PROJECT OF THE WEEK DELAYED

Hello yarnies, crafters, hookers and all I apologize that there will not be a project if the week this week. Here's the thing in less than 10 days I have a weekend long spring festival so I plan to work for the next 9 ish days on building up some stock. I do have a new project this week but what I figured would work best is to post a little late. So I'm thinking of posting on Sunday or Monday and combining the two weeks so that I can concentrate on stock building. I'm getting a bit nervous about the amount of things I'll have available. I'm so incredibly excited too. I cant wait to share with you the project I'm working on. I'm hoping it will be a bug seller. It is a very 'green' item so I think it will be a big hit. So I hope you all tune in this weekend to check it out. And I promise out regular schedule will resume after the Festival weekend. I thank you all for hanging in there with me and for all your support and understanding.

As always I welcome and appreciate all comments. If anyone has any tips on decorating my booth and or selling tips I greatly appreciate those as well.

Happy Hooking!
~ Katie ~

Sunday....Sunday.....TWD Day!!!

So....its been a busy weekend in my little corner of the world. The hubs' birthday was today. Yay Happy Birthday Hubs!! Yesterday we went to my sisters for dinner and cake. Today I spent the day cleaning and I made him a cake for the children and I to share with him as some of the children were unable to make it yesterday. Yes we actually had half the amount of children in the house this weekend. And it was so peaceful. Three of the 6 minions that we claim to be ours (hehehe) were away since Friday evening. 

I tried to start cleaning and re-organizing my craft room today.....didn't get too far. So this week I am really going to try to get it done. I've been lazy this winter and just basically thrown my yarn back into any old spot rather than the color coordinated spots they belong. I've begun to separate all my cotton yarn.....holy crap do I have a lot of cotton yarn.....but ya know one can never have too much yarn really. ;) 

Since I didnt really have a lot of time to commit this weekend to beginning my weekly project I have started to redo my cotton yarn balls. Until a short time ago I would just wind the yarn into a ball. Well I have since learned to 'yarn cake'. Upon going through and separating all my cotton yarn I have discovered that I had a lot of balls of cotton yarn that need to be caked. So in between sweeping and mopping the floors, baking a birthday cake, several loads of laundry, watching our favorite weekly show The Walking Dead (actually during that) I would make a quick 'yarn cake'.

As you can see I still have a ways to go before I'm done but I'm making progress. Something is better than nothing right. 

I hope everyone had a great weekend. The weather was pretty decent her in New England. I hear we are supposed to get a storm this week though. Yikes!! I really am ready for spring. I think we all miss the sun more than we realized. 

Well friends its late and its quiet here in my abode so I'm going to put a movie on Netflix and do some yarn caking. ;) 

I wish you all a happy Monday. Dont forget to come back on Thursday and see The Project of the Week. 

Til then ..... Happy Hooking!! 

Kate 

Project Of The Week

Yay!! Finally its Thursday and I get to tell you all about the weekly project.

As I've mentioned I'm preparing for a Spring Fair coming up in May so I have been looking for projects related to warm weather and/or household use items. 

So you can imagine my excitement when I came across a pattern from https://www.etsy.com/shop/gammyshouse. 

                                                        Its called Tawashi!!

Basically its a glass/cup scrubber similar to a bottle brush. Its genius. I've made several this week. This pattern works up pretty quickly so I've pretty much completed one a night. I know I could do more in a day but its been a busy week so I set my goal at one per night. So are you ready? 

 Here they are. You simply put them on a wooden spoon, or in this case plastic since that was all I could find on short notice. Its brilliant!! You can take them off easily enough and through them in the washer machine every so often. You can slide them off after use to help it dry. Its 100% cotton using Sugar N' Cream cotton yarn. I've got tons of colors. On my hook right now is a nice orange/pink called Candy Colors.

I am stoked with this find. I had some good guesses from the sneak peeks though. Someone said a bunting (which gave me a great idea *insert evil grin*) another said a bath pouf (which I do currently have for sale in the Etsy Shop).

Now on to next weeks project....I'm probably way more excited than I should be about these weekly projects but to be honest thats what is giving me the motivation and focus to stay organized and build my dream business. I know it isnt going to happen overnight and I think I'm ok with that (or I'm learning to be). But I have to start somewhere. So here I am at the starting line. Thanks for taking the journey with me friends.

I hope you have enjoyed the Project of the Week.......Tawashi. *ta washi your glass* :) 

I look forward to reading your comments below. And hearing about your successes and even your failures (we all fail sometimes, trick is to get back up and try again). Let me know when you try this pattern if you loved it as much as I did. 

Stay tuned to see next weeks: Project of the Week

                                                 So until next time......

                                                         Happy Hooking!! 

                                                                   Kate 

I'VE GOT EXCITING NEWS!!!

Ok so I know its not Thursday yet but EEEPPPP!! Its been a crazy busy week leading up to the HUMP of Wednesday.

So first of all take a look to the <<== LEFT and see my new addition......my Etsy shop is officially Open For   Business!!  I am so happy. Please go take a look. I will be working on more product placement but for now I'm OPEN. Phew. 

Second......I've been asked to showcase my shop at The Washington County Fair.                                                                                        http://www.washingtoncountyfair-ri.com/
I realize for many of you that means nothing....but to me it means so much. That is the county I grew up in and that is the annual fair that I, along with just about everyone I knew, looked forward to and attended each year. Every night there is usually a very well known country artist singing. There are truck pulls and tractor pulls. There are livestock competitions. There is great food made by local restaurants and people. There are rides and games for all. There are so many vendors, all of whom are creators. Handmade everything. Wood carvers, jewelry makers, tshirts, every kind of craft you can think of. Its an awesome place and I feel so incredibly blessed to have a spot. If I could say that any one place or experience ever made me want to have my own shop and create my own things this would be it. I have spent many hours of my life walking around this fair admiring the skill and talent people possess and learning that yes it takes guts to put yourself out there through your creations but the reward of having people admire your work is worth it.

Its been a rough year for the Mr. and I financially but I am finally starting to feel like something good is happening and our lives can begin to move forward again. My business will grow. It has to start somewhere.

I must create a system or be enslaved by another mans; I will not reason and compare: my business is to create.

William Blake 

Until tomorrow Happy Creating! 

Kate

I know I'm The Worst......

Ok...ok so I know I keep dropping the 'yarn' ball on this one but darn its so hard to organize my life and thoughts. Ok I have added BLOG to every Thursday of my calendar. My aim is to have a new project in the works or finished to showcase and discuss. I have my project list on the wall right in front of me to keep me focused.

So right now I am working on product building and spring/summer type projects. As I mentioned before my friend Deb and I have gotten together and attended a few booth sales during the holiday season and it was fun and fairly profitable. I know in time as we become more involved and get a better network going we can make a pretty decent profit for our businesses. I have recently acquired my Permit to Make Sales at Retail. YAY!! And we have a three day fair coming up in May. So I have been feverishly working on some things. This week I've been building up some baby sets. Hats, Booties and Thumb less Mittens. The way I figure it... its been a long cold winter. I'm willing to bet there's going to be a good size baby boom at the end of the summer. :)

Here are the links for the patterns I used for these baby sets. :)

One Piece Wonder Bootie http://cats-rockin-crochet.blogspot.com/2011/05/cats-one-piece-wonder-bootie-pattern.html

Thumbless Baby Mittens http://www.crochethooksyou.com/thumbless-crochet-baby-mittens-pattern/

Basic Beanie - I used the preemie size for these sets as I was thinking of newborns not toddlers. http://thefrugalfreegal.com/free-basic-baby-beanies-crochet-pattern/

 So I was also asked recently by my bestie who absolutely loves the show Firefly if I could make her a Jayne Hat. So here it is. Along with a pair of long finger-less gloves. :) She was thrilled with the hat and I hope she will love the gloves. This was a fun hat to make. :) I love being challenged. I've yet to watch the show but I saw the clip that goes with this hat. There are not many patterns available for this particular piece so I kind of had to just take bits and bobs from a few different ones. This hat was knitted by the way. The gloves were crocheted.

Now as I mentioned the Jayne hat I kind of just put together myself using a basic hat on my 36 peg loom. The earflaps part I used from a pattern that I found here http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/my-jayne-hat. There is a section labeled ear flaps. The main reason I didnt use the whole pattern is because I am new to knitting and do not have the correct size circular needles called for in this pattern and I seriously couldnt figure it out anyhow. I got the pattern for the fingerless gloves by watching this tutorial https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCoQtwIwAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dp9UnIWqAZnM&ei=MNAjU6rrIK3K0AHz5oDIBg&usg=AFQjCNExxyMloqOZF7fvroayzK_D_bYRJA&sig2=lxz7_o9PevYQpC8R0DN6jQ now mind you about 1/4 of the way through this kind of long and slow (but very well done) tutorial I just basically figured it out and kept going with the super easy pattern. My friend specifically requested the non-thumb-hugger because she is a gamer and likes to have her thumb and fingers free. This tutorial includes the thumb hugger addition. Kind of nice to know for future reference.

                                                                                                                                      

 OK so I'm hoping to have my Etsy shop open by the end of next week. My bestie is coming over to take pics of me. YIKES!!! She will be helping me with my product descriptions and shop story as well. She is a magician with words and sadly I am not. I can make the pieces but ask me to write about them or myself ..... forget it. Writing was never my strong suit. So being the super awesome person she is she has agreed to help me out. I just love her. :)

So that's it for tonight. Stay tuned to see whats on my hook next week. And as always feel free to share whats on your hook. 

Happy Hooking !! 

Katie