This Blog Has Moved

I'd like to thank each and every one of you for following this blog. But it is time for me to move on to bigger and better things.
Please subscribe to my new blog over at Mercantile 519. I have a bunch of fun new stuff in store, and will be posting it there. I hope you enjoy my new project.

A Giveaway!

As I'm sure you know, I am working on launching the new brand, Mercantile 519. I am hosting a giveaway on my Facebook page for a chance to win a $25 gift certificate to the shop, once it opens. If you are interested, you can check it out here!

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude

I'm still plugging away on the new site, and I am loving the way it's looking. I still have TONS to do, but it's slowly coming together.
Here is a quick list of things I am grateful for this week
Getting my hair done  /  Awesome friends  /  More awesome friends  /  Awesome new friends  /  My mom making a super delicious dinner tonight  /  New supplies that have come in the mail  /  All of you!
Life is pretty sweet right now. If this cruddy back/hip pain would go away, it would be just shy of amazing.

Another Big Change

It's been a week since the last post, and a full week at that. Something super, super, super exciting happened on Thursday, which I will talk about more at the end of this post.
I worked a few days this week, and got some things done. I met up with Rick on Friday for lunch, and to buy his old external hard drive off of him. He loaded it up with all of Doctor Who, some workout videos and a whole bunch of movies. I was so happy for this, because now I have dozens of hours of things to watch while I knit! My blog feed is becoming stagnant again, so I am going to go through and eliminate a bunch, and find some new ones. If you have a blog you think I'd like, please share it!
After meeting up with Rick, I hung out with my friends Norma and Sarah, and their two dachshunds Pickles and Loki. We went to see Kick Ass 2, which was pretty good. I know I saw the first one, but I don't really remember it, so I have nothing to compare this one to. After the movie, we picked up a pizza and some cider and sat in the car by the river and watched the storm. An amazing Friday night, no doubt.
Saturday, I worked in the morning, which wasn't anything too exciting. Afterwards, I went home, tidied up my room and cleaned all the floors. I wasn't planning on going out, but then came across an event on Facebook where a friend, who is moving to the East Coast tomorrow, was playing a show at Phog with his band. I decided to go with my best friend, Cassia, and we had a great time. There was some drunken hilarity happening mostly involving others, that I got sucked into. I danced with many, many folks, and really enjoyed myself. It definitely beat the hell out of sitting around at home. Cassia and I ended up going back to my friends place with most of his band, and some other friends. I ended up crashing there after talking with everyone for what seemed like hours upon hours. Woke up Sunday afternoon, and went to the Tall Ships Festival at the Windsor riverfront. They played a second show there which was also very enjoyable. Went back to their place again afterwards, along with a whole crew of people. We ran to The Beer Store, which I conveniently remembered was open until 6, and made it there with minutes to spare. That was fun in itself. We drank our fill, listened to everyone (but myself) play wonderful music, and had a blast. I was up quite late again, and slept in today until eleven or so. Took an uneventful bus ride home, and that is where I am now.
Now, onto the exciting thing that happened Thursday. I mentioned it last week as something I knew I needed to do, and that would help light the fire under my ass.

I registered my business!!!!

I am no longer going to be known as Knit, Nicole, Knit! and instead will be Mercantile 519. This is something I have been wanting to do for a long time. I no longer just knit, and I wanted to change the name to reflect that. This name is something that can grow from being just me selling my handmade goods to selling stuff made by other artists and artisans in the 519 area code. I am happy to be from where I am from, and I knew the name had to reflect something to that effect. 519 is the area code for Southwestern Ontario, I have it tattooed on my left hand, and I just thought adding that would be perfect.

After my brother got home from work Thursday, I had him take a couple pictures of me holding my Master Business Licence. This is the best one. Seriously, every other one, my smile was so huge, I looked certifiably crazy.
I am so incredibly stoked, excited, ecstatic, nervous, happy, and every other emotion possible, about this whole situation. There are so many things I need to do, but they are coming together slowly, but surely. I have the Facebook page made, a Twitter account, an Instagram account that has not yet been updated, and I am working on building the site with Squarespace. Once I get some of that last one up and ready to go, I will have a mailing list so you can all join and find out when the launch will actually be. I will no longer be selling on Etsy for numerous reasons, but that's irrelevant right now.
This is such a huge step in my life, and I am so glad all of you are here cheering me on, sending me positive messages, leaving comments, and just generally being in my corner. These last few months, since I decided I was going to rebrand, up until now have been quite overwhelming and stressful. Getting a nice comment on something online brings me so much joy, and I am endlessly appreciative.
I hope you all continue to follow me throughout this journey. I will wrap up this already verbose post now before I start getting even more emotional.

Times Are A Changin'

I really didn't want to turn into one of those bloggers that posts sporadically because of life events, but I have. As I posted before, Rick and I separated a few months ago, and we're just finishing the relationship now. We tried to work on things, but it just isn't going to happen. At least not in the present. Maybe the future, it could work out well, but neither of us is holding our breath. We are still friends, and we will still talk occasionally, but not see each other regularly, as we have been since I moved out.
I am diving into the deep end of rebranding, and I will be busting my ass to make it awesome. I have a whole bunch of new items made, and supplies ordered for other new stuff. I found a couple great suppliers that I am dealing with, and I'm really looking forward to receiving all of it. And of course, creating with it, then sharing it with all of you.
I haven't been knitting much of anything lately. I finished that pile of new mystery items, which I still need to sew up and put the buttons on. Now I'm a bit apathetic about everything. I think I just need to take another step, and actually register my business, or start building the site, or start photographing items, or SOMETHING to get the fire lit under my ass so I can get busy. I'm a huge procrastinator, and I keep telling myself I have till October, but that's only 35 days away. I don't necessarily want to launch for the beginning of October, but definitely before the 15th.
Anyway, I don't really know where I'm going with this. I guess I just need to let some emotions out, and this is helping. I hope you forgive me for being absent, and absent-minded.

Wednesdays Are For Gratitude: August 21, 2013

It's been quite some time since I've posted a Wendesdays Are For Gratitude post, and a lot has happened lately. Lots of good, some not so good, but I'm here to talk about the former. Nobody likes a bum out blog post, am I right?
Here is what I am grateful for lately:
My brother (whose 20th birthday was yesterday!)  /  My yarn stash  /  New hair (more on this in a minute!)  /  Poutines  /  Old friends  /  New friends  /  Transit Windsor  /  The annual town festival this weekend  /  Finishing up three balls of yarn recently.

More about new hair! Yesterday, I went to see my friend Christine, where she worked her magic on my hairs, and I came out looking brand spanking new. I'm not as blonde as I'd like, I prefer it to be closer to a white blonde than a golden colour, but we're getting there! I got awesome feedback from the people I saw afterwards. I love being blonde!
In addition to all this fun hair stuff, I went all over Windsor yesterday, hence the thankfulness to Transit Windsor. I had an amazing breakfast poutine at The Twisted Apron, and a regular dinner poutine at Phog. Not the healthiest, especially when you add in all the beer I consumed. I think I deserved a fun day after all the junk I've been through lately. I ran into a few people I knew, and overall had an awesome day.
I have finished three balls of yarn lately. All on the same secret projects I've been on a bender for. I just have to sew the rest of them up, and I'll be done with them. Then, it's time to figure out a new project. I have a bunch of ideas of stuff to make, just a matter of figuring out which yarns to use. These three balls bring me to +54. I'm starting to get a little more realistic with my goal, and I don't know if I'll actually make it. But I will still keep track of everything.
What is going on in your lives lately? Are you trying to get as much summer fun in as possible, too?

Sometimes, Life Gets in The Way

For the longest time, I was updating three times a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with the occasional post on the weekend. Lately, I just haven't been able to keep up with that. I have quotas I want to meet for new items for the rebrand, which means I am knitting even more than usual. I've even been knitting on my breaks at work! Last week, I took the bus to go for dinner with a friend, and even got some knitting done on the bus. (more on this later) I'm trying really hard to get my stash eliminated as much as possible. I managed to get three balls of yarn used up this week, if you count the tiny balls I am donating. This brings me to +57. I'm getting there!
I'm starting to go through my yarn and finding more yarns that I thought I really liked, but after more consideration, they're just not what I want. I don't know what to do with them now. Part of me wants to donate to a group that can use it, but the rest of me says "hey, you put a lot of money out for this, don't just give it away." Does that make me a bad person? I hope not. It will still take me some time to decide what I want to do with all this extra yarn.
Now, about dinner! There is a new place in Windsor that opened, called The Nacho Suite that I heard about on Windsorite. I have a friend that loves to try new foods, so we made arrangements on Twitter to meet up there and try some food. Totally delicious, and I can't wait to go back. I'm planning on trying the seafood option next time.
Have you tried any new restaurants lately?

More Stash Down Progress

This past week, I've been busy knitting away. A lot of knitting is happening, but not much can be shared, as it's all stuff for the rebrand. I can share this one sneak peek picture, which gives nothing away.

Those are my Pymatuning Crafts buttons I got a little while back. This is the first project I've used them on, and seriously, I am in love!!! I initially got them for the baby photo props I made, but I had no luck selling those, and kind of gave up.

I've knit eight of these mystery items, and used up FOUR balls of yarn in the process. Well, almost, I guess. The balls left over were too small to do anything with, so I am donating them to LeeLee hats to use to make stripes on their hats. Anyway,  this brings me to +60. This puts me back at 5.5 skeins to be eliminated per week. I'm confident I can make some progress soon! I have quite a few half finished projects on the needles that I am going to get finished soon!

How are your projects going?

Working on the Rebrand

As you may know, in October, I will no longer be creating under the Knit, Nicole, Knit! name. I won't be disappearing, though, so don't worry! I can't share what my new name is, but it is not knitting specific. Here is a sneak peek at what some of the branding will look like.

I am LOVING how everything is turning out. My friend Christine is doing my branding, and is doing an amazing job. I am going to be ordering business cards, earring cards, and tags for the knitwear this week. I am getting so excited.

I've been working on creating new items for the new brand, which is so much fun. I'm trying to have a more consistent line, by using the same yarns in many of my projects. This means that a lot of my stash is no longer suited to what I need. I will not be getting rid of it though! I'll still continue to knit with them, and sell the finished objects at a discount. I've thought about giving the yarn away, and even selling it, but I would never get the money back that I paid for it. Plus, nearly everything I have now is stuff that I really like. The only reason I am not planning on using it for the new business is that it is vintage, or otherwise impossible to find.

Not much longer till the launch. October is coming up fast!

More Stash Down Progress!

It's only been a couple days since my last update, but I've made even more Stash Down progress! I've been knitting like a madwoman, and eliminating yarn left and right. Still working on the dishcloths, and I am enjoying them. I might miss them once all my cotton is gone.
The top two cloths are some of my favourites. I love adding textures and small sections of stripes to the cloths. They make them way more fun. The blue finished off one ball, and the yellow was finished with the green in the second picture. More on the pink later!
The green and yellow cloth is pretty neat, too. It finished off the yellow and green in one swoop. It's actually like 4 garter ridges too short for a full size cloth, so I threw it in the drawer in the kitchen here. I wouldn't feel right selling a too small cloth to someone, even if I discounted it.
The last two pink ones, in addition to the pink one in the first picture, finished off one of the bigger balls of cotton I had. I still have quite a bit of the light pink left, which I'm working with right now.
This is FOUR balls of yarn finished since Monday! Not half bad, if I say so myself! This brings my count to +64. I always check the average I need to eliminate after I count a chunk. I went from 5.5 skeins per week for the rest of the year, to 5.18. If I can get that number down to 4 or less, I am sure I will get to my goal without having to give yarn away!
I'm taking a short break from the cloths, and working on a striped scarf on 8mm needles that I am loving. I hope to get it done in the next couple days, and share it with all of you.