More hair stuff... working on ideas for the shop

This is really experimenting with stuff that I might or might not sell in the shop. I have lots & lots of gorgeous 100% wool felt to use and thought these clips might make a good thing to sell as ready made items & as kits. I am very pleased with these - I didn't have any yellow embroidery thread so thought I might try the orange instead. I actually think it looks great - bringing out the depth in the yellow and I love the contrast it makes with the absolutely fantastic green colour of the clip cover. Anyway, here they are:



The only thing I find difficult about them is that it is so hard to cut small bits of felt very accurately. It takes a lot of patience which is something is not a specialist subject of mine!

I am also working on some tote bags with some furnishing fabrics I got reduced at John Lewis. I am very pleased with the colours & they way they co-ordinate - especially as it was pretty much dependent on what I found in the remnant bin. The other ongoing project I am working on is some large drawstring bags (pump bags we used to call them at school) which I want to use for storing son of my sons' toys. They have lots & lots of little bitty things (they have phases of being absolutely fanatical about jigsaws & they love Playmobil) so it would be very good to find a better way to store them rather than all jumbled up a various boxes. If they work out well I am sure that I will probably think about doing them for the shop too - maybe with some applique felt decoration - can't keep me away from felt at the moment!

I spent some time this morning chopping off the front of lots of Xmas cards that we seem to have been saving for the last 4 years! I am trying to be organised about recycling them as decorations/Xmas cards/gift tags... terrifyingly organised for me in fact. We are going to take this years cards and decorations down in a minute. Sad it's all over for another year.

Crocheting... here's my first ever pattern!! And some business news...

I have made myself a hair tie which I guess some people would call a scrunchy, but I wont because I bloomin' hate that word... It just brings back awful memories of the 80s, spiral perms & hoooooge quantities of hairspray. Yikes.

Anyway, I have long hair for the first time since I was about 6 and so am always looking for bits & bobs to tie it back. Put that together with my enthusiasm for crocheting circular things (so much easier than straight lines!!!) and it seemed obvious to create myself something a little more attractive than our postman's 'generously donated' (i.e. chucked on the garden path) elastic bands.

Here's a pic of what I came up with:


It's not a great picture but I really want to do this post now so it will have to do for now!

The pattern:
(Using British crocheting stitches rather than American)
Take elastic band or other stretchy circular thing of your choice and some yarn and a hook of your choice - this is a very flexible pattern...

Round 1:
Use a reef knot to create the 1st stitch on your hook then use the elastic band as if it were a chained circle and create a circle of double crochet (dc). Keep pushing the dc stitches together to get as many stitches as possible on there, so that when the band stretches it wont look too gappy. When you have squeezed on as many dc stitches as possible join the round with a slip stitch.

Round 2:
Chain 2, then make your 1st stitch in the 3rd stitch away from your hook. Now treble crochet twice into each dc that you made in the 1st round. Join the round with a slip stitch.

Weave in the ends and taadaaa! You're done.


This is one of the ideas that I have been working on since Christmas for our shop. Obviously, since we were selling Xmas decs things have come to a full stop with people making purchases and so we have had lots of times to think & develop our ideas for how things are going to go forward. I would very much like to open an Etsy shop and stock it with things produced by me, dh (and possibly other people too) and also kits too. Using Ebay was good as a temporary measure but I don't think people necessarily come to it for the sort of stuff that we want to sell. I've got lots of ideas for simple stuff to put in the shop - tote bags, drawstring bags, blankies, hairclips and hair bands, bibs, card toppers (using S's lino cuts), maybe my girly felt bags too. It's very exciting but it does mean we have an AWFUL lot of work to do.

The teacosy is finished - thank blooming goodness...

And here it is:



I am quite proud of it for my 1st knit plus crochet project. It looks pretty tidy & the curly crochet flowers on the top are such fun to do. I just hope it works as a gift!

I have also been working on my 'Secret Santa' gift for a virtual friend from the best parenting site on the web. It's nearly done too, but I can't really post it on here until after Christmas because there's always a chance that she might look at this. Which is a real shame because I am extremely pleased with it. Ugh, it's frustrating to not even be able to hint at what it is... Actually, I am so pleased with it that I am thinking of making a few more for other female family members.

One of my other big loves is baking & I have also been busy today coming up with a couple of recipes for bakes to do for St Nicholas' Eve & St Nicholas' Day next week. I think I have come up with a Speculaas recipe which will hit the spot (just wish I had a speculaasplank to cook them on!) and have invented some speculaas spice muffins that I am EXTREMELY pleased with. I'll be posting them on our Christmas website in the very near future, once my Christmas Matters colleague & I get organised.

Business at our Craft Matters shop is going quite well - although it has mostly been very lovely friends who have bought from us up to now. We are trying to work out ways of listing things that will come up in Ebay searches for people who don't tick the 'description' box. I know that Ebay isn't for us in the long term, but I wish we could get it to work to our advantage just now!

It's hard...

to concentrate and compose your first ever blog post when the rest of your family are playing flying monkeys in the next room... and anyway, I'm not really sure that I am a blog-type person (what is that anyway?). So it's really hard to know where to start with this thing.

But I can't look at a blank screen forever so here we go. What I want to do is try & chronicle our efforts at setting up a family business whilst having a fun family life. And to talk about my enthusiasm for all things homespun & crafty.

At the minute I am working on some new ideas for Christmas craft kits to sell in our shop. It's quite hard to know at the moment whether people are liking our stuff - we've only been up & running a few days so we've not had much sales action. But I am really enthusiastic & what to add a few more kits before we hit December - so not long to go really if we are going to do it. And I guess if they don't sell we can always try again next year!

I have various projects I want to get off the ground too for Christmas gifts. I am going to do a teacosy (indulging my new found love of crochet) for the ILs. They'll also get a bottle of homemade sloe gin.

I want to make panforte for various friends & rellies but I have yet to work out how to package them... I was thinking of doing papier mache gift boxes but that is not working out so well atm. Maybe I will look for some customisable tins on Ebay.

I want to make felt purses/bags for a couple of little girls I know & some felt flower brooches too. Err, how long have I got again?