Macy's Christmas Displays, 2010

Ugh. I've had an exhausting day, and I have another tomorrow. However, this is a pretty easy post to put up, so I'm gonna try to get it done. :)

The first of the department stores that I visited on Sunday was Macy's, which I arrived at just at dusk. I joined the crowds who were also there to see the show - and a show it was! Instead of just having scenes, or even moving scenes, the windows literally told a story. Each window started covered, and then the covering would open, and a voice over would narrate the story as the figures moved and the scenes unfolded. It was pretty awesome, and the story was pretty sweet. It was called "Yes, Virginia," and I'll paraphrase it for this post.

The first of the screens over the images was the stained glass on Virginia's roof.

The story started in Virginia's house. She a friend were talking about Santa.

Meanwhile, her father and mother are at the table, her father reading in The Sun, eliciting the comment that if it's written in the Sun, it must be true,


The next day, Virginia and her friends are outside playing when one of the older girls comes up to them and tells them the horrid truth: there is no Santa Claus!


Virginia doesn't believe it, so she and her friend go to the library to learn more about Santa.


The librarian who helps them learn about Santa legends from all over the world moves so fast that I couldn't get a picture where she wasn't blurry!

Yay, librarians! :)

Virginia returns home to ask her dad about Santa. He tells her that Santa is the kindness and goodness in everyone.


Virginia has the idea of writing to the editor of the Sun, because if it's printed in the Sun, it must true!


The next day, Virginia encounters a poor local man who spends the holidays dressed as Santa, only to discover that he is without a coat and is very cold. This is because he gave the coat to a poor, shivering mother (the picture of whom turned out terrible). Virginia thinks of what her dad said about Santa, and decides to spend her savings to get the man a new coat.


Meanwhile, the editor of the Sun ponders what to write to this little girl.


In the end, of course, the editor responds on the front page.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.

Anyway, it was a rather sweet story, the kids around seemed to really love it, and if you'd like a less paraphrased version, you should check it out when the made-for-TV version airs in a week and a half. Alternatively, read about the original story, which took place in 1897 - the Wiki page has a reproduction of the original response from the newspaper. Read it - the full article is really nice.

Tomorrow (again, probably): Lord and Taylor's windows.

Christmas Displays for 2010

Yesterday, I thought I was going to have to work all day. When I found out I didn't have to, I decided to take it as my day to go downtown and take my pics of the holiday displays at the major department stores, specifically Macy's, Lord and Taylor's, Saks 5th Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman - along with anything else cool I spotted along the way. It ended up being a long and very exhausting day, but very satisfying. All four places had wonderful displays for this year, and I took more than 250 pics! Out of all of those, I just can't imagine picking only 5 - 10 to highlight in a post (I try not to put more than that in one post - this post, for example, has 13...so I'm already pushing it...) so I thought I'd split it in to five posts - this first one, which include some general shots I took, and then one for each of the other stores. Hopefully I can get up one each day of this week, but I'll only do that if I don't end up having anything else to post, as I don't want to spam with multiple blog posts in one day. If you want to get a sneak peak, check out the set on Flickr.

First of all, hi!

I couldn't resist snapping this shot of me when I passed this mirror. People kept telling me I looked cold, because I was all bundled up, when in fact I was totally fine precisely because I was all bundled up. :)

My original plan for the day was pretty straight forward: head downtown and aim to be at Union Square around 3, shop at the holiday fair there, and then wander up town passing Macy's on Broadway, then cut over to 5th and walk up to 57th. However, things changed immediately when it occurred to me that I could meet my oldest friend for lunch, and maybe get to finally meet his girlfriend. I contacted him, and initially he said he couldn't come, but then he changed his mind, so I ended up at Union Square at 12:30 instead of 2, which meant I had some time to kill.

First, I shopped the bazaar.

It was about as mobbed as I expected it to be. More disappointingly, it was about as lame as it was last year. I only found one cool booth that didn't have stuff I'd seen at last year's Fair. They have an etsy shop, too, I'll probably link to it at some point. :) Unfortunately, very few of the vendors at the Fair are actually crafts people.

However, this didn't kill enough time, so I went to B&N, and then it occurred to me that I could, with supreme sacrifice, go to the Lion Brand Yarn Store. I know, how dreadful.

They had an AWESOME window display, with these knit penguins and a gigantic knit/crocheted lion on ice skates. I ended up spending a lot of time there and buying a whole bunch of yarn (mostly for my mother, who has promised to make me this (though the pic shows a kid, it actually is an adult pattern) - so I picked up the materials for her. I also grabbed some more of the green heather I need for the Oceans players uniforms, and materials to make a second squirrel, this one in gray. Downside: had to carry the big bag stuffed full of yarn the whole rest of the day.

I was trying to time things that it would be getting dark just as I arrived at Macy's, and it worked out. Just before I got there, I passed through Herald Square.

I couldn't help but feel that Horace Greeley wouldn't have appreciated the boughs of holly in his lap. (Greeley is one of the most famous newspaper editors in the history of the country, he was a major voice for the Republican party/pro-administration during the Civil War - if you're curious, read more on wiki).

My timing was good, and I went to the Macy's windows next. That'll be next post. From there, it was over to 5th Ave. and Lord and Taylor's. It's then a bit of a walk up to Saks 5th Avenue, and I passed this in the window of a vacant store front on the way.


Saks was mobbed as always - it gets a lot of attention cause it's across from the tree. After some debate, I decided that the fact that I have virtually no good pics of the Rockefeller tree was unacceptable, even though the reason I don't is that I hate fighting the crowds, but I thought if I do it this year, I don't have to do it next year if I don't want to. It actually didn't go as badly as I thought it would, though there were tons of people.




My last definite destination was Bergdorf Goodmans, another bit of a walk up town. On the way, I passed Juicy Couture, which had an interesting display, almost all of my pics of which turned out lousy. Then there was Henri Bendel, which I never remembering noticing before.


They had a couple props that struck me as being of particular interest to my fellow crafters.



Doesn't that look a lot like the dolls that Ana Camamiel makes? I thought of her work immediately.

And the Fendi store.

I probably should have framed that one better, but I was getting pretty cold and I'd already waited like 3 minutes for a bus to get out of my way so I could take this pic. :) It has to be remembered, every single place I take these pictures, I have to find my spot, get my camera settings right, and then stand and wait til all the other bystanders get out of the way/walk on by/get bored...it's surprisingly frustrating. :)

I always love the star they hang at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 57th Street. This is one of the better pics I've taken of it, though I think I need to edit out that street lamp...


Finally, when I was finished at Bergdorf, which took a LONG time, I walked up 57th, and got to rectify a mistake I made last year, when a very similar pic to this one didn't turn out and made me sad.


I wasn't done there! I walked up to 76th and Columbus to get a Crumbs cupcake, cause they're the best, and then up to my mom's, to drop off all that yarn...and then I finally got to go home. When all was said and done, I walked 7 miles over about 5 hours. No wonder I'm still feeling beat!

Tomorrow (probably): Macy's window displays!

Happy Yacht, a New Amigurumi!

So, I'm a little nervous. Last week, on Ravelry, I encountered a lady looking for a pattern to use to make a modern-looking ship, specifically this one:


I answered truthfully that I'd not seen a pattern for a really modern looking vessel in my experience - I'd seen sail boats, sailing ships, and little tug boat type things, but nothing on a larger scale. I then mentioned that I could design such a thing... and within a few days, we'd reached an agreement! So this ship is my first-ever commission from a stranger, and I just finished it, and I'm kind of nervous. I mean, I've been sending her progress pics all week, so I know it's so far more or less what she wants, but I'm still nervous. But...well, whether she approves the final design or not, it's still a finished doll - since she's only buying the pattern, this is what it is no longer what she decides. :) So I present...the Happy Yacht! (better name pending...I just have to think of one...)



The Happy Yacht actually has three pieces, with the two smaller ones attached with buttons:


First, there's the main ship:


Then, there's a secondary launch vessel for more mobile exploration:


Third, in case the worst should happen, no ship should sail without a life boat:


When you line up all three, you can see their relative sizes:


This project was a lot of fun to make, and not nearly as much work as it looks like - for some reason I can't put my finger on, it came together pretty quickly. Of course, I won't be done with the commission until she first approves the design, and then I put the instructions into a usable form (instead of in my first-line "okay how am I going to write what I just did?" form :) )

I really hope she likes it. Can't believe I've actually got a little knot of "oooooooooo" in my chest over this. :)

Some Thoughts on Reciprocal Following

For a little while, I've been thinking about what I call "Reciprocal Following," as in, liking someones FB page, following someone twitter or their blog, or hearting someone's etsy (to suggest a few) for the sole reason that they will theoretically do the same for you.

Ever since I joined Ravelry in August and the Hive in September, I've been much more heavily involved in online communities geared towards crafters and crafting types. One of the things a lot of these groups do is organize reciprocal followings. On the Hive, for example, we've been doing Twitter follows ever Tuesday and FB ones every Friday. I've participated in almost all of these. What I've been really thinking about is, what are the up-sides of doing this? What are the down sides?

Before I continue, I wanted to say that I've felt like some of what I'm going to say in this post falls in to some areas that are kinda taboo. The few times I've seen them talked about it's been in embarrassed, apologetic vocabulary. We're a little ashamed to say that we find the online behavior of some of our fellow crafters to be, well, annoying; we're even more ashamed to admit that the taste of our fellow crafters may be different than ours, or that what they do simply isn't our thing. Well, I'm pretty anti-taboo. I believe all topics should be open to discussion. So this is me, opening up for discussion with my own behavior and thoughts on these topics.

The potential issues with "reciprocal following" really came in to focus for me yesterday when I wandered over to Twitter. I don't use Twitter as much as I'd like to, mostly because the time investment to actually keep on top of it is ludicrously prohibitive. I found that the only one of my lists I've been reading regularly was my relatively new Amigurumi and Plushies list. I realized why, too: for most of my other lists, I get the info other places (mostly FB). The only two that aren't repetitive for me are the Ami/Plushies list, and the "Crafters" list, which is a catch all for people from the Hive plus a few other odds and ends. And I found myself thinking "this is nice and all, but I don't have any actual interest in X type of craft, and I'm highly unlikely to ever follow a link about it, buy it, etc." Furthermore, I thought, "the ones I care about are getting buried by the ones I don't." I actually started thinking, "what's something I could name a list that would secretly mean, 'the only tweets I actually care about'?" What I ended up doing was a bit of cleaning house. I left most of the Hive tweets, because I've made friends with many of the people in question. I removed the ones that really didn't seem to be craft related, the ones that I didn't even remember who they were or why I'd followed them, and a couple that were for things I'm really just not interested in. And I didn't have to remove the ones who over-advertised (like, sales pitches every few minutes) cause I've been removing those all along. I was left with a list of about 120 crafters, instead of almost 170. I've gotten it to the point that I think it's manageable and useful again. But it really got me thinking, why this drive for trading follows?

Meanwhile, yesterday I spotted Etsy's new feature for forming a circle, and within 24 hours I've been hearing calls for people to reciprocal circle-add. Since I haven't seen any public place that weights us based on how many circles we are in, nor have I seen any sign that circles do anything other than let us see which items and stores the others in our circle have chosen to heart, or who they have chosen to add to their own circles, I can't help but feel that there is no value in a reciprocal circle adding. Indeed, it appears that circles don't do the ONLY thing I really hoped they would - namely, enable me to see when the people in my circle add new items to their store - but I guess that's a different story.

So...I really want to get my thoughts down on this, because it helps me sort through things.

First, I think the value of reciprocal follows varies by medium. I am finding that, as both a crafter and a consumer, there is value in reciprocal FB liking. I have found artists whose work I am interested in that I would never have found if I hadn't done this. I've made new friends doing this. I have not sold anything doing this - yet - but I have bought one thing already paid for and a second ordered, because of this. On the other hand, I've also ended up with some things in my stream that, after paying attention for the first couple weeks, I decided really weren't of interest to me, and yes, I have decided to add them to my ignore list rather than have them clutter up my FB. This is particularly true in cases where I ended up with a "liked" page and a person friended yet every single thing got posted to both lists (and thus I ended up with a complete duplicate set of their posts) - in these cases, I usually ignore one or the other so that I only get the info once.

On Twitter, on the other hand, I find the constant stream of information so overwhelming (at it's worst, it was hundreds of tweets an hour) that it drives me to not want to use the medium at all. Rather than completely lose this resource, I have decided that unfollowing has to be okay and appropriate. Because Twitter is so intense - and, I hate to say, because I've found that fellow users are much more likely to abuse Twitter by filling it with constant sales posts and reposts because they know that everyone else only reads a fraction of the tweets they get, too - it's really not valuable to follow someone whose work and tweets are of no interest to you.

On my blog, I feel as a blog WRITER that I don't want anyone following me unless they want to read my blog. I want to look at that follow box with pride and think, "hey, these people actually want to read what I write!" I may than laugh maniacally. Just a little. :) I don't want people here unless they want to be here, because this is a real investment of my creativity and time.

What's interesting is that I HAVEN'T seen this following mentality in the Hive itself. I've not seen any big posts calling for "I'll follow your Hive if you follow mine!" On the contrary, it seems that it happens as I think it "should." When I spot someone whose interests are like mine or whose work I think is beautiful, I follow them. Some of them follow me back, some don't, and that's fine. When someone chooses to follow me, I take a look at what they do, and if I want to, I follow them. On one or two occasions, I've decided that I didn't want to continue to read the content I was getting, and I unfollowed. And that was that. It felt...nonintrusive. Likewise, on Ravelry, people friend each other only when they actually want to be friends. I had thought that the new Etsy circles would work similarly, which is why it surprised me when I saw almost immediate calls for "join my circle and I'll join yours back!" I intend to work my Etsy circle the same as I work my Hive following - only those who I actually, genuinely think I'd buy something they make, or who are actually my friends.

So why am I posting this now? I had planned to let this sit a bit longer before writing about it, but I saw a post today in the Hive about something called Blogmania, which is basically an enormous blog hog with prizes. The idea is, join the event, and when it's held, people who want the prizes (there's a $100 minimum requirement for prize value, so we're talking big prizes) sign up for a chance to win them at every blog involved. Furthermore, most of the blogs, as part of the "entry" in the contest, stipulated that the entrant had to follow the blog, and/or follow Twitter, and/or follow the FB, etc. At first I thought, "wow, so much exposure!" But something about it was bugging me, and while I was going about my day, I put my finger on what it was: Is there any value to me as an aspiring craftsperson to get, say, 100 people to follow my FB only because they want to win one prize? Do these people have any actual interest in my photography or amigurumi or crochet or reading as I ramble for a long post about reciprocal following? What's the point? Now, another part of me says the point is that, at the price involved, only a dozen or so of these people would have to ever actually buy something for it to start to be worth while. And so I'm thinking about it. But...I don't know, it doesn't quite feel right.

I guess, to sum up, here are how I perceive the pros and cons.

Upside:
1. Exposure. You never know what you might like/want until you investigate.

2. Traffic. In some places, higher numbers breed higher numbers and more hits breeds even more hits. Getting your blog linked to lots of places helps you in Google results, for example. And of course, it's gratifying to log on to Google Analytics and see massive numbers of hits.

3. Sales. I'm not sure about this one, as I have not the least bit of evidence that all of the networking I've spent the past 3 months doing has generated a single sale. However, I'd like to think that doing enough of this kind of stuff over enough time might generate some...

4. Wider dissemination. Any day now, I'll be writing a post aimed mostly at my friends and family in which I highlight a few of the things that I've found that I personally think are coolest and which I think will be of most interest to my circle of friends. This will include include a few people whose work I've mostly gotten to know through reciprocal follow type things. And if my friends like it, they might share it again. Or buy something. You never know. :)

Downsides:
1. Not everyone really bothers to follow everyone else. But I'm almost not sure that it matters, in light of what I consider to be the main downside, which I'll go on to right now.

2. What, in the end, is the value in following someone whose work is of no interest for you? I talk about this a lot above, and I think it's a really critical piece of this. If you're not interested in what they do, and they're not interested in what you do, then there is no value, and there is a loss of some of everyone's (valuable) time.

3. False numbers. I've got to admit, it's really nice when I look at my FB page and see that 77 people like it. That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy...until I sigh and remember that the vast majority are entirely non-active on my page and only about half appear to have any actual interest in my work. And don't get me wrong, you half, I love you guys - heck, I like the rest of you, too - but it's not the same.

4. Irritation. Fair or not, when I'm in a reciprocal share, where the expectation is (like in a FB liking session) that everyone will like everyone elses, I've got to admit it ticks me off when some people don't bother. And it bothers me that this bothers me, because of all of the arguments I've described above about how ultimately I think it's better that people follow/like/friend/etc the things they are actually interested in. And thus, I add to this list of downsides, irritation at multiple levels. :)

Thoughts? What do you all feel are the pros and cons of reciprocal follwing? Is it bad taste to unfollow someone or choose "ignore" for their FB page if you're really not interested in their work? Does fleshing out our number of likes or blog followers with people who may have next to nothing in common with our actual areas of work actually increase our sales? What decisions have you made about these strategies as regards different types of web resources?

Eight Days of Hanukkah Crochet-A-Long

I have been inspired by my fellow amigurumi makers to turn my little dreidel pattern in to a Crochet-A-Long.

Hey, Claire, what's a Crochet-A-Long?
That was my question, and the answers I got made it sound like fun! A crochet-a-long is when a designer, like me, says, "hey, everyone, lets all make a pattern together, and when we're all done, we can see all the awesome ways we interpreted it and all the things that we all did!"

Oh, that sounds fun! How do I participate?
It's really easy! Yesterday, I posted a free pattern to make an amigurumi dreidel and gelt in honor of Hanukkah, which starts tonight. It's a quick pattern - in an hour and a half, I made two entire dreidels and some of the gelt - and can be done using scraps - the finished product is about 4 1/2 inches tall and 2 inches wide. And when you're done, you can actually sort of play dreidel with it! :)

A what and what?
A dreidel and gelt! A dreidel is a four-sided spinning top used to play a gambling game, and the gelt is what you gamble for. The links will take you to wiki for more information, including a standard version of the rules, but here's how I learned to play as a girl (it's slightly different). First, you spin the dreidel. A traditionally dreidel has one of four Hebrew characters on the sides, and you'll get one of the four as your result when you spin the dreidel: gimmel, hey, nun and shin. If you get gimmel, you get all of the gelt in the pot. If you get a hey, you get half of the pot. If you get nun, nothing happens, and if you get shin, you lose all of your gelt! But never fear, because it's nothing all that valuable - we always played for either pennies, candies - especially M&Ms, or for true "gelt" - those chocolates wrapped in gold to look like coins and sold in little net bags. Whenever candy was involved, eating your stash was entirely allowed, so generally the game ended when all the candy had gotten eaten. :) However, if you want to play, I suggest you use wikipedia's rules rather than mine, because the ones we used when I was a kid are a little dysfunctional (all that "take all the pot! lose all your gelt!" makes for a lot of back and forth. Until you eat it...)

Here's what you'll be making.


To join the Crochet-A-Long:

Step 1: Get the pattern! You can either:
a. Copy it from the blog post about it
b. Download it from Ravelry: download now
c. E-mail me at unforth (AT) yahoo (DOT) com, subject "Hanukkah Crochet-A-Long," and I can send it to you as a PDF attachment.

Step 2: Make the pattern! Have fun! Use scraps! Make crazy faces on the four sides to represent gimmel, hey, nun and shin!

Step 3: Share what you've made! Post your pics on Ravelry, upload them to the Curiously Crafted Creations Facebook page, share them on Flickr or Photobucket or whatnot (and send or post the link), or just e-mail them to me at unforth (AT) yahoo (DOT) com. Once I've got permission from folks to use their pics, I'll share them right here on my blog!

Step 4: PROFIT! As a prize, I will select 1 lucky person who participates in the CAL to receive their choice of one of my other patterns for free!

To be included in the lotto, finish your dreidel by the end of the Festival of Lights - that's December 9th! I know, not much time, but it's a short pattern, promise.

Once again, Happy Hanukkah, everyone! :)

Celebrate Hanukkah with a Free Amigurumi Pattern!

Only somewhat known fact about me: I'm Jewish! And one of my favorite holidays of the year is Hanukkah. I've already got my menorah and candles all ready for tomorrow, and I'm pondering potato latkes and gelt. While these things wandered through my brain on Sunday morning, I had a moment of insight - a design for a cute little amigurumi dreidel. Cause really, Hanukkah ain't complete without a dreidel!

Here's how to make your own! Note that I've made this pattern three times, so I know it works, but I've not had it tested by any other person, so there is a chance it'll be a little confusing. If you have any trouble, just let me know!! :) Also, here are two links that helped me design this: How to Crochet a Cube and Magic Adjustable Ring Tutorial.

Make your own dreidel!



If you want to make it in one color, just ignore all the color switch instructions. I encourage you to use colors, though - this pattern is a great way to use some scraps!

Materials:
Small amount of worsted weight yarn
Size G crochet hook (4.0 mm)
Yarn needle
Fiberfill

Abbreviations:
Ch - Chain
Dc - Double crochet
Sc - Single crochet
Ss - Slip stitch
Tc - Triple crochet

Main part of the dreidel:
Start in color 1.
Round 1: Ch 2. 4 sc in second ch from hook. Do not join. Place marker: 4 sc

Round 2: (3 sc in next sc) around: 12 sc

Round 3: Sc in next sc, (3 sc in next sc, sc in next 2 sc) 3 times, 3 sc in next sc, sc in next sc: 20 sc

Round 4: Sc around: 20 sc

Round 5: Sc in next 2 sc in first color. Switch to your second color. Sc in next 5 sc. Tie on your third color but DO NOT CUT your second color off. With the third color, sc in next 5 sc. Tie on the fourth color but do not cut your third color off. With the fourth color, sc in next 5 sc. Tie on the fifth color but do not cut your fourth color off. With the fifth color, sc in next 3 sc: 20 sc

Here's what Round 5 should more or less look like once your done:


Round 6: Continuing with your fifth color, sc in next 2 sc. Switch back to your second color. To do this, lay the yarn along the color 2 crocheted stitches from the previous round, and as you work your sc, work around both the normal loop and the "loose" length. If you're confused, I've attempted to take a picture of this process (just below). No idea if it's clear or helpful, but I tried. :) Using your second color, sc in next 5 sc. You'll be using this procedure to switch colors each time from now on. With third color, sc in next 5 sc. With fourth color, sc in next 5 sc. With fifth color, sc in next 3 sc: 20 sc

Here's my attempt to photograph what you're doing when you carry over the colors to a new round:


Rounds 7 - 10: With color five, sc in next 2 sc. With color two, sc in next 5 sc. With color three, sc in next 5 sc. With color four, sc in next 5 sc. With color five, sc in next 3 sc: 20 sc

Round 11: With color five, sc in next 2 sc. With color two, sc in next 5 sc. Cut the second color, and carefully tie the loose end to color three before you continue. With color three, sc in next 5 sc. Cut the third color, and carefully tie the loose end to color four before you continue. With color four, sc in next 5 sc. Cut the fourth color, and carefully tie the loose end to color five before you continue. With color five, sc in next 3 sc: 20 sc

Sc in next 2 sc, ss in next st, tighten in finish off.

Next, make the top of the dreidel:
In first color.
Row 1: Ch 6. Starting in second ch from hook, sc in next 5 ch: 5 sc

Rows 2 - 5: Ch 1 (turning ch). Sc in next 5 sc: 5 sc

Ch 1, tighten, and finish off. Leave a long end for sewing.

Stuff the base of the dreidel with fiber fill, then sew the top over the top. Make sure you line up the corners of the square top with the color transitions on the dreidel (or, if only using one color, that your corners line up with the corners at the base). When you've got three sides sewn on, stuff in a bit more fiberfill. Don't over stuff, though - make sure the top stays (relatively) flat, instead of puffing out.

Handle:
Ch 2. In second ch from hook, sc 3 times. From there, work in a 3 sc spiral until it's one inch long. Ss in next sc, tighten and leave a long end for sewing.

Sew the handle on to the center of the dreidel top.

Next, you can decorate your four sides with images that reflect the four sides of a dreidel - the key to how you play the game. First, here are the rules on Wikipedia. Now, the way I learned - which is a little different, is as follows. Dreidel is a gambling game, and you start with a pool of something to gamble with - for us, it was always either pennies, candies (like M&Ms), or gelt (that chocolate wrapped in gold foil that looks like coins). There are four sides on the dreidel, represented by the Hebrew letters gimmel, hey, nun and shin. Which of these turns up determines what happens. If you spin a gimmel, you get the entire pot. This is the best result. If you spin a hey, you get half of the pot. This is the second best result. If you spin a nun, nothing happens. This is a neutral result. And if you spin a shin, you lose your entire stash. This is the worst result! Now, if you're gonna play, I suggest you use wiki's rules, they're more functional, but mine get the idea across: four possible results, one awesome, one okay, one neutral, and one lousy. I thought it would be fun to represent this with different looking smiley faces. I also made one dreidel with the traditional symbols. Consider these pictures to be some ideas on how to decorate yours - but feel free to have fun with it and use whatever random embroidery stitches you might know!!

Gimmel:


Hey:


Nun:


Shin:


Now that you've made your dreidel, though, you need something to gamble for! How about...some amigurumi gelt? Of course!



Small gelt:
10 sc magic circle. Join with a ss, tighten and finish off.

Medium gelt:
12 dc magic circle. Join with a ss, tighten and finish off.

Large felt:
16 tc magic circle. Join with a ss, tighten and finish off.

I tested my dreidel, and it kinda works...it has a tendency to not land flatly on a side, but it will spin if you hold it close to the base! Now, if only I had someone to play dreidel with...



Happy Hanukkah, everyone!!! :)

State of the Store Sunday - November 28, 2010

The last week or so, I've done a lot of general maintenance on my business, and rather than spam you all with continual updates, I thought I would just do one general update. Indeed, I like the idea of a "State of the Store" report, not as a weekly perhaps, but as an occasional post for when things have changed. Like now! Cause a LOT has changed!


For starters, after a fair amount of debate over what a banner should look like, Curiously Crafted Creations has a banner that I don't hate. I may change it in the future, but I think that it's important for an etsy store to have banner - I don't know, I just think it gets the page off on the right foot.

I also ordered business cards:


To celebrate this achievement, I bought a business card case that I've wanted ever since I saw it in 2008 - it's from the Met, and shows a Tiffany pattern:


I re-listed all of the cards that I had previously listed (they don't sell too well). This was a big debate for me. I mean, if I just keep sinking money in to this, it will demolish any chance that I'll make a profit. On the other hand, if my work isn't out there, obviously it's never going to sell. Thus, I decided to just go for it. In the end it's a difference of only a few dollars. Thus, there were a decent collection of photos up (four sold yesterday, unusually enough! :) ) going in to today. I augmented this today by listing the first batch of cards suitable for use as Christmas cards. I knew I had to get these up ASAP if they were to be of any use as a pre-Christmas item to sell. So if you have any interest in Christmas cards, you should wander over and see what's up! I also created a "deal" - a "buy any 5 cards" option that shaves 15 cents off the price of each card (5 for $8 instead of 1 for $1.75). I'm planning to put a "10 for $15" deal up as well.

Speaking of a few dollars, I'm in the green again! I spotted a really good deal for printing a pile of photographs - 365 prints - for free if I spent $10. Of course, that was before shipping, so when all was said and done I spent almost $40, which more than ate up my old small profit margin. But the initial Christmas card commission (which I've now finished and shipped), an unexpected large purchase by a friend, and an unexpected commission for an amigurumi pattern (my first ever commission from a stranger!) has put me more solidly in the green than I've ever been. Which isn't saying much, we're still talking about a profit of less than $100, but I'll take it - it's better than having taken a loss! :) I'd have a larger profit if I was prepared to stop trying on the card front, but I'm not ready to do that. I KNOW I take nice photographs, and do good work, and I really do believe that if I keep at it, I can get somewhere selling them. :)

Meanwhile, the deal gave me a chance to conduct another experiment I've wanted to do for a while.

Cards are obviously not the only way of selling photography! However, I've been reluctant to offer the option for larger prints without running a test. Since I had to spend $10 anyway, I decided to pick out a photograph (one of my personal favorites) to print at a 16 x 20 size. It was $15 + shipping, a total of just under $20. It turned out both better and worse than I expected. It turned out better in that the image is nice and clear and crisp, and looks pretty much just like the original. Details that were not visible on a smaller medium, like the veins in the petals, are VERY clear. It turned out worse in that it showed every little imperfection. Two examples - neither visible in the photo above - are that there's a little black speck on one of the petals that is shockingly noticeable, I don't I'd ever have spotted it on the original if I wasn't looking for it, and the other is that it turns out the steeples (or whatever they're called) are a little out of focus, another thing I never would have noticed but is pretty easy to spot on the full size poster. So clearly if I'm going to do large prints I need to VERY carefully examine the original picture, and spend some time removing teeny imperfections like the black speck.

On Friday, I finished my experiment with pattern testing. I've been a member of the Free Pattern Testing group on Ravelry for a while, but always as a lurker. A couple weeks ago, I carefully reviewed all of their FAQs, rules, and policies, and I went for it, testing the Blub Blub pattern. I sought 5 testers, and provided them with the pattern, and awaited their feedback. I'm very glad I did this. It's proved a very beneficial experience. It firmly established that I wasn't actually criminally negligent when I didn't test any of my previous patterns - my testers didn't find a single error in my actual description of the doll, and agreed that my directions were very clear. What was lacking - and what I added - were some generalizations that helped the maker to figure out things that were slightly confusion. This was solved by the addition of a "tips" section, and a few other odds and ends (like page numbers!) and the result is that the Blub Blub pattern went live yesterday on Etsy and Ravelry. It's a lot of "firsts" wrapped in one - my first tested pattern, the first pattern with higher quality pics thanks to my "light box," and my first pattern released with a pattern. Then, just to top things off, I put Santana Squid up for testing, should be done in a couple of weeks. :)

I also listed both of the previously made Blub Blub dolls for sale. These are the first completed amigurumi I've ever actually listed on etsy - all the others I've sold were either commissions to begin with, or I get specific requests for them. No idea if this will work, but if it does, that'd be nice. :)

Hmm...what else? That might actually be it. And it's plenty! Lots going on - a commission and two gifts to make - listing things for sale - working away - and generally thinking about what I want out of this business and how I want to go about succeeding. Not bad for a few weeks work!

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

I love holidays. I love celebrations. I love fireworks, and family get-togethers, and big crowds of happy people. Thus, it is not at all surprising that I love parades. Given my cold, and that the weather wasn't supposed to be very nice on Thursday, when I went to bed on Wednesday night I had already decided not to go to the Parade. It's so far downtown, I thought. What if it rains? What if I get sicker? What if it's not done til noon and I'm massively late for Thanksgiving dinner at 2? etc. etc.

I woke up at 6:30 on Thursday morning and immediately tried to get back to sleep. "But what about the parade?" asked the little kid in my head. "If we get up now, we can still make it, can't we?" Adult me answered something along the lines of grumblegrumble sleep grumblegrumble sick grumblegrumble rain. "But it's not raining! And we don't feel that sick!" answered the little kid. "You know you want to go to the parade!" ...and it was completely right. So I got up, got ready in a hurry, got the dog walked, checked the timing, and set off with my camera to see this years parade. On the way, I worked out the logistics in case the timing went wonky - which train to take, where to stand to get out quickly, etc. The result was that I watched the parade from just north of the start point - the parade actually "begins" between 76th and 77th and Central Park West, and I was standing at the northwest corner of 77th and CPW. You don't miss much - all the performers line up near there, so it all works out. It ended up working great - the parade ended at 10:30 at this point, I got home with plenty of time, was early enough to dinner that I helped with the prep, it didn't rain, and I didn't get sicker. Clearly, I made the right decision! :) And of course, I took loads of pictures. :) You can see the set over on Flickr - Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Marching Bands!!




Balloons!!




Floats!!




Celebrities!!




...and the two people that made me most excited?


This is Grandma. Grandma is the main clown for the Big Apple Circus, which is the circus I've been going to since I was a little girl. When I see Grandma, I become spontaneously 6 years old. I haven't been to the Big Apple Circus in about 15 years, but every year I say "this year, I should go." Maybe this year will be the year...


When I saw this costume and the balloons behind it, I knew it was work by Murakami Takashi, who I first encountered in 2007. But when the announcer said that it was actually Murakami in that costume, I was very super excited. I love his work!

After the parade, I had a very nice meal with my dad, his wife, my brother and my step-brother (who I hadn't seen in 6 or 7 years). There was turkey and stuffing and potatoes and pie and more than 5 people could ever eat. Then I drove home again (it's about 1 hr 30 min drive) and when I get back, I had a long telephone chat with my mom (who told me not to come over - I'm going over there today). So all in all, I had an excellent Thanksgiving. And I still have pie.

Happy belated Thanksgiving, everyone! I hope you had wonderful ones! :)