Finished Finishing

Despite the chaos that can be found in the month of August, with back to school and all that, I have carved out a bit of time to prepare for my fall craft shows. My aunt and I have added two additional shows this year, both of them closer to home for me. I did some scoping last year, and both have great potential.

My preparations have included lots of tracking inventory, and lots of finishing. The crocheting part is most definitely my favorite, next to actually getting out to the craft shows and selling. Finishing my product always seems to come last. Something about the tedium always gets to me. Due to my tendency to leave the finishing until the last minute left me with nearly a dozen hats to be finished this past week.

My favorite is this delicate one:

Silver blue with bright pink rose

It's perfect for a little baby girl! I try to keep a variety of hats on hand, but the sweet flowered girls' hats are my favorite. There are a couple of bears and birds to appeal to those who want something more boyish or neutral.

You can find more pictures of my finished hats (and other items!) on my Facebook page here. I'll be hosting a giveaway there soon, to celebrate my second wedding anniversary and my baby boy's first birthday, so you should definitely like my page :)

January 1, 2015

The first day of a new year doesn't always feel different. Last year, we already knew we were expecting a new little one in our lives. This year, I know I am hoping for something a little more low key. To be honest though, I don't have many expectations for this year. But I can have a few hopes and dreams...

• homeownership
• new job for my husband- or at least a promotion
• expansion of my home business
• a renewed teaching contract-- I'd love to work another year at my current job
• debt reduction-- college loans are still looming, and we'd like to get them down significantly this year, especially since we are still house shopping
• expansion of garden-- we grew a few of our own veggies this year, but because I was heavily pregnant/dealing with a newborn during harvest time, we were not as successful with our crops as we could've been. Hopefully we will be able to put more up this year.
• good health all around-- back problems and migraines have plagued me throughout 2014, and we'd like to find a solution for them soon

While I've  known other people to choose words or themes for the coming year, I've never done it myself, but this year one found me. I have a habit of writing quotes on notecards when reading, especially if something good strikes me. I found this one while cleaning:

Notwithstanding my weakness, I am no longer afraid. 

I have placed my confidence in God, who can do all things 

and from whom I hope all things, for I rely not on myself. 

~St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

So I'm adopting that as my theme for the year, and plan to continue to pray and reflect on how best to place confidence in God.

Blessings in the new year!

Love,

Mary

Growing

Everything's growing in my neck of the woods. It's growing colder. My baby's growing. I'm trying to grow my home business. We're looking at food to grow next year. It's all very exciting.

I've been in the craft show business for at least 5 years now, possibly closer to 6. I enjoy doing 3 or 4 shows in the fall with my aunt, but I'm also looking at expanding. I'd like to get more of an online presence, but I'm not sure how. Any advice? I already have a Facebook page, which has been relatively effective up to this point. A photographer friend is using my items as props. What more can I do?

The weather also makes me more inclined to crochet away. Chilly winters means more woolies are needed. I have quite a few scarves, but I'd like to have a wider range of styles and colors. That may be my downfall, crocheting for myself.

However, I am crocheting quite a bit for my little one, who is getting more adorable and bigger by the minute. Going to work kills me, but right now it is needed. Hopefully next summer, we'll get a better planned garden together, which will cut back food expenses.

Living on a teacher's income is definitely not sunshine and roses, but I know this is where God wants me to be. I'm hoping and praying that working from home is in God's plan for me somewhere, as I can't imagine continuing this for more than one child. We shall see...

End of the Season

Weather's getting colder, and the craft show season is over for me. Last weekend, I went to my last show for the year. I'm scoping out a few more, to see if I can add a few closer to home (as I'm still going back to my parents' town for the others).

I am hoping to move stock, so I can have more new product next year-- check it out-- Mary's Crocheted Creations! My hats are posted right now, but I'm hoping to get my scarves up soon.

Since I'm back to teaching, I really have only been able to restock between craft shows. These are my only real FOs in the past few weeks.

Baby Monster

Baby Owl

Baby Snowman

Snow in Progress

Four half finished snowman hats. These two are more complete than the others, as the others don't even have snow yet! The two above still need their second earflap. 

I really want all four done for my Saturday craft show. We'll see if it happens. 

The prototype is pictured above on my son. I'm not planning on a three dimensional nose on the new ones. 

I also have some penguin hats to finish but again, we'll see. Work and baby consume a lot of time. 

A few Small Things

With this cutie pie ruling the roost, there has been very little crafting time for me. I've been trying to keep up with my lesson plans for the substitute teacher in my spare moments. However, we have engaged a photographer friend to do a newborn session, so I'm prepping for that. 

I was making great progress on this cocoon, until my husband pointed out that it was going to be too small. So half of it got frogged. I have to try it on the little guy before I make any further progress. Luckily, I have two more weeks before the photos. 

The hats are my other small project(s) in progress. My aunt has been generous enough to continue to allow me space at her craft show booths, and we had a two day show last weekend. With the new baby, i was only able to help for part of one day, so I don't know how well I did, personally, so I'm trying to make sure everything gets restocked. My owl and monster hats seemed like crowd pleasers while I was there, so more are in progress now. 

I'm not reading as much as I thought I would-- mainly ebooks that I can download on my ipad for nighttime feedings (someone blogged about that last week, and I was inspired. It makes feedings feel faster). Library ebook selections are not the most diverse, but something to read nonetheless. 

Be sure to check out Tami and Ginny's blogs today! 

Making Progress

Here I am, on 'it's too cold for the kids to go to school' day 4. Some might consider it lucky. Though it feels like it's been going on forever, my schools were the only ones to close today. There was still quite a list. I have to imagine I'm not the only person bored out of my brain. Reading, crocheting, cooking, cleaning- such hard work.

But in all honesty, I was ready to go to work this morning. Maybe tomorrow I'll get lucky. 

My biggest projects are still floating around the 'I'm not motivated enough' stage. So I've moved to smaller stuff. I'm planning on participating in the Ravellenic Games, so everything I'm working on now needs to be finished by the weekend. The moss green is another infinity scarf- of which I have many, but always like more. The debate is still going on- do I keep it for me, or add it to the craft show stash. (Sometimes I don't like including my craft show items, since I make them often, but I also like honesty, and this is a true bit of my life.) 

The brighter bit is the start of a songbird shawlette- a pattern I won a year or so ago. The yarn still isn't sure what it wants to be, but I do like the pattern, a simple 2 row repeat. 

I especially like the bits of green color that pop out. The yarn is one of my hand-dyes, so it's possible that it will see the dye pot again. 

My book jumped out to me at the library. I saw it on the end of a shelf, and I thought it might be a good read. Haven't gotten past the firs few pages, so the verdict is still in the air. 

It's Wednesday!!! Check Tamis and Ginny's for more yarny goodness!

A New history book! Also, yarn

I love being busy with crafting things, and these weeks leading up to the holidays are quite busy. There is one final craft show this weekend, and I am hoping to have some new items in new colors for the final shopping push to Christmas.

New things!

From my fuzzy ipad photo, you can see my new book, all with two new projects that I've started. The dark blue yarn is another infinity scarf- lion brand has put out several new colors this season in their homespun yarn, and I am taking full advantage of fun and new colors.  The lighter blue that you can
kinda see it a third slouch hat, in a similar style to the red one from last week.

My new book is a gift from my husband, for St. Nick's Day & St. Lucia Day. Traditionally, with his family, books are the gift for St. Lucia, and food or candy is the gift for St. Nick. I've never celebrated Lucia Day before


Joining up with Tami & Ginny!

Sick of Petals!

Yes, today I am definitely tired of petals, but not in the way you may think. While thoroughly enjoy the warm spring weather and the flowers that accompany it, my hands have been busy making little flowers for hats and hairclips, and they've about had it!

In the midst of my moving and cleaning operation, I sat down to take stock of my craft show wares. Hovering comfortably between a dozen and 20 of each of my main items is a safe place to be in May, especially when I don't start attending craft shows until September. However, I wanted to bring all of my totals up to 2 dozen before tackling the quicker projects or the better selling projects. So I grabbed a few small balls of yarn and some hooks, and spent a lot of time making flowers- which I use both as embellishment on hats and on hairclips.

Add caption

Even though I over-dosed on flower making, I have not had my fill of new books yet. I'm still reading Jasper Fforde, this week One of Our Thursdays is Missing. Kathy Reichs just recently released her third Virals book called Code, and I finally have it in my hands. A few months ago, one of my students was reading it, and I was insanely jealous that their small-town library had a copy in before my library even ordered it! Along with those 2 books, I finally have a copy of Around the Corner Crochet Broders, to finish my parents' autumn colored afghan. I've browsed, picked a couple, and now just need to establish a stitch count before adding on the border. If nothing works out, I'll wing it, but having the book reassures me and makes me feel like 'at least I tried'.

Joining up with WIP Wednesday and Yarn-Along!

Oops!!

I had a yarn binge this month. Now, don't expect really nice expensive yarn... There was a sale...

One doesn't expect the grocery store to have yarn. Our Meijer does, a very small amount, in their little itty, bitty craft section. When labels change or whatever, they mark down their yarn. I've scored some great deals this way. While I don't go grocery shopping at Meijer every week, my mom does. She mentioned this markdown, and I said if the yarn goes lower, to like 75% off or something, go ahead and pick some up. This time (and nearly every time) it was Lion Brand Homespun Quick & Thick. This is a newer line of the same colors, etc, of the Homespun yarn that I use for my infinity scarves for my craft shows.

160 yards per skein is no big deal, right?

Wrong. I added nearly 2000 more yards of yarn to my stash. Granted, this yarn will probably not make it past the New Year, if it makes it past my wedding. Or so I hope. 12 skeins total, in a variety of colors.

Expect to see more infinity scarves in between all the fancier stuff I'm making! :)

If the internet actually worked.

Of course, the internet gets super frustrating when I am home for a whole week, on and off my computer for school and crafts. Its slowness can't even be blamed on too many laptops using internet in the house because neither of my brothers are home, and my sister and I are only doing super basic stuff with our internet. All this to say that I am super sorry for no pictures today. I uploaded a few to Rav early today, but forgot to grab my WIP pics.

So, in progress this week I have Ananas Crocheted Shawlette, a LB Homespun infinity scarf (color Tulips), and yarn drying for Stephanie's Wrap. Also, a few plain hats for fall craft show stuff, but those usually get pushed to the end of the list. I am honestly trying to stash-down, and all of the projects are using stash yarn-- I even had to make do with what I had on hand so I could start working on Stephanie's Wrap. Both of the shawls are part of CSW's Support a Designer CAL, where all those participating in the CAL pick a pattern made by a member designer. A few of the participants are crocheting the same pattern, but the idea is more to get project pages attached to patterns that might not have as many projects.

My Cold Sheep progress for March was pretty good, especially with help from the CSAL. I was able to use up 2400 yards of stash. I'll admit that some of it was new yarn, but the out was greater than the in. My goal for April is to only use stash yarn, no purchases at all, and to beat my yardage total from March. Since I'm already nearing 500 and it's only April 3, I think my chances of surpassing 2400 yards used are pretty good. We shall see.

I'm linking up with Tami for WIP Wednesday and Ginny for Yarn-Along, as both share lots of yarny goodness on Wednesdays!! :-)

An Update from the Weekend

An increase in my stash occurred this weekend. It wasn't anything terribly excited, just more Homespun yarn for the infinity scarves I sell at craft shows. But, it was an incredible sale, and a few colors that I haven't used before.

Being on vacation from school for 2 weeks is nice, as I am able to finish up Christmas gifts and mix in a few "work" crochet projects too. I've also been cleaning, and managed to get rid of a large bag of stuff, just because it was NOT going to get used, and I did not want to move it into another space in 8 months time. Lots of stuff is disappearing due to that reasoning, and E totally supports it. However, he did come to the conclusion this weekend that I actually don't have as much stuff as I think I do.

Speaking of this weekend, E was here for the day on Saturday. We got our Christmas tree (with my parents), and then ran some Christmas and wedding errands. My mom wanted some sugar cookies decorated, so we helped with that too. We tackled more books after that, and I have regained some of my closet space. He took a large box home with him (we are planning on living in his hometown) and I took two bags to the library.

                                            

Sunday after Mass, I cooked some breakfast before heading down to my cousin's for the day. Her two girls are going to be the flower girls in my wedding, and we wanted to try on dresses. David's Bridal adventure! (Looking at dresses was marred by my frustration in searching for the perfect shoe. They advertise a nice pair online, but apparently are discontinuing it. What I can't understand is why they don't make a comfortable, attractive shoe with proper support. Oh well. Rant over) 

The darker blue is the color I am using

On the chance that we might find something cheaper  else at the mall, we spent a bit of there too. Nothing at all. Actually, we found this dress at Justice, but the color combo was just slightly wrong (we needed a blue base, not a pink base)

Monday, Mom & I ran errands, and then I wrapped gifts. The tree was put up, and some decorating has occurred.

End of the Season

Saturday marked the end of my craft show season this year. I was fairly successful, especially with the popularity of the infinity scarves. I attended 5 different craft shows, and each one was different. One of our shows this year was a complete dud, but a learning experience as well.  My aunt and I are looking into adding one more to our "regular schedule" -- which means there will be at least 4 shows for me next year (my fifth this year was independent of my aunt).

This is what my stuff at our last show looked like.

It is an enormous relief to not have to worry about making more items to sell-- Now I can work on it as I please.

It's also 2 weeks into Advent, which is the mark of the new liturgical year. After seeing a number of fellow bloggers (JOYfilled Family, Karen @ A Servant's Memories, Ginny @ Small Things)  talking about Jesse Trees, I remembered that we once had a Jesse Tree at my house. It's been many years (1996, we think), but I wanted to bring it back.
So there is a Jesse Tree in our kitchen. I've been slacking, because of finals, but my dad has been adding things. I love the idea of another mediation for Christmas.

Bare, for now

In Preparation

Saturday I have my final craft sale before Christmas. So, hopefully, peace at last. E and I also have our first meeting with the priest who is going to marry us. There are some things that I like preparing for, and my wedding is definitely an exciting thing to prepare for.

Preparation for the craft show will just continue up until I start selling, though, as I was not as prepared as I wanted to be. But I did finish new hats!

Here they are:


The totally finished ones



Still in progress-- 2 dinos, a duck/bird, and a flowered one



My favorite shade of Bernat Super Saver is this peacock color



This is what my bed looks like when I am trying to match colors

 Lots of colorful stuff going on right now! But you can tell that blue is my go-to color for hats, simply because blue can be both boy and girl. The light blue hat with the puffy flower is my sister's favorite-- she loves the dimension that the puffy flower gives to the hat (last minute Christmas gift for her?)

Linking up to Tami's FO Friday.

Thinking about the Future

It's  December, and I'm thinking of goals for the new year. Right now, I live with my parents, in the room I grew up in. It's tiny, and my yarn overwhelms me. But in less than 9 months, I will be moving into a new apartment with my new husband!!! However, I don't really want to start married life with a whole slew of WIPs and lots of yarn that I will never use.

I really want to get a head start on my craft show stock, something that I NEVER do. Let's face it, we all have goals that we never follow through on, or that remain incomplete for a while. Truly, I want to make it a goal to get through all of my Lion Brand Homespun yarn before I move out of the house. I definitely need a count of how many skeins I have-- I bought 9 skeins a few weeks ago, but am not sure where that puts my grand total. It takes me about 3 hours to crochet an infinity scarf, and some days I've been able to make 3-- especially when I'm sitting through several hours of lecture. Though, without hours of lecture in the coming semester (*me* lecturing, instead of me sitting through someone else lecturing), and more hours of lesson planning, it might not be as easy as I want it to be.

However, I do plan on keeping track (to the best of my ability) of my "Cold Sheep" progress. I joined the Cold Sheep group on Ravelry, and they are an inspiring group. The Nov-Dec "Cold Sheep Along" is helping me keep track of my stash reduction. BUT, it's only been one week since I last bought yarn. At the beginning of this year, I stopped buying yarn, and I believe that lasted about 6 months. i'm not really sure if there is a best method to solve my yarn-buying problem, especially since I work fall craft shows.

So far, the best method I can think of to effectively reduce my stash and still build up my craft show merchandise supply is to stick to my yarn budget. Like, really stick to it. And to do that, I really need to watch sales and clip coupons. Even though the *really* good sales tend to happen around this time of year (especially on yarn) if I only buy yarn with Michael's and JoAnn's coupons-- which would be 2 skeins of yarn a week, at the most--I think I would be keeping under budget. And it's also a matter of knowing my stash, so I can buy yarn that will be the most helpful for my projects. (If you're wondering, my current yarn budget is about $10 a month-- but I'm also working minimum wage/part-time, and going to school).

A List-- because lists are easy to look at--

1. Use 250 yards a week (minimum)
2. Make one craft show item for every personal item
3. Make one afghan square for every skein of yarn finished
4. Keep within monthly yarn budget

I'm not sure if I do better when the goals are broader or narrower. (I shall re-assess in 3 months)

Warm Ears!

I've been super busy with the end of the semester (I think this happens all the time, but more so with school stuff) but I have been squeezing in some crafting time. My last craft show of the year is on Saturday, and I've been trying to make a good selection of child and baby sized hats. I really love crocheting for little kids, and I can't wait to see what they think of my creations. Between school and crafting and wedding planning, I can honestly say my life is not dull.

And!! One of my bridesmaids just got engaged, and will be getting married next winter-- she just asked me to be in her wedding, so the excitement just keeps on going!

I fell off the stash busting wagon on Cyber Monday, when I bought a bunch of pretty yarn from Knit Picks, but I am still trying to keep track of my yarn 'weight loss'. The scarf for Bro #2 got rid of 300 yards or so, and I used up an entire skein of Vanna's Choice on 2 child hats.

I'm also working on moving unwanted stash out of my room, because I am anticipating the move, and who really wants to move stuff that has no purpose. Basically, anything I don't want to use is being bagged up for a trip to my church for the fourth graders. Because of all the busy in my life, it's hard to find the spare time, but I totally believe that if you want to, you can make time. For each skein of yarn I donate, I've been trying to make an afghan square to donate too-- the fourth graders love seeing what the 'adults' make, so I try to have a couple of squares in with the yarn. 

If you come back on Friday, I'm going to try my best to get up photos of all the hats I've made. It's really exciting, because I tried a couple of new-ish designs. :)

Linking up with Tami for WIP Wednesday and Ginny for Yarn-along!

Busting that Stash

Since I last counted 2 Thursdays ago, I've finished 9 more infinity scarves. A huge variety of colors, only because it is absolutely impossible to guess what will sell well. And because I am not a "storing-up" kind of girl, I usually make all my scarves in the few weeks before or between shows. I'm a terrible procrastinator, I know.

And Blogger is being really silly about photo uploads, so I have to send you hither and yon to look at my photos-- my "Cold-Sheeping" project page!

My yardage countdown:
In: 0 yards (WOOOO I had self control this week!)
Out: 1665 yards (9 scarves x 185 yards each)
Total lost this week: 1665 yards.
Total yardage lost since I started counting: -1022 yards!

Wow, that makes me feel better about this whole counting thing. When I can see progress, everything is better.

I'm also super excited because I've actually finished a few other things this week!

I finished a Christmas present for my aunt, a circular rug-- 3 strands of yarn held together- 2 of them white cotton, 1 yellow acrylic.

And I've started my brother's scarf, using these two yarns:



Linking up with Tami's WIP Wednesday and Ginny's Yarn Along!

Holiday Stashdown Challenge Week 28

I had a terrible evening yesterday. I'll be honest, I was stressed out beyond all belief, and even though the day started out just fine, it got bad. My school finally issued me my student teaching placement for January, but then decided that I have to fill out a huge stack of paperwork. I was not pleased. My fiance spent at least an hour on the phone with me, trying to convince me that it would be ok. Basically, I spent the rest of the evening listening to those silly videos that teach you things that anyone with common sense would know, but the schools require it anyway. It's nearly all done, but it required a stack of nearly finished projects and a glass of "apple pie" to keep me sane. --- Proof that yarn is therapeutic. 

On a positive note:

I am so close to being back on track!!! Marie's progress (and finish!!!) last week really inspired me to press on and finish some thing up. I'm not quite there yet...

More craft show items!

But still, I have made enough progress to feel super proud of myself. I have one craft show this coming weekend, and one the second weekend in December. I am nearly done with  scarves for this coming one, but knowing my habits, I will be crafting up until the night before.

As for Christmas gifts, I have spent some time this past week attempting to finish something other than a craft show item, and I am pleased to say that I am nearly done with my recycled cotton rug. The last measurement read nearly 24" across. I didn't really have a size in mind, but I'll probably go until I run out of yarn-- and I'm getting close to that point. I do have more yarn in both colors that I'm using, but I'd rather not make this a giant project.

My plan is to have all my gifts done the week before the 25th, if not before.

Stash Bash-- off the Wagon

New Homespun- Hiding in the trunk of my car!

I've fallen pretty far from the Stash-bashing Challenge that Tricia started earlier in the year. Just this week I bought 13 skeins of Caron Simply Soft for a wedding afghan (mine!) and 9 skeins of Lion Brand Homespun for craft show items.

Yes, this is hiding in my car too.

But I have been making something close to progress in the moving out at much yarn as I bring in. I've made these four scarves since Sunday. They are all in Homespun- from top to bottom: Cherry Blossoms, Painted Desert, Olive, Mixed Berries.

 

Now, they don't quite cancel out all the yarn I brought in this week, but it is a start.

In: 9 skeins @ 185 yards= 1665 yards
Out: 4 scarves = 740
Total: + 925 yards in stash. (not counting the wedding blanket)

That's all I have right now. And yes, the yarn will stay in my car for a bit. Probably until I have used 5 more skeins, then the new nine can replace the empty space in my yarn bag :)

Holiday Stashdown Challenge Week 27

So, I'm so off track with the Challenge. Again. Or maybe it's still?

Anyway, I have a craft show Thanksgiving weekend, and because I did really well last weekend (Nov. 3), I wanted to be prepared for this coming one. It does put me a few weeks behind, but I know what I need to be making for my people, so that will go really quickly. My merchandise was just really depleted at the last show. I have 10 or 11 days to get everything ready. After that, it will definitely be back on track for me with gifts.

I have been making stuff though, I promise!! I just wrote the other day about all the yarn I "consumed" in a week of crafting. That was impressive, to me.

But, pre-Christmas sales are always my downfall. Yesterday I stocked up on Homespun for the craft shows, as well as enough yarn for a wedding blanket for me and fiance, plus a few extras.