What are you working on....

....right now?

Hi there everyone, I am sitting here in the middle of quite a large project and just got to wondering what you are all working on?

I am currently working on a bespoke piece.  My customer has two shawls in her collection and cannot buy any more as the shop she bought them from has stopped making them, which is why she has come to me to see if I can re-create the pattern. Here is one of her shawls;

and a close up of the shawl;

The order she has put with me is for mainly black, grey and white with a high contrast of blue.  After working out the pattern (which was not as easy as I first thought) I started to make the coloured flowers/centre of each motif, here is a pic of just a few of them, actually in this photo are the centre motifs for just the first 3 rows of the shawl;

There are 72 grey flowers and 62 white flowers needed to be made before being joined together with black like in this photo;

It should look quite striking when finished shouldn't it?

Well that's me, I would love to know what you are all working on right now?

Catch up soon!

Decision made!

Well, after my last post and a number of conversations with various people I have finally come to a decision about where and how to sell items made by Loves a good yarn!

I would like to state that I support handmade, however its made.  For more information on this there is a badge on the right of this page or click on SHHIM.

I am going to go down the route of my own website, www.lovesagoodyarn.co.uk.  I am going to keep my shop on Folksy, even though I am not too happy about how Folksy have gone about things and their timing is dire but as I have spent a fair amount of time promoting this shop and have built up a small reputation with some buyers but I intend to use it in future to feed through to my website.  It will be stocked with a selection of crochet items but it will be clear in the shop description that more sizes and colour options will be available on the website.

I will also have to change blog providers as the template that I am planning on using for the site will work with a different blog but I will be letting you all know over time before the move occurs (so if you wish to carry on following me you can).

In the meantime I will keep you all updated with the goings on in the world of Loves a good yarn! and I will keep posting photos of products on Loves a good yarns Facebook Page.

Thanks for reading and catch up soon.

Decisions decisions decisions!

Sorry I have been a bit quiet lately, I seem to have a lot going on and most of it is inside my head!

I am a great believer in fate, what is for you won't go past you and all that, sometimes things happen for a reason or make you change direction.  Well it would appear that now is one of those times.

There has been a change or a tightening up of criteria on one of the selling platforms that I use to sell items made under Loves a good yarn's name, as it happens most of my makes are still suitable but before this was clarified I had to consider the option of not using that platform any more and striking out alone, selling through my own website.

With my own website, I wouldn't be charged fees or commission, I can list decent stock levels, I would have full control over how my site looked, photographs, backgrounds, multiple pages, it would all be mine to control.
I can promote my own website as much as I was promoting my shop on the other site, or more.  I can link it in to all social media that I use, create a brand image that is mine and mine alone.

On the other hand, I don't have the publicity/promotion budget of selling platforms, or the protection of selling under their umbrella so to speak.  I have a few return customers and have built up relationships with fellow crafters in the forums, some of whom have been converted into customers might I add.

Or do I keep my shop/keep a presence while I get to grips with my website and then use it to drive customers to the website.

As I said in the title, decisions, decisions, decisions!

If anyone has an opinion either way or any advice then I would love to hear from you, in the meantime I will continue to ponder (whilst crocheting of course!)

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