Feature on Dip Your Toes

I got interviewed over at Dip Your Toes (into something new). I talk about how I got started in spinning, what I do to maintain my shop, and some of my favorite Etsy sellers.

I'm busy with dyeing, designing (a lace shawl!), and various part-time job work, as well as preparing for the boy's visit next week (!!!). As soon as I get some spare time I have a few informational articles planned, which should help people, with such intimidating topics as untangling yarn and washing wool socks! Stay tuned...

~Joyuna

My new Electric Skein Winder in action!

I'm all done winding my sock yarn off of the cones, and I took a video to show you just how awesome my electric skein winder is.
I'm seriously in love with it... I can wind three skeins at a time, and the bicycle odometer works like a charm.

My skein winder is the 1 1/2 yard, 3-at-a-time model from Crazy Monkey Creations. It was made to order, shipped fast, was well-packaged and easy to assemble. And it works wonderfully! I can't recommend them enough.

Now I'm going to have to buy some more cone yarn just to play with my awesome electric skein winder some more ;)
My cones are all empty, and I'm busy dyeing yarn. Pictures soon!

~Joyuna

The epic saga of the yarn meter

To go with my new skein winder, I set out to find a yarn yardage counter. There are a few on the market, but not many, and none under $30. The most popular one is $50, and there are high-end ones for upwards of $150. So not in my budget.

The other day I gathered up all the Google-fu I could muster, searching for every single type of yarn meter I could possibly find, how well they work, how much they are, and how you can make them at home. I hope to pass the knowledge on to you, dear reader, in case you ever need it.

The cheaper yarn meters for sale are based on fishing line counters, generally the Shakespeare brand. These measure out in feet, and have a counter that goes to 999 - which is 333 yards. After it goes to 999, the counter starts over again. Line counters can generally be had on eBay for 15 bucks or less. Once you have the counter, you can make a stand with some yarn guides and have yourself a quick-and-dirty yarn counter.

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Update: Wings of a Dream stole

My main 'interesting' project (ie, not stockinette) is the Wings of a Dream shawl. I plan on wearing it to my cousin's wedding in September, and as the date approaches I'm working on it more and more. I just went shopping for the top and skirt I'll be wearing with it -- I'm getting very excited!

The shawl is progressing nicely. I'm about halfway* though the first wing, and the pattern is getting "easy" for me. Easy doesn't mean I'm not looking at the chart... But I can knit it in front of the TV, glancing at the chart at the beginning of each new row.

*'Halfway' as far as length goes. As far as stitches, the number of stitches increases each row so I have a lot more knitting ahead of me.


I'll be wearing a blue halter top with it and a long (I mean long) silver skirt. I brought my swatch to the mall with me for reference, so I know everything matches. :)

I adore this shawl, and I can't wait until it's all done. The cashmere-silk yarn is so soft, and it should get even softer after I wash and block it.

~Joyuna

Mark's scarf from RENT: knitting on commission (with pattern formula!)

I got an exciting project started this week - my sister is paying me to knit her a scarf for her boyfriend's birthday. They are both huge musical theater nerds, so my sister asked me to knit her Mark Cohen's scarf from the musical and movie RENT.

It's a simple enough scarf; striped stockinette in navy and white with a fringe. Lucky me, I found two colors of Knit Picks Main Line (75% cotton/25% wool) on clearance - Blueberry and Ivory. It's a nice yarn, would probably be great for garments. Sad that they seem to be discontinuing it. But I digress.

I really enjoy trying to copy knits. I get a real sense of accomplishment knowing that I have untangled someone else's pattern, using only my eyes and my knitter's experience. Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I just get it close, but I really enjoy it. My Golden Compass mitts for instance.

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Blog award from Split Rock Ranch; WIPs

Thank you Split Rock Ranch for bestowing on me the One Lovely Blog award :) I really enjoy reading your fiber adventures too, and enjoying the adorable llama eye candy.

I have been knitting lately, even though I'm busy preparing for a big dyeing project as well as trying to find some summer work. Mostly I'm working on a shawl to wear at my cousin's wedding in September. The pattern is Wings of a Dream, a variation on the Swan Lake mystery stole, with two wings instead of one. I'm knitting it in Colourmart's cashmere-silk yarn. I'll take some more recent pictures soon, but you can see the start of it in my previous post.


Wings of a Dream was slow going for a long time, but I have now started one of the wings and the pattern is getting easier. The center section was all about following a chart, but the wings are a little more self-explanatory. Once I get to the bottom edge, I will be adding some silver Japanese seed beads to the last few rows of feathers.

Since I can't spend all my time doing lace, I also have a big mindless stockinette project. Presenting...
The Rainbow Magic Ball Entrelac Scrap Afghan!


It's nice because now, Entrelac is totally mindless for me. I've done probably 60 squares by now. The best thing about this afghan is that the yarn cost was absolutely $0. It's created entirely out of my yarn scraps, using the Magic Ball method.

Magic Ball knitting is where you knit from a ball of bits of all different kinds of yarn. What I did was I took all my scrap yarn from various projects, sorted them by color, and tied the ends together rainbow-wise. So my magic ball scrap afghan will contain little bits from almost all of my knitting projects, to serve as a memory for me of everything I've knit.

I promise I'll take some better pictures later. :) Until then...

~Joyuna

The Knitting Song, by Sophie Madeleine

I came across this lovely little song. A sweet voice and a ukulele, from Sophie Madeleine. It's called, appropriately enough, The Knitting Song.

I'm going to knit myself a sweater.
A sweater that will keep me warm at night.
Just how many days here must I weather?
Just biding my time...
'cause when I call you on the phone,
I'm still lost, I'm still alone.
Who's going to make it right?

Because I need a little more than just some thought that I adore to keep me warm at night.

Her album is called "Love. Life. Ukulele."
(via Another Knitting Blog)

~Joyuna

Expanding your shop's reach with Off-Etsy Promotion

Attention Etsy sellers! Chances are, you aren't promoting your shop enough. Promotion leads to more visitors which leads to more sales, and everyone wants that. Now that I've discussed what you can do to improve your shop and promotion within Etsy, it's time to move offsite to other promotion venues.

There are roughly a million sites outside of Etsy where you can potentially promote your Etsy shop. I've signed up for a good number of them, but I'm only active on a few. Google around and you can find huge lists of sites you can use, but I'll only go over the few that I use, and you can take that information and extrapolate it to other sites.

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Joy getting eaten by a dinosaur!

Nancy over at NFall2rt Design Studio tagged me for a meme :)
This is the 10th picture in my photos folder:

It was during spring break, when I was showing the boy around at my university. We were exploring the geology museum and found the fossils. :)

I'm not going to tag anyone specific to pass on the meme... If you want to snag it, feel free. :) Show us your tenth photo.

~Joyuna