Social networking

So I have joined the ranks of the hard core social networkers. I have a fan page on Facebook and am actively promoting it now. There are others on Facebook who will work for you to broaden your readership and as we all know, readership and exposure equates to sales. I am doing a lot of cool things to get people to come to my webpage and comment on my stuff. Now all I need to do is get more stuff out there for them to comment on and buy!

I would love to be a full time artist as some of my friends and family are. I doubt that will happen any time soon so for now, I will keep my day job. But as I learn about new ways to advertise, and new things to make and experience I will grow as an artist and a web personality. My wonderful daughter is teaching me a lot about this as she has a method and is really getting as much work as she can handle doing this type of thing. She then gets to stay home with my dear granddaughter which is wonderful for them both. I never had that opportunity but I am glad that she is enjoying her role as mother to the hilt. I did too, but while working. Both ways can work if you want them to.

In any case, I hope to bring my blog into the ring of my pages and start to network with my readers here. If you go to my fan page and like my page as well as comment on stuff I have up there, you can win a 25% gift certificate for my Etsy store. Not a bad prize. I will give away one certificate a week according to the fan page app that is running the show. If you want something that I have in a different color/size or whatever, just ask me and I will be happy to make it up for you.

I will also be working to make patterns for my quilts as I post them for sale on Etsy. And yes, you could get 25% off a quilt as well. Why not? I have to transition to more web based sales of my yarn too as my dear friend Kathy is leaving Tucson for greener pastures, literally. She's moving her flock to Maryland and we will sorely miss her here in the desert. Plus I'll have to go to the east coast now to be in shows with her. On a bright note, I'll finally get to go to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival which is the very biggest one of all. Too cool.

If you are interested in my daughter helping out your pages, send me a note and I can hook you up. She really rocks and although just starting out, is doing really well with her craft sales. She has a natural instict for what to offer to sell also which I don't have. I make what I like and she knows what people want. So I lean on her for some of my ideas, but mostly I design from my heart.

A new camera!

Finally, I got a new camera for Valentine's Day from my sweetheart! He tends to buy me jewelry but I told him that I really wanted a camera more than anything else. If you have been looking at my blog lately, you can see that my iPhone just does not take good pictures of knitting stuff. The pictures are dark, even in full sun! So now I have a beautiful new Canon. It's small and cute and perfect for my needs. I will put up new pictures soon and be happily knitting away, knowing I can take good pictures of all my new stuff.

More baby wear

I made this out of acrylic baby yarn. It's a seamless baby kimono from The Complete Fabrication blog. I keep thinking that somehow new mothers will want to have easy care and washable stuff. But I don't like working with the acrylic nearly as much as my own wool or even my ever favorite, sock yarn. Acrylic just doesn't feel nice to the touch like merino wool and angora. I suppose I'll have to get past the easy care dilemma as I am a spinner at heart and love to work with real luxury fibers. It does take more time though and will cost more for a finished item. But it is way more organic and everything I do is hand processed and pretty hypoallergenic. I am sensitive myself and am careful what I use to wash my wool with.

This is a pretty color though. It reminds me of cotton candy. It took a long time to knit the sweater, and it's such a tiny thing, only 19" at the chest. I was thinking baby clothes would take less time. Well, OK they do. But it seemed a long time, maybe just because it was acrylic???

Obsessed with booties

I have been knitting baby booties for weeks now. I seem to be looking for the perfect baby bootie. I want to use up some of my own yarn but ended up buying acrylic for some because I think that mom's want washable stuff. This may or may not be true. I did spin some blue mohair and merino and knit some cute socks that I think my granddaughter could wear. They turned out cute. I knitted them like regular socks toe up magic loop which is my favorite method to do two of anything. My pictures all seem dark though and I took them outside. Guess I need a new camera.

I have not decided whether to send these to my adorable granddaughter or put them on Etsy. But I have more yarn to try more socks with. Could be fun!