I often intend to write in here about life outside of my crochet but I usually get distracted or forget - but yes, there is more to me than just crochet and lovely wool.

So here's a post about my beach combing/beach cleaning efforts! I first started beach cleaning when I was sixteen or seventeen - it's kind of strange, nearly thirty years later to be still trying to keep the same beaches clean -- if anything, things are worse now than ever before. We live in such a throw-away society...

These are photos from my latest trip to try and 'do my bit' - it's a little tiny beach near Scarriff that I only get to go to a few times a year as it's down a really bendy road and is quite far from our house -- there is so much rubbish on the more local beaches so I try to concentrate on them rather than spread myself too thinly.

 As you can see, it's a really scenic spot - every time I go I tell myself that I will stay longer the next time - and that Peter and I should go there with a picnic some day in the Summer (if we ever have picnic weather)


But the flip-side of the beauty is the ugliness of the rubbish that washes in on the tide -- I am always dismayed whenever I find syringes washing in; but I am glad that I am able to remove them at least. This one still had the needle attached (sheathed in the orange plastic section)

 I only had one rubbish bag with me so I filled it up with just two types of rubbish - I find it easier to sometimes just pick up, say, polystyrene and rope, when there's a load of rubbish - that way I feel like I'm making SOME impact instead of just scratching the surface.

All of these bottles have come across from Canada or America on the tide - the Coke can is marked as coming from a factory in Nigeria...but the others are mostly Gatorade/Powerade bottles. I think it must be the most popular drink in Northern America??  There's also a bottle of suncream from Walgreen's (US pharmacy) and a little bottle of 'Advil' from Canada.

 Marine litter is truly a global issue :(

 The other main kind of rubbish that I filled my bag with are these foam strips -- they are used in longline fishing and wash up so frequently here. They would originally be studded with hooks (you can make out the little holes in the foam pieces) but I've yet to find one that still has the hooks attached.

 I decided at the start of the year that I would keep a record of all the balloons that I find on my beach trips - so this is what I've collected so far this year. It's too many! I love balloons but hate to see them being released...they end up as lethal litter to many different kinds of wildlife.

 I thought I'd try to finish this update on a positive note....I'm so delighted that more people locally here in Waterville are doing their bit too...I went on a walk along my most local beach recently and only managed to pick up half a bag's worth of rubbish along a long stretch of the beach!

This is how it SHOULD be!!

The bonus of beach cleaning for me is sometimes those little finds that make you smile - like this <3 bladder...="" br="" seaweed="" shaped="">

...or a different type of heart: and real beach combing treasure! A seed from a tropical vine in Central/Southern America - this is called a sea heart and is very special. 

...or a piece of coral which I found on a bigger piece of polystyrene! This has come in on the tide but originated from somewhere along the American coast (between Mexico and Rhode Island)  and is something really special. It's only the second specimen ever to have been recorded as found in NW Europe (the other was found on a beach in Holland) I've sent it off to the Natural History Museum in Dublin...I like to think that there is a little corner or drawer up there that is filled with treasures that I've donated (various shells, sea beans etc that I've found here that have drifted across the Atlantic) :)  

Helter Skelter

So this is the wool I was sent by Cygnet yarns - every month they are running a competition on facebook, where the selected knitters/crocheters get sent wool and have to come up with a project with just one ball of it.

I was selected for next month's competition and was kind of hoping that I'd be sent sock yarn or something relatively fine - but I got chunky! I do tend to prefer thinner yarns so this was a step outside my real comfort zone...but sometimes that can be a good thing.

Each ball is just 100g so it didn't give me THAT much to work with -- crochet uses up more wool than knitting (so they say) so I opted for making a ribbed headband with a funky applique flower added.

This is me trying to work out a design that would work - I managed to make my headband with just a smidge of the yarn left; I made two of them (they sent me two balls of the yarn) and I had wool leftover in both cases.

I have so many 'yarn books' now and whenever I try and new yarn (like this one!) I write down the details in one of my books, including what hook I used, what shade etc. It makes things LOTS easier in the future, if I'm trying to track down a yarn that I used for a specific pair of wristwarmers or whatever.

This is one of my most favourite flowers to make but it uses up a TONNE of yarn! It gives a really lovely texture to a hat or headband though. I make it in two layers and then you sew the layers together to 'stack' the flower up.

And here's the finished headband :)

I'm not expecting to win the vote in the competition (you win 10 balls of your choice from Cygnet's range -- I'd LOVE to win) but I'm quite happy with how my headband turned out. 

Wool Orders and Nice Post

 I always feel like I really should apologise when I buy more wool: I have SO much already in my boxes and cupboard, but invariably whenever someone asks me to make them something in a specific colour or yarn it's the one that I don't have 'in stock' so I go online in search of it....

A lady on facebook was in touch with me about making a few pairs of wrist warmers for her again and a shower mitt too - of course when I need to get several different yarns it can be hard to find a single website that sells them all. But I was able to buy this King Cole 'Drifter' and this Cygnet 'Boho Spirit' from the one site - my first time buying from Sconch.

I had to buy the cotton from another site - Love Knitting - as it's been discontinued now and is getting more and more difficult to get hold of. I did a bit of a stock up on this cotton as I'd had an email from Jaye (my lovely repeat customer in the UK) asking about maybe making shower puffs in this cotton.

and then finally, I bought these lovely Langs from Springwools - again, it's a discontinued yarn but they seem to have a large stock of it as I've been able to order it twice in the last year or so. Colette wanted a hat to co-ordinate with her wrist warmers (also made in Lang) so I ordered in enough for a couple of hats...and then I wasn't sure of the exact shade # that I'd used (the Springwools site isn't great really for showing swatches of the different shades) so I ordered a couple of different shades.

But look! I didn't order this wool!!! I joined the facebook 'Cygnet Yarnstars' group recently and was selected for their monthly competition for next month...they send you some wool and you get to come up with a pattern using just one ball of it. They send you two balls so that you can have a practice one to start with and then make up the proper item you want to use for the competition.

I'd never seen vacuum packed wool before! It is so clever - it comes flat, like a letter; the only down side is the use of plastic in the packaging I guess, but I will reuse the bag.

I'll do a separate blog post about what I made out of the wool so watch this space....

And finally...some more lovely post! I ordered this hand-painted plate just before Christmas and it arrived recently :) I have quite a big collection of mermaid art, but it's difficult to get hold of selkies! I think it's beautiful; Peter has hung it up on the wall in our conservatory.

Wool Hats

 I've finished up using my little stock of Lopi! 

I'm going to keep this one for myself as I love purple and am keen on that shade of blue too - I don't actually own many hats (this will be my third one) but I do find them handy for when I'm beach combing or working on the ferry.

The two below are up for sale - I must get them listed in my Etsy shop presently.

They are great warm winter hats so I hope they will find a good home :) I feel a bit sad now that my lopi is all gone - it had been living on the top shelf of my wool cupboard since we got back from our holiday (almost two years ago now!) but I'm glad I've made the decision to keep one of these hats myself :)

I just placed a repeat order with Moo for more of my little business cards - I don't actually really hand them out as business cards but I do attach them to pretty much everything that I sell. They had a special offer where you get free postage, so I took advantage of that and purchased 200 of these little cards. It's a lot of cards but I will get through them over time...

I'd a message from a friend about making a replacement hat for them (people seem to lose hats a lot - I know even I did - I still haven't forgiven myself for leaving my favourite one on a bus in Iceland) so I was rummaging through my wool cupboard. Of course I don't have the 'right' wool so I'll be making a small order soon but I did rediscover my Lopi wool from Iceland!

I'd only bought a few shades of it - it comes in every colour under the rainbow - and of course now I'm looking back and wishing I'd bought lots more. You can see more of the colours here... buying wool in Iceland

So anyway, I made this slouchy hat last night and really do like how it turned out. A friend is going to buy it from me already so at least I don't have to worry about taking all the photos for Etsy and having to write up a listing :)

Once I finished that one I started on this one straight away...

The blue is actually the thinner version of the Lopi wool so I'm using two strands of it at the same time - it seems to be slower to work up than the white and grey version, I guess because it's easier to see where the stitches are in a lighter shade?

The grey/white hat used up nearly 200g of wool so I will still have enough Icelandic wool left for a third hat once I've finished this one as I'd bought a paler shade of blue as well (see in my work basket below). There *might* be enough of all/some of the colours left to make a 4th hat out of the left overs - maybe a beanie one rather than a slouchy one but we'll see how it goes.

Oh and look at the little late Christmas present Peter had bought for me! A tiny little package from China came in the post the other day and P said that it was for me :) I've always wanted one of these pretty 'stork' scissors - and now I have my own pair!

Pink and Grey

 A few photos of what I've been making since the start of the New Year - I'm always making wrist warmers (years on and they still are my most favourite things to make)

and some plain grey tweedy ones...

 I've started working through the pink 'Freedom Spirit' dk wool - this pair was bought by one of my sisters (thank you Barbara) so I made another pair and I have sold those ones too (just today, to a lady on facebook)

I've started using some of the Tivoli yarn too - these always sold pretty well for me when I used to buy the wool before so I'm hopeful that they will be good 'sellers' again.

..I haven't made the hat in silvery grey and black just yet.

I'm thinking about putting pompoms on the hats to kind of finish them off; so if I go ahead with that I'll have to rephotograph them again.

New Beginnings and Old Favourites

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Last year was the first year since I started my selkiecrochet hobby where I've kept proper records of the money that I had earned and the money that I'd spent on all this. I'm happy to say that I ended the year with a profit - but it certainly isn't enough to live on so I think it is destined, for the time being, to continue to be a 'hobby'. My main priority is to be able to continue with both of my child sponsorships through ActionAid Ireland - I've been able to pay them both with a lump sum again this year.

Hopefully this year will be a better year for me as I will be selling locally in two locations - Lucy's sea synergy centre in the village again, and Daly's ice cream parlour on Valentia. Daly's were only open for a few weeks last year so hopefully I will have a longer season there this year and more sales.

I'm starting the new year with the intention to spend a little more time reading books and a little less time online - Facebook is an awful drain on my time sometimes, it's so easy to spend time keeping up with everyone else. I was lucky enough to get some new books for Christmas - and Dad has passed a couple that he liked on to me too - so I will start off with them and see where that takes me. I have so many books that I intend to re-read also.

One of my other intentions is the same old chestnut .... BUY LESS WOOL!!! It's funny then that all this turned up in the post this afternoon.

I'd already bought some of this 'Freedom Spirit' last year from a seller on Facebook - I think she used to own a wool shop and is working her way through the old stock and selling it off at very reasonable prices.

She only had this shade left - it wouldn't be my favourite but it looks really nice when it's worked up into wristwarmers so I bought up what she had left of it and will use it for that.

She posted on facebook in December that she had Tivoli's 'colour blend' aran up for sale too - this was one that I always liked for wrist warmers and hats and like the 'freedom spirit' it's been discontinued so I splashed out and bought all her stock of it. I'm not sure where I will put it all - I need to sort through my wool cupboard and boxes one of these days to fit it all in.

It's going to take me quite a while to work through it all but I know I will do eventually! It's a yarn that I used to use for both hats and wrist warmers so it'll be nice to be able to offer people 'matching sets'.

She only had three shades left in stock - they used to make it in black with red/navy blue/green and turquoise as well but I'm happy enough with what I've got :) 

Hopefully this will be the last time that I buy wool - unless I need it for a specific order - until we are on holiday in Poland in March!