft fair preparations and some custom knitting orders.
Of course it goes without saying that the Christmas season was very busy, and just when I thought things might slow down I had to prepare to teach four knitting classes at Lincoln Land's Needle in a Haystack event on Saturday. Although there were huge concerns even as late as a week before that event that it wouldn't happen, people signed up like crazy during the final week and some even registered for classes on the day of the event. Overall it turned out to be a wonderful day, with a total of 19 classes offered as well as an awesome luncheon speaker.
In addition, with the coming of the new year I am back in the child care business in a small way. I was contacted in December by the family of a child who used to attend my daycare (she is six years old now!) and asked whether I would consider taking their new baby. After two weeks I am definitely enjoying having a baby around again, but missing a couple of things like daily yoga classes that just aren't possible with a two month old in tow.
Through it all I am naturally continuing to knit. I'm currently working on a baby blanket for a repeat customer which I'll deliver on Friday. I have a list of 23 potential knitting projects (some of which are multi-item projects) in my new iPhone, most of which can be made without the purchase of additional yarn (in other words I'm trying to reduce my stash bigtime). In my next post I'll add photos of the custom Christmas stockings that I knitted last year, and possibly the first of my FO's for 2011. Meanwhile I guess I need to get off the computer and get some of the aforementioned knitting finished.
Of course it goes without saying that the Christmas season was very busy, and just when I thought things might slow down I had to prepare to teach four knitting classes at Lincoln Land's Needle in a Haystack event on Saturday. Although there were huge concerns even as late as a week before that event that it wouldn't happen, people signed up like crazy during the final week and some even registered for classes on the day of the event. Overall it turned out to be a wonderful day, with a total of 19 classes offered as well as an awesome luncheon speaker.
In addition, with the coming of the new year I am back in the child care business in a small way. I was contacted in December by the family of a child who used to attend my daycare (she is six years old now!) and asked whether I would consider taking their new baby. After two weeks I am definitely enjoying having a baby around again, but missing a couple of things like daily yoga classes that just aren't possible with a two month old in tow.
Through it all I am naturally continuing to knit. I'm currently working on a baby blanket for a repeat customer which I'll deliver on Friday. I have a list of 23 potential knitting projects (some of which are multi-item projects) in my new iPhone, most of which can be made without the purchase of additional yarn (in other words I'm trying to reduce my stash bigtime). In my next post I'll add photos of the custom Christmas stockings that I knitted last year, and possibly the first of my FO's for 2011. Meanwhile I guess I need to get off the computer and get some of the aforementioned knitting finished.
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