Etsy Shop

I’ve been asked by a few people now if I’m planning to open an Etsy shop, and to be honest I had been thinking about it. Today I read through a bunch of the FAQ stuff about being a seller, and it sounds like there’s more work to it than I had expected. My mom does have a shop, so she offered to help me get it set up. I’m sure once I get everything sorted out, it won’t be as hard as it sounds.

Unfortunately the “CowboysAndAngels” (has to be one word!) shop name has already been used. :( Bummer dude. They also don’t allow anything other than alpha-numeric symbols, so I can’t use &, but really, if someone else is using the other name, I wouldn’t want to risk being confused. So now I need to come up with a new name to use. I really had my heart set on using the Cowboys & Angels name for everything, so now I don’t know what I want to do. It might seem like a silly little thing to get worked up about, but it really is important. And if I’m going to try to make something lasting out of this, I don’t want to just settle on something & hate it in a year or two.

So, the short answer is yes, I am at least looking into doing an Etsy shop, but the timeframe is negotiable. For now I’ll just stick with custom orders through people I already know.

Until next time…

TWT - Do I detect a pattern here?

This was taken in March last year, right after I got the new camera. If I remember correctly, I was showing Nick the awesome shake prevention & shaking the camera like crazy to show him how good the picture would come out. If you remember the picture from our anniversary, you might assume Nick only has one photo "pose." :)

Okay, I just went back & checked & apparentely I didn't post the picture from our anniversary!

Until next time...

Mock Crocs!

I'm pretty darn happy with how these turned out, except I don't think I'll be using veriegated yarn for them again. Solid colors from here on out because I don't like how they don't quite match. I know it doesn't really matter, but the way I am, it just kind of bugs me. I guess the only place it's overly noticeable is on the strap, so if I could do the strap separately in a solid color, it might be okay. I'll play around with them some more & see what I can come up with.

Mock Croc pattern.

Until next time...

YARN!

What a wonderful sight to come home to! Now work, work, work.

Until next time...

New Stitches

Well, for me at least.

Remember last week when I mentioned the diaper cover uses hdc, which I didn’t know I knew before, but thought I had used? Turns out, I was still wrong. On all the covers I’ve made so far, I have not used hdc, but some random stitch I seem to have made up. This weekend for some reason I decided to pull out my “Crochet Pocket Guide,” (a GREAT resource to keep handy, definitely pick one up if you’re still a beginner) and noticed that I’m still doing the hdc wrong. Now that I’ve got it sorted out, for real this time, I think the next diaper cover will go together much quicker.

Yesterday I found a few bootie patterns I wanted to try out & settled on “Mock Crocs” to try first. I got the sole done & was working on the top on the way home from work, when I came across sc dec. I knew it was a single crochet decrease, but had no idea how to do it. I hadn’t ever done it before, and hadn’t even seen instructions for it, so I didn’t even bother trying to attempt anything. As soon as we got home I got on the computer (we were waiting for a contractor, so I didn’t really have anything better to do) & figured out how to do the stitch, as well as the dc dec. Annie’s Attic is a fantastic resource for stitches & hasn’t let me down. Unfortunately the decrease stitches aren’t included in my pocket guide (of course!), so I was a little disappointed about that (I would have been able to finish in the car!), but it’s got a lot of other good stuff, so I still recommend picking it up.

The first bootie turned out absolutely adorable & I couldn’t wait to get the second one done. Nick kept saying we should try them on Raven. He’s always scoffed whenever we see the dog booties, so he was just being obnoxious. My favorite comment though was when I was working on the second one & he looked at me in surprise, “You’re making two?!” Umm…duh honey, babies have two feet! And then he went on about how they won’t stay on the baby’s feet because the back is open, so I told him it’s not like they’ll be running a 5k in these things. And then it was “their toes will get cold.” Good grief, Charlie Brown! It’s summer (or at least supposed to be), and they can wear socks if it’s chilly. The man cracks me up.

Pictures to come when I figure out a good way to photograph them. I need a real baby to model stuff! ;)

Until next time…

Size Matters.

Or something like that.

These two covers were made using the same hook. The pink one is 100% acrylic, the purple 100% cotton. I'm surprised how much of a difference it makes.

I picked up a couple more skeins of cotton at Jo-Ann when I got the buttons yesterday, and my big order of cotton should be here sometime this week. I can't wait to work with it some more, but right now I have mixed feelings about it. It's not quite as soft & cuddly as the acrylic, but it's still a nice soft feeling yarn. Definitely not scratchy like some others I've used! There are some (Titan's & Nick's blankets) that made my fingers hurt after working with it too much. I'm guessing the more I work with the cotton the more I'll like it, it'll just take some getting used to.

I like the different color border and the fun button on this one, but am not crazy about the white ruffles. I think I'll stick with keeping the ruffles the same color as the rest of the cover.

Until next time...

Button, button, who's got the button?

I've got buttons! I ran to Jo-Ann Fabric quick this morning & picked up some buttons to use for the diaper covers. Love the little dinosaurs & airplanes especially, but they're all good. Now I just need my order of cotton yarn to get here (although, I've bought a couple to use while I wait...eek...) so I can use them!

Until next time...