Progress

I've sold four hats. Four!

So far I have made hats for my nieces and nephew. One of the nurses who came to checked on my niece's progress (weights, measrements and general health) when she was very small, saw a few of the hats I'd made for the baby. She liked them a lot and said to my sister that I ought to sell the hats.

So the thought has been in the back of my head for a while. My niece is now 2 and a half years old.

As you may have gathered, I like to crochet. It's great when you're watching a film on TV or listening to music. The former way being the most frequent for me. As long as the pattern is not too complex, or the film running in some reverse or tangled up time line. Something like "The Sting" for example would be too confusing to follow lol.

Sometimes I sit in the sunshine in the garden and do my handy work, if it's not too windy. Today is awfully windy :(

I brought some of my hats to work, to show people what I was going on about all the time lol. A lot of people told me they really liked them. That made me happy :)
And better yet, two girls ordered hats form me! Which made me even more happy.
-The hats are long finished and supplied. And I've had good feedback on them.

Since then, in fact in the last week, I've opened up an Etsy store. I've put a box on the side panel where you can see the hats. I've sold 2 hats through my etsy store HüG (HUGhats) already and I have a spotlight booked for 5th September. Fingers crossed it will go well!

Please have a look in my store, and remember; custom orders are more than welcome!
Hope you like them!

Wool

My mother taught me to crochet. Just the basics. And I made a scarf, all by myself. Still have it as well, though I never use it now.

Clearly I did not have any notion of matching different types of yarn and using the correct size hooks. But the colours match each other. At least it's not a collection of different left over yarns, but actually some quite nice Norwegian wool. hand-dyed in cream and rusty brown. The ends and the edging is fine thin wool of a dusty brown variety. Hook size used; probably a 3.5mm or 4mm. Not the right size for wither of the wools, but nicely in the middle.

It's somewhere in my wardrobe, but it's too chunky to actually wear. I look at it with a sense of pride from time to time, but I really ought to unravel it and make something else out of it.
The wool it too nice to let it go to waste like that. It was wool I got from my grandmother when her arthritis and limes disease got too advanced for her to continue to knit. She bought it herself on one of numerous trips she did with my grandfather to Norway when they were younger.

Yes I must really unravel it and create something worthwhile and deserving. It's only fair on the wool. And my grandmother.

I live in Scotland. One of the countries which has the largest amount of sheep. Wool comes from Sheep as we all know.

Therefore you'd think there would be an abundance of wool mills around and that the wool would be easy to get to at a fair price. Even people I know who knit or crochet in Denmark are jealous of me living in "the land of all the wonderful and cheap wool". Well. Unfortunately that is not the case. At least there are none anywhere near anything that I have ever heard of!? Unbelievable. Scottish wool costs the same to buy in Denmark as it does in Scotland. Something wrong with that picture.

It's actually easier to find the wool in Denmark thank it is in Scotland. There is a severe lack of wool/yarn shops here. The only shop near where I live, which sells yarns (most of them being Acrylics) is a Sewing Machine repair shop. Odd.

Last year I went to Portugal for a long weekend to the Algarve. Small touristy town. Nice and sunny. And there were three, 3, wool shops there. Three.

I just don't get it. It's a shame really. Last time I bought wool was in Denmark. I hope more wool or yarn shops will show up in Scotland. Would be nice actually.

Instead I have had to get whatever yarn I could find at a reasonable price and quality. I have a lot of Cotton. I like the cotton. It's less itchy.

I am making a lot of stuff in non-wool these days. I have yarn with bamboo, some with silk and even some with milk protein. Milk protein? Really? Yes really. Wonder who came up with the idea of adding milk protein to yarn?

Stuff I have crocheted so far include baby blankets. All my nieces and nephew(s) will have been wrapped in a "Moster Mette" designed baby blanket during their first years. That's really a nice thought I think. I've also created stuffed animals and baby hats. Never really get around to creating anything for me. I made a nice sweater for myself. In really nice thick wool. It took forever to complete and I remember sitting in the garden in August, dying in the heat, crocheting a woolen sweater. It took me months to complete. Only to find that when it was finished the sleeves were ever so slightly too short. And I don't care much for the colour of the wool. Was nice in the skein, but all together like that as a sweater... I'm not so sure about it .

I love making the baby hats though and I am toying with the idea of setting up an etsy shop at some point. Watch this space!

But for now; perhaps I should get back to unravelling that scarf and make something for myself.

Wednesday morning

Woke up in the morning feeling... well not like P.Diddy, unless he has a cold?... tired and confused. Must have been fast asleep. Another dreamless night... thanks for that. The dreams I have been having lately are disturbing, to say the least.

A was fast asleep beside me. He did not need to get up quite so early since he starts work later this week. The weirdest thing was that the cats were fast asleep too. The boy didn't even manage to get up off his chair till after I said hi to him twice. He did provide a good cuddle and purr though, which is always appreciated.

After initially thinking it must be a weekend morning I realised that my alarm would not go off on a weekend morning. Damn. Another day at a boring dead end job. And it was raining last night, with prospect of more rain during the day.
I managed to get ready, slowly.I heard that blasted cat who seems to think it's alright to meow outside the window all night. At least today he didn't show up till around 6.45am. Perhaps his owners kept him in over night. It's as if he's calling his playmates (my little boy amongst them) and expect them to come out and play. I wonder if my cats behave the same way near other peoples homes? I really hope not, because it's close to being one of the most annoying things in the world.

Anyway, after waking the curiosity of all 3 of my cats with his meowing he ran away when he saw me through the curtains.
I left the house wearing my wellies and a sleeveless jacket. Sporting the "farmer's wife" look.
On my way to the station my thought of it being a weekend came back to me. There were no cars in sight, which was a bit eerie. Then the thought of the alarm clock reoccurred and I realised it must just be a quiet day. But had someone changed the clicks overnight? Was it not just before 7am? Was it indeed just before 6am? Nope, the right radio show was on the air. Weird. Where did people go?

The station contained the usual faces. Business people in their trainers. Ready to take on the corporate world. I wonder what they do all day?