Christmas in July CIJ - Etsy

Christmas in July is taking place at the moment on Etsy. Individual shops are putting their items on sale, the discounts vary from 10% up to 75%, free shipping, buy one get one free/ half price etc. 

I just made my first purchase today, and thought I'd share some shopping tips. 

1. Use search to search for whatever items you want, add CIJ to the description. I.e. I was looking for chevron bags, so this is my search: link

2. Etsy has a new feature for creating lists, so you can go back and look through the lists you created for i.e. gifts for mom, gifts for myself, Christmas decoration etc. At the moment I'm adding things I like and might want and I can come back later to check if these items might be on sale.

3. The Etsy UK and Ireland team has a discount code for at least 10 % off, search for CIJUK10, like this: link This is especially great if you're in Ireland or the UK because the shipping is lower. 

4. To get inspiration, check out treasuries, search for CIJ, like this: link

Here's a video about the sale: youtube link

In my shop I'm offering a discount of 10% when the coupon code CIJUK10 is used, link

Happy Shopping!

Pure Wool stockings

I've been thinking about it for a long time, and yesterday I finally finished my first stocking out of pure wool. I used Donegal Tweed, maybe the best Irish wool. There are quite a few color choices too, although I miss my deep Christmas green. 

 

Christmas stocking made out of Donegal Tweed.

Next weekend I'm going to start one in green. I needed 3 balls of Donegal tweed yarn, I used less stitches and got the same width as my other Christmas stockings. So that's good on the one hand, it's quicker, but if I want to add a name to the top it has to be a pretty short name. It's not coming out well on this picture, but the yarn is a little speckled which makes it look interesting.

I will set up a listing in my Etsy shop soon for this. I need to take a close up photo to show off the nice yarn. 

Set of 4 Christmas stockings all same colors

Another set of stockings is finished, this is the famous design that my mother wanted. I was going to make it blue instead of red. But she preferred red, a warmer color. 

Christmas stockings

 I'm sure they would look nice in blue as well, I have to try it some time! 

My Etsy shop 

Mr & Mrs Christmas Stockings

I'm bringing back some small stockings into my Etsy shop. These are ready to ship and cannot be personalized anymore. 

Mr & Mrs Stockings as unique Wedding gifts

 I was inspired to knit these when I was looking for a wedding gift for friends two years ago. I found so many Mr. and Mrs things (I bought luggage tags), and since I was constantly thinking about knitting and my etsy shop, I knitted a few. 

 These are smaller (about 13") than my other stockings (about 22"). As always, they are unique, there will be no two same pairs and if time permits, I love to take custom orders.

Check out more Mr & Mrs stockings in my etsy shop 

Set of 4 stockings finished

I have just finished a set of 4 stockings:

The snowflake design is new:

More stockings here: Etsy shop


 

Bought a Kindle!

I bought a Kindle e-book reader (Paperweight). I had to have it!

Sometimes I get obsessed with things and have to go out and buy them. These are the reasons why I bought it:

- Ebooks are cheaper than paperpacks! Granted, I haven't been reading as much as before (ever since I got into knitting and selling on Etsy), but I'm dying to read the new Jeffrey Archer chronicles and wanted to order from amazon.co.uk, and the e-books are so much cheaper! Most kindle books are cheaper than paperbooks now. When I got my sony reader in 2008 or 2009, e-books cost just as much as regular books. 

- I want to be able to read while also knit (simple things), so just knit blindly, look at the screen, pause the knitting while touching the screen for the next page. I'm happy to say this works wonderfully! It's just a bit more exhausting to do both things together, it's more relaxing to do the one or the other. But it's a good alternative to the TV or watching something online. 

- Apparently the new kindles have built-in lights, or adjustable screen brightness, which is so much more convenient than having a clip-on light or no light at all. The clip-on lights cost almost as much as the cheapest kindle. That's a good enough reason for me, my sony reader didn't have a light!

I have already finished my first book on the kindle, a very pleasant experience! What I enjoyed most about reading on the kindle:
- Great for reading lying on your side: It's lightweight and small enough to hold it up for a while
- Love the adjustable screen brightness: low brightness in the dark is good on the eyes. It's such a contrast to my mobile phone, for example: when I check my phone first thing in the morning it's way too bright, hurts my eyes a lot. The kindle's brightness can be adjusted easily within seconds.
- The kindle store is great, lots of book, all sorts of categories, buy with one click. I'm just a bit worried my debit card will charge fees because of the different currency, but the kindle books are still cheaper than regular books.

The book I read was The Magpies by Mark Edwards 
I enjoyed it very much, it was suspenseful throughout, very quick paced, the horror that could happen to anyone. Just a few details didn't make sense to me and were never really explained, like how come everyone has a similar dream? I would give this book 4 stars! 
 

High productivity!

Quite a few projects got finished recently:

A Christmas stocking for my friend's new baby.

I knitted these during the first two attempts at time lapse videos.

This is my most popular pair of socks on Etsy

This one will be swapped for something from another Etsy seller

I like this color, and the pattern is very easy, a mistake rip

I'll probably have this in my Etsy shop later in the year.