Sunday 1 October 2017

Baubles

Thought I'd do a quick post as I've finished all the baubles and wanted to share how pretty they all are.

I ordered 50 polystyrene balls so that was my limit for how many I was gonna make. If they sell out I might order some more balls but for the moment these are all I'm going to make.

 It took two weeks to cover them all in beautiful crochet. Here they are all together in their loveliness.
I love this photo but try and imagine what it took to take it, these are round, I had to arrange them on the floor and my cats wouldn't leave things alone.

A lot of these have already sold so if you want some I wouldn't hang around. You can find them here in my etsy shop

These are all the new sets that weren't shown in my last blog post.

 Watermelon.
 Traditional Christmas
 Floral
 Pumpkin
 Brights - There is a pattern coming for this one and the one above coming soon. Plus these will be a free bauble pattern in the next newsletter. To sign up for the news letter see the link to join the mailing list at the top of the page.

 Cath Christmas - based on Cath Kidson colours
 Moorland Christmas - I'm meant to be using up yarn by making these but I ran out of the purple half way through and then ended up doing a full wool order. Not good.

 Scandi Christmas

So thats baubles for a while. Its been great fun making them, so relaxing.
I was trying to think of something else I could make to sell that wouldn't end up being too expensive. Amigurumi dolls take a long time to make and they are not very cost effective to sell. I do have some dolls available but they are made to order.

I kept thinking about a set I made for Inside Crochet a few years ago.
 Of all the things I have ever made as a crafter this has been the most useful. Over the years the tape measure has gone walk about (I know they are somewhere in the house but tape measures hide from me). I never really used the pin cushion as my mum got me a lovely one thats always in use. The needle book however, I have used constantly since it came back from the magazine.

It really is the most useful thing I have. I can use the soft crocheted cover as a pin cushion is I'm on the go. I have a full selection of needles and pins inside. Admittedly mine doesn't look as neat as now as it does above. There are lots of lengths of thread still threading in needles hanging out of it and some skeins of embroidery wedged in there but it is a much loved thing.

Last year we did a handmade secret santa at Duttons work and I picked my friend Christ who does a lot of cross stitch. I decided to make her a needle book as she always commented on how nice mine was whenever she saw it.
I don't have a picture of the one I made, but she loved it. She still comments on how much she loves it and uses it all the time every-time I see here.

Got me thinking maybe I could see how long it would take to make some and maybe they'd be a good item to add to my etsy shop
I started by making a batch of five. I think they have turned out great. They are mainly made in the same style as mine but I branched out a bit with the top two and came up with some new patterns at the same time.

 I have hand embroidered the Needles tags and they have vintage mother of pearl or glass buttons for the loop fastenings. Inside is felt pages that will hold many, many needles and pins.
They'll be going in my etsy shop in the next few days. I think they'll be around the £18 mark. you can contact me direct if you want to reserve one before them give me a shout at my facebook page amigurumi barmy or comment here.
 I will probably make a few more of these as i have more designs I want to try out. Cherries and balloons perhaps :) defiantly not 50 though.

I'm gonna be adding a few more things to buy that are pre-made over the next week weeks.
This weekend I'm working on the next set of avengers doll patterns but that might not be released till the end of October in time for Thor Ragnarok

Thats it for today then. I'll leave you with a picture of Cal not sleeping next to me as I work.
Happy crocheting
love Liz