Selling on Etsy again!

I am so excited to be selling on Etsy again.  I love creating art and anything and everything inspires me.  There is so much great talent out there and Etsy is definitely the place to find one-of-a-kind pieces.  I am still in the process of uploading my watercolor ACEO's and button pendants to sell but please take a look-see: www.kimagination.etsy.com

The latest

Wow I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted!  I've got to do better.  Anyway, my husband and two children and I just got back from a wonderful vacation out to WI and IL to see family.  I could ramble on and on about our adventures out there but I'm trying to stick to my crafting adventures so here's the latest:

I've told you about ATC's and how much I love creating them.  Artist Trading Cards are 2 1/2" X 3 1/2" and they are made to be traded with other artists.  I trade, or swap, mine on Swap-Bot.  Recently while in IL visiting with my mother-in-law she showed me what she has recently started to collect.  She knew I would be interested because I love to paint.  They are called ACEO's.  I've heard of them and understand that they are like ATC's but I didn't exactly know the difference.  The difference is people pay for ACEO's!  I didn't know people would actually pay money for these little works or art but my mother-in-law does so that got me thinking...hmmm... I could try my hand at that... so right now I'm in the midst of painting ACEO's to sell.  ACEO stands for Artist Cards Editions and Originals.  I have an Etsy store but my mother-in-law buys her's on Ebay so I'm thinking about jumping ship and going over to Ebay.  Another new endeavor for me!

How my sock knitting is coming along

I finished my second ever pair of socks!!!

This pattern is called Syncopated Rib Socks from I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks by Cindy Guggemos for Leisure Arts.  It is a super easy pattern for a beginner like me.  It was just enough to challenge me but not so overwhelming that I got frustrated and quit.

Updates on the next two pairs of socks I've started:

I am doing a third pattern from the book  I Can't Believe I'm Knitting Socks.  I do have other sock books but I love the way this book is written.  My coral/pink pair has started out to be the little arrowhead lace socks (on pg. 50) but it doesn't look quite like the picture in the book.

The pattern is a little more complex so I need complete concentration (which does not happen with a two and four year old) and I need to be fully awake which is debatable after 8pm.  I haven't given up on it yet but trust me I've thought about it a few times. 

I think the reason why I haven't given up on my third pair is that I have picked a super easy pattern for my fourth pair.  Remember I said I always wanted to be working on two different pairs at the same time, one difficult and one easy. I found this pattern on Ravelry and it's called Thuja by Bobby Ziegler.

(I will post a picture in the next few days).

The designer is a man and the sock is really a man's sock but I'm using smaller needles.  The reason why I picked this pattern is because the pattern on the leg is carried down all the way on the top of the foot.  If you've noticed on my first two pairs of socks it is just the basic knit stitch once you turn the heal.  I'm challenging myself a little bit more each time and working my way up to the more difficult ones.

I had not planned on mentioning this book in this post (because it deserves a whole post all to itself) but I'm working my way up to this book:

It has some of the neatest designs!  I'll just share one with you in this post because it may be the first one I try from this book.  Again I emphasize MAYBE.

Stay tuned!

One hitch...

the way I knit.

Up until yesterday I had decided that in order for me to knit more intricate sock patterns I needed to knit on circular needles instead of DPN's.

Yesterday I moved my coral socks (see previous post for photo) onto a 40" (same size 4) circular needle.  I am still at the ribbing stage of these socks so after I moved them I knit one more round to get a feel for circular sock knitting.

Extremely awkward.  Why?  Because of the way I knit.  A few years ago when my mom taught me how to knit I just couldn't hold the needles in both hands.  It felt awkward.  Hold one needle in one hand and the other needle in the other hand.  Control tension by wrapping your yarn around one finger... and that's the finger you'll use to wrap it around the needle.  My mom was a very good teacher and showed me more than one way to knit.  We tried the continental and English method.  I couldn't get it.  I understood the mechanics of the knit and purl stitches but my fingers just weren't cooperating.  I was in my 30's.  

Finally I said "Couldn't I just hold one needle between my legs?"  My mom looked at me kind of strange and then said something like "whatever works".  And I've been knitting like this ever since.

This picture was taken on Monday while knitting in my car (no I was not driving):

 My work is in my left had and my yarn is to the right of me.  My needle is being held between my legs and my right hand, which was at the moment holding the camera, controls the tension.

Therefore it's almost impossible for me to knit with circular needles because I can't hold the right needle between my legs.  Like I said, I knit one round of the coral socks holding both needles with my hands but my tension was off and it took me forever to do just one round!

I went on Ravelry last night specifically looking for DPN sock patterns and they are out there.  So I transferred my coral socks back onto 4 DPN's and knit 2-3 more rounds to get the tension right again.

So again stay tuned for the development of my coral socks!

Knitting, knitting and more knitting

I have found that of my many hobbies knitting is something I may be staying with for a while.  Why?  Because with a two and a four year old knitting is something that I can pick up and put down easily.  I have decided that I will probably always have two different pairs of socks going at once: one with an easy stitch so I can work on it when I'm with the kids (a lot of starting and stopping) and then a more challenging one for after they go to bed (so I can devote more intense concentration to it).

For Christmas my sister-in-law gave me a gift card to Knit Picks.  I bought a lot of great stuff but my favorite purchase was this large clear knitting bag:  

I love it!  I can see everything at once and don't need a flashlight to see down into it.
So today I decided to gather up all of my knitting books: 

And then I decided to separate out my sock knitting books:

And my favorite one for an absolute beginner like me is:

I have knit almost two pairs of socks now and this book has guided me through every step.  My first pair I finished about a month ago:

And hopefully I'll finish my second pair sometime this week:

And now that I have two pairs "under my belt" I feel like I can take on more challenging patterns.   So I started my third pair and when I got to the pattern on the leg (after the cuff) it seemed almost impossible on DPN's.  I needed it on a circular needle because there was going to be a lot of moving stitches onto different needles so I could SSK (slip slip knit).  I have now cast on for two new pairs of socks but am not sure what patterns I'll be knitting them in.  I think I'm going to try to move one of them to my circular needles and attempt a challenging pattern.  Note, in the first pair I am using another gift purchase from Knit Picks called Harmony Needles.  They are absolutely wonderful!  BUT I have noticed that knitting with a lighter color yarn is much more easier on these needles than a darker color yarn.  I found this out when I cast on a gorgeous purple yarn but couldn't see it!

So stay tuned to see what these two new pair of socks will end up looking like.  

Going back on my word

I have never made a New Year's Resolution.  I think they are kind of dumb.  And 21 days into the new year is about the time you hear people saying "well I've already broken my new years resolution".  But guess what?  I've made two resolutions and am still very much on top of them.

Last fall I noticed that I was starting to become addicted to this game on Facebook.  It was not healthy.  I was losing sleep and more importantly (and the reason why I stopped playing it) was because I felt my children were being neglected.  I noticed this in December and decided that this was going to be my first New Year's Resolution: to stop playing Frontierville.  And I have... very successfully.  And I know my boys are happy too.

The second resolution I've mentioned before but not in "resolution" terms.  I joined the group 365: The 2011 Edition on Flickr.  I have been a member of the Flickr community for a few years now and I have challenged myself to take a picture a day for 365 days which started January 1st.  AND along with each post I have to write a description of the picture, a journal if you will, of my day encapsulated in that one photo.  I will never run out of things to photograph, my challenge is "which ONE PHOTO do I choose out of all the ones I've taken today?"   I think my favorite one was yesterday's picture:

And this was the description:

What a fun relaxing day at home. Since Wednesday's are so busy for this household I usually take Thursday's to relax, get the house picked up, do laundry, catch up on my knitting, etc.

Today Jacob helped me sort through the old sewing stuff that was given to me yesterday (see #018/365) and it was a blast!! These are the 5 wooden spools of thread I just fell in love with. All the buttons in the background were mine already.

And description from #018/365

I had a few errands to run around town today and one of them was to go to our local (extremely little... I mean little hole-in-the-wall) thrift store. I was looking for large glass containers to display my old wooden spools of thread in.



One of the church ladies was volunteering there so I told her what I was looking for. As we chatted I told her that I collected old buttons, spools of thread, etc. She then asked me if I knew Mr. such-and-such. (I knew OF him but not personally). She said that he was downsizing because his wife had died a year ago. He had a lot of his mother's old buttons, etc. and was looking for a good home for them. WOW! JACKPOT! I told her I was definitely interested.

And, well, to make a long story short, Jacob and I spent the next 45 minutes at his house visiting with him and looking at his mother's old sewing stuff. He ended up giving everything to me!
There weren't a lot of buttons but A LOT of thread! He was such a sweet man, he was in his 80's and moving to be closer to family.
 
And the picture to go along with 018/365 entitled Small Towns Are Wonderful

 
So if I've been neglecting this blog it's because I'm crazy about Flickr again.

Flickr

Since joining the Flickr community a few years ago I have seen other peoples photos that I may have never gotten the chance to see had I not joined.  For those of you that don't know what Flickr is it's an online photography community where one can share as many or as few of your photos (with friends and strangers) as you like.  You decide.  For us photographers it's a way to share ideas and tips and to see photos from around the world.  There are literally thousands of groups in this community that one can join.  The number is limitless.  Right now I'm in 74 groups but it changes as my interests change.  

When I look at other members photos I continue to find new groups to explore.  These groups also serve as great inspiration to get out there and try new things.  I have found two groups that are going to be very challenging yet very rewarding at the same time.  I'm going to tell you about one group in this post.  The group is called  "Strangers".  This is so far out of my comfort zone I can't even tell you!  The idea is to get out there and ask strangers if you can take their picture.  But it's more than just click and run.  It's a chance to get to know people that you may not otherwise talk to.  So far I've talked to and taken 7 strangers photos; I'm trying to get up to 100.  I would especially like to thank the four women I met yesterday at the Williamsburg Antique Mall.  They were all very sweet, open and honest with me.  This is Ronda (L) and Donna (R):

They are best friends and grew up in Missouri.  Donna now lives here in Virginia with her husband who is stationed in Afghanistan for a year.  Ronda is here visiting Donna while Donna's husband is away.  Ronda shared with me that she has had six back surgeries and was in a wheel chair for four years.  They were so much fun to talk to! 

Since I'm still new to walking up to strangers and striking up a conversation I don't have a "standard question" yet but I'm working on it.  Like I said this is way out of my comfort zone but when my day was done I felt like my day was well spent.
http://flickr.com/photos/photographybykim/

Revisiting ANOTHER old friend - photoshop

I am really enjoying my new camera.  But along with taking pictures comes editing and then sometimes playing around with images.  I guess that's another part of my creativity, shoot then sometimes manipulate.  While revisiting my old photoshop program I stumbled upon another "filter" that I had not played around with before but love it.  My favorite flower is the Black-Eyed Susan so I found an old picture and manipulated it.