To Sell or Not To Sell?

     Over the last few weeks, I've been getting back into some of the craft projects that have been sitting around my house for god-only-knows how long. You might have read about my adventures in card-loom weaving (I still need to finish that project), and I've been knitting a lot too. I'm feeling pretty happy about it all.

     Right now I'm unemployed, mostly. I graduated with my BA in English about a month ago, and I've been looking for work, but it's slow going. I'm sending out resumes like crazy, but haven't actually heard back from anyone yet. In the mean time I'm working part-time doing medical billing, but that's only for about 6 or so hours a week. I'm also going to be getting into some volunteer work soon (more on that when it happens), but that still leaves me with a lot of free time to fill.

     I've been reading more, and I love that. I've been watching some great movies on TCM, and I love that too, but mostly I'm loving the fact that I've gotten back into my crafts.

     Knitting and weaving gives me something productive to do with my time. I love the fact that I can take a simple ball of yarn (or maybe two or three) and turn it into a scarf. My skills aren't great right now, I would still classify myself as a beginner, but I'm having fun with it.

     The problem is, the scarves are starting to pile up. :o) I've got at least three finished ones, and two more that I'm working on. Over the past few days I've begun to wonder if anyone out there would be interested in buying them. I've been a fan of etsy for a long time now, and I really love the idea of selling my scarves online (and making a little bit of money). I'm not really interested in turning this into a business, but it would be nice if I could sell a scarf or two and make enough money to keep funding this as a hobby. 

     The quality of my scarves isn't great though, like I said, I'm still a beginner. But I'm thinking of trying to sell them anyway. I figure as long as I'm honest about the quality of my goods, and my pries reflect that quality, it shouldn't be a problem.

      I'd love to hear what you guys think. I need some pros and cons here, and if you guys have any thoughts, please please please leave them in the comments!

Thanks! :o)

Camp NaNoWriMo

Well, I accidentally committed myself to writing a novel this summer... Yeah, don't ask. 

I know I've blogged about NaNoWriMo and ScriptFrenzy before, so now it's time for me to talk about CampNaNoWriMo.

CampNaNo is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. It's a month of noveling madness right in the middle of  the summer (or winter if you're way-down-south). Last year, Camp was held in two sessions, one in July and one in August. You could pick either month (or both!) to write a novel in. 

I chose July because it fit into my schedule, and took 31 days to write most of a novel. It was called To Be Human Again, and was about a vampire traveling cross-country with a pickpocket on a quest to find a mad scientist who might be able to cure him of his vampirism. It was a lot of fun to write, even if it never actually got finished.

This year, camp is being held in two sessions again, but instead of back-2-back camp, one session will be held in August, and one will be held in June. As in, this June. As in, next week. Yikes!

Am I ready to write a novel next week? No, of course not. I'm never 100% ready when I head into a project like this. But really, that's part of the fun of it. I love when I start out with just a vague idea and get to watch a real story unfold before my eyes as I write. Doesn't that make my procrastination sound really awesome? I swear I'm not lazy, I'm inspiring!

At least I already have my vague idea for this summer's novel. I took a mini road trip to Cedar Point, and I got the idea to write about a haunted amusement park. I know, how very unlike me... I've been hashing out ideas on my own and bouncing them off of my boyfriend, who apparently enjoys listening to me ramble on and on. Go figure. I'm thinking that this story will be something like The Beast meets Freaks (1932).

Ideas are forming, characters are starting to emerge. I won't be 100% ready to write a novel come next week, but I think I'll be able to make most of it up as I go along.

So, wish me luck! And more importantly, it's not too late to sign up to write your own novel! Just go to www.campnanowrimo.org (or click on my banner link) and start writing!

Get excited campers!

EDIT:    If you'd like to support this wonderful event (and more like it), you can donate to CampNaNoWriMo's parent org, The Office of Letter and Light. Or, if that's not really your thing, there's a ton of really cool camp merch in the shop, so check it out!

Trying to Weave...

What am I doing? I'm weaving! Err, well, I'm really trying to weave... 

A few years ago my boyfriend made a card-weaving loom. It's awesome. I got so excited about making straps and trim, I started working on it right away. Then I did what I always do, I set it aside telling myself that I'd get back to it soon, and forgot about it. 

Fast forward a few years... I decided to pick up the loom and start weaving again. With a card-weaving loom, after every pass of the string (I'm sorry I don't really know what the different parts are called, I'm still learning the whole process), you need to turn the cards either toward you, or away from you before you can make another pass with the string. I often forget which way I need to turn the cards, but that's okay, I have fun with it anyway and I can usually fix any mistakes that I've made. 

 So, anyway, I was weaving along, having a great time, when I broke a string! Arg! Noooo! How did this happen? My life is over, and everything sucks forever...

 Okay, well, maybe not forever... I called my boyfriend and he told me how to fix the torn string. He told me to get some thread, and tie it to either end of the tear, making sure that it would be taut. Okay, that doesn't sound so bad, I think I can do that...

 Voila! My repair actually looks pretty good! Awesome! I rock! This is great, okay, weaving again... I go back to what I was doing, paying careful attention to which way I'm supposed to be turning the cards. The repair is holding and everything looks great. Then the strap that I'm weaving is getting long, and I need to turn the loom. Okay, I can do this, I'm awesome, right? I turn the loom and keep weaving, no problem... until the string breaks again...

What? Why does this keep happening. And yes, it's the same string. Only this time it was nice enough to break before it passed through the cards, so now, not only do I have to tie it off again, but I also have to figure out which card it was supposed to go through and re-thread it... Grr... Okay, not so bad, I can do this, I can figure it out.

And I did! I got it re-threaded and tied off. And I'm pretty certain that the only reason it tore was because it was too loose after I turned the loom, and I don't have to turn it again for a while, so I should be fine. I can go back to weaving and enjoying my art project and... Oh...

 

 

I freakin' give up....