2.25.2011

Being Featured

OMG!!! I was featured in yesterday's Etsy Finds!! I really don't know what else to say. It was the first time that I've been featured in an Etsy newsletter, and it's awesome!!

I woke up and checked my Etsy shop yesterday morning and found that the views for my Kid's Leprechaun Ski Beanie went from around 150 to 400 overnight!! I also had 2 "Etsy Order Confirmation" e-mails, one for the adult size, and one for the kid's, and a convo asking me if I'm going to relist the beanie. I was excited, but I hadn't gotten the e-mail yet, so I was also a little confused too. I kept watching and got about 100 more views in the next hour, and with the 3 orders, I knew something was up. Then came the daily Etsy Finds e-mail. Lo and behold, there was my beanie amongst other St. Patty's Day listings!! WHOOO HOOOO!!! By the next morning, my views had risen to over 1,700, 55 hearts, and a total of 4 orders!! It really gave me the boost of confidence I needed since sales had been slow lately. 



HAPPY HOOKING!!

2.13.2011

All you need is friends

Only thanks to all my fabulous friends, online & off, I've made it through the last few weeks. Recently I've been working on a specific Canadian hat (I'll tell you why on another day...) and it has to be perfect. The hookers out there will tell you that color work looks cool in crochet, but is REALLY hard to get right when you make a letter or picture. I needed a Canadian maple leaf and was having a really hard time making the reference chart.  If you're not familiar with crochet, it takes a much smaller grid than knitting because the stitches are 'taller'. So all the charts out there are way too big to use for a crocheted hat. I had to make my own...

This is the best that I could come up with. I was never that happy with it. To me it looks like a space shuttle with lobster claws, but my online friends assured me that it did in fact look like a maple leaf. So I made the hat....

... and I hated how it turned out. Crochet stitches sit on a diagonal (see how the stem is slanted?) so the lobster space ship came out looking worse that I expected. But again, all my friends were very supportive, some liked it, others admitted it was slightly 'off'. One in particular, Ben Krudwig, let me in on his secret for crochet colorwork. I'll keep it secret since it's his technique, but let me tell you, it's BRILLIANT. I remade my grid and used it to redo the hat...

I'm still awed by how well his trick worked! The color lines up and now it's obviously a maple leaf. No guessing, no lobster jokes, just pure Canadian!

So I wanted to write this post to thank all the people who helped and supported me over the last few days. I really couldn't have done it without you, hookers & non-hookers alike!

HAPPY HOOKING!!