September - part three

I only have eight more working days left on the ferry now; it's kind of frightening how quickly the season has passed this year - we've been so lucky with the weather though so I can't complain -- here it is, the 23rd of September already and the weather is still glorious. It makes my day-job so much easier :)

Our season finishes on the 5th October this year but I will be working my last shift on the Friday, so I just have four more mornings and then four more evenings to work out and then that's it for yet another year.

I'm going to miss moments like this - you really need to click on the individual photos to see just how glorious it really is and even then photographs don't do it justice.

I've got these wrist warmers listed recently in my Etsy shop - the pink ones at the top are made using some more of my Raindrops yarn and the pink ones at the bottom are made using the utterly gorgeous 'Botany Lace' by Araucania which I won in the Lighthouse Yarns' competition in the summer.

I have so much wool in my boxes that it can take me quite a while to get around to using it up; as usual I'm trying hard to not buy any more at the moment but we will be going over to England some time next month and I just know I will be visiting a couple of wool shops while we're over there....

This is what I'm working on at the moment

 aren't they just so special? it's my first time using this yarn - it's ''Invicta Colour'' by Scheepjeswol (a Dutch company) - it's definitely one I will be buying again (and I want to check out the other colours), these rainbow colours are just fantastic.

 I've got my model head back from the Sea Synergy centre in the village (Lucy has a craft shop as well as her great exhibition on all things marine) so I have been also making hats to have in stock for my Etsy shop and any craft fairs I'll be attending before Christmas.

I was delighted to be able to get some more of this gorgeous blue for another slouchy hat -- the yarn has been discontinued so I've tried to stock up on it whenever I can but it looks like this blue one (above) will be the last one I'll be making in this shade as the yarn is getting harder and harder to find.

This grey hat was one I made as a custom order for a lady in England who has already bought two hats from me! I really like how it turned out, it was my first time using double knitting to make a hat and I'm very happy with it. I have enough of the yarn left over to make another couple of these (or maybe one hat and a pair of wrist warmers...) when I get around to it.

I thought I'd finish with a photo from yesterday; it pretty much sums up this time of year for me -- I was on the way home from the beach (with my crochet - I'd brought the rainbow crocodile stitch ones with me) and while walking home I started collecting gorgeous plump, ripe blackberries. 

Wrist Warmers and a New Arrival!

Things have slackened off a bit at work now so I'm finding that I have more time & energy for my Etsy shop and crochet again - my poor shop has been very neglected in the last couple of months but hopefully things will take off for me again.

Lately I've been making wrist warmers - they remain my favourite things to make, either plain ones in single crochet, or the fancier version in crocodile stitch..

these last ones are made with more of the yarn I bought from Raindrop Yarns (see my previous post from this month) - they are 100% merino wool and hand-dyed. I love those colours together and really like how they came out in stripes like that, so that they gently spiral around the hand.

I'm in the middle of using the pink/purple aran from Raindrops yarn - making another pair of wrist warmers (see, they really are my favourites to make!) and then after that I have a grey hat to make but I'm full of cold at the moment and can't concentrate properly...

So you've seen the 'wristwarmers' part of this blog post's title - how about the 'new arrival' part?

Well, we hadn't intended in taking in any more pets for quite a while but I had a phone call from someone who was looking urgently for a foster home for their kitten so lo and behold we have taken in little Friday rather than see her roaming the dark, lonely streets of Knightstown ;)

She is totally cute and very friendly - we've only had her for a couple of days but she has settled in very well. It's going to take a while before she is on friendly terms with all four of our other cats but already she is quite pally with Oscar and they were chasing each other around the house earlier this morning.

Raindrop Yarns and Wrist Warmers :)

Back at the start of July I purchased these lovelies from a fellow Etsyian raindrop yarns - I thought I'd write a blog post about them as they really impressed me :)

So far I've only used the 4-ply sparkle yarn (to the right of the photo above) but the others are great quality and fab colours too; I just may have too much wool in my boxes at the moment so it's taking me a long time to get around to using it all up *blush*

I don't really know why but I love getting yarns that are wound in a skein, I have to dust off my skein unwinder and ball winder and make it all into a lovely fat ball of yarn myself.

 This is my crochet spot in our garden - we bought ourselves a lovely comfy swing-seat this summer and it is just the best place for crocheting :)

...but as always my crochet comes pretty much everywhere with me --- I did most of the work on these sparkly wrist warmers either in our garden or down on the beach :)

and here are the finished wrist warmers

One of the hardest things for me with my Etsy shop is actually writing the listings and trying to find the right tags and search terms for my items - it's the ones side to my shop that I don't really enjoy but you have to do it otherwise people won't be able to find your items!

wrist warmer listing -- I listed these ones on the 18th August and they sold just last night -- they are all packaged up and going to Norway later today. This was my first ever sale to someone in Norway so that's another sticker to go on my world map of sales :)

I know I have a tonne of yarns already in my boxes (I have seven great big plastic boxes full, sigh) but I would definitely order with Raindrop Yarns again  - I wish I'd ordered more of her 4-ply yarn rather than just the one skein, but it'll give me an excuse to go back and do some more online shopping...