Keeping Busy

I have been neglectful of my blog these last few days but I have been very busy with my baby crochet as you can see.

They are not completely finished off as yet as they are minus the buttons, ribbons and trimmings. They will be revealed fully finished when I am ready to make up my Etsy store.

Some more packs of trims arrived today from Kemps. I still have some more on order from Purplelinda and Abakhan. These last few days I have been sorting out buttons and trims into even more storage trays but I still need a few more trays. Everything does look so much more organized in see through containers. I can see at a glance what I have now without rummaging through boxes and bags in the stash room. I have far more small buttons than I thought I had now it is all organized.

 Hopefully I will get to Bury market and Habiknits soon so I can see what kind of trims and ribbons they have. Ordering online is difficult as I am never quite sure how big (or small) trims are going to be. It's all a bit hit and miss, but as my Dad used to say 'They will come in useful one day and they don't eat anything' It's no wonder that I have hoarding tendencies coming from a Dad who saved every little bit of wood, nail and screw in case it came in handy and a Mother who was very make do and mend and reluctant to throw anything away if she could make something else out of it.

My late Aunt Edna (my mother's older sister who I am supposed to be the most like) was a complete hoarder and had rooms in her house full of knitting machines, half finished projects and lots of wool. She had successful wool shops in Wales for many years so her eccentricities made her plenty of money. She often looked like a tramp ( or the cleaner) and not the owner of many shops. Maybe I do take after her in more ways than just the wool hoarding ;-)

This pack of Sirdar Calico DK fell into my shopping basket from Kemps but at 99p a ball it was such a bargain that I could not pass it by. There is only this pink and a sort of gold colour for sale at this price. I am not sure whether this will be a little dark for baby wear but it will get used one way or another.

The latest copy of the Interweave Crochet arrived but I think that I am in the baby crochet mood so not much in the magazine has caught my eye this time. Maybe later when I am in the mood for crocheting adult wear.

The little girl dresses are quite sweet but I don't have anyone to crochet them for.

My friend Sue came to visit me today and brought some lovely shawlettes that she has been crocheting to show me. I really should take some photos of her things when she comes as she hasn't put anything on her Ravelry project page as yet. As always I feel really guilty when she calls as I have yet to master the lace carriage on my knitting machine and I promised her a couple of baby cardigans for her grand daughter. I don't know why but I am just not in the mood for my machine at the moment. I have phases when I want to crochet, when I want to hand knit and when I want to machine knit but that is more infrequent than the first two.

After she had left my postman brought me another of my bargain books from Amazon. This time a baby knitting book. I will show it to you next time I post as it has some lovely designs in it. The post also brought me some acid free tissue paper, large plastic zip lock bags and some grey plastic postal bags. All I need now is an Etsy site and some customers! I should have browsed more carefully for the tissue paper and made sure that I ordered the whiter than white tissue. This paper looks quite grey in comparison.although it is supposed to be white. Hopefully it will look OK to wrap things up in if I trim it with a fine paper florist ribbon. This is the problem with not being able to shop personally. Everything looks different on line.

Tonight will be more crocheting. I am really getting into the swing of this baby crochet. I still have lots to make yet as I want to open my store with a flourish and not a whimper. I am thinking positive about future sales, good photography and nice packaging as that can make all the difference to sales.

Back To Knitting Again

I am back to knitting for a while. I am making an aran cardigan for Charlie so that he won't feel left out when the new baby (when it arrives) gets presents. The colour is darker than it appears in my photo so my knitting this is restricted to the daytime when I can see what I am doing. Luckily Charlie is too young to realise that the pattern shows the cardigans on girls! Last night at the Kings Arms I worked a bit more on the never ending 4ply baby cardigan for his brother or sister to be. Louise went in hospital in labour on Friday even but by Saturday morning everything had stopped again and so she came back home. Apparently she is still in slow labour but no news yet. The neighbour across the road might have gone in hospital as there was a lot of activity late yesterday but I haven't seen anyone to enquire as yet.

I don't really have a lot of news today. A Ravelry contact of mine in the US has messaged me to say she wants to order a few copies of the calendar. I managed to sell one at the Kings Arms last night which is now on the wall in the snug where the knit club is held..Rachael says she will either put a sticker on it or a sign underneath saying it is for sale for Christies as it isn't apparent from just looking at he front cover that it is for charity. People in the pub thought that I was just selling it for the Knit Group. She said she will add where they can buy it from. Hopefully once they realise it is for Christies then they will put a few orders in.

I have put a photo of the front cover of Inside Crochet that I got for a bargain price of £3 at the Stitch and Craft show. I know that I should support a UK crochet magazine but so far I have found that there is very little in it that I would actually make and it has far too many features in it and not enough patterns. Maybe other people like reading about designers. their work and new wools etc which I do to a certain extent but I found it to be overkill on the features and light on the content. A Kings Arms fellow knitter likes the blue wrap so I have told her to buy the wool and I will make it for her. It is done in Jamieson 2ply and only takes 4 balls. I am looking forward to the latest Interweave Crochet magazine which is already out in the US so it should reach me sometime in September as UK is always a month behind.

Sera Lace Top

This is the Sera Lace Top by Doris Chan from the Interweave Crochet magazine Fall 2007. I have made this for Lisa so I can't show it in wear just yet. I will have to follow Lisa about with my camera and hope that she tries it on tomorrow. As you can see from the magazine photo the pattern stitch will spread in wear making it very lacy but if I tried it on then it would be lace stretched to it's limits!

I can't tell you what the yarn is that I used as it was a cone (possibly 4ply acrylic) that was in the bag of oddments that Lisa gave me to make the Granny Takes a trip jacket. I decided that it was too fine to incorporate in the jacket so found a different use for it.

The sweater for me has grown a little. My wrists were hurting yesterday so I didn't make as much progress as I would have liked. I don't know if you can see from the close up photo that the shell pattern goes upwards for the yolk and I am now crocheting downwards in the round to make an empire line shape. I am still using the Jewel sweater as a template for size. Hopefully more photos tomorrow - wrists permitting.

The sun is shining but it is still a bit windy. I am missing sitting out into the fresh air in the back garden for a crochet. I could still go but it's not quite the same feeling if I am wearing my fleece. Roll on summer. My arthritis and I are looking forward to some warmth. If I ever win the lottery then I will definitely move to a warmer, less damp, climate.