When You Can't Find it at the Store

I have been on a mission to find nifty-lou knitting accessories for holiday gifts for some knitting friends.  This is a challenge to begin with, because most folks who knit acquire all sorts of related paraphernalia on their own.  For those of us who want to buy little presents, this is soooooo irritating as generally, those people already have all the gear.  And yet, we love them, so we persevere in our search for the perfect unique accessory.  My current mission has been to find fanciful stitch markers.  Now, for those non-knitters who read my little blog, stitch markers are used for projects such as socks, patterned shawls, sweaters...really anything where you need to change up the stitch routine to create something textured and wonderful.  Definitely functional and needed, right?  Unfortunately, there is a dearth of boring plain plastic ones at the local knitting stores.  A search of etsy revealed that while they are out there, but either (a) plastic or (b) kind of spendy and not quite as fabulous as I have envisioned in my head.

What the heck is a gifter to do?

I'm not sure what everyone else might opt to do (think of something else, maybe??), but I decided to get all crazy crafty mistress on the theme of fantabulous stitch markers:

"We're drivin' on the freeway of love, in a pink cadillac..."

This is a favorite.  The colors reminded me of Portsmouth Harbor, N.H.

Vintage-y loveliness, just like Grandma!

Roll on, Fat Tuesday.  Pass the beignets, please.

Now that is what I am talking about!  Sparkly beads, nifty charms, metal rings...oh yeah.  As I doubt that I am the only knitter out there who covets these kinds of accessories, I followed my brilliant brainwave idea that popped into my head while tooling around in Lucille Laverne, listening to knitting podcasts and contemplating the dilemma of no pretty stitch markers, anywhere for the gazillionth time.

Here it is:  Start. Your. Etsy. Shop. Fool.

Lightbulb, meet electricity.  Oh yes, my madness knows no bounds and I am going to start channeling my creative side by merging pretty sparkly things with the electronic marketplace.  Why?  Why Not?  It has been forever since I played around with beads, and these stitch markers are really fun (and addictive) to make.  Before I set up shop online, I'm going to try them out on a test audience at the Knitting Extravaganza next weekend in Frederic, Wisconsin.  My friend Suzanne is bringing selections from her yarn shop and the latest version of her pottery knitting bowls and new line of pottery buttons, and I play salesgirl extraordinaire all day, encouraging knitters to buy things.  (It's a pretty easy gig, and I usually get paid in yarn.  Whoot!)  Suzanne is going to let me display my line of Baah-Da Bling Fancy-Dancy Stitch Markers at her booth, which is just awesome and generous and has me so dang excited I could just pee my pants.