tamdoll's workspace

Starting 2012 on the Right Foot

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

My first thought was to call this blog post “2012 – the Year of the Do-Over” -- but that sounded too negative to me. Then I thought “2012 – the Year of Getting it Right” – but that made me feel like I was setting expectations beyond reach. So here I am, simply going to start off in the right direction and try to keep focused & heading that way as the year progresses.

Some of you may realize the pun in the title, too, since I’ve been home all month recovering from surgery - I have been starting every move with my right foot. All is well now and it’s given me lots of time to think and work on projects. And to do them over.

For example, with some luxury yarns in hand, I wanted to make something that I could use every day and enjoy – like a handbag. Borrowed some graphs, morphed them into my own design and began to knit:

But the more I knit it, the more I thought that these yarns should be next to skin, so I could really enjoy the feel of them. Yes, I agonized. Thought about the days I had worked to graph the design and then knit it. But no matter what, it was bugging me, so I ripped it out. Decided to try a project I’ve been wanting to make for a while and created a headband to keep me warm this winter:

I think it was a good choice. I can always rework the graphed design with other yarns & make a handbag with it. Next was the purple yarn. On impulse I saw a pattern online, bought it, cast on and began to knit. Yes, I really did think things would go smoothly after this decision. No, I didn’t check gauge first.

Before you say it, I did notice the resemblance to Dumb Donald. I should have been suspicious when I had to add another yarn to finish this, but I didn’t hesitate too long – since I couldn’t try it on while it was on the 16” needles, I just had to keep working till the end. Another do-over. Ripped it out. A day later, a smaller size, changing to smaller needles in the end, and now it’s perfect:

This flat picture has more accurate color and I’m pretty pleased with it. No more do-over photos for now, just one last picture – a sheep that I think looks like Yoda:

I’d like this to be the “Year of Getting it Right” but I’m trying for the “Year of Being Patient & Doing my Best”. What about you?

December's Projects

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:08:00 +0000

Here are some of the projects I finished up 2011 with. Mittens, scarves, hats, Smittens.

Patterns at Ravelry, individual pictures at Flickr.

Happy Holidays!

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 04:39:00 +0000

Where Snowflakes Are Born by vladstudio.com

December has gotten so, so hectic … haven’t been able to keep up with blogging much. I’m taking some time off, hope to be back mid-January with some updates. I have lots of new things in store for the coming year.

Over at Flickr you can see a new crochet necklace I’ve been working on, have taught it as a workshop during December – original Tamdoll pattern coming soon.

Wishing good health and happy holidays to you all!

World’s Largest Pom Pom?

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 15:54:00 +0000

Chanukah has begun, Christmas is a few days away and I’m still creating gifts for friends and family. Another year without family photo cards, can’t seem to get my act together on that one. But I did make the world’s largest pom pom.

To go on top of a special hat, hope their neck is strong enough to hold that up.

Happy Holidays!

Bags in Limbo

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:08:00 +0000

Just this week I’ve been cleaning out closets and shelves and discovered a few bags that haven’t sold, and aren’t listed anywhere for sale! Then, in yesterday’s email came a Photojojo Time Capsule, and there they were! The top 2 are still available if anyone is interested, leave a message here, on FaceBook, or email me. I’d love to give these a new home – giving me more room to work on some new creations!!!

Fire & Ice

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:33:00 +0000

How I wish it would snow already!! It’s been unseasonably warm here in New England, I can’t really believe I haven’t taken my winter coat out of the closet yet. (Remind me of this when I lose power again because of a big storm.) In the meantime, I can dream about cooler weather with beautiful icy collections like this Treasury by Sara Beth of MagnoliaSurprise.

On the other end of the spectrum, here’s a fiery one by Margaret of SplendidLittleStars.

EtsyChai Team Delights!

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 02:16:00 +0000

Chanukah begins on December 20th, and that’s just around the corner! The EtsyChai team has been busy promoting – you can read all about the group on the team blog and check out these beautiful treasuries. In case you’re not familiar with what a Treasury is, they’re member-curated collections of items. Some are centered around a theme, others around a color or idea. Sometimes they’ll appear on the front page of Etsy & when that does, it’s pretty exciting. You can click them, leave a comment or click-through and visit each individual members shop. There’s something for everyone!

Bold with Black & White

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:59:00 +0000

I love how black & white looks against bright colors, so here’s a treasury I compiled from members of the Blogging Business Artisans Etsy Team. Click & Enjoy their creativity!

EtsyBloggers Featured Member – Magdalene Knits & Jewels

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 13:46:00 +0000

This month’s featured member is Pamela, with 2 Etsy shops: Magdalene Knits & Magdalene Jewels.

You can read an interview with Pamela over at the EtsyBloggers page where she talks about her inspiration, creativity and gives some tips for Etsy lovers. I can definitely relate to her love of knit & crochet – that’s a new shop for her, becoming a grandma has inspired her to make lots of baby items and my favorite one has got to be these Crocheted Moccasins:

I love how adorably tiny baby booties are, these are really, really precious!!

This Smoky Quartz Swarovski Crystal Necklace caught my eye over at her jewelry shop – definitely a departure from my usual bold picks, but I thought the sparkle and color were subtle and beautiful:

Pamela also blogs, and makes videos her Treasuries! I’ve never seen a video of a Treasury before – put to music – she must have a lot of fun doing those.

Enjoy your visit with this creative team member!

Being a Team Player

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 13:25:00 +0000

Reality has thrown me for a loop since this summer and I’ve been struggling to keep up with all the things going on in life -- my online Etsy Team participation has definitely fallen by the wayside. So, my next few blog posts will focus on the Etsy Teams that I’m a member of.

First of all, is the EcoEtsy Team’s winter promotion and “Green Gift Shopping Directory”:

Support indie handmade makers, and save the earth! This is a great team full of passionate, creative folks.

Knit Gifts and Keeping Warm Wristers

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:21:00 +0000

One baby hat knit and gifted; a handful of fingerless mittens and a pair of wrist warmers made up, labeled and packed up to sell at Apotheca’s Artisan Fair this weekend. I haven’t been this focused and determined to work on projects in a long time. The more I have to do, the more I squeeze into my schedule.

Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating! I’m thankful to you, my readers, your feedback, and for the chance to sit back and relax this year. No company, no travelling, just the four of us and lots of time to play with yarn this week!

November Knitting

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:29:00 +0000

So far this month, finished some projects: a sweater and scarf for myself. Pie slice gifted. Started a new knitting project & hope to start a crochet one today to use up lace yarn that I still have about 500 yards of. Details in Ravelry.

Later this week: work on projects to teach in December and get started on gift making.

Online Sharing & Marketing

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 04:57:00 +0000

Above is a picture I put up on Flickr.com back in 2009. Recently, I received an email asking if it was “ok” to use this picture in an online magazine, talking writing (article here). I agreed and have been very flattered at the request.

Not everyone who uses my pictures asks first, but [just about] everyone gives me credit & links back to my site as I’ve requested here in my blog. How do I know? Google analytics (Traffic Sources) can show me where readers have come from, and I’ve been able to see who’s used/referenced my pictures or tutorials. Tracking them back to their website, translating pages and finding new crafty folks on the internet has been fun. Sometimes it’s surprising where in the world the links are coming from. Visitors to this site have come from over 120 countries/territories & that’s pretty exciting to me!

It would be nice if everyone asked first, but at least there are tools to make these discoveries yourself.

So… onto Marketing… Flickr.com has been a great tool that I find invaluable and easy to use. Their Terms of Service don’t allow selling from your photo descriptions, but putting a shop link at your profile page is handy. I’ve had people admire a product I’ve photographed and when they message me about it, I can direct them to where it’s available. Flickr has a generous free amount of monthly photo storage – it’s worth the few clicks to store your photos online at this location.

What are your experiences with online sharing?

Sheep Shaped

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:37:00 +0000

Baked some delicious “sheep” cookies last week – recipe for Royal Icing (sort of) frosting & Sugar Cookie can be found at {the decorated cookie}. If you like your shaped cookies to stay the shape you cut them in, this is the Sugar Cookie recipe to use!

Much better looking than my attempt at “yarn” cookies a month ago. Those can be seen at the CraftFail website, one of the funniest sites I’m privileged to contribute to. The only one that makes me laugh harder is Cake Wrecks. Do you have any favorite websites that make you laugh?

Happy Halloween

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:31:00 +0000

1. :: right now ::, 2. her first caramel apples, 3. vintage draculaura, 4. Amigurumi Halloween Centerpiece, 5. pumpkins, 6. Vodka Tonic Jelly Shots, 7. Pumpkin Pie, 8. 20111031 - I Finally Found A Friend, 9. Finishing these up for tomorrow's skull appreciation sale

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

Just a few of my favorite pictures from flickr contacts at this very moment. Not even going to promise any new blog updates, they will be here when I am able to post them!!

A Fall New England Weekend

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 14:15:00 +0000

Knitting a little and enjoying the cooler weather.

Thinking of pumpkin decorations that I don’t have to carve or clean up after.

Here’s a little slideshow – only 6 pictures from the Goffstown Giant Pumpkin Regatta this year. If you don’t have the flash player to see it, you can see them at my flickr site.

Created with flickr slideshow.

This week I’m looking to catch up on some online blog reading, organizing my workspace and keep working on fingerless mittens for sale locally.

A luscious, soft clutch knit and whipped up in under an hour - made as a store sample. The Trendsetter Orbit yarn worked up beautifully as a dense fabric on size 35 needles.

That’s all I’ve got for now.

Thank you!

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:17:00 +0000

There is a world of people active all over the internet and Etsy, and I appreciate everyone who has featured my items in Treasuries lately. Thank you!!

Get ready, there's a lot (I was overwhelmed to come back from a few days of internet vacation and find these here!) There is tons of color and so much talent to see - a simple click will take you to the various pages. Enjoy!

Thanks to memoriesforlifescrapbooks, HoneyFromTheBee, LittleAndalucia, nfall2rt, and ForLoveofCupcakes!

Thank you, thank you!

A Cookie Recipe

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:05:00 +0000

I’ve been keeping busy helping out at the yarn shop and knitting. Will have to get pictures and update everything at least at Ravelry (I’m ‘tamdoll’ there).

Had an adventure trying to create some themed cookies for opening day – you’ll find that post with pictures at CraftFail. They might not have looked great, but they were delicious and here’s the recipe:

For the white icing, I used the King Arthur Flour Royal Icing recipe but instead of meringue powder, I used egg white powder. For the colored cookies that I later made, I used canned frosting and dye.

Thanks to freeprintablesonline for the cute recipe card I always use. It reminds me of when I was younger and had a typewriter. Pretty sure there are some of those typed index cards in my recipe collection somewhere.

The Opening of a New Yarn Shop

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:37:00 +0000

I am more than thrilled that a new shop will be coming to my small town! The Spotted Sheep Yarn Shoppe. It’s where I’ve been spending a lot of my free time, either at the store, or working on their new website: spottedsheepyarnshoppe.com. Here are some sneak previews…..

More after their Grand Opening on Saturday! I will also be teaching classes there, starting sometime this fall!

… And… according to the latest issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine, our Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and Regatta is “Worth the Drive”! I wonder if this year’s festival will be more crowded than ever because of that promo. Wondering what I’m talking about? Check out this post … I never mentioned it, but that’s Mr. Tamdoll in the clown costume!

Is there anything you love or find special about where you live?

Shifting from Summer to Winter Creating

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 23:41:00 +0000

Finally finished the bag and listed it for sale at my etsy shop! It has a little bit of summer sunshine in it, so I’m keeping it near my desk so I can look at it once in a while.

Quilted Handbag - Rapunzel in Sunlight

I’m including it here, too:

While that has been going on, I’ve been working on a bunch of other projects, too. (What, did you think I was just procrastinating finishing that handbag? No way! I’m the queen of distracted crafting, staring something new almost daily – it’s the finishing that I have so much trouble with!)

More to come!

Crafters, do your projects change seasonally? If I’m creating for sale, I definitely shift my color schemes and weights of fibers. What about shopping? If you see something you like out of season will you still buy it?

EtsyBloggers Carnival – Fall

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:06:00 +0000

I’ve been so neglectful of the teams I’m on, jumping back into the swing of things with this fall carnival. EtsyBloggers team members have answered 1 or more of these questions:

1) Do you have a favorite fall recipe?

2) Have you been working on any new fall designs?

You can read all their entries at EtsyBloggers Team: EtsyBlogger Carnival: Fall. Randomcreative is hosting this month, stop by and see what everyone is writing about!

1) Here is a favorite fall recipe I’ve been making since 1999 without fail, delicious results each time (click for larger view):

2) And here is a project I’ve been attempting… a little Halloween amigurumi cat. I still need to finesse it, not thrilled with how he looks so far – but working on it:

I didn’t realize the week had passed so quickly!!! Lots of projects to photograph and get blogged about soon.

Short-term Planning

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:20:00 +0000

Last post I said I’d be working on getting organized and needed to plan better for the next 4 months. If I get ambitious, I can use 3 of these to plan an entire year, but for now, I have a lot coming up in January – so the next 4 months was enough for me.

I simply folded a piece of paper in fourths and wrote monthly headings in each. Here’s a blank sheet for you to see what I’m talking about:

In previous to-do lists, telling myself what to do each month wasn’t working. If September said “Make ornaments” – that wasn’t really motivating me to do them. Now, I’m going to use each space to write down what I wanted finished in that month. For example, October now lists: “Halloween amigurumi”, and December has: “ornaments, 2 scarves”, etc. This way, at any time, I can look ahead and see what I need to work on and how much time I have to complete it. September is currently blank – since I have projects written in for the rest of the year I will focus on getting those accomplished.

Whew. Was harder to put together this post than it was to get my list going. I’ve never been great at planning ahead for my crafting/sale items – over the last few years with this blog and wanting to accomplish more – I’ve definitely improved. Reading other folks organizational ideas, trying different things and learning what works best for me is a continual process. It can only get better!

9/14 update! I forgot something! I have a desk calendar, too. Without it I’d be in bad shape!! In my kitchen, I use it to keep track of my weekly schedule, kid’s activities, etc. "Year of the What" – is the name of it… it’s super-sturdy, Sharpies® don’t bleed through pages, and there is tons of writing space. Each week I’m able to use my above planning (that stays in my workspace) to schedule what I want to accomplish Monday through Friday, and by Sunday night I review what was done and plan accordingly for the coming week. I won’t turn a page to the next week until I’ve reviewed what’s left on my daily “to-dos” – keeping me on track! Yes, of course, there are things that get carried over week after week, but I get to them eventually…

Multi-Crafting or Unfocused?

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 14:48:00 +0000

How many things can I do at once and still be productive? Not sure. I seem to be testing my limits this summer. Forget about housework, family, part-time work, etc… I seem to be crafting all over the place lately.

Still working on the handbag, finishing a teddy bear for a friend who needed help (picture below), thinking of joining this September Stitch-along (isn’t that pattern adorable?), thinking of some knit & crochet holiday gifts; a knit sweater for myself started back in June; a half dozen other handbags that I have fabric laid out for and have been thinking of all summer; and wanting to make some items for sale: fingerless mittens for fall; Halloween amigurumi – just got some cute ideas yesterday and itching to get started; Christmas ornaments to knit and sew.

Yeah, I have a lot on my mind. ~~Not sure if it’s going to all drive me crazy~~, I’m going to get organized!

I’m going to sit down this morning and write out all the things I want to accomplish. At the start of the year I had a calendar with months laid out and projects I wanted to start during each season. It worked well for a while, especially when I had a slump and didn’t have anything in progress – I had a chart to look at and goals to aim for. It got very scribbled on and messy… this is something I’m going to have to rework. Two calendars next time – ideas and goals.

Now, I’m looking at a 4-month plan. I’ll have some deadline dates for the seasonal projects, try to organize the others somehow.

Going to work on this, and will write about my organizing this weekend. Do you take on a lot of projects at once? How do you stay organized?

Lawn Fungi

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 02:02:00 +0000

I have never seen so many varieties of mushrooms on my property at the same time, so I took some photos. Clicking the collage will take you to individual pictures at Flickr.

Their textures were really fascinating, I’m sure they can be an inspiration for some future art project. What do you make of them?

Quilts to See

noreply@blogger.com (tamdoll) — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 16:17:00 +0000

Here are some pictures of quilts that I saw at a show in August, 2011. There weren’t too many that caught my eye this year, so it’s a short slideshow. Mostly I take pictures of the ones that I find inspiring and unique.

Since I go to this every few years, I searched around on my computer and found a bunch of other pictures and made them into a slide show also. Here’s some from 2006:

Putting up old pictures while I’m cleaning my workspace. I have so many UFOs around here and stashes of yarn that I’m dying to get to for some single-skein projects. I need to do some serious organizing.

Been inspired lately? Productive?