Happy Holidays

I am just finishing yet another pair of scrunch socks and shipping them off to Florida. It will be my last scrunch socks knitted this year as I really have to get going with family things and holiday festivities! I love this time of year but can do without the stress. My thoughts are for the new year how to grow my business on Etsy. It will be my fourth year on Etsy and I love it and have enjoyed the contact with fellow hobbyists and followers of my shop. I am blessed that I have a following and that my socks do sell. It gives me more hope for next year as I think about new and interesting patterns to knit.
For all of you a very Happy Holiday Season and a very Happy New Year!

Cotton Scrunch Socks

I cannot believe that I have knitted 10 pairs of the Scrunch Socks with 2 Custom orders that have to be knitted. This have become quite the sock and actually love knitting them. I have memorized the pattern and now with doing cables without a cable hook it has been an easier sock to knit. The only problem is when I knit the socks for custom and having to alter the pattern slightly to fit the dimensions that are given. That becomes a challenge but I have really loved knitting these.  I know I have to order more cotton yarn but have been putting it off until I can order enough for free shipping...can you believe that!

Citrum Cotton Scrunch Sock Detail

But can you believe the snow we got on the CT Shoreline....amazing to see snow in October and the cracking and popping sounds of trees falling all evening was not exactly part of the beauty of the snow. We had a couple of big limbs pop off of our trees and a close call of wires going down...At least we still have power and that can't be said for many others on the East Coast. The good thing about storms is that you really are locked in and that in turn gives you more time to knit. I have an order of 3 Scrunch Socks to knit for a couple in Florida and the storm did give me alot of time to catch up...but today I think cleaning up the storms wake will be the chore of the day.

"Alfred" the first winter storm of the year dumped a ton of snow. 

Cable Without a Cable Needle?????

Well I finally figured it out and really wasn't as complicated as I thought. Got rid of my cable needle and now just use the "sticks" and yarn. Certainly is faster to knit this way! The only thing is to be extra careful when doing the cables as you don't want to lose the stitches. So it is off the left hand needle, carefully putting whatever stitches you need on the right hand needle and putting them back on the left hand...and make the cable! Really that simple...although wouldn't want to be doing this in the car riding on bumpy roads, or in crowded subway trains...steady as you go!

Can knitting socks become a business?

There are times that I think I could really have a business on Etsy...then I look at the product I am creating and try to figure out just how to make it a real business. Hand made items especially knitting them is a long process and although I am always elated to sell a pair of socks I clearly get a little frustrated that I have less items to sell in my shop. Currently I have 16 items in my shop. I like to have 20 or more but recent sales have dropped my inventory and now I have 2 pairs of custom orders that I am knitting...yikes!

I need to get more in the shop so this week I have decided to not just knit during the evening but knit during the day as well to see if I can produce more and have a healthier looking site.

I do make enough to feed my hobby and extra for gifts but really would love to have a real shop without loosing any of the quality and joy I like to give in each item I knit.

I do love to knit!

Steve Jobs

Taking a moment to reflect on the life of Steve Jobs....the visionary, the leader, the amazing inventor...our hero. Quoted from his 2005 Stanford Speech:

"No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary."


He ended with (talking about the Whole Earth Catalog and life:


"Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you."


Words to live by.


Listen to his speech:

Scrunch Socks again!

So really have been busy...these Scrunch Socks have been a real winner. Did this grey pair last week and working of a red pair now. I really have to knit fast as I have a list of personal socks I wanted to knit as well as a couple of mitts I wanted to try to design. Wish there was more time in the day...Etsy Scrunch Socks