Thiiiiings
I made myself a scarf in time for Rhinebeck and since I have before and after blocking closeups, I figured I'd post them. I really love this yarn. The sparkle doesn't translate well in still, sadly, but it's got a delicate glimmer to it from silver fibers.
: Before blocking (picture taken on a bright day on a white board)
: After blocking and being worn around for a full day in the cold and rain. (picture taken on an overcast day on a grey board)
If I had worked it with only 48 stitches on a different needle, I could have gotten a really strong deliberate pool. If I had worked it up at 88st on the same needles, I could have gotten a really fabulous strong flashing pattern. BUT since I only had the one skein, and I wanted as substantial a scarf as possible, I went with 64st and got what I consider a very pleasant small pool effect. Currently 11"x60", although it could easily be wider but the stresses of wearing it as a scarf tends to pull it narrower. I want to do exactly this same pattern again some time, with the Star Date colorway (which is very similar but in the red family instead of the blue family), and get it to flash mercilessly for a wrap. I think it would be fabulous. I also think it would take at least 6oz of yarn, so it'll have to wait until I can get this yarn on cones.
The stitch pattern is Traveling Vines from A Treasury of Knitting Patterns, pg 219, except I feathered the decreases as I didn't like the strong vertical zigzag in the original. The yarn is my Arctic Hare in the Nebula colorway. A picture of it in the skein:
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Oh, and since I never posted what I did for the Phat Fiber Box, here's some pictures. I sent 50 of these:
So they're little booklets with a 2-3yd twist of each of my bases in a fairly random colorway, and a larger mini-skein of one of the bases. I didn't name the colorways in the card, and I need to redo the booklet a little so I don't have to hand write the base names in (and because the url on the front is off center), but otherwise I was pretty pleased. I think it's a very usable sample. They also each have a coupon code for free shipping. 50 was all I could fit in the box. I actually have 10 more exactly like this.
In return for 50 pieces, I got a free box of my own, with a beautiful chocolate lollipop in it as an extra little 'thank you':
... I want more of these. It's a mixed fiber and yarn box and all I can say is that opening one of these up is better than Christmas. It doesn't matter that the colorways aren't necessarily what I like or want. There's so much stuff and it's all so soft, and there's so much potential locked up in these boxes. It's like the best sort of tasting menu. I'm going to try and put together enough samples to get another box for November, and then again for December, because they're totally addictive. Despite how much work they are, they're also fun. I think I can manage at least one more month without having to cannibalize any first quality yarn in the sale pool. That said, I haven't had a single use of the free shipping code yet. It's early days, however, so I'm not going to worry about it.
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A thing I did today was set up acceptance of gift certificates through Paypal. It's a little clunky because Etsy doesn't have a good gift certificate system and no way of directing people to Paypal for gift certificates, but I can do things like put a button here:
Yeah, not very pretty. But since I have no place to *put* one, I didn't bother trying to figure out how to personalize it. I figure I'll mostly be emailing people the url if there's any interest.
The good thing about Paypal gift certificates is that I can keep track of them. And they should be useable in both of my Etsy shops because it's linked to my account through my email address, and not the shop url. Another thing I actually like is that the funds are not useable by me until someone buys something. So there will never be a situation where I need to refund part or all of a gift certificate but have already spent the money. Paypal's terms are also consistent with the minimum time frames I have to consider with state laws, so I'm compliant there, too. So the bookkeeping is easier, Paypal keeps track of it independently of me, and it's automated. Seems worth the slight inconvenience of having to email people the link.
So, busy busy busy. Winding yarn and dyeing up yarn and trying to keep track of what I need to dye up in order to have samples to ship no later than Nov. 2. We'll see.