I guess I've been psyching myself out for the holiday season, because the past few weeks have all been about making changes and progress towards being the best I can for the holidays.

Some of that includes:

• Planning a general reshoot.  I noticed a bunch of my former 'okay' pictures really need to be redone.
• Making an effort to finish socks, rather than just putting them in my final touches basket.
• Adding pictures of my packaging to listings with an empty photo slot.
• Cutting out a bunch of paper for sock sleeves.
• Making repeats of current listings, so I can relist immediately or fulfill custom orders.
• Trying to knock out some of my personal projects before the end of the month.
• Planning my purchases for the holidays, so that I'm not in a rush on the gift giving front when orders pick up.

I also think I've settled on a supply order, so I plan on making that in the next few days.  Yarny goodness is so inspiring and motivating!

I don't use twitter very often; but, when I do, it's usually clicking a share button on etsy or on a blog.  I'm frequently too lazy to do much more than click, which made me realize that I'm probably limiting how often my blog posts get mentioned by not having a 'share' feature up front and at the ready.
So, I've been adding the share utility to the bottom of each of my posts.  I've already got it set up to automatically add them to new posts, but it'll be slow, tedious work to go back through all of my posts and add them.  Since some of my older articles get traffic, it's worth it.

For those of you not using blogger as your blog utility, check out AddThis.  It's super easy peasy to set up, and you can even get info about your clicks.

Knitwear is a cool-weather thang.  It just is, by nature, by assumption.  It's now August, and I know the last thing on most people's minds is Christmas, Hanukkah, or anything 'holiday'.

Well, for most knitters, preparation for The Season started months ago.  Ramping up on general shop listings, creating seasonal items, and moving back over to heavier knits and warm cuddly things.  Yes.  Knitting in August.  Yes.  Knitting when it's 105F outside.  It really is a special kind of madness.

My family celebrates Chrismukkah (my mom's Jewish, my dad is secular Protestant), and I planned on creating stockings for a few couples.  I started about a month and a half ago on this stocking, and finally sat down and knit it out today.  It only took me about two hours, so I have no idea why I've put it off for so long.  But there you have it.

As you can see, I changed tension after the cuff.  I'm going to try fulling it a bit before I work on the embroidery (holly leaves and berries), but will have to rip it out, if it doesn't tighten up any more.  I love it and plan on starting the second in a few hours.

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been making an effort to turn over my stash, and trying use up more yarn than I usually do before making another purchase. I've gotten to the point, now, where I'm down to a few colors of my stock tabi yarn, and I'm trying to decide how to proceed.

I've been trying to fill my shop for the holiday season, but it's tough to feel motivated to do that when things are soooo sloooow during the anti-knit season. I've been sticking with it, making breaks for my own projects and experiments, trying not to burn out, and have made pretty good progress. I'd hoped to have more listings, but I still did better than I expected.

It's now to the point where I should start ordering more yarn, but I'm a bit stuck on colors, even after looking at color and fashion predictions for the fall. I know I need some more traditionally feminine colors (purples, pinks), and came to realize that I need more greens (which I'm totally not feeling), earthy tones, blues, and yellows.  

I just need to shake up the whole set, and that's tough for me. I've spent the past few weeks poking at the Pantone Fall Color Report, and it really gave me a place to jump off, and I encourage anyone currently struggling with color to check it out. What colors are looking for this winter and fall?

For the past couple of weeks, I've really gotten into scrap stripes for my tabi socks. While winding out yardage for my latest pair ('Firepit'), I realized how much of a dent it was making in my stash and how much old yarn has been made into finished objects.

I usually buy a minimum of two skeins of each color when I make an order. I always have enough to make an extra pair, if one pair sells quickly or another size is requested, without having to reorder. That logic has worked out well for me over the years, but it's also resulted in stagnant skeins of accent colors. Usually, these are neutrals: grays, creams, tans, blacks, etc. Colors that work really well as a 'base' for stripe combinations.

It's nice to see the 10-20 yd scrap balls in my scrap bag being incorporated into new socks, and it's equally nice to see the neutrals being given a punch of color. I know lots of people like neutrals and single tones, but they don't inspire me like contrasts and complementing colors do. This has turned out to be a great, useful project.

Of course, now it looks like I'm crazy stripe lady!

Jennifer of Mewes Mountain Arts is our handmade artist, this week.  She lives in the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado where she's able to look out into her backyard and see the self-proclaimed family mountain.  Always a black sheep, she's bounced from the fine arts, all over the country, and finally settled on information technology as a career.

Her jewelry is colorful and textural, as you can see by her Red Foilage bracelet above.  With this piece, she's combined several different types of red beads into a lovely, fall arrangement for your wrist.  

Jennifer is very influenced by her religion, and has a giving spirit.  For example, the lanyard below proceeds breast cancer awareness.  She's know many people touched by this cruel disease, and is working to make a difference.  She's combined various silver elements into a useful, pretty piece.

I needed a bit of break from my socks last week, so I decided to knit up a pair of one of the most-loved knitting patterns -- Fetching.  I started another project with cables on the cuff a few months ago, and I've been itching for cables since then.  I need to tidy up the cuff and finger openings up a bit, but they came out pretty well.  They're for a sick friend who has cold fingers. :)

While photographing these, I discovered how freakin' difficult it is to take pictures of your hands.  I have a new, deep admiration for all of those sellers who make and model their own fingerless mitts.

Linda (Raedawn), owner of Dreams and Echoes, has spent many years as a visual artist, living primarily in Maryland with periods in Oregon in New Mexico.  Her daughter, Amy, started beading, and Linda saw another opportunity to explore her creativity through it.  She learned the basics and hasn't let go since.

Each of her pieces is a journey and an invitation to explore different styles, from romantic to primal, contrasts, and different symbols.  The piece below, titled The Goddess Protects, includes a well-known character, very prominent in many peoples' spirituality.

Linda has an active, interesting blog, so make sure to check it out.  She regularly features other artisans, and shares details of her learning and creative process -- always very interesting to me!

Don't do a thorough arm workout on days you're working with very tiny needles!  It's good for preventing repetitive stress injuries and awesome for toned arms, but it's wicked difficult to knit with shaky hands. 

Good thing the socks are for me! :)

Apologies to both lisianblue and trusk4u!  I completely scrambled this post up, initially.

Many people are sucked into the world of artists after finding one medium that captures them.  While they may maintain interest, cultivate, and perfect that medium, very rarely does the journey end there.  Inevitably, it snowballs and other crafts are learned and explored.

This week's artist, trusk4u, began with sewing, a craft she's still passionate about.  From sewing, Teresa has also found jewelry to her taste, and it's been her focus, recently.

Her jewelry style is very clean, feminine, and makes great use of colors.  I found several pieces that really caught my eye, but this stately piece made with a mixture of obsidian, onyx, jade, and blackstone really did it for me.  Not only is it a geology lesson in a necklace, but it's something that stands out.

Though jewelery is the main star of her shops, these days, you can still find pretty, functional sewing.  I love this pink batik purse set.  Not only do you get the purse itself, but it comes with a zippered bag and coin purse, too.  Gorgeous and summery!

Make sure to check out her shops for other amazing work, and also keep a close eye on her upcoming brick-and-mortar shop, Hollyhocks!  Now that's a labor of love.