As custom as custom gets

This CUSTOM order just went out this week to my niece and two nephews. I think it's so interesting to see their different personalities reflected here:

The older nephew is very studious and smart. He's only 7, but he wanted something "black and gray." I wanted to make his scarf more mature so I gave it the groovy ribs.

My niece is so sweet - she's into PINK and princesses, and asked for something "pink and sparkly." I had a little trouble finding sparkly pink yarn that wasn't furry too (which she wouldn't want) so I just mixed two yarns together... I made a looser weave and added the fringe to give it a more feminine look:

The younger nephew is only 2 years old, so he didn't have any specific requests. =)

His mom said she thought something maybe in a nautical blue.  I added a cable-knit to make it interesting, which turned out kinda neat, because he's really into helicopters right now. I thought it looked kinda like a whirlybird pattern, you know?

ANYHOO. Whew! My fingers are tired! I forgot how long it takes to create those inches! But well worth it to see the finished product. I really hope they like'em. =)

A merry lil Christmas

I've had a couple of requests for Christmas hats and was very excited to roll out two designs in early November. The first I call Santa's Little Helper, because it kinda looks elvish to me:

The colors are very subtle and folksy. I'm especially excited that I was able to use the Eco-Ways yarn for this one, so it's made of 30% recycled polyester. I'd like to find more recycled yarns in the future.

The second hat is the Candy Cane hat:

Seven stripes of crimson and off-white - this hat is a bit bolder and more dressy than the Helper Hat. It's made with a satin acrylic that I love to use for baby stuff because it's so soft and smooth.

Well, off I go to KNIT more! I've been barely able to keep up with orders, which is good. But I'd like to try to get my inventory up for Christmas!

Next week, I plan on making some sock monkeys, and then some new iPod cozies

(i think they would make great stocking stuffers!).

update

WELL!
I know its been awhile. Please forgive.

Shortly after my last blog I successfully designed my Lil Pumpkin hat, and thought it would be the perfect item to promo for the Etsy weekend sale on October 2nd.

HOLY SMOKES. I had no idea it would be so popular. I sold 12 pumpkin hats that weekend, along with 8 other items. I was back-ordered for 2 weeks! And I am just started to get caught up from all that now. Thus the absence.

Sooooo... I think this experience taught a few things about how I want to run the shop from now on. Namely, I think I will try to avoid made-to-order as much as possible. It's too stressful trying to make and get orders out by promised dates. Custom orders would be the exception to this rule, of course. But in general, I think I will only list what I have in stock. I've seen shops do it both ways, and I think either is fine. But for me (with the baby, and limited free time to work) I need to be able to knit and sew at my leasure and not pile stuff on myself.

You should be glad you didn't have to witness the Chaos that was October. I had piles of yarn and shipping supplies to the ceiling. Frazzled hair. Unkept clothes. The baby would go back and forth between yelling at me for attention or watching too much PBS.  I rarely left the apartment. I forgot what the sun felt like. I was pumping out two knit hats a day, sometimes more. I was embroidering eyes onto monkeys that had to be wrapped and shipped within the hour. I was overwhelmed...

By contrast, today, over the course of an afternoon and evening, I knit one knot hat in blue . And now, being quite relaxed, I will proceed to list it in my shop. And should it sell, I will gracefully bubble-wrap it and whistle a happy tune all the way down Mangrove Ave, where my son and I will dance it through the doors and rest it in the trusted hands of the United States Postal Service. La belle vie!

Branching out

Well, we've been busy busy busy lately! Just as I was coming down from the First Birthday high and recovering from the car accident downer, I've also been busy trying to get my inventory bulked up a bit for the holidays! I've been knitting and sewing like a mad woman. New burpies, new monkeys, new other stufff... haha. I've had a couple of custom orders this week, which I am VERY stoked about. I've made a lot of newborn hats, but came out with a new design this week with a cute little knit knot on the top. It sold in less than a day!

I think it will be pretty popular. I want to get some pumpkin hats up this week for October... Heheehe.

ALSO. Big News: We have just added Origami Mobiles to our shop of treasures... My husband Joel's creation - they are so pretty and so peaceful to watch them floating around... Good job, honey!

Well, I'd love to stay and chat, but I gotta get back to work! =)

Effect of Butterflies

I was planning on staying home that day. But I decided to get out of the house. If only I had stayed home.

I went to the consignment shop to drop off some clothes. I was gonna stay and shop for some new clothes with my store credit, but the baby started fussing, so I decided to shop later. If only I had stayed a few minutes more to look around.

Because the baby was tired, I thought about going straight home. But instead, I headed to the Women's Center to drop off the clothes the consignment shop didn't want (for their clothes closet).

If only I had stayed at the apartment. Or stayed to shop. Or took my son home right away.

If only I had even sat at one more red light than I did. If I had let one more car go by before I turned.

If any of those things had happened, I wouldn't have been exactly in the wrong spot at the wrong time, driving down East 1st Ave. approaching Oleander, just the same moment that a woman in an SUV, sitting at a stop sign on Oleander, who happened to have alot on her mind and wasn't paying attention, pulled out right in front of me. I saw a golden streak of car headed straight for me. "Jesus!" I slammed on my breaks and swerved right to avoid her. And then there was that moment - I realized it was just too late. For a split second, I thought "Oh my gosh, I'm gonna hit her. This is really happening to me." But it was still somehow surreal.

BOOM. My body rocked with the jolting vehicle. I couldn't believe it was happening. The baby, in the back seat, started screaming. Oh man.

I was able to pull over out of the way of traffic. I got out of the car and rushed around to check on my son. He had huge tears in his eyes. His mouth was bleeding a little bit. Did he bite his lip? His finger was in his mouth. Did he bite that? Was it his tongue? He seemed OK though.

A man ran up to me. He handed me his card and said "I saw the whole thing. She ran into you. I'll be a witness if you need one." I took his card and thanked him much, then he quickly disappeared.

The lady who hit me approached and we made sure everyone was alright. We both called 911, to see if the police wanted to do a report. But since no one was seriously injured, they didn't come out.

The woman said something to the effect of "Boy, you sure hit me hard!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "You had a stop sign. I didn't have a stop sign, so I had the right of way." She looked at the intersection again and realized I was correct about this. All of the sudden, it was Penitent City. Oh I'm so sorry. Don't worry, honey, I have good insurance, they'll take care of you, they can fix this. I'm in the middle of a lawsuit. I must've had my head up my a*?# thinking about the lawsuit and just not paying attention.

Yeeeah. I guess so. We exchanged information.We waited for our husbands to come. Joel took some photos. Her car got towed. I took the baby home to nurse him - he fell straight asleep.

The next day we find out she's contesting the claim and I'll have to give a statement. She obviously doesn't know what she's doing. She doesn't have a chance. Every insurance person we've talked to in the last two days says this is a "slam dunk." I am superfluously thankful for that. And that no one got hurt.

But what a drag.