The World’s Greatest Holiday Shopping List
Most of you are all familiar with my Etsy shop, but I wonder how many of you know about a great Etsy feature that you might just use yourself this holiday season?I’m talking about the “Favorites” feature on Etsy. Although it’s not meant to be specifically a wish list for holiday shopping, you can easily use it to your advantage that way.

It’s simple. Just login to your Etsy account (if you don’t have one, registering is simple and requires no detailed personal information beyond your e-mail address and name), and then browse around to find things you love. When you come upon an item of interest, within the listing description you’ll see a link on the lower right side that says “Add Item to Favorites.” Just click that link and the item will be marked as a “favorite.”

Now here’s the fun part. When your husband or sister or best friend or mother asks what you might like as a gift this holiday season, you can point them to your list. All they have to do is type your Etsy ID name in their browser, followed by ".etsy.com." (For example, my username is ThePaintedTiger, so my URL is: http://ThePaintedTiger.etsy.com) Even if you don’t have a shop on Etsy, a page still comes up and on that page there is a link that says, “Favorites.” There, your gift-giving loved ones can find your wish list. How cool is that?!

Once your list is complete, it is a simple to send it on. Got to your favorites list and copy the url. Then simply email it, blog it, or casually mention it in your Christmas letter! Please do update your list regularly, though, and be sure the items are available. Sold and expired items will continue to show in your list, so avoid frustration and keep it clean!

And, of course, if you are more of the giving sort and not so interested in your own wish list, you can ask your friends and family to make their own wish lists to help you out with your shopping this holiday season.
Just thought you all might like to know about this feature. It’s much easier to drop a URL than a subtle hint ;)
This post is highly liberated (with permission) from Deb at Fearless Fibers...I thought you might appreciate a way to tell people about all the great fiber you want for gifts!!

This week, I dabbled in semi-solid hand dyed sock yarn. The random shadings of light and dark are deceptively tricky to produce (and photograph), but I think these turned out well!

From top left, then clockwise:

Wasabi, Cranberry, Indigo, Mandarin Orange, Blue Skies

All of these are in a high quality Superwash Merino and Nylon blend (80/20%). The yarn is on the thick side of fingering (420 yards per 100 grams) for projects that knit up just a bit more quickly, and has a nice twist for good stitch definition. Show off your favorite color AND your favorite new stitch pattern! Jaywalkers, anyone?

In other news, I've finally received my long awaited invite to Ravelry, and look forward to networking with you all! I am ThePaintedTiger there, also, and my yarns are set up as The Painted Tiger (with spaces). I'm working on getting linked so I can get some pics and such up there!

I hadn't done a striping yarn for awhile, so here is the fruit of my effort.

This luscious walk in the woods (or indulgent carmel apples...take your pick!) is available where I sell all my hand dyed yarns.

And remember that pile of cream, tan, and grey yarns? Well here they are with their coats of rainbow! I am listing a color or two a day, and here is where to find these Rainbow hand dyed 100 yard skeins of yarn.

Just for fun, here is a little video showing my ball winder in action. I'm currently out of that rainbow yarn, but will have more soon. I have other great hand dyed yarns in my shop, any of which I would be glad to wind for you prior to shipping.

I've been featured!

If you haven't visited Smidge yet, it is a great blog style site that features indie artists. She also has a monthly give away, so if you would like to contribute or win, check it out and join Smidge's newsletter. She kindly reviewed my Wool/Mohair/Poly Twist bulky hand dyed yarn in Rainbow. The review is here: http://smidge.ca/the_painted_tiger.html Thanks, Smidge!






Smidge is an Etsian, as well, and crochets cotton coasters, scrubbies, and makeup removal pads. Much more fun than the disposable kind! You can purchase her things at http://smidge.etsy.com/ .





Also this week, I was featured on the Etsy homepage. If you blinked, you missed it...I barely got a screenshot and it was down. It was great, since this week I've been dyeing that style of yarn, plus it is giving me incentive to get my homemade light box out again. Man, those pictures were sharp!

It's scarf season again!!

Recently I have begun to receive orders for custom knit scarves. You can see here the black and white scarf in Super Size (or also known as the BIG scarf). It is about 74" x 7" and has a nice floppy drape. The scarves are rib knit, so if you need to cover your head, this large scarf will stretch and fit nicely for that. The Gryffindor style Harry Potter scarf in gold and burgundy is in my regular size, about 64" x 5", with long 7" fringe. It is going to a lucky young lady who is using it as part of her Halloween costume.

This pile of yarn is from my stash of New Zealand yarn. It is a bit scratchy, but felts really nicely, so it is great for felting/fulling projects, as well as rugs and tapestries. I have even had Etsians make Amigurumis with them The white and tan are in Sport weight and the grey is slightly thicker at DK weight. This week I am taking two 100 yard skeins of each and over dyeing them in rainbow colors. I'd done this before, and you can see the whole rainbow in this listing here. I only have the yellow and a couple reds from my previous dyelots, so it is time to redo them. Unfortunately, this will likely be my last batch of the grey, since my supplier is going out of business this month. I do have plenty of the white and tan, so there will be a couple more batches of those. I love seeing how my hand mixed colors take differently as I hand dye these different colored base yarns. Expect more pictures soon!