WIP Wednesday: Winterfell Croeso

Hello! It's that time of the week again, and I have a WIP to show off. I am working on a Croeso, Lace & Cable Shawlette (pattern by Camille Coizy) in Jill Draper Makes Stuff Mohonk yarn in the Winterfell colorway. I had originally started making a cowl with this yarn, but I was thinking about the shawlette the other day and how I really wanted to make it and didn't have the right yarn - and all of a sudden, I realized I did have the right yarn! ;-) So the cowl was frogged and a shawlette was born.

I am done with "Part 1" of the shawlette and have inserted my 2nd lifeline (the lifelines are the bits of pink yarn, which will come out when I'm done but in the meantime will prevent me from having to rip the whole thing out if I make a mistake, in theory anyway...). Totally excited about this project. It is by far the most complicated thing I've ever tried to make. Thin yarn (sport weight) on a size 4 (3.5mm) needle with cables and lace, and it started out with a garter tab cast-on, which was totally new to me.

Here's a close-up of the cables so far:

Next section involves me learning how to M1 (I've done it before but not enough that I remember how without looking at a book for instruction). Yay?

Still loving my coffee bean stitch markers, as you can see.

I'm also still working away on a secret crochet project, and I've started making a Dew Drop Cowl with some fuchsia Queensland Sugar Rush yarn I've had around for a while. It's for the monthly KAL (Knit-Along) with the "Cowls" group on Ravelry. Fun.

I finished my Woods and Water cowl, which came out great. Here's a pic of that one:

I've already worn it once. It is so amazingly soft. I am in love with Malabrigo Rios yarn now. It is beautiful and cuddly and working with it was a joy. I hope I'll get some more soon.

WIP Wednesday - Woods and Water

How's that for alliteration? Heehee, couldn't resist. I am currently working on a Woods and Water Cowl (that's a Rav link) in Malabrigo Rios in the Indiecita colorway. I am in love with this superwash wool yarn - it is so soft and squishy and the colors are amazing. Unfortunately, it is a little splitty (as I've found out with the k2togs in this pattern - and there are a lot of them), but the end result will definitely be worth it!

I have also started a Dew Drop Cowl in Jill Draper Makes Stuff Mohonk yarn in the Winterfell colorway. The yarn is a beautiful mix of muted grays, greens and blues. No pic because I've only done about 3 rows and it doesn't look like much!

My Stitch & Bitch has been making squares for Knit-A-Square. I've only made 2 so far (and am in the middle of a third), but I feel good knowing they will be parts of warm baby blankets. I highly recommend this charity - all you have to do is make a square! How easy can you get?! One woman in the group crocheted 29 squares by the time it took me to make 2. LOL. Not that I'm comparing. I've been really busy both with other projects and with other life stuff, and they say knitting takes longer than crochet (though I'm convinced it doesn't in my case, I just don't get as bored with garter stitch as I do with simple crochet stitches that don't make pretty shells or the like).

I'm also working on a secret crochet project...can't give any further details now but I will post about it once it has been given to the recipient. 

As for the projects I posted about last time I posted in this blog, the Curvy Knits Flare Top is in time-out for now because I got really frustrated with it, and the Liwen Jacket is hibernating at the moment but I hope I will feel motivated to take it out again soon.

A local yarn store is closing (boooo!), but I did get there and though I still couldn't afford the yarn with 25% off, I was able to get a row counter and some jumbo stitch markers I really needed. I am so happy to finally have a row counter.

Oh, more big yarn-y news: I have a swift!

Here's my setup with the yarn ball winder and tabletop swift. The swift is unfinished wood and was the cheapest I could get, and I am very happy with it. My only problem is that the dowels are difficult for me to get into and out of the holes (you can adjust them for different size yarn hanks), but for the price I paid, that's not such a big deal. The lovely creation on the ball winder is the aforementioned Jill Draper Mohonk yarn.

In other news entirely, my husband just had back surgery and seems to be recovering well! Hooray!

And the winner is...

C.C. with this adorable pic of a turtle knitting! Congratulations, C.C.! I will be in touch with you so I can send you the spoon stitch markers. I look forward to hearing about how they work (I hope they work well! If not, back to the snag-free-knitting-stitch-marker drawing board).

All of your entries were so much fun! I highly recommend taking a look at the comments from my last blog post and following all the links. Thanks so much to those who participated.

I continue to knit away at my "Turtle"-colored cotton chenille blanket. It's coming along. I'm on my 2nd skein of yarn, out of 9. Will post better pictures of that soon.

Snag-free spoon stitch markers GIVEAWAY

If you've been following this blog, you may have read about my spoon stitch markers in this entry. Well, a friend suggested that I try making "snag free" spoon stitch markers for knitting. If you search for snag free stitch markers on Etsy, you come up with a whole lot of different designs - most of which I would not guarantee to be snag free, but that's just me being picky. I tried a few different things, and after a lot of effort, I've come up with these:




They are pretty large and will fit needles up to at least size 11. I would like them to be "road-tested," and I could test them out myself, but what would be the fun in that? So I am giving away the set of stitch markers in these photos, on the condition that the winner will use them as soon and as often as possible, and let me know how they hold up.

Here is what you can do for your chance to win: post the funniest/most fun turtle picture or video you can find. The winner's picture or video will be posted to the Smiling Turtle Facebook page, and the winner gets the stitch markers! Please make sure I have a way to contact you in case you win! :)

Feel free to promote this giveaway on other sites. Contest ends on February 9, 2013 at 12 AM EST.

Submitted for listing on Online-Sweepstakes.com. If you know of any other good sites for contest promotion, please share with me! Thanks!

Edited to add: the beautiful dishcloth in the background was knitted by my very talented sister, Ashley.

Hello out there!

Happy New Year! I realize it's been a really long time since my last post. I was crocheting up a storm for a while there, and I'll try to post about that another time; but now I've returned to my other passion: making things with beads. The Etsy store is open again. Here's a little sample for your viewing pleasure: I've been making loads of stitch markers. The spoons are my latest. They are a nod to The Spoon Theory, a wonderful article by Christine Miserandino about living with a chronic illness. Spoons have come to symbolize awareness of diseases such as lupus and fibromyalgia, which affect many, including some close to me. I plan to make spoon earrings soon, and maybe some other spoon jewelry if the customers want it. Also, snag-free spoon stitch markers just for knitting are in the works. (I may yet try to do snag-free ones for crochet, too...Keep an eye out!)

I've also been working on selling a bunch of things on eBay (click here if you'd like to see). I'm selling my father-in-law's amazing collection of vintage hand-carved pipes--he hasn't smoked since the 1970's and has no place to display them, so it made sense to sell them. They are worth a look at my eBay items just to see the beautiful craftsmanship. I have a new admiration for pipes now! I've got 3 up for auction at the moment, with many more coming in the next few weeks/months. Also available are a vintage 1980's Lando Calrissian (Star Wars - Empire Strikes Back) action figure, unopened; and a few other items.

There are 2 knitting projects that I want to start: a Cloudsoft Cowl with some amazing Filatura Di Crosa Superior yarn in a gorgeous lavender color that my mom gave me over the summer, and a basic garter stitch blanket using Yarntopia Treasures Bulky Cotton Chenille in the "Turtle" colorway (not pictured, but it's got green and purple and oh boy is it yummy!). I want to start the cowl at Stitch & Bitch so I can get some help, but I think I'll start the blankie on my own. I just hope I'll actually do it soon. I've been so busy with the Etsy and eBay shops and various other life stuff.

I now have a Facebook page! Please go "like" it if...well...if you like it. ;) I post Etsy and eBay stuff and some other fun things including cute turtles and funny stuff that's relevant. Please remember to "like" each update so they'll keep showing up in your newsfeed. Thank you!!

And that's it for now. Time to drink more coffee and make more stitch markers!

South Bay progress and a 3-day weekend!

I did, indeed, start the South Bay Shawlette. Here's what it looks like after today's Stitch & Bitch:

I would link to the pattern, but the Lion Brand website keeps redirecting me to its sign-in page when I try, and if I link to it in Ravelry, you have to sign in to Ravelry. I think it's silly that you can't even see what the finished shawl looks like without signing in somewhere. At least you can see my version here. ;) (And--hey wait--I guess I did just link to it on both sites. Heheh. You just won't be able to see the pattern and/or finished product unless you're logged in. But you're welcome to click!)

Yes, that is one of my handmade fuchsia butterfly stitch markers marking the middle stitch of the last row. I have one set of those that I've kept for myself. That's right, I only have one set of stitch markers. Period. I will build up more of a collection as I sell more, and can afford to keep some more of what I've made. I do think I will need a set of coffee beans!

By the way, I can make jewelry to go with any of these stitch markers. That's right, you can match your stitch markers! LOL! Seriously, I keep meaning to make coffee bean bead jewelry, but I haven't gotten to it yet. I've seen what some others on Etsy have done with similar beads, but what I'm envisioning is a little different.

I have a 3-day weekend coming up, so I hope I will get to spend some quality time with the yarn and bead stashes! And with my hubby, too. But he's busy working on his dissertation a lot of the time.

I'll be visiting my grandmother tomorrow. Grams has just moved into an independent living facility. Things have been...interesting. I haven't seen her new place for myself yet. I hope it's better than she thinks it is. :-/

If you've made it this far, will you please do me a favor and go to my last post and tell me which yarn you think would make a better Sera Lace Top? Please help! I need some input! :) Thanks in advance!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Yeah, I know, my last post was titled "Valentine's Day." A little redundant. But today, it actually is Valentine's Day, so I am wishing you a happy one. My husband and I will be exchanging small gifts later this evening, and I have no idea what he got me, so I am really excited! I won't say what I got him, either, since he doesn't know yet. ;) Maybe I'll tell you in my next post if any of you are curious!

I still have no projects on my crochet hooks (well, except the ones that are hibernating, and most of them will probably stay that way at this point). I have, however, spent some time on Ravelry lately (I'm smilingturtle on there, and I welcome new friends). I'm hopeful that tonight, I will start work on a South Bay Shawlette using my Yarntopia Rayon Boucle in the Arizona colorway.

That is the yarn of which I have half a skein wound, half a skein incredibly tangled (wahhh!), and 2 unwound skeins. (Is that right, or am I supposed to call them "hanks" when they're not wound yet? Yarn terminology is a little confusing to me.) I'll start with that wound half-skein and see what happens. I'll probably have to wind more, and I hope it won't get tangled again!

I also really want to start a Sera Lace Top for myself. Actually, the South Bay Shawlette is also for me--I'm being selfish for a bit! Anyway, I haven't decided yet whether I want to use purple Tatamy Tweed or NaturallyCaron.com Spa in Ocean Spray. The tweedy yarn might look weird in such an open pattern, but it might also look really cool. And I've been wanting to work with Spa for a long time. This is going to be a tough decision. What would you do? For reference, here's a pic of my Tatamy Tweed:

And here's a pic of the Spa, courtesy of NaturallyCaron.com:


What do you think? Which would make a better Sera?

I want to start the Shawlette first, since I may be able to take it to Stitch & Bitch on Friday if it turns out to be easy enough to work on while talking. :) I'll just need to have enough of the yarn wound for that. *gulp*

On the beading front, I have been making Purple Butterfly Stitch Markers. I am selling them in my Etsy store and donating 20% of the cost of the item (not including shipping) to the National Fibromyalgia Association. (They have not endorsed my product in any way; I'm just doing this on my own.) One of the symbols for fibromyalgia awareness is a purple butterfly, and fibromyalgia awareness is a cause close to my heart, so I thought this would be a good idea. I have sold some already, and I have 2 more sets for sale in the store now and will make more soon.

I also took a wire work class on Sunday. It was a lot of fun! I finally have the right sort of hammer for hammering wire, and I finally got to actually hammer some. It was exciting. I also learned to make head pins with curly ends, and brushed up on how to make briolette wraps. The instructor tried to teach us her way to make wrapped loops, but I am afraid that I'm stuck in my ways with that one, so I'll just continue to do what works for me as long as it still looks pretty and consistent!

There will be a second class in 2 weeks, and I am really looking forward to it.

And that, my friends, is my long Valentine's Day post. I hope you are all having a wonderful day full of chocolate. Mmmm, chocolate. (And if you don't like chocolate...I still hope you're having a wonderful day!)

Valentine's Day

Tomorrow, my Stitch & Bitch group's Valentine's Day hat and scarf project for the children's hospital comes to a close. I am very ashamed to admit that I still haven't finished that one scarf. I'm maybe almost about halfway done. The pattern is really slow going, at least for me; and the Red Heart Super Saver yarn is driving me crazy. It's so coarse and splitty. I think it has its purpose, and I might use that kind of yarn for other things someday (at least I hope I will, since I have some in my stash!); but it does not inspire me to make pretty things, or at least not this particular pretty thing.

Maybe I should've used some of my Caron Simply Soft instead? Doesn't matter now, but maybe if we undertake another charity project in the future, I should pick my own yarn.

I have had very little time to crochet lately, anyway. I am going to try to find some crochet time in the mornings before work.

I haven't done a whole heck of a lot of playing with the beads lately, either. I do have a picture of the Valentine's Day stitch markers I mentioned in my last post:

And they can be found in my Etsy store, here. Happy early Valentine's Day!

I really like Valentine's Day. I always have. I used to throw Valentine's Day parties when I was in college, whether I was single and bitter or happily (or unhappily) coupled. I always felt that it was a good time to let my friends know how much I appreciated them. (And to eat CHOCOLATE. Lots of chocolate!) I've been known to send out Valentine's Day cards to my friends, too, but I don't think I'll get to it this year. I hope I will at least send them out to my family. I have a card for my hubby already, and a little gift for him. Yes, I love the Hallmark hype. So sue me. ;)

Love is a good thing, and should be celebrated!

Insert witty title here

Once again, "real life" has been interfering with my crocheting and beading adventures. *sigh* I keep planning to do more interesting crochet stuff, but I'm still just making that one darn scarf for the children's hospital. If you're on Ravelry, you can check out the pattern here. It's called "Skinny Cabled Scarf." Lots of front and back post double crochet, making a reversible cabled pattern. It's pretty cool, but it takes a while. I've also pretty much only been working on it at Stitch & Bitch. The other ladies have been stitching up a storm, so we may actually make our goal of two dozen scarf and hat sets by Valentine's Day, despite my delinquency. :P

Don't know when I'm ever going to start that baby hat for my family friend's grandson. Maybe when he's about 2 years old? OK, now I'm just being mean to myself. I'll get to it eventually--and I'll make it big-ish, and he'll grow into it. I hope that's a good plan. Anyway, a baby hat shouldn't take me too long to make. (I hope I'm not jinxing myself by saying that.)

Meanwhile, since I last posted, I've made a bracelet to match that cool green ceramic bead necklace. Here's a pic:

I plan to list it and the necklace soon. I also made a bracelet to match the unakite necklace. It's a little long, since I wanted it to have a clasp to match the one on the necklace, and I didn't want to make it too short. After all, I can always shorten it for a customer; I can't lengthen it without re-stringing it. But I'd be willing to do that for a customer as well, of course.

I've also made a whole bunch of stitch markers. I made a set with a Valentine's Day theme, a set with Czech flower beads in 3 different colors, and some purple butterflies, among others. They'll all be listed in my Etsy store soon. Here's a photo of those Czech flower bead markers:

These can also be 3 pairs of earrings, if you'd prefer! I actually had a customer order 6 coffee bean stitch markers because she wanted 3 pairs of coffee bean earrings. The lever back earring hooks are great. These stitch markers/earrings are much cheaper than what I usually make, because the head pins are base metal and the lever back hooks are silver plated. I am a little bit of a snob when it comes to my jewelry-making materials, and will usually use sterling silver or gold filled for jewelry before I'll use "base metal" (confession: I don't even know exactly what that means, besides inexpensive!) or metal plated. (Though I've been thinking about branching out into copper and brass.)

I've also been doing a lot of soul searching when it comes to the jewelry business and how I want to run it and what my goals are. I've been reading loads of books and websites. I bought a book called The Handmade Marketplace the other day, because I'd been reading it in the bookstore and thought it was helpful enough that I wanted to own it. Thanks to the book, I finally understand the concept of "branding," which I really didn't before.

I also need to contact my accountant (she doesn't even know I've started a business!) and make an appointment with a SCORE representative.

Also, I bought a really cute little Sony Vaio laptop for the purpose of watching beading and wire work tutorial videos while I'm actually working on said beading or wire work. I got a very good deal on the computer. Because of the layout of our apartment, my desktop computer is not anywhere near my jewelry/stitch marker workspace, so watching tutorials on that would be useless unless I had a really good memory--which I don't. ;)

And now I must bid you adieu so I can go do "real life," non-crafty things. Boooo.

More stitch markers and some gemstone necklaces

I have been making a lot of jewelry and stitch markers lately. Not so much crochet...I do need to finish my friend's scarf for next week, though! Yikes! Well, OK, I don't have to, I just would like to have it finished by the next time I see her. Better get crackin'.

I made a whole bunch of stitch markers last night, including a special order for a set of 6 coffee bean stitch markers and a new set of hummingbirds and flowers stitch markers. I also made some with larger Czech glass purple flower beads, but I haven't listed them yet. And I listed the little flower stitch markers I'd mentioned in my last post. The picture came out looking like it was on a blue background, which is weird since it was on white; the colors of the markers look pretty true, but I will probably try soon to get pics that are not so blue-looking.

I made some labradorite goodies recently. I love labradorite; it's one of my favorite stones. It's generally gray, with a blue or green "flash" to it. This is a necklace I made for myself:


And with the leftover beads and some beading chain, I made this one to sell:

(The picture above is the same necklace as the one below, just wrapped around 3 times so you can see the beads a little better.) I wouldn't mind keeping this necklace for myself, either; but I'm going to try not to be greedy with the labradorite! The necklace is a little more than 20" long. I've been into long-ish necklaces lately (I probably would've made it even longer if I'd had more beads to use).

After finishing that one, I made a necklace with some lovely unakite beads. Here's a picture of that necklace in progress, in my "studio" (ha ha):

I had just started stringing it when I took the picture. As you can (maybe sort of) see, it's got unakite cube beads and oval beads, separated by little sterling silver spacer beads. It came out to be about 20" long. I took a chance and used a clasp that isn't silver, but that I thought went with the feeling of the piece. The only sterling silver toggle clasps I have are very small and plain, and this is not really a small and plain necklace, in my opinion.

I have the day off tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to working on that scarf some more and maybe making some more jewelry (I'd love to make a unakite bracelet to go with the necklace! And maybe some earrings?!)

What I've been making lately

Time for some blurry cell phone photos! Sorry about the poor quality.

Here's a scarf (yet another Snuggly Scarf) I'm making for a friend. Needed something easy to work on at Stitch & Bitch. This picture is terrible. The yarn is really a little darker and more of a gray-blue color.

I still really, really, really want to start making some sort of a sweater/top for myself. My husband is still working on untangling the fabulous yarn my in-laws got me, but it seems like it may be a lost cause. (I don't know...he is stubborn. He just hasn't had much time to work on it.)

Instead of starting the Sera, maybe I will start the Jewel top from "Everyday Crochet" by Doris Chan. I have some yarn I've been meaning to make that with for quite some time. Trouble is, it also needs to be wound, and I've lost much of my confidence in my winding ability. I'm hoping that if I put it around 2 chairs and try really hard not to let it get twisted, it'll work. However, I don't seem to be very good at that whole keeping it from getting twisted thing. *gulp*

On a different note, since this post is about making things, I made cookies!

They are gluten free chocolate chip cookies. I used a mix from Cherrybrook Kitchen. They are so good! I'd never used the mix before, and I was very pleasantly surprised. I made these for my office's holiday party and for my S&B ladies.

The holiday party was today, and it was great. My coworker and his wife made latkes. *drool* They made them without flour just because I'd told him I couldn't have regular flour! I appreciated that so much. I think I ate about half the latkes, and there were a lot. There was a lot of other food, too, but since I can't have wheat or soy, I have to be pretty careful. I mostly ate latkes and the cookies I'd made, and a little fruit. Tomorrow, I am going to start paying attention to my Weight Watchers online tracking tool again! Really I am!

I made some new stitch markers the other day. They are little tulips made with Czech flower beads. One of my S&B friends thought they were martini glasses! Heehee...That'd be cute, too! I'll post a picture (and list them in my Etsy store) as soon as I can.

A good friend went to IKEA recently and picked up a lamp for me that I can use to light up the top of my light box (so far, I've only been working with 2 desk lamps, one on either side of the box). I needed one that was tall enough to curve above the top of the box and light it up without burning the tissue paper! Mission accomplished--hooray! With any luck, I will soon have brighter pictures. (Except for my cell phone pics, which will still be kind of bad. Sorry.) ;)

Chanukah/Grams' 95th birthday gifts!

Oh, there are soooo many pics I want to post right now. We had our family Chanukah party/Grams' 95th birthday party on Saturday night, and it was a blast. Now I can finally post photos of my nephew's surprise gift, and of the gifts with their recipients! Hooray!

First, a picture of my gift to my nephew:

A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle beanie! I had kind of an awful time making it, but isn't it awesome?! I am so proud of it. Here's my nephew wearing it and rocking out:

Now I must gripe about the hat. (Skip ahead for more pictures if you don't want to read my complaints!) ;) It should've been simple to make, but the pattern didn't give a gauge (and when I contacted the author, she wouldn't give me one), so I started it out with one size bigger than the recommended hook (G hook was recommended; I was using an H) and it still came out way too small. I frogged it and re-made it with a J hook, and it turned out OK. Also, the hat length measurements from the pattern were all out of whack; the length given for the child's hat was longer than that of my own hat, which just didn't make any sense. So I made it the same length as mine, and that worked out fine.

When it came to the band, I started with the number of chain stitches recommended for the child version (still with the J hook), and it came out barely long enough to go around the hat, much less tie in the back. I wound up using the number of chain stitches for the adult version, which made it long enough to tie and untie in the back. I did the width of the child's version, though, and that looked about right.

Other issues: instructions that just said to sew the band to the hat, without saying how or whether to sew it with thread or yarn or if it mattered; instructions to sew or glue the eyes on, without saying how far apart to make the eyes (mine wound up being too far apart when the hat's being worn) or how/with what to sew them; and instructions to crochet all the way around the band, without instructions on how to do that (I'd never crocheted all the way around anything that wasn't, well, round--I did my best, but I still don't know if I did it right).

This pattern was a pain in the you-know-what. My nephew is so worth it, though!

And now, my beautiful nieces in their ponchos, from oldest to youngest:






And here's my niece wearing her poncho with Grams, who is wearing her Seraphina's Shawl:


We gave Grams the shawl pin, too. It was purchased from a fellow Etsy seller, South4th, and it is really lovely.

The gifts all went over really well! My whole family gave me compliments. My oldest (little) niece (the "real" oldest is the 19-year-old, who wasn't with us that night) wore her poncho to school yesterday. Awww!

So, what am I crocheting now that I'm done with all the gifts? Ummm...nothing. I want to make a Sera Lace Top (pattern by Doris Chan, of course) with the yarn that my in-laws gave me for Chanukah, but I tried to wind some of it the other night, and wound up with a tangled mess after only winding about half a hank into a cake. I need a swift, but we don't have the space for it. My hubby is being very sweet and working on untangling the rest of the hank...We'll see how that goes.

Still trying to figure out what to bring with me to S&B tomorrow!


Now for what I've been up to with beads lately...I made these coffee bean stitch markers the other day:


(This picture makes them look scratched--those aren't scratches on the beads, it's just reflected light.) I haven't listed them yet only because I haven't decided on a price. The beads were expensive, but I don't want to charge more than a customer would be willing to pay for them. Dilemmas, dilemmas. I'll figure it out eventually. (I will list them soon, I promise!)

I sold more Autumn Leaves stitch markers, and finally made more last night and re-listed them. They're popular enough that I decided to make--and list--2 sets.

A close friend of mine gave me a gift certificate to Fire Mountain Gems & Beads for the holidays! I'm so excited about it. I'm going to take my time in deciding what to get, since there are many tempting things on the site. Nothing fair trade that I know of, though I think Karen Hill Tribe silver is a safe bet (I don't think it's technically fair trade unless sold by a certified company, but I am pretty sure all their workers are treated fairly and paid pretty well...I really should look into it more, though). Also, plenty of Swarovski, which is definitely a safe bet, as are Czech beads. And lots of books! And tools and things! Woohoooo!!!

Poncho=done, and a birthday full of yarn and beads (and food)!

Well, my last poncho is done. OK, not really, I still have to weave in the ends. But it's 99.9% done. ;) I am worried that my littlest niece will be totally swimming in it, since it seems to be almost as long as she is tall! *gulp* I'll find out on December 11. Here's a picture of it without the collar, since I hadn't done the collar yet when I took this pic:



My birthday was on Saturday. I had a wonderful day, thanks to amazing friends and family and my incredible hubby. I got lots of phone calls, e-mails, and Facebook wall wishes.

My husband got me yarn for my b-day, and lots of it! It's all cotton bamboo from Yarntopia Treasures. Here is a picture of the various colorways:



The one on the left is called Electric Blue, the middle one is Posiedon (their spelling mistake, not mine--sorry, part of my job is editing, I can't help it!), and the one on the right is Dreamcatcher. He got me 5 skeins of Electric Blue, and 1 each of the others. The yardage is pretty good. About 420 yards per skein, fingering weight. Not sure what to do with them yet, but I will figure that out when I'm not so tied up with Chanukah projects. :) Love, love, love the yarn!

My in-laws got me a subscription to Stringing magazine, which I like to use for beading inspiration. One of my friends got me a rice cooker, which we desperately needed (and are, in fact, using right now!), and a book called "Crafting Jewish." My sister made me 2 gorgeous pairs of earrings. Lots of loot for me.

And then there are the presents I bought for myself! My husband and I went bead shopping on my birthday. First, we went to Beads of Westchester. I hadn't been there for a while. I bought some nice things--a bunch of Swarovski bicones in cool colors I hadn't seen before, a strand of green magnesite nugget beads, some pretty blue fossilized something-or-other beads (I had them write down the name of it and then I lost the card they wrote it on, of course!), some faceted onyx rounds. The ladies there were very nice, and it was an enjoyable shopping experience.

Then we went to Michaels. Not such an enjoyable shopping experience. I bought some more Swarovski bicones (at slightly better prices) and some Swarovski flower beads that were on clearance...or so I thought. They were with the clearance beads. There were many of them with the clearance beads, carefully organized. There were many other beads on clearance as well, and almost none of them were marked. My Swarovski flowers were also unmarked. When we checked out, the saleswoman insisted on charging us full price, without so much as sending another employee over to look at the clearance section. Grrrr. I bought them anyway, because I am a sucker for little Swarovski crystal flowers, and because I am not so good at being frugal.

After that, we went out for dinner to a local Argentinian/Italian restaurant. The food was amazing. My husband had fettuccine bolognese, and I had paella. The paella had lots of lobster in it. I was so happy! Then came dessert: a big cappuccino, and tartufo. Ohmygoodness it was heavenly.

The holiday sales are over in my Etsy store, unless I decide to come up with another one sometime soon. Black Friday/Cyber Monday sale was relatively successful. Not bad, really, for a shop that doesn't have a heck of a lot of items in it yet. The stitch markers have definitely been the biggest sellers. I made some new ones yesterday, but I don't have pictures of them yet, so I'll just have to keep you in suspense.

I ordered some beads from an organization in Israel, and they shipped out today! They are ceramic beads made by needy elderly people in Jerusalem. I am happy to support this wonderful charity, and I hope to make some really nice things.

I have so much jewelry that I've made, and so little time to get it all listed! It won't happen before the holidays, for the most part. D'oh. I will do what I can, though.

Poncho (almost done!), Black Friday/Cyber Monday Etsy sale, my birthday, and more

Happy Black Friday, everyone! How was your Thanksgiving? We had a good time at my sister's. I ate too much, of course (that's the whole point of the holiday, right?). And yes, I did go shopping today, but only for about 45 minutes during my lunch break because I had to work. It was absolute mayhem (the shopping, not the work!), but I survived. :)

I'm almost finished with the poncho for my littlest niece! Here's a picture of how it looked a few days ago:


I'm now on the last row of the edging, and I still have to do the collar. Easy stuff. I should be done with it very soon. Then I get to start on my nephew's Chanukah gift, which is a surprise, so I won't be able to post it here! How sad. But hopefully, the payoff will be worth it!

I am really starting to worry that the ponchos will be extremely huge on my nieces. I'd forgotten just how small the girls are, until I saw them yesterday...I know they'll grow into them, but I want them to be able to wear their ponchos right away! I'm an impatient auntie. Well, I'll try to get a picture of them all poncho-ed up at our family Chanukah party on December 11, even if the ponchos are huge.

I have to make more stitch markers! I'm having a big sale over at The Smiling Turtle Etsy store for Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, and I've already sold a few. I'm selling the stitch markers at such low prices right now that I'm not sure I'm making a profit at all, but...My loss, my customers' gain, right?! I'll figure it out eventually! ;)

Right now, I'm offering free shipping on everything, plus a 10% discount if you enter the code CYBERMON at checkout. (Please note: that's CYBERMON, short for Cyber Monday. Already had a little confusion over that today.)

Here are some of the newer stitch markers that I've made:


I also have some other new flower beads to play with, so there may be more flower stitch markers in the near future. There may be some flower earrings, too. Hmmm.

My birthday is tomorrow! I'm so excited! I get like a little kid about my birthday. I don't get very upset about that whole being a year older thing. I just go, "Ooooh! Presents! Cake! Yippeeeeee!!!"

When I went to Stitch & Bitch on Wednesday, my friend D had baked me a flourless chocolate cake for my birthday! (I can't eat wheat, so flourless chocolate cake is my favorite treat!) What a sweetheart. She also gave me a card from the whole gang. 2 of them weren't there, probably because of the holiday.

My mom and grandmother gave me presents yesterday: a renewal of my subscription to Interweave Crochet, and a big blocking board! I have been in need of a blocking board for some time. I know you can make your own, but that would've been a big project to undertake in our not-so-big apartment. Also, I really needed a folding one. Maybe now, I will actually block things like my Queen Anne's Lace Scarf? We'll see! I'm still feeling a little intimidated at the thought of all those pins...

I've recently had items featured in 3 great treasuries on Etsy. Here are the links if you'd like to see them:
Goth-a love it! Black Friday Sale Items in Black!
Red ripe berry colors found on Black Friday
Gifts for everyone on your list

And I guess that's it for now! Please stay tuned.

My new light box, leaf earrings, stitch markers, and poncho progress (or lack thereof)

I did, in fact, start the poncho that I mentioned in my last blog post. I'm still not finished, though. I haven't had so much time to crochet...I've been really busy with the Etsy store. I'm still trying to master the art of taking good photographs of small stuff like earrings and stitch markers.

I made a light box a few days ago:


It ain't pretty, but it does the trick. I bought 2 desk lamps--1 for each side--and my pictures are coming out a lot better. I used this tutorial to make it. I can now take photos during non-daylight hours, which is nice.

I bought a whole bunch of props yesterday, so we'll see what I come up with. ;) I've already taken photos of earrings on gift bows, which was fun. I can really only do that with the smaller earrings, though. I also took a lot of photos of earrings hanging on a wine glass (but you can't really tell it's a wine glass from the photo), like this one:


And yes, these earrings will be for sale very soon (I just need to take some more pics, calculate a price, write a description, and all that jazz).

Here's a photo of the inside of the light box:


Like I said, not pretty, but it works.

I also made new stitch markers this weekend. You can check them out in the stitch markers section of my store. I've got new butterflies and some flowers. I also re-made some that sold. I'm running out of certain beads, so some of the markers may have to be "discontinued" soon, unless I can find more somewhere.

I'm hoping to finish the poncho this week. I need to start my nephew's gift, and make something for my sister and bro-in-law. I'm lucky our family's Chanukah celebration isn't until 12/10...Chanukah actually starts this year on December 1! I'd really be scrambling if we could get everyone together during the holiday.

Update, with lots of pics!

Time for a big photo-heavy update. First, here's my finished poncho for my 6-year-old niece:

And a close-up of the scalloped edge detail (also, you can see the color of the yarn better here):

And a picture of the poncho-in-progress for my 4-year-old niece:

And, last but not least, I've been making stitch markers again (these and others for sale at The Smiling Turtle):

I am very happy with the way the first poncho came out. I'd started the second one with a smaller hook, but then had to frog it and re-start with the same hook size as I'd used for the first one, since it was coming out too small.

I got to go to a Stitch and Bitch last Wednesday! I just found out recently that it meets down the street from where I work. Sweet! I had so much fun meeting people and crocheting. I plan to go back as often as I can (probably almost every week).

I have become somewhat obsessed with Noro Taiyo yarn. Here's a pic of the 1 skein I own:

It is so beautiful! It is telling me that it wants to become fingerless gloves. Unfortunately, it's also telling me that it wants to be a scarf and a hat. NEED MORE!!! Heehee. Luckily, my birthday is coming up... ;)

I bought it (and some Lorna's Laces Honor and Queensland Sugar Rush) at Fresh Purls in Providence, RI when I was there visiting some friends for Columbus Day weekend. It's a really nice store, with very helpful and friendly saleswomen.

Guess that's it for now! I'm glad I got some good sunlight for picture-taking today.

Check it out: my first stitch markers! :)



If you feel so inclined, please click on them to visit the etsy listing, and take a moment to let me know if there's anything else you think I should add to the listing. I'm not the greatest at advertising, and sometimes I leave out important details!

Anyway, I am really happy with them. They are cute and cheerful. Gonna make a set for myself when I get home from work.

I have a gazillion projects to work on as gifts, and yet my thoughts keep straying to that little Mei-Mei jacket in Everyday Crochet, and I keep imagining myself a new navy blue handbag (never mind that I don't even have navy blue yarn). I want a Mei-Mei for me-me! LOL. I'm such an impatient little bugger.

I've also got to work on my Anisette Vest for my cousin's wedding, to go over my little black dress. I am a little nervous about the blocking that I'll have to do on that one. I am probably going to spread it out on some towels on my bed, pin it, and spray it with water. I've read that I can do it that way. I hope it works all right. Anyway, I've got a while to go before I get to that point!

Store progress, and new projects

I am so excited!

1) The Smiling Turtle etsy store has now had its first 2 orders! :) (Both for Bernat Sox yarn...)

2) Last night, I started making beaded stitch markers. It is so much fun. I have so many great beads. I've now made a set of ladybugs, a set of Autumn leaves, and a set of butterflies with colorful bumpy beads. They will be listed on etsy soon.

Whee!