Trade Show Prep

I'm working hard to prep for my first official show... here's what I've come up with for my Made To Order sheets.

Also, here is a look at my business card.

Crafting Goodies From Vacation

We went on a family road trip to Vancouver Island last week.  We visited Joey's family and saw lots of sights, and a highlight for me was finding some cool craft stuff that I can't get in the Hat.
Here's my haul...

From left to right: Needle felting supplies (needles and two bags of felting fibre), Debbie Bliss Lace yarn in a gorgeous blue color, two (50% Fine Merino, 30% Baby Camel Hair, and 20% Kid Mohair) balls of yarn and a shawl pin.  In the very middle is a yarn bowl.
Everything but the bowl was from http://www.ingridsyarn.com/, Ingrid's Yarn & Needlework in Duncan, BC.  I made a special trip to that store and I was glad I did.  I wanted to get needle felting supplies and she was very knowledgable and helpful so that was great.

If you don't know what a yarn bowl is, well... you put your ball of yarn in it and feed your yarn end through the little dip thingie there and then your yarn doesn't roll all over the place.  Cool, heh?  The only problem is I don't know where to put it so it doesn't get broken...  Currently it's sitting on my dresser, home to steampunk fuzzy lamb.

I bought the bowl from a local artist (Barbara Strachan bstrac@shaw.ca from her business card), in the store Pyromania Pottery www.pyromaniapottery.ca in Coombs, BC, where they have goats living on the roofs of the stores.  Yup, goats.  On the roof.  Anyway, it was purely a happy coincidence to find a bowl, but it is my favourite purchase.  :)

Here are a couple of close-ups of my various goodies.

The camel yarn is definitely the most exotic, and I hope I can find a good project for it.  :)

I will be putting up lots of pictures of our trip on my Facebook page, but I thought some of my crafty friends would appreciate this.

Happy to be home!

The Anatomy of a Crochet Aardvark: Super Post - Start to Finish

Here's the progression of Annie Aardvark...

Thanks for reading!

The Anatomy of a Crochet Aardvark: Part 5 - Assemble!

My least favourite part of making amis is the sewing, but this one wasn't too bad.

45 minutes total sewing time... including pinning to check positioning and stuffing the legs and tail.

Introducing Annie the Aardvark!

Isn't she sweet?

For those who were counting... just over 4 hours total time spent.  :)

The Anatomy of a Crochet Aardvark: Part Four - All Parts Present and Accounted For

So I realized just how fragmented my crocheting time is when I was trying to time myself.  It's literally three minutes here, 5 minutes there... the only time I really get a good stretch in is when the kids are eating (or sleeping).

It's Tuesday, and I managed to get the rest of the crocheting done.  That's one ear, all four legs and a tail complete.

And that took 1 hour, 15 minutes.

All I have left is the assembly, my least favourite part.  :/

The Anatomy of a Crochet Aardvark: Part Three - Monday Funday

I do enjoy Mondays, but only because my parents are awesome and take Katie (my youngest) when Isaac has gymnastics.  Then I can craft for almost an hour while he gets his sillies out.  Yay.

Rnds 26-42, 45 minutes

Rnds 43-52 finished the head and body portion, one ear finished, 45 minutes (yay gymnastics!)

So all I have left is one ear, four legs, a tail, then sewing it all together.  (2 hrs, 5 minutes time spent so far.)

The Anatomy of a Crochet Aardvark: Part Two - One Stitch At A Time

I named my Etsy shop One Stitch At A Time because that's how a piece is made - literally building stitch upon stitch one at a time until you are left with something fantastic (hopefully!).  For me, that's the best part of crafting.

I got a bit of a start on my aardvark early Sunday...

Rounds 1-14 done, 15 minutes

Rounds 15-25, 10.5mm eyes added, stuffing added, 20 minutes

That's all for Sunday, but Monday is usually a good crocheting day because Isaac has gymnastics.  Later!