Annual Christmas Sale

If you missed the annual Black Friday - Cyber Monday sale, don't feel bad. There are still some great deals to be found in my annual Christmas sale.

Set up for the open house Friday.

Yes, the discounts might not be as high on some items, but everything in the store is still anywhere from 10-75% off now through December 12. I always end the sale on that date to ensure everyone who orders receives their packages before the holiday.

It's been a busy few weeks.

It's a bit later than I wanted, but today's Right of Succession update is all the better for it. I've made a lot of progress in the past week!

More Random Craftiness and a Camera Fail

I wrote about my love for granny squares a while back, and I finally got around to joining all sixty one of those squares. I just finished the blanket and blocked it last night as a matter of fact.

My very first blanket made with different sized squares.

Craft Fail: Softening Scratchy Yarn

A while back, I saw this simple little tutorial on softening scratchy acrylic yarn on Pinterest. After forgetting to pin and tracking it back down, I found this little gem was originated by A Girl and Her Needle. 

It was as simple matter of removing your labels, loosening the skeins, tossing them in a lingerie bag, and then machine washing and drying them. I'd just bought eight or nine skeins of several colors to make gifts for Christmas that weren't as soft as I'd like them to be, particularly for the ones I planned to use to make child and baby gifts. So I thought I'd set them to go while I was busy painting. (Yes, I gave it a try that long ago and am just now posting. I've been busy!)

Yeah, don't forget to make sure your yarn ends are secured before you zip up the bag and toss it in. Otherwise, you end up with the tangled mess I pulled out of the dryer.

Yep, I nailed it!  ...If you ignore the big ball of knots.

Leave it to me to have a clueless moment and make yet more work for myself when I'm in a hurry. On the upside though, the yarn is much softer than it was starting out. In fact, I'm going to give this trick another try over the weekend with the other colors. I'll just make sure my ends are well secured before I start it washing.

I Love Grannies!

Granny Squares: I love 'em. 

They're usually small, so you can make them even in oppressive heat without giving yourself heat exhaustion and join them into a new, warm blanket as soon as it cools. You can make them as big as you want, so you could make a blanket with just one gigantic granny if you wanted. They can be made into almost anything you want and be made with color combinations only limited by your imagination.

My current collection of granny squares just waiting to be joined.

I've been benched!

I don't know exactly what I've done, but my wrist has betrayed me. Yes, I've been crocheting quite a bit in the evenings, working on various projects. Specifically, I've been working on an amigurumi bear for Sneak's Christmas. However, the amount of crocheting I've been up to shouldn't be enough to make my wrist flair up as badly as it has.

Seriously, it's useless.

 

I surmise I must have fallen without realizing I jammed my wrist in the process, which is something I do with frightening regularity. Klutzes shouldn't get preoccupied apparently. So, I'm benched for a few days from both crochet and soaping while my wrist rests. So the bear will have to sit unfinished for a bit. As you can see in the picture, I'm not exactly far along in the process, but I have had to rip it apart a time or two.

Here's what I won't be doing for the next few days.

I live!

Great googly moogly, it's been forever since I've posted! I did not realize I'd been away for so long.

I bit off way more than I could handle, I think. Back in January I paid for a table at a brand new Doctor Who convention in the next town over. It was going to be the first year for this particular convention, and I figured a nice little convention would be a good place to cut my teeth. Turns out it was one of only three dedicated Doctor Who conventions in the United States, and it turned out way bigger than anyone expected for its first year.

March and April were jam packed with the end of the school year, even though the girls demand lessons and projects year round at this point, and work on three large crochet projects. First I was finishing off the shawl I was making to pay Little Brother for finishing off the green house. Then I had two baby blankets to make, first for our new niece and then for my new second cousin.

Anyone else?

I mentioned the fact I have trouble making sense of traditional crochet patterns because my issues with dyslexia force me to concentrate on the abbreviations so much, I often miss the meat of the instructions. And I'm wondering, am I the only one who has this problem?

I know I'm not the only dyslexic. Statistically speaking about 20% of the population has dyslexia according to the literature Hubby was studying during his Orton-Gillingham* training. I'm just not sure if I'm the only one who gets tripped up trying to make heads or tails out of traditional knitting and crochet patterns. I mean, it's not like I've heard many other crafters complain of issues with patterns.

So, am I the only one?

* Orton-Gillingham tutors are ones trained specifically to help dyslexics gain reading, verbal, and mathematical fluency. The whole first half of the training is learning about the cause of dyslexia and the myriad of issues, both beneficial and detrimental, this cross-wiring can cause.

Who would have thought I'd be designing purses?

The Sara Purse

If someone told me a few years, or well, even a few months ago I'd be posting about my first original fashion designs, I would have told them they were nuts. Oh, sure I'd had the odd thought about making a purse or clothes, but I never thought I'd have the guts to try and design something. Then again, I just discovered my little problem a month or so ago.

Knitting and crochet patterns make absolutely no sense to me whatsoever. I'm not dumb, but I do have this problem with disconnected letters. I'm dyslexic. I'm a context, whole word kind of reader. I have no problem with paragraphs, but give me individual letters, especially lower case letters and numbers, and all I see is alphabet soup. I have to focus so hard to keep the letters straight, I loose sight of the directions themselves.

So what's a crocheter to do? I watched as many videos on shaping crochet works as I possibly could and winged it. When something didn't work, I ripped it out and started again. When it worked, I wrote down what I'd done. The patterns aren't formatted "correctly," but they make sense to me.

The Katie Purse

So here they are, my first three crochet designs. The Sara Purse is the largest of the three. It's a simple, single lined messenger style bag with a double crocheted handle, small inside pocket along the back wall, and lacy design on the flap.

The Katie Purse is the smallest. I had a small ball of lavender yarn left over from another project, and I found some beautiful black and white patterned linen on sale. I'd also found some metal beads and length of chain that called to me, and this design idea just fit. It's a simply pouch purse without pockets, double lined with black felt and the patterned linen, with a lacy flap and magnetic closure.

Little Black Clutch

Whenever I head into Decatur, when the deals at Aldi are worth all the extra miles, I stop by Handcock's Fabrics if I have any time at all. On the latest trip, I found a yard or so of gorgeous sparkly red fabric on sale. I just had to get it, which led to also finding the black and white linen mentioned above as well as some other bits and bobs I've yet to use. Anyway, the idea for this clutch came to me the moment I saw the fabric. The body itself is simple. There's no lace or fancy stitching, but it has some bling to it! I crocheted a rose with burgundy yarn and then beaded the edges to provide contrast, detail, and some sparkle. The inside is double lined with black felt and the red material. There are two full pockets inside with a zip closure.

Now, if I can only learn how to work my sewing machine, maybe I can get to altering the clothes I have now and learn how to make new ones.

The Farmer's Market

I know I kind of dropped off the map there for a bit as far as the blog and well, internet in general, is concerned.

The truth of the matter is things have been crazy busy around here lately. This summer and fall is my first festival and craft show season. I've been hard at work building stock, marketing, and working the Ardmore Farmer's Market since June. I'm out there every Saturday from 7 a.m. until noon, or I will be except for days when I have a conflicting festival or craft show.

So far my table has been a rather small and crowded card table. However, I was able to purchase a new table yesterday. So, I will be able to have a larger selection available in upcoming weeks.

The biggest thing keeping me busy lately has been working on new crochet products for the store, mostly because they seem to be selling even before I finish them. One of the latest items was a custom order. Another was an original purse design, which I may have available as a display model tomorrow if the lining has dried sufficiently for it to be moved. It has already been spoken for, however, so it will not be available for purchase. I plan on making more in different color combinations though, so if you like the look, you can commission one for yourself in your pick of yarn and lining colors.

I'm currently working on face scrubbies, some house slippers, additional purse designs, headband, ear warmer, and shawl designs for the festivals and autumn shows coming up. I French knit and crochet afghans and other big items as well, plus party and wedding favors, but I almost always do those on commission only.

If you'll be up toward Ardmore, TN one Saturday coming up, make sure to come by and see me and the other vendors.

Experiment Turned Lovely

Wednesday I decided to try knitting a hat from the top down to see if it changed the way the top looked on a standard loomed hat. It looks fine when the hat is worn, but I personally don't care for the way these loomed hats look when they're not being worn. As it turned out, looming the hat from the top down didn't make a difference in how the top of the hat looked, but it resulted in the bind off edge on the bottom being far too tight.

So, I unraveled the bind off edge and re-knit the hat last night. The whole thing unraveled, but when I came to the drawstring cast on I'd started with, it wouldn't unravel any further. So I bound off the hat and set the sad little bundle of loops off to the side.

Looking at it again this morning, I saw how the bundle of loops could be turned into a sweet little flower with the addition of one of the buttons I picked up a few weeks back, so I stitched it into the ring of loops and added it to the hat.

My youngest was nice enough to model the finished hat for me this morning. It was made for a smaller girl, so I didn't try to fit the hat all the way on her head. The knit has an amazing amount of stretch and spring back unless you tug on it really hard.

Although, I don't think she's too happy about my using her as a sizing model for the younger children's hats I'm making to give away for the holidays. She likes her hats, and she doesn't quite understand I'm just checking the size and not giving her the hat to keep.

She's disappointed now, but she has a couple hats of her very own for under the tree this year. She just doesn't know it yet.

I'm not sure if I'll be offering these knit hats in the store or not. Like I said, I'm not happy with the shape of them when their not being worn. Once things slow down, I'm planning to add crocheting to my skills. I think I'll be able to produce better looking headgear that way.

Felting Goodness

Other than the faces for the toy watches I made at Halloween, this week's projects are my first attempts at working with felt. I've seen so many pretty things lately made with felt, I just had to try my hand at it.

My first project was a stuffed bear. It's been about seven years since I've done any embroidery, and our living room is currently dimly lit as we keep forgetting to borrow a taller ladder than we have at the house to replace one of the bulbs in our overhead fixtures. (Folks of normal height would have little problem replacing the bulb using a regular step ladder like we have, but Hubby and I are about two inches too short to manage this without a third step.) So, I'm not disappointed in the embroidery job on Smirky Bear here. Though with practice, and better lighting, I know my skills will improve again quickly.

Smirky Bear is completely hand stitched. While I'm decent with a needle and thread, I'm hopeless when it comes to sewing machines, so all my fabric items are hand stitched.

I am a little disappointed when it comes to his shape, but he was a first attempt at creating my own pattern. I've learned from the experience, and I expect I'll have better luck getting the nice, rounded appearance I was going for next time around.

My next project, I absolutely love. Poinsettias are by far my favorite holiday decorations, so I just had to try making some poinsettia ornaments when I decided to experiment with making felt items.

They're just a tad smaller than the real thing, and I'm sure I'll have them available in the store next December.

Preview of My Children's Line

My mother started a new tradition on my side of the family last Halloween. Instead of dragging the babies from one end of the county to the other going to all the relatives houses, we'd all meet up at her house for a party, and the children could go around the house "trick-or-treating" wherever they found an adult.

It saves gasoline, the babies have more fun running about and playing instead of getting their picture taken, grabbing some candy, and then being strapped back into their car seats five minutes later, and we have fun seeing the babies have fun. So, since this is the extent of the children's trick-or-treating, we all try to give them something extra special. Usually this means less candy in favor of a small toy or activity booklet.

This year, I knew I'd be handing out treats to three girls between the ages of six and eight and two boys who are one and two. I decided to make hair clips for the girls and toy watches for the boys.

I found a four pack of ribbon in fall colors, a square of felt, some dollar store hair clips, a bit of glitter paint, and a leftover ball of yarn from another project and set to work.

The ribbon flowers took a bit of experimentation to get right. If you take a look at the picture above, you can tell which one was my first one. But after a couple of tries, I had some nice looking flowers, and I'd found out why most of the ladies who make little girl's hair bows don't use flip clips. They're next to impossible to wrap neatly, and if you don't wrap them, the bow doesn't want to attach.

I don't believe I will be selling hair clips in the store, but I've been learning how with the idea of embellishing knit headbands, girls' hats, and purses with flowers or bows.

The toy watches are simply knit wrist bands with felt clock faces sewn and glued on. I sewed a backing piece onto the seam of the wrist bands using stitches throughout the circle to make sure it's secure. Then I hot glued the "clock" face onto the backing piece and made a few more stitches directly in the middle just in case the glue ever came loose.

The bands have a fair amount of stretch and are knit together instead of seamed, so they should be durable. These are the first two I've made, so I'll be checking back with the mom's over the next few months. If they hold up as well as I believe they will, these toy watches will have a definite place in the store.

Changes Ahead

I have a plan. I have a good plan.

And unlike a lot of the others I've had in the past, I might actually be able to pull this one off.

I'm one of those folks who tend to bounce from one idea to the next. I have a lot of interests, and I can do a lot of things fairly well. But I'm not exceptional at anything really. So, deciding what I want to do with my life has been a bit of a crap shoot. For years and years and years I had this idea I'd work in an office until I could get my first book published. And then I'd be a novelist with a day job to actually pay the bills between the odd royalty check I could put back for this big purchase or that one.


Then I decided to become a stay-at-home mom. Most of the time that was fine, but being a creative sort, I kept getting an itch to do something, make something. So first I tried blogging and freelancing. The freelancing didn't work out so well for me, but blogging is fun. Then Hubby found out why teachers were happy to leave higher paying public school positions to work at private schools for lower pay and lesser benefits, and I began to try to find something that would bring in a bit of money to help ease the burden of the family finances from his shoulders.

I've had a few odd gigs now and again coordinating events and doing transcription. I tried direct sales for Usborne Books for a while, but the only regular income I've brought in has been through cleaning houses one day a week.

Over the years, I've come up with and discarded near a dozen business ideas. I've thought about doing commissioned writing, but when my heart isn't invested in the story the writing goes too slow to make it profitable. I thought about opening a bakery, but I soon discovered trying to develop new recipes would destroy my health. I even kicked around the idea of starting a publishing company, but like with the bakery, the chances of being able to raise the start up capital were slim to none.

Then, when she heard I was knitting a bunch of holiday gifts this year, a lady we go to church with told me about Etsy. I looked into it, and I soon discovered I was acquainted with an Etsy shop owner through an author's fan bulletin board. She was nice enough to answer some questions for me, and I've been considering opening my own store for a couple months now.

Unlike most of my earlier ideas, start up costs isn't a problem because I already have a good chunk of the materials I need to get started. It would be monetizing what I've been doing for fun and family for a while now. And it would give me a place to sell some of the things I've been itching to make but haven't for fear of burying us under a pile of nice things we personally just don't need. So, I've decided to do it. Once I have finished making this year's holiday gifts and have built up a fair supply of items to start out, I will open my own Etsy store.

If you're interested in hearing more about what I have finally decided to do with my life, you can check out the behind-the-scenes blog, Contented Comfort, or follow the store page on Facebook.

Last Week

Last week wasn't a fun or particularly productive one for the E. household. All four of us were sick to the point of not being able to eat, and weak as kittens as a result. We did recover along about Thursday afternoon, and the remainder of the week was spent trying to handle the work we'd let slide while ill.

I am pleased with my new hobby though. Even being ill and too exhausted and weak to do heavier work around the house, I was able to knit. It was the majority of what I did throughout the week, actually.

I finished the girls' spring scarves, their winter hats, and I knitted up a hat and scarf set for my brother who loves to hunt. It's nothing fancy, but it kept me busy and from going stir crazy.

I even ended up showing Boo Bear the basics of knitting, and she made most of a hat for her baby doll by herself. Sneak found the tie off, undid it, and unraveled the hat within ten minutes, but still, it was an accomplishment for her. Hopefully now that Sneak knows what happens when you undo one of those knots and start pulling on the strings, her curiosity is sated, and she'll leave the other knit work alone.

She did leave the headband I made up using the scraps left from the hats alone throughout church Sunday evening.

What about you? How was your week last week?