10 Reasons I Love ShowMeEtsy

1. Wine! So, this probably isn't the top reason, but I had to list it first because not a conversation can be had with these women without wine being mentioned (and sometimes drunk). I love that!

2. Everyone is incredibly talented and unique. We all bring different strengths to the group.

3. This is an amazingly diverse group with huge variations in art and craft. We vary widely in age, style, background, life stage, education, everything, and yet we have formed this amazingly cohesive group.

4. We all have a great time together, but we also get lots of things accomplished.

5. While we may not always see eye-to-eye, this has not hindered us and compromise has been (maybe surprisingly) easy.

6. We all have lots to both teach to and learn from each other. Everyone is happy to both teach and learn.

7. Because we all have different strengths and weaknesses, we recognize the strengths of the others in the group and allow and encourage input from people whose strengths we appreciate. We don't look down on people for their weaknesses, but instead gently tease each other and support each other.

8. Speaking of support...that is also an amazing characteristic of this group. Everyone is supportive of the other members, not just in relation to our businesses and shops, but even with personal issues.

9. In only a short amount of time, we have come to know each other surprisingly well and many of us have an easy rapport that I hope makes others feel welcome to the group. I feel that everyone in the group makes an effort to make new members feel welcome.

10. Wine. Yes, I know I already said wine, but it had to be said again.

Etsy front page, but I missed it

There is a website an Etsy seller set up that lets other sellers easily see how many views their shop is getting, as well as how many hearts. When I checked out that site today, my views had jumped up, plus I had a bunch of new hearts. I knew I was featured in a ShowMeEtsy treasury, so I thought maybe it was just related to that. But the item that had a bunch of new hearts wasn't in that treasury. Well, one of the other ShowMeEtsy members found another treasury that I was featured in, called Pink Elephants on Parade, aptly, since my item featured was my pink elephants on parade yarn. I can't view treasuries at work, so I didn't get to take a look at this treasury until just now. Well, from one of the comments, it sounds like the treasury made it to the front page early this morning. I'm so excited but a little bummed. It was my first time making it to the front page, but I totally missed it. But I'm so excited that I was included in a treasury that is getting a lot of views and that made it to the front page. I haven't gotten any sales out of it (yet, fingers crossed), but the new views and hearts may help me get some future sales. Also, it may bring my shop to the attention of other people who could potentially include me in their treasuries. This has been the best month so far for my little shop...my sales doubled plus I was included in three treasuries in the last week, one of which made it to the front page! Yay!

Dreams of Knitting

As if it wasn't already clear that knitting has been dominating my life, now I have been having dreams about it. I guess it makes sense though...I have some yarn that I spun myself that wasn't enough to sell that I want to make something out of. It isn't quite enough for a hat though and it is superwash, so I can't make anything felted out of it. So I have really been thinking about what I can make out of this yarn. Obviously this has even filtered into my subconscious since I've been dreaming about this yarn and making something from it. The dreams may actually have helped though. I have been thinking about using it with another yarn, and maybe with lots of scraps to make a hodge-podge sort of scarf. Then, from my dream, I was reminded of a pattern I had seen for fingerless gloves using two different yarns as a way to use up small amounts of yarn. So that has inspired some other ideas, perhaps doing fingerless gloves, but my own pattern, using this yarn and leftovers of some other handspun yarn that I bought from someone. The ideas are swirling around my head. I've also been thinking about trying to figure out a way to make a big flower out of it for a brooch (since the yarn is pink), but again, it can't be a felted flower since this yarn is superwash. Plus it is bulky, so it needs to be something that will work with bulky yarn.

My mind is just brimming with ideas! I am now keeping a list of all of the project ideas I have come up with that I want to make. The problem is that my project ideas don't always match up with the yarns and fibers I have in my stash, so I will get inspired to do something with a stashed yarn, and then not get to all of the projects on my list. And now I'm going to be getting my July batt this week for the monthly fiber club I'm in, so I know I'll want to spin it right away.

Last night I finished up a super cute pumpkin hat. As often happens, I had a pattern for it, but the pattern wasn't quite what I wanted, so I used the pattern as a starting point and then changed it so the hat would be how I wanted. I'm really happy with how it turned out and even tempted to keep it for myself. That is always the dilemma...I rarely keep things for myself, but usually the things that I would want to keep are the things that definitely sell. I guess that means that I should always make things that I'd want to have myself, rather than trying to guess what other people would want. But that also makes it hard to let things go...I hope that they all go to good homes!

Of course the other issue right now is that I'm really trying not to spend too much money and instead am focusing on using up my stash. So, if I don't have the yarn for one of the projects on my list, then that project stays on the list for now. I probably will be buying some fiber soon though because I have a cool idea for some art yarn I want to spin. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will turn out well. I've been looking at fiber for days on Etsy trying to pick out just the right color. Another thing that is helpful is that I do have several deadlines. ShowMeEtsy will have a booth at Cool Art, Hot Jazz in August, so I have some things I want to finish up for that. Actually one is a project that I have been procrastinating on. It is partly done, but I have a few more pieces to make for it to be totally finished. Knowing that I have a deadline will probably help. Also, I'm thinking about attending the World Sheep & Fiber Arts Festival and possibly entering some handspun yarn in the fiber arts competition. That should motivate me to get the art yarn spun so that I can enter it in the competition.

There just isn't enough time for me to finish all of the projects that are floating around in my head. I dream of a day when I can spend as much time as I want on knitting and spinning...perhaps I should start buying lottery tickets. :)