pooled knits

Have you ever knitted with a hand painted yarn and didn't care for the way the colors pooled? Unless you fuss with the yarn, it's a fact that it's going to happen.  Last July I went to a class at Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon.  It was a class on how to work the pooling to your benefit. If you're a member of Ravelry, here's a link to the group Pooled Knits.

It is amazing the results these ladies are getting with a little planning.  With a little preliminary swatching you can turn the pooling into gorgeous argyle or lace scarves with beautiful stripes. Rainbow Arches Pooling by Wenat.

This scarf inspired me.  So I've been hand painting my yarn with this design in mind. I'm dying the yarn across the hank so as to create a stripe. I'm trying to be creative in the color combinations, but is has been a challenge.  I know the colors I like, but will the customer like them?  This weekend I'm going to try a new approach to the color selection.  I'll let you know how it goes. You can see some of the yarns in my Etsy store.  Here are a couple of samples. one of them has sold, but I wanted you to see what to look for if you want to do the planned pooled knits.

Ok, now it's time for you to give this a try! I would love to hear about your adventures in color!

creating new items...

I was reading one of the many emails I get from Etsy...  (encouraging emails). One of the things it said was to find your own niche...  I'm finding there are a lot of people selling scarves and yarn...  so I wanted to find something that would make my store stand out...

the first thing I came up with is "felted" lamp shades...  today I posted my first two...

it's a learning experience but I'm thrilled with the results!...  and I'm ready to really break out and get more done..  I've got some more experiments in the works...  as soon as the wool is dry I can assemble and post on Etsy!!!  yeah!

a new direction...

I love participating on Etsy.com.  But I'm finding that my store really isn't standing out amongst the many other stores (I think there's over 1000 stores). This store is suppose to help me raise money to pay for my trip to Slovakia this summer (mission trip with my church to teach Conversational English).

There was a recent email from Etsy, encouraging us to find our own niche on Etsy...  so after looking at my stuff, I decided to make a little bit of a switch...  But how do I do that?  It has to be something that people want to buy (I guess that's a duh thought!)

If you don't know me, it won't take long for you to realize that I love to create!  I've always thought of myself as a little edgier...  love rust, sticks, amazing color...  this has brought me to welding, photography, texture (wool felting) and now hand dying (yarn, silk, fabric).  My full garage keeps me from welding right now (though I plan to change that soon), the weather has kept me from my photography of the NW, which leaves me with hand-dying.

Through lots of trials and errors, I think I've discovered the technique for my hand-dyed silk (I think of it as a "monet" watercolor style...  now I'm working on the colors...  some softer...  I'd love to do a beige, but edgy scarf.

Now my "new" item...  I've got an idea...  I'm using color, wool, silk, maybe even some mohair!  there's texture, light...  something for your home...  I can't wait to reveal it...  hoping for next week...   see you then!

Oh Etsy, where forth are your buyers?

I expected to make tons of money on Etsy...  I guess I've done ok, but was anticipating so much more...  So now it's time to take a long look at my "site' and the product I'm selling...  and to see what I need to do to get more attention...

The first thing that I've done is join a group.  To gleen information from other Etsy store owners...  to learn...  I'm also thinking seriously about taking a class over in Portland from a group I Art Portland, who is associated with Etsy...  to have live interaction...

so now I'm off to learn how to have a successful business...  need to earn more money...

stalled..

It's really a sad day when creativity gets stalled...  when you just sit and look at all the things you could be doing, and can't get inspired...  That's kind of where I am today...  I have all the makings for beautiful hand-dyed yarn...  and maybe even hand-dyed fabric...  lots of ideas rolling in my head...  but alas nothing is happening...  maybe I should cruise around Etsy...  see the wonderful creations being posted...  tickle the creativity with a kick start...  gotta hurry, Hawaii is waiting for me  (this is the way to pay my way!!!).