Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween, everyone! Hope your night is going great!
I'm sitting at home, knitting the blanket, and handing out pop corn to little, and not so little, ones. I threw on some angel wings and a halo, but I'm wearing all black? I love this holiday, and these past couple years, I just have not been as into it.
We usually get around 20-30 kids. We're at 10 so far. One girl was dressed as a bunch of grapes. Made out of a garbage bag and at least 100 purple balloons. It was fantastic.
For those of you who are handing out candy, what was the best costume you saw?

Upcomming craft show!

I have a craft show on November 30th at the Knights of Columbus hall in Amherstburg. It's from 10 am until 4 pm.
I'm really excited for it.
I'm hoping to have at least 10 bundles of dish cloths ready for it, as well as a few extras, maybe 2 in each colour, if people want more than 3 of one colour.
I am still working on Rachel's blanket. I've used about 1/3 of the third skein. It's big enough for me to use it while it's on the needle. I set it on my lap and I stay pretty toasty underneath it.
More updates soon! I promise

An other new blog!

I am a serial blogger.
http://iampayingitforward.blogspot.com

I have finished quite a few dishcloths lately. I'm working a whole lot this week, so I might not update nearly as often as I usually do.

A day of knitting

This morning I was rudely awoken by a stabbing pain in my abdomen. Turns out, I have some sort of stomach flu.
Because of this, I spent the day in my pyjamas, knitting my heart out.
I've started on the third skein on Rachel's blanket. I'm about 3 inches past that point, and if I can keep up with a pace anywhere near this, I will be happy.
I have also decided that I will be working on a few scarves for my upcoming craft show. Many of the scarves I have done are no longer in style, and I'm basically just carting them from place to place.
I have been selling dish cloths outside of my craft shows, and I'm trying to make them more appealing to people at the craft shows.
I sell them for $2 each, or 3 for $5 wrapped in a little bundle. I'm trying to figure out the best size for that price. I don't want to make them huge, otherwise they're not worth knitting, but I don't want them to be so small they're sort of useless.

New Favourite Item!

This one isn't as new as the others, because it was posted a while back, but Wishing I was Knitting at the Lake is a GREAT blog!
I'm not a huge college football fan, but this scarf is awesome.Cathy has the pattern available for the "M" in dishcloth form.
I simply don't have the patience or wrist strength to knit on such small needles for so long. I still think it's awesome.

The blanket!

I lost my camera AGAIN, but I realized I would be a terrible knit-blogger if I didn't post a single "In Progress" picture of this blanket.
I'm getting pretty close to finishing the second skein. The deli department employee in me tells me each skein is around three quarters of a pound (340g). So, if that is correct, this blanket will weigh in at 3 pounds. This weight is only relevant when it comes time to ship the blanket. Which I hope is at least 2 full weeks before Christmas, if I have to ship from Canada. If I do manage to get across the border before Christmas, I'm hoping one week MINIMUM shipping from Michigan.
This picture was taken while I was changing from the large needle to the small needle, about half was across. That little rectangle in there is a regular hockey card. Why a hockey card? It's the only thing I could find that is a standard size that one could see on top of the blanket in a cell phone picture. My brother (who owns that hockey card) will argue with me saying it's a standard size, because apparently, that set is MILLIMETERS smaller/larger than the standard size. Either way, it shows the scale of the blanket. The colours, not so much. There is quite a bit more variegation than the picture shows. BUT! you can sort of see the way it ruffles! If you squint. Or something. Maybe I'm making this up. I can see the ruffles, where I used the smaller and larger needles, and the colour variegation.
But I might be crazy.

A follow-up

I started a dishcloth with the bamboo needles.
The main difference I have noticed is the sound. I've never been a fan of aluminum needles clinking together. The bamboo needles make a soft "swish" sound as the yarn slides along them. The yarn also slides along the needle more easily. The best part of these needles is their short length. They're 9 inches. Which is something I'm sure I could have found in nearly any material.
Overall, I'm not giving them rave reviews like most others have. If two sets of needles, identical in every other respect, were placed in front of me, I would choose the bamboo over an other material. But, I'm not about to replace all my needles with bamboo.

Bamboo needles

Today, I was in the general area of a Michael's and I said to my chauffeur (Mom) that I would like to purchase a new set of needles. I have been knitting dishcloths with the same set of red Boye aluminum needles since... I started knitting dishcloths. They're bent, the red is wearing off, and the tips are not as pointy as they used to be. I also wanted something shorter that wouldn't poke the other passengers on the bus.
There was one type of needle that fit the last detail there.
Clover bamboo needles.
I decided to purchase a pair, and I will be using them as soon as my current cloth is done! I will post my thoughts here once the first cloth has been finished.

My left arm has been getting tingly lately. I think it's time to ease up on the knitting a little bit.

One order completed

My Grandma lives in a nursing home that has had a few craft shows in the past couple years. The first craft show I ever did was actually there.

The nurses that work there are very supportive of these, often stopping by every couple hours throughout their shifts.

One such nurse has purchased dishcloths from me in the past. Twenty at a time. I was floored when she said this. She didn't specify colours, she just took a stack of 20 random ones. This was at the first craft show I did. Since then, she has purchased probably 30 more.

I got a call from my Grandma last week, saying she wanted 10 more. I had about 15 cloths made, and I brought them out the Heritage Village with me, to see if I could sell any there. After none sold, I bundled 10 of them up, attached a business card and sent them out with my Mom.

I promise I will improve my photography skills! There are a few colours there. Three each of the pastel rainbow, rainbow and burgundy/cream/navy, and one white with pink and blue speckles.

Rachel's Ruffles blanket is coming along fantastically! It's my TV knitting. And Internet knitting. I'm surprised at how much I still enjoy knitting it, being Red Heart Comfort Prints and all... (It's sort of scratchy and stiff, until you wash it a couple times)

I should get back to knitting. I figured out if I wanted to have Rachel's blanket done for 2 weeks before Christmas, to allow time for shipping and such (she lives in Ohio) I need to knit 14 rows a day, which is one pattern repeat. I haven't kept up on this since I got back from Heritage. If I can get at least one and a half done today, and every day for the next week, I will be a happy camper.

A new favourite Blog!

My knitting friend Samantha just started a(n other) new blog.
Sam designed all of the ads I use for this blog (which I still have to post) and is an all around awesome person.


My favourite knitted item of the moment, by Sam, of course:

Much of the yarn in that scarf/cowl was mine at one point. She will be starting an Etsy shop soon, and when she does, I will add a link!

Selling my wares

Just this past weekend, I went out to Heritage Village for their Autumn Treasure Hunting Flea Market. My Mom and I stayed in our camper and my aunt and uncle in theirs.
I had my knitted scarves, baby blankets and dishcloths, as well as some hemp jewelry and a few no-sew blankets on a table to hopefully sell a few.
I sold one scarf, 2 no-sew blankets, 2 necklaces and a bracelet.
I had hoped to sell more than that, but people were trying to lower my already low prices. I had one scarf priced at $15, and they wanted to give me $10. I had to stick to my prices. I'm not really doing all of this to get rich. My prices are only slightly above cost of my yarn, which means I can't give any sort of discount without taking a loss.
I'm happy with the feedback I was given, but I would really like to have sold more.

I'm hoping to have a lot more stuff made up before my next show. I am waiting on an application package for a Knights of Columbus craft show at the end of November. Some local high schools also have shows before the Holiday season (hurrah for being politically correct!).
The Village also has a fall craft show, but with a $65 entry fee for a Saturday and Sunday, I'm looking at a cost of around $260 just to go out. The reason for the extra $200? I work two jobs, one at minimum wage, and one slightly above. I get 4 hour shifts at one, and 5 at the other.
This all means I would have to sell at least $500 worth of product, because most of the stuff I make I simply double the cost of materials to get the price.
This isn't worth it, to me.

For anyone else who does craft shows, keep in mind the loss of your wages from work. Also, things like travel fees, cost of food once your're there, you will probably end up buying things from other crafters etc.

Comming soon: pictures of my friend Samantha's new scarves.