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