crochet pic dump part two/market prep

Friday, December 8, 2023

Haha, well! I have been crocheting so much that I've effed up my left wrist. I've done this before, and sensed in these past couple of weeks it would happen again unless I was careful. I have been trying to be careful... but I was still shocked Pikachu when yesterday my wrist seized up while playing the guitar. Who could have seen this coming??

Waaah. All I want to do is crochet, so. It's a bummer!!

If you read my last post, you might have seen that I learned how to do the tulip stitch. With that knowledge I made the above pictured little cream-colored fingerless mitts, with pale pink tulips and dark green "stems." I love these and have been wearing them everywhere. They already look super beat up because I've been wearing them on an almost daily basis.

I've been crocheting so much in large part because I'm prepping for a small craft market -- the same one I did last year. It's T-minus one week out! I have until the 15th to finish stuff up.

I honestly do not anticipate a ton of interest in my wares, but did my hyperfocus get activated nevertheless? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I'll have beaded jewelry again, in addition to crochet pillows and these mitts and earbands. No pics of the jewelry just yet, but I did get this wire shelf off Amazon on Black Friday and think it'll make a better display than the one I had last year.

I've just been piling stuff up here as I've made it. I'll only figure out how exactly I am going to arrange everything the night before or day of, I believe. But look at these cute blue mitts with the daisies appliqued on! I think they're super cute. I have a coral/gold/brown pair of tulip mitts finished, and a pair with purple tulips in the works currently. (I can only hope I'll finish them in time; it depends on my wrist.)

I also have some plain mitts with zero froof or frills, but most of the mitts have scalloped trim crocheted on, and some of them have crocheted bows at the wrist!

I feel like my eyes are bigger than my plate, so to speak. If my wrist was in good working condition I would be crocheting some appliques for both the earbands and the mitts, and I'd be making up some more miniature rainbow pillows. And besides that, I meant to make some clay ornaments and never got around to it!

There's always next year, and it's never too early to begin prep. Or so I've learned.

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crochet pic dump

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Crochet post! Been very hook-y lately, partially because I'm prepping some stuff for a craft fair, and partially because I've been trying to finish WIPs. First, I have lately finished this pastel rainbow ripple I've been making for ~2 years. Half of it is colorful stripes separated by a single white row, and the other half is white stripes separated by a single colored row. I made it with a bunch of leftover yarn from my rainbow pillow madness (still ongoing, but not pictured here).

I'm pretty whatever on it at this point, but I definitely enjoyed making it. I always love to make a ripple.

I have made a few pairs of these granny square mitts, and pictured is my fave pair. I don't really make wearables too much! At least, not human-sized wearables. And I'm not sure how I feel about acrylic yarn for these. They're super duper warm but feel bulky. And doing small ribbing can hurt my wrists easily, so I have to take breaks and do no more than about half a mitt a day. But it's always fun to come up with color combinations. I think I'll try another mitt pattern.

Lots and lots of ear warmers!!! Far more than pictured, in all kinds of colors and yarns. I want to have these on my table at the upcoming craft fair I'm doing.

Crochet pumpkins. Made these with bulky yarn left over from ear warmers. I think they're super cute. I free-handed the stems with tweedy yarn, so they're each a little different and a little wonky. But, as one of the ladies from my knitting club said, that adds realism. I have no use for these except as random autumnal decor, so I've had to cut myself off from making 45 of them.

Finally, some panels made with the tulip stitch. I followed this video tutorial for them and made a couple of panels. Not for anything in particular, but just to learn the technique. I might stitch them together into a little pouch or something. These work up ridiculously quickly and I loved the crocheting process, but weaving in the ends (of which there were manyyyy) took a lot of time. Ain't that just the way...

Not pictured: several rainbow bobble pillows, a miniature rainbow rug crocheted for my little dolly dressup sets, a Blythe beanie with a pompom on top!
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a doll clothes haul video

Friday, November 3, 2023

So relieved I finally had enough energy to make this haul video I've been meaning to make for literally months! Just been saving up so many little purchases for the video...

That's actually a bad habit of mine from my more active video-making days, and one of the many reasons I began to feel that doing semi-regular YouTube videos negatively impacted my doll hobby. I used to buy doll clothes and then save them, hoping to make a haul video, but then I'd just not touch my purchases for months. I felt irresponsible, spending money on doll clothes and then never unwrapping them, never enjoying them, bever using them.

But, I really felt like making a haul video. It sounded fun to me, to talk about the clothes and appreciate them. Generally I don't save up purchases like this to share anymore because it so easily leads to me hoarding items instead of enjoying them.

I really enjoyed making this one though. Gingham and lace doilies and purple were the aesthetic staples! Used little sound bits from Animal Crossing games. Sourced so many little extra images to illustrate things I mentioned. Shot so much extra B-roll.

In other news, I got some storage boxes for my too-hefty-for-a-person-who-sews-so-little fabric collection. Time to organize!!

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