Finally got a few new things into my Etsy shop

Gosh my Etsy shop was looking sad and dusty. The online equivalent of one of those sad shop windows with displays of kitchen roll and dead flies...! I've finally had a chance to list a few new things, so I hope you'll forgive a little promotional post.

Here are the new things:

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using gorgeous Michael Miller Zoology fabric.

A toddler (12-24 month) sunhat using funky Kaffe Fassett Fan Flowers fabric.

Some tawashi veg scrubbing / dishwashing cloths.

There's more to come, but that's enough advertising for today!

Actually that's not quite true because I also wanted to write about some brilliant yarn that I'm using for my granny square swap gifts. I am a huge fan of the yarns and the ethos of The Mirasol Project. I've used their Miski baby llama yarn before - it's gorgeously soft and fluffy and comes in a great range of colours. This time I've invested in some of their T'ika 100% cotton. Again, there are some great colours, and it is an absolute joy to crochet with. And great to feel that by buying the yarns I am supporting the textile heritage of Peru. You can read more about the Mirasol Project and their yarns on the project blog. It makes really interesting reading.

Hats, hats, hats...

I've been horribly absent lately, but for a good reason, I promise. I have had an order for lots (well, lots for me!)of sunhats via my Etsy shop. They are off to the Aardvark Tea Room and Craft Gallery in St Leonard's on Sea, here in the UK. It looks like a fabulous place (I wish I lived closer) and I am very excited that they wanted to order from me. It seemed like such a great opportunity that I agreed to come up with half the order before I go camping tomorrow. So I have been working very hard to get 5 hats made (including working out a smaller pattern for a different size hat) in the last week. And here they are! I feel pretty proud of them. They're all made with preloved fabric from a pattern I developed myself. It's a real lesson in not giving up hope - I developed the pattern and did all the work early last year and haven't had any interest until now. I apologise for the rubbish picture by the way... I was rushing to get these into the post this morning and couldn't come up with anywhere tidy or with good light. I had really hoped to get a pic of them all hanging on our washing line - I think it would have looked really cool - but sadly it was chucking it down here this morning!

The other exciting news is that I won Blotted Copy Book's Duelling Crafters competition! It really means a lot that so many people liked what I made with my dad's tie. I've blogged my business card holder before, but I also made a needle book for my sister's birthday. She was so pleased with it that she had to call me from a rehearsal to tell me about it. There's still quite a bit of fabric left (they made ties big back in the olden days!) so I am going to try and come up with something else too. Thanks Vonnie for running such an ace competition - I look forward to the next one. And am now trying to avoid your Bake Swap, which sounds fab, but not good for my diet!

My latest creations & works in progress

I have no idea how I am getting anything finished at the moment - there is so much to organise with our house & garden. Of course, work in the garden has to be a bit of a priority at this time of the year - we want to have some veg to harvest come the end of July. And because it's the end of the month I've also been busy catching up the hours I work for Any Questions Answered - an entirely marvellous text answering service. Now I can rest easy that I'll get paid this month!

In spite of all this I have managed to get a couple more things listed in my Etsy shop - a new bag made out of some marvellous retro-style fabric & a little sun hat for a toddler. What pleases me most about these is that they are my own patterns which I developed myself & have worked through by trial & error. I have never been that great at thinking ahead (chess is a mystery to me..) & so I feel pretty chuffed that I have been able to plan out patterns that haven't left me with huge holes or strange lumps in the finished items!

I have various works-in-progress at the moment. I've cut out some fabric for a couple more hats - this time in navy stripes which I hope will look rather dapper. I am trying to resist buying more Kaffe Fassett fabric so I can make MORE hats until I have finished the current ones. An incentive if ever there was one. Soon as I have them done I will be off to the Cotton Patch...

I am contemplating entering the crochet challenge on Craftster - which is rather brave of me because I have never even posted on there before. The theme is 'Summer Crochet' & I have a good idea that I am working on. It's a bit make it up as you go along but I like what is happening so far... What I love about crochet is that I feel confident enough with it to just start on something with just an idea in my head. I don't feel that about knitting at all... but maybe that's just because I haven't had quite as much practice with knitting.

I also have another bag design on the go. The idea is to create a bag large enough to get in a whole load of supermarket/farmers' market shopping in it whilst still looking reasonably stylish. I have my prototype underway - it's at the part sewn up stage. One of my reasons to create a bag like this is my own annoyance with 'bag for life' style shopping bags that fill up so quickly. I also have some gorgeous fabric with a huge pattern on it that would look great as an enormous bag... but, of course, I also need to avoid it looking like a big sack. I think that's the trouble at this stage!