ITS TIME FOR A SNEAKY PEEKY !!!!!

Ahh to first of all ..... I'm ready for spring!! My oldest keeps saying "I hear the birds chirping mom, that means its spring". Yea well that may be true but I just cant feel the excitement yet because I can still feel this winter weighing in heavy. 

But what does excite me is the Project of the Week I've been working on. This time there are actually a few items that make up the entire project. 

INTRIGUED??

Good, here are some sneaky peeks. C'mon I wanna hear *read* those guesses. 

Remember I said multiple items. 

 Please feel free to leave me some comments and don't forget to put a link to your blog so I can come and check it out. 

So tell me whats on your hooks or needles this week?? 

As always Happy Hooking!! 

~Katie~

“A loop after a loop. Hour after hour my madness becomes crochet. Life and art are inseparable.” – Olek

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 

Getting my crochet on

So a friend of mine and I had recently discussed doing craft shows together. So we have our first one this weekend. Both days, Saturday and Sunday. I am so excited. I've been working night and day to make as much of my items as possible. I've got 2 blankets to show and sell. I've got slouchy hats, beanie hats, ear/head bands, boot cuffs, bath cloths, Christmas stockings, ruffle scarves etc.  I hope I do well. I love making things like this and I'd love for people to wear them and appreciate them. Its so nice to have a hobby that you can share with others. I put together a pattern book. Basically its a 3-ring binder with page protectors and patterns i've done or really want to do. So I put some pics of actual pieces I've done in there too and I put a little price sticker on the top of the page. I've divided the patterns into categories and have a table of contents etc. I got a package of sales order slips also so I'm really hoping to get a few pre-orders also. That would be wonderful. My friend has lots of duck tape accessories that shes been working on as well as some other great crafts. I sure hope we do well. I know we've both worked hard preparing for it. I spent some time setting up a mock table here in the craft room to get a feel for how I'm going to display everything. I have 3 styrofoam mannequin heads to use as well. I think that gives a more professional look. I hope so anyway.

 Ok well I'm off to get some more products done. I am trying to cram in as much as I can. I've got to bang out a couple more women's beanie hats. I'm thinking of doing a couple pairs of basic fingerless gloves also. We'll see if I get to those this time around.
Happy Hooking!!

Relieved

So I'm very happy to report the move is 99.9% done. Of course there are the customary few boxes that have not been unpacked and are tucked neatly into a corner in the basement. But thats mostly because I dont have the same spaces as the old house so I dont know yet where those things will take up residency in the new house. My two favorite areas of the house seem to be the kitchen, which I keep rearranging things in and making everyone crazy *insert evil grin*, and the downstairs classroom/craft room, which I also keep rearranging things in and making myself crazy. :) I think the kids and I are settling in nicely to the new house and to the homeschooling adventure. I absolutely love that the stress the kids had experienced all last year has disappeared. I love being able to work with them individually as well. I think it really helps them relax and focus more. I love incorporating fun into my lessons. You not only learn better when your mind is free and relaxed you make tons of memories. I admit by the end of dinner time I am usually very frazzled. Bed time cant come soon enough for me most days :) But its worth it. At least I'm stressed because I'm spending time with my kids. I'm very grateful to have them and I am completely blessed. The day will come (sometimes not as fast as I wish) when they are all grown up and moved out and wont need mom anymore and I know that I will look back at these days and despite the stresses, my heart will swell with love and memories.

I've been working like crazy lately to set up spaces at the holiday bazaars and craft fairs for the season. I have been making beanies, slouchies, earbands, Christmas stockings, potholders, bath puffs etc like a machine to make sure I have some stock to bring with me. I've also been working on the online store at Storenvy (see button in upper left). Taking photos of everything and setting up product descriptions is actually pretty time consuming. But it is all well worth it. This has always been a dream of mine.

I need to start scheduling some serious blog time. I really have to just pick a day of the week and carve a block of time. Thats on my to-do list this week. I wonder what day most of you blog on. Do you choose one day and stick to it or do you just blog whenever the mood strikes? Help me out friends :)