greenolive

don't count your chickens

A row of counted chickens (aka vintage kimono silk scarves) that didn't hatch (ie sell).

I have a confession to make. I am a chicken counter. If ever there is an opportunity to count my chickens I count them before you can say vintage-kimono-silk-scarf.

Yesterday I learnt my lesson. Mr greenolive is always warning me not to count my chickens and yesterday was a case of none of my chickens hatching.

It was the worst market day ever. Even worse than the infamous Black Saturday market at Red Hill. We had no sales. Yes, no sales!

Here's an overview of the worst market day ever:
• an hours drive to reach the market
• wind and rain for most of the time
• three stall layout changes due to impact of weather on scarves
• two hot beverages spilt on tablecloth
• words exchanged
• packing up an leaving two hours early
• counted chickens not hatching.

The regular market stall holders tell us there is no rhyme or reason to market trading. You need to take each day as it comes – and don't count any chickens!

this REALLY is addictive!

op shopping I mean!

Why didn't you tell me how addictive op shopping is? You really should have warned me you know. Especially as I've been very upfront about my addictive personality!

Yesterday we did an op shop run. We meaning mr & mrs greenolive. Yes, he's almost addicted as I am. And four hands can score more loot than two. On our op shop checklist are: old books, fabric, doilies, 100% wool jumpers, 100% wool jackets, skirts or trousers. 

We've discovered two new op shops, both on Canterbury Road at Blackburn, just near the Maccas and Safeway. Both of them had a real bounty of wool jackets including two Harris Tweed jackets!

I felt like an archeologist when I discovered them. Like Howard Carter finding King Tut's tomb. Pawing through racks of jackets until the feel of a fabric and the exquisite blend of colours stopped me in my tracks. I quickly pulled the hanger of the rack and dived inside the jacket looking for a label, a sign that I had found a gem. Yes!!! I spied a Harris Tweed label. Yipee! Both were at reasonable prices so I snapped them up. A little bit incredulous that another fabric archeologist hadn't found them before I had.

Mr greenolive feels they are tooooooo beautiful to cut up to upcycle into sometyhing else. And I think he might be right. I might just look at them for awhile.

Lots more photos on the flickr stream if you'd like to look at my discoveries...

feeling blurry

This is what today looks like – blurry and not quite in focus

Today is a funny day. Funny as in odd, not funny as in ha ha. I'm feeling a bit blurry, out of focus.

I have heaps to do: photograph silk scarves, make more silk scarves, upload stuff to etsy, update website, update blog sidebar, catalogue stuff, start to design some totes with our fabrics...but I don't really feel terribly motivated. Feeling quite blah. My mood is matching the overcast day.

Here's what things should look like: in focus, clear...

The yummy handspun that has been turned into a scarf

Maybe some lunch, a bit of knitting during days and things might just start to focus...

wonky zips

what am I doing wrong?

Less than perfect zipper insertion!

When I click through your flickr photostreams or scroll through your blog posts, I see charming zip pouches and purses with PERFECT zips.

The zip pouches all look so gorgeous and professional, the perfect product to show off our screenprinted fabrics. I could see them made up in the designs from the Tribal range, the Urban type range, even the Kids range.

I'm not a sewing novice, in my hey day I made my mum a tweed jacket which was fully linned and had welt pockets. But, these zippers with rounded corners have got the better of me.

Have a look for yourself...

What am I doing wrong? is there a secret handed down from crafter to crafter that I don't know about? Can anyone help me?

If I can't perfect the rounded corner zip purse then I'm going to have to come up with a different approach, one where the zipper sits in one side of the pouch instead of at the top.

feeling tribal

the tribal trend is hot

It seems we were onto something when designing and launching our Tribal Range of screenprinted fabrics. Etsy has just released a Tribal inspired Gift Guide and included our Zanzibar design. 

I discovered the Tribal gift guide and our inclusion in it by accident late last night while trawling through Etsy – I was so excited I almost woke mr greenolive up to tell him. But I thought better of it.

As a designer I'd always been drawn to the primitive and graphic nature of tribal and African patterns. Their simplicity and repetition gave them great energy. I love them! It seems it took a little while for everyone else to catch on. 

Now Tribal is hot and receiving some Etsy love.

This is an Etsy Treasury I curated earlier this month – maybe it inspired the Etsy Admin team?

During August the Zanzibar design was featured in a members vote for their favourite fabric promotion. Read the blog post. Our design made the finals and now appears in an Etsy banner promoting the members vote feature. I saw it on the front page and nearly fell off my chair in excitement! 

Maybe now is the time we should take the leap into yardage? What colours would you like to see Zanzibar printed in? I'm thinking hot spicy Moroccan colours...

my favourite yarn

what's yours?

Our recent house move meant I got to pack, unpack and play with my rather extensive yarn stash. While re-acquainting myself with all the balls I "rediscovered" some favourites.

Do you have a favourite yarn? One whose colour, texture and quality keep you coming back for more?

I do!

It's Jo Sharp's Aran Tweed in Dusk. It a yummy tweedy yarn with a dash of silk and cashmere. The meterage is a very generous 95m per ball and the colour is divine: a rich, complex purple-grey with flecks of purple, olive green, maroon and pale grey. And its produced by an Australian company – even better.

If you haven't heard of or seen Jo Sharp yarns, you must have a look. Her colours are divine, the yarn blend exquisite and the prices are reasonable.

What's your favourite yarn?

the greatest op shop score!

I'm addicted to op shops now

 

A vintage circular needle – I bought it for the packaging. Gorgeous.

In the states you call them thrift shops, but down under we call them op shops, "op" being short for the word opportunity.

I know checking out any op shop when passing is de rigueur for any crafter worth her salt, but until now I haven't been one of those crafters.

When I worked full-time I didn't get much chance to either pass or check out op shops, but now I'm not, I'm checking them out whenever I can. I'm still a bit of an op shop novice – I'm still sussing out where they all are, which are the best ones, and how much I should pay for things. I'm working on my poker face, so when I ask how much things are, and the lovely old lady (its always a lovely old lady) says "$2 for the lot", I don't break into a huge grin.

Last week I discovered two at Knox Shopping centre. One was really crap and overpriced, but the second one was an Aladdin's cave. They had several reduced racks – six garments for $5! On my first visit I scored a Claude Montana brown wool coat (now given to aunty shabby) and a grey wool YSL men's jacket. Both were on the reduced rack and and cost less than $1 each! Plus a few wool jumpers I'm going to turn into scarves. And mr greenolive managed to find a pair of Levis 501s in his size for $5.

I'm already planning my next visit. I've made several more return visits to the original op shop and several others finding a vintage circular needle, lots of doilies, more jackets and jumpers and some vintage books. 

Stack o' doilies costing 20c each and waiting to be turned into something oh so stylish!

And, if you can recommend good op shops in the south-east suburbs I'd much appreciate it. I'm planning another op shop expedition on Thursday.

drool worthy on bondville

our profile on bondville

Screen shot of the post on the bondville blog.

I "followed" Step from bondville on twitter the other day, and thought I should email her about greenolive textiles. Just in case she'd like to do a post about our textiles.

While I worded the "perfect" introductory email in my head, she sent me a message about doing a post on us. Easy. She made it so easy. And true to her word the post went up almost immediately.

We joined the drool-worthy design list, there is some great design featured, you should have a look.

So, pop over to bondville to read the post, and don't forget to follow Steph on twitter. And why not buy some fabric while your at it? It's drool-worthy.

the art of display

it makes all the difference doesn't it?

Ask any market seller and they'll tell you that after the weather, the display of their products is the thing they worry about the most! And I'm no different. Remember this post?

Markets these days are about social catch-ups as much as they are about commerce, and sellers have to work very hard to get the public's attention. As they amble past, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, hands occupied by a takeaway coffee or a messy but tasty treat, and mouths and minds engaged in conversation, they take a glimpse at your wares. If you haven't optimised your display to stop them in their tracks then forget about it. They pass you by.

We are constantly reviewing, adjusting and changing our displays. We employ the services of old wooden boxes, bits of nature, baskets, almost anything to elevate the visual appeal of our products. When business isn't as brisk as we'd like we assure ourselves that if we just display things better then sales will surely pick up. It seems its not just wishful thinking.

Case in point... We used to display our cards in an old wooden crate used to store soft drink bottles. We thought it was stylish as well as practical, but you couldn't see all 12 designs at a glance. We sold the odd card here and there, but not as many as we liked.

 

Card display – BEFORE

Convinced there was a better option, mr greenolive put his thinking cap on and came up with a new beaut card display thingo that cost about $20 to make. All he needed was wood, paint, screws & stretchy wire. Now you can see all the card designs and there is space for other things too.

Card display – AFTER

And you know the best bit? It worked!! We sold eight times as many cards as the week before!

I wonder what else he can turn his attention to?

PS: I almost forgot! Well, I did forget and that's why this is a PS. We are at the Arts Centre market tomorrow, Sunday. You can check out the card display for yourself!!

knitting with my handspun

After lots of spinning over the past year or so I have finally started knitting with my very own handspun. And there is quite a bit of it to knit!

I really don't know what I was waiting for, what stopped me from knitting much earlier. Maybe I was afraid that the knitting would disappoint; that it wouldn't live up to the excitment of the hand dyed roving, or the anticipation of the spinning?

Actually I suspect it was the decision about which skein to start with first, and what pattern to use that had me stumped. (It was a forgone conclusion it would end up a scarf wasn't it?)

I started with this skein, because of the colours. Its also one of the earlier handspuns, you can see how uneven the ply is and how the spinning is a bit fuzzy. I've improved a lot since then, just a case of practice, practice, practice.

I needed to knit something that would showcase the subtle changes and complexity of the colours, the uneven thick and thin of the two-ply handspun yarn. Something that would let the handspun be the star.

 

It was probably no surprise that I went with a simple garter stitch. It was a case of things coming full circle. It was Jared, with photos of his own handspun yarn and wheel, who had inspired me to finally sign up for a spinning class last May, so it was only natural that his scarf became my inspiration again. 

I've almost finished, just a few more rows to go. It was quite a lovely experience knitting with the yarn, each stitch a different colour and texture from the next. 

I'm already thinking about which handspun I'll knit next: the Black Forest, the Machiavelli, or the Shades of Grey? Which one would you choose?