Knitting and Crocheting Books!

Hello everyone!  Finally I managed to remember to blog again today LOL!

Okay, today I'm going to tell you about what knitting and crocheting books I have which I would recommend for other people to use if they are a knitting beginner.  Let's start with knitting.

I have "The Knitter's Bible" by Claire Crompton which I think is excellent.  There are really easy to understand instructions on how to knit different ways (right handed, left handed), what's knit, what's purl, increasing, decreasing - all the basics.  It also includes lace and cable knitting, and contains a buner of projects which you can do including scarves, bags, cushions, sweaters, and how to sew everything together. It really is a very comprehensive book on how to knit and it is IDEAL for beginners (like I was and ...sort of still am LOL!).  There is a "Stitch Library" at the back as well, which is really useful if you want to try something new or if you're after something really simple and just want to practice it over and over.  Really, this is an excellent book and I don't think I could recomment it enough - I taught myself how to knit with this book.


Moving on to crochet, I taught myself with Debbie Stoller's "Happy Hooker" which is in the "Stitch 'N Bitch" series - there is also a knitting one.  This has everything you need to know and the language is very informal and friendly.  The essential thing with crochet is to remember the differences between the names of the stitches with regards to whether you have an English or an American written book.  The patterns themselves are the same, but the names of the stitches differ.  This is explained in this book, but if you buy any other book with crochet patterns in, just have a look to see if it's English or American before you start, or you might end up with a slightly different looking item!  The patterns themselves I find quite easy to understand, so if you can make sense of them you shoudl bejust fine.  But this book is excellent at explaining everything and I recomment it for beginners, definitely.

Now, remember those flowers I've been crocheting?  The patterns of those come from a book called "100 Flowers to knit & crochet" by Lesley Stanfield.  Now, don't look at the cover and think "No way can I make any of these!" because you CAN make these.  There are a range of projects to knit AND to crochet, although I must admit I have only used the crocheting part of this one since I have had this book.  I will try knitting at some point though!  The book is really well laid out with patterns and instructions so you never have to rely on one or the other and there is a good variation of flowers, leaves, fruit, vegetables and the odd butterfly, bee and ladybird here and there.  It's full of really cute things to make, and both the knit and crochet sections are split up into 3 segments of Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced, so you can practice at whatever level suits you.  It's a great book to use and I recommend it if you fancy making some flower brooches, especially if you have some bits of wool you're not sure what to do with!

The thing I like about crafting with wool like this, is that if you make a mistake, you can take it back and start over.  If you make something as a practice piece, you can unravel it and make a hat out of it!  If you makea scarf or a bag as a project from one of these books and you find you're not using it, go ahead and undo everything so you can use it for something you WILL use.  There are plenty of books out there with patterns in like these, but these are just the ones I have and I highly recommend.

One thing I will say though - if you're planning on making something as a gift for someone, it's very important to find out if they are allergic to wool.  There are a surprising number of people with wool allergies out there, and if you really want to make something for them, it's so easy to choose a wool which is 100% acrylic, which is what I have done a number of times.  It's nothing to stay away from either - there are plenty of acrylic wools out there, the price is often pretty good (wool has been going up in price recently, at least in the UK), and it can be just as soft as any other wool you can find.  I made a scarf for someone with 100% acrylic wool at Christmas, and she told me it's really warm and snuggly.

Another great resource for patterns - free and for sale - is on the website www.ravelry.com -it's free to register and includes knitting and crocheting patterns, some of which I have used.  You'll be surprised to know that there are MANY knitting and crocheting patterns available for sale in PDF format on www.etsy.com too - which I have also bought myself!  Just search for them and see what pops up :)

Happy Crafting!

Siobhan x

Regular posting!!

Ok.  I know I haven't posted YET AGAIN for a long time......!

No excuses this time though.  Now I have put a memo in my computer which tells me to blog about something I have created or something related to crafting etc at least once a week.  Think of it as a late New Year's resolution...... ...... :)

Ok, so first off I will star with some crochet.  These two flower brooches were made as gifts for Christmas to a couple of friends.  I don't think I have blogged about these, and although it wasn't yesterday when I made them, they are handmade by myself, which is what this blog is all about.

 Both these flower brooches were crocheted using a simple flower pattern and 3 colours of wool which I had at the time.  Crocheting little flowers like this are really useful for using up leftover bits of wool!

It's great if you have lots of colours, because you can play around with whatever you like!


Brooch pins are very easy to come by in craft stores, and quite cheap too - they don't need to be sterling silver especially as there will be very little in the way of skin - metal contact on brooches like this, AND I always like to get the pins which have "safety clasps" whatt you have to twirl the end around to move the pin out.

They are very easy to attach at the back of the flower.  You just need to take your time when positioning them at the back so you can't see the metal from the front, and PLEASE be careful with the pin because it is sharp and you have to have the pin OPEN when you attach it to the back of the flower.

It's very easy to thread the wool through the holes in the back of the pin and secure it tightly although a drawback of this is that I use a big needle which is made especially for sewing wool, and I don't know about what's in the stores at the moment, but mine (which used to be my Mum's) does not fit through the holes so I have to thread them through by hand.  Yes it's a little time consuming, but its definitely worth the effort!  I have given away a few of these flower brooches recently, and everyone is always very pleased with them (YEY!) :)

Sometimes I like to put a little bead in the centre - I may have posted a photo of one of those before but I'm not sure..!  Anyway, these can be worn on coats, jeans, bags, or even pinned to a scarf at the end or by the neck.  There are so many flowers you can knit and crochet and turn into pins / brooches, or whatever other creative use you can find for them.  There is a book I have which I will strongly recommend and talk about in my next blog - I promise! :)

Happy Crafting! :) x

Run up to Christmas....

I really meant to blog last week....LOL!  Ok, well it's the run-up to Christmas and I still haven't sold anything.  I'm not too upset of course, because I know it takes a while to get established anywhere, including a website like Etsy.  I do love Etsy though, I just love the layout and all the support there.


Anyway, I have listed pretty much everything I have made so far, with the exception of a couple of things here and there.  I know it's hard to price your stuff - whatever you're selling - and I am starting to wonder if I might be over-pricing my jewellery.  At one point I thought might have been UNDER pricing, but my brother recently told me that his colleagues reckon that my prices are too high.

Would you pay £35 for this necklace?

The thing is, I would be happy paying the prices I have put everything at.  There is no correct way of pricing jewellery, which is what makes it so difficult.  The basic formula which I have come across is to add everything you have spent on the item, and multiply it by 2 to get a wholesale price (if you're selling to a store or a company).  Now this is realistic because if you sell anything wholesale, you will be expected to sell your goods at around half the retail price.  This is perfectly normal - and this is why you need to do this equation to make sure you're not losing out on any profit, even if it might be a little bit.  The retail price is usually 1.5 or 2 x the wholesale price. Now, I have actually done both equations and taken into consideration what I personally would pay for each piece if I were buying it.  The other thing, is that I do have to cover costs and make sure I pay myself for the time I have taken to make a piece of jewellery.  It really does take me about half an hour to string a necklace of beads together from figuring out the design to calculating the price.  How many people out there actually know how much I have paid for some of these gemstones?  £10 for a string of 50 pearls is quite a lot.  Garnet, Onyx and Amethyst are all pretty expensive at the moment, you'd be lucky to find a 30cm string of any of these beads at a good size of 8mm for less than £5.  And don't get me started on the price of silver LOL!!  Some people might be surprised to learn that I might actually end up paying around £10 for the materials to create a necklace, double that to £20 for the wholesale price, double it again for a retail price of £40 which I think is too much so I take it down to £30 or even £25 because that is what I would personally pay.

I'd pay £30 for this necklace - would you?

I don't know....perhaps I'm rubbish at marketing or perhaps it's just that nobody has noticed or is waiting to buy things at the last minute.  All I know is that half the people I ask about the pricing tell me it's too much, and other people tell me it's about right.  So I'm not sure what to do there!  The other thing is that I know there are quite a few people looking at my Etsy store, yet nobody is buying.  There must be a reason - again, I think it's probably either price, waiting for payday / beginning of December, or perhaps my niche isn't attractive to many people.

Anyway, as I said, I'm not too upset about it - as I only started this thing in September / October, and I read recently in an Etsy blog that it can take around 6 months to get noticed on Etsy.  In the meantime, I LOVE creating treasuries, I'm a member of a jewellery making forum, I love creating jewellery and even though I have had a few down moments, this is a journey which I am taking in order to find out if it will work or not LOL!  If this doesn't work out for me, then at least I can say I tried it out and I won't be wondering "what if" for the rest of my life.

How much did I pay for the silver and gemstones here?

course I will continue to be creative if this doesn't work out, and I will even continue to market and try to sell my jewellery on Etsy, and next year I might do a few craft fairs and it might help spread the word.  Who knows, perhaps this will work out in a couple of years' time?  Besides, Russell Grant (A British astrologer) told me that it will take off, but it will take time.....so yes, I called into Radio 2 and got to be on air and find out what the Universe had in store for me - where's the harm in that?  The Universe can always change it's mind I guess ;)

Anyway, if ANYONE would like to take a a look at the prices in my Etsy store and tell me what you think of my prices, I would be very grateful for the feedback.  Tell me if you think my jewellery is over-priced, under-priced, and tell me what you would pay for which pieces!  Please, be honest! :)

Siobhan xx

Long time, no blog!

Wow...how long has it been since I last posted on here?

Well, to start off with, I have been away for the first two weeks of October.  I was in Wales for the first week, and I was travelling around the UK following Josh Groban on tour, who was amazing!  I managed to get my t-shirt signed along with a CD lyric book and picture.  I'm happy!! :)

So, I am back on Etsy - last week I re-opened my Etsy store and decided to gradually re-list each item one by one.  It's so cheap to do it, 20 cents is practically nothing in UK £ sterling!  Last week I was re-listing the Prehistoric items, this week it's Egypt and Middle East.

I am also in the middle of catching up with Etsy Holiday Bootcamp tasks - I'm a little concerned actually because I have had SO many views in my store yet nobody is buying anything.  Yesterday I had 40 views, and right now I'm on 20.

I'm trying to do everything I can to increase views - relisting definitely works, as does tweeting.  I may have said this before, but even though they advise you not to tweet too often about your own stuff you'll be considered as being "spammy" but so far, every time I tweet somebody looks at my Etsy store....

This week I am attempting to tweet about my own stuff, other things which might be interesting to people who follow me, and generally being a little more human rather than robotic.  The other thing is tags and descriptions of each item - I'm thinking I might go tweak them a little just to see if something happens!

In the meantime I still have some knitting and crochet to do in time for Christmas.  Speaking of which, I am going to promote some craft fairs which I have recently discovered, all in the Midlands - I thought it was worth blogging about!

1. Crafts for Christmas (www.ichf.co.uk) 3rd - 6th November at Birmingham NEC
2. Festive Gift Fair (www.festivegiftfair.co.uk) 17th-20th November at Birmingham NEC
3. Nottingham Bead and Craft Show (www.ukbeadfairs.co.uk) 20th November at Nottingham Gateway Hotel
4. The Guildhall Christmas Craft Fair (www.leicester.gov.uk/craftfair) in Leicester

I will NOT be exhibiting at any of these - I am nowhere near that kind of stage yet, although it is something I am thinking of doing at some point.  But I will be going along to have a look at the Festive Gift Fair at the NEC to do some Christmas shopping!  And also I will pop along to the one in Leicester as it's closest to me, easy to get to and....well, I want to see if I might want to exhibit there next week :)

Hey people - it's NOT too early to do your Christmas shopping!  I like to try and get everything done by November 30th or at the latest, the first weekend in December.  I usually end up buying many things throughout the year - if I see something which would suit somebody, but their Birthday has passed, I still buy it and save it up for Christmas.  I also buy the odd little thing here and there if I like the look of it but can't think of who to give it to - I buy a couple of cute things and put them away, think about who to give it to later.  Too many people hate Christmas because they avoid it until the last minute and rich around getting stressed about everything and don't put much thought into what they're buying for people.  Think about it NOW and at least you will have a little time to think about what you're giving as gifts :)

And of course....there is always my Etsy store if you're after some nice handmade jewellery ;)

Siobhan xx

Week 4 of being on Etsy!

Well here I am again....!!  I guess I should actually post some photos actually.  One thing which is not right with this blog is the recent absence of photos....!

Okay, first thing's first, I made some more Prehistoric jewellery last week because I realised I didn't have a great deal of it.  But I ended up making a few really nice and simple pieces.  My favourite is the Obsidian necklace - the stones are really tactile and organic.  They're just lovely to hold in your hand!  It's very dramatic but I love it.  I made matching earrings too :)

Now, this week I have decided to try and get used to Twitter and Facebook and figure out the best way of marketing my stuff.  I know this is probably a steep learning curve as I have never done this before, but I am keeping an eye on the stats both in Etsy and with Google Analytics.  They both come up with differing numbers but roughly the same outcome with regards to what time people look at my Etsy store.

Of course, when I first uploaded items I had no end of visits, and the week after that had some good visitor numbers too.  These last couple of weeks haven't been very high with visitor numbers though.  Obviously I don't do any at the weekend....but perhaps I should do the odd onw or two tweets and messages about my Etsy store at the weekend perhaps?

Anyway, the other thing I have been looking at is how often I should send messages out and what impact it has on my visitor stats.  I read that if you tweet a LOT then people are more likely to "unfollow" and "unlike" you, and you're more likely to get more people following you if you tweet facts, hints and tips.  Today I tried historic facts - one an hour - and I had NO hits from 8am till 12noon.  Then I tweeted about an item in my store and it went up to 4 hits as soon as I tweeted the first one at 12noon....!  So I just carried on tweeting something in my store every hour or thereabouts and it's been fairly even for the rest of the day.

Tomorrow I think I will tweet about something in my store, perhaps combine a fact with a product, and do it once every 30 minutes.  Yesterday I went a little crazy and did one tweet every 15 minutes and it wasn't that exciting LOL!!  I tried once an hour and it was very slow so perhaps once every 30 minutes might just be okay.  Between 8:00am and 5:00pm is when I usually tweet and message.


Currently my stats say I get most visits weekdays between 10am - 2pm, 4pm - 6pm, Saturdays 12noon - 4pm and Sundays 10am - 12noon and 3pm - 5pm.  Might just try focusing on these times for the rest of the week.  I know 12noon - 2pm falls in many people's lunch hours when they would be more likely to look on Etsy.  I usually end up missing a tweet at 1:30pm and 2:00pm so perhaps I should try to tweet at those times a little more.  I'll try it tomorrow and see what happens.

So far I have had ZERO sales too.  I know it's early days and I have only just started my 4th week promoting my Etsy stuff, but I'm wondering if it's a combination of that and not actually being known much.  I haven't sent many business cards around, although I keep giving them to friends and family to distribute.  I'm wondering if I should create some postcards or leaflets, pop into town or perhaps make a trip to Birmingham and Nottingham to distribute them in the right places, as my cards are really quite small.  I'll think about it, because it means designing more things and spending more money.

Anyway, next week will be the last week before I go on holiday.  My shop will be closed for 2 weeks - until the middle of October, and then I shall open the shop agan and promote everything from scratch - I have an action plan ready and I'll blog about it when the time comes :)

Happy Wednesday! :)

I have to say I have been quite productive lately - this week I started listing my Prehistoric jewellery online, and I realised that I didn't have a great deal of it....so I made more! LOL!  Actually the thing which irritates me the most about all this is taking photos.  It so annoying when I take lots of photos of one necklace only to find out that they are ALL blurred and I have to take them all over again....!! I think it was too dark though, I did that last night, late afternoon after the sun had made its way around the garden :)

Anyhoo, I now have 21 followers, and of course I would LOVE some more!  I have sent messages to LIKE my Facebook Page to pretty much ALL of my friends on Facebook and I know only a handful have done so.  I'm not sure when to send them out again....I don't want to spam everyone!  Of course, there may be the odd chance that nobody can be bothered.

But hey, it's early days yet, I've only been going for 2 weeks, and the other thing I have been doing is looking at statistics of how often I have visitors and when.  Quite useful - at the moment I have discovered that Thursday and weekends are fairly quiet days.  Weekends - possibly because I don't list anything then, but I have no idea about Thursdays.  Ialso found it interesting that as I promoted my jewellery online I was still getting quite a few visits.

Last weekend I wasn't able to do much as I was in Cambridgeshire watching my brother take his vintage biplane flight (woohoo!) and on Saturday I was in London at Proms in the Park (again - woohoo!) and didn't get back until Sunday late afternoon.  It was still useful to find out how visits drop during the time when I am not listing or promoting!

Also, my website has finally corrected itself! It is www.wix.com/gemstone_orchid/portfolio
I have added my Twitter feed on the right hand side twitter.com/GemstoneOrchid
But unfortunately I can't find a widget for my Facebook Page so I'll put it here:
Gemstone Orchid Facebook Page

See you later! :)
Siobhan xx

Here we go!

Hi everyone :)

So my store is up and running, and I have added a little Etsy widget on thi sblog here, it should be on the right hand side there.  on September 1st and 2nd I uploaded several items of jewellery, and I have continued this since Monday 5th September.

I have been tweeting and posting messages on my Facebook page.  I only have 11 followers at the moment, yet I have sent requests to many more than that....but I won't be deterred!  I will continue selling.

I haven't had any sales yet, but it really is early days.  I went on a few forums on Etsy and asked someone in the States to tell me if they thought my jewellery is too pricey, and she thought it was just a little too pricey.  I have brough down prices of earrings and bracelets, but not the necklaces yet.  I'm asking a couple of other people I know in the States to get their opinion.  Its really hard when you start thinking about prices which are reasonable in the UK, but when you convert them to US, Canadian or even Australian $$, it's hard to know whether it's a reasonable price for them too, or too much.  Perhaps I shouldn't be thinking this way?  Perhaps I should be pricing things at what I think is a decent UK price, and not think about how an American would see it?  I have no idea, I'm still very new to this!

Anyway, I need to find a widget or something to put on this blog, which connects to my Facebook and / or Twitter page.  I shall investigate this later on, so watch out for it!

In the meantime I have made absolutely NO more jewellery LOL!  I have been concentrating on listing my items, and so far all the Egyptian / Middle Eastern pieces are up.  Today I decided to plug seperate pieces on Facebook and Twitter every 30 mins.  I didn't think this was too invasive of me, and I have kept an eye on my Etsy shop stats and Google Analytics, which both come up with similar numbers but different useful and sometimes random information.  For example, most people who have visited my Etsy store in the UK are in Liverpool, and most in the US from California!

I will be looking into joining a forum or two soon, and I will be uploading prehistoric inspired jewellery next I think.  I'm putting up my best pieces of jewellery - which I think are the Roman, Greek, Tudor and Victorian pieces - last and nearer to Christmas.  I really like a lot of my jewellery and I really hope it starts selling soon.  I think I just have to work on my networking, and perhaps when Etsy have another live critique session, I might join in to find out several opinions.

The website it up, but there is a problem with the url which appears in Google searches.  It turns out that Google crawled my website before I even uploaded it, but why it's got a different name I have no idea.  The good thing is that the link works, as does the url, wierdly, as well as the real url which also appears at the top of the web browser either way.

Did I mention my business cards?  They are BRILLIANT!  And because I reported to MOO that there were 22 cards which were mis printed, they are sending me 100 more business cards for FREE!!  How cool is that?!

Anyhoo, I must have a look at widgets so I can add things to my blog so everything is linked up.  Sorry for the rambling! :)  I have a busy weekend ahead too, I'm seeing Lee Evans in Nottingham tomorrow night, going to see my brother take his vintage bi-plane flight on Friday (weather permitting) then gatecrashing my boyfriend's parents house for tea and cake afterwards.  On Saturday I'm going to Hyde Park for the Last Night of the Proms on Saturday, and coming home on Sunday.  Perhaps I will wear a noticeable necklace in the hope of getting comments so I can distribute business cards...... ! :)

Siobhan xx