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.

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…

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…

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.

 
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