Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

Nevena Mileva comes to us from across the pond with some wonderful talents. You can visit her shop by copying and pasting her link below or click on the Title Etsy Knitter and Crocheters on Parade above. You will love her textured and beautiful scarves and baby items.

How did you hear about Etsy?

I live in Bulgaria, it's a small country in south-eastern Europe where
only a small number of people know that there is such amazing place
like etsy.com. I have a great post with videos about Bulgaria on my
blog http://boutiqueaholic.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-country-bulgaria-in-videos.html
Last year, a friend of mine was searching for online stores for good
Christmas sales. She told me about this place. When I started
searching in etsy stores, I got lost in so rich choice of handmade
items.

What made you decide to sell on Etsy?

I always wanted to open a store and sell my hand knitted scarves and
baby clothing. However, my full-time job, and pregnancy didn't bring
enough confidence in this picture.
When my beautiful baby daughter came to the world, she brought new
hope and faith in myself. I found knitting section and crochet
section and I was happily surprised that someone is selling so many
handmade creations. At that time the idea that etsy.com is an easy way
to create and maintain shop came into play. With etsy, I figured, I
wouldn't have to care about renting and maintaining a physical shop,
and at the same time I'd have flexible working hours. Now I stay at
home as mother, enjoy spending time with my baby daughter, my
knitting, and promoting my shop via interesting online tools. My shop
is www.nevita.etsy.com

How did you originally get into Handknit and Gobelin making business?
I learned to knit and make gobelin tapestry, when I was a child. I
went to my grandparent's home, during school offs. My grandmother
thought me different handmade techniques, such as knit, crochet, sewing
and others. During the years, I was paying more attention to knitting
and gobelin tapestry, and found I enjoyed it a lot. It became my
hobby, and after my daughter's birth I decided I was determined to
share the products of my passion with people around the world.

What motivates and inspires you to create?

Winter scarves... When I was young girl, my mother kept telling me to
wear scarves so I wouldn't get cold. I hated scarves! That is, until
the day I knitted myself a very colorful, soft, and pleasant to touch
and look at piece of happiness (yes, a scarf!). My classmates loved
it. That motivated me to make more scarves, because I found scarves
could be joy, emotions, and good looking fun - yes staying warm became
not so bad experience after all :)
Inspiration sources have been changing during my path in life. At
some point in time, I enjoyed to come back home, and to get calm and
be all by myself while making my needlepoint tapestries.
At other times, inspiration was there, but I couldn't tell where it
came from, so I'd like to think of it as coming from deep within the
human soul.
Now I am motivated from the smile of my baby daughter and the look of
her eyes. In addition, when I look and reflect on the results of my
hand made creations I've made during the years, I get a good feeling
of accomplishment, and I want to do more. I'm proud of my winter
scarves, my gobelins, and last but not least my baby clothing.

What do you like most about being a seller?

Being a seller is something new for me. I like to learn new things,
find information too. I learn how to sell by reading a lot of articles
from experienced etsy sellers. It is not easy work, I love to create,
but honestly, I don't know how to sell my creations. It is something I
want to learn to do. Being a seller is a new opportunity to bring joy
to people.


What are your interests outside etsy?

I like the Human Resources area and I am finishing my masters degree
in Human Resources management. I enjoy interacting with people.

I love to travel and regularly organize small trips through my country.

I think Nevena has found her niche, don't you.

Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

Jolen, of Knits by Jo, is a very energetic and busy lady. I think you will find her and her shop to be very interesting. Take a minute and get to know her and then check out the beautiful entrelac in her shop. Just click on the title Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade.

How did you learn to knit, and who taught you?

While working at a school about 4 years ago, I became good friends with a 4th grade teacher. She was teaching two of her students to knit after school and I got excited telling her that this was one of my "bucket list" items! She told me what type of needles to get and I borrowed some scrap yarn from the after school program's craft bin.
Miss Hagstrom was so nice that she volunteered to stay with me at the school after all the kids left from 6-8 p.m.! In those two hours, she taught me how to cast on, knit, purl, bind off, and even seed stitch. I picked up on it quickly and went home to practice in every spare minute I had. From there, I learned everything else I know by looking in books or online and teaching myself.

Tell us about your time in AmeriCorps.

AmeriCorps was my first job out of college. For those of you who might not know much about it, it's a one year commitment to work for a stipend. The amount of that stipend depends on how many hours you commit to do in that year. The amount, of course, is not much, but they pay some of your student loans when you are all done. Because of this, I was also working a second job beyond this full-time position with AmeriCorps. It was a busy time!
I was placed in an after school program, taking the secondary lead position. Before even starting, I was asked to begin a science club, which I took to three different schools each week to children in grades K-5. It was that spring that my friendship with that 4th grade teacher turned into a knitting session.
While continuing my commitment at the local YMCA summer program with the kids, many of them saw me knitting during their free time. I simply could not accept all the requests to knit them all something (there were 27!), so I told them I would teach them instead! I started a sign-up list and the most committed ones signed up, two a week for seven weeks. For some of the younger ones, it was more of a lesson in mastery of hand-eye coordination, but some really took off with it!
While all this was going on, I was interviewed in the local newspaper for my time in AmeriCorps. I just happened to be teaching a 6 year-old at the time how to knit so that ended up being the picture on the front page. That picture is the one you see with this interview.

What is your favorite material to work with?


I'm a pretty simple girl when it comes to materials and base it more on colors than I do on the actual material. I have to admit, my favorite material I did work with in both texture and colors was a Lion Brand wool when I made my Raspberry Mocha Entrelac Scarf.
I have tried all kinds of things however, even "larn" (plastic bags cut to a yarn-like consistency). One thing I have been thinking about but have not delved into yet was making a "yarn" out of old t-shirts. I'm all about reusing if possible.

You are spending time with photography. What is your favorite subject to photograph?
I have not done as much since I've moved to South Carolina, but my passion in my very amateur photography adventures is always the small stuff. I love taking photos of very small things in nature, and I love doing it close up (almost always using the macro function) so that I get all the detail you don't usually see. I think this comes from my love of the outdoors and outdoor education and the fact that I don't care much for a vista view, but rather a highly focused detailed one.
I took many pictures while living in Wisconsin at a YMCA camp for two years. I would get up early and go out in the woods and just shoot anything that came into view that I thought might be interesting. It almost always came out to be more interesting in the picture than it seemed to be in real life!
After I gathered a somewhat large volume of these pictures from the camp and other various locations in Minnesota's Twin Cities area, I started a "Life in Detail" series in my Facebook page and a little section devoted to it on my blog (http://environmentaledgirl.blogspot.com/).
Life in Detail-flowers: http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=11363&id=500254587
Life in Detail-other plants: http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=11378&id=500254587&op=36
Life in Detail-winter: http://www.facebook.com/#/album.php?aid=11379&id=500254587&op=36

If you could invent anything, what would it be and why?

Wow, what a big question?
When I was a kid, I always thought that the best thing would be to have hover crafts instead of cars, and I would invent an entire highway super structure that would feature air holes that blew up from the ground to keep you all up off the ground and Plexiglas between the lane sort of like a big vacuum tube. This way there would be fewer accidents?right?
Now that I'm an adult (although I think I still see the world as a child in some ways) I don't think I'm quite as creative!

Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

Sharon Acton of Rocky Bird 7 says, "Each item I make carries a little of me in it and has given me hours of pleasure and an opportunity to express my creative side." I think she is right. And she definitely has a creative side

Sharon your profile says that you have worked with children for 32 years. How so?

I am a qualified Early Childhood Educator , with a Resource teacher diploma.
I have worked with infants,preschoolers and junior and senior kindergarten children. I have worked preschool, and daycare and with many special needs children. I am presently working with the kindergarten group.

Your hats are very imaginative. Do you get your inspiration from the children?

Children are always expressing themselves about the wonders of the world that we as grown ups often over look. Simple things like animals, flowers and dreams of space and snow are of interest to the children. When I come up with a new hat I bring it in and let the children critique it and frequently I am given suggestions. The boys hats are the hardest to come up with something new as they tell me they don't want them to look pretty.

If you had any yarn you wanted and all the time in the world to knit, what would be your dream project?

My dream project would be to help others learn to knit and provide themselves and others with needed clothing, and accessories. Teaching others to develop a useful skill to be handed down to others would be a great experience and very fulfilling.


When did you learn to knit, and how did you learn?

I first learned to knit in 7th grade for school. we were to knit a pair of slippers, a very basic rectangle with drawstring. I made one and to this day I have never completed that other slipper. I still don't like doing slippers. Then my sister was having a baby and I wanted to make something as a gift. A good friend of mine helped me learn the intricate stitches in the pattern and I made a baby layette, followed by sweaters for myself. My friend taught me left handed although I am right handed I continued to experiment on my own and now use a pattern as a guideline more for size and I embellish with french knitting, crochet and other techniques. I also dabble in wire knitting and would like to try free form knitting. I have also taught some of the children (including boys) how to french knit(corking) and they made bracelets.

What do you do with your time when you are not knitting?

Spare time, who has spare time. I knit for Etsy, Craft sales, festivals, and Fairs from May to December. I do watch sci fi programs, mysteries and Coronation street while I knit and I try to read a little each day.


Take a peek at Susan's shop. I think you will love what you see. Just click on the title Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade.

Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

Eileen Skocdopole of Skocdem has just re-opened an new shop with emphasis on luxury this week. Eileen works full time at a drafting job, and part time on the weekends at a sheep farm that produces wonderful wool yarn. As you can see, she has two young children 2 and 6 years old and a husband that she says is very patient!

She knits with ear buds, listening to hip-hop and drinking coffee with her feet up!!


Drafting is your day job, what is your field of expertise?

I got interested in the Drafting profession because I like to draw, and I thought that this field would be a good blending of my creative and technical sides. And it has! I work for a major corporation and I have been there for 5 years, and been in this career for 7 years total. I create new, or modify existing part drawings for the company. The drawings look sort of like blue prints or part lists you get with bookcases, etc. Except these drawings are more detailed, and basically a legal document that the company has to adhere to.


When and how did you learn to knit?

Last November, I bought a "Teach yourself to knit" book and some yarn, and that is how I started. I remember watching my mom knit when I was a child, and that info must have stuck, because I could cast on right away!! Then I really leaned on the book and YouTube videos to learn the stitches and techniques.


You've just re-opened one of your shops www.skocdem.etsy.com with luxury items. Do you plan to market that shop any differently than the other?

Well it is a more sophisticated shop, I am seeking customers that would normally buy at a boutique, and elevate them to a hand-knit item, versus a mass produced high-price item. I am really reaching for the stars here! I am keeping it simple, few classic designs, few colors, almost minimal. I know some people who know some people, so we will see if the traffic flows my way!!!


What is your favorite fiber and why?

Favorite fiber, ooooh my. I purchased a white boucle Angora Mohair from Lynn at fuzzyfibers1960 that is ABSOLUTELY to die for. The softness is above anything I have felt. I have an order in to her for 400 more yards. But now I buy all my fibers from a network of lovely Etsy-ers, and look for their names in my listings!


If you could do or be anything you wanted for one day, what would it be?

My ultimate fantasy would be a day that I would just be pampered from dawn till dusk with the whole movie star treatment, think Mariah Carey. Facials, manicure, pedicure, massage, organic food, professional make-up and hair, the whole works. And then fall asleep on soft sheets and a cloud-like mattress. Just for one day. Is that too much to ask??


I'm hoping that dream comes true. You can visit her shops at http://www.etsy.com/shop/skocdem and http://www.etsy.com/shop/kloseknit, or click on the title Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade.

Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

Holly Priestley has re-joined us after a hiatus, and I am very glad she did. Her shop is Silly Little Lady. She loves to breathe in the smell of old books in the library, a good glass of wine, green grass and big leaves. You will love her hats, scarves and handspun.

I love to hear about the process of choosing yarns. Please tell us how you choose your yarns.

Unless I have a specific project in mind, the yarns pick me! If I go browsing around a yarn store (virtually or in person) sometimes a yarn will just jump at me and say "you MUST make me into a super chic and warm slouchy beanie" or "my destiny is to become your warmest, coziest scarf."

What is your very favorite yarn to work with?

Hmm...favorite yarn to work with...Oh I don't know if I could pick just one! but I'm sure everyone says that haha. I love the uniqueness behind every skein of handspun or hand dyed that either I create or get from some Etsy seller. Those skeins are all one of a kind and just speak wonders to the world! If I had to choose one yarn to work with the rest of my life it would be handspun :)

Why do you like elephants?

I'm not quite sure the exact time elephants became my favorite animal, but I'm sure it had something to do with the stuffed elephant that was mine before I was even born. His name is Buddy and I still sleep with him on occasion ;) Elephants are truly majestic creatures, their memory, their size, their mourning ceremonies, elephants have feelings!

What do you do when you are not knitting?

When not knitting, right now I can be found doing homework, I'm a junior at New Mexcio Tech, getting my bachelors in Management and a minor in psychology. If I am procrastinating and not knitting, I love to dye my own yarns and spin, I also love to cook and train our 4 month old puppy :)

Where do you see your shop in five years?

Since I will have been out of college for a few years by that point, I will have much more time and energy to dedicate to my shop and I see it becoming very successful and hopefully my soul source of income (at least until I can get my yarn shop slash tea/coffee bar started up in Colorado somewhere ;)).




You can get to Holly's shop by clicking on the title Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade and you can get to her blog at http://sillylittleladysspotontheweb.blogspot.com/

Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

Alicia Mortlock of Willo sometimes picks her needles up first thing in the morning and puts them up the last thing at night. Travel is a passion, and she considers writing her first love. You can link to her shop by clicking on the title Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade.

Your bio says you love to travel, where have you traveled and where would be your next destination? Tell us the most fascinating place that you have either visited or would like to visit.

When I was young, I always knew that I could fly if I really wanted to. While Life has consequently clipped my wings, I still love to escape the confines of day-to-day routine whenever I can. To paraphrase JFK, ich bin ein europäischer, I am a European, and love Western Europe. I especially enjoyed eating honeyed meringues in a coffee shop in Belgium and comparing notes with the village women in Gozo (an island off Malta) as they crochet outside their houses. Closer to home, I’m not sure that the British coastline can be bettered. I love Cornwall and Northumbria, Norfolk and Suffolk. One of my favourite places is Dunwich, just an hour’s drive away. The fish and chips are delicious and the history of the place wonderful, especially for a writer. It was once an important medieval town, a prosperous seaport and centre for the wool trade, which has fallen, bit by bit into the ocean. Local legend has it that at certain tides, church bells can still be heard under the sea.

I’d love to go back to Italy. I went skiing there in my early twenties and fell in love with the country, if not with my skis. But rather than give you a next destination, can I cheat and tell you where I’d like to travel? Into the past. To meet up with a few relatives and give my son, Edward another hug. My granddad was a Marxist; a real working class hero back in the early 1900’s when it wasn’t such a term of abuse. He lived with us during the last few years of his life but I was only eleven when he died and didn’t quite appreciate what he was trying to tell me. He predicted the recent collapse of the banks and tried to explain to me how we are all part of one collective energy. Now that I properly understand how one starving, homeless or disadvantaged person lessens all of us, I’d love to talk to him again. Then I’d go visit my other granddad, one of the most influential people in my life. He was a gardener as well as a teller of tales and I need to ask him exactly what is wrong with my rambling roses at the moment.

What do you do in between the times that you pick your needles up in the morning and the time you lay them down at night?

My day always starts with breakfast and making sandwiches for Charlie, my seventeen year old daughter. As a feminist, I believe equality should be about choice. For everyone. In the past, I’ve had some pretty responsible (and relatively well-paid) jobs in Youth and Community Development. However, since my divorce, I’ve chosen to live in what I call ‘posh poverty’ in order to be there, physically as well as emotionally for Charlie, No one asks to be the daughter of divorced parents.

When the school bus picks her up at eight, I have my morning walk, although some days my back prevents me from walking any further than the end of the garden. Ten years ago, I injured my spine at work. After months of moaning, I went to see my GP and was whisked into the same hospital where my son Edward had much of his treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. I had slipped a disc, causing some permanent neurological damage (cauda equine syndrome). Thanks to our marvellous NHS, I had an emergency op which saved my legs, bladder and bowel although they’ve never made any promises as to what might happen in the future and I’ve since slipped two further discs on which they can’t operate for fear of further damage to my spinal cord. The doctors called it a miracle that I could walk. To be honest, that was when I fell out with God. I think that miracles should be reserved for mothers praying for their dying sons and it always seems a bit of a sick joke to me that my son died but I kept my legs.

Anyway, back to answering your question... Although my one and only book (for adults) was published back in 2004, I still tend to think of myself, primarily as a writer. In 2005, I was ‘discovered’ by a well-known literary agent, Maggie Noach who also discovered David Almond and Anthony Horowitz. Although she didn’t feel strongly enough about my first children’s novel, ‘Dead Black’ to represent me, she was very encouraging about my work for older children and young adults and asked that she might have the first read of further books. My second novel, ‘Monsters’ was nearing completion when Ms Noach died during a routine back operation and since then, I’ve struggled to find someone who’s prepared to take a risk with a very raw talent. Even so, my head is filled with the life stories of so many characters who want to be heard and I try to listen to at least one of them every day. Even when I don’t write, I try to plan something (or someone) in my head, inspiration usually coming first thing in the morning, somewhere between answering emails, reading Mette’s Morning Message and trawling the internet for inspiration for my knitting.

Some days I work for my ex sister-in-law Kate as a virtual assistant. It’s great for a flibbertigibbet like me, sitting in the comfort of my own home and ‘pretending’ to be a dental receptionist in Cambridge or the secretary to an IT consultant in Hertfordshire. VA work aside, I try spend the rest of the day knitting or designing until Charlie comes home from school. I can’t stand silence, I guess because I worry too much about what might fill it, so I tend to get through a couple of films every day. In the summer, I spend my evenings floating round the garden, pretending I’m the reincarnation of garden designer and my hero, Gertrude Jekyll as I ineffectually prune the roses. In the winter, I usually get back to my knitting.

Tell us how and when you came to knit?

Like many of us, I had a talented grandma (Nana) who taught me much of what I know and an equally clever mum who filled in any blanks. I used to be hypnotised by the way Nana’s finger wound the yarn around the needle and she did lots of cable work which completely had me hooked. By the time my brother was born (when I was seven) I was knitting him booties and matinee coats and I’ve knitted for family and friends since. First thing I knitted with leaves and flowers was a bedspread, unfortunately unfinished, when I was about eight or nine and had the measles.

From these two amazing women, I also learned how to ‘Make do and Mend’. Without wanting to sound like a fossil, I was born in 1960, just six years after the end of rationing and you learned not to waste anything. I swear that every gym bag my sister and I had in primary school was made from the same blue maternity dress, with our names chain stitched on the front. I admit to rebelling against ‘making do’ in my twenties and thirties, but with changing economic circumstances, I’m actually enjoying a return to recycling and charity shop clothes.

What outlets do you find for your talent in the U.K.?

Er... very few, I’m ashamed to say. I only started selling on Etsy to make some money to help finance the writing. I have a shop on Folksy but I don’t look after it properly and deserve the resulting lack of sales. This week, I’ve finally started developing my own website, one of those basic packages, and I hope to have www.knitwillo.com up and running by the end of next week with a view to using it to help promote my work over here. This year I’ve had to turn down a couple of invites to craft fairs and farmers’ markets because of other work commitments. But after muddling through the past year in a rather pedestrian fashion, I’m beginning to see where this particular journey’s taking me. I love my life. I love my work. And I’m going to flap my wings as hard as I can.

LOL, if Alicia knew how many of us were born before 1960, she would feel like a spring chicken.

Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade

This week we are meeting Susan of Made 4 You By Susan (A Little Bit of Everything- Designs from a chick with ADD). And her shop does have a little bit of everything from yarn to knitted and crocheted items to jewelry and a vintage item. I think the cute subtitle tells me not only that she has ADD, but that she is a person who makes lemons into lemonade. To get to Susan's shop, click on the title Etsy Knitters and Crocheters on Parade.

You make reference in the sub-title of your shop to having ADD. How does that influence your designs?
I know that I don't have the patience for anything large and complicated. Even small complicated projects just baffle me at times (knitting socks). I get the most satisfaction from completion, so I try to complete some smaller projects while working on something larger. I also try not to learn multiple new skills at the same time to keep the frustration level low.

How old were you when you learned to knit, and who taught you?
I only learned to knit about 2 1/2 years ago--so I was 39. I had been crocheting since I was 12 and I desperately wanted to learn how to knit, so I took a class at a local college. I'm still a beginner so I'm trying to master the basics before moving on to anything more advanced. I learned to loom knit shortly after needle knitting because the small DPNS were too hard on my carpal tunnel, so I enjoy using that method to make hats.

You've had your shop on Etsy for over three years. What advice would you give to new shop owners?
Get involved with the Etsy community! Get on the threads and talk to people (not just posting and leaving). I found so many connections in the promotions thread and I did BNRs for many months to spread the word about my shop. I also suggest joining street teams. A team comprised of people who sell similar items is an asset. Trading is another way to get your name out there--I have a lot of sales from people I have traded with in the past. Last, I would advise to advertise. I carry my business cards everywhere and when I'm asked about my shop, I hand over a card. Wearing the items I sell is good advertisement, too. I also have a Facebook fan page and get a lot of business from that site. Basically, you have to put the time and energy into your shop for it to succeed!

What direction would you like to see your shop take in the future?
I had originally opened my shop to sell off the inventory from my jewelry craft business, but the jewelry making never went away and I had to open another shop for it (pendantsandmore.etsy.com). I would definitely like to showcase more knitting. Crocheting comes easier for me and it's a safe fallback, but knitting is something I'd like to do more of in the future. I'm expanding my line of products to include some original designs and I'm going to continue in that aspect.

If you could be anything you wanted to be, what would it be and why?
LOL! With ADD, I can't pick just one thing to be!
1) I'd be the first female NFL referee because I love football! (but I can't stand the hot weather, so all games would have to be inside)
2) I'd be a popular mystery writer because I love to write.
3) I'd get my PhD and teach English or communications at a huge college.
4) The most realistic--I'd like my Etsy stores to be my full-time business and support me.