The Perils of Christmas Knitting

I found the perfect colorway for a pair of gloves for Rocket to match her neon winter jacket. This has been a difficult task since she's been around more often than I expected with more than a touch of her first real winter cold and a day out of school.  So there I was, knitting away at a frenzied pace on a pair of secret gloves, sitting by an afternoon fire, thinking about turning on a bit of Christmas music. I was through the cuffs and just working my way around the front of the second glove toward the start of the thumb gusset when I realized (gasp!!) that the second glove was not counting out correctly.  In shock and dismay, I counted again. How could this be?! When I say that it was not counting out correctly, I don't mean not counting out correctly as in I was off by a stitch or two.  I mean, I was off by two glove sizes, meaning that I had one small glove and one large glove on the needles!  How in the name of all things knitterly could that have happened!?!

Yes, this colorway really is that bright!

After much swearing and desperate re-counting, there was only one thing to do: dive into the frog pond.  Okay, so it was only a measly 35 rows that needed to be re-knit, which normally would not be that great of a hardship, but, even if you forget that Christmas morning is 15 days away and that I still have another pair of gloves to finish, 3 hats, and 8.5 dish cloths to whip out, there is one peril of knitting, particularly occurring during the Christmas knitting insanity  season that one cannot overcome: the striping doesn't match on the second go-around.  Nope, not even a little bit.  It was pretty dang perfect the first time through but, because the knitting gods have a sick sense of humor, especially regarding all holiday knitting, the second time, no matter how carefully planned, will not stripe the same way.  NOT AT ALL!

The other thing that irks me is that I could have had the hands finished to the finger starting point today had I not had to spend my 1.5 hours of knitting time re-knitting the second cuff.  Even Nature is  picking up on my mood, as the sun has disappeared behind some rather threatening clouds and has kept this up through the whole of my knitting and the writing of this post.  I have, however, managed to get back to where I was in the pattern before the delusions of knitting mastery were shattered.

Gotta' go make up for lost time, so ho, ho, ho and happy knitting! 

The End of My Etsy Era

And with a click of the button and a few choice last words for the powers that be at Etsy about how they've trashed the artisans who built that company, my Etsy shop is no more.  It's a bit sad to suddenly have no Etsy shop after almost 5 years, but I'm moving on!

My new shop's appearance at Zibbet.com is eerily like my original shop at Etsy.  I like the look of the large photos and listings better than what's been done to the Etsy listings pages.  It's definitely like starting over and being whisked back in time ... except that 5 years later my life is so much more awesome than it was then that starting over doesn't seem as daunting as starting up did in 2010.

You know what has been just fabulous about leaving Etsy?  The response from past customers when I contacted them to let them know that I was closing my shop and moving it elsewhere has been amazing!  Every convo response that arrived in my inbox said 2 things: "I'll be happy to follow you to your new shop!" and "I, too, have noticed all the Chinese junk on Etsy and have stopped shopping here because of it."  Such a response makes me feel like I am making the right choice. I've also gotten supportive messages from other shop owners who used to be on Etsy and have also moved elsewhere.

So here's a little self-promotion in the social media realm.  I'm in a few places--my kids tell me that I'm too old and make fun of me to be active on social media, which is pretty hilarious!--and I would love it if you wanted to get connected. Actually, I have a bet going with my teenage boys about whether or not I can become "Insta-famous" without their help. They seem to think I don't stand a chance at social media popularity. I'd love it if you'd help me to prove them wrong!

FB: Cedar Hill Farm Company
Twitter: @cedarhillfarmco
Instagram: @cedarhillfarmcompany
Tumblr: knittingstash
Rav ID: zibelineknits
Online shop:  http://www.zibbet.com/cedar-hill-farm-company
Farm website:  http://www.cedarhillfarmcompany.com

I hope that you will also follow me to my new shop and continue to visit this blog. I will have a new label of yarn coming out in January, though I have yet to settle on a label name, that I know you will love.  This is some seriously squishy merino fingering weight sock/shawl yarn, folks (think Malabrigo Sock and then think "squishier").  It's so seriously awesome that it's going to be used as part of a crazy-big event on the blog Tangledmania (there's also a Rav group) where Jennifer is going to be knitting every single pattern in the pattern book Botanical Knits.  I'm providing the yarn for the Ivy Trellis Mittens (lovely pattern!), alongside other yarn companies that include Knit Picks, Three Fate Yarns, and Celestial Strings. There will be updates here, on the Rav page, and of course on Tangledmania. So stay tuned for that, too!

A Change of Venue

So, if you are an Etsy seller like me, you've probably noticed that this year's sales are in the toilet, unless, of course, you happen to be one of the Chinese (probably sweatshop, human rights violating, mass-producing) factories that have been allowed to sell "handmade" crap on Etsy since 2013. Etsy used to be an OOAK, hand-crafted, handmade and vintage only, made in America, online market place. That's what made Etsy, well, Etsy.  It was not Amazon.  It was not Ebay.  It was the place to go to get that special toy or yarn or dress or hand-knit scarf or nick-knack or piece of handcrafted jewelry.  Now, it's a market place where cheap made-in-China crap fills the first 50 pages of your search and undercuts the prices of the real artisans.  And the real artisans, the Americans, have watched their sales become non-existent.  Etsy even went so far, when sellers and teams boycotted Etsy en masse, to lie to sellers and say that they weren't doing what they did.  So here's my deal:

I've thought about this and thought about this and been angry and been sad (I've been with Etsy for nearly 5 years) and done some research and now I am starting over with a new shop on a new site, Zibbet.com.  This is a site that is what Etsy was when Etsy first began.  It doesn't have fancy bells and whistles, they aren't beta testing a new page view format or trying to come up with ways to prevent buyers and sellers from contacting the powers that be every month.  They aren't offering you a million ways to pay (or sellers a million ways to get cheated out of the profits from the few sales they are getting). They are just offering a platform for American artisans and indie dyers to connect with the people who used to connect with Etsy but have turned away. It's good to make money, but I'll tell you this:  I can't support anyone who uses "made in America" as a front for lining their pockets with Chinese kickbacks.  Sorry, Etsy, I just can't do it.

So the new shop is open for business.  The shop is Cedar Hill Farm Company. I am still adding listings (it takes about an hour to create 10 listings, and I have over 220 to put in there), but I hope you will visit my shop anyway to check it out and add a bookmark to you tool bar. Just to remind you of why you love my hand dyed yarn ...

Thanks for stopping by and for supporting American small business.