So today I got my new Craft Magazine (www.craftzine.com) and on the back cover there was a big ad for www.artfire.com which heralded the tag line “Sell without fees, create without limits”. Why yes please! Although Etsy has been very good to me, the idea of selling without fees on a site similar to Etsy is awfully enticing. So I set up a shop. (See it here) There are two types of accounts you can have as a seller, the free kind which is pretty limited and then for a $20 subscription fee a month you can have more access to the site and advertising. If I can sell a few things through there and I see I’m getting a decent response I’ll probably upgrade my membership but for now I just listed a few of my yarns, and one of my knit items. We’ll see how it goes.

The site has a nice aesthetic and seems pretty intuitive in how it’s put together. As far as I can tell I’m the only seller with yarn listed at present, but I’m sure as the rest of the magazines with their big ad in it get out to the other crafters around the world that other people will begin signing up too. At least that’s my hope and I’m sure it’s theirs as well.

I haven’t sold much of the last batch of yarn I did, but I’m hopeful that as knitters/crocheters begin to get freaked about the upcoming holiday knitting that I will see a sudden influx of ‘OH CRAP! I need to knit four pairs of distinctive socks for each of my sisters’ orders in the next few weeks. At least that’s what I’m hoping because I have a family full of people who don’t fully appreciate knitted gifts and I need to be able to buy presents for those of my loved ones who are ‘knit immune’ (as the Yarn Harlot calls them).

Also, this new issue of Craft is full of fun things. There’s this silver clay stuff that I want to try and play with soon. Also a recipe for Yerba Mate tea that I think my boss might like for Christmas this year. And then there’s a really cool tutorial on making a stack of books a stash box. All kinds of cross-crafty things I want to mess with. Time/money permitting I’d like to get to them all in the next few months.