Finishing Touches are What Make it Special

Good Thursday Morning Crocheters!

Hope Everyone is Doing Well This Morning! It's Rainy & Cool here in the Port City, so we're hanging out indoors for the most part today.  No worries there's always a hook & some yarn to keep up occupied ;-)

Anyhew, the other day I posted a shell baby blanket I'd made for a former co-worker, well she requested the shell border on the sides, so of course I obliged, check out the finished product!

You can also see the color a LOT better in these pictures.  I also have a hat to add to this set to complete it, BUT that means a trip to Hobby Lobby, oh darn LOL!!!

I also had another order for a teddy bear, this one was very specific about what they wanted, but I was able to add some creative liberties to it! I started using this Lions Brand pattern, but finished by winging most of it, and I am proud of the end result and the customer is happy!

Cute Huh?!?! Now I've finished all my orders I can re-direct my attention back to the two Crochet-A-Long's I'm working on, I finished square #2 in the Christmas one last night - still need to weave in some ends and add a border (again need to hit Hobby Lobby) before I'm going to share a pic of my finished product, but here's the Graph

So that's where I am at right now!

I am Opening my Shop for Specialized Small Christmas and Halloween Items in Preparation for the Holidays Coming Up! So Jump on Over to the Shop NOW to Order Your Own Creations!

Trying Something New and Adding to a Package Set

Good Saturday Afternoon Crocheters!

Hope everyone is having an Awesome Saturday!

It's an Absolutely Gorgeous Day here in the Port City and I am looking forward to having a great day with my Family.

But First I wanted to drop off these pics.

I recently joined a Facebook Group that goes along with the Repeat Crafter Me Website and Blog and those Ladies, I just have to say are an amazing group! So inspirational and supportive! So after seeing so many of them complete their C2C Graph's for a Christmas project I am guessing they are all working on as part of something the group is doing I finally decided to try and figure it out.  So I did some digging last night online and found two videos, one taught me the basics of C2C and the other how to Reduce when ready along with a basic graph pattern to follow and got to work.

Here is the pattern I followed

Image courtesy of Life Undiscovered Blog, Link on Image

And here's what I pulled together

I am very proud of myself! Had to pull the rows out twice, but I got it done!

As well last night I finished this lovely afghan to go with the baby layette set I did

Pattern Courtesy of Daisy Cottage Designs, link below

Found the pattern on Daisy Cottage Designs' Website, click on top image for direct link to pattern, but please go visit her website too!

Thanks for Visitin' today!

Have some Fun this Labor Day Weekend!

Order Your Own Crochet Creations from my Etsy Shop

The Cost of Running a Shop

Good Thursday Afternoon Crocheters!

I am going to jot down here today some of the items I have run into in the last week or so while working on my first Etsy order:

1.  The cost of supplies - I vastly underestimated how much the supplies would run me, Ex: the Hat & Scarf pictured here sold for $35.00 in my shop + S/H - in this case the supplies cost all of $12.81 ($3.99/skein x 3 skeins of yarn + 7.5% tax)

So then for the Afghan pictured below I sold it for $75.00 + S/H - and in this case the supplies are running me more than usual, the afghan was originally made for a friend of the family, one of my Girl Scout Mom's who requested it - and to make her a nice soft & warm afghan I made it out of Yarn Bee Tender Touch brand yarn - which runs 155 yards of yarn to a skein - which means I am having t use twice as much as I calculate it would, the yarn runs $3.99/skein and this afghan will require somewhere around 16 skeins of yarn or $68.63 total cost leaving my profit just over $7.00...

2. Not having Calculated shipping costs exactly quite yet I have set aside about $30.00 of the order to pay for UPS Ground Shipping, I prefer this method so I can accurately track the package.

That being said I have increased the price on an afghan made with the Yarn Bee yarns to $100.00 so my profit margin is higher.

As of today I've completed 2/3 of the scarf - just have the other side of the border to do + the fringe and then I need to construct the hat, however I need to purchase that additional skein of yarn first.  And I am about 1/2 way done with the afghan! Super Excited about that and I can't wait for the woman who ordered them to get them.

What's everyone working on today?!?!?!?

Order your own items from my Etsy Shop

Scraps - What to Do with Them...Make a Scrapghan Of Course!

Good Tuesday Morning Crocheters!

Happy Day!

The sun is shining here in Southern North Carolina and it looks to be a gorgeous day!!

Every once in a while the question of what to do with your scraps comes up in conversations - my preference is to turn them into what I call Scrapghans.  They are just afghans I've made using nothing but scraps, there's no ryhme or reason to the pattern of colors, just what I grab and when.  I have once I keep at home and recently I gave one away to a photographer here in town and yesterday she sent me the cutest picture of it being used.

First here's the scrapghan I am referring to

And here's the picture she sent me yesterday

Photo Courtesy of Lifescapes Photography

OH MY GAWD I could just squeal! I had to look at it more than once to say yes that's the same afghan as above! But I did an OMG isn't that little angel just the Sweetest?!?!

So how do you use your scraps?

I am always taking requests for Scrapghans! They come from my imagination and I am always willing to share them with them world!

Finding Inspiration

Happy Monday Crocheters!

Hope Everyone had a Fantastic Weekend!

We sure did - kept things quiet at home and for that I am eternally Thankful!

On this gorgeous Monday I sit at work in a windowless box and dream of projects I'd like to work on - I have two pending I need to go shopping for and then two more Daisy Afghans that are waiting for the client to return from vacation and then have surgery before I can get started on - so in the meantime I wait anxiously for my next orders from the Etsy Shop or even from someone on Facebook!

Until that time I dream and I dream big of new projects - new stitches to try - new things I haven't attempted before and I am thrilled to say the wish list is long...

Like I'd love to learn how to Cable Stitch in Crochet, sort of like this baby blanket I came across this morning

Photo Courtesy of Hooked on Crochet Blog - click photo for link to blog

Isn't this the Sweetest?!?!?  I'd love to learn how to do this!

My next want to learn is how to make a sweater - I found this gem this morning as well

Photo Courtesy of Inner Child Crochet - click photo for link to blog

This is called the Genevieve Sweater, isn't it Gorgeous!?!?! I'd love to put this together!

I've spent a good bit of time this morning cruising through my favorite Crochet Website, All Free Crochet, picking out ideas, patterns, etc. The above were found on there along with several others I won't list here! But until I have the next daisy afghan order situated I'll have to just continue to cruise and work on my own projects once I finish my Etsy order!

Until then, Happy Monday Crocheters!

Order Your own Crochet from my Etsy Shop

Yarn to Afghan Creations 1st Sale

I am sooo Excited to Announce that I have made my 1st Sale through the Etsy Store!!!

So super excited!! Here's what I've sold one each of:

Soo Excited!!!

Go and Order Your items from my shop

Older Projects Bring Back Memories

Good Saturday Morning Crochet Friends!

Have you ever dug through photos of your old projects and remembered each and every single one of them? I did that this morning and did it bring back memories of each and every single one of them!

Like this baby blanket I made for the receptionist at my kids after-school program, I loved putting it together for her and trying to create a pattern I thought she'd love!

And this Black & White chevron I made for our wonderful neighbor! He takes such good care to ensure our yard is mowed, he's always bringing us food, etc. it was the least I could do for it! He's also super involved in our local POW-MIA group and those are the colors of that group! Win-Win!

Or even this dual-colored blue square blanket I made for my son, at his request, he wanted a blanket of his own, so we decided on these two shades of blue and I came up with this beautiful square pattern! He still has this on his bed today - near 2-years later!

Then there was this gem I assembled for my daughter, our biggest Washington fan in the house, her after school program has them carry cards that they scan in and out for attendance - I put this together one night for her so she could carry hers in style!

Then there was this project - this one seriously got away from me in terms of size...WOW I never expected it to get as big as it did when I was making it - to give you and idea our bed there is a king-sized bed and that afghan takes up the entire thing! I didn't have a purpose for it, so I gave it away to a friend from high school for her teenagers room.  Last I heard she loved it!

Last but certainly not least a tri-colored chevron afghan I made with all intentions to sell - though it didn't - and now it has a home with my Parents! I use it whenever we go visit them! I love this Chevron with these colors!

It's amazing the rinse and repeat of patterns I use and the variety in which things can be made!

Happy Saturday Friends!

Order your Own Afghan/Wallet/Whatever your imagination sees fit through my Etsy Shop

A Request by One of My Girl Scouts Finished!

Happy Friday Crochet Friends!

A while ago I made an afghan with my family's assistance - they picked the texture/colors and I assembled it and made a square afghan that was so very pretty - sadly I didn't get any shots of it before I gave it away to one of my Scouts! That very night one of my girls made a request for an afghan of her own - her Mom told me Blue...pattern/size/style didn't matter just make it Blue...so I did and here's where it got tricky - my Hubby suggested I do a Chevron pattern lengthwise vs. Widthwise as it normally goes...so I chained out 400 and began the process, all in all it was very time consuming but so worth it! The results are simply amazing!

Let me know what you think

It's Folded in 1/2 Here lengthwise

Order Your Own Afghan at my Etsy Shop

Enjoy Your Night Friends!

My Current Project

Good Morning Crochet Fans!

I wanted to talk about today my most current projects that I am super excited about - I always have at least two projects running simultaneously and this go round is no exception!

First I have an afghan I am working on for one of my Girl Scouts - she requested an all blue blanket - so I'm working on a tri-blue colored chevron pattern that runs down the length of the blanket vs. up and down (my hubby's idea), it's super cool while remaining nice and long (i.e. its as long as my king sized bed is wide + some!)

Second, I am working on another afghan to go with the daisy one that was ordered - the woman has requested a five color chevron pattern using a pale blue, yellow, pink, purple and white! It's super pretty and coming together so nicely! This time I opted to lay out the pattern on a spreadsheet so as to not lose track of what I am doing and personally I am in love with it! This is what she asked for:

After not being able to locate the pattern exactly I opted to lay it out in such a way that it starts with Yellow-Blue-Pink-Purple-White-White-Yellow-Blue-Pink-Purple-Pink-Blue-Purple, rinse and repeat! I am planning on using a white border to trim it out!

Not posting pics of final projects though until they are complete!

Happy Crocheting All!

My Most Recent Creations

So for now I am going to share some of my most recent creations!

A Burgundy-Gold Hogwarts Gryffindor/Redskins Themed Scarf

Chevron Afghan in a Wool Yarn

Multi-Colored Daisy Granny Square

A Basic Square made of Two Shades/Textures of Yellow

This is what I do with leftover yarn! A Scrapghan!

A Multi-Shaded Pink Granny Square

A Shell Tri-Colored Baby Blanket

A Shell Tri-Colored Afghan with Fringe

Looking forward to working with all of you in the future!