I've been sewing and learning point of sales systems and discovering how little I know of the yarn store customer and the variety of interests within this one aspect of the craft world. It's been great fun these last few days, but a little daunting too as I move outside of my comfort zone. I'm happiest puttering around my house, making stuff, walking the dog, taking a break from making stuff to cook stuff, and occasionally cleaning. I love seeing people and then returning to my little world of kids, dog, sheep - family life and all that entails.

But when I was asked to play sub for my local yarn shop, I thought it would be great fun to talk yarn and knitting all day long, getting personal with all the wonderful skeins of fibery goodness by having to straighten them in their cubbies. And it was! I was a little daunted by the questions people ask and the customers who come in looking for a project to take home and have no idea what they want to make. As a very opinionated knitter when it comes to my own projects, I was surprised to discover that other people are not and are very open to suggestions, and expect them. That's harder than one imagines.

Today, I was happy to stay home in my "soft pants," as one friend dubs them, and sew and take pictures.

I have a thing for snap purses. They are just so fun to have around and to make. I really wanted to play with machine embroidery where you drop the feed dogs and use a quilting foot and have an active role in moving the fabric around as you sew. It's a little difficult to get the tension right at first, but drawing with thread is something that intrigues me so I kept at it until I felt pretty comfortable with the action.

It's challenging with my perfectionist tendencies to not freak out when the lines don't overlap just so, but I like the quirky nature of this kind of needle work and will continue to play with it.

This is the first loopy knitted pillow all sewn and stuffed. It's knit from the wild and wooly Shetland yarn I was spinning like crazy before selling my wheel. It is soft and silly and quite wonderful - it feels like you're cuddling with a sheep without the smell. Or the running away. It looks great among all my crazy fabrics, but it would be equally at home gracing a white leather sofa.

I love seeing the three available colors together. Pan's brown is a rich chocolatey shade, while Thea's black has some silver threads that catch the light. Aila is a wonderful creamy gray and is super soft.

Everything is available at my Etsy shop, though I didn't list the collars because I can't get the designer to answer my emails about paying her a royalty for using her design. I have changed it slightly, adding button holes for a cardigan chain, but I still am using her counts. My plan is to pay her the pattern purchase price for any collar sold and consider us square.

Alas, the sun is out and the snow is melting away! I have never anticipated spring with quite this much fervor. Snowdrops could show up any day now!

I Feel Like Howling Too...