Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Purple!


Oh look at these lovelies - purple really is my favourite colour - it is the colour that I tend to gravitate towards in the woolshops and could happily use it as the only colour in my crochet.

I bought the two skeins to the right in the above photo in Knitty City in New York earlier this year and made hats with them in the last couple of days...I love how they turned out!



The colours remind me of watercolour paintings - with drops and splashes of different colours that blend into each other. :)



and this one below is for a hat for myself! I had made myself one a couple of years ago in similar colours but then managed to lose it on a coach trip in Iceland - I still haven't really forgiven myself for that (we did try their lost and found department but they had thousands of lost hats...and the lady said that at least it would get donated to a charity so I guess it hadn't gone to waste)



Finished Scarves!






I've finished all three of the scarves - they are in different shades of the same yarn. I haven't listed scarves in my Etsy shop for a long time; mainly as they take so long to make and also that I HATE being in any of the listing photos. So I thought I'd try to use my mannequin instead and I think it's worked pretty well.



 It looks like a friend in America will buy the blue one (below) later today - it would be great to have the sale; things have been so quiet for me on Etsy lately. I do have less than 75 listings though so that doesn't help!


I'm really quite happy with how the scarves turned out - if I see that yarn again I would be tempted to buy more of it so that I could do the same...


I do love the ripple stitch - especially in finer yarns like this one...


Sunday, October 29, 2017

More Scarves


I've finished the red scarf that I'd photographed and mentioned in my previous post in here and now am making two more in the same yarn in different shades.

I'm really hoping that they will sell at the markets!


In non-crochet news - this is keeping me busy -- I'm back beach cleaning again for the winter months and after two bad storms there is a tonne of rubbish on my most favourite beaches....it really is never ending...

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Finishing Up Orders


Earlier this month I finished up the blankie for Marianne's daughter - it will be part of her Christmas present so I will have to wait a while before I know if she likes it or not (but I hope so much that she will love it and will have it for years)


I quite enjoyed making it - it made a change to make something bigger than hats and wrist warmers and I was able to do it without having to rush, which is always more enjoyable.

The only downside of making something that has a lot of colours and is worked in stripes is all the sewing in of loose ends when you are finished. It is something that I HATE! With the blanket I did a lot of the edging and sewing in as I went along and that made it a lot more bearable.


At the same time of the blanket I was working on this order for my lovely best customer Jaye - I think she said that these cotton shower mitts will be on sale in her friend's shop in England but I made one slightly smaller, for a friend of hers.

She had contacted me about this order months ago - I think it was the start of the summer? - so I had already ordered the yarns and made four of the five shower mitts at my leisure.


She also wanted three pairs of crocodile stitch wrist warmers in the same colourway of Riot dk - I love this shade, it reminds me so much of love birds and parrots! 


So now that I'm caught up on orders for now I'm making items for my Etsy shop again, and hopefully for the Christmas markets...

 yet more crocodile stitch wrist warmers!
 and even more of them! I only have seven pairs (not counting these ones) available at the moment so I want to try and get some more made - luckily they are still popular and I love making them best of all.

And hats...I bought the wool for these two hats from 'Knitty City' in New York - oh happy days!!

It turns out that it is actually a British yarn - made by Rowan, so that should make it easier for me to source if these ones sell and I want to buy some more.



It was lovely to work with - very chunky with a slightly thick and thin/slubby texture. I know I do tend to fall in love with every yarn that I work with but this was gorgeous -- pure wool and soft, and because it's so chunky it was very quick to work with.

 And for something a bit different I've started making a scarf -- I've had this wool (in at least three colourways) for a while now so I'm finally getting around to using it up! People always ask if I have scarves at the markets so I'm going to try and get a few made between now and December and hopefully they will sell!


I love the close up of this yarn! 


I'm using the same ripple stitch as I used for the blankie at the start of this update - it's a favourite of mine for scarfs and makes it more interesting than just making something plain backwards and forwards.