sock porn for knitting voyeurs.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

wednesday filler

I thought about dedicating a blog day weekly to the wonder of Etsy and its sellers (still don't know if I'm going to)... I had a lot of comments surprised at the cool stuff on etsy from my last posts, and that people enjoy personal recommendations since finding stuff can be a bit of an ordeal when browsing there. Combine that with the fact I have no knitworthy content but the time* and urge to post-- and there you go.

First up, I'm a member of the etsyFAST.com street team-- "Etsy Fiber Arts Street Team." A bunch of like-product sellers (or geographical, or whatever) join a street team to help one another promote their repective craft disciplines... its a cool idea. etsyFAST is new but there are a lot (and varied, really) people working in the fiber arts arena-- their website compiles all of the member shops. I put together a "treasury" on etsy to feature some of them (including a skein of Fearless Fibers sock in a shocking, droolworthy yellow), you can see the treasury here:

etsyFAST treasury
(expires in less than a day)


Treasuries are lists of 12 items chosen by etsy members around a theme; mine was etsyFAST-- there are some for colors, for shapes, for types of items, etc. Its a great way to get a sampling of things without having to rely on search functions or categories... sometimes you don't know what you want til you see it. Lists expire in 48-72 hours throughout the day, so there's always something new to look at.

I'm also a big card fan, so there's always some new cards making their way to my mailbox...

cards

Left to right, top to bottom:

Quilt postcards from Lucys Postcard Quilts, dotd skeletons & snail
Chicken butt screenprint from Young and With It
Heart Attack postcard (set) from Magic Jelly
Koi and Butterfly digitally altered photograph cards from Alicia Bock

Its hard to tell, but the postcard quilts are just that-- double sided fabric with interfacing inside, with threadsewn edging and quilting stitches on top (I'm obviously not one with a sewing machine... forgive my slaughter of sewing nomenclature!). They're blank on the back for writing, and Lucy assures me I can send them thru the mail... I've sent stranger stuff, so I know she's right :)

I had no idea before etsy that I could like so many different types of cards... hand stitched, screenprinted (one, two, three... I could go on!), photography, letterpress, reproduced art prints, art postcards, hand drawn, digital mashups... too many types & yall won't look at the links! I've bought from all these shops before and they do great stuff. No hallmark, no mass production... as special as the person you take time to write.

Most of my purchases come from the US... but a few neat ones came from overseas recently:

gojira

Japanese fabric, "shinkansen" sanrio and red fugu blowfish from dreamrains
Print of original art, "Godzilla"-- signed & numbered from monstergallery

Dreamrains is a seller in Japan, specializing in Japanese fabrics. I bought these 2 to send to Satomi (from JapaneseHandmadeEtc) for new pouches when she is settled into her new US digs. You guys know what a train junkie my kid is, and my little kid nature loves Sanrio (though if you met me in person... I'd never admit it!)-- her shop was sold out of it but she relisted some for me, yay :) I found monstergallery thru their adorable zines... shipping takes a bit longer for both (monstergallery's in Singapore) but both were packaged well and arrived beautifully. (The fabrics are wrinkled... my fault. Kiddo wouldn't let go of the train one, eventually I had to hide it with the blowfish one... you know, cos it reminded him of his missing train cape/blankie/scarf/etc...)



* why do i have time? i'm dyeing some more superwash merino roving for my store... and in the middle of making some stitch markers for Yarn4Socks.com! i'm putting together some exclusive "colorways" for y4s... a peek:

spring1

red

there's more, but a girl has to have some mystery. or knit really rad socks.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,

Wanted to delurk and let you know that your post last week did indeed make me broker. From your blog, I went flying straight to the lady in Japan who made your cute bag. I now own one too! Its well worth the price too. So, with that said thanks for sharing.

Necia

KnitterBunny said...

Aija, I just love it when you post fun things like this. :)

lexa said...

Yes, you've rubbed off on me tremendously with the etsy thing. (Not necessarily a bad thing!) There's so many things out there now, I really like that you do summaries and lists of stuff you like. I've found out about a lot of different yarns and other things via your blog (acloset.com, Threadless...) Thanks for surfing!

adrienne said...

I almost bought that blowfish fabric! But I got hedgehogs instead :)

~Tonia~ said...

So many nice things. So many new temptations. Must be strong. I don't know how long I can resist the urge. =)

Lori said...

Yes, yes, please let us know about your Etsy finds!
On second thought, maybe you shouldn't - I went right over and spent half my monthly "fun money" on awesome etsy stuff... :)
The stitch markers look awesome; I can't wait to see what your dye job looks like.

Leah said...

Such good stuff! Man, I love these etsy posts!

I just bought a necklace from etsy. There are details in my latest post.

Chris said...

Thanks for sharing - I love etsy recommendations!

laurie in maine said...

I adore making Fabric Postcards! I sent you one as a thank you (with your son in mind) for the yarn I won from you a while ago. I hope you got it and don't think I'm crappy, ungrateful contest winner??!

Still trying to decide what to knit up with my yarn. I'm such a hoarder...if you use it, then it will be gone. [grins] Not a good stash busting motto!

Anonymous said...

best comment about your space invaders sox.

"Seriously, I think I could do some Chinese algebra with a fifth of Jack in me before I could wrap my noodle around “Yo, k1 using CC1, k34 using MC, SSk3tog. Break CC1. Turn work.”"

Stacey said...

thanks for more links!!! :)

Rhonda the Stitchingnut said...

I just got some Sophie's Toes from one of my favorite etsy stores. (besides yours) ;-)

Lindsey said...

I won your contest last month and I just wanted to thank you and Deb publicly for the gift certificate from Fearless Fibers on Etsy.

I place an order with Deb on Tuesday and I just got my yarn about 10 minutes ago. LOVE IT!!!! I got some sock yarn in Butterscotch and some laceweight in Sunny Peach and both are so soft and lovely. The colors are wonderful. I can hardly wait to get this yarn on the needles!

I'm so thrilled that I won your contest. Me! Winning a contest on the internets! Woohoo!

Thank you again for such a lovely prize.

Subscribe Now: Feed Icon





I Took The Handmade Pledge! BuyHandmade.org