Upcoming projects

In terms of making things, I've really been focusing on myself lately. To be honest, I'm a little burned out on the business. Sales are slow, and that makes me unmotivated to promote, which is so time consuming. This, in turn, makes sales even slower.

For a while, I took a break from making things just for me. Lately, I've been focusing only on personal stuff, like items for me or gifts for others. I have been doing custom orders only for my business. Obviously, lots of items are for sale, but I haven't been adding to my stock lately. I have had a handful of custom requests lately, and that's nice.

The Brea Bag that I reported on below is coming along nicely. I'm excited for the end results. It's amazing how you look at all the detail and think it will be so hard, but it's really not at all. I guess it might be hard to invent the pattern, but it's not hard to follow it. I think there's a part that's going to confuse me coming up on the gusset, though.
Here's the bag I'm talking about, but it's not the actual one I'm doing. Mine's gray.



I plan to line it and make a fabric strap for it.

Onto the next thing:
I was looking for fashionable knit patterns and found this book called "Runway Knits" by Berta Karapetyan.



It's full of great patterns, some of which are so finely knit that it seems they'd take a decade. For my first one, I chose this A-Line Jacket, knit from a very bulky yarn on large needles. This should go fairly quickly.



I love the huge buttons. I chose Burly Spun in light gray, and had to up my needles from a 13 to a 17 to get 2 sts./inch. They recommend Karabella Puffy, but that would run me $130, where this will run me around $60. My yarn isn't as variegated, but I'll have to live with that.

More as I get going!

Inspiration discovered right here on Burst of Happiness

I spent the last week previewing shops on etsy.com. I did this as an advertising opportunity for other sellers. I have a shop on etsy that has yet to sell anything, but I'm waiting patiently.
If you haven't figured it out by now, etsy is a place for crafters to sell their handmade items. The handmade rule weeds out all the crap that's sold on eBay. It can be hard to sell on eBay when there is so much really cheap, mass-produced junk on there. Plus the fees are awful.
Anyway, my etsy store features skirts, but doing these profiles of other sellers has inspired me to try other things. Not only am I trying knitting, which is much harder than I expected -- harder than crocheting, in my opinion -- but I'm also going to make some cute pillows and pouches (like makeup bags). I might also do some purses. I think this will help my shop because these things aren't size-related and therefore can appeal to more people.

It takes a while to make things, especially with school going on, but I'll get there.
www.burstofhappiness.etsy.com.

A knit fit!

I started talking to this fellow Etsy seller who lives in Albuquerque and is part of a crafting group - www.abqcraftistas.com. I'm going to join them for an upcoming girl's night, and I think it's going to be really fun. I really don't spend a lot of time hanging out with other women, and it will be nice to get to know some other girls with similar interests.

Right now, I'm a sewer. I love to sew, and if I had my choice, it's all I would do. But as I look over the blogs on this Web site, I'm feeling inspired to learn to knit.

I have tried crocheting in the past and just ended up frustrated and didn't much care for it. But a coworker I have says she hates sewing and crocheting but loves to knit, so I thought maybe there's hope for me! It seems like a relatively cheap endeavor -- a couple of knitting needles, a book and some yarn to start out. With sewing (and especially patternmaking), you have to invest a small fortune: sewing machine, serger, vary form curve, 2x18 clear ruler, hip curve, French curves, dress form, fabric, thread, pattern paper, etc. So if I don't like knitting, it shouldn't be too big of a loss.

I suppose one thing I don't need right now is another thing to do, what with school starting and everything else (see post below), but what the heck. You know what I really want to make?
This:

I'm referring to the center ones -- short sleeves. So cute. This is from a stitchdiva.com and it's not the sweater for sale, but the pattern. What if I could someday whip something like this together!?!

The other appealing thing about knitting is its portability. You can't exactly take your sewing machine with you to occupy your extra time during the day. Or to craftista meetings, I suppose.
I'll keep you posted. All zero readers of my blog.