Craft It Forward

One of the things that I really love about Etsy is that so many of the sellers on there buy from each other. Then people use things they have bought in their own creations to sell. I've been calling it craft-it-forward. It is such a great thing!

Here is an example: I bought lovely fiber from Spincerely. I then spun it into yarn, which was purchased by iWonder. She then crocheted it into a lovely flower that is for sale in her Etsy shop. The flower is perfect for someone to use as an embellishment on a hat or other item. I think it would be so cool if someone bought it from her, used it to embellish a hat, and then posted the hat for sale on Etsy. And then if someone bought the hat for herself or to give someone a gift.

What a great thing! By the time someone has an actual finished product to wear, the parts have lovingly been created by several people. I wrote in another post about the threads of love that connect crafters and people who buy the crafts and how those threads spread across the world. This is another great example of that. I would love to create something to deliberately trace in this way. I have actually been thinking about buying fiber and asking for information on the origins of it (farm where the sheep were raised, etc), spinning it into yarn and listing the yarn in my shop for a low price, asking that the person who buys it uses it to make something else to sell for a low price and sends me information about what they make, asking the person who buys it from them to do the same, and so on until it gets to the finished product. Then everyone who had a part in taking it from the beginning to the finished product would get to see each stage and know who bought it in the end to wear.

This whole process is so much more personal than just walking into a store and buying something. It shows how much care artists and crafter put into their work. I just think that is such an awesome, powerful thing, especially nowadays, when we are so disconnected from each other in so many ways.

The Olympics

Like many others right now, I have been excitedly watching the Olympics. As I have been spinning yarn and preparing for the Cool Art, Hot Jazz show, I have had the TV on, tuned to the Olympics. I have also been interestedly reading Olympics-related stories online.

I always feel bad for those countries that don't win that many medals. I'm proud of the US team and glad when they win medals. I've certainly been glued to the TV during every swimming final that Michael Phelps has been in. I sit in my living room and cheer for him as if my thoughts and good wishes will somehow create a wave to push him that much faster to the finish line. I certainly would love to see him win 8 gold medals and think it is wonderful that he is now the winningest Olympian in history. But, would I feel any differently about that if he were from a different country? I don't think that I would. And as fascinated as I am with watching him finish race after race in world record time, I'm equally fascinated by people like the Mexican synchronized divers who won Mexico's first medal (and only so far) in the 2008 games, which I believe was also the country's first medal in the event. Or Abhinav Bindra, who won India's first individual gold medal ever and the first gold medal for the country since 1980. I think that is one of the great things about the Olympics. I watch and root for the underdogs and feel sad for those who lose, regardless of what country they are from. I wonder sometimes what it would be like to be from a country that never leads with the most medals and how much people from those countries may be pulling for their athletes.

I have been thinking quite a bit about gymnastics. It was so great to watch the elation of the men's team when they won the bronze medal. And it was so sad to me to watch the disappointment of the women's team when they won the silver. Not sad because the didn't take gold but sad because winning a silver medal at the Olympics, a SILVER MEDAL wasn't enough to make them happy. It makes me sad that there is all this pressure that says to them "you aren't good enough" when they didn't win a gold. Yes, I understand that drive to win, and that is probably what makes them top athletes. I also understand being disappointed about not winning a gold. What bothers me is how some of the media is portraying this like it is a tragedy. From one article I read it sounds like the team has moved past their initial disppointment, which is good.

Another interesting thing about the Olympics is that I will watch sports that I normally would have no interest in, like basketball. I just love the Olympics, the spirit it is intended to have and instill, and therefore I will watch just about any sport (I have to say that I really couldn't get interested in water polo). I'm looking forward to much more Olympics viewing and am excited for the track and field events to start.

Onesto veggie pizza rocks

For the July dinner, the Restaurant of the Month club went to Onesto, a little pizza place in South City (St. Louis Hills). One of the draws of Onesto is that they use organic flour for the pizza dough and use fresh and local ingredients for the food. They also have lots more than just pizza, including pastas, calzones, sandwiches, and stromboli.

There seem to be several gourmet pizza places popping up; one of the things I like about this trend is that these places offer really great toppings that you can't get at other pizza places. And the prices at Onesto are reasonable...not overly priced gourmet. I don't typically order veggie pizza because most places stick with the standard tomatoes, onions, peppers on the veggie pizza. Well, I was super excited to see that Onesto offered a veggie pizza with some unusual toppings. One of the other club members and I split a small All About the Veggies pizza. This pizza was amazing! It was topped with sauce, mozzarella cheese, roasted eggplant, roasted zucchini, fire-roasted peppers, caramelized onions, mushrooms, and roasted garlic. The crust was slightly overcooked, but that is exactly the way I like it; it was nice and crunchy. It was really delicious, and I'm excited that I had a couple of pieces to take home. This pizza will not be warmed up in the microwave either. It will get the proper treatment (which it totally deserves) and be warmed up in the oven. Yum yum!

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. :)