I'm Late For A Very Important Date

I feel like the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland. I'm late. I'm late for a very important date. No time to say Goodbye - Hello I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!

Eek the Vintage fair where I have a stall is on Sunday and I still have lots to do. I promise that I will catch up with events after Sunday. In the meantime I am slaving over a hot crochet hook!

Part of the bunting for my stall. Now I am having second thoughts - is it too retro rather than vintage? Wish I have time to crochet another 12 triangles in different colours. Perhaps more subtle?

Meanwhile more buttons are arriving from China. I have just shown one of each on here. I got them from EBay and they are so cheap compared with buttons from the haberdashers.

Such cute little wooden teddies.

Another outfit finished for the fair. Not sure what happened to this photo but it is actually dusty pink!

This is more like the colour.

One of my favourite distractions. One of three reasons why I am running late. The other 2 reasons are called Poppy and Buddy (next door's dogs).  Still I love them all dearly especially Buster. He is such good company when he visits me for the weekend. I wish that I could have him back with me all the time but I simply can't walk him any more. He is such a happy dog. All he asks from life is some attention, food and to be played with and his life is content. He does think that he is still a lap dog which is why I am behind with my crochet. Dog hair and crochet do not go together.

Enough waffling. It's time to get the sparks flying from my crochet hook! I will hopefully remember to take my camera to the fair and show you the things that you have missed seeing in my rush.

Where Do I Start?

Such a lot has been happening since I last blogged. The first obvious thing was that I had no Internet for a week. I felt like part of me was missing. I had things on EBay outstanding that I couldn't bid on or worse still I didn't know if I had won anything and had to pay for it.

After twice daily phone calls to Orange I was getting extremely frustrated as they passed me back from pillar to post. Orange blamed BT for a fault on my line. BT tested the line and said nothing wrong. Meanwhile I got re-assured everyday from Pakistan that everything would be right by the morning. Eventually when I started talking compensation and cancelling my contract I got put through to someone in the UK. I am not a racist but it was reassuring to speak to someone in Queen's English. Eventually as she went through every single check on my PC one by one we found out the problem was when someone from Orange had told me on the first day to alter something in my settings and that was effectively blocking the signal from the Internet to my PC. Needless to say that made me madder than mad as it would never have reconnected but for the lovely Amy from Orange who spent over an hour on the phone sorting it all out.

I don't have any photos to show you as despite crocheting away for the craft fair I haven't been taking any photos as I usually do as I didn't have a PC to upload them to. I will show some photos eventually. At the moment I am just finishing off a crochet baby aran in a Dusty Pink shade of Patons Washed aran cotton.

I have had the dogs from next door for the last two days and nights as my neighbour's Mum was dying in hospital and she was spending every minute with her. Her Mum passed away in the early hours so the dogs have now gone home. No rest for me though as my furry grandson Buster is coming tomorrow morning for the weekend.

As my stock of machine cones has increased since I last blogged I got another of those plastic shelving units for the dining room. At least I look a bit tidier now. I didn't want anything permanent as if ever my stash diminishes I can take the unit apart and use it as garage or stash room shelving. My dining room floor was full of storage boxes and I could not get to my knitting machine. Worse still I was in danger of falling over them. Now most of them are off the floor and on the shelves now.

The time is ticking by so quickly to my first craft fair. My friend Sue who is in partnership with me will be away on holiday for the first fair but has left me her crochet shawlettes to put on the stall. I am having some business cards printed up. I realize that I may not sell anything at my first fair so the important thing for me is to get my name known as a crocheter. Word of mouth is always the best kind of advertisement. I am going to print off photos of my former work and put them into an album so that people can see the sort of work that I usually make. I am trying to make a sample of different things for the stall but obviously I can't make that many things as I have only got one pair of hands ( well two pairs if you count Sue's!)

Bit of excitement for my niece last Friday. She helped to deliver her best friend's baby on the bathroom floor as her third baby (Yeah a little girl at last) arrived so suddenly that Mum didn't have time to get to the hospital. My niece was literally left holding the baby but fortunately the paramedics arrived and took over. The Mum's youngest boy was peering at his Mum who was on all fours in the bathroom and said 'Has Mum done a big poo on the floor?' Bless him - he is only 2 and didn't recognise that it was a baby and umbilical cord. Mum says that was the best delivery that she has ever had and was up walking about an hour later saying that she fancied some fish and chips. Needless to say my niece and her friend's Mother in Law who was also in the bathroom, and helped catch the baby, were far more shocked than Mum was. I now have another girl to crochet for. Gracie Victoria who was much larger than her brothers at 7lbs 3 ozs,

Hopefully I will have some photos for you next time I blog. Fingers crossed that I stay connected and that Orange has finally sorted out the problem.

Back Online

Just a quick note to say that I have just been put back online after having no internet connection for a week due to a fault. I will blog later once I catch up on e mails etc.

Some of My Baby Crochet Items

These are photos of some of the things that I have been crocheting over the last week since I last blogged. You will recognise a lot of the designs as being my old favourite patterns.

This is a new pattern that I bought through Etsy from Mon Petit Voilin. It is blocking out at the moment

This was made from a part ball of James C Brett Marble DK using a King Cole pattern

I will hopefully have more to show you soon. In the meantime it's back to the crochet hook for me!

I'veBeen Busy, Very Busy

I am fine. Just not had the time to blog. I have only a couple of weeks left to my first craft fair so I have been using my time to crochet instead of blogging.

These are some of the supplies that have been arriving to me via Ebay. I think both the postman and my bank manager think that I have gone completely crazy.

Job lot that I bid for. Will be useful for scarves, hats and fingerless mitts.

More from the same job lot.

Some Colinette and Sirdar Reflections from different sales.

Rowan beige yarn that looks a bit like a bandage and some multi coloured DK cotton.

Job lot of machine cones. Now I really will have to get my machine going again.

One of three multicoloured cones that I have bought to crochet with. I just love the colours in this.

One of a pair of velvet covered hands to display fingerless mitts on my craft stall.

After paying £'s for a few flower effect wooden buttons I ordered all of these ceramic buttons from China for the same amount as I have been paying for 10 buttons in the UK.

The yarn is just a fraction of what has been arriving this last week to the house. Now you know why I have been too busy to blog!

Crochet Shawl Finished Before Baby Arrives

Sorry that I haven't been writing my blog but I have been so busy for the last few days. At least I managed to finished the shawl for my 'adopted' niece Louise's new baby. I call her that as she shared a house with my niece for years before they both got married so I feel like she is part of the family. She is expecting her third baby any day now and I was worried in case her shawl would not be ready in time. It's all white as the baby will be a surprise. They already have 2 boys and Louise and her husband are convinced that this 3rd one is another boy but my niece and I have our fingers crossed for a little girl

The shawl pattern is one of Heather's from Just Crochet and the number is JC46. I had to thread white ribbon through the holes at the edge and sew on white bows. I would have chosen pink or blue ribbon but Louise wants to take the shawl in hospital for the new arrival. It's a sort of tradition. I made a new shawl for each of her boys to come home in so the third baby has to have the same. The wool I used was Sirdar baby DK in a lustre finish. It took 400 grams but it is quite a large shawl.

This is a little outfit for my Etsy store or craft fair. I am a little bit biased towards the girls which my crochet so far so I wanted something that a boy could wear. It has come out around 9-12 months size.

I put imitation leather buttons on it to give it a more 'manly' appearance.

I added a tab and put the same buttons on the beanie hat for the same reason.

Some 'new' vintage patterns from Ebay.

Some more patterns.

Some satin and furry motifs that I got from Ebay to use on pram blankets and jackets.

Some more yarn that I bought from Ebay. I will be sleeping in the garage soon as the house gets filled up with yarn. I will also be living on baked beans and jacket potatoes whilst I pay for these supplies. If I don't sell any of this stuff I will be eating yarn soon!

I used the the Wendy Moiselle to crochet up a small scarf.

As it was an oddment that I bought I didn't have enough to fringe it so it has a shell edging instead. It is much prettier in real life with the satin and organza ribbon threaded in with the yarn. That doesn't show up in the photographs.

Sorry if I am neglecting my blogging but I only have so much time to crochet until the first Craft Fair next month. I will try to write more this week. I still have to spend a day adding more things to the Etsy store. It takes ages to get the photos right and add them on to my shop. I think that I need a secretary but one who donates her time !

I went to the hospital on Friday and they want to operate on my left knee. Not a replacement yet. Just an arthroscope to have a good look around and hopefully trim the torn cartilage. This op wasn't a success on my right knee so I am not hopeful. They wanted me in before Christmas but I told them I had Craft fairs to do so to take me in after Christmas. They keep me waiting and cancel me all the time so now it's my turn to say no.

Still Crocheting Away

I am still busy crocheting although a lot of my time has been taken up with taking photographs and listing things on Etsy. I haven't sold anything yet but other people on Etsy tell me that this is quite normal until people get to know me.

If I don't stop shopping on EBay soon I will be asking you to send me food parcels! There are just too many bargains and I have decided that not only do I lack willpower where food is concerned I also lack it with yarn and crochet patterns.These are two cones of aran thickness. I just fell in love with the colours. It's so hard to get a  nice random dyed yarn these days without paying a small fortune per ball for it.

These wooden Tunisian hooks turned up today. I had almost forgotten about them as they came all the way from China. As I only bid 99p for them plus the postage of course I wasn't expecting much from them. Surprisingly they are so smooth to use. I have had expensive wooden crochet hooks and given them away because I couldn't work with the shape of the hook tips. A lot of them have more of a flat head. They used to snag on my yarn and slow me down. I had a practise with these today and they are as smooth as silk with just the kind of hook tip that I like. They are very short for Tunisian hooks. Only 10" long but I can wield these far easier than my plastic ones with the wiggly wires that cost me a fortune. Perhaps once I get the hang of using these short ones I can progress to the longer ones with wires to make larger things. For the moment I will just practise with baby things until I get better at it. Watch out Beverooni I will be asking you lots of questions soon!.

This is my doll Jo-Anna who came home with me from my shop. She was my display doll for many years. Now she has a new career of modelling for Etsy.

This is Maisie. The latest addition to my doll family. She is also a model for my Etsy store. Unfortunately she needs better lighting to show off her complexion better.

On this photo Jo-Anna is pretending to be a boy. I don't have any boy dolls so the girls have to change sex sometimes. I have another little doll called Sophia but as she is premature sized she hasn't done any modelling yet. The clothes that I have made so far are way too big for her. I shall have to make a set especially for her to model.

I have just signed myself up for 2 craft fairs in my home town. They are Vintage and Craft fairs with a variety of furniture, vintage clothing, cakes and jewelry as well as hand made crafts. I will be working like mad to make some thing more vintage themed as the first one is September 25th which doesn't leave me much time. I found out about them through my ice cream man. We were chatting about hobbies and I mentioned that mine was crochet. He gave me his daughter's phone number as she was looking for a crocheter for her fairs. I am also signed up for one just before Christmas and for that I will be trying to make more gift things as people might be looking for last minute Christmas gifts of hats and scarves.

Feedbackfrom my friends who have done craft fairs is they say that they can be good for sales one day and the next tine you go to one you can sell nothing. As I have been pre warned about this I won't feel too badly if I don't get any sales on the day. I am going to get some business cards printed. As the venue is so local to me and I will know a lot of the people visiting then at least it will raise my profile locally about what I do and where they can find me on my blog, facebook and Etsy. If they are not buying that day it might lead to sales later. Who knows. I can only try. I have been talking about doing this for quite some time so I thought that now is the time to give it a go. If it is successful then it might keep me occupied until I go to crochet heaven. With rising prices for everything any extra money I might make would be very welcome. If I just make enough to feed my EBay addiction to yarn and patterns I shall be happy!

Time is a wasting. I have some crochet to finish and a baby blanket to make. Not for my Etsy store this time it's for my elder niece's best friend who is due her third baby any day. I made blankets for her other two so I can't leave number three out. It will be a white blanket as she doesn't know the sex of the baby until it is born. We all think that it is another boy so it will be a lovely surprise if it's a girl.

There will probably be more photos of Buddy and Poppy as I am dog minding them for a day or so whilst my neighbour visits her new nephew. He still hasn't made his appearance yet but I think that the hospital is using dynamite if the other drugs don't work soon. He must be too comfy in there.

If you don't hear from me for a couple of days it will be because I will be busy with crochet and dogs in no particular order. At least these two don't shed hair all over everywhere as my lovely Buster does.