December '09: 5 of 31

Saturday morning, I checked my email and found out I made my first Etsy sale that wasn't from my mother! Actually, it was from someone I did not know at all. I was quite excited. The internet is pretty amazing.

I packed the PhotoJournal up, added a few little extras, and then asked Matt to wrap it up in brown paper since he's a better wrapper than me.

Then I left for the afternoon to meet up with a friend at a cafe for a study session. We sat at a picnic table in the building's old bank vault, which was a new experience. It was nice to get out for an afternoon that did not involve walking the dog (as much as I love that).

Afterwards, I went to the knitting store for an hour-long private knitting lesson. I've been knitting a sweater for my baby niece (since before Easter) and made a mistake I couldn't figure out, so I kept picking it up and setting it aside. I'm hoping to finish it for Christmas, before she's out of the appropriate size range. Luckily, I had the foresight to knit up a few sizes when I started in the spring.

While I had the ear of the knitting instructor, I asked her to watch me knit to see if she had any tips for speeding me up. I feel dreadfully slow. She didn't think my knitting was that slow, although I watched her and she went much faster! She gave me a few tips, mainly to keep the yarn raised on my right index finger so my hands move less.

I think my knitting slowness mainly comes from the fact that I'm a daydreamer and often lose track of where I'm at in a pattern. On most projects, I end up ripping out whole sections to fix mistakes. That's what I had to do today. I somehow missed a whole row where I was supposed to bind off 8 stitches. I didn't notice anything was off until I thought I was finished with the front of the sweater! This is why I don't think I'll ever knit for pay!

But, paper crafts is another story. In a week and a half I'm going to drop off a new batch of wanderCRAFT goodies at the knitting store for their Last Minute Holiday Shopping Party. Should be fun, and hopefully I'll sell a few items. I'm going to whip up some knitting project PhotoJournals. If you're in the Boston area, they will have the items for sale through the weekend of the 18th. After that, I'll add them to my Etsy shop for any last minute shoppers.