WIP Wednesday 13.03.19

Current WIP count: 6

I’m fairly certain I could now crochet a Lego brick in my sleep.

Stacks of crochet lego bricks

This is 120 bricks. I created some wiggle room in the design so I either need 107 or 66 more to complete the blanket.

Once I get enough time (AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA ahem) I’m going to make a start on joining them together, because I just can’t do the production-line style of making things. I’m not quite sick of the sight of bricks yet, but I’m definitely getting twitchy – if I try forcing myself to make them all before starting to join them, then the whole project is going to end up abandoned in a corner for six years.

A snippet of the layout design

The good news is I’m now going to see my parents the weekend after my Dad’s birthday, and he doesn’t mind waiting so I can take the blanket with me instead of having to post it before his birthday. That gives me an extra 4 days! With my current track record of getting Royal Mail to deliver my parcels on time, it’ll probably get there faster if I take it myself anyway.

It’s quite strange being a monogamous crocheter for once. Don’t think I’ll take it up permanently. What’s everyone else working on? Have you got some variety in your makes this week? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

52 card pick up

For my birthday this year I received this cardmaking kit:

It was a very thoughtful present. I do love making cards and I got it in plenty of time to make them for this Christmas.

But.

I didn’t really like it.

My aesthetic is vivid colours, simple lines, and minimalist embellishments.

But this kit has busy, busy papers in quite muted colours, and the embellishments contain possibly my least favourite thing ever: cutesy vintage.

No judgement, I know there are people in the world who find these adorable. I’m just not one of them.

Now, I’ve written before about Jess Crafts videos where she uses one paper pad to make lots of cards. Example here. After watching a few of those I had the thought that if I whack out cards like that, I can use up the kit and maybe sell the end results. Because it’s a birthday present so I can’t just give it away unused.

So I chopped all the papers into backgrounds, squares, and strips

Then went to it, churning out cards like I never have before. It’s quite freeing having all those pieces ready to assemble, and not having to think and plan a unique card every time. And it turns out I actually quite like some of them!

Another life lesson for me; don’t dismiss something outright just because you don’t like some aspects of it.

Hannah

xXx

WIP Wednesday 01.11.17

White rabbits!

Current WIP count: 4

My parents came to visit last week and, as usual, Mum brought me lots of goodies. One of which was a skein of the utterly to-die-for gorgeous Lion Brand Landscape, in the Apple Orchard colourway.

It’s even more beautiful in real life.

Of course every single other project was dropped immediately so I could play with my new pretty. I’ve been thinking about hats recently (yes, waffle hat, I see you looking at me) so I decided to make one.

The colours are such a feature that I went for a really basic pattern so it wouldn’t take away from them; just your standard double crochet in the round.

But I seem to have caught the fiddle bug and I couldn’t just leave it at that. First of all I tried alternating front and back post to make a kind of ribbing, but I didn’t like that so I frogged it. It needed some kind of transition from the main bit to the ribbing.

I’m tired so I got halfway through a round of front post dc before realising that made the step down on the inside of the hat. I frogged it.

Then I tried a round of back post, but I didn’t like that so I frogged it.

Now I’m having a go at back loop only dc, as a less severe step down to the ribbing part, and we shall see how this goes. At some point soon I’m going to have to make a decision and stick with it because this yarn does not like being frogged. If I don’t go slowly slowly it catches on itself and fuzzes up and just generally won’t play nice.

But I forgive it. I’d forgive a lot worse for these colours.

What’s everyone else working on this week? Got any new beautiful yarn to squee over? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx

Logo time!

It has taken me six months and four attempts, but my wee shop finally has a logo!

I’m so happy with it!! I love that it’s tag-shaped so I could use it to tag up my items when I finally make enough stock to do a stall.

There’s also a banner, which I can use on my facebook page as well as Etsy.

These lovelies were designed by Louise of Designed By Lulu, who I found through a facebook makers group I’m part of.

After the faff of previous attempts to get a logo I was a bit wary of the whole thing, but Louise is just a lovely person and she’s really, really good at this. The whole thing from first contact to receiving my files took less than a week, and it would have been shorter if I hadn’t been rushed off my feet and had answered her questions straight away.

So if you need a logo at any point, I highly recommend Designed By Lulu.

So what do you think? Isn’t my logo fabby! Let me know what you think 🙂

Hannah

xXx

A cure for insomnia

I’m not a brilliant sleeper. It usually takes me over an hour and 15 different positions before I finally get to sleep, and the slightest noise can have me wide awake in a second. But generally I still manage to get the 7.5 hours sleep I need to not bite everyone’s head off the next day.

Then there are the nights like last night. 2:00am was the last time I checked the clock, and then I stopped looking.

You may as well do something useful while you’re not sleeping, right? My initial plan was to get my existing cards listed, but as you can see from these photos the light was not even close to good enough for photographing stock.  Maybe I should invest in some spotlights for next time insomnia hits!

Emma from Puddleside Musings introduced me to Jess Crafts and her “1 paper pack, x cards” youtube videos (go check them out, she got 27 cards out of one paper pack!), and that was my inspiration.

Obviously I didn’t make it to 27 cards, but then I don’t like making multiples of the same design so it took me a little longer.

This one if my favourite of the batch:

I also made these three earlier in the day

 

 

Including previous makes (the butterfly cards), that’s 11 I’ve made from this pack so far and I’m nowhere near finished. I’m enjoying the challenge of using the same elements in different ways.

What do you think of the cards? Not bad for a sleep-deprived and cranky crafter, right! What’s the highest number of cards you’ve managed to make from one paper pack? Let me know in the comments!

Hannah

xXx