Unbe-leaf-able

Over the past week or so, my mind has been occupied by Craftland. It's a big order that I am hoping could open some new doors for me. In addition to knitting as many hats as one woman possibly can, I've been racking my brain trying to come up with an original idea for the swag bag that they give out during their opening night party. Something that represents me, but is more than a business card/post card. Both of those items cost money and I am not at a point in this little business building adventure to be spending that kinda dough. Another hurdle, Craftland requested anywhere from 20-300 items, kind of a big range, right? I threw the idea out to my Facebook fans and lots of great ideas came back (booties, post cards, cuffs), but they either cost too much or there were not enough hours in my day to knit them up. Then on Friday during recess, it came to me. Knitted leaf ornaments. Whether knitting a hat, scarf, or sweater, I always, always, always end up with a golf ball size of excess yarn. Too little to make anything, too big to throw away. So, I end up tossing them into a basket and hoping that I will find some sort of use for them. Low and behold, they hold the perfect amount of yarn for a knit leaf! In addition, the leaves are so quick to knit up and are the perfect representation of MB by Brigid. These swag bags are given out of December 2nd, making the ornament idea perfect! Here is where I take a big sigh of relief and get back to knitting leaves and hats.

Hats Off!

And finally, here are some pictures of the Pom-Pom Hats for Modern Printed Matter! Thanks for bearing with me and all these boring photos over the last few days. Now that I'm at the end of this little journey, I promise to get back to normal blogging. It is autumn in New Hampshire after all! There are beautiful things happening up here that I am dying to share with you. But, for today you just get hats!

In Iced Blue

In Navy

In Pumpkin

In Raspberry Swirl

In Shades of Purple

Sweaters

I am pretty much finished with my order for Modern Printed Matter, just need to add labels and tags, package it and send it on it's merry little way. I'm not gonna lie, I initially felt a little bit of stress about getting it all done. But once I got started, it became much more manageable. I figured that I would start by sharing the sweaters with you first. These provoked the most anxiety in my because I typically do them on a custom level. Which means one at a time. So producing 6-8 in a shortened amount of time was cause for a bit of concern on my behalf! I'll share the first five because six and seven aren't completely off the needles just yet!

Kimono Style in Shades of Violet

Daisy Sweater in Teal

Shrug in Plum

Hoodie in Shades of Cranberry

Kimono Style in Pumpkin

MIA

What a terrible blogger! I am so sorry that I haven't gotten here this week, it's not you, it's me. Ask my best friend, I can barely call her back! My excuse? I don't really have one. I've been working and knitting. Lots and lots of knitting. I am thisclose to finishing up the order for Modern Printed Matter, I also dropped off lots of new goodies to Sisters We Three in Newburyport on Monday. So there is an end in sight. Not so much. But I am not complaining because I have more great news!! I got the most lovely, ego boosting email on Wednesday telling me that my Pom-pom hats have been accepted to participate in Craftland! Seriously, this was one to the nicest emails that I have ever gotten. I think that I will keep it in my inbox for those less-than-confident-days. So, as soon as I finish up my MPM order, I will begin to make loads and loads and loads of baby hats!!

Bear with me over the next week~I promise to be more present and around. But it might be a bit boring, cause I have loads of finished hats, scarves, and sweaters to show off to you!

Exciting News....

First, I apologize for being such a negative nelly yesterday! Today was a much better day, putting everything back in to perspective.

My Freshman year of college, I roomed with a lovely girl who grew up on an island off the coast of Maine. I didn't love that college, but I loved her. After transferring my sophomore year, Anna and I stayed in touch. She'd pop in for a visit when she came to Boston or New York and I'd stop in for a visit with her when I was in Rhode Island. We didn't talk often, but it never seemed to matter.

In many ways, Anna and I couldn't have been more different. She was quiet, I was a loudmouth. She was crazy intelligent, I almost lost my mind in whatever fundamental freshman science class was required. She was always patient and sweet, I get frustrated and irritated easily. Basically, we fit. Our room was at the far end of the hall, across from the RA, which was fine by us. Neither one of us were doing anything that might get us in trouble. Seriously.

After any performance (I was a theatre major at the time. Listen, I was young, I didn't know any better, ok?!) I would come home to a handmade card from Anna congratulating me. And it was always amazing. It always left me wondering why I couldn't make a marker and paper do the things that she could make them do. Her thoughtfulness always made my day.

Well, Anna went on to become this amazing, famous, super star designer. All by herself. Ok, her equally talented hubby helped out a bit along the way. She started with Etsy, opening her little design biz before Etsy hit the masses. And she pretty much became aninstant hit. Ya know those people that have hundreds of sales? She has thousands. Seriously. And soon she started selling in some shops here and there and soon after that, she was selling everywhere. From there her work started to pop up in trendy magazines that you and I read like Domino and Martha Stewart and dozens of others. Finally, she realized that she was so damn good at this that she opened a shop in Rhode Island where she sells all of her goodies, and other handmade loveliness that she picks from Etsy and other venues. This is where I come in.

Last week, Anna contacted ME to sell some items at her store. Crazy, right? I mean, her store is tops! It was voted Best of Rhode Island and she wants to sell my bow tie scarves, hats, and baby sweaters! I'm so excited and overwhelmed and flattered. This will be the second shop that I sell my goods at which makes me feel sort of legit. Like I might actually be making some sorta, kinda small business over here in my own little corner of the world. Which is validating and motivating and just plain good. And the fact that this is Anna's shop makes it special and nice. It all makes me wonder what our 18 year-old selves would have though if they knew that this was gonna be us at 32.

So, if you are looking for me over the next week or two, I'll be knitting. She wants 6-8 baby sweaters and I've only got one off the needles! Knit, purl, knit, purl, knit...

Exciting News....

A few weeks ago via my etsy account, I received an email from a woman who expressed interest in selling my goods at her shop in Newburyport, MA. I, of course, was elated by this email, but quickly checked myself because of the many stories you hear about people who have screwed or taken advantage of. So, I did a little research on-line and discovered that I was being invited by a completely legit shop who had good press. Sisters We Three opened last April and sells only handmade goods and many of their artisans are local. In the midst of coordinating a showing with one of the three sisters, I made a covert trip to Newburyport to check out the shop in person. It is located on the corner of Pleasant Street and was really lovely. It was filled with an amazing range of goods. It was hard not to audibly 'oohhh' and 'ahh'!

During this time, I was also busy at home crafting and creating. For etsy, I typically make one or two of one object. I knew that I would need at least five examples of each piece that I presented. Well, that posed a hurdle for me. Knitting is not exactly a fast craft. I decided to limit myself to the cotton wash cloths in terms of new materials. Thankfully hats and scarves are off season! In addition, I wanted to bring my fabric flower hair pins, mini pins, baby barrettes, and T-Shirts. I was pretty stressed about all that I had to do. And then it rained. And rained. And rained. I was given the gift of two no-school days because of flooding, and let me tell you, I used them!

This is what I looked like this morning before I left. Knitting and crafting is something that I do by myself. I am not a part of a stitch 'n' bitch or a knitting circle or a crafting club, I give my wares as gifts and people always say that they are fond of them, but we all know that they have to say that! So, I was mostly nervous about my work being judged. And judged negatively. When I arrived, I was greeted warmly by

Leslie who showed me where to lay out my goods and that the sisters would be with me shortly. And they were lovely. Kind and business savvy and complimentary. I immediately calmed. And then it just became fun. They offered me a contract and accepted almost all of my goods with the exception of my baby barrettes (there was another artisan who sold something very similar). The only downfall was that they asked about my tutus and I didn't have any examples of them!!!! D'oh! I could have kicked myself. I agreed that I would bring some back before the end of the week.

Right now I am feeling excited, but still a bit overwhelmed. I don't have enough back-up inventory, so I still have some crafting to do. Part of me was looking forward to coming home and reclaiming my house from the giant craft room that it has become. But, more than anything I feel validated. Sometimes when you say that you knit or craft or sell on etsy people don't think much of it. Today I felt like I was taken seriously, and that was pretty great!