Craft Gossip

Independent craft blog since 2007

Etsy Tour – I Recommend It

by

heart-sf
I attended the Etsy San Francisco Meet-Up last night and if there is one coming to your city I highly recommend you go! The Etsy people were all super nice, informative and enthusiastic about handmade and about their jobs.

I was SO JEALOUS of the tech people. Hey, I’m crafty but I’m a coder geek too. I spent my morning getting with WordPress MU and will spend my afternoon cutting fabric for my dress pattern. Maybe I’ve posted before about how much geeking and crafting resemble each other… if not maybe I will soon.

It was great to hear about other peoples Etsy experiences and then hear Esty’s feedback right away. It really makes a big difference for me since I kind of loathe forums and wading through a million pointless user responses.

I ended up having to bring my two year old and so I was kind of distracted, although, I have to say he was pretty good. Loud and squirmy… but good for a two year old!

Two things I wanted to say but was too distracted to get out:

1. I wish it was easier and less time consuming to upload pictures for a listing. Hook it up to Flickr? Allow multiple selections to upload at once? Something like Facebooks little java applet for photo albums?

2. Sub Categories – Whenever I am searching peoples shops I often am frustrated by the category sorting. I want a DRESS in MEDIUM. I don’t want to sort through 45 pages of small dresses.

I was happy to hear all the items that are high up on the Etsy’s development list and the possible new features. Shop rearranging is exciting and I liked the idea of a ‘Buy it Now’ widget for the Etsy Mini Shop’s and I might be willing to pay for that on a click by click basis.

Thanks Etsy peeps!

Check here for the tour schedule.

Share This

Read These Next

Have you read?

Knit a Blanket with the Texture of a Ceiling

Knitwear designers can get inspiration from almost anything when it comes to re-creating a color scheme, an image or a texture in stitches. Sometimes the inspiration isn’t always obvious in the finished project, but sometimes it’s more literal. 

That’s the way it is with the Tin Ceiling Blanket from Purl Soho. Not just because the inspiration is in the name, but if you’ve ever seen one of these old ceilings you can see that the design of the blanket is quite similar to the pattern of the tin tiles. 

This is also a good example of the idea that you don’t have to use fancy stitch patterns or lots of color to make a big impact with your knits. This single-color blanket (designed by Gianna Mueller and inspired by a washcloth and towel set designed by Sandi Rosner) is made completely with knits and purls, other than slipped stitches at the beginning of rows to make neater edges. 

The pattern is written out row by row, but there’s also a chart, which means this project is a great opportunity to practice reading a chart where you can check your work against the written pattern if you need to. 

It comes in two sizes, a crib blanket and a throw. The yarn used in the sample is an organic cotton sold by the cone, which is a great way to get a large quantity of yarn and have fewer ends to weave in. In fact, you can knit either size of the blanket with just one cone of yarn, which isn’t inexpensive but makes you a great, sturdy, heirloom quality but still washable blanket you’ll use for years to come. (Of course you can use any sport weight yarn you like to make this blanket.)

Check out all the details and grab the free pattern from Purl Soho. 

[Photo: Purl Soho]