Hearts To Spain

I have finished some crochet hearts for the Art Gallery in Spain. I ventured out in the cold up to the Post Office and they are now on their way. How long it will take them to get there is another thing. One reason that I posted early is that they are needed for the 10th February so I didn't want to leave it until the last minute.

I had to nip out also to pay an installment on my credit card bill. I have gone a little mad with it of late and when it arrived today it was like a dash of cold water to the face. Time to fasten up the purse strings tightly until I have paid it off. Admittedly I still have the electric arm chair and the mobility scooter payments on there so in my defence it is not a total wool buying bill although I think that I have paid someones wage at Amazon over the Christmas and New Year period! I still have some books to arrive from back orders and pre orders but after that it will be Whoa no more!

Having said all of that I am going to the Yarn Barn in Shaw over the weekend but that won't count as my niece is buying some wool for me to knit for her and I will only be buying a pattern or book for some wool that I already have for her sister's jacket. I will try to blinker my eyes to the rest of the shop and concentrate on what I am there for. I do have some bargain chunky in stash that I got from E Kemp so I might just have to browse for a pattern or two that I like for myself. That's not really stashing is it? Or am I just fooling myself? I need a nice pattern to de stash so that's my excuse and I am sticking to it.

I watched a programme on TV last night about hoarders. Of course I was doing the tut tutting like everyone else until it was mentioned that she had a pile of wool underneath all the stuff that was enough to open a small wool shop. Now that kind of shook me. I call myself a wool stasher or collector but just when do I tip over the edge into being a wool hoarder. I used to stash it all in a very small bedroom but it does seem to be creeping down the stairs in boxes into my dining room. At night I tend to have everything around me in my armchair and sometimes I look like I am sitting in a sea of wool (depending on what I am making). It is starting to worry me now. I am not fond of housework, very untidy, would rather be crafting than hoovering and dusting. Am I more than half way there do you think? For the record though I do have clear pathways all through the house and my bedroom doesn't have any clothes on the floor preventing me from finding my bed. I recycle cans, plastic, paper and glass in my bins so maybe I am only a quarter of the way there ;-)

Today I started another crochet hat. I found out from Enid that I had missed the Big Issue Knit Out at the Nexus cafe that I went to last year. I am still carrying on though and hoping that someone will drop them in for me. Today I tried to make a hat on the machine. I have to finish it off by hand and needles for the decreases at the crown but I am just seeing whether making a lot of it n the machine will be quicker. Unfortunately this one appears to be going to turn out another one for a big headed man. It's hard to judge just how many stitches to put on for machine knitting. I used the amount from a hand knitted one but obviously I am going to have to adjust the sts if I make another one.

Time to see if there is anything good on the TV tonight,. The better the programmes the more I knit or crochet. I tend to wander around the house if the programmes are not enthralling.

The Mad Hatter

I am still making hats. Thankfully I have used the last of that super thick chunky Snowball. I didn't enjoy working with that at all. I tried at first to crochet with it and broke a crochet hook in the process. Thankfully my needles proved sturdier than the hook did. I hope that no-one minds walking around Manchester with a point on their head but the Chullo hat is the first one that I have followed a pattern for. It was one of the free patterns from Drops Garnstudio.

I have started the first of the hearts for Spain. Thanks CajunBlu for the link. I found some aran in Red so they will be nice chunky firm hearts and will make a good display for the Art Gallery. If I have enough wool I might make another pair of hearts to stuff or maybe some tiny hearts to scatter around in the gallery or make into a bunting.

Another dull dreary day which doesn't help me to be motivated. Hopefully I will have finished the hearts by tomorrow but they won't be finished off or stuffed as they will be easier and cheaper to post to Spain in 2 separate unstitched, unstuffed pieces. They will get stitched together once they arrive. I am hoping to get them posted off before the weekend to make sure that even with postal delays they get there before the 10th Feb. They want to decorate the studio before the 14th February.

I am hoping to finish the hearts today. At least it's a change from the brown, brown and more brown which seem to be the colours of my leftover stash. Last year I felt that it was mostly navy that I crocheted and knitted so at least the homeless will have a change of colours this year! I am going to try to knit a hat on my knitting machine to see how it turns out. I will have to finish it off by hand but at least I can knit the boring stocking stitch on the machine. I just need to work out how many stitches to cast on as machine knitting is a lot firmer than hand knitting so | will need more stitches than are on a hand knitting pattern.

Two More Hats

I made it out of the stash room alive with a bag of oddments to dip into to make some more hats. I was going to make as many hats as I could this week before my niece and I go to Yarn Barn at the weekend for a pattern and some wool for my nieces' birthday presents for April I thought that I would start early this year as they both want knitted jackets and they take me longer to make. The earlier that I start then the less I will have to rush with them.

A friend of mine who has an art gallery in Fuente, Spain, where artists can display their paintings or other art work, is having a Valentine celebration in the Gallery and is hoping after that to organise a craft market for the locals and ex pats. He has asked me to crochet a heart, or rather two hearts that he can stuff them or stiffen with foam or cardboard, He wants to thread a metal arrow through the centre of it so doesn't want me to sew them together to make one. I have googled some heart patterns and have found what I think is a suitably sized one. Most patterns that I found were tiny amigurumi sized ones and he wants one measuring approx 8" in either direction at its longest or widest part.

He is hoping to attract people to the craft market, that he is going to set up, with their hand crafted knits, crochet and other crafts where hopefully they can sell their craft work there. Maybe in Spain the customers will be more appreciative of the time and effort it takes to make things. I have never taken part in a craft fair in England myself but I do have friends who do it but only have moderate success with sales. I don't think a lot of people in the UK put a value on anything hand crafted. I see things for sale on the net and often think that I could do far better than that but I don't want to make a business out of my crochet and be put under pressure. It would be nice though to make a little extra money here and there but I would probably only buy more stash wool with it! I wish that there was a scheme locally where I could display a couple of items and see if there was a sale for my work. I like to be in control of what I make so don't want to be in a position of having to make things to order that I don't enjoy making. Next time any of my friends have a craft market stall I will have to barter for a small space on their stall to see if anything of mine will sell.

I am going to start making the crochet hearts tonight as a change from my hat making. Time is of the essence as they have to posted off to Spain and I don't know how long the post will take. I have finished off two more hats and started another one in the blue. The brown hat is the colour of the first photo but I took the second photo to show how it would look with the ear flaps tied on top of the head. I am making another hat with the blue wool. It is some ultra thick Emu Snowball which isn't the nicest yarn to knit with plus part of it had been knitted and unravelled before it was given to me. I also have some brown in the same wool so will be making another hat tonight as well. The wool may not be very nice but I am sure it will make thick warm hats which is the main idea. I am not too bothered about stylish knitting with fancy patterning on them or fancier crochet patterns. I am more concerned by making as many hats as I can whilst it is still cold although I did get assured last year that hats are worn for most of the year as it can get cold at night even in the summer.