Giveaway Feature - Handarbeitskram!

Police Box - Blue Hand Dyed Yarn

I don't remember how I first met Yvonne of handarbeitskram but we have a lot of geekiness in common! She hand dye's yarn (how cool is that?), knits, and sells incredible stitch markers. I love the yarn above because it's called "police box" after Tardis from Dr. Who! Great inspiration huh? Now, to let you get to know her a little bit better ...

1. Where can we find your work and what do you create? 

I sell on Artfire, my shop is http://handarbeitskram.artfire.com. I offer handdyed yarns, stitch markers for knitting and some knit or crochet patterns. And if you don't know how to knit or crochet, you can order a custom made item from me.

2. What's your favorite part about being an independent artist? 

I love that I can be creative without anyone telling me what to do. I don't think I could be creative on a timeline with given themes all the time, with my own shop I decide about the pace and about the designs or colours.

3. Where do you find your inspiration? 

Everywhere... Sometimes it's movies or TV shows I like, sometimes flowers, trees or other things I find in nature. But it can be artwork as well or something that comes to mind when I read a book or listen to a song. There are so many possible influences when you mainly work with colour, everything has a colour or a combination of several colours and might inspire a new yarn.

4. What advice would you give to other artists?

Do what you love to do. And don't be afraid to try new things, it might sometimes lead to the best results. Be willing to break the rules, it's your work, you decide about the rules

You could win a set of 6 Millefiori Stitch Markers!

Here's what she has to say about it :)

The brightly coloured glass millefiori beads I used for this set of stitch markers are an eye catcher. 

I framed them with silvery spacer beads, iridescent black rocailles and black faceted beads. 

I can make them as crochet markers as well if you prefer those 

and if you don't knit or crochet I can make a key chain with the same beads for you. Item value: $6

So how can you win?

1. Comment on this entry
2. Share their favorite item from her shop(s) (scroll up for links)
3. Plurk or twitter about it and leave a comment with link.
4. Blog about it and leave a comment with link
5. Purchase an item from her shop (for 5 entries) (links above)

Important: All entries must be submitted by comments on this blog post.

I'm keeping track of the entries, so telling Yvonne about them won't help :P

Interested in doing an artist feature/giveaway on this blog? Just let me know!

My Projects Right Now!

As promised - a picture of the headband I made myself!

It's just a simple knitted strip that I tied in the back.

And you even got a pic of me out of the deal :)

This is my bead weaving board at the moment! 

Working on a vampire bracelet that I designed :)

I might put it aside temporarily to knock out a couple of pendants though...

Crafty ADD Weeks 21 - 30

I've had so much fun doing my Crafty ADD posts! And one of my favorite posts of all is when I get to the end of a 10 week (approx) stretch and look back with a slide show on all I've done. It's a lot of fun to revisit my projects, frustrations, and triumphs. I hope you have fun looking at the slide show as well :)

Awesome Knitting and Crocheting

The Blogfire Guild's current them is showing off awesome knitting and crocheting! Well it just so happens that I have friends in both of those camps, and so I thought I'd show of their work!

Meri makes all sorts of fun things to put in her shop, but I have a special place place in my heart for these dolls she makes. The one shown is the Chess Black Queen Fairy. Not only do I think her work is very impressive, she was sweet enough to make me a purple fairy for Christmas! I was sooo suprised - and excited! My fairy, Lira, sits on my desk and watches over me while I work :)

Yvonne of Handerbeitskram is another artist I've had a lot of fun getting to know! We've both done a trade, and she ordered a custom order from me, and both transactions went wonderfully. We also talk on plurk all the time and have many of the same interests (like sci-fi). I've been learning to knit - and I really admire her handiwork. She also has bunch of great yarns in her shop so make sure to check it out. I picked these fingerless mitts to feature because I love all the bright colors in them!

Crafty ADD Recap - Weeks 11-20

Yah, yah, yah, I know, I'm a wee bit late in getting this up! Especially since I'll also be posting Crafty ADD #22 today... But you guys still loves me right? lol

Crafty ADD Update #21

Lots of pictures this week! I would have put this up yesterday - but I had a really bad migraine - so no computer time and no pictures!

Paper Craft

I took these plain brown paper bags from the craft store - and added snow flakes to them! We were having a game night and it was the perfect time to hand out some of the Christmas presents I've made over the last few months. My dear hubby thought I was CRAZY for making the snowflakes to put on bags that they will probably throw away, but I don't care. Paper is cheap and I love snowflakes!

Knitting

I finished the green scarf in time! I know it's longer than what I had last shown on here - but I have no idea how much longer. I think I added about 8 more inches? I should have written myself a note when I measured it huh?

I started this scarf on Christmas day - and then did a lot of work on it during my road trip to visit Granny! It's been interesting, a very different experience than any I've had before. I've never used eyelash yarn before and I've never used the circular knitting needles before. I was a little nervous about trying the eyelash yarn, and while I would never want to crochet with it, it actually works up really easily once you get it started! It also is going much faster than anything I've done before because it's much narrower and on larger needles.

Crochet

Mom showed me how to do the next steps in my project! And I got 5 rows added along the top. Hard to see how that's going to be a hat when I'm done isn't it? I guess I just have to have faith in the pattern. And I know I'll stitch it up the back when I'm done :P

Jewelry

I made this charm/shawl pin for the green scarf - and Bu liked it!

I actually made this pin awhile ago -

but I finally put a back on it and gave it to its intended recipient :P

This is the last of the presents I made for my friends at the Game Night - and I made it in the last hour before we left! Talk about overbooking myself with projects... She loved it though!

Now your probably thinking, "What on earth does this have to do with jewelry?" Well...the answer is that's my new project pan! I took a cheap tinfoil pie dish, spread tacky glue around it, and glued down some beading fabric. This gives me something I can put in my lap when I'm doing bead work away from my house. I tried it out on the trip - and it worked really well until my back started hurting and I had to sit in a different position in the car.

Christmas isn't over with! This one is going to be late - but that's ok - I know the girl I'm making it for loves me to death :)

I had a lot of fun doing a largely handmade Christmas this year...and I'm already starting to think ahead towards the next year of birthdays, weddings, and Christmas! Am I crazy? Naw...just crafty :P

I've Learned...

I've learned that long car rides with messed up rib muscles can be painful, and that it makes it very difficult to bead while you drive! (note: brother drove, I was the passenger, not beading and doing the driving myself) I did a little bit yesterday, but I needed to be able to stretch my legs at a different angle to help relieve the stress on my ribs, so beading didn't last for long. Good news is I can still knit! I can sit in whatever position I want to while I knit so I have a feeling that I'll make good progress (or finish) the scarf I'm making myself when we drive home this afternoon!

Crafty ADD Update #20

Can you believe this is already my 20th ADD post? That's just crazy! That means I need to do another slide show post sometime this week :) We'll see how things develop :P I still have a bunch of Christmas stuff to finish!

Crochet

I FINALLY finished the cuff/band on the hat! It's ready for the next step...but I'm probably going to need Mom to show me how to do that (almost definitely) so I'm stuck for a day or two :P That's ok - at this point I don't think I'm going to see them until after Christmas anyway and I think once Mom gets me going on the next part I should be good to go on my own. :)

Knitting

The scarf is 61 inches! I'd say it's a good length, but I'm not gifting it until Wednesday night, so we'll see if I'm in a knitting mood between now and then and it might just end up growing anyway :P

Paper Craft

I made another star! This one's for my in-laws :) I think we're taking it over there tomorrow... I was planning on having this done earlier but just kept not getting around too it. I was going to make one for my house too - but that's not happening at this point. Ah well - life goes one and plans change!

Jewelry

I'm officially insane - in case you didn't already know that! Friday night I was getting ready for my bazaar the next day by tagging and pricing new items right? Well that got me inspired, and I couldn't quit until after I'd made the above 5 pairs of hoops! (and tagged/priced them of course). Now if I could just get my ribs to heal up enough that I can take pics to put new items up in the shops....

I also finished up this bracelet this week. It's going in my consignment shop! My bead woven bracelets haven't really sold there up until now, so I'm rotating in some different styles to see what happens.

Crafty ADD Update #19

It's been a long week - lots of ups and downs emotionally and physically - but I still got some done! Despite the fact that my hubby got me addicted to a video game and I fell HARD for my new addiction because it was a good escape from all the emotional drama :P

Knitting

I only added a couple of inches to the scarf this week. I spent most of my yarn crafty time working on crocheting this week. But knitting a scarf doesn't take me very long any more so I'm still pretty confident this will be done on time :)

Crochet

While technically this part of the pattern is really easy - I'm having a hard time with the stitch. Not that I'm messing it up really or anything (although I have had to pull out a few rows a few times when I missed a stitch), it's just that I'm VERY slow at it! Will this be done by Christmas? I don't know. At least I know the recipient is a 2 year old girl - and she'll be excited whenever she gets to unwrap it - late or not!

Jewelry

I've been at a quandary on how I present my jewelry on the crafty ADD posts. Because some days I work on bead woven pieces and have no finished product, some days I don't do anything, and other days I do a whole TON of small things. So I decided that every day I do jewelry work that's completed - I'll take a picture - and if I have a partially finished beadweaving piece I'll take a picture of it on Monday when I take my crocheting and knitting pictures :)

Wednesday night I made these up. The bracelet is a Christmas present - and I made the other two as I put away a whole bunch of supplies I'd bought and found myself inspired! I had picked up a baby food jar full of randomly strung beads, and Wednesday night I finally sorted them!

Friday night I finally put away a tube of large seed beads I had bought a couple weeks ago - well - put it away after making a memory wire bracelet! Which was my plans for the beads, so that's perfect. The earrings were a custom order for my mother-in-law that she's going to send to a friend for Christmas.

I just couldn't get in the bead weaving groove last week - but I finally pulled out my beads and started this bracelet! It's for my consignment store :)

I don't know when I'll be able to get new things on-line - I have a TON of stuff to put on-line but taking pictures is going to be hard because I have a sprained rib. Fun stuff yo!

Crafty ADD Update #18

Well this is the shortest ADD update I've had in a long time! But that's ok - I can't take over the owrld every week *wink* And I had some sick days last week (and this week too for that matter). All these pics go back to Monday...but that's not saying much cuz Tuesday was a total sick day with no crafting.

Knitting

Oh yay baby! I'm rocking the knitting the scarves :D Last week - 13 1/2. This week? 38 1/2 inches! Woot! I'm think I'll probably go a little over 5 feet (this one's for a girl and doesn't need to be as long) but we'll see what I end up with :P

Crochet

I started my niece's Christmas present! It's going to be a hat. This is take three on doing what they call the cuff.... As you may be able to tell from the picture I need to pull it out part way because, yet again, I lost a stitch somewhere so it got smaller part way along and I didn't notice... Oh well, I can do it! That's the nice thing about crochet - it's not hard to pull out and start over part way through :P

Jewelry

I keep having little mini-crazy-jewelry making parties. I did these....Sunday evening I think? I sooooo need to get some pictures to load new items on-line! I also made a Christmas present that night - but I can't show that because it was for someone who might see the blog :P

Paper Craft

Take my word for it - I made some snowflakes :P I forgot to take pictures earlier when I was taking pics for this post - maybe I'll get picks and put 'em up tomorrow?

Crafty ADD Update #17 (totally late)

Ok - so normally I do my crafty ADD posts earlier in the week - but I kinda got eaten by the migraine monsters earlier this week - so these pictures are from the previous week up until Monday night. I've made stuff since then! LOL

Paper Craft

Say what??? Paper craft? Ruthie? (Edi are you proud?) That's right - there are a few paper crafts that I occasionally do! Despite the fact that I can barely cut in a straight line... Any way... I learned how to make these stars while I was a day care teacher (that feels like another life time) and I made this one to take over to my parents house for Thanksgiving Dinner :)

Ok - so this one is no big deal - but I've kinda gotten in the habit of taking pictures of anything I create! Paul is Mo's older brother and his b-day is the day after Thanksgiving. We got together at their parents house on Monday for a bday party for the two of us (mine was last week too) and Mo and I bought a bunch of coffee for Paul. I didn't want to give him just a plain brown bag - so I decorated it!

Oh yes, and I have a fresh batch of construction paper from last week - be afraid, be very afraid.

Cross Stitch

I thought I'd get a shot of the three book marks all cut out and finished :D I need to get them listed... No good being done if not listed eh?

Knitting

Ok - the way I laid that out makes it look like a pair of pants - but the black scarf is done! It ended up 6ft 2 inches. Just a wee bit over my planned length. I got a little too into it the last time I sat down to knit :P

And on the next scarf! Yes, I'm crazy, but I'm getting faster! Can you tell? The first 13 inches were accomplised at the bazaar and then at the bday party. Wait until you see the next update...I've come a long way since Monday :D

Jewelry

Here's a few random things I made up last Saturday/Sunday. I had an insomniac night and I did a whole bunch of stuff, including the above collection. Bracelet, 3 pairs of earrings, and a charm. Which is kinda funny cuz I sat down planning on making several bracelets and only made one and a bunch of other small stuff!

This is my current bead embroidery project. It's a peace sign! It'll be for the current Etsy Bead Weavers challenge assuming I finish it in time. Again, these pictures are from Monday - so I've made progress since then and it's looking good :)

This is the back of the peace sign. It amused me. Looks kinda like a rustic broom design...

Crafty ADD Update #16

Lots to show off this week - so lets dive right in!

Knitting

Goal - 72 inches. As of last week - 35 1/2 inches. As of this week - 48 1/2 inches! I knitted over a foot this week :D And I'm going to have to knit over a foot to have it done this week like I want so I can start the next one. I'm currently imating the little engine that could, "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can."

Cross Stitch

I finally completed the piece of fabric!

I'm quite proud of how this book mark turned out :) Since it's entirely my own design. *take a bow* I'm definitely not planning on picking up a cross stitch hoop again until Christmas is over though... unless by some random happenstance I get a custom order. Mom has them all now and she's putting the backing on for me. For some reason I can't seem to handle the simple act of ironing on the backing. Go figure :P

Jewelry

My evil twins Christmas present is finished!

Her necklace was actually really challenging. The band is made from peyote stitch and I've never done a strip that long before! Plus it has two size beads, which always makes things more interesting. Adding on the drops at the end was easy though. Kind of like a nice little treat at the end. I can't wait to see it on her! She helped me plan it all out so this is one Christmas present I can blog about :D

I've also spent a lot of time putting together earrings to restock my main consignment store. I sold a bunch of stuff over Sept/October and I got the bracelets restocked but I didn't manage to get the earrings restocked right away. Things have just been crazy. Hoping to get them all priced and take them in tomorrow :D

Crafty ADD Update #15

Well - I missed a week of doing my Crafty ADD updates :( It made me sad because I was ON TRACK with everything after my bazaar...until I sprained my ankle and had to ride in the elevator that had just been painted and got a HUGE whiff of paint and was dealing with both the ankle pain and massive migraines. Yah. Lots of things got missed the first half of last week :P So here's where I'm at THIS week :P

Knitting

I was so excited cuz it looks like it's getting pretty long! 35 1/2 inches! And only one small mistake that I know the recipient won't mind right? Um, until I started thinking about what that translates too. Based on who the recipient is Mom said I should make this 6 ft long...which means that I'm only half done! Oy vey! I can dooo it! My goal is to be done by the time Thanksgiving is over so I can start on my last scarf Christmas present. Who thinks I can do it? I do! And here I was soooo proud of myself for knitting my way through the entirety of the "The Corpse Bride" the other night...

Cross Stitch

Almost done! Working on the border, should have that done in the next day or two, then I'll hand it off to Mom to let her put the backing on it. I'd do it, but I don't want to ruin it :P Don't worry, I'll take one last shot before I pass it off! And then no more cross stitch until my Thanksgiving Weekend bazaar is over :) Maybe not till after Christmas. Because my next project is for a wedding next summer and I have plenty of Christmas presents to work on....

Jewelry

My Mother in Law ordered some charms at the bazaar last weekend and this is what I came up with for her :) She smiled pretty big when I delivered them so I'll take that as a good sign!

While I was at it I whipped up three more charms to (eventually) restock my store with because they were pretty good sellers for me at the bazaar :) At the very least I'll get them tagged before my next bazaar, but it would be nice to get them on-line too. We'll see...

I've found myself getting caught up the last few days in a mad frenzy of "promote, write, promote, promote, network, promote!" and while all that has it's place, I wasn't creating anything! NOT GOOD! So I'm trying to come back to a healthy balance by working at the computer for awhile and then doing crafty stuff for awhile and then switching again. Seems to be working well so far :) I'm feeling much less stressed for one thing! Creating relaxes me :D Although technically it's still work... Anyway, I was looking around trying to decide which project I wanted to work on when I took my first break this morning and these purple chips caught my eye, I bought them last week and hadn't got them put away yet, so I whipped up a bracelet!

This is the detail to the neckband on my evil twin's Christmas present. Don't worry, this is one Christmas present I can blog about, I let her help me design it! The band is almost done...hoping to have this finished in the next day or two. I'll take more pictures, don't worry!