Long time, no post

When I discovered it had been over a year since my last posting, I was surprised.  I knew I hadn't done anything since the summer but - wow.  That's too long!  I'll try to do better now.

I finished an afghan recently with a bit of a story behind it.  I bought the yarn several years ago when we were in Arizona.  I had wanted to do a 'picture' of a sheltie.  Unfortunately, I never could make that happen - too many problems with the math of translating the image from one size to another.  So I picked a cat design figuring most dog lovers are also cat lovers.  The afghan has 12 blocks like the one below.  After they're attached, there is a brown border.  I think it turned out fairly well all thing considered.  The afghan will be raffled off at the American Shetland Sheepdog Assn. national meeting/dog show in Orlando in early March.  I blocked the afghan yesterday and will have it trussed up and ready to ship.  I hope it raises a lot of money for sheltie rescue ;-)

Christmas is coming

I recently made up several scarves at the request of a shop owner.  Unfortunately, the shop is now out of business.  Before I list these on Etsy, I'd like to give you an opportunity to buy them.  I will offer 10% off the original price and shipping will be exactly what the USPO charges me - or those of you living near me, we'll work something out ;-)  I usually use PayPal but am open to other options. Remember that Indiana Sheltie Rescue receives a minimum of 20% of each sale.  You can see pictures of the scarves at AnnCrochets on Photobucket.   Thanks and happy shopping!

Aleutia's dress

This picture didn't come out very well - nothing new about that!  But it's Aleutia's dress-to-be.  Believe it or not, the colors are red, white and blue.  It measures about 9" from top to bottom.  I will take it along the next time I see her and decide where on the T-shirt to attach it.  It lays fairly flat right now but will (I hope) ripple gently when attached.  I'm not too impressed with the outcome and will probably tweak the pattern a lot.  But this was my first try for this kind of a project so I'll consider it a successsful experiment and a learning opportunity.

I see it's been a month since I was here last.  Times flies when you're having fun - or are just busy!  I continue to wonder how a retired couple can stay so busy.  I've finished up several crochet projects and am still working on getting them ready for Etsy.  (How I hate taking pictures!) 

Another project that has kept me busy is I found a shop in Lebanon where I now have things on consignment.  If you're in the neighborhood, check out Apron Strings.  It's on the east side of the square in Lebanon (Indiana).  I took several capes/stoles/shawls in in the middle of Sept.  The two women who run the shop each bought a stole and kept another one for the shop (which sold the first weekend there).  After talking over what they want, I made a scarf and stole and took them to the shop last week.  They also accepted some of the new things whose pictures I'd been agonizing over. I feel like I dodged a bullet by not having to list them on Etsy. Hopefully this will turn into another outlet for my crochet.

I finally got started on another project that's been patiently waiting for me.  I found a couple of T-shirts on sale and thought how cute they would look with ruffled skirts.  I'd been mulling over the project for a while and figuring out how I wanted to do it.  This weekend I started the actual crocheting.  The shirt will have 3 tiers and each will be a different color.  It's going slowly as I am having to figure out each step.  I'm also taking notes along the way so I can re-create it with another shirt later on.  Then there's the fact that I screwed it up and had to frog (rip it, rip it) it and start over when I was half done - bummer!  The first shirt is white and I'm using red, white and blue yarn.  I debated about the patriotic colors but tonight when I talked to Aleutia she was telling me about her new flag pin with an  American flag so I think I'm going to look real good when this is over ;0 ) 

If I get enough done, I'll add a picture of the dress/T-shirt so you can see what I'm talking about.

I didn't really forget.......

Since the stroke I seem to have ADD and have a lot of trouble sticking with things. I have so many things that slip through the cracks only to resurface eventually and require attention. It's quite frustrating! I am aware that I left some loose ends on previous postings and thought I'd rectify that.

About a year ago I said I would try to figure out how many hours went into a particular item - particularly as that related to the price I was asking for that piece. (Basically someone said my work was under-priced.) I kept track of the hours involved in a shawl. It got to be a royal pain and ultimately I quit counting. I can tell you that when I quit, the number of hours stood at 55 and the shawl was maybe 3/4 done. I can't remember exactly what minimum wage rate is, but assuming it is 7.15 an hour and that I worked 60 hours (a VERY minimal estimate), the price would be $429 and that doesn't include the price of the materials. Because most of my crocheting is done in conjunction with another activity - watching tv, riding in the car, etc. - I don't 'pay' myself even minimum wage. At one point I roughly estimated the hours involved in crocheting the blue bedspread that's currently on Etsy. I think I paid myself $5 an hour and the estimated price came up as $2200!!! With a price tag that big, I'm likely to die being the proud owner of that bedspread! So I start with the cost of the materials and then add enough to hopefully strike a happy medium between what I think it's worth and what I think people will be willing to pay for it. Most of my work involves large items and it's unrealistic to think I can equate the time spent on that to someone whipping out a scarf or two every evening. That might prove to earn $10 an hour. So I'll continue to crochet the items I like and then try to find someone else who likes the same thing. Hopefully I'll make a little money, the Shelties will make some money and I'll be satisfying the creative juices that flow in my veins and there will be customers out there who are happy with a handmade whatever!

My other dangling project was a 'new project' from June 2009. It was to be a round tablecloth. The thread was on a big cone that came without any labels for yardage, size, fiber content, etc. I really like the thread and enjoyed working with it. Not long Thanksgiving, I realized that the cone did not hold nearly enough thread to finish the piece. So I put it away for a while until I could decide that I wanted to do about/with it. Ultimately, I elected to unravel a couple of rows and then finish off the round of pineapples. It turned out to measure about 45" in diameter and I sold it a month or so ago.

So now you know what happened to those two things - I am sure you were all waiting ever so impatiently to know ;-)

My blue ribbon winner

This is a picture of the white shawl that earned a blue ribbon at the Indiana State Fair this year. It was adapted from a round table. I don't have exact measurements right now - it's still on display at the Fair until August 22 - but the size is probably a 'large.' Once the Fair is over, I've got to take a lot of pictures and write descriptions to be ready to list the things on Etsy.

State Fair Results

Today was the open house and preview of exhibits which is just for exhibitors. The fair starts August 6. Out of 7 entries, I took a first, a second, a fourth and an Honorable Mention. I was delighted. I would love to be a little mouse during judging and see exactly what they look for/at and how the decisions on placings are made. Two of my ribbons were for new items so I don't have pictures of them yet. But here are pictures and thoughts about two of my entries:

Or not. I've been having 'issues' with Google and it looks like it's extending into the blog as well as both of my email accounts. Grrrrrrrrrr. I can't get the pictures I want to upload.- or more accurately, I can't get it to upload anything! My lavender baby afghan is in the Afghans album at AnnCrochets on PhotoBucket under the name 'Lilac Cricle.' I really like this afghan and was glad it got an Honorable Mention.

So now I'm off to have a chat with Google. Wish me well........