new stuff

I'm updating the etsy shop today with lots of new stuff. I'm tempted to keep some of it, but alas... one needs to generate income.

Markets, Fairs, and Festivals

The day before the etsyRAIN Holiday Show, I went to Kinko's to get a business sign printed. Little did I know that such a seemingly simple task would cost me $35! I said "no thanks" and made my way to the craft store 2 blocks over to get some supplies for a home-made business sign. It kind of felt and turned out to look more like a 6th-grade craft project than a business sign, but I still like it. :)

The etsyRAIN holiday show was both wonderful and disappointing. The venue, the vendors, the organizers, etc. were all great. And there was a pretty decent crowd of pleasant and kind shoppers as well. But for whatever reasons (economy?), not many sales were made (by me or many of the other vendors there).
Tomorrow, I'll be hauling this display to the Ballard Farmer's Market and hoping it will be cold enough to entice people's purchases but not so cold that I lose the function of my fingers and toes. :) Feel free to come by and say hi if you're in the area.

Christmas shopping?

I'll be selling wrist warmers, leg warmers, headbands, hats, scarves, etc. at the...

EtsyRAIN Craft Show
November 21 and 22 (Saturday and Sunday)
10am-5pm
at the Intiman Theater (Seattle Center)
201 Mercer Street

*The first 50 customers through the door each day will receive a Swag Bag featuring items from etsyRAIN artists!

It's the perfect time to get some totally unique, high-quality Christmas presents or just something to keep yourself warm this winter. If you're in Seattle, I hope to see you there!

from the bowels of my apartment

Thanks to craft fairs, birthdays, holidays, and other special occasions, I do manage to finish knitting projects (ends weaved in and all) on a pretty regular basis. That is not to say that I finish everything that I start but that I do finish SOME things. However, in the process of moving this past weekend, I found entirely too many unfinished knitting projects that were buried in the bowels of my apartment.

My reasons for abandoning projects include:
hating the way my project is turning out,
growing weary of monotonous projects,
growing weary of the complicated projects
becoming distracted by a more inspiring yarn or project
dislike of the texture of the yarn I’m working with.
dislike of the color(s) of the yarn I’m working with.
etcetera

When I find piles of my unfinished projects, I’m often surprised at what I find. First, it’s a bit shocking how many projects I completely forget about having started – projects that I would possibly never think about again if moving or deep cleaning did not forced me to dig them out of the depths. Once these projects have surfaced, I have various reactions to what I find.

In some cases, I can quickly see why I abandoned the project in the first place. In such cases as these – when my disdain for certain projects surpasses the mere immediacy of the artist’s creative angst – I feel perfectly at peace with unraveling the work and freeing the yarn for the possibility of greater purposes. Granted, I’m not immune to the impulsivity that comes with the artist’s creative angst. I once knitted a cabled sweater for my husband and basically ripped it off his back (despite his contentment with the piece) to tear it apart less than a week later. I don’t regret that decision, but it was definitely more emotionally fueled than rational.

On the other hand, I often find beautiful projects that are just waiting to be finished. For whatever reasons that I abandoned them in the first place, these projects are bursting with desire to be completed and worn with pride. Among others that I found in our move this past weekend, I found this little sweater (intended for a toddler) that almost audibly cried to be given sleeves and a young child to keep warm.

Unfortunately, this project doesn’t fit into my specific business focus in Greenleaf, but I think I’ll have to make time for it on the side, because I love it. Hurray for digging in the bowels of my apartment. Whether I unravel the piece or give it sleeves, I can now free the pieces that have been neglected for far too long.

packing

The packing process has begun for our move into our new house,


and I have become keenly aware of just how much yarn I have

and how badly I need to organize it!


And this isn't even all of it. Oh how I can't wait to move from this 1-bdrm apartment to our 3-bdrm house. At least then I might feel less guilty about the plethora of unorganized wool.

finding my nitch

One of the first pieces of advice that I was given by several people when I first started Greenleaf was to find my nitch - To try to focus and market 1 particular piece or style (e.g., long, narrow scarves, pastel baby hats, pot holders, anything - just as long as it’s specific and I do it well.)

Most of you who know me probably know that it’s hard for me to stay that focused. As far as knitting goes, I love knitting a variety of styles, shapes, colors, textures and get bored pretty quickly with the idea of producing the same thing (or at least the same style) over and over. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t quite find a specific enough nitch for my business in the past year, and thus Greenleaf has struggled.

However, over the past several months, something magical has happened… I’ve found my nitch, my style, my focus (at least for now). :) With a few exceptions of course, I’ve found myself entering an awesomely fun, inspiring, sometimes-practical 80’s vibe of knitting. As you’ve probably noticed, I’ve made wrist warmers galore, several sets of leg warmers, and recently venturing into headbands.

I'm currently working on these leg warmers, which will soon be embellished with bright red heart buttons

to match these perfectly 80’s wrist warmers

So fun!

In addition to the ongoing inspiration that I’ve encountered in this focused realm of knitting projects, on the business end of things, it’s working! People seem much more interested in my stuff (probably because they’re actually able to focus now and not feel overwhelmed by the incongruent diversity of products), and the sales at markets and in my etsy shop have begun. Hurray for focus! Let's hope it lasts.

new stuff

New items going up in the etsy shop today!



And many more. It's not too early to begin your holiday shopping!

www.greenleafknitting.etsy.com

first fall event!

I'll be participating in this event on Sunday, October 4 (1 week from today). If you're in the Seattle area, I'd love to see your face there! I'll be selling lots of hats, headbands, wrist warmers, leg warmers to kick off the fall season. Hope to see you there.

(A bit more about IHR - I Heart Rummage...)

I Heart Rummage is Seattle's longest running cutting edge urban craft experience!

IHR features 40+ of Seattle's most innovative indie designers and urban crafters at Chop Suey from 12-4pm the first Sunday of most every month.

Be sure to stop by October 4th and shop the best variety of urban crafts, and hear DJ Huggy, our live house DJ, spin his tracks!

Our special guests for October are Ruby Room and NW Film Forum
IHR always has the latest and greatest in urban crafts!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Join IHR
Sunday, October 4th
12-4pm
Chop Suey
1325 E. Madison, Seattle, WA
www.iheartrummage.net

resurrection

Alas, fall is approaching, and it is time to resurrect Greenleaf Knitting and this blogging space.

I'm currently applying to a bunch of fall indie markets/fairs and busting out as many wrist warmers as humanly possible. I'm on about month 6 of my wrist warmer obsession and still loving it. :) Even though I've let Greenleaf sleep for many months now, I have kept her in mind and diligently knitted, knitted, knitted for her during her long nap.

I'm looking forward to re-entering and sharing this journey with you. I'll post some pics of my latest projects soon and let you know when I have specific market news.

yarn drunk

I'm obsessed with yarn. I own tons of yarn - shoved into bags, boxes, and chests or elegantly (sometimes) arranged in baskets that are scattered throughout my apartment. I love being surrounded by the various colors, textures, and even smells of yarn. Yarn stimulates a particular part of my creativity that opens up seemingly infinite possibilities of expression.

When I walk into a yarn store, my heart starts to race, and all of my senses feel like they're going to explode with pleasure. The 1 variable that tends to keep me from exploding is the monetary cost of gorgeous wool yarn. Knowing that I cannot afford to own all of the yarn with which I can become quickly attached, I manage to find a relative sense of calm while I'm in yarn stores. Unless... there's a yarn sale.

One of my favorite yarn stores in Seattle is having a sale this weekend, and I might have come as close to exploding as I ever have in a yarn store. I was, initially, somewhat skeptical, because a yarn "sale" can often be disappointing - not much of an actual discount or a significant discount on undesirable yarn. But neither were the case this weekend. The shop was selling tons of gorgeous wool for 40% off!

I scored 1 skein of royal blue eco-wool

& 8 skeins of beautiful Noro silk/mohair blends,


(This one will become a wide scarf/shawl for a dear friend in Cameroon...)

On my way home from the sale, I called a friend/ fellow knitter and told her that she must go to the sale. After listening to me manically go off about how awesome the sale was, she said, "Are you yarn drunk?" Not sure that I heard her right, I said, "What?" She said it again, and I busted out laughing. It was perfect. I was, in fact, yarn drunk.

focusing

As usual, despite my long and regretful absence from the blogging world, I have continued to knit a ton. Over the past month, I’ve been trying to get more ‘focused’ on the types of projects that I’m doing. In other words, I'm trying to make a lot of a few particular things (instead of a few of a large variety of things).

Within that focus, I’ve started making a few hats in this vein…
And a TON of brightly colored wrist warmers like these…

I can’t quite get enough of the wrist warmer thing, so I’m just going to keep going with it and try to focus on some bright, springy colors to sell at markets during March and April.

Oh, and 1 more random thing… I’ve been trying to get a good picture of Antonio (the 2-year-old that I nanny) in the sweater that I made for him at Christmas. And finally, here it is…

more, more, more...

completed projects. And another successful (though FREEZING) market last Sunday.




I'm presently working on 4 custom orders - YEA!!! Too bad I'm also a nanny and in graduate school. I want it all, I suppose.

Productivity

I've been quite productive with my commissions this week and am pleased with the results of both of these...

Men's hat - made with gray and black cashmere/merino wool blend - an amazing fiber to work with.


Lacy Scarf - made with hand-dyed merino wool/silk blend in a gentle but rich, slightly-varigated yellow.


SO MUCH FUN! I can't wait for more.

Market Update

Well... after much preparation (including tents, tables, tags, cards, and weaving in a million ends), my experience as a vendor at the Ballard Market was successful! I made a few sales, accepted a few commissions, and distributed my card to a lot of people. If all goes according to plan, I'll be back at the market again next week. Yea! This was such a relief after my previously disappointing market experience.

p.s. The only down-side is that I froze my toes off. I'll have to double up the socks next week.

Going to the market

I'm prepared to set up a booth at the Ballard Market tomorrow. Come check it out if you're in the area... 10am-3pm. Although I have a tent, I'm still hoping for some sun like we had today!

Catching Up

Ahh, I am back after a LONG holiday hiatus. In the past week, I have begun to reconnect with ambitions for Greenleaf that had begun to fade over the past couple of months. (I'll blame that on graduate school. That's my excuse - though quite valid - for everything these days.)

In this past month, although I've been mostly inactive with the business side of Greenleaf, I've continued to knit, of course. Among other things, I knitted these hats as Christmas gifts for my 3, beautiful nieces...



I bought the flowers that I sewed onto the hats from a local Seattle artist. (You can see and buy her beautiful work at simplyscraps.etsy.com)

As far as the business end of Greenleaf goes, I'm happy to have run into a LARGE (over 400 people) group of Seattle artists who also have shops on etsy. They are called etsyRAIN (ahh, so depressingly fitting for a group of Seattle-ites), and they function to network and support each other in their brave and creative endeavors. I'm very happy to have found and joined this group of artists.

In other news, the gracious family for whom I nanny gave me a tent to use for markets!!! Now, the weatherman holds much less power over my market fate - YEA!!! I'll be sure to post my market vending plans here for you local consumers.