Stitch Pattern Week 9 & Expanding the Store

Drumroll please….Here comes Stitch Pattern Week 9! The Linen Stitch!

The Linen Stitch

This week has seemed ridiculous, it just won’t slow down! I feel a tad bit guilty doing the Linen Stitch because I use this all the time. With a little Sugar and Cream yarn this makes the perfect face cloth! I probably have a dozen of these in my bathroom closet and use them everyday. I love the idea of being able to use something I make on a daily basis, I also love that the things that I make will always outlast anything that I can buy in a big box store. These are so simple to knit up and they never die! If they start to look a little grungy I just put them in with the cleaning rags and they get to live another life. They are also excellent for polishing silver, don’t ask me why…just one of the great things about knitted stitches!

Playing with Light

The Linen Stitch

Ahh..Bumpy!

Playing this some more light.

Alright GG, it’ll be a quick on today won’t it?

co odd – Cast on any number of Odd Stitches (Aces!)

r1 cor k then  sl yth k, rep – Row 1: (RS) K1 *Sl1 wyif, K1; rep from * to end of row. (I think the yarn towards heart (yth) is really starting to grow on me.)

r2wrg k p  then slp away k rep til end k – Row 2: (WS) K1, P1 *Sl1 wyib, K1; rep from * to last stitch, K1 (The wrg caught me a little off guard but like I said, I know this stitch backward and forward. I wonder if other women she knitted with wrote patterns like this?)

 *    * * * * * * * * * * *   *

– Expanding the Store –

I have spent the majority of my day so far right here, in front of my computer feeling my shoulders slowly inch towards my ears. I have added more items to my Etsy store and although they are items I fully back on every front, they are…dull. Dish cloths friends and neighbors, I am selling  dish cloths. I want to say that I know that these little babies will last forever, they are so strong and resilient to anything. Anyone who has every knitted with Sugar and Cream knows that it won’t die. I even reenforced the edges to ensure that the corners were double knitted just so the chance of them unraveling will never…ever happen. But who will buy these? My Panic Monster keeps telling that this too boring to try sell, even if the product is incredibly well made. My great grandmother mades these more than 20 years ago and they are still around, I hold myself to the incredibly high standards she set. That nagging fear of failure is still tapping on my shoulder, insisting to be be heard.

So what do you do when you’re stressed out about knitting? Stress out about photos instead!

Sunrise – Filter Fun

Sunrise- Filter

Summer Sky – Filter

Flower Study

Flower Study

Sunrise – Rainbow Filter

Flower Study

Sunrise – Texture

Bedside Table

Flower Study – Collages are Fun!

Flower Study

So what’s going on friends and neighbors? What do you think about the success/failure of selling/buying certain items of Etsy and do you think if you’re a knitter you’d look at it differently?

I Jumped…I JUMPED INTO THE DEEP END!!!!

I will try to keep this brief because I really should get back to my knitting, not to mention away from my computer for a bit. Well friends and neighbors I did it! I opened my Etsy store!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/AllNightKnits

You can find me now – with my whopping two items on sale – at AllNightKnits on Etsy. 

Also, I made a Facebook Fan Page. It felt…odd. Blatant self-promotion makes me slightly uncomfortable but if this is what I have to do to make a my dream come true, so let it be! Not everything is done, there are still so many kinks still in dire need of being worked out, but it is a start.

I had a good plan in the works that wouldn’t have me diving into this for another two and a half months, but with a dear friend recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer I thought “What am I waiting for?”.  Life is short, and if you have a dream just…jump.

So there you have it friends and neighbors. If it isn’t too much of a bother,  like the Facebook Fan Page – I think I got the button on my sidebar up and running- or check out the store that is sure to have more than two things in it by the end of the week.

I hope there is goodness to come from this, as horrifically nervous as I am of falling flat on my face, I am still hopeful!

Is Blog Envy a Real Disease?

In this peaceful place that is my grandparents home I had a plan. Enjoy exceptionally good home made food, devour lemon meringue pie that has made my grandmother infamous, catch up on some reading and sit outside and knit. The closed in patio screams to be enjoyed night and day and with the deer wandering aimlessly around the yard it was the quintessential place to relax. It has not gone that way so far.

Yesterday after my post I began to peruse other bloggers out there, and then realized that I have gotten myself into something that is WAY over my head. I have seen and read blogs, no, let’s call it experienced blogs that have absolutely blown my mind. They are so stream line, so appealing to the eye that it is hard to tear yourself away. I have read articulate, eclectic, intelligent (pretty much add any adjective for “good” here) that has made me realize I need to get on the ball! Apparently I underestimated just how important blogging would be. 

I should have known, oh woe is me.

So, I started to tinker with widgets, plug-ins, networking, photos and everything else I could think of only to realize I have only thought of about one-tenth of the things I should be considering. I am so impressed with everyone else’s blog that mine just seemed sad in comparison. I started, oh, about seven hours ago on and off and now I am calling time out.

I forgot about my knitting! I was so busy working on this site that I forgot to knit, which used to be my primary focus. But honestly, I am falling a little in love with the blogging universe and hope to catch up to my betters. Which now rates as just about everyone.

Here is hoping there will be a happy medium between creating things that are beautiful with yarn as well as computer code. Any advice? Feel free to leave it, I can take all I can get. For now, I shall remain humbly awed.

Week 3 Stitch Pattern & A Generous Focus Group. Hazzah!

I think I may be that time again folks! This is the newest stitch pattern brought to you by yours truly! Well, via my GG’s horrendous handwriting, but still!

Ladders Says GG, LADDERS!!

I would like to say that I loved my GG. She was a wonderful woman with a heart of gold and the mouth of a sailor on leave, but her handwriting on this pattern made me want to curl up into the fetal position and eat my own hair! Granted, she was in her eighties when she wrote this down but still, my aching hands and head grew so frustrated by the end that I had almost decided to give up knitting for something less complicated, like….oh I don’t know….brain surgery?

Luckily I had decided to go visit my grandmother this week and had the foresight to bring the pattern with me. After many failed attempts, all of which are now cat toys for Maxwell, my Mimi was able to decipher the handwriting and it was all systems go. More than less likely I should have brought  the patterns down with me to be looked at, but I felt that would take the challenge out of it. Or, I am a masochist. Either way.

The trip to my grandmother’s has been great so far except for one thing; I can’t seem to quit giving my knitting away! The idea behind this trip was to visit not only my grandmother but also to get an idea of what all the women of the bridge club thought of my business idea. I was looking at these wonderful ladies as a focus group. I brought down several things that I have been making and wanted to see what they thought. Of course, I am Mary Rose’s granddaughter, I can do no wrong and I am a genius.

But I already knew that.

Truthfully, I was so humbled by their praise that I just kept giving things away, telling them to go home and test them out. I wanted honest opinions, not just to be fluffed up. That was two days ago and so far the input has been good, and there has even been some constructive criticism to my marketing ideas, to which I am eternally grateful. But leave it to these wonderful women to get me a treat for sharing.

A Bundle of Pure Yarny Goodness!

This batch of yarny goodness was bits and pieces from all of their own stashes, presented to me to make whatever happens to tickle my fancy. I am a lucky, lucky girl. This yarn will go a long way to making prototypes of things I would eventually love to sell, the idea being the more I can make and have tested, the better the end result will be. I am blessed with gracious testes.

So here is to hoping this will go a long way to getting where I would eventually like to be. Worse comes to worst, Max will have more toys than he’ll know what to do with.

Max eagerly awaiting my next knitting mishap. Oh that FACE!