Folksy Friday - Crochet Thread, Stitches and Fine Detail

I love to crochet, that much is obvious but I really love to crochet in thread...to do all the really fine detailed work.

Thread crochet is exactly the same as yarn crochet except for the thickness of what you are crocheting with, fashion thread for clothing tends by numbered #3 or #5, bedspread weight/mainstream thread is generally #10 but you can get #20, #40, #80, #100 (!), I believe that you used to be able to get thread numbered over 100 in the past.  The higher the number the finer the thread, the highest that I own is #80 but I have not used that yet, the highest I have worked in #20.
The stitches are the same in whatever medium, yarn or thread, plarn (plastic yarn from carrier bags, video tapes etc), T-shirt material, twine, etc.
Hooks for crochet thread go very very small, the largest you would use for thread would probably be 2.00mm and can go as small as 0.6mm !

My love of thread crochet is the reason that I chose to make a lace Christening Gown for the competition at the Anglesey Show this year.
I have had the pattern (and the #20 thread) for quite a while, just waiting for the right moment to make it, when I was told the class title was for crochet in the competition, 'A crochet item for a baby', this seemed like the perfect moment.

The excitement that I started out with turned into a typical large project relationship - more of a love/hate thing...as any knitter or crocheter...or any crafter for that matter!
The amount of Micropore tape that I went through protecting my finger, at least 2 rolls, as the fineness of the thread and the constant back and forth with the small hook meant that I just kept cutting into my finger.

However once finished, washed and put together, I fell in love with it again but now that I had to put up for someone else to judge, suddenly I lost all faith in my skills, I didn't want someone to critisize my work!

Turns out however that I was fretting over nothing as my entry was well received and I won 2 awards - Yay!

My love of thread crochet is the reason and the theme for this weeks blog, I wanted to take this opportunity to show you some of the marvellous stuff that has been created with such a versatile medium by some other Folksy crafters.



  Studio Aitch~Bits&Bobs Crafts~FaustaPink900~Isamo CrochetMiCrocKnit Creations~Craft Junction
 
As usual, click on the image to see more info on that item or click on the shop name to browse other items that are available.

Thanks for taking time out for a read, catch up soon I hope.

Apple blossom means Apples means Apple Crumble!

Hiya, it really has been ages since I have been on here, chatting away to you all.

Do any of you remember this post; http://lovesagoodyarn.blogspot.com/2011/04/apple-blossom.html ?


If you do then here is the evidence that painting my apple blossom worked.....

What a brilliant crop, this is just from one tree too, the other tree got a bit poorly and the apples didn't grow too well.

Good apples have been peeled and chopped, are in a dish top with extra deep crumble topping and will go in the oven in a few minutes to cook while we are eating our evening meal....mmmmm mmmm mmmmmmmmm!

Right then, I shall sign off for now and will be back soon with more updates, take care and see you all soon, x

Hello again, long time no see and the reason why!

Hello everybody, it really has been a long time since I have been here isn't it?

I have had so much on that I am afraid that this little blog of mine got bumped down the list quite a bit, what has happened since I last posted, numerous things to be honest but with regards to Loves a good yarn, I have had a number of orders to complete either side of a massive weekend to the F1 at Silverstone with my brother, (that was a weekend and half I can tell you, the content of which probably wouldn't be suitable for this blog!!)
It has been so busy here that I haven't had a chance to make any new stock for my Folksy shop or take part in the daily listing clubs on there and I am missing the forums too!

Do you want to know what is keeping me so busy now....well here it is;

Yep, I have decided to make this Christening Gown to enter for a competition....it is made from #20 crochet thread so is quite fine(!)

and the skirt is worked in one piece of 720 stitches (again!), 

I am only half way up the skirt and have to complete this in about 3 weeks to enter the competition....do you think I will do it?????? Hmmmm?

Anyway, this has led to numerous conversations between DH and myself as to what this would be priced at for sale, I have an idea of a price and his idea is about 5 times more than I was thinking.  This is a regular conversation between us, I suggest one price for something, he suggests another much higher price and we tend to fall somewhere in the middle.  He has even researched on the internet and there is nothing out there that is in anyway similar, does that mean I could charge what I liked as no-one else is selling something comparable?

So, the age old argument for pricing handmade items starts again, now I know there are various formula for working out prices and these work well for a number of crafts but for crochet and knitwear these formula do not work.  The time it takes to make an item of clothing, you cannot set a decent hourly rate as people would not pay the price.  Now nothing is more annoying than someone under pricing their work as that brings all yarn based crafts down etc etc but incorporate a minimum wage into the formula and the price is ridiculous!  Two of the pattern rows on the Christening Gown can take an hour to complete, the others thankfully are worked up slightly quicker. 

So my question is, what kind of price would you put on something like this and how did you come to that amount?  I would be interested to know your opinions.

A parliament of Owls moves into Folksy - Folksy Saturday

Hello everyone, I think this post was supposed to be a Folksy Friday post but work kinda got in the way of that so I thought I would make it a Folksy Saturday post instead!

Over the last couple of days in the daily listing club that runs on Folksy there have been a number of owls listed so I thought I would show you a few of them, they're of an interest to me anyway because they are wonderful birds but also because I have been making them myself to list in Folksy as well as to sell at a craft fair that I have coming up next week.




Loves a good yarn and Pollypurplehorse
Squintessential and 100 percent delicate

WithHugsandKissess and HeloiseV
So there you have it, the latest parliament of owls to move into Folksy, as usual, click on the image to see more info or click on the shop name to see what other goodness they have to tempt you with!
See you all soon, x

Those elusive first few sales!

On Folksy, someone started a thread asking for shops that had yet to make a sale or were under 5 sales to leave a link to their shops and she was going to blog about them to get the word out to a wider audience.  She had such a response she was starting to wonder how she was going to pick a few for her blog, another Folkster then offered to do the next few and then a third offered to carry on, this is where I stumbled on to the thread so I decided to do the next 6 shops from those that responded to the original question.

So here are the next shops from that original thread and my favourite items from their shops, all of them looking for the first few elusive sales;



Maram and Merryberry
KatyJaneCrafts and Images21
Bonnylass and MadbrilliantIdeas
So there you go, some new shops for you to look at, all full of real treats, as usual click on the pic for mre detail or click on the name to see what else they have to tempt you with!!
See you all soon, x

I have missed you! I am back and with an award too!

Finally Blogger has let me back in,  I have missed my blog so much!  I think access was lost when Blogger had a bit of a meltdown the other week but we are back - yeeha!

Right before the meltdown I was given a blogger award so I would like to thank Maria Devine of the beautiful mariadevine.blogspot.com for awarding me 'The Versatile Blogger Award'

Now there are rules for receiving the award and these are as follows;

1.  To thank the person who gave the award 

(Done)

2.  To tell you seven things about myself......hmmm

 - I love the colours green and purple

 - I have 3 ridiculous cats, one who jumps at his own shadow, one who loves in the kitchen and never leaves and one who likes to hunt socks and crochet items!

 - I dont like milk so my tea and coffee are black

 - I have just bought a little purple Micra called Shlurple

 - I used to be scared of crumpets (because of the holes) but now I am not and they are yummy!

 - I love camping and cannot wait to go away this year and live in my gorgeous tent

 - My fave drinks are red wine or a vodka and coke

(Done)

3.  To pass on the award to 5 newly discovered bloggers ( as I only started blogging this year all bloggers are new to me!)  and they are;

 - Charlotte Hupfield Ceramics

 - Umbel Handmade Mania

 - Moody Cow Designs

 - Dab and a Dash

 - Maytree Lane

(Done)

Right, so there you go, my very first award!  I am chuffed in case you didn't know.  Back soon with more posts now that we can get in again, see you all soon, x

Return to the labour market and mummy guilt

Well on Tues 3rd May I returned to the labour market for the 1st time in over 10yrs and this was an interesting mix of scariness and excitement.
My new job is a minibus driver for a charity that works with Autistic adults, I drive out in the morning and collect the service users from home to bring them into HQ for a days activities, the middle of the day is mine and then in the afternoon I go back to HQ to collect all the service users on my run and take them all home again.
This last 4 days I have been mainly learning the routes but pretty soon the bus will be mine...should prove interesting and challenging yet rewarding methinks.

Anyway on top of me returning to work was the fact that my children at 4 and 2.5 have never known me work, daddy goes to work all the time but mummy has never worked so this was going to be a big change for them to deal with too, not just me.
Tues, Wed and Thurs things seemed to be going fine, it was Friday when I started to pick up some attitude from the eldest and wondered if it was work related, but it was only when I got to my mums to leave the kids with her for the afternoon that it became apparent that this attitude and back chat was to do with me going to work when she said to me 'please don't go to work this afternoon mummy, I don't want you too' with tears in her eyes, that nearly broke me then but I managed not to cry and we had a big cuddle.  That afternoon I was feeling a fair bit guilty, I know it will pass and that we will all get used to it but that hurt.

So as it was the weekend and a proper weekend for me I decided that I would make something with eldest, she always wants to make something!!
Daddy took youngest out shopping with him and the eldest and myself set about making a mess in the kitchen, I had decided to make chocolate Rice Krispie cakes with some Easter Egg chocolate (the stuff that has managed to survive Mummy and Daddy's raids!)

She had great fun mixing the Krispies into the chocolate, most of then went in to the bowl, fair few didn't, she had even more fun eating the mixture of the spoon!

We both were exceedingly (!) pleased with the end results and I can tell you that they did taste real scrummy.

On Sunday, I decided to crochet some stock for the shop, but guilt kicked in again when I was asked what I was making and upon telling them that I was going to make an owl there was a dual chorus of 'Oh I would LOVE an owl Mummy' from both of my little ladies, it has been a while since I have made them a toy and they have watched me make so many for the shop so I asked what colours they would like and have spent today making them the owls they asked for, what do you think?

I think they are so cute that I am definitely making more to sell!

Anyway, hopefully my little ones will feel a bit better now, wait and see how this week goes, fingers crossed for no more guilt trips!