So I made a real list for my gifts. An official one. Unfortunately it made me realize that I don’t have very many gifts done. I had three done but my dad needed another hat and I decided to not make him wait two months for it. Now I have two gifts done out of 12 and luckily 4 gifts are for kids. I’m really trying to focus on gift knitting so I put my socks on hold and I finished a shawl I was working on for me. This is the Lonely Tree Shawl made out of reclaimed yarn.

I used my hand spun alpaca to start this lined beanie. The brown gradient is the hand spun and the blue is reclaimed alpaca yarn. I’m a little more than half way done and I think I’ll be able to finish it this week. 

I felted these slippers and they ended up a little furry. They are a little too fuzzy right now and one of them felted more than the other but it was good practice for the ones I’m making as gifts. 

I started these new slippers last night and I might be able to finish the knitting today. I’m making these women’s size medium

My plan for this week is to finish the felted slippers and the alpaca hat. I also want to make one of the kid’s gifts but I keep changing my mind on what to make them.

In other news, my pattern is almost done being tested and I took some new pictures of my completed shawlettes. Thursday I’ll be starting the raffle for this blue shawlette. 

So part of the reason for the slow down in adding things to my shop and posting to my blog has been that I moved this month (the week before I left for vacation but that’s another story). I went from renting a tiny two bedroom apartment to renting a whole 3 bedroom house! Yay! The issue is that it’s the first time all of my stuff and all of my boyfriend’s stuff have been in the same space. We have too much stuff. There’s a serious surplus of furniture and kitchen type stuff that we are still working through. But here are some pictures!

I finished binding off my shawl and I got some pre-blocked photos. I also took gauge and measured its pre blocked size. I can’t wait to get some time to finish this up because I think blocking is going to make all the difference in how this shawl looks. 

I was able to borrow someone’s phone for a minute to take some pictures! The handspun alpaca is is a gradient that goes through some different shades of tan and brown. It’s a three ply yarn and bounces between super bulky and heavy worsted. I consider it to be really rustic looking. I also purchased some mill spun alpaca yarn from a local farm that I can’t wait to use. It’s worsted weight and I’m going to be making a hat from it. 

I’ve made quite a bit of progress on the scarf I’m making. I’ve used about half of my yarn so I’ve placed a marker so I’ll have a good idea of where I need to start the next ruffle. 

This week I cast on a new Christmas stash buster! I’ve had two balls of some patons sock yarn and I finally cast on some socks. I’m going to be making two pairs of mens ankle socks. I’m doing them two at a time and toe up on US size 1 needles. I might run just a little short on yarn but I have some similar yarn to use if I do run out. I’m only planning on finishing one pair for Christmas so I don’t end up running out of time for everything else. I also pulled out the needles and yarn for a hat. It’s some hand spun alpaca that is fairly bulky and a little over spun in some places but I think it will make a really nice hat.

I would love to have pictures of all of these things but my camera situation is still pretty lame. My phone takes terrible pictures and my camera isn’t much better but it’s out of batteries. I bought it 6 years ago and it’s been well used so I think it’s time for an upgrade anyways. I could call it a business expense for my etsy shop because I could use some better pictures! I’ll figure it out this week I hope because I have lots of things to share.

I finished the blue shawl I was working on so as soon as I block it and get the finished measurements for the pattern I’ll be setting up the giveaway for that. Or maybe I should get the pattern tested first… regardless I need pictures of that too! The last pictures I got are here.

Happy Thursday everyone!

I was hoping for some cooler weather but it doesn’t look like I’m going to get it. I know I should want to hang on to the warm weather as long as I can but I’m done with it. Until it’s too cold and then I’ll change my mind! I work at night right now so sleeping during the day when it’s hotter has been a little challenging at times. I also want to spin and knit all kinds of things that make my hands hot. There is one project in particular that I really wanted to hold off on until it was cooler and I have a good chunk of time to work on it. I unraveled a large portion of a cashmere sweater (pictures below) and I was able to get one skein plied. I took pictures and was planning on finishing up that week so I could list it in my shop. I went to do the second skein and my hands were just so hot and sticky that the yarn was just breaking over and over again. Straight from the sweater it is a single ply of 100% cashmere and it’s pretty much cobweb weight. After it’s plied it’s amazing and the colors are great and I love it! Before it’s plied it’s been pretty much my enemy.

There are a few other sweaters that I really want to get processed and listed this month because I would love to be able to give people more choices. I’m making progress on hand knit items but that’s only because I can work on those at work. I don’t think they would appreciate me unraveling sweaters at work. Fuzzies and threads everywhere! Tomorrow when I get access to a camera I’ll be posting some updates to my Christmas knitting stash down. It involves the orange variegated scarf that is in progress and yarn pictures of what is coming up next! 

I thought that I would do a little extra sharing today about why I have an etsy shop. I have always liked being crafty and I learned to knit and crochet when I was a kid. I would pick up little projects off and on but I didn’t really get into it until after high school when I started to gain a little more confidence in my knitting skills. I also started finding better resources and I saw patterns for things I would actually want to own. Before this I would see pattern books that were filled with dated styles or complicated steps that I didn’t understand. I think modern knitting magazines kicked me back into knitting because there were sweaters in there that looked like someone normal might actually wear them. I think around that time I got the “I can’t believe I’m knitting socks” book. I shouldn’t have believed it just yet thought because my first socks were pretty bad but I felt like I could knit anything I wanted to.

Fast forward to my miraculous discovery of RAVELRY! Best website ever! I was searching for a pattern and I was directed to create a ravelry account and I was amazed at how many people and resources there were. I had endless sources of inspiration and enough help and information to actually act on those inspirations. I think I was accustomed to the facebook thing where people are always trying to find or create drama and I was super excited to see how upbeat and positive people were. They wanted to share but they want you to share too!

At this point I was still just using acrylic yarn because everything else was really just out of my price range. Everything changed again when I discovered a tutorial for unraveling sweaters! It was nuts how much yarn I got from one sweater. Around the same time I discovered that you could dye wool yarn a rainbow of colors in your kitchen for like a dollar. I was officially hooked on finding wool sweaters. I was already a thrift store shopper but now I was a thrift store shopper with a purpose.

I quickly ended up with a stash of sweaters to use and I kept saying that I could sell this yarn for less than commercial yarns and still make enough money to support my hobby. It took awhile but I posted my first listings in May.

I loved that I was supporting some good causes with my money and using sweaters that sometimes had holes or were in need of a new lease on life. The sweater materials were in good condition but things happen like snags or stains. I found one sweater that still had department store tags on it but had a huge coffee stain on it. I felt pretty good about being able to use all of the rest of the sweater and I used the stained part and stained it more with some tea and made an awesome doily with it.

I think that having a hobby/business like this has saved my sanity. It has been the positive force that gives me something to be excited about. I work full time at a pretty boring job with some pretty miserable and complacent people. I’m also in school full time (I graduate with a BSIT the end of March, yay!). I have drama with family and friends just like everyone else but I started knitting a pink hat and I listed a cowl that I made in my etsy shop so I’m feeling pretty good about things.

If you took the time to read this wall of text then thank you because that is very awesome of you. September is my birthday month and I haven’t been promoting much lately so I’m starting a 20% off coupon code for everything in my shop (AUDREYLEE is the code and message me if you need help using it!). If you buy it before the 14th then I don’t have to move it with me to my new place! Think of how much you could help me ;)

So here I am with my new Caffeine High coffee cup! I have been trying to do homework all morning and it is killing my brain. Listening to lectures and trying to start my papers is never anything I really want to do but since my shifts and work changed I really only have today to get it done. I made a cup of coffee in my new cup to help me get through it and I wanted to share. I'm in my craft room right now and it is mostly a disaster because I have time to create but no time to clean :)

I posted some new cotton yarn in my shop! It took me awhile but it’s not because there is some lack of items to list. It’s mostly because it takes a lot of time to prepare the yarn and it can take several tries to get some decent pictures. I’m a knitter who isn’t much of a photographer ;) I have more green cotton and lots of white cotton that I’m getting ready to list as well as some hand knit items. After all of the cashmere I've sold I need to start working on that as well. Follow me on twitter to find out when new items are listed!

I kept saying that I should walk to the post office when I’m only shipping one package but I kept finding reasons to drive there instead. Maybe it was other errands or it was too hot but today I had no excuses! I only had one package to ship, I woke up before it got too hot, and I did all of my errands yesterday. It felt really good to get a little exercise first thing in the morning. It also felt good to not be stuck in the line of people trying to turn left onto a really busy road. I’ve had two orders so far in the month of August (which is 2 more than I had in the whole month of July). I’m working on getting some cotton ready to post but it’s hard to find the time to prepare yarn, especially with my craft room in shambles from the last round of moving stuff in and out. My goal is to double the number of listings I have by September so that I have enough inventory for the holiday shopping season. It’s an ambitious goal though! Let’s see how I do.