sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Monday, April 09, 2007

i love etsy.

I think the first time I encountered etsy, it was via Fearless Fibers' shop... browsing for yarn. Afterwards I went and scanned "my" section, "knitting"... it was full of great stuff but nothing I needed (have you *seen* my flash your stash?! I also forgot several pics, apparently...) and then etsy just dropped off of my radar til i started my own shop. I had no idea what great stuff lurked there, but now...! Let me be a tiny guide thru some of my purchases so you can get an idea that its not just yarn (though, the yarn's great!)

japanese

Reversible zipper box pouch with Japanese knot
by JapaneseHandmadeEtc.etsy.com

I'm a huge tomboy at heart. (You've seen the pictures!) Tomboy or not, I love taking my knitting to go with me. The astute sock knitters among you will have already noticed how the box pouch is *perfect* for just that. I loved my trek pouch for on the go knitting, but the ribbon "handle" would often twist in the wind as I walked and took the yarn with it, so it wasn't best for walking around and knitting. Satomi's purse strap is very sturdy, interfaced and double sided, and doesn't move when you walk. The entire bag is reversible/double lined with fabric and has interfacing, so it keeps that cute box shape even if its not stuffed to the gills with socks. (Sticking out is a finished sock, and an almost-complete one... kinda putting that box shape out of whack. It is box shaped though :) and a perfect size for sock knitting.) Also, as its stiff and lined, I haven't had any needles sticking out of the fabric as I have with a single-fabric layer pouch. (Though, cure that with Sherry's double pointed needle protectors, also at etsy! She has some great new beads in, if you haven't seen.)

Satomi's agreed to make me a custom one (with fabric I bought from etsy, natch) when she completes her move to the States. (She's really nice.) For now she's in Japan-- but the shipping to my west coast home only took 6 days last time, so not too bad for the anxious among you who spy something in her shop that's ready for sale now.

Someone dear remarked I'm becoming more a girl lately... I think its my new spate of purse purchases. Somehow it skates my tomboy nature if I don't use it as a purse but as something to carry knitting projects in.

wood

Wood and vinyl purse by miamaria.etsy.com

For my sock and almost-as-big-as-a-breadbox projects. I have to admit, I love it and it does make me feel like a girl to carry it, even if its just hiding a knitting project inside. Can't be used for walking-projects, but great for grab and go stuff.

Want to see inside? :)

scratch

Lined with a japanese fabric, and housing "scratch art" yarn from DyeabolicalYarns.etsy.com

Technically, I didn't buy the yarn from etsy, even though Rachel has a new handpainted yarn store there. I saw this skein on her blog, and I begged her to sell it to me. Wasn't pretty, but the yarn is :) Black and rainbow, beautiful!

More etsy yarn love though you've seen it before...

gs2nd

2nd German stocking in Fearless Fibers' Superwash Sock, "royalty"
(and hand bent wire stitch markers from zero.etsy.com)

I haven't even been able to start the decreases on the leg yet, and my new red shoes are coming via UPS today... oy. Need to get back to knitting, but I have so much more to share! A few more...

pendant

I never wore jewelry before*. Well, in high school I usually had fingers full of rings, and once I wore a huge (literal, from the hardware store) chain that weighed 20 lbs secured by a keylock for a party that I'd rather not remember... but this is different :)

Clockwise from top left:
Goldfish by pamloudy.etsy.com
Van Gogh glass by lingglass.etsy.com
Dichroic pendant from liskidder.etsy.com
2 cold rolled steel pendants from TimothyAdamDesigns.etsy.com
Red waves from lingglass.etsy.com

For those with kids (or, kids at heart! yuk yuk yuk...)

kiddo
(forgive the blur, kiddo was being held off with my spare hand as he tried to rescue his etsy treasures)

Clockwise from top left:
Handmade fabric and foam flash cards from thetotspot.etsy.com
(we have the number set, too... lost in the maw)

Custom soap with ninja! from Halflyng.etsy.com
(orange scented soap with an orange ninja. duh.)

Dozen multicolor crayon "cakes"; from FigGarden.etsy.com
(fun, but locked away when i'm not supervising. goodness forbid i have another artist escapade on my hands.)

For the kid, but not yet...

book

Blank book made from "Are you my mother" book binding, by 2cheekymonkeys.etsy.com

When little one was born, and even before, I wanted to make him a keepsake of him. I tried my hardest to get into scrapbooking, but I just couldn't... wasn't me. I take trillions of pics of him, and figured it was close enough to a "gift" of himself he'd enjoy when he was older. When I ran across these wonderful blank books on etsy, I had a new idea along the same line-- I would write my son letters about himself, about me and about us-- this was a great book to start that in. Its about an inch thick of blank pages, and the story is still inside. The binding's tight and will last me a while, so will the number of pages.

Its mundane stuff I'm writing, but its fun for me thinking of keeping a dialogue now for him to enjoy later. My mom was quite... silent as I grew up, and its only now that she has started to share things about her life at my age and younger. If anything, this will be good practice for me to learn to share :)

(as she realizes she's been showing off stereo/typically female purchases and can't stop now...)

superbird

Superbirds silkscreened apron from MaryInk.etsy.com

I wore this yesterday, so its a bit fresh with my kitchen handiwork... pastelon de platano, honeybaked ham, mashed potatoes, roasted asparagus, stuffed mushrooms, salad, crescent rolls... ugh. Still full, but looked good cooking it :)

Also wearing a threadless tshirt under it, but its not as cool as my most recent tshirt purchases from them...

brand new this morning:

zoom

and because i couldn't resist:

zoom2

Yay! :)



* i did wear jewelry when i was younger. i used to be mistaken for a boy *all the time* (see picture here if you've forgotten). i would be routinely chased out of women's restrooms, asked by strangers what sex i was. it really didn't bother me; i chose to wear my hair the way i did, i wanted it. it did bother my family though... so much so that when my sister finally convinced my mom to let her pierce her ears, i had to have mine done, too. there was a bribe in there somewhere, too.

my sister went first, gun to the earlobe at the ubitquitous mall jewelry store. pinch, pinch. yay. girl who pierced my sister went on break as i replaced my younger sister in the chair. new girl, gun in hand, pierced my right ear and shattered my world with pain. i wouldn't let her pierce the other.

turns out, something went very wrong and i had to have three seperate "operations" (read: doctor with a scoop-tipped something digging out nastiness from my infected ear, without anesthesia for fear of having the infection travel thru my blood, or something that sounded like that over my 7 year old screams as i lay good ear down on the butcher paper in his office) to undo the damage.

after every session, doc would wrap my head jauntily with gauze to keep the pads in place. my (caucasian) mother would say the same thing, every time... "you look like a vietnamese refugee!" (i'm half japanese. the things we say in the privacy of family ;))

even after all of that, i kept the ear pierced. if you remember the 80s (i was in the madonna fan club with my friends across the street!)... "left is right and right is wrong" it went. so, not only was i a "boy," i was a boy with his ear pierced on the wrong side, with all of the attendant meanings.

18 comments:

Micki said...

Now I don't feel so bad for stalking etsy. Great loot!

adrienne said...

Oh my goodness. SO many beautiful things. The purse is amazing! I love the apron. I love etsy, but not the damage to my bank account!

Lisa said...

Thanks for all the great links! I can't believe you kept your ear pierced after all that! I salute you for that bravery!

Anonymous said...

Etsy love *and* pastelon de platanos? I'm jealous! Thank you for the recipe - I'm excited to try it out. Anything with plantains thrills my South American soul In my (very light-skinned Ecuadorian) family, the ultimate insult is roughly translated to "we'll paint you Indian brown and no one will marry you." Ahhh, family...

lexa said...

Love all the etsy purchases. I'm not a purse person, either, but I do usually carry a felted buttonhole bag I made for myself.

I remember when I got my ears pierced the first time. I was nine, give or take. The lady said it would feel like a mosquito bite. I remember it stung like old heck, and I said, "Some mosquito bite!" I luckily didn't get any infections from it, but she did get one side higher than the other. Got them done a second time several years later. I rarely wear earrings now because my ears get so sore. Back in the 80s I wore them all the time, big ones, usually mismatched. (Till everyone else started doing that, then I stopped. I liked to be different back then.)

HPNY KNITS said...

wonderful post, but i am going to comment real fast and quickly step away from this open window with all these links..................
so no harm is done and no one gets hurt......
by the way, I made a book for my son using iPhoto. (mac) with text and photos. it was great fun to do and he loves it.

E to the M said...

ed on etsy, that place is where some of my work days go...
Interestingly I haven't purchased any yarn there but I do have some art prints, stitch markers, embossed notecards, etc.

Stacey said...

thanks for all the links - I love discovering new treasures on Etsy!!! I so almost got that shirt (with the legs and forest) today when I saw it!

Tara said...

Good lord, as if I didn't have enough trouble paying attention at work. Now you've gone and put how many store windows in front of me? At least I'm broke right now, so I don't have to worry about making a lot of impulse buys. :)

Anonymous said...

When I got my Threadless newsletter my first thought upon seeing the "can't see forest" Tshirt was hand knitted socks.

Andrea said...

Ah, I completely sympathize. I was often mistaken for a boy when I was little because my dad forced me to have my hair cut short all the time and with little else to recommend me as a female (baggy clothes, general ambiguity of a child's body) I got it all the time.

"Young man! Young man...that's the ladies washroom."

Ug.

BTW, I love that purse from miamaria. I think I might buy a similar one now!

hillary said...

Thanks for all of the great Etsy links... I think. Gorgeous stuff! Now I just have to restrain myself from not going wild on there.

Sorry to hear about the ear piercing trauma. We had one of those (but not quite the same) with my older daughter. Apparently she wasn't too scarred - both ears are now double-pierced and she wants a catilage pierce too (like me!).

jenfromRI said...

Oh my goodness. Must stay away from etsy . . . for fear of losing house and children . . .

I also was routinely mistaken for a boy throughout childhood because I wore my hair short. I still wear my hair really short, but it's not so much an issue anymore - thank you puberty! I have a lovely picture of myself at about ten, sitting in the grass and scowling and I would totally have thought it was a picture of a boy if I didn't know better. Ah well. I'm not trying to imply anything about boys and scowls, btw. :)

Lori said...

Lady, you're killin' me here! That's some of the coolest etsy loot I've seen in awhile (usually I get lost on that site; indecision takes over, and I leave with nothing...) I love the birds on the apron!
And no, it doesn't have to count as a purse if it's holding your pointy sticks. :)

Kathryn said...

Good lord; that's a lot of Etsy stuff. Not that I'm complaining. Love the Clockwork Orange print (a friend, who'd seen it in theaters, didn't get it at all, though). I find Etsy rather difficult (read: annoyingly slow) to navigate, so word of mouth is very important to me. I am so checking out those bags.

Anonymous said...

Great idea about the book. My granny took a picture book ("Animal Buttons") and wrote in names for all the animals that we had made up together. I treasure it.

Penny Karma, aka the F-Bomb Mom said...

WOW! I'm gonna have to go Etsy shopping!

Romi said...

Wow! Seriously cool stuff!

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