Christmas Gifts

I do believe I posted too soon.
I was asked on Sunday, by a particular person to knit his family members each a scarf for Christmas. Now, let's see, Sunday was the 13th, Christmas is the 25th. My very basic math tells me that makes TWELVE days to knit SEVEN scarves.
I may be crazy, but I started yesterday, and I'm almost done the first. It is knit out of Phentex "Fashion Twenty-three" in the seasonally-appropriate "Icicle White" colourway. I got this at Zellers
The next one will be In Lion Homespun, I can't remember the name of the colour, but it's a wonderful blue. Pictures of that one will come when I start it.
I have two scarves that I made recently out of Wool Ease T&Q that will be used. They were supposed to go to Made In Windsor, but are appropriate for the recipients.
Pictures of all of these will happen as soon as they arrive in my inbox. I took a couple pictures with my cell phone, and it's terribly slow sending photos.

I FINALLY got some of my dishcloths to Made In Windsor today. I sent in fourteen to be sold, and an other eight or so to be given away as gifts, or in gift baskets or whatever. They were significantly smaller than the other cloths, and I would have felt bad charging for them.

Thinking about using Ravelry

I signed up for Ravelry quite some time ago, but I rarely use it.
I do sign in when I want to see some patterns, and when I want to look at yarn, but I don't have my stash listed, or things I'd like to knit, nor do I use any of the other features that I am not even sure if they exist.I am thinking of starting to use it for those purposes in the near future. Stash more than anything. I never know what I have, and what I need to get when the sales at Michael's are on. Also, when I get requests for custom items, I would like to know if I have the require yarn "in stock", so to speak. This would save me a lot of time, simply by eliminating extra trips to the yarn store, or wasting time online looking for yarn that may be out of my budget.
I do have some issues with Ravelry though, and it's not the site itself, but me and my stash. I am given a lot of yarn that is not a full skein, is missing its label or is otherwise difficult, if not impossible, to identify. Also, I am often without camera, so I wouldn't be able to photograph the yarn to add it to my stash. Lastly, I rarely, if ever, use patterns. This could make things sort of goofy when I use the yarn, and have no way of recording how or when it was used.
Maybe I'm complicating things, and Ravelry is much simpler than this. Like I said, I haven't really used the site. What are your thoughts on Ravelry?

My first Adgitize payout!

Recently, I started advertising with Adgitize. I have been a member since May, but I've not placed an ad until November 23rd.
I've seen a spike in traffic ever since. The number of comments on here has gone up. My ad revenue (through Adgitize, and other sources) has increased greatly.
I can't recommend Adgitize enough!

Just a few days ago, I got my first payout from them.
They deposit into PayPal after you earn $10, or send you a cheque after $50. I chose the PayPal deposit because I often make online purchases, and PayPal can be difficult when you are transferring from a Canadian bank account.
As you can see, I earned $10.18, around half of that was earned since I started advertising.
If I can make back at least my $24 investment, I will likely continue to advertise through them. Their system is incredibly simple to use, any questions that are sent in are answered promptly (as little as an hour, in my experience!) and there is a high likelihood of earning a fair bit of money!
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask! I will answer them in the comments.
Please note that I included my referral code in this post. If you do sign up, please do use it!

Knitting Machine Yarn

My mom was recently given a large bag of cones of knitting machine yarn. A woman who was friends with both of my maternal grandparents had it sitting in her basement for a while. She heard through the grapevine that I knit items for charity, and wanted to give me the yarn. (I haven't been doing as much charity knitting lately, but I have been trying to do some.)
I am trying to think of what I could make out of this yarn. So far, nothing has come to mind because it is so fine.
My other option is to donate the yarn to Blankets 4 Canada, to see if they can use it. I know that in the past, machine yarn has been used, held double, or even triple, to make some of the squares.
If you were given about 15 cones of knitting machine yarn, what would you make? (If you didn't have access to a knitting machine, of course.)

More cotton yarn

I bought more cotton yarn a couple days ago. Like I said a couple days ago, I knit dishcloths all the time. I got two 340 gram skeins of Bernat Handicrafter from Zellers. The first is Lazy Daisy, and the second is Summer Splash (Actually quite a bit lighter, and more yellow, in person)

I've already made a couple cloths out of the Summer Splash. I'm planning on having at least three done to bring into Made In Windsor, at some point this week.
Between working two jobs (I got a second job a couple weeks ago. I know I should have shared sooner!) a social life, boyfriend and taking care of my apartment, I don't have a ton of knitting time. I have been trying to knit more while on the internet, and on the bus, but sometimes, I just want to sit still for a while.
Do you ever get that? Where you just don't WANT to knit? (or crochet? or sew? or do any other craft?)

I Love Etsy!

I don't sell on Etsy, yet, but I do love the whole idea of it. I am hoping to open a shop in the new year!
I have mentioned my I Love Etsy blog on here a few times before, but never really explained what it's about.
I use Tumblr as a blogging platform. Rick got me into it a few months back, and it is an addiction. I have it set to update every 3 hours. I occasionally post more often, but the minimum is every 3 hours. I am hoping to get that to every 2 hours by the new year, and every hour by the 1 year mark.
I often use the search feature on Etsy to look up random words that pop in my head. I will pick an item or two with that word to put on the blog. I also post a topic in the Promotions forum almost every day. I ask people to post ONLY the URL of their shop, or an other shop they think should be promoted. I get quite a few comments every time I post.
This has become a slight problem.
It seems that the majority of people promoting their shop in the forums are people with an inferior product, or inferior photographs. I have seen some amazing items for sale that I would have loved to promote if it weren't for the terrible photos. I have also seen some terrible products with fantastic photographs. Only a few have been able to reach both of those.
I am not pointing fingers here. I am a terrible photographer, one of the reasons there are next to no pictures on this blog that I have taken. Etsy sellers really should follow the advice of so many others. Take better photographs! Sometimes, it's as simple as using a different background. Other times, a tripod should be used (I have seen a few blurry photos floating around Etsy lately)

All this being said, I want to help out as many sellers as possible. If you sell on Etsy, leave your shop URL in the comments on this post. I also welcome the URLs of any of your favourite shops. Please keep in mind that I try to get a variety of sellers and items on there.
Thanks!

Preparing for the holidays

I don't feel the pressure to knit Christmas presents for anyone.
I do knit a few gifts for the holidays, but usually, I buy gift cards and some candy for all my gift recipients. I know I should try to buy handmade, but not everyone is into that movement as much as I am.
Once the craft shows are done, I don't have a whole lot of motivation to knit for others.
There is also the pressure of making something they will use and enjoy. I don't want to spend a few hours on a scarf, only to have it tossed aside by the recipient because it's not quite the right shade of blue.
This being said, I LOVE knitting dishcloths as gifts! Well, I love knitting dishcloths in general. I don't know if it's the natural feel of cotton and bamboo needles, or knowing that they are a useful item, or something else entirely.
I just finished a set of five for my boyfriend's mom, in blue and white. I have a few short bits of yarn left, and I may try to make a log cabin cloth with some of it.
I am planning on bundling a few cloths together with a piece of yarn in the same colour I used to knit them and give them as gifts. I also plan on selling them at Made In Windsor after the holidays.
The only issue, is that I don't know how many cloths is enough for a bundle.
I was thinking three would be sufficient, but I've had a couple people suggest 8. Their logic is one for each day of the week, plus an extra to have on laundry day. This makes sense, but seems like a lot of cloths to have.
What do you think? How many dishcloths should be in a package? Three? Five? Eight? Give me your suggestions and justifications.

Any long-time followers may remember this picture from waaay back when I started this blog. In a post all about dishcloths I was working on at the time.

Welcome Adgitizers!

Welcome to my blog. For those who have been here before, welcome back!
I invite you to have a look around my blog, comment on any posts you enjoy and feel free to ask questions!

I started my Adgitize campaign on November 23 2009, and so far, it has brought me a fair bit of traffic. If I do well with this campaign, I plan on renewing when it is done.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me, as an Adgitizer or a blogger, please leave them here, along with a way for me to contact you, and I will answer you as promptly as possible.

A Knitting Video I Found on YouTube

I found this while browsing YouTube a little while ago. I knew I needed to share it here.

Working at Made In Windsor

I'm currently sitting and working at Made In Windsor, knitting a dishcloth for a Christmas gift.
This is one of the best, most inspiring places for me to knit. I am surrounded by other hand crafted items, there are wonderful smelling candles nearby, and amazing local music playing almost constantly.
There are also really neat classes going on almost every week. I've taken a couple of them, and made some really neat stuff.
This picture is actually from the last time I worked and took a class. I don't often wear dresses, and chose to wear one for just such an occasion.
The store is fantastic and has a ton of amazing people selling amazing things. I have already purchased myself a t shirt by a fantastic local graphic designer, and I plan on getting a few gifts for other important people in my life. Can't talk about those, because I know they read the blog!
If you happen to be nearby (Windsor, Ontario and surrounding area) you should really pop in and have a look. It's located at 1465 Ottawa St. The hours are on the MIW blog, if you are interested.