Selkie's Crochet

Meet Marina! Yes, she's the twin sister to my Ondine - I decided in the end to go with a blonde wig for her -- a friend on Facebook had suggested it so that people who were blonde/brunette would be able to see how the hats would look on them when they are viewing my listings online. I thought it was a good idea and hopefully from now on (well, after Christmas, when things are a bit quieter) my hat listings will feature photos of both my models.

The head models work out quite expensive really, when you take into account the postage and then the price of the wig (and then the postage for that too!) but they will be with me for a long time to come and hopefully they will bring about an increase in my sales of hats. I'm thinking that in the Summer months, one of them can stay in Lucy's shop in the village to display my hats there, and then I have the other one for my Summer craft markets or for when I've got new hats/headbands to get listed on Etsy.

She had her first outing last weekend - it was my first craft market of the 'Christmas season' and I'm happy that it was a big success. The season kicked off with the market in Portmagee, then this Saturday I've got the fair at the Tech just down the road and then after that I'm half-thinking about going to one of the ones in Cahirciveen, if I can sort a table out...I'm giving the one at Foilmore a miss this year as it's on this Sunday and one a weekend is really enough (added to the fact that de-activating my online shop repeatedly affects my views/sales on there)

I'm really looking forward to the fair on Saturday, it really is my favourite one of the whole year - I must remember to take photos this time (I always forget). I'm really hoping it'll be a success for me, it's usually my best one of the year but of course that can change...you can't ever take anything for granted.

We're just back from our annual trip over to England - since I started my job on the ferry we always have to wait for the winter before we can make a trip together. This year we had a night in Cardiff on the way to the Midlands, and then went from Kidderminster on to the south coast - visiting Peter's sister Sue in Seaford, a day trip to Brighton and then on to Portsmouth to visit my sister Barbara and her family.

As you can see, I did visit a couple of wool shops! I needed to buy the plain brown wool for a custom order and also have had a request for 'forest green' wrist warmers so I needed to buy the wool for them too. The wool shop in Kidderminster didn't seem quite as well-stocked as it usually was, I hope it isn't a sign of it going downhill; but I ''only'' spent £50something there instead of easily double that. We also went to the haberdashery department of John Lewis in Birmingham (which is where I bought most of the wool in the photo above - they had LOVELY Rowan stuff) - they didn't have a great selection but it was all lovely quality.

 ...and then I had a visit to Paperchase... It's always a 'dangerous' (i.e. pricey) shop to visit - I'd already told myself not to spend too much on writing paper etc in there, but then I fell in love with all of these. I always put in a little thank you note or card with every purchase from my Etsy shop, so I WILL get them all used up: it'll just take me a while!


This is the Rowan merino wool that I'd bought in John Lewis in Birmingham; I'd had a request from a past customer on Etsy to make a 'chocolate brown' hat for her friend. She wanted the same hat design/style as the ''artists' hats'' from this year (the same as the one I'd originally made for Kim)...

 ...so with a little tweaking of the pattern I'd originally jotted down this is what I came up with :)

 I'm really pleased with how it worked out and I hope my customer will be too. It's a great deep chocolate shade, it reminds me of Bournville chocolate...yum!