Open for Business!

Hi blog followers!

My etsy shop is officially open for business!  Click here to take a peek!

Here's a look at some of the items I have for sale:

 ...And that's just a couple of them.  I have some other items also for sale at the shop (including the one pictured on the right)  I also have plans for more items.  I'm in progress on some striped arm warmers right now.  I already have some pseudo requests for fingerless gloves.  I would have posted my finished ones on the shop as well, but they were bought before I could post them!  Haha!

Anyway, major thanks to my friend, Danielle, for helping me take all these beautiful photos.  We found a local park and then found some great locations to really make the colors stand out.  I especially love this one to the right of the Men's Rustic Scarf.  I loved this little bridge that was at the park and knew right away I wanted to photograph this item there.  We had a lot of fun trying to be creative in finding interesting photo spots.  A woman even came up to me asking about the Green Twist Infinity Scarf.  There was a kids' soccer game going on at the same park, so I'm sure it was eye-catching to see two girls carrying a dress form all around.

Lola (yes, I named my dress form) was the best prop.  We had a lot of fun taking photos near random signs.  We already have big plans for taking photos with some old soda pop signs and highway entrances.  I think they would actually be kind of cool if we could pull them off.  But that's for another day....

Vote! Keep or Unravel?

Hey everyone!  I need some help.  I recently finished this scarf, but I'm not sure whether or not to keep it as is and sell it or unravel and make something new. 

Here's my story:  I started this scarf a while back.  Originally, I was doing a simple 2x2 rib, but then I found this awesome pattern and decided to make myself a baby alpaca scarf with the new pattern.  It was so incredibly soft to work with, and I couldn't wait to have this scarf for myself.  I only had a little bit of time each night to work on this, so it took a while but I finally finished.

And then I put it on.  It was prickly.  I couldn't believe it.  The softest yarn I had ever worked with, and it was prickly on my neck.  I didn't have the heart to undo it because it was so incredibly pretty, so I decided to hold onto it until I found some other project to use the yarn for.

I started making fingerless gloves with my gray baby alpaca yarn and absolutely love them.  The yarn is perfect for them and I have already worn my pair several times.

So now I'm at a crossroads.  Do I unravel the purple scarf and make some more fingerless gloves, or do I keep it as a finished scarf and try to sell it?  I obviously can't wear it, but I've met and read about several people that really love it as scarf material.  I suppose my neck is just a bit more sensitive.  Anyway, I'm still deciding, and could use some outside opinions. 

What do you think?  Keep or Unravel?

Knit Trends for Fall

It's officially fall!  I think I've been saying that every day for the last 2 weeks or so.  So happy!  Not that you would know it in California.  We had a heat wave for a while.  Luckily, the weather finally started to turn this week.  There are leaves on the ground, all brown and orange colored.  It's magnificent.  Not quite an east coast fall, but good enough for me!


Anyway, I've been knitting away like crazy because I'm getting ready to open my own etsy shop!  Actually, I knit like crazy anyway, and that's more the reason why I'm opening the shop, haha.  Anyway, I was super excited to see chunky knits, scarves and fingerless gloves, in the upcoming fall trends, since those are some of my favorite things to make.

I've been looking at photos from the recent fall collection shows from Milan, Paris and New York.  I've been noticing all these great knit details like shoulder wraps, chunky scarves and "snoods".  All from the likes of Marc Jacobs, Chanel, Oscar de la Renta and many others.

One of the other trends I've noticed becoming really popular this season from all the runway shows is gloves!  Leather, metallics, knits.  Lots and lots of gloves.  I just started getting into knitting fingerless gloves.  I didn't think that I would like them as much as I do, but after some complications with my baby alpaca scarf, I decided to find a new use for my yarn stash.  After seeing some fingerless gloves in the Eileen Fisher fall collection, I was inspired to design my own.

Another specific knit trend I noticed is detail.  Lots of cables and specialized stitches - seed stitch, honeycomb, ribs, etc.

I enjoyed seeing some knit trends listed in Lauren Conrad's October Style Tips.  She's definitely one of my favorite everyday style icons. 

Seeing all these photos has provided me with lots of inspiration for new projects I want to finish.

I end up with so many finished projects, I don't know what to do with all!  I've been working on Christmas gifts all year, and now I'm building a collection to sell at my work's craft fair, and like I said, online.  I'll be posting a link to my store on here the same day it launches, but for now you'll just have to sit tight with some sneak peeks at what I am working on and have finished for the fall.  I just sold my first scarf of the season.  It was a great start to autumn!

Here's a sneak peek at what I've been working on and what you can expect to see in my store when it opens later this month:

 

 Happy October! :)