another one of those not crocheted things I did

I still make most things with crochet so I've decided that for now I will keep the shop's name as is, but if this kind of thing continues, I'm going to have to seriously think of a change.

MERRY WINTER!

I've had so many compliments on my crocheted acorn (like a crocheted rock but an acorn) pendant that I will be working on some of those as well. they would make the perfect gift for your hippie loved one. :)

still busy

I'm beginning to feel a little overwhelmed. although I have all the Christmas shopping done and hiding in various places in my home, I am now thinking of all the rest of the things I need to do in the next 4 - 7.5 weeks.

I am making some lovely crocheted snowflake ornaments for a small craft sale coming up in 4 weeks. I've also made some really cute snowflake earrings. I have a pair in the shop, but a few more in blue. I might do a couple with red beads and a couple with green beads, perhaps gold.
still plan on making some more mittens. I have a pair that I need to finish and have two or three more planned.
and I have foolishly taken a few weeks off from the Christmas blanket for my daughter, so I am now painfully behind schedule. however, I have now reached the branches. something I would have been done with had I just kept on track. ugh!
I guess I was feeling a little daunted by all the strands I have to have going at the same time and that just tangles and makes a horrible mess. so I'm taking a deep deep breath and jumping back in

the plan now is to sit down and keep plugging away at it in front of netflix and Doctor Who.
I suppose it would be more appropriate to have Lord of the Rings playing while working on the Tree of Gondor. we'll see.

stitch guide

usually I don't do a lot of reading patterns, I usually write my own, but I have come across a few that I simply could not resist.

however, I have run into a couple of stitches that I had not heard of before and a couple more that simply needed refreshing in my mind. so I frantically search around searching for a description of the stitch.

mypicot.com has a terrific stitch guide. so I don't forget where to look the next time I come across this issue and for all of you out there, I am listing the link here.

one of the most complete stitch guides I have come across

my new line

totally not a new idea, but they are so cute

I've been making mittens. tiny mittens. for your Christmas tree or really for anything you would like to hang something cute from.
I thought the other day that they would be just down right adorable on a rear view mirror. yep, kind of illegal since I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to obstruct your view but they are small and people hang all kinds of things from their car mirrors.
but hey, they're not as honkin' as fuzzy dice.

you could fill them with a bit of potpourri and then your tree or car would smell really nice.

check them out in my shop.

I have a couple more pairs in the works, and if they don't sell, they will just go on my tree or in my car.

<3

astonishment! and I was just giving them away!

last year I talked about needing to find a solution to a packaging problem that I had. inspiration struck and I have be so grateful for it. these beautiful little origami greeting card boxes solved the shipping problem.
for the last few days I've been cutting and folding more boxes because I've been running a bit low. out of curiosity I checked to see if anyone on etsy was selling them - just the box- because the thought has crossed my mind to sell them myself. I found a very small handful of shops with listings for these wonderful little keepsake boxes and my jaw hit the floor. one shop wants $3. for each box and the other wants $5.
and here I've just been packing earrings and necklaces in them with no extra charge for the box.

HOLY COW! I'm still a bit stunned $3.00 - $5.00
maybe I'm going to have to start making them to just sell them empty. but no way am I charging that much for a single box that's usually just under 2 inches square and a 1/2 inch deep

and it is complete

well, at least for now. I may just put a couple of mother of pearl buttons and loops on it.

okay, knowing my daughter, who I made this for, I really should put buttons on it.

just plain beautiful

recently I have used crocodile stitch to make a scarf, before that I made a pair of fingerless gloves with an accent row of scales at the top. they were really fun and they sold pretty quickly at last month's craft sale. it's a fun effect and it's becoming really popular in the crochet world.

last week I was looking around on craftster.org and there was a new post that caught my eye.

I decided to make one for my youngest daughter who is having a birthday soon.
see how there are so many frizzy ends that need tucking away (up in the corner of the picture)...
now I understand why the lady who made the first wanted $35 in her etsy.

however, this project is becoming a labor of love. love for my daughter and love for the beautiful Koi fish scales.

along with all the other projects I am making or thinking of making, I am making another leaf scarf. this time I am using acrylic yarn that has been longing for a useful project to make it's existence worth while instead of having bits cut from it to tie toys together. I shamelessly stole it from my kids who got it from the school art room when they were clearing out the supply closets.
it looks much happier to be growing into a scarf. I am considering a boarder of single crochet around the entire piece. I'm not sure if I want to use brown or plum. I guess I'll make that final decision when I'm finished with the green.

progress is very slow,

but it is a tree after all.

and not just any tree, but The White Tree. and as we all know that sucker is really old. and generally the longer a tree takes to grow the stronger it is.

the reason it is taking me so long is mainly because of the hot weather. I know that does not compute! trees and plants in general thrive in the heat, but not this one. I could barely hold thread in my hand during our hottest weather and so yarn was just not possible and to be covered in a ever growing, thick blanket was right out!

but you can see there has been some progress made. I have calculated that if I do at least 3 rows a day I can have it finished in approximately 2 months. that was a nice thought 3 months ago, but the remarkably slow progress of this has me worried that I might not have it ready for Christmas. I guess that's incentive. I really don't want to ruin my daughter's Christmas by not having this beauty wrapped and waiting under the christmas tree.
YIKES! time is flying


if you're wondering about the elvish, I had to make up the pattern and have decided to make it available in my etsy.

That craft sale I've been talking about

it's over

I was just dead tired after it all. it's amazing how it wears you out just chatting with customers and potential customers and keeping track of one table of inventory.


I took a quick moment to have my youngest daughter model this last minute addition to my sale.

and we finished setting up our tables. that's my daughter setting up next to my table. we shared a space. she sold her jewelry that she has been making and I, obviously, sold my crochet. I sold some things that I didn't think would go over in this little town and other things I thought would be scooped up remain in my inventory. She didn't have as many sales as I thought she would have. she sold a few rings, one of which was customized and finished right there. I was really surprised and disappointed that her tiered necklaces didn't sell. :( but it was a learning experience for her.

we were both sunburned. somehow I got it worse and on my face even though the sun was behind us. we guess it was because the sun most likely bounced off the shop windows across the street.

I have yet to unpack the van. I was just way too tired at the end of the day.

Holy Cow! it's been that long?

I've been very distracted while I crochet away getting some more inventory for the craft sale coming this Saturday.
in between the frantic designing and planning and crocheting I've actually finished a couple of custom orders for etsy.

I have a new frustration. I have been working on fingerless gloves - something I've made a jillion of- and I have come across a new problem. I have been using a single crochet stitch on many of them (instead of the hdc I often use) and no matter how many chain stitches I start out with for a foundation I can't seem to make any gloves bigger than a small. "?"

something has got my crojo (crochet mojo) off.

a new pair of shoes

I really have enjoyed these terrific little booties. I have had another order for a pair. I am really proud of these. they are smaller than I usually make. I recently bought a size B and a size C hook.



I really like this pair.

so I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but I am going to make a bigger pair. first I'll start with a size that will fit a bigger kid. then I'll try a pair that will fit me. :)
I'll post pictures if they turn out for a grown foot.


side note -- I'm having a sale on selected necklaces until Sept. 1, 2011

Frisbee - the new stash buster

I have a craft sale coming up and I have a copious amount of yarn taking over my home.

during the hotter days of Summer before the humidity and the dew point caused all kinds of set backs for me, I made Frisbees. I was never really good at throwing and catching them as a kid and I think it was because I was nervous about getting smacked really hard by a disc of hard plastic.
a while back I made a large disc to be a rug out of some large twine and it never made it to the floor. the kids loved to play with it and early this summer we went outside and threw the thing around. INSPIRATION!

New stash buster.

Difficulty rating... very beginner

you will need stash yarn - two colors for two strands together...
J or K hook
Yarn needle

sc = single crochet
(*blah blah*) x* = repeat the steps in the parenthesis the number of times indicated


row 1: holding two strands together, chain 3, in the first loop sc 6 (or start with magic circle, sc 6. pull tight) continue in the round.
row 2: 2 sc in each = 12 sc
row 3: (2 sc, sc) x6 = 18 sc
row 4: (2 sc, sc next 2) x6 = 24 sc
row 5: (2 sc, sc next 3) x6 = 30 sc
row 6: (2 sc, sc next 4) x6 = 36 sc
row 7: (2 sc, sc next 5) x6 = 42 sc
row 8: (2 sc, sc next 6) x6 = 48 sc

now you get the method here... you can make your frisbee/disc as large as you like...

last 2 rows: single crochet in each stitch and end with a slip stitch.

weave in your ends and throw!

I've been working away.

I still have a lot to do before the craft sale next month. I kind of feel like I just don't have much to offer. I'm also working on some more cotton flowers that need to be dyed, I just haven't had the time... not that it takes all that much. What ever, me

so while working on the sale, I have also been working on the shop.
I have had a request for a baby cocoon. I haven't made one for over a year and I'd been nervous that it just wasn't going to work out being that I was rusty. I decided that I would make it bigger than the ones I've made in the past, that way it will be usable for a while longer than the first month or two. so I am still nervous. I really hope it wasn't a mistake to make it the size I did.

but it turned out all natural and beautiful, simple but boutique. maybe that's just me...


So last week I had mentioned the pumpkin hat I made after making the baby pumpkin hat. I finally got around to photographing it.


I really hope that someone will buy it. it's nice to be appreciated ;)

oh my, has it been so long?

well, the answer to that would be "yes".

I honestly don't know where the time has gone. I blame the weather. I know you think it's a silly little scape goat for me, but it is true! the heat can make you wither and the humidity can make you reject all contact with any and everything.
but the horrible cruelty of nature has a flip side.
when I get my happy blissful weather I snuggle in and get cracking away. this has been the case this last week.
last Tuesday I woke to such relief that can only come from 64 degrees and a dew point in the 50s

aahhhhh
truly, I was in Heaven! Autumn is my favorite time of the whole year. Autumn is just not long enough. it only last a few short weeks here :(
but having it stuck in my head... especially after revisiting the Autumn leaves hat... I made this lovely baby pumpkin hat.

and because I had to run to the store for yarn to finish off the top I had nearly an entire skein left over, so you know what that means
another hat, of course


oh, and I sold that absolutely lovely, delicate, and wonderful necklace I mentioned in my last post.
I was even more chuffed.

I'm chuffed

I had this vision of a lovely, delicate necklace. I began to crochet the flowers and hoped that it would be what I had envisioned but as I finished dying the flowers and setting them together the vision changed and I think for the better.

it ended up being a beautiful and delicate necklace and I was quite proud of it... then I put it on my daughter's slender neck and I was just stunned by how wonderful it turned out.

low humidity = happy hooker

:)

finally I feel like I can break out my hooks again and get to hooking once more.

three days ago the humidity was in the high 80s. it was so miserable, drowning would have been a happier experience.

but the wind blew and the humidity floated away and I was happy again and eager to get something made...

I go through my technique phases. I sometimes love Tunisian crochet so much and then other days I just want to get back to the basics. but I saw a ear warmer/head band the other day. it was knitted and I love it, but I am so terrible when it comes to knitting so Tunisian has been my favority favoritest. I get to fake knit and the result is not exact, and maybe not quite as springy, but it looks good and it makes me happy.



way back a couple of years ago I made a beanie that I was really happy about (still am) but nobody else felt the same about it. I had it at a couple of craft sales and I had it listed in my shop and no one wanted to give it a loving home.
at one of the craft sales there was a girl who tried it on and really loved it, but she wanted a longer hat, not a beanie.
so since nobody loved it the way that I do, I decided to introduce the beanie to some more yarn.

I turned it into a cloche. now I really really like it and have listed at crocheteveryday.
but this is probably what is going to happen... someone will buy it and I will have a moment of sadness in which I will have to make a run to Hobby Lobby and buy more yarn to make one for myself and one for each of my daughters.

and it's over

the beautiful cool weather we were having has blown over. :(
I'm very sad about this. I was hoping to have another week or two this summer to work on the Christmas blanket for my daughter, but alas, it is not to be.

I was also hoping to make a few more water bottle sleeves for my craft sale this fall.
this humidity has been so miserable today that even sitting straight in front of a fan does not cut it.
this is why people invented air conditioners and we do a couple of window units, but we are not rich people and we will just not be putting them in the windows.

so until this humidity rolls out of here I just might be out of luck

butterfly

it's been a while, again.

another week has gone by and I have not blogged. typical of me, i guess. I've just had a frustrated couple of weeks and then I got really busy again.

I made another cabled bottle sleeve, I have yet to photograph, and I like it a lot. it's nice.

then I was looking at my crochet thread and feeling like a jerk for not working on lace like I told my self I was going to do. so I made some lace. then I bought some dye. and then I played with the dye and the lace together.

it was fun so I did it again

I have another piece on the blocking pins right now. it's a butterfly and really like how that turned out as well.

now I just hope that someone else will like them enough to want to have one or all of them.

what I've been doing with the cooler weather :)

Long Winded and Picture Heavy ~ just so you know

I've taken a little time and learned a couple of new "stitches". I have seen the crocodile stitch before and I've loved it, but it has never really made me think 'crocodile', it's more like dragon to my mind. so I learned how the basics of this stitch worked and I fiddled and once I felt comfortable with what I was doing... voila, dragon scale mug cover



once I had it finished I made another one and had them at my desk and I caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of my eye. it was upside down and looked like a lotus flower and so was born
the lotus flower mug cover.

I really like cables. some days more than others. I also love a cold drink in the summer. along with this comes the condensation and that is so annoying. I have been making water bottle sleeves for the last couple of years... but just for myself. I can't be the only one who has this problem. In fact I KNOW that I'm not. I used to work with a woman who would freeze her water bottles every night and then have ice cold water all day at work. her solution to the condensation was to put a tube sock on the water bottle. okay, good idea, but there must be something prettier than a sock.....

wouldn't you know it, there is something prettier than a tube sock.


next I figured I should make a present for my friend who is having a birthday in a couple of days. something quick to have it in the mail so she would get it in time for her day.


I decided to revisit the lotus. this time no buttons to close it, it is continuous rounds. I don't know if she will like it. I hope so, but I guess if she doesn't ever use it I'll never know. ;)


then I figured that I would love to do more of the sleeves... for the shop and for the craft sale this fall.
so I really want more than one or two different varieties. most water bottle sleeves and mug/cup covers tend to be so plain. I really wanted to make one last year that looked like a sweater. so I then thought why not do cables like all terrific sweaters have. My favorite sweater that I wore until it had holes that I could no longer patch up had those wonderful classic cables.
after learning how to do cables in tunisian crochet, I had wished that I had waited a day or two to send Jen her present. I would have made something more like this






well, there's always Christmas and maybe by then I'll be good enough at this to make mittens