Thankfully, after about a week and a half of rest, my back felt much better, and I was able to continue work on some other projects. Here's what I've been up to.

First, I had a custom order from my Etsy Shop, from someone who really liked my "Starlight" yarn, but wanted something in worsted weight.


Then I worked on 2 coordinating yarns from a beautiful batt of Mardi Gras inspired merino, 2 laceweight yarns (handspun merino and commercial mohair), and some metallic threads, and beads.
The first is Carnivale:


And the second is Tryst


In an effort to utilize some of my other crafting skills, I also whipped up this little sketchbook/journal:


And these hair sticks:



Yeah, I really missed crafting when I was injured. :) In other news, I am in the process of moving into some studio workspace, which I will be sharing with geekpixie. I am very excited about it, but will be glad when the moving part is done, and I can just go play in the studio. yay!

Before my back pain put me out of commission for a while, I finished up these two yarns. The first is called "Tempest" and is for the EtsyFAST April challenge: Storms





The second one is unnamed, so I welcome any suggestions you might have.

Just found out that my "Starlight" yarn was featured in a treasury by spawnofflame, who sells some very cool lampwork beads. Pretty, pretty.

Was happily working on some new projects, but am out of commission for a bit, as my back started spasming last night. Throughout the day today, it got progressively worse, so that at this point I am barely mobile. *sigh* Speaking of which, I am going to go rest now. G'night.

Yay! "Diamonds and Pearls" finally sold. After being featured in at least 4 treasuries, and getting more than 215 views.

In other news, I joined the "Big Damn Crafters" Street team on Etsy, so you should expect to see some Firefly related crafts popping up soon.

And now, just because I am bored, I give you the "what knitting needle am I?" quiz:

When I got home today, I made this:


It's a threading hook for spinners, and the design is inspired by the Grimm's Fairy Tale, "The Goose Girl." (I still have fairy tales on the brain as it is this month's challenge theme for EtsyFAST.

Am I disturbed for thinking of this?

I have been a busy little spinner the last few weeks.


I call this one "Morning Magic", and I am very pleased with the way it came out. It even got featured in a treasury by redmag, which made it to the front page of Etsy and resulted in a huge number of views for my store...though sadly, no sales.


This one is "Dream Come True", and is a little more girly than I usually go for, but I have been trying to expand my color palette. This is more of the faux cashmere, and boy is it soft.

I just finished spinning up some new yarn last night to post in my etsy shop.


"Diamonds and Pearls"

It is white faux cashmere plied with metallic thread which has been strung with swarovski crystals and faux pearls. I was inspired by the fairy tale "Diamonds and Pearls", hence the title.

And it got featured in a treasury by epicurus.

Yay!

So, I have had a very exciting week for my etsy store. On Sat, a customer ordered $50 worth of yarn. Cool, huh? Of course, I spent some of that buying this really awesome barrette, because I always need more hair things.

And then today, I got featured in a treasury from North Star Alpacas so that will hopefully send some more business my way. Yay!

I am participating in a EtsyFAST promo swap. The idea being that I make and send 50 promotional items and business cards to the organizer, and get 50 promotional items and business cards from the other participants, which I can include in my outgoing orders to help promote their shops, and of course, they'll be promoting mine. So I had to come up with something I could make a lot of, in a relatively short amount of time.


Here we have 25 sets of stitch markers, in varying sizes and styles.


4 bracelets, knit with some of my handspun yarn


And 21 crocheted flower pins, also made from my handspun and/or hand-dyed yarn.

Only now I feel like the stitch markers may be too limiting, since they are not useful for those who crochet...so maybe I should just do more flowers? I really have to mail them by Friday at the latest, if they are going to get to their destination on time. What do you think I should do?

This past week has been a very crafty one. On Monday, I went with paper_wings to the Sudbury SnB. Had coffee, did some knitting, and met some fun new people. Seems like a good group, and I expect I will be going back, even if it is a little out of my way.

Have been trying to get my etsy shop in order, as I pretty much neglected it (along with most everything else) for the whole month of December. Have joined a few groups to try and help promote my stuff and do some networking, but I haven't participated much yet, as I feel like my site needs a lot of work. Mainly, I need to come up with a name for it. I mean...I have my username, but most of my fellow etsyian's have a shop name, and I feel like I need one, along with a banner. So there is definitely work to do. But, I have still managed to sell the occasional piece, and am thrilled that someone finally bought the knitting needle case, so that I feel justified in making more. In addition, I sold some yarn to paper_wings, and accepted 2 commissions for fingerless mittens for my co-workers, so I am feeling good about those things.

I have continued to do a lot of spinning the last few weeks, and am very nearly finished with what I hope will be my very first sock weight yarn. I am so excited at the prospect of making socks from yarn that I spun myself. Have also been knitting my fingers to the bone, I need to finish up the fingerless mitts for J, so that I can start on the other pairs. And then, just for fun, I am currently in 3 swaps. The first is Dead Like Me themed, and I am having so much fun with that. The next is the Invite Your Partner swap, where lordavon asked me to be her partner, and made a request for some little stuffies. And the last is a stuffie swap. Haven't done much in the way of stuffed animals for a few months, and am really enjoying it.

So that's what up in my crafting world these days. Sorry there's no pictures, but hopefully I will have some more stuff to show off soon.