We have been in this house for about 6 months and are still working on getting settled in. We have one bedroom that is our “studio/office” and we just haven’t been able to get it right yet. So last week we reorganized.
 
First I took the giant shelving unit that was in the studio and moved it to the guest bedroom. This will now be the home for my growing yarn stash. Now I’ll be able to see all my lovely yarn. The husband was starting to complain about my growing yarn stash, but he is no longer allowed to complain about it, since I actually made money with it over the holidays. Plus, I am having to move the yarn out of the closet to make room for the husband’s latest hobby of his own – homebrewing. So he is REALLY not allowed to complain about the yarn.

 
Then we got rid of our old desks in the studio. We solemnly vowed not to buy cheap particle board laminate ever again. It was a pleasure to trash these things. We bought two metal/glass desks to replace the old crap. These are smaller and look much better.

 
The extra room now gives the husband more room for his painting, and more room for me at the work table for getting card orders ready or working on knitted items. I actually do most of my knitting in front of the tv or on the bed watching movies on my laptop (or at a coffee house with Christine) but this room still needs to be functional.

 
I’m also considering buying two small drawer units on wheels and making a wooden top that can be taken off so the whole thing can be moved around. But I’d set it up in the studio and be able to store yarn and needles, etc in the drawers. But I’m not sure yet if it’s necessary.

 
Lastly, I’m moving all my household paperwork (bill paying, etc) out to the kitchen so that the studio can be all about creativity, not money. Money stuff will be done in a totally different location. I think this is important to separate them.
 
We’re still not done with the reorganizing and there really isn’t any point in trying to to any further for another few weeks – this coming week we’re getting tile in our bathrooms and kitchen, and hardwood floors in the living room and hallway (!!) so the house will be pretty chaotic for a while. Right now half the garage is full of tile, grout, and other tiling stuff, and we have 11 boxes of bamboo flooring in our entryway, acclimating to the humitidy/temperature in the house.
But when it’s all done, we’re going to throw a Winter Party. You’ll be invited – at least virtually!!

Over the weekend, I made my first forray into felting. Fabulous!
I have always wanted to felt wool. I have felted wool sweaters, but I’ve never knit anything and then felted it.
So I started with a skein of wool.

I like this wool, because it’s quite bulky. I found a pattern from the wool manufacturer that I liked, for a felted coffee cup cozy.
I’ve recently renewed my obsession with lattes, and I’m trying to have Starbuck’s make them in the (Starbuck’s) insulated mug I bring with me, but on the days I can’t manage that, wouldn’t it be nice to at least not have to waste quite so much paper/cardboard. A little reusable cozy can be kept in the car or a purse, to have handy.

So I knit up my cozy. The pattern said to knit a rectangle then join it into a circle by sewing it together. I just knit it in the round as all one piece.
Normally you would felt your project in the washing machine. But I didn’t want to wash just one tiny thing, and I didn’t really want to put it in the washer with anything else, for fear everything would get covered with wool fibers. So I did some stovetop felting.

The first time I tried, I made two mistakes. One, I forgot to add a little detergent (this helps the fibers bind to each other). And two, I put a piece of cloth in with my cozy so that the fibers would get more agitated, but the green in the cloth came out in the hot water and kind of dyed my cozy green. Yeah I know, nice move on my part.

 
I ended up boiling it one and a half times – half way through the second time I gave up and ended up tossing it in the washer after all. And after a trip through the dryer, it’s still just a tiny bit too big.

 
The next one I knit will be not quite as wide, and not quite as big around. But I really like this look and plan to make some more! I think you might need one, so that you can cut down on the amount of paper you are using.

2010. Is it just me or does that sound ominous?

All of us (OK mostly just me) here at Paper Lotus hope you had a really great holiday season. Did you get lots of great presents? Did you spend time with good friends and family? Did you eat lots of good food?

I did all those things, and more. The “more” consisting mostly of two things: being sick, and knitting. I was sick for the better part of 2 months and therefore lacked much energy or motivation to blog. And the rest of the time, I was knitting.

I was knitting up a storm.

I was knitting in the car.

I was knitting at my Mother-In-Law’s house.

I was knitting on my lunch break.

I was knitting while I had a fever (but I admit, I had to frog the knitting from that time period – I made a lot of mistakes and ended up with a really wonky piece of knitting).

I was knitting while on the phone, while my husband made dinner and did the dishes, and while I was working or sleeping I dreamt about knitting.

What did you spend all my time knitting? You might ask me. Well, several things.

I knit an organic cotton cowl, and I took it to work. On a whim, I gave it to a girl there, because when she tried it on, she looked super cute in it. Then I got orders for 8 more. So, giving away one was definitely worth it.

Here is a picture of that nice girl wearing my cowl I gave to her.

And here are some of the cowls I knit to sell.

Turns out cowls make good holiday gifts. And they are so in right now! These are made with organic cotton, and are super soft. Personally I think I look goofy in a cowl, some people can pull it off better than others.

I almost got an order for 4 more cowls, but instead what this person really wanted was 4 knit headbands with crochet flowers on them. Apparently someone wore one on a tv show and then all teenage girls decided they needed one too. So my friend who is the crochet expert and I came up with a pattern and made 4 headbands that came out like this.

I am working on more cowls and hopefully more headbands to sell.

2010 is going to be the year of the knitting needles. Paper Lotus? Maybe the Woolly Lotus…

Come visit us this Saturday at Fresh Blend – presented to you by the Tulsa Craft Mafia & Friends, and Fresh Roast Coffee House!
We’ll be at Fresh Roast Coffee House – 8122 S Harvard – from 2:00 – 7:00 Saturday November 14. Come hang out with us and sample some limited edition “Fresh Blend” coffee!
 
 

Next Friday and Saturday is the Garden Deva Open Studio Party! I was invited to set up there last year and was so excited when they asked us back again this year. It’s not a craft show, really, it’s exactly what the name implies – a party! Music, food, lots of cool stuff to look at and lots of interesting people to meet.

So, in true Paper Lotus fashion, I’m waiting till almost the last moment to get everything ready.

Here is my mental checklist:

• Knit cufflets
• Put buttons on cufflets
• Tag the cufflets
• Print Holiday cards – see list of designs
• Print other cards – see list
• Package cards
• Finish last-minute holiday card designs (and print and package)
• Screen print t-shirts
• Heat-set t-shirts
• blah, blah blah
• Work on new project

Did you see that last item? Yup, trying something else new. Here is a picture of the project.

Can you see them? Here’s a close up.

Pendants! Yes, I know the light isn’t great here. But I’m a bit pressed for time, sorry.
I’ve taken some of our designs and shrunk them way, way, way down and made some glass pendants. With silver-plated bails and some will have silver-plated ball chains. What other designs do we have? Well you’ll just have to come to the Garden Deva next weekend to find out!

I’ll also have some news soon about an upcoming event and retail venture – we are very excited about it, and I’ll update you soon! Till then, have a Happy Halloween…

Yes, we survived our second Indie Emprorium. It was great!

I think we are spreading the hank-knit cufflet love all through the land. Here is a picture of the happy cufflets on display:

I saw a few people I hadn’t seen in a long time, including a co-worker from a job I left 6 years ago, one of my doctors, and Molly from Antoinette Baking Co, who we used to work with a long, long time ago. Have you tried any of their desserts yet? I highly recommend them! Everything I tried over the weekend – and I tried a lot of stuff – was really good!

M got to see a demonstration on how to home-brew beer, we had some delish Mexican food from Elote, listened to some good music courtesy of a few local musicians and Thom’s iPod, got to talk to a lot of people, and made some new friends.
It was a pretty tiring 2 days, but lots of fun!

Now I’m busy getting ready for the Garden Deva Open Studio Party on November 6 and 7. I want to have some new items ready to unveil. So I’d better get moving!

Also, my Dad has his Etsy shop up for his small business, the Green Candle Co. Or rather, I have his Etsy shop up. He only has 2 items for sale so far, but he’ll be listing more candles soon. They are very high quality, all-natural candles. Very nice, they burn really well. He sets up at a Farmer’s Market in California most Sundays as well. You know, he used to make jewelry, furniture, and pottery, he can spin wool, and figure out just about any type of craft. Pretty cool.

So, I made it into the October issue of Tulsa People magazine. Kind of. My picture is in it, but there is no mention of my name, and no picture of any product or anything. So, while I’m glad we made it in, I’m kind of bummed that there’s no direct benefit for Paper Lotus. And I look short.

 

 
To see the complete article, go here.

A hearty Paper Lotus thanks to peylu for putting some of our cards in her Etsy Treasury!
Ours are those super-cute orange and white tortoise and hare note cards and you can pick up your own over here!

Christine, Holly and I went to the South Tulsa Music Festival last Saturday. I think it’s safe to say a good time was had by all! We didn’t get to see as much music as we wanted, but we did see a little, and we all had some success selling our crafty goodies.
The weather was nice, the company was nice – overall, it was…nice!

Our friend Estela is opening a hand-made consignment shop in Enid, Oklahoma tomorrow! It’s called The Felt Bird. We are so excited for her for several reasons: first off, Oklahoma needs more places to buy local art and hand-made goodies! And secondly, our stuff will be sold there!
Estela is having a grand opening party tomorrow, with cupcakes and live music – a few of us from Tulsa are going to drive over to say hi and support her fabulous new store! I can’t wait to see it.
 
 

 
 
We hope to see you there!