I was chatting around in the FOYAL Discord channels the other day and something... struck me.

Out of nowhere, I decided to make a couple Christmas gifts this year.

Say what?

Didn't I JUST say somewhere recently that I don't really do that anymore??

(I did.)

But you know I used to LOVE making gifts!

I think, maybe, this sudden hankering has come from the greeting cards. I really did have fun putting together custom sets of them at the craft fair!

Let me tell you a little a bit about me and cards...

When I was a little girl, I used to make these cards that were completely custom and one of a kind for every person I gave one to.

I would scour magazines for pretty pictures (I was especially fond of all those holiday gift figurines and snow globes that were on nice tear out cardstock so that you could mail your order in) and I would oh so carefully cut out around them.

Then I would color match them to some construction paper, which I folded in half and then also oh so carefully cut out to leave a nice little quarter inch or so edge of color around the image. I glued the picture on and wrote whatever little message inside that I wanted to.

But I was not done yet! No, the last step was sealing it all up between a couple pieces of contact paper, which, you guessed it, was also carefully trimmed around every little curve and detail.

These cards were labors of LOVE.

(Not to mention my allowance spent on construction and contact paper!)

I wish I had one around to show you, but I haven't seen one of them in many years. I wonder if anyone still has one? (Mom??)

Now, I don't hand make every single card I give anymore and, in fact, I've gotten rather bad about sending out cards as an adult. And I always feel rotten about it, too!

But I DO have these cards with my artwork on them now. Mostly floral paintings from the past four years or so.

And I've gotta tell you—I love them even more than all those cards I made way back when!

I haven't sold many of them on Etsy yet, which has kind of disappointed me. But then, up until now, I only had a small offering. Just the twelve florals from my Desert Musings Collection.

There were so many people who stopped at the craft fair and said kind, wonderful things about my cards and the paintings on them, though, and it's left me feeling rather inspired to share more generously once again! Kind of like I did when I was a child.

It absolutely delighted me to make and give pieces of art, pieces of ME, to the people I cared about.

Somewhere along the way I lost that.

And so, 1. I'm making a couple things for Christmas gifts this year. From OTHER PEOPLE's crochet patterns! Something I haven't done in ages. (Which, incidentally, has reminded me WHY I started writing my own patterns, so I think it may just motivate me to get my butt in gear on officially publishing more patterns in the coming months.)

2. I've added some more cards to my Etsy shop! (Along with the folding calendars, yay!) Here's a peek at the first four:

More to follow soon!

I'm also working on a webpage that will show images of my available cards from the different collections so that hopefully I can recreate that custom set creation experience from the craft fair! (If anyone wants to be my guinea pig to test out the process, hit reply and let me know!)

Oh and number 3: I'm also going to start offering some of my handspun yarn again, but in a limited capacity. When I finish one skein, I'll make it available for a single listing period (four months, I think) and then if no one takes it home with them, I'll make something with it myself, which I'll either gift or offer as a finished piece available for purchase.

It's hard to imagine how handspun yarn might work up, I know, so I think I need some examples! I've never had much luck selling finished crocheted pieces before, but maybe some truly OOAK handspun cowls and scarves will be different!

Here are the four that I still had left after the craft fair:

And if you have any questions about working with handspun yarn, or spinning for that matter, feel free to reach out!

When I first started spinning, I thought the yarn would be lumpy and ugly and scratchy and not good for anything next to skin, but I quickly realized that I actually kind of like the lumps because they give it a little extra character and the yarn is only scratchy if I choose to spin with scratchy fibers!

You can also use handspun yarn in a lot of already existing patterns, which is another thing I didn't anticipate. Sure it might be a little irregular, but you can buy thick and thin yarns in stores now, too, so really the only limit is your imagination!

And I love that about it.

Okay, enough from me!

The kiddo had a sleepover with his best friend last night and I'm just sitting here hanging out nearby while they play Minecraft (living their best lives).

I think it's time for a little crocheting now!

-Connie

P.S. No chicken photos this week (all the babies are gone, unfortunately). Instead you get a shameless plug to go buy one of my calendars if you haven't already! I'm still waiting on folding calendar samples because I had to reorder (long story) but I've got both of these ledger styles along with the folding versions (better for writing in because you can easily flip ahead) available to order now!

Here are direct links for each: Island Abstracts Ledger | Island Abstracts Folding | Toxic Florals Ledger | Toxic Florals Folding​

P.P.S. The GAL sale portion of the event has closed, but the making has just begun! Join the fun on Ravelry. And for those of you who prefer to shop off Ravelry, the FOYAL sale is still on! You can save 25% with coupon code FO2025 at checkout on any of the crochet patterns in my Etsy shop through 11:59 pm ET on Thursday, December 4th. (Psst, it'll also work on the same selection of patterns in my Ravelry shop.) There are 90 participating designers in the FOYAL this year, though, so if you haven't browsed through the pattern database yet, you should totally go do that here!

And don't forget to shop local and small businesses this holiday season wherever you can! It means the world to us. Truly. (I totally still do a happy dance every time I see a notification that someone bought something from me! 💃)