Wednesday WIPs is taking a backseat today for two reasons: I’ve way too many WIPs, but I have a lot of finished projects I want to show off. It doesn’t help much that I’ve been gone for so long. What with two trips in two months under my belt, who has time to write. Additionally, I’m still publishing two newsletters a month for The Yarn Store at Nob Hill, teaching classes, and now getting ready for craft fair season.
One project that took quite a bit of time and effort was getting a teaching plan and patterns ready for a project for The Yarn Store (TYS). The store wanted to reach out to the university crowd by offering kits at a reasonable price. The kits are for either crochet or knit and include how-to instructions for beginners, five patterns, yarn and tools in a pouch plus lessons with an instructor. Another woman did the knit portion, and I did the crochet portion. I wrote three original patterns, a photo-tutorial on a granny square scarf in chart form, and an adaptation of the Amazing Grace headband. Since starting this blog, I’ve been updating my color scheme in my patterns, so you’ll notice that they coordinate well with the blog. I also like the bi-fold style layout which looks like this:
I had to put the watermark on them because they are for sale on Ravelry and in TYS kits. Here is what the others look like.
Remember, these are patterns for beginners and in addition to basic stitches, there are instructions for adding a fringe, making tassels, seaming, changing colors, and so on. The tutorial is several pages on learning to follow a charted pattern. I draw my own charts and take my own photos. This way, I can break the charts down into steps and add corresponding photos.
Whew, glad that project is out of the way! On to more fun stuff. Did I tell you about the two orders I got for stitch markers? One was from a shop in New Braunfels, Texas — The Lucky Ewe — and she ordered two dozen sets. Woo Hoo! I made a cute display card just for her shop. Then, TYS here in Albuquerque which has been letting me sell my markers on consignment also ordered two dozen sets. Woo Hoo Hoo! The hang cards are laminated with heavy paper so they are very sturdy.
I finished another All Shawl from Doris Chan — that makes at least five that I’ve made from that pattern. Moogly has a new pattern called Tuscan Sun Wrap, and I used it to make a gift for someone in blues, purples, and reds. I called it Tuscan Dusk. I don’t have a very good photo of it. It is 62″ x 20″, so it is a nice size.
Lastly, I’ve had some requests for fingerless mitts, and I discovered this cute pattern, Cable Wrist Warmer. It’s a nice design and easy to make, but the pattern lacks some editing. Makes me want to design my own…
Besides crochet, I’ve been making a lot of the wrap bracelets in anticipation of craft fair season. They are very satisfying for me to make, and I enjoy working with the different beads. Additionally, I’ve been macrame-ing some bracelets using the nylon cord. Here is a multi-strand one that I made, but I also make a lot of single strand ones. You might recognize some of the wrap bracelets from a previous post, but many of them are new as I’ve sold some of the earlier ones already. This is a sampling.
Well, I’ve let my tea get cold. Hopefully, next time I can show you more finished projects, but I’m not sure that I’ll have time to get very far on them, what with family coming for Thanksgiving, then more craft shows, etc. I hope you have a happy holiday.
Fruit of These Hands 