I am Looking for Places to Promote!

Now that I have my Etsy shop up and running, I want to promote it as much as possible. With the changes on the Etsy forums (when the heck did that happen!?) that is no longer an option.
So what I am looking for are blogs that I could advertise on somewhat inexpensively, preferably more on the "very inexpensive" side.
If you have a blog that offers advertising to Etsy sellers, please let me know in the comments! I am definitely willing to do a giveaway (I am planning on doing one here very soon!) and I'd love to be interviewed.
If you have any other suggestions for advertising, please do let me know!

Self portrait Monday: March 28, 2011

Happy first birthday, Winston!! One year ago today, our puppy was born, and today, he ate a cheeseburger and french fries to celebrate.
Rick and I took him to Harvey's and got him a kids meal. He was so cute when he was eating it. His favourite toppings are ketchup and pickles, and he gobbled it all right up. I have a feeling he'll be having one of those every year.
As you may have seen, I started selling on Etsy on the 24th. I posted about selling my first item, and since that, I have sold one more pair of earrings. I am going to take some photos of a few smaller knitted things to sell soon. I don't think I will be posting any scarves or neck warmers any time soon, seeing as it's spring time already, and within a couple months, that will be the farthest thing from most people's minds.
Yesterday, there was a craft supply swap organized by Made In Windsor at The House. I came out with a whole bunch of yarn, fabric, thread, buttons and a few other bits and pieces. A lot of it is being donated to various groups I support, but I am keeping some for myself, as well.

What have all of you been up to?

I Have Sold my First Item On Etsy!

Within four hours of listing my first 12 items, I sold a pair of earrings! These red buttons are my favourite pair that I've made so far. I was tempted to keep them for myself. I may have to keep a pair I make out of the matching pink buttons that I have waiting.
A lovely young lady from New York purchased these after seeing them come up in the search results. I find this really encouraging. These earrings stood out enough for her to want to buy them, without any sort of advertising or promotion.
I am going to list a few more pairs at some point today. I will also be photographing some smaller knitted items in a couple days to post, as well. I still need to pick up shipping supplies, so I am ready if I get any more orders in the next little while.

I Am Officially an Etsy Seller!

If you check over there in the left hand column, you can see my Etsy mini! I only have a couple items up for sale right now, and neither of them is knitting related. I am still working out some kinks and trying to get my posting to go more smoothly. I will be putting up more earrings over the next few days, and also some smaller knitted items.
Have a look around my Etsy shop, and give me any sort of critiques you can give! I can really learn something, I'm sure.

Self portrait Monday: March 21, 2011

Happy Monday, everyone! I've been up for a few hours now, and my day is going incredibly well. I made an awesome breakfast wrap, and took Winston for a short walk.
I've been working on dishcloths the past few days. There is a chance I will have a table at an upcoming craft show, just before Mother's Day, and I need some seasonally appropriate things to sell. The sale is going to be on a weekend, and since I work weekends, I am going to try to have Rick or someone else sell my things for me. I want to have a couple dozen dishcloths, and hopefully have my earrings ready to go as well. I want to figure out some sort of interesting packaging for the earrings. So far, all I have is a little plastic zipper bag.
Rick and I have been watching Better Off Ted on Netflix lately. We're about half way through the first season, and I am really enjoying it. I am still working my way through season 6 of House. I'm about halfway finished. I'll probably go back to a season of Big Bang Theory after House, and then find a new show. Nexflix and downloading older episodes of television shows has been great at boosting my knitting output. It's way more mindless than reading knitting blogs. I have been saving those for when I need to find inspiration for new knitted items.

Friday the 18th, I went out for lunch with the woman that organizes LeeLee Hats so I could give her my donation. I ended up with exactly 30 hats. I am going to continue making hats for the group over the next few months. I am also working at getting yarn and other crafting supplies donated to the group. My mom knows quite a few people, and she is talking to a lot of them, as well. I have a personal goal of donating 100 hats, and enough material to donate to fill at least two large garbage bags. As it's looking now, the second part of that goal will be met very soon.

No More Daily Posts

This posting everyday thing is hard!! I posted on the 16th and 17th and they both disappeared. Our home Internet has been acting up, and I connect to that to write my posts because I don't have a very large data plan. I will do another daily post month sometime soon.
In any case, I knit a cabled cowl yesterday in Wool Ease Thick and Quick. It was a pretty quick knit. I also knit a ribbed cowl in Moda Dea "Cache" (I think that's what it's called) pretty quickly today. With no Internet, I have few distractions. I haven't taken a picture of that one yet, but I will soon.
Here is the cabled cowl.


It turned out really well. The cables go all the way around. I'm going to make some more this way. They're nice and thick and really warm.

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Day 15: Making Potato Salad

I spent a large portion of today knitting a cowl I started a few days ago and watching House.
Rick had me start a bowl of potato, chickpea and egg salad, and he finished it up.


I'm now getting some spinach ready to sauté to have with the salad.
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Self portrait Monday: March 14, 2011

Today, I kind of feel like garbage. I spent the night at my parents house last night, and slept in a fairly cold bedroom in the basement, so I am thinking that has something to do with it. Sinus pressure, stomach ache, and an awful headache that hasn't been alleviated with medication. I'm just going to have to deal with it, I guess.

I went to a charity hockey game last night and that was so much fun. I saw so many of my old coworkers, and caught up with a lot of them. One of the girls that I worked with drove me to my parents, where I pretty much crashed right away. I read a few blog posts and such in my RSS reader, and then went right to bed. I got to sleep in a bit, which was nice.

I went to see some of my relatives with my mom after we picked up a few groceries and some things for Winston. We were going to stop at a yarn store that moved to a new location, but they are closed on Monday's. I'll have to try to get there sometime during the week soon. I've been to their old location a few times, and they have really nice stuff, and usually really good prices.

I am going to keep working on the baby hats and try to get 50 done this month. I am getting pretty close, and I still have a lot of yarn to use up. I really hope to get to Zellers or Michael's to buy some inexpensive baby yarn to make more hats. I really wish I hadn't gotten rid of all the yarn before I moved. It would be perfect for these hats. On the bright side, one of the women I gave yarn to knits for this group, so I know some of the yarn is going to be used for this cause.

Day 13: A Hockey Game

Quick update. I went to a charity hockey game tonight. People from my old work place played against a sister store. We won 6-1.



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Day 12: Winston Gets a Bath

About a week and a half ago, we brought Winston to the vet to get fixed. He did really well and healed up pretty quickly. We still had to wait this long until he could go out running around with other dogs and until we could give him a bath. He'd been getting kind of smelly, and I knew he was due. I took him out to do his business after he finished dinner today and a few of his friends were out also. As soon as he saw them he couldn't wait to play. I let him off the leash so that he and Zeus, a big fluffy black herding dog, could chase each other.
This is the result.



He doesn't look impressed. He's not the biggest fan of baths. I'll probably have to give him another bath in a couple days because of how wet it is outside. I'm unimpressed.
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Day 11: More Baby Hats!!

I've made at least 7 more baby hats over the past couple days. These things are so fast to whip up, I can get them done in no time. I want to try to have 50 made by the end of this month. I'm not sure how many I have right now, but I think I can make it.
I'm going to my parents house Sunday after work, and heading to a charity hockey game between the grocery store I used to work for and another store on the other side of town. I'm really excited to see the people I used to work with, and my mom might have some yarn for me for the baby hats.


I am going to try to order business cards this week. Once I get them in, I will hopefully start selling on etsy. I'll post my earrings first, and the baby booties I made eons ago. Small things that are easy and inexpensive to ship. And then I'll go from there.
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Day 10: Soon to be Shawl

I took a short break from the baby hats over the past couple days to start on a shawl. I'm using the same pseudo-pattern I've been using the whole time.
I've been thinking about writing this pattern up to post on here. Would anyone be interested in that? It's not too difficult, but it might be nice for beginners or someone looking for inspiration.


Yes, my laptop is upside down. I'm using the desk again for a few days. My back's been bugging me and sitting in this chair tends to help.
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Day 9: My New Model

A few weeks ago, a gentleman by the name of Tom posted a tweet saying he had free mannequins up for grabs. I knew I needed one right away. I've been looking for one for a while on kijiji, and they run at least $100, usually more. I replied to his tweet asking for a female. The following day, I met him at The House and picked her up.


She used to live in a large retail chain, and is now sleeping in my closet until I have a more permanent place to keep her. I am going to have her wear my knitted accessories for my shop that will happen soon. She's going to do a great job, but there is one small problem. She doesn't have a mouth, so she can't tell me her name.

Any suggestions for a name for this lovely lady?

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Day 8: Baby Hats!

I've been cranking out hats like it's my job. I finished 5 yesterday, and did another 3 or so today. I want to try to have 30 ready for when I go to the LeeLee Hats meeting. I've gotten used to knitting on the loom and watching The Big Bang Theory on my computer at the same time.
Do any of you do charity knitting?


I also finished another neck warmer today. It just needed the cast off row.
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Self portrait Monday: March 7, 2011

Today is Monday, so here we go with a self portrait post. I am going to continue in this schedule even if I am updating daily in another way. I feel like Monday's are "catch-up" type days where I can tell all of you what I've been up to lately.
I finished a burgundy cabled cowl this morning. I've been working on it off and on for the past couple weeks. I just had a few rows to go, one with the cables crossing, and about 2 more before casting off. It's a nice, thick cowl and the cables really stand out.

I also started and finished a baby hat on my Knifty Knitter. I am going to donate some hats, and some yarn, to a local group that makes hats for a NICU not far from Windsor. I've been looking for somewhere to donate more yarn, and this seems like the place to go. The hat in the photo only took about 45 minutes to make. Super simple!!! The only downside to using the Knifty Knitter is that you have to pay attention while you are knitting. It's not really something you can look up from, which is somewhat inconvenient for me, because I like to knit and read or watch TV at the same time. I'll just have to start listening to podcasts more and making the hats.
Not much else going on over here. Though, I do have a new model for my knitted stuff. Maybe I'll post a photo of her tomorrow. She can be kind of shy at times, but she is beautiful.

Day 6: Rah Rah at phog

Just a quick post. I worked in the morning, came home and had an awesome dinner with Rick.
Tonight was a show if been looking forward to for a while. Rah Rah played at Phog. They are easily my favourite Canadian band right now.


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Day 5: Winston Should be a Model

I started a new neck warmer last night while watching L.A. Ink. It's an awesome colour of Homespun called Lagoon. I had to restart it a couple times because I kept losing focus and doing the wrong number of lurks in the ribbing portion.
When I got home from work today, Rick and I went to get pizzas for dinner. We just finished eating and we're watching a movie called Faster. The Rock (I don't know what his actual name is, something Johnson?) is the lead, and it's actually pretty interesting.
Winston wasn't super into it, and he told me he wanted to try the neck warmer on.


I thought it looked pretty good, he decided it wasn't his colour.
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Day 4: Blu Dot!!

I just came across this awesome company called Blu Dot. They sell amazing furniture, and they're giving a bunch of it away. Well, sort of.
They're swapping for some pretty cool stuff.
I have submitted a bid, and I'd love for you guys to vote on it. The outcome depends more on them accepting it than the votes, but it couldn't hurt. You don't have to sign up to vote, just click the thumbs up!




This is what my bid is:

I have been knitting for something like 10 years, that's nearly half my life. In the past 2 years, I have put up over 100 yarn bombs in my home town of Windsor, Ontario. A yarn bomb is a piece of knitted fabric that is put up on a public piece of property for everyone to enjoy. I will purchase enough BLUE yarn to knit 100 yarn bombs to be put up in my city, and anywhere I travel to for as long as it takes me to get them all up. I will photograph every single one, and post them on my knitting blog http://blog.knitnicoleknit.ca and my tumblr http://tumblr.knitnicoleknit.ca

Head here to vote!
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Day 3: Knitting Fuel

Last time Rick and I got groceries, we bought a case of coconut water. This stuff is awesome. An awesome coconut flavour, bits of coconut flesh, and a great way to quench thirst. I've been drinking this stuff like crazy.



I thought my phone died earlier today. It stopped working. Turns out I'm having some battery calibration issues. I will take care of that soon.

I got a question from Knitting Mel on yesterday's post about the cowl I was working on (which is almost done now)
The yarn is Homespun from Lion Brand in Florida Keys Green, and dark grey. I don't use any sort of pattern. I knit on a circular needle and just wing it.
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Day 2: New Knitting and More House

I finished the coral and white cowl last night, and started a new one. This is grey and a really lush green. I'm making a very similar cowl as the one yesterday.
I'm watching another episode of House, and I thought Thirteen would make a better model. Agree?


We got Winston back from the vet this morning. He's a little bruised, but he's doing well.
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Day 1: Knitting and House

Lately, my life seems like it's been consumed by two things: knitting and House. I'm on season 5, this is a still from episode 16.
I'm at Rick's parents house for a couple days. Winston is at the vet today for surgery, and we pick him up tomorrow.
I'm working on a new Homespun cowl, in white and coral. I don't think this is Hugh Laurie's colour.


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