April

Wow, well I'm back at work in my day job this Wednesday - another winter has flown by and it's back to 'normal' again soon. I'm going to find it hard to get used to getting up at the crack of dawn but I know once the alarm goes off on Wednesday morning that'll be it and I'll just click back into my old routine again.

It looks like I will be needing to buy a new camera soonish - my beloved Sony Cybershot is starting to play up; I love that camera so much: it goes everywhere with me. It has to be at least 7 years old now which I guess is good going for something like that nowadays? The problem is that the little 'doors' that cover the lens aren't working - they got stuck closed, but I managed to get them open --- only now they are stuck open and I'm sure the lens will soon get scratched or something.

It might be something that can be fixed, I'm not sure if it's because it has a tiny grain of sand stuck there or if it's something mechanical...fingers crossed it can be repared.

I know I'm going to have a really hard time trying to choose a replacement...I know I've always thought that the one thing I'd change about my camera is that I'd love it to have a better zoom, so this is something that I will be looking for in my new camera.

Anyway, on with the crochet...

I've been adding some new listings to my Etsy shop lately:

this cute bow hat -- I'd even forgotten I still had some of this wool in my boxes so I decided to use it up; I've sold a few of these hats in the past on Etsy or at craft fairs.

and this headband/earwarmers -- I've made a chunky scarf out of the cream wool and had just enough left for this headband.

I still have to list the scarf though! I made another one the same but in chunky green wool -- have to get photos taken of them both and get them both listed. It's a pain really when it's something that I have to get photographed when I'm wearing it - so much easier when I can just take the photos myself.

I had a message from a lady in England asking me if I could make her a hat in a dark grey yarn as she had recently lost her own grey hat and wanted a replacement. Of course I hadn't much of a clue as to what colours I had in my boxes...so after a lot of excavation I found two shades of grey and made two hats!

The top one is more of a slate grey with creamy white tweedy flecks and the other is a dark charcoal with browny flecks. It doesn't take too long to make a hat like this so I thought I'd make both up and give her a choice of the two and hoped that she'd like one but instead she bought BOTH! YAY!!

I still have enough of the charcoal yarn to make another one so I think I will make one to have listed in my shop -- sometimes I look at what I've got online and it all seems to either be blue or purple (my favourite colours I guess) - so a bit of variety would be a good idea.

I'm going to be kept busy for a while as I've had a 'wholesale' order for ten hats - the lovely Barbara asked me to make some last year for her art workshop and she's asked me to make a new batch for this year's one. I'm so excited (and super-appreciative of her thinking of me for this) but I think I have my work cut out for me -- look at the huge cone of wool that I ordered!

Yet again the wonderful Springwools sorted me out with this - it's a 2kg cone of the wool! I ordered it one day and it arrived the next day. It's wonderful stuff; 100% pure wool from the people at Studio Donegal - and is full of little tweedy flecks in all sorts of colours.

My order is for three beanie hats (for the gents) and seven slouchy hats (for the ladies) -- I made a start yesterday on one of the beanie hats but had to rip out the whole thing as it was coming up too small (thanks to using the wrong sized hook); it's frustrating but I want to do it properly and I learn from my mistakes!

Oh and some more good news -- I've donated €80 to the Vietnam gift fund thanks to all the sales of the greetings cards last month. BIG BIG thanks to everyone who bought them; the money is going to such a great cause. A lady from the ActionAid Irish group said that they are putting together a new brochure for people who are thinking about child sponsorship and that they will include a piece about how I raised this money through running this promotion in my  Etsy shop :) I'm thrilled! All my sponsorship money (the regular payment every month) actually comes out of my regular Etsy sales (or any local sales too) -- I really love that I am able to do something good with this money that I have earned through my craftiness.