New shawl pins in the shop!

Did you see? I finally listed some new shawl pins in the Etsy shop! Yayyyyy!


I really wanted to share pics with you guys earlier — not so much because of the pins themselves, but because the new camera takes photos that are So. Much. Better. than the ones I have of all my previous shawl pins. OMGcameralove. I mean, look:




Anyway, go check the new shawl pins out, if you like, and let me know what you think. The new designs are refinements of past one-of-a-kind designs, so they may look familiar ... but what's neat about these is they're part of a permanent line of shawl pins that will stay in the shop and be made fresh with every order. Do you like? ;D I know I like.

There are more shawl pin ideas bubbling in my brain, too — and a new shawl-pin-related giveaway is coming up Very Soon, hint hint. Keep watching, 'cause it's going to happen in the next couple of weeks, and it'll be a quicker one than my normal month-long giveaways, with extra goodies, too!

Help us get famous!

Or at least featured. ;)

Want to help me fight off the evil encroaching poverty-monster? You can help us get featured on the Florida Etsy Street Team's blog for all of next month — the big huge holiday shopping month! — by going and voting for my shawl pin in the current monthly challenge contest. It's even the top item, so you don't have to scroll at all. How convenient is that?

Just go here and click "Copper shawl pin" in the voting box at the top right, in the sidebar. My shawl pin looks like this:


And yes, that is a new style of shawl pin that I've been making lately! Thanks so much for asking! ;) I need to restock the shop with a few more colors, so if you have a favorite semiprecious gemstone or a favorite color, leave me a comment here and let me know what it is ... and maybe you'll see it in the shop soon!

And don't forget there's a giveaway going on right now, too. Check out the knitting pattern wish list giveaway details here if you haven't already entered!

Shawly stuff: new shawl pin design, new tips and tricks

In case you didn't see me blathering about it on Twitter or Facebook, I achieved some great off-butt-gettage (that is, I got off my butt ;)) on the Star and Crossbones Web site recently. Yes! I finally started filling in the long-empty freebies page! It's all for you, O wearers of shawl pins: a tips and tricks page for ring-style shawl pins. Check it out, let me know if it sucks, let me know if you love it, etc. And if you have tips or tricks on how to use a ring-style shawl pin (or another kind of shawl pin; I do have plans on adding more tips and tricks pages), drop me a comment, or something. I'll be sure to give you credit if I use your suggestion. :D

There was other off-butt-gettage last week, too. Proof!


Wire and wire-pounding tools await!
And this is what came out of it:

Ta-da! A new shawl pin design! I'm going to make some more soon, so keep a weather eye out. ;D

...What, you want to actually see what it really looks like? Oooookay, fiiine...


Wish me further productivity — and oh, if you have any requests on bead colors, feel free to let me know. I have probably every color of bead on the planet sitting in my bead stash from the Long Ago Jewelrymaking Days, so I should be able to oblige. ;)

Mushrooms, compassion, yarn in orange and green, and a geeky song reference

Did you see the new Tour de Fleece 2010 tab up at the top of the blog? I'll be updating that page to reflect my overall progress while I continue to blather in individual blog posts. Seems neater that way, huh?

Plied this Shetland in the wee hours of Tour de Fleece Day 4:


And spun these singles from a set of Wooly Hands batts:


Yesterday, Day 5 of the Tour de Fleece, I finished plying the green singles:


...made some new Waves of Compassion shawl pins to fill recent orders...


...and dyed a full pound of Corriedale fiber for the Phat Fiber sampler box. No pictures of that yet, but maybe if you wish at me, I'll get some soon. ;)

As a bonus from the world, maybe for getting so darn much done in one day, I finally found the tiny fairy ring that I was searching for a few weeks ago. Where was it? Fifteen feet from where I sit every day, under the huge live oaks outside the windows.


Looks like it's going to be another busy day today, but if all goes well, there will be a shop update tonight.

For some reason, I now have a song from Mulan stuck in my head.

Once you find your center/You are sure to win...

The uncooperative but still-creative day, and a peek at something new

Today was one of those days that just wasn't going to go as planned.

First the yarn shop was out of all but two ounces of undyed spinning fiber. I guess I'll be stash-diving — really, there's got to be something in my obscenely large stash that will work for beginners to learn on. While I was at the yarn shop, because it was just that kind of day, I couldn't even pull off a casual chat with the owner, to whom I apparently failed to convey how cool Ruth MacGregor's floating semi-rigid heddle and beaded-woven-edge project are.

Then Jo-Ann was out of stock on the little wooden wheels for making basic spindles — which were going to go with the spinning fiber from the yarn shop. DOH. If none of the craft stores I check tomorrow have them in stock, I'll just have to use some other balanced shape as a spindle whorl (two discs glued together with a hole drilled down the center? a wooden ball?).

While I was going to put together some basic spinning kits tonight, or at least make the spindles, I'd allotted enough time from the day to put them together the way I'd planned ... but not enough time to hunt through my stash for a fairly large amount of fiber that will work for beginners, or to glue together a bunch of discs and then mark and drill a bunch of holes in said discs.

So I skipped those items on my to-do list and moved on to the next one: carding some batts. Imagine light shining down from the heavens as I finally get out my long-abandoned drum carder and (literally) dust it off.


My baby instrument of torture. Well, one of them. Has anyone else noticed that fiber-processing tools are often painful if you use them the wrong (or I guess you could call it "right") way?
I was carding away happily when, due to a, er, unforeseen miscalculation growing out of a change of plans a few weeks ago (yeah, I should have seen it coming, and I would have, a few years ago — I guess I'm still not as smart as I used to be, although I'm working on it ;)), I realized I needed to make a few more samples for the Phat Fiber sampler box, and I don't have a ton of time to do it in.

By that time, I was a little fed up with feeling stymied, so I defied the uncooperative day and made THIS, which should remind you of something else you've seen on my blog lately:


Yes! It is, in fact, a very, very small shawl pin! Or really, a micro-pin, which I actually tested on a lightweight neck scarf (okay — I admit it was an unfinished triloom square) and that does work in that particular usage ... but I see them showing up as little decorative bitties on handwovens and handknits more than I see them being used as practical fasteners.

I really like making them — they're a fun way to play with shapes, they satisfy my obsession with teeny-tiny things, and they seem completely appropriate for the Phat Fiber box. AND they are my way out of the nonproductive corner the day was trying to back me into. So there, uncooperative day! You have pushed me into creating something new and cute and fun!

Which was maybe what it was trying to do all along. ;D

Edited to add: Oddly enough, I forgot that in between getting home and carding batts, I tried to test my computer's built-in camera and take some video, since I've been pondering doing some video-blogging, or maybe putting together some craft tutorials (even if they're a just a little bit ghetto until I have the money to buy a better video camera). You'd think I'd remember spending about an hour talking and ending up with about eight minutes' worth of video — not because I edited anything, but because Photo Booth is apparently completely horrible at taking actual video. It just ... pretends to take video when in fact it's saving about the first fifteen seconds of what I'm doing. Nice, huh? ;)

Shawl pin giveaway: hurricanes on my mind

It's June 1st, so hurricane season is officially open here in Florida. From now through November 30, we'll all be watching for those lovely spiral shapes in the local radar images. It doesn't look much like the stormy season, does it?


But there are storm clouds lurking on the horizon...


Actually, I like hurricane season. Maybe that sounds a little crazy. But I was born in Florida, and I've spent most of my life here — and not by accident or out of laziness. The often-extreme weather is an old friend, and hurricane season is the rainy season. I love thunderstorms — the fresh smell of ozone and of water cooling the pavement and in the air, the sound of an army of little droplets on the roof, the looming clouds with all their shadow and light, the fleeting complexity of a distant lightning flash. It's nice to have a break from the crispy-making summer sun, and to have the contrast of a little cloudy murk to help me appreciate the sun more when it comes back.

So, for the love of hurricane season, I made a mini copper shawl pin — a scarf pin? — in a tiny hurricaney spiral.


Stats: Swirl measures approx. 2 inches by 1 1/2 inches; pin is 4 inches long; all made of hand-hammered copper wire.
And because last month I met and passed two of my little-but-significant 2010 goals — reaching 70 Etsy shop hearts and 140 Facebook fans — I offer this little pin to you as my very first giveaway.

The Prizes

First prize: One person will win the handmade mini shawl pin in the picture AND 15% off any item in the Star & Crossbones Etsy shop.

Runner-up prizes: Two other people will receive 10% off any item in the Etsy shop.

How to Enter: Leave a comment on this post (make sure to leave me some way of contacting you, too!) and let me know one of the following things:

• your favorite season, and why it's your favorite;
• something fun and little-known about yourself; or
• an idea for something you'd like to see made into a shawl pin.

How to Get Bonus Entries:

• Tweet about the giveaway. Include a link to this post and make sure the tweet is @starncrossbones, so I can see you and count your entry!
• Follow me on Twitter @starncrossbones, and post a comment here about it OR tweet at me so I can follow you back. ;D
• "Like" Star & Crossbones on our Facebook fan page and post a comment about it on our fan page wall or here on the blog.
• Add the Star & Crossbones Etsy shop to your favorites (a.k.a. "heart" us!) and leave a comment about it here.

If, for some reason, you have trouble leaving a comment, you can use the contact form on the Star & Crossbones Web site to send me your entry information and I'll add you to my files manually. I don't want anyone to get left out due to technical difficulties!

Entries will close after June 15, 2010.

Someone wants to give my little baby hurricane pin a good home, right? Look at it, just waiting for your admiration and love! ;)


To all who enter: Good luck, and thank you most kindly for your interest! :D