time

Almost Ready

mulchandmorecrafts 3 Comments

With Saturday being the first show of the season that we are taking tie trailer to, this week as been a mad rush.

In addition to printing magnets for the newer paintings that my husband finished, I also had to pick up my new glasses today.I did get all my labeling/inventory finished for my knitting and yarn that has been accumulating. At least now I can see what I am doing better 🙂

The trailer is loaded with the exception of the candles, which I will finish organizing tomorrow! I also have to pick up the shrubs that I ordered through our local conservation department and probably stick them in some dirt to hold til we can plant next week.

The SUV is in bad need of a bath after all the muddy and dusty roads and also needs loading! Saturday set-up starts at 7:00am, so at this point I’m wondering what we are going to forget 🙂 Wish us luck!

Advertisement

Playing Catch-up

mulchandmorecrafts 10 Comments

Yes, this week was as busy as the last one, so I’m going to attempt to catch you up on things I’ve been doing.

Finished projects; knitting

The green hat is finished and ready to felt!

Green and gray wool hat to felt

ready to felt!

The white mohair cowl is also finished, doesn’t seem to need blocking, is fuzzy and light but very comfortable and warm. Have been debating adding some dye to it, in hopes that the pattern would show up better. What do you think? I’m leaning toward leaving it white, to go with anything?

mohair cowl

You can still see my table through two layers! That’s airy.

I also discovered a new shawl pattern, Maluka. Decided to try it, since sorting through some of my stash I had found some lovely sock yarn that I know I will never turn into socks. And one skein should be enough, so another choice to make! Of course I chose the one that had red in it. Wound into a ball it looked even prettier. On the third start on the pattern, it’s beginning to take shape. Not the fault of the pattern, but the user! This is my first time knitting from a chart for anything but color changes, so 12-14 rows in each time I realized my mistake and had to frog! At least it was a different mistake each time 🙂

skeins of sock yarn.

which to pick?

 

wish I had dyed this!
colorful ball

 

Need 33 repeats of those points!

Yesterday was a family day, involving a lot of driving, time outside (in 30 degree weather) to watch a parade, some shopping, some visiting, another long drive home with some more shopping on the way (my husband found the perfect easel for his summer sketching and our son added to his collection of charms for wire wrapping) Last night I was too tired to even partake of Jacqueline’s wonderful Brunch Party, but that is still going on today so be sure to pop by and meet some interesting bloggers and enjoy her great food and music!

Last night my eyes were too tired, from driving with the bright sun in my eyes, to read blogs or even knit so I pulled out some roving that I’d obtained from a friend last summer and started spinning. Once started it went so quickly that I finished the first ball of roving and decided to  ply it with some of the mohair that I’d used for the cowl. I wound that skein off this morning (130yds) and should soon have another the same size. The mohair added a nice bloom and softness to the colors.  Now to decide, is it to keep, to sell, or to knit into something to sell ?

wool roving

red, white, and blue roving

2+ oz. of spun wool yarn

one ball spun

Thinking I was tired enough to spin a lumpy type art yarn, training kicked in and it is an almost balanced knitting worsted size 🙂 I guess I have to work harder on making lumpy yarn!

Plied yarn on nitty-noddy.
130yds of soft.

 

I’ve been making magnet prints of some of husband’s canvases and still have the regular sized prints to make (in my spare time)

Stay productive everyone and if you have a moment leave a comment about what has been keeping you busy.

A Craft Show

mulchandmorecrafts Leave a comment

Saturday was Small Business Saturday and my son and I departed in the dark hours of the morning to drive just over 50 miles to set up for a craft show.

Attending a craft show, you never know quite what to expect. Since this was a one day show, I tried to cut back a little on how much I displayed, while still covering a range of items. You never know exactly what people might be looking for, so if I make it, I try to display at least a token of it. For instance, I set up all 116 scents that I make in soy candles, but only brought a small amount of my hand spun yarn. (People don’t have the time to knit for a gift this close to Christmas.) I also brought a sample of my husband’s canvases, along with some prints made from his originals.

craft show cheboygan 11-28-15 010

craft show booth overview

craft show cheboygan 11-28-15 011

end of wooden shelf

craft show cheboygan 11-28-15 013

wooden shelf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My son, on the other hand, set up his complete inventory of needle felting and wire wrapping. I think it looked very nice and it did draw people in for a closer look.

craft show cheboygan 11-28-15 017

necklaces and needle felting

craft show cheboygan 11-28-15 015

needle feltings

craft show cheboygan 11-28-15 016

needle felted ornaments and art dolls

The organizer does a nice job, she had advertised, but the number of potential customers seemed down from previous years, as were our sales. She had the vendor next to us slide her tables down a bit, to insure that customers would be able to walk into our corner space. I appreciated that as when we arrived to set up things were looking a little crowded in our corner.

However, as a business, we will have to consider if this will be a show worth our time and effort to do in the future.  With the size of our display, it is more time efficient to set up for two-four day shows, then to do too many one day events. By the time we returned home from a seven hour show we’d been gone for twelve hours! A very long day!

On the personal side, a friend stopped by to say hi, I was able to visit with another friend/vendor, had an interesting conversation about knitting with a lady looking at my yarn, and our son made a lady very happy when he custom made a bracelet to hold a charm the lady had gotten for her granddaughter.

One more show to look forward to (along with the aching back from hauling candles) and our craft show season will end until we start up in the spring!

 

Day Three!

mulchandmorecrafts 2 Comments

Today’s assignment of using tags in reader to find more blogs to read and sounded both easy and educational but…

I started last night, tried some tags that didn’t work quite the way I’d hoped, tried others and found some nuggets. Logged on again this morning to spend a few minutes searching for a few more blogs to follow, ended a few hours later, after reading the ones I’m following, and adding a few more. Then I went outside to play in the beautiful sun we had today.

This whole process requires more time than I realized, so the post that was on my mind is still there and will wait for another day.