Paper Beads! September 29, 2007

So I finally got my first few sets of paper beads posted on Etsy. I say finally, because I literally have about 400 paper beads that I’ve made over the past year or so that I need to sort into sets and spray with sealant. Here are the first two sets I’ve posted.

Anthea

Coriander

And here’s a close up picture that I took to show the shape of the beads.

I finally figured out how to use the macro function on my camera this week! I had been pushing the wrong button, but I think now I’ve figured it out. Photography isn’t really my strong suit, but I think that my pictures are getting better.

I was hanging out on the Etsy forums the other day, and someone had posted about something that’s become my new obsession – Moo Cards! These are just the freaking cutest things ever. They’re like little mini business cards printed on heavy paper, with your pictures on one side and your info on the other. I’ve only sold one thing on Etsy so far, so I don’t feel justified in getting any yet, but once I sell a few more things I’m seriously thinking about getting some. I think they’d be super cute used as hang tags for yarn, with a hole punched in one corner.

I’ve been away from the blog for a while, but I’ve been busy in that time! I have two new yarns and a finished scarf to show you as soon as I get some pictures taken.

Have a great weekend!

Hooray! September 12, 2007

I made my first sale at my Etsy shop this morning! Hooray! I’m so excited I don’t even know what to do with myself. I’ve been on Etsy for just over a month, but somehow it never occurred to me that anyone would ever actually buy anything. I’m glad that it was the Everlasting Gobstopper yarn that sold, since that was one of my favorites. I’m just super happy right now, in case you couldn’t tell…

So I’ve been getting started on spinning up those new rovings I posted a while back. I love dyeing my own roving, but I always have problems deciding how I should spin it – spin a single, ply it with itself, or ply with thread? To make those decisions easier in the future, I decided to do a little experiment. I spun up two yarns from the same batch of roving – one as a single plied with thread, and one as a two-ply.
Sunny Delight

And Strawberry Lemonade

Isn’t that crazy? They look so different for being from the same roving. I think what I learned from doing this is that when I leave a yarn as a single, the colors stay much more intact and the less-dominant colors show up a lot more – the yellow shows up much more in the first yarn. But when I ply it, the colors mix, and the brighter color sort of takes over and dominates the yarn – the second one looks much more pink. I’ve always been a big fan of singles, but this has convinced me to start doing more plied yarns – I love the way the colors blend!

Speaking of colors, here are some paper beads in shades of red and orange hanging up to dry – coming soon to my Etsy shop!

Enjoy the rest of your Wednesday night!