Friday FOs - 04.12.2015

For the first week in quite a while I haven't managed to finish a trauma teddy. In fact, I haven't finished any of my knit or crochet projects. That doesn't mean that I don't have anything at all to show you, I do, but it's not my usual fare.

Storage Box/Display Case

Ready to display my wares

With most of my toys on display

Ready to be stored and transported

It has been a while since I attempted anything like this. It's not my best work. There are some issues with the size of the panels, the painting isn't the best and it is basically rough and ready, but I think, as a proof of concept, it will do the job. I may trim a bit off the shelf at some time to make it easier to fit into the box, and I would like to make more of these, including a couple with hanging space, but I can't justify the cost unless I start selling lots of stuff.

That's it from me for this week. Be sure to check out the links in the sidebar to see what others have made.

Richard.

Monday Mayhem - 01.09.2014

I have been a bit slack with posting my weekly updates lately. Mainly because I am finding that I am getting to the computer a little too late at night. So this is going to be a bit of a summary of what has been happening here over the last month.

Apart from all the crochet, knitting and knooking that has been happening (which you would have already seen if you have been following my Wednesday and Friday posts) life has been going on much the same as it has for the last few years. Last month I went back for more blood tests and doctor's appointments as a follow to having been diagnosed with diabetes. It seems that I'm not quite bad enough to warrant medication for my sugar levels but, because of the diabetes, the doctor has decided that I should be on medication to bring my cholesterol under control.

The markets last month were a bit of a let down. The one I have been attending regularly in Mt Beauty was very slow with only 4 or 5 stall holders in attendance and not many people looking to spend their money. I also went to the Baby Bazaar for the first time last month and it was quite disappointing . There were quite a few people around but they didn't seem to want to spend their money on my wares. There were a few people that seemed to be interested in some of the items but they found excuses for not buying any of them.

Both Sue and I have had our ups and downs with our health, mainly the usual aches and pains that come with all the itises and other ailments that we have, but this morning Sue had a fall. I had asked her to do something with all the paper work and other rubbish she had been piling up on the floor as it was making it difficult to get into the cupboards and making it awkward for her to get to her desk and this morning she lost her balance while carrying in her breakfast and she fell, aggravating things that she had been having trouble with for quite a while. With her being unable to get up am me being unable to help her (she is 120kg) I had to call for help and an ambulance and police arrived in due course. The result is she has seen the doctor again today and is in more pain than usual, being unable to do much at all with her right arm.

For those that are interested in seeing what my to-do list looks like now, here it it.

Things to make to replace stock for my market stall:

Bottle Cosies in more team colours

Teapot Cosies

bag holders

Jacket, Pants and Hat set in blue (need a couple of other colours also)

Sunhat and Bootees in white

Large Jug Covers

Small Jug Covers

Tiny Duck

Tiny Dog

Heather Hippo

Large Witch

Large Penguin

Current Work In Progress:

Toddlers' Rugby Pullover
Trauma Teddies

Tartan Blanket – taken over from Sue

Woollen Baby Blanket using Motifs from Ellen's book

Bootees

Hanging Towels

Baby's Jacket, Pant and Hat set

Christmas Trees

Christmas Stockings

Teddies for a guy at church

Things I'm itching to get started on:

Crochenit Knee Rug (same as Cot Blanket and will also use up some of my stash of 8ply)
Crocheted Slocks
Banner for Stall

Table Runners for each Australian state and territory (currently trying to design the ACT one).

Tunisian Crochet Intarsia Table Runner

Dinosaurs (bought the patterns from PlanetJune)

Plenty of work there to keep me going for quite a while.

That about wraps it up for August. I hope you all had a good one.

Richard.

Saturday Shenanigans - 07.06.2014

I have had an up and down week this week. Some days I have been full of energy, ready to do anything that need to be done and others I've been quite tired and ready to go back to bed. I don't know if that has anything to do with the diabetes or if it's simply because I don't sleep through the night due to circulation problems.

Both Sue and I have had problems with our right shoulders this week. Sue felt that hers was bad enough to warrant a trip to the doctor's but the doc seemed to think it was just bursitis and has sent her in for ultrasound. Mine may be similar (it feels much the same as my left shoulder) and the best thing I can do for it is keep moving it.

Today was market day in Mt Beauty and I had a good day. It wasn't really anything to write home about (no cartwheels today) but I ended up in profit so that was good. Once I got home though all I could do was sit in front of the TV and go to sleep. That could be because I got up at 5:00am to get to Mt Beauty by 7:30.

We have an inspection this week so the next couple of days will be spent making sure everything is reasonably tidy and all floors, walls, benches and anything else that needs to be are clean.

That's about it for this week. I hope you all had a good one.

Richard.

Saturday Shenanigans - 19.04.2014

The last couple of weeks have had me thinking about my priorities and my future. I am now quite a bit behind with my college work and am finding study very hard to concentrate as there are so many distractions like housework, Sue and my crafting. I didn't get assessment 4 in on time, I'm going to be over a week late with assessment 5 and there is little chance that I will be able to do 6 and 7 on time ( 6 is due tomorrow night). It all just seems too hard and I'm considering giving up on this diploma. Do I really need it? Will it really help me in the future? I'm not sure about either of those questions.

On a more positive note, I went to Beechworth today for the Easter Market and had a really good day. I only had 5 sales but those 5 sales added up to one of the best days I have ever had at markets. While it does seem like a lot of hard work for just $76 profit and I now have a number of items to add to the to-do list I think it was worth it. I will now also have to check my Madeit store to make sure that nothing I sold today is still listed there as it would be embarrassing to sell it twice.

There seems to be quite a bit of interest in selling through Facebook these days and I might look into it for myself. I may not actually sell on the Facebook page but instead use it to direct people to my Madeit store and try to get some extra sales that way. I could also use the Facebook page for custom orders as I'm not sure that Madeit is really set up for that sort of thing. I will definitely have to look into this as soon as I decide what I'm going to do about my study.

With this being Easter weekend there is quite a bit going on. We had our Good Friday service yesterday morning followed by the Stations of the Cross and tomorrow we need to get up very early for the dawn service. We're expecting a few people from other churches to be there to help celebrate the rising of our Lord.

That's been my week this week. I hope you all had a good one.

Richard.

Saturday Shenanigans - 05.04.2014

I just checked back and see that it has been at least three weeks since I last did one of these updates, and quite a bit has happened in that three weeks, although I won't go into all the gory details, unless someone asks for them.

The main one was the prostate biopsy that I went in for a couple of weeks ago. It was most uncomfortable, quite painful and made just that much more awkward because the theatre nurse was a lady from church. The reaction I get from various people when I tell them this varies depending on the gender of the person I tell. The guys are sympathetic towards me and the women want to offer the lady in question therapy. It would be amusing if it weren't so uncomfortable, and if any woman wants to tell me about how bad her mammogram was I will have no qualms in giving her all the gory details of what I went through. On a more positive note, the test came back negative, however, they miss one in ten so I have to go for further tests to make sure I'm not one that they missed.

I have managed to keep up with all my assessments for college in spite of my little meltdown a few weeks ago, although I still need to do one before midnight tomorrow, and I'm still waiting for some sort of feedback to tell me if I'm doing OK or if I'm barking up the wrong tree. Looks like I might have to spend a couple of hours tomorrow to try and get this one done anyway.

There have been a couple of markets in the last couple of weeks and, while I haven't sold a lot of stuff, it has shown up some deficiencies. Namely in the area of boys baby clothes, so it looks like I'm going to have to extend my to-do list again (and I thought I was going so well). I might have to take time out from the towels to see what I can do about this deficiency.

Today's market was at My Beauty, a 200km round trip, and, while I only sold two pair of bootees, there was a positive vibe with quite a few people complimenting me on my work. I even heard from one of the other stall holders that he had overheard a couple of ladies talking about the quality and diversity of the stock I had and their surprise that it was a guy that had made most of it. Unfortunately, compliments don't pay the bills or replenish my supplies. Ah well, maybe the next couple of markets will be better.

I have two more markets this month. The next is at Myrtleford and the second at Beechworth on Easter Saturday. Myrtleford hasn't been particularly good lately but Beechworth has been quite profitable in the past so I'm hoping it can be even better this year.

That's it for me for the last few weeks. I hope you all had a good one.

Richard.

Wednesday WIPs - 26.03.2014

Well, there has been plenty of time for crocheting this week, especially with a 4 and a half  hour wait at the hospital yesterday (I'll tell you about that later). Unfortunately, the weather was quite miserable today and it was too wet to take photos outside, so the photos are a bit off colour and some are a bit blurry (it's hard to keep the camera still while it compensates for the lack of light).

Here are the WIPs I have worked on this week.

Murray of Athol Tartan Rug

I managed to do a couple of rows on this one.

Cheval Set - large doily

I also managed a couple of rows on this one.

Woollen Baby Blanket using Motifs from Ellen Gormley's Book

I managed to do 4 motifs this week.

Toddler's Jacket - Zoom by Ellen Gormley

The second sleeve is growing.

Clara the Friendly Robot

This one is almost finished and should be finished within the week.

Shopping Bag with Pouch

I know I said I wanted to make three of these at this time and this is number four but I figured an extra one wouldn't hurt. As soon as this one is finished I will need to get onto the towels and get as many of them done as possible as I have four markets in the next four weeks.

Tunisian Lace Wrap

This is the item that I took to the hospital with me. I managed to get about 16 rows done in the time I was waiting for my turn to go into theatre.

That's all my progress for this week. Come back on Friday to see what has been finished in Rose Manor since last Friday. In the mean time, check out the links in the sidebar to see what everyone else has been making.

Richard.

Saturday Shenanigans - 08.03.2014

The last few weeks have been quite different. It has been busy and some of the things that have happened have eaten into the time I need to use for study, so I think I'm a little behind.

A couple of weeks ago, Sue and I traveled to Canberra for a weekend away. There were several things we wanted to do including getting Sue a new pair of glasses (the glasses she likes to wear can only be found at an optical store in Canberra), getting Sue a new desktop computer (she doesn't like the screen  size on the laptops that she has and decided on a desktop rather than plugging in an external monitor) and we wanted to go to the show and meet up with friends.

On the Sunday morning we attended church and met up with a few more friends and then went across to the Hyperdome for lunch. When we finally got back to the car, Sue decided it was time she checked her phone and found a message from a cousin. Is it strange that our first thought was to wonder who had died this time? Maybe the fact that it was about this time last year that we received a message from the same person telling us that one of Sue's family had passed away that made us think this. It turned out that Sue's father's mother's cousin (I think that makes her a first cousin twice removed but I don't know for sure) had indeed passed away.

Of course, this news meant another trip away and we found our way to the cemetery at Bundanoon and then on to  the Uniting church.

So, after all these interruptions to my study I still had to get my first assignment done and submitted. I made it with a few days to spare. Now I'm going to have to work on at least one assignment every week for the next 7 weeks.

To finish this three week period off, today was market day in Myrtleford (I missed Mt Beauty last week due to an issue with the weather) and it was supposed to be a big day. There seemed to be quite a few people around but not many were spending their money, at least not at my stall. I only managed two sales but they were enough to push me past my break even target so I suppose it wasn't too bad, and I gave out one of my business card to a lady that was interested in buying one of my blankets. If that sale comes through it will make up for last month when I didn't sell anything.

Well, that's a summary of the last three weeks here in Rose Manor. I do hope you all had a good one.

Richard.