Top Entrecard Droppers for June

Today's the last day of June, so I'd like to thank my top five droppers for the month:

My gypsygoods
Funky Town Disco Music
Split Rock Ranch
Lohman Trading
BMWF1Blog

And let you all know that This Girl's Bookshelf, my reading and book review blog, is now dropping Entrecards. Both Entrecard and Adgitize are now on that blog, same as this one.

Happy July and have a good holiday weekend!

~Joyuna

Finished Canary Kiila Socks

Warm... fuzzy... cabled and pretty. ^^ I love my new socks!

Ravelry page

These are the SKA Mystery Sock pattern by Yarnissima, named Kiila (Finnish for 'gusset'). I started them last month and finished them last night, in my hand-dyed cashmerino sock yarn Palladium, in the colorway Canary's Song. I love the way it knit up.

I normally don't like to do cables, but the minicables in this pattern were a cinch. The toe-up gusset heel flap fits great, and the gusset looks great to boot. The pattern was just interesting enough to hold my attention, with the majority of the pattern still in stockinette.

I adore it. ^^ Thanks Yarnissima for this great pattern!

Previously: Delicious Cashmere Kiila Socks

~Joyuna

A little bit in shock

I just purchased...
an electric triple skein winder from Crazy Monkey Creations.

Isn't it beautiful?

I see many cones of yarn in my future. Oh boy.

~Joyuna

This Girl's Bookshelf: My new blog

I am pleased to announce my new blogging project, This Girl's Bookshelf. It's a reading blog mainly featuring book reviews. I'm so excited to be able to read as much as I can during the summer, so I thought I'd share some of my excitement with the world. :)

Does this mean that Joyarna is going into retirement? Certainly not! I will be updating both blogs regularly. If you're interested in hearing what I think about the books I read, please visit This Girl's Bookshelf. It will be an Entrecard and Adgitize enabled blog as soon as it gets accepted into those programs.

I've reviewed two books so far, with a couple other miscellaneous posts. More reviews are forthcoming, as well as best-of lists, informational articles, and more. Check out This Girl's Bookshelf!

~Joyuna

Joyuna's Etsy Favorites: Sushi bar

I'm not gonna lie: I love sushi! The combination of the different flavors, the attractive arrangement of the pieces, the exotic ingredients. Sushi rolls have become almost as popular as cupcakes for "cute anthropomorphic food items", but I don't mind because I love it. Here's some cool, cute, spicy sushi stuff from Etsy's best.

One of the best and cleverest food-shaped-soap-shops I've seen has been DirtyAssSoaps. Besides their awesome name, they make some realistic, fun, and funny soaps that look good enough to eat. They have a wide variety of sushi soaps, enough for a whole meal. Plus other treats for dessert!

Sushi roll and Nigiri soap

Read more »

Some awards

I was recently the recipient of some blog awards, so thank you!


Thanks Krafty Kitten for this award. I will pass it on to one person:
The Maaa of Priscilla


And thanks Jerri of Gems by Jerri for... another Lovely Blog award! Haha. I will pass it on to one person:
Nodin's Nest

You can pass them on or not as you see fit. Originally you were supposed to pass it on to 15 blogs but that just seems too chain-letter-y to me. ;)

~Joyuna

Japanese Feather and Fan shawl, finished and modeled

As promised, here I am wearing my Japanese Feather & Fan shawl with my vintage shawl pin from One of a Kind Wisconsin's eBay shop. I wore it out to Father's Day dinner tonight along with my Lelah tank top.

On Ravelry: Shawl and top

~Joyuna

Finished Japanese Feather and Fan Shawl, and delicious cake

Huzzah! An FO!*

*FO means 'finished object' in knitter parlance, and refers to, well, a finished knitted or crocheted item :)

Ravelry page
Started: April 12, 2009
Finished: June 15, 2009
Yarn: 1 skein Buffalo Gold #12 Lux (45% Bison, 20% Cashmere, 20% Silk, 15% Tencel ), colorway Pine; 1/4 skein Knit Picks Shadow (100% merino wool), colorway juniper heather

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On being 'crafty'

Before I learned to knit, I never considered myself a 'crafty' person. I didn't really draw or paint, I didn't sew or sculpt, I didn't do any of that stuff. I didn't make things; Michael's was not my usual hangout. I never thought of that as 'me'.

I might say that knitting is different from other crafts that require artistic ability or coordination, but learning how to knit has become something of a gateway drug* to other crafts, which certainly do. Dyeing involves more color theory than I had ever expected to learn. And if you don't think that spinning involves coordination... try it sometime. Whew!

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that if you don't think you're crafty, just try it sometime. Ask for a quick knit or crochet lesson from a friend, or look up how a sewing machine works, or whatever tickles your fancy. I taught my boyfriend to knit! You might be amazed at what you can accomplish.

And really, there's very little that can make you more proud than wearing something you made with your own hands. When someone compliments you on it, and you can say, "Why thank you - I made it myself!"

What a great feeling. And if I had never tried knitting, because I wasn't crafty enough, I'd never feel it.

*I'm not afraid to admit it. Yarn is my crack.

~Joyuna

Featured on Oceanside Creations

There's a feature about me on the Oceanside Creations blog, for 'Behind the Art Monday'... Take a look if you have the time, I've answered some questions about what I do and what inspires me. There's a coupon over there for you too, for 15% off!

By the way, this is my 100th blog post! I have so much fun writing about the stuff I'm working on, so I want to send out a huge thank you to everyone who reads this blog, even if you've just stopped by for the first time. :) Blogging is truly addictive, I get to write, show off what I make, vent my frustrations, share my thoughts... I have a blast!

~Joyuna

Binding off...

Good news: I am binding off on the Japanese Feather and Fan shawl!

Bad news: I have been binding off for the past four days. And I'm still binding off...

Truth be told I haven't been knitting for a whole lot of time these past four days, but this is certainly the longest row I've ever had to knit. I had been knitting this shawl wildly for the past week or so, but the bindoff is killer. Besides having 350+ stitches, the bind off pattern goes like this:

Cast on 2 stitches.
P1, P2tog, turn.
P2.
Repeat last two rows until all stitches are bound off.

So each set of two rows, I am binding off one stitch. Which means, this bindoff row is essentially four times as many stitches as my last row!! That means...
1400 stitches!
Can you believe it? I'm not sure if I'll ever get this shawl done!



~Joyuna

My Worldwide Knit in Public Day

Yesterday I participated in WWKIPD (World Wide Knit in Public Day) and I had so much fun! Sock Knitters Anonymous organized a scavenger hunt, allotting points for photos of your sock-in-progress "doing" various things - riding in a vehicle, dancing, being held by people, et cetera.
Here are some of my WWKIP photos.

I cast the sock on at midnight, June 13. Sheepy poses with my sock proudly in front of my stash.

Read more »

WWKIP Day

Today* is World Wide Knit in Public Day!
Are you knitting?

I've been out and about in my Ravelry button, knitting my sock. Haven't encountered any other knitters yet, but there's still time. At any rate, I'm taking lots of fun photos for the Sock Knitters Anonymous scavenger hunt. WWKIP Day is turning out to be a blast, even though I am 100 miles away from my beloved knitting group. I knit alone. T_T Ah well...

Tomorrow, I will show you all the SKA Scavenger photos I took on WWKIP Day. Exciting!

*Actuallly, today and tomorrow and next Saturday and Sunday are WWKIP Day. So I guess it should really be called WWKIP Weekends. The Cincinnati meetup is tomorrow, unfortunately I won't be able to go.

~Joyuna

Thanks Jerri!

I want to give a huge thanks to Gems by Jerri, because when I got home to Cincinnati I had a package waiting for me, with three pairs of earrings. I was the winner of her May giveaway. All three pairs are really gorgeous, and I'm so happy with them. Thanks a bunch Jerri!

I'm finally getting settled in at home, and I'm super-excited because tomorrow is Worldwide Knit in Public day. Sock Knitters Anonymous is having a 'scavenger hunt', where you take photos of your sock with various things to earn points. I think it's going to be so much fun! I just have to decide what kind of sock to cast on tomorrow... I'll tell you all about it. :)

~Joyuna

HANDKNIT HEROES Giveaway winner!

Random.org random number (between 1 and 24): 23

The winner of the Handknit Heroes giveaway is Donna B.! Congratulations! Email me with your address and I will get your comic sent right out to you :)

~Joyuna

Adgitize May payment

I got my first payment from Adgitize recently - a little over $20. I can highly recommend the Adgitize program to bloggers interested in advertising, especially those who also use Entrecard. Many blogs have both, so I do my EC drops and Adgetize clicks at the same time with very little extra effort.

$14 gives you a month of advertising across a diverse blog network - it's probably most effective if you're not as niche as my blog is, but it does bring in some additional traffic and I'm hoping that some of that is quality traffic.

What you get back from Adgitize is based on a points system, with a maximum of 500 points a day. These points depend on blog posts, site hits, ad views, ad clicks, and whether you're an advertiser or not. If you become an Adgitize advertiser, you're likely to make back a good chunk of the money you spent on advertising, or like I did, even more. I basically made 6 bucks by advertising on Adgitize... which is pretty amazing if you ask me.

Adgitize is a new, growing ad network with a little over 100 advertisers at present. If you plan on advertising your blog anyway, I would definitely consider Adgi because with not a lot of effort you can make back what you spent on your ad. And advertising doesn't get any cheaper than free. :)

See Adgitize.com for more info.

~Joyuna

Burnout...

Today I had three exams. I had to wake up at 8 (you may laugh, but that's earlier than I've had to wake up all quarter). The first two were back-to-back in the morning, and the third was in the late afternoon. I got out of my last exam at 6:30 or so, came back to my dorm, watched TV on Hulu and knit.

It's now past 10. I'm still knitting...

I've had precious little time for knitting this past week, so I consider it a sort of catch-up evening. I've been working on the Japanese Feather and Fan Shawl, which is going beautifully. I finally ran out of my little 330yd skein of Buffalo Gold, but lucky for me I like all the same colors. I had some Knit Picks Shadow on hand in juniper heather, which is a darker version of nearly the same green. It goes well enough together, and now I don't have to worry about running out of yarn. I was going to fudge and cut out some rows near the end, but now I don't have to. :)

I'll take some pictures and put 'em up when I get the chance, after I'm packed and moved and unpacked again... who knows when that will be. But I'll be sure to post my progress. I may even bind off this week, once I'm out of my dorm.

I've been watching House, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and the new show Glee... what are your favorite things to knit to? Do you knit to TV and movies? How about music? Books? Blogs? ;) I really love to knit to audiobooks too. Librivox.org has some great public domain audiobooks, done all by volunteers for free.

~Joyuna

Joyuna by the numbers

1895 blog views this week
788 Etsy shop views this week
7150 Etsy item views
55 items currently in shop
37 Etsy items sold
67 Etsy item hearts
128 Etsy shop hearts
203 Twitter followers
63 blog followers
91 blog posts
441 Flickr photostream views
35 Facebook fans

This post is inspired by a similar post in Biku Designs' blog. I think stats like this are very interesting! If anyone wants to post their own, we can compare. Not that it's a competition ;) But it is interesting to see how you measure up to other bloggers and crafters, IMO.

~Joyuna

Keeping up with Joyuna

Things are getting quite hectic what with the end of the quarter and all, especially with next week being exams and moveout week. I haven't been blogging as often as I'd like, and I expect the next week to be no different unfortunately. Even though I'm not blogging, you can still get updates about the shop, my crafting and me personally.

Twitter: Joyuna - I use twitter a lot, both about my Etsy shop and about my life in general. You might find it interesting, you might not, totally up to you.
I made yarn, by Joyuna on Facebook - Any major updates and news about the shop are posted here. There are also photos and links, plus you can write on my wall. :)
Joyuna on Ravelry - You have to have an account to see my Ravelry notebook, sorry. I keep all my knitting stuff here, including what projects I'm working on and my ever-growing stash. You can also see how far along I am on my projects, and any comments I have made about them. Ravelry is my favorite website bar none, so if you're a knitter I highly recommend getting an account - not only for networking, but also for the wealth of information in the Ravelry database. There is a waiting list for sign ups, but it should only take a couple days to get your invitation.

~Joyuna

On the spindle - Shiny Blue BFL sock blend

Don't forget to enter the Handknit Heroes giveaway! Ends in one week!

I've begun carding and spinning the roving I dyed. My plans are to spin up a cabled 4-ply sock yarn, all shiny and blue and soft and gorgeous.
And it is, if I do say so myself.

I've spun and plied a small sample, and it will ply up to a heavyish sport weight, which is a little heavy but okay. It should knit up well on size 2 1/2 or 3. The 4-ply makes a good round yarn, which would be good for cables, but I'm not sure what exactly I'll make from it. I'll have a little over 4 ounces, so plenty for a pair of socks if I spin it all up.

The bamboo and nylon in it make is so slick and so shiny. It has an almost iridescent, two-tone color because the bamboo shines blue and the wool is more turquoise.



I'm very excited about it. It's a big spinning project (normally I do 2-ply yarns! this is twice the amount of spinning) but I think it will turn out very rewarding.



It's beautiful fiber, very shiny and slippery. It's less than 50% wool, but I'm hoping it will be springy enough to make good socks. After I've spun it, I might decide to use it for something else, but it would make some very comfy socks indeed, if a little thicker than I'm used to.

~Joyuna

It's June! It's almost summer!

I'm so glad it's nearly summer. Exams are coming up, but after that I will be free to relax. Relax, you know, like job hunting and order packing and advertising and craft fairs? Yeah...relaxing summer. Well, it'll be a change from school anyway.

Here are my top five Entrecard droppers for May. Thanks for stopping by my blog so often guys!

• Silver Sachet
  
• Split Rock Ranch
  
• Gems by Jerri
  
• Meow Diaries (Mariuca)
  
• Lohman Trading

And thanks to all my commenters too, and everyone who has entered the giveaway. There's still time if you haven't entered yet: It ends June 10th.

If you haven't been to my shop recently, check it out! I've got a new banner and avatar, from Black Arrow Designs. He worked with me til I got exactly the banner I wanted, and I am so pleased with the results! He's done some great banners for other people too, so if you're thinking of a custom Etsy shop banner or other graphics, do check out Blackarrowdesigns on Etsy.



~Joyuna

Just Dyed: Warm Colors

Continued from the last post, these are my warm colorways in the latest merino lace and merino-silk fingering yarns. Some of them are already up in the shop, and the rest will be up soon.

Tangerine - Similar to Canary's Song, but warmer with more golden and terra cotta orange, on a yellow-orange base. Lace weight.
Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffle - Mmmmmmmm! Dark warm reddish pink and brownish gray, a lace yarn that melts in your mouth.
Melted Neapolitan - It was just going to be Neapolitan, but the colors got mixed! The ice cream melted. So now it's warm reddish chocolatey brown, pale sweet strawberry pink, and creamy yellow-peach-pink vanilla. Fingering weight.
Pink Elephants on Parade - They're here... they're there... Pink elephants everywhere...! Lace weight.
Parma Violet - My first try at duplicating a previous color. Turned out well, I think. A delicate, feminine lavender purple semisolid lace named for a violet-flavored candy.

~Joyuna