I went to bed on the last day of January with a whole big list of Things. To. Get. Done. i planned on starting off my February (and my week) right by having a really productive Monday.
So I was pleasantly surprised to wake up today and discover that Etsy was helping to give me a little boost by featuring one of my best-loved products in their daily Etsy Finds newsletter, which goes out to oodles of Etsians all over the world. It made me feel all warm-and-fuzzy, which is a given, considering that today’s theme was all about getting the perfect Valentine’s gift for your significant other.
And the Secret of the Chromastone stitch markers, which were featured as a fabulous crafty gift for him or her, are of course tickled that they got featured as well. I was actually working on making some more of these joyful little color-changing markers this weekend, so I have a bunch of them sitting on my desk waiting to be packaged up. They just look so cheerful and pretty and I confess I’ve been holding them and watching them change into my favorite colors of blue and green while I’ve been working.
That’s right, it’s that time of the year again! It’s time to shop like crazy at Exchanging Fire’s Black Friday sale!
Use coupon code AFTERTURKEYDAY to save 15% off anything in my shop until midnight on Black Friday! Customers who spend $100 or more receive a free goodie from me (deliciously good).
I’ve been shown several photos recently of Exchanging Fire stitch markers “in the wild.” I thought I’d share some of the images that have been “caught” recently so you can see them in action!
Mizpah, also known as feywyrd on Ravelry, has acquired a brightly hued collection that she took for a jaunt into the woods. Pictured below are La Vie En Rose and A Moment of Honey:
Mizpah went knitting with fairy tales that day as well, and the The Frog Prince and Princess and the Pea stitch markers featured here are hanging from her aptly named Mizpah shawl:
Vicki, also known as nonaofsav on Ravelry, shows off a lovely little one-off stitch marker from the Wild Child sampler collection on her Lilla koftan baby sweater:
I love seeing how people are enjoying their goodies, so thank you for sharing! If you’ve got more “in the wild” shots you’d like to share with me, I’d love to see them. You can share with me on Instagram and Twitter, or send me a photo on Ravelry or Etsy. Maybe I’ll share a bunch of images in a future blog post. Thanks again!
This month I couldn’t make up my mind so I made two different stitch marker sets for the February Phat Fiber Sampler Box. These are perfect for beating away those winter blues (chocolate makes everything better, right?).
These stitch markers are made with vintage Lucite beads – Chocoholics Anonymous features five different chocolate-drenched charms, from an chocolate English toffee bar, a chocolate-frosted doughnut, a chocolate sprinkles cookie with the word “Love” frosted across the top of it, to a classic chocolate bar and even a huge chocolate cupcake topped with a tiny strawberry.
The Doughnut Shop features five different flavored doughnuts, each topped with frosting and cheerful sprinkles, from chocolate and vanilla to strawberry and maybe even maple? This set comes complete with a tiny resin Starbucks mug full of cocoa or coffee (whichever you prefer imagining is in it). Yum!
As soon as I heard about this month’s Phat Fiber Sampler Box theme, Rust and Roses, I immediately knew what I was going to do. I have so many ideas rattling around in my head, and it’s hard to find the time to raise these inspirations out of the dark. So thank you, Phat Fiber, for giving me the opportunity to bring another beauty into the light.
This design began by pairing together the colors of rust – copper – and a sweet, unusual color akin to copper and topaz blended with bittersweet melon:
Now, I’ve never really been a fan of the traditional red rose. It always bored me, quite frankly, and growing up I was usually attracted to the more unusual varieties of flowers, like hibiscus, orchids or calla lilies. As I have grown into adulthood, however, I’ve become more aware of the roses that exist beyond the grocery store florist – like the wild rose, with it’s gorgeous knock-out blooms, or unusual heirloom varieties with colors like smokey bronze, chocolate-red, rusty apple-orange or spiky green. Wow. I want a whole garden full of unusual roses!
So without further ado, here are my brand new La Vie En Rose stitch markers, gold-dusted pink topaz rosebud Czech beads paired with gorgeous copper accents to create a look so realistic it’s like you are knitting with miniature roses.
The name was inspired by the haunting cabaret melody of the same name, which was written by the famous French singer Edith Piaf in 1945. It’s a melancholy post-war tune that is as much a classic as Moon River, and very evocative of the time period. Here’s a modern rendition of it that I find absolutely gorgeous:
Don’t forget, if you purchase anything in my store from Nov. 19 – Dec. 20 you are eligible for the Phat Fiber Superbox Giveaway! To win this month’s Phat Incentive, which includes the contents of this month’s Video (aka The Superbox) AND a $100 Gift Certificate to one of the participating shops, you need to join the Phat Fiber group on Ravelry and then post what you’ve purchased in the Rust and Roses incentive thread.
Want to know how you can get one of these boxes? For a Phat Fiber community edited guide to snagging a box, visit this thread in the Ravelry group. The cost of the box is $36 including shipping. Good luck!
Enjoy the new design, which is up in the Exchanging Fire shop!
Well, my goodies arrived last week at the Phat Fiber headquarters, so here is the big reveal for the stitch markers I made to coincide with this month’s Egyptian theme. Flight of the Butterfly is a very limited edition design, primarily composed of vintage beads, so don’t hesitate to nab a set today!
Butterflies were very rare in Ancient Egypt because of the harsh climate, and not much is known about how the Egyptians perceived them. There are some tantalizing clues, however, found in the tombs and hieroglyphics of Ancient Egypt, so I had a wonderful time researching this connection. My inspiration comes from the inlaid silver bracelets that were found in the tomb of Queen Hetepheres I. Made of silver, turquoise, carnelian and lapis lazuli, some researchers and scholars believe they were designed to protect her and help her to fly into the afterlife.
Butterflies, with their ability to “rebirth” themselves after “entombing” themselves as caterpillars, may have been greatly honored by the Ancient Egyptians. Ancient Egyptians may have seen a parallel between the linen wrappings on their dead and the chrysalis of the butterfly. When butterflies were featured on wall reliefs, their images tended to be overly large and placed close to the heavens or other symbols of life everlasting. This indicates not only their importance but also shows that they may have reinforced the Ancient Egyptians’ concept of the afterlife.
Butterflies did not always stay in Egypt year-round, and often migrated from other more friendly climates, making a sighting of one a rare and beautiful thing indeed. The most common Egyptian butterfly, the Plain Tiger butterfly, is believed to be one of the first butterflies used in art in the world, making its way onto a 3,500-year-old wall design in Luxor, Egypt. Today, that fresco shows us a glimpse of the rich wildlife that was found in Egypt when the Pharaohs still ruled it.
I had great fun digging into this relatively unknown history about Ancient Egypt. If you are interested in finding out more about the beliefs that the Egyptians may have had toward butterflies, I highly recommend reading this master’s thesis by Dawn Haynes from Stellenbosch University in South Africa.
Don’t forget, if you purchase anything in my store from Oct. 18 – Nov. 15 you are eligible for the Phat Fiber Superbox Giveaway! To win this month’s Phat Incentive, which includes the contents of this month’s Video (aka The Superbox) AND two Gift Certificates to one of the participating shops, you need to join the Phat Fiber group on Ravelry and then post what you’ve purchased in the current incentive thread.
My stitch markers were featured at the 13:22 minute mark in the video:
Want to know how you can get one of these boxes? For a Phat Fiber community-edited guide to snagging a box, visit this thread in the Ravelry group. The cost of the box is $36 including shipping. Good luck!
Enjoy the new design, which is up in the Exchanging Fire shop!
I’ve been twice-blessed recently, because this week Interweave Crochet’s Summer 2014 issue hit stands, and featured inside it were a set of my stitch markers! The markers highlighted were Exchanging Fire’s Orange Blossom Special, a limited edition set of faceted brilliant orange cat’s eye paired with vintage leaf beads and adorable antiqued gold orange charms. These markers were customized with closed claw-style clasps, though I also have closed kidney-style and open-style hooks. Here is a sneak peek of the page they are featured on, in the magazine:
Did you know that most of the stitch markers at Exchanging Fire can be converted into crochet-friendly markers? All you have to do is ask! A simple message in the “Notes to Seller” area as you check out is all it takes.
The summer issue of Interweave Crochet is a beautiful garden tea party theme, with lots of faerie lace and even handcrafted crochet teacups. And the New and Notable accessories section features adorable felted gnomes alongside the Orange Blossom stitch markers that you should check out.
The editors contacted me this winter about the Red Riding Hood stitch markers, which I love because they have a beautiful wolf’s head charm on them paired with reclaimed red jade beads. They invoke the dark and moody feeling that the original fairy tale conveyed. So I sent them in, and have been waiting and waiting to see when they might appear in print. And voila! Here is a sneak peek of the page they are featured on, right beside those awesome digital row counters I also have at Exchanging Fire:
The Knitscene Accessories issue only comes out once and year and is always jam-packed with the latest goodies and cutest easy-to-knit patterns. Some of the cowls and scarves this year are to-die-for elegant with a fabulous Art Nouveau style. The whole theme is Fairy Tales, so you should totally check it out.
This month’s theme for the Phat Fiber Sampler Box was a little unexpected, and I really didn’t think I was going to participate until one night when I was laughing over posts in the Rubberneckers group on Ravelry.
Like a lightning bolt, I thought of the funny Internet expression, “teal deer,” which references a post where someone has pontificated themselves into oblivion. Respondents are forced to reply with “tl;dr” (too long; didn’t read) or run screaming from the computer. Or both.
“A teal deer, eh?” I thought to myself. “Well, that’s a horse of a different color, all right!” After all, the idiom “a horse of a different color’ usually isn’t talking about horses at all.
So without further ado, here are my brand new Teal Deer stitch markers, handpainted by moi in a gorgeous sparkly teal color so that you can chuckle over the inanities of life while knitting away on your newest project. Enjoy!
Don’t forget, if you purchase anything in my store from May 18 – June 20 you are eligible for the Phat Fiber Superbox Giveaway! To win this month’s Phat Incentive, which includes the contents of this month’s Video (aka The Superbox) AND A $150 Gift Certificate to one of the participating shops, you need to join the Phat Fiber group on Ravelry and then post what you’ve purchased in the incentive thread.
Want to know how you can get one of these boxes? For a Phat Fiber community edited guide to snagging a box, visit this thread in the Ravelry group. The cost of the box is $36 including shipping. Good luck!
Enjoy the new design, which is up in the Exchanging Fire shop!
My past month was sort of crazy, and I had to work very hard to get my samples into Phat Fiber headquarters in time for the box this month. I really wanted to be a part of April’s garden, because I had so many ideas floating around in my head. In the end I think I was a bit inspired by the volatility going on in my life, because I chose a Wars of the Roses theme, continuing my Tudor series at Exchanging Fire.
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic wars fought between supporters of two rival branches – the Houses of Lancaster and York – for the throne of England. Both sides were descendants of the House of Plantagenet, which had ruled England during the Middle Ages. The symbol of the rose came into being during these battles for control of the throne of England, when the York supporters wore white roses to show their loyalty. The origins of the Rose itself stem from Edward I’s use of “a golden rose stalked proper” as a badge of England’s Royal House.
The White Rose of York
The wars ended when a relative unknown Lancasterian living abroad, Henry VII, the father of the infamous Henry VIII, was raised up to be the next king. He married Elizabeth of York, uniting the two dynasties together and creating the House of Tudor, which ruled for the next 120 years.
The Red Rose of Lancaster
Don’t forget, if you purchase anything in my store from April 20 – May 17 you are eligible for the Phat Fiber Superbox Giveaway! To win this month’s Phat Incentive, which includes the contents of the April Video (aka The Superbox) AND A $150 Gift Certificate to one of the participating shops, you need to join the Phat Fiber group on Ravelry and then post what you’ve purchased in the incentive thread.
Exchanging Fire 