Still keeping warm!

 Yes, I'm still making hot water bottle covers! I have three of them listed in my Etsy shop and am in the middle of making another one, which is similar to the dark blue one below.

I love the ''popcorn'' stitch and it gives the hottie a great texture and is fab for keeping in the heat over a long period of time.

I'm still really hoping that they will be a good seller for me at craft markets etc. The Portmagee market is starting up on the 1st July - I'll be able to make the first two weeks of it as it falls on my days off work; I'm not sure what I'll do after then..in previous years I've still gone in in the morning when I've been on work in the afternoon, but it's a bit of a rush...

Barbara the artist is getting ready for her summer retreat on Valentia so she's been in touch about her hat order -- it's still 11 hats but the ratio of men:women has changed so I've had to unpick a couple of the beanie hats and re-make them as women's ones instead; no bother for me one way or the other. I'm thrilled that she's chosen me again (for the third year in a row) to make the wooly hats for her artists in residence) - I think this year's version is my favourite yet.

Keeping Warm

 A friend from Valentia asked if I would make her a couple of hot water bottle covers recently; I've made a few of them in the past but thought I'd try a different pattern this time. My latest copy of 'Simply Crochet' magazine had a popcorn stitch pattern so I decided to use that -- a hot water bottle cover needs to be quite thick/textured to help keep the heat in.

 I made the front with popcorn stitch and then did the back just in plain single crochet.

 The case is fastened by two buttons.


This is the second one, which I have just finished now. I am really happy with how they both have turned out and they are something that I hope will sell well for me at craft fairs or the markets in the run up to Christmas?

It's a pattern that I made up as I went along - I really like to make my own patterns best of all; I have written it all down though (this is very unlike me!) so that I can make others in the future and not have to trawl back through my photographs to try and work the pattern backwards.

I'm back at work (finally) on the ferry now so apologies for not keeping my blog up to date!

I've finished my bulk order for hats for my friend Barbara's artists' retreat later this month - 11 hats in total!

I'm really happy with how they turned out - I love the flower-hat design, it's one I created for an Etsy customer called Kim originally, so they are still called the 'Kim Hat' :)

I bought the great big 2kg cone of Donegal tweed wool from Springwools again, and still have enough left for a few more hats -- I'm going to take a bit of a rest from this colour though, after 11 hats I needed a change!

 So when I was looking for some 'colour' I remembered this 'art yarn' by Katia, which I had bought when we were in England earlier this year! The colours are so bright and so varied..it was just so much fun to work with.

 Then, for another change, I made some bath/shower puffs! A friend had sent me the link for a free pattern for them a while ago and I'd thought it would be something novel to make -- I've made a total of four of them so far but have only sold one (which is a bit disappointing) but hopefully sales will improve coming up to Christmas.

 And finally, yet more hats! The top has sold already :) I made a matching one for myself - I'd bought two balls of this yarn when we were in Germany and have since fallen in love with it.

I was looking online for a stockist who would sell over the internet and found one in Germany that offered free postage on orders over €99 -- so I ended up spending even more. This lot will keep me busy for quite a while.

 They even sent me a free pattern book :)