Tuesday, February 15, 2011

*blush*

Sigh, I think I am a hopeless blogger, I keep forgetting that I even HAVE a blog...and then when I remember and think 'oh yes, I must put this in my blog' it's usually when I am away from the computer or have 101 other things on the go...which is why it's now the middle of February and the last time I wrote here was back in October...sigh sigh sigh!

Gosh, well since I last wrote things have come on quite a bit. I've had a total of 54 sales now in my Etsy shop; coming up to Christmas was really busy, with sales from the shop aswell as friends and family asking me to make things. I'd like to be better prepared for it all this Christmas, and I'm trying to build up my 'stock' in the shop all the time. At the moment I have 44 items up for sale on there; sales have really slowed down afer the Christmas 'rush' but I'm trying to keep making stuff and not stress about it all slowing down.

I'm trying to think of some other crochet items to sell, as I guess you can have TOO many pairs of wrist warmers after all! So I made another one of those 'beach bags' and bought a whole load of wool from the wool shop in Killarney last week, which has given me a lot of inspiration!

You really need to click on the photo to see it in all its glory - so many wonderful things!



I got a lot of 100% pure organic fair trade cotton in that stash, so I've tried making some crochet 'scrubbies' (which you use instead of cotton wool, for taking off make-up etc). I made a trial run of three for myself to test out, then tweaked my pattern a bit (changing the stitches so it would be a bit 'denser') and have made a little set of four to list at some stage...we'll see how they go, I can't see myself making that much of a profit from them but it's nice to make something different!



We're heading off on our travels at the end of the week so hopefully we will be able to do a bit of a detour via the wool shop for a bit of a stock up again :) I'm having to buy a third big plastic box for my wool stash so I guess I may as well fill it up!

In the yarns that I bought there, I got some gorgeous kid mohair and silk mix -- Kidsilk Haze by Rowan; it was a bit of a bargain so I'm hoping that I can buy some more...I should be able to get three pairs of wrist warmers out of two balls of it.

I've already made some chocolate brown ones in the yarn and they are just sublime - really warm but feather light, only 7g each in weight!



I'm halfway through a pair in the same yarn but in a lovely blue marl, I may keep a pair of these for myself...

I was able to get the Kidsilk Haze in an oatmeal colour and black, aswell as the blue marl and chocolate brown! It's a nightmare to work with at first as it is SO fine, like thread, but once you get into it it isn't so bad.