The Week That Was 24-03-2012

This has been another busy week, with plenty of ups and downs, unfortunately finishing on a low, but more of that later.

The week started with a trip to Deniliquin with a group from church to help feed evacuees from Hay. The trip took about 3 hours and I did try to make use of the time with a little knitting but I found the movement of the bus while trying to watch what I was doing made me a little nauseous so a gave up after only 10 rows. We did get a bit of downtime during the afternoon so I got out a couple of the projects that I bought with me and made a bit of progress on them. It was quite a tiring day and we got home quite late.

At college this week we had on lesson on Excel before getting assessed. I didn't realise that Excel was so simple that it could be taught in 3 hours. I'll have to wait and see if I learnt enough in that one lesson to get me through. We also stepped up what we're learning in Flash and Photoshop with more animations in both, and we've been working on a personal website using Dream Weaver while learning about social media.

If you check out my WIP Wednesday and FO Friday posts you will see that there has been quite a bit of crafting done this week with plenty of progress on most of my projects as well as a pair of booties finished. This week I'm working on getting a sunhat done and I'm well on the way to achieving that.

Today was market day in Benalla and it was very disappointing. I only had one sale and didn't even cover the cost of the stall, let alone the other expenses. I've worked out that the monthly trip to Benalla costs me about $50, so if I don't sell at least that amount the trip costs me money. So far this year I've made two trips and made a total of $30 in sales. It's especially disappointing when I look back at last years figures when I didn't fail to sell at least $50 worth of goods any time I made the trip. Last month there were a number of stall holders complaining that sales were well down on previous months but most of them  were up again this month. If I don't do better next month I may have to cut my losses and abandon that market.

Since today's sales had no affect on my to-do list and I have no more markets until Easter it must be time for a to-do list review, so here it is.

Things to make to replace stock for my market stall:

White booties and sunhat

Bottle Cosies in more team colours

2 String bags

Current Work In Progress:

Rose Clan Dress Tartan Rug
Crochenit Cot Blanket (trying a method for doing rows that are longer than the hook)
Knitted Scarf
Toddlers Jacket
Jumper (sweater to you Americans) for me
Tea cloth in #40 cotton

Men's Afghan Stitch Gloves

Tommy Turtle

Things I'm itching to get started on:

bag holders

Crochenit Knee Rug (same as Cot Blanket and will also use up some of my stash of 8ply)
Crocheted Slocks
Something from my "99 Granny Squares" book
Something in Tunisian Crochet Lace (I'm thinking of modifying Ellen's Jacket pattern by substituting a lace stitch in the main body of the pattern)
Something from Ellen's new book.
A doily from an old pattern book I bought.

Australiana2.0 Table Runner

Banner for Stall

Table Runners for each Australian state and territory.

Tunisian Crochet Intarsia Table Runner

Blanket from pattern in my head – possibly tunisian crochet short rows.

Spiral Blanket (saw one on the internet and figured I could have a go at it without the pattern)

Plenty there to keep me going for a while.

Richard.