Yay!! A finished project!

This month has been a little slow for me in terms of actually having some finished projects to show you all. What with the frequent bouts of sickness we've had, and getting my store ready for the Val's Day flash sale, I haven't been able to finish a lot of items. In fact, right now I'm working hard on completing some custom orders so I can get to work on my spring line and plan ahead for fall/winter. It also means I haven't had time to come up with any new designs. :( Anyway, I finally got the chance to block a pink version of my Sunehri Shawl (knit in Malabrigo Merino Worsted). I finished knitting this shawl way back in November, and I had hoped to have it ready for the December Bazaar Bizarre Fair. However that didn't happen, and I only got to block it last week. Here it is now, in all it's pink glory. Let me just say that I'm not usually a fan of pink, but I could get down with this shade of pink, for sure!

I am glad I finally got this blocked and photographed. Maybe I'll even be able to get a photoshoot with an actual model wearing the shawl? That would be fantastic. This shawl is now listed in my Etsy shop here if you would like to take it home with you. :)

Stitches West update

Oh, and I was only able to make it to Stitches West on one of the days (Friday). I met up with my friend Katharine for lunch and then went to the market to browse. I noted down a few booths I wanted to visit on Sunday, but then life happened and I wasn't able to make it. Boohoohoo! I spied some delicious-looking yarn at Becoming Art and Sweet Fiber Yarns. I think I might have to order a few skeins for my next shawl designs.

The Fisherman's Rib (knit 1 below stitch) - A video tutorial

It's really cold here in the Bay Area (and looks like it will be still chilly for the rest of the week). The Procragratification Scarf is a fast, easy infinity scarf pattern that will definitely keep you warm during this cold spell.

This pattern uses the fisherman's rib stitch pattern, which requires you to knit and/or purl into the stitch below. I was asked a few weeks ago about how to knit this particular stitch. I thought I'd post this video tutorial that I found on YouTube which does a great job of showing how to work this stitch pattern.

How to Knit the Knit One Below Stitch (K1B) by newstitchaday

http://youtu.be/_g_E31DnTUg

The Purl Bee, one of my favorite knitting websites, also has a photo tutorial of how to work this particular stitch, with two accompanying patterns for a scarf and cowl here. Enjoy and stay warm!!

PS:If you aren't a knitter, I have these chunky, ultra-warm infinity scarves for sale in my Etsy shop!

One Day Flash Sale Happening Now!! - 40% off all items in the NiseyKnits Shop

I don't usually do this, but I thought this sale was too good not to share. All day today, all items in my NiseyKnits Etsy shop, as well as in over 55 other Etsy shops, is on sale for 40%  OFF using the coupon code XOXOSFETSY. Search for XOXOSFETSY and you will find all the shops that are participating in this sale.

I have quite a few of my chunky procragratification infinity scarves on there, as well as other chunky and lacy scarves on sale. You can also see all the other shops participating in this flash sale here: http://sfetsy.blogspot.com/2013/02/sfetsy-crush-40-off-one-day-only.html

The sale lasts all day today (Monday Feb 4th) till 11:59pm PST. You can visit my Etsy shop here. Hope you have a wonderful day!

And the winner is...

This is sooo hard because....well...I only had 3 people comment on last week's giveaway post, and one of the commenters wasn't entering the competition. I can't pick, I can't. Soooooooo...both Pious and Nik are going to get copies of the book! Yay!! Please email niseyknits@gmail.com with your mailing addresses so I can get the books to you, Pious and Nik. In other news, I'm running a week-long 25% off sale on a few items in my Etsy shop right now. Take a look at the items and snag something warm and cosy for yourself or a loved one.  Visit the sale section in my Etsy shop here.

And finally, I'm going to slow things down a bit here on my blog for the next couple of weeks - a month. I'm taking a bit of a vacation, meaning that my blog posts for the next few weeks is going to be full of pictures, with no real theme. I need a bit of a breather, but I also don't want to lose touch with you all. So, if you see mostly pictures in my blog posts, please do not fret. I hope you'll like the pretty pics all the same.

To end, here's a quick roundup of items I've worked on recently.

Some Procragratification Scarves...

And a few Scrunchable Scarves...

Enjoy the rest of the week everyone! :)

Working hard for Christmas

I am so sorry this blog post is a day (or two) late. I've been working really really hard to finish the custom orders I received at the Bazaar Bizarre Fair two weekends ago. All the members of my family are also either sick or recuperating, which has made my work go slower than expected. For this I sincerely apologize. However, I thought I would duck in here quickly and share some of the things I've been working on for the custom orders. Here they are.

There's a couple of Procragratification Infinity Scarves...

... a few chain scarves

    

...and my newest, the Fibonacci-inspired chunky cowls.

      

 Remember, the 15% off coupon (SFETSYHOLIDAY2012) is still active. And if you order now, you will definitely get it before Christmas (no custom orders though, sorry). Visit my Etsy Shop here for more knitted goodness!

Have a wonderful week!

My first holiday fair with Bazaar Bizarre

I am back from the Bazaar Bizarre Fair up in San Francisco this past weekend, and it was the bomb!! So many people, so many lovely vendors! It was wonderful...except for the rain. It rained nonstop on Saturday, making the drive up to the city and back quite scary. In fact, on Sunday morning my booth mate was worried for our safety and left me a message that she was taking a local road (El Camino) instead of the highway (101) because there were so many accidents. However, after we arrived at the fairgrounds on Sunday morning, the sun came out and shone the rest of the day! SMH! I loved the rain on Saturday because I felt it made people more willing to look at handknitted scarves and cowls. One customer actually came in and bought a hat because it was cold outside (and also because the was wearing this beautiful cobalt blue blouse and the hat matched it perfectly! LOL! )

I shared a booth with the awesome Amy of Jumbo Jibbles, the designer and creator of "whimsical plush and personalized jewelry". (I bought a giant blueberry from her for my son...that's my word and I'm sticking to it! :P).

This is what our booth looked like on Saturday morning - my half...(notice the yarn shop that had the booth right next to ours! So wrong! I was sooooo good though. I bought no yarn...but I did get some stitch markers. :) )

...and here is Amy's half of the booth:

The first couple of hours on both days was slow, but traffic picked up steadily and we made some sales. I also got quite a few custom orders. All in all, this was a great fair and I'm glad I got the experience. It's killer on your feet though, with all the standing around and walking. On Sunday my friend Alisa graciously agreed to come along and help us, so we could take a few breaks here and there. Thank you so much Alisa! I also have to thank the SF Etsy team, who had a booth at the fair manned by volunteers. These volunteers came around periodically and also watched our booths so we could take bathroom breaks or find something to eat. That was just super helpful.

As you can probably guess, I'm still exhausted from the fair but...A luta continua (as one of my middle school teachers used to say). I'm starting to work on the custom orders as well as on stocking my Etsy shop for the holiday season. Do take a look as I have a few new items on there. One of them (which was a big hit at the fair), is this chunky necklace scarf.

Let it hang long and it works as a statement neck piece. Double it up and your neck is kept warm from any sudden cold chills. Hand knit in a 50% wool - 50% acrylic chunky yarn, this scarf-necklace twists up prettily so you can hide it in your handbag and pull it out whenever there is a sudden drop in temperature. It's available in various colors and you can also customize it by choosing up to 3 colors to make the scarf you want. Get adventurous and try this scarf! :) Plus, the 15% off coupon (SFETSYHOLIDAY2012) is still active till the 14th of this month!

I hope you all have a wonderful week!!

Prepping for the Bizarre Bazaar Fair

Hi everyone, I've been busy fighting off a terrible cold and prepping for my first major holiday fair, the Bizarre Bazaar Fair. It's quite hectic here so I'm just going to leave you with some pretty photos from a photoshoot that my friend Sam Kessie did for Eden's Corner Hair Salon (in Atlanta, GA), using my scarves.

Have a wonderful rest of the week!