Change is Good

I’m very excited to announce that I’m finally in my new place, although I still have some moving to do. No, I didn’t move physically, but my crochet blog is finding a new home, as mentioned previously. Thanks to the knowledge and helpfulness of Daisy, my transition has been a great deal easier. She’s definitely my hero of the day!

This will be a step at a time process for me. I have all of my posts on my new site, although a few of my comments didn’t make the trip, and I’m still working on getting my blogroll moved. It looks like I’ll be adding the links one at a time, unless Daisy & I figure out some way to do it in one big swoop. I’m still tweaking my page, too. I haven’t decided completely on a template yet (I may ask my readers for some help on that one), although I do like the one I’m using. I can foresee me learning some good ol’ CSS in the near future to help make this even easier for me. I still have widgets to move, too.

As time goes on, you’ll see less evidence of me here, and everything will be directed to my crochet’s new blogging home. The name has even changed, but I want to make sure everyone has time to make the necessary changes on their own blogs and get the feed changed to reflect the new address. I don’t plan to completely delete this blog–at least not for a long while–since there’s some information here that I know other’s have linked to their own sites. I definitely want to give everyone time to adjust to the move.

With this, I plan to make my web site a little more user friendly. I have ideas for the direction I want to go with it all, not just my crochet, but my creativity in general, and as I said before, it’ll be a step at a time process. My goal is to have a fully functional web site by Spring of 2008. My blog will remain the blog everyone has come to know, so really the only thing that is changing about it is the name and location, although, I will be able to add some other features to it that I couldn’t before.

Without further ado, here’s my new address: http://www.shadetreearts.com/crochetblog/ – The new name will be Shade Tree Crochet, “Hookin’ Under the Shade Tree”. To change it on your blogroll, just use Shade Tree Crochet for short. 🙂

Get ready. This is just the beginning. Some good things are coming.

Changes are in the Making

My blog is about to change.

For several years now, I’ve owned a domain name that has gone from an e-zine to a photo storage to a front page for the work I do when I’m actually working. Recently I added a photo album so I’d have a place to keep up with all of my family photos besides Flickr. And with Ravelry working on a way to add photos with just a URL, I know I’ll access my own domain more and more.

With that, I’ve decided I want to move my blog over to my domain as well. I have big plans for my crocheting as well as some other ideas, and what better place to get them all started than to give them a home on a domain name I own? With the merge, the name of my blog will eventually change as well. “iCrochet” really isn’t all that unique, especially since Leisure Arts has a book series out with that name. At the time, though, it worked for me…and still does…but eventually I’ll want all things I do creatively to be on my own site.

I’ve been trying to make the move for about 24 hours now, but I’m obviously doing something very wrong. Lucky for me, Daisy over at Knotty Daisy has offered to help me, so hopefully I can get this ball rolling. (See? Ravelry isn’t just yarny things–it’s people helping people in other areas, too.)

I’ll make a post when I get everything working just right. In the meantime, you can catch me “hookin’ under the tree”. 🙂

BTT – Indoctrination

When growing up did your family share your love of books? If so, did one person get you into reading? And, do you have any family-oriented memories with books and reading? (Family trips to bookstore, reading the same book as a sibling or parent, etc.)

Actually, my family didn’t and still doesn’t share my love of books. My sister read some, but she didn’t ever encourage me to read much. My biggest encouragement came from my teachers. I used to save up my extra lunch money just so I could order books from the little fliers we’d get ever-so-often. When my daughter was born (she’s now a teen), I made sure she was surrounded by books and a love of reading. Neither of us read as much as we should, but books are part of our existence. I even passed on a couple of my childhood favorites to her.

I Smell Yarn!

Lookie what came to my doorstep today–a nice full box of yarn! I ordered it the other day from Joann.com, and it really got here quicker than I thought it would. This is actually three or more projects waiting to be created.

Inside, there was 3 skeins of Paton’s Bumblebee Baby sport yarn in pastel colors: white, blue, and pink. So soft & cuddly, I just wanna squeeze it. These will become some baby items for a very special baby in the family, as well as a few charity items for the hospital. There was also some LusterSheen for a top I’m going to crochet and some Moda Dea Sassy Stripes yarn for my very first pair of socks that will be made for the Recipe for SOCK-cess CAL in Ravelry.

I should order yarn more often. It’s as much fun to get it in the mail as it is to walk in a store to buy it! Well, it can be just as long as you get what you wanted, which I did. Now I have more projects to do than I’ll ever get finished before this year is over. It’ll be fun trying, though, and I’m looking forward to each and every stitch.

Headband

This is a really pretty idea for a headband. The organza ribbon adds a nice feminine touch.

Vintage New Yellow Headband

Now to figure out my own version of it.

There’s actually some really pretty items on that site. If I couldn’t crochet myself, I’d probably consider buying a couple (and might still anyway).

And this bikini on a different site is a bit–umm–out there, although I’m sure someone somewhere would like it. Interesting, to say the least. 🙂

My Real Job

I really wish I could say crocheting and crafting is what I do for a living, but it’s not. I actually work in a home business of home design. I don’t draw the house plans, usually, although I help when I can. I have no idea how wide a wall should be, but I can tell you how far a commode has to be from the wall. The drawing of the plans isn’t my forte. No, instead, I am the official renderer of our business. I’m the one who gets to do all of the pretty lil’ 3D images of our plans when the need arises. It’s a sometimes tedious job since the computer doesn’t always want to cooperate and detail is often important, but I do enjoy playing with the program. Watching lines transpose to an actual image is always amazing to me. Below is a couple of examples of my work.

Many times it’s difficult for me to get my head into my work, especially when I have crochet projects and ideas always floating around. The program we use for the house plans can work for creating charts of images or patterns, if I ever decide to use it, so there’s a crafting advantage there. If I could make enough money to survive on crafting, I’d definitely do it, but at least what I do for a living allows for some creativity, too.

Craftin’

If the image at the left looks like a large blob of grocery bags, you’re halfway correct. It’s plastic bags cut into strips to make a “material” suitable for crocheting.

This weekend I went to another craft day at Lissa’s house with two other craft-a-teers. Learning to make plastic bags into a big ball of yarn that could be crocheted into just about anything I wanted is one of the things we did together. Carrie was the “pro” at the idea, and she and Lissa demonstrated how to fold the bags then cut them with a rotary cutter. While they folded & cut, I attached the strips together, making my very own ball of very plastic yarn. Now to figure out what to do with it. Carrie had a couple of bags she’d already made which were really cute, and Lissa was working on one for herself. I’m sure I’ll make a bag out of it, but I don’t know yet if I want to look for a pattern I like or just wing it. I guess time will tell what this plastic glob will become.

Among the other things we did: a knit hat was finished and we all checked the washer when it was time to see how much it had felted, a pair (actually a single) flip-flop was attempted to be made with some very thick jute, and we all crocheted and knitted, whichever was our preferred way of doing things at the time. We also talked, laughed, munched, and had an overall good time.

Jenn was a little late so she missed out on the plastic glob yarn making demonstration and the felting, but she jumped right in and started working on a market bag she’d been crocheting. I was totally delighted when she said she thought crocheting was so much easier than knitting and that she may just have to switch back to it. Now I don’t feel all alone when I bring out my hook and yarn. It’s good encouragement for me to start going to the Wednesday night “knitting” group again since she’s usually there as well.

Too, last time I was at craft day, I took a few of the things I’ve made over the year. One was a really pretty wire crochet bracelet done with gold wire and golden-hued beads (liked the one shown at the right). It was gorgeous, if I do say so myself, and I gave it to Jenn. She told me when she arrived this last time that a friend of hers wants me to make a couple of bracelets to try to sell in her store. How cool is that! So, in the next couple of weeks or so, I’m going to add some wire crochet projects to my WIPs.

All four of us decided we were going to try to get a table together at a couple of upcoming craft fairs in our area for the holidays. One can’t be signed up for until the first part of September and the other I need to call on and see what information I can find out. It’ll be my first  shot at a craft fair, and having a few other people to hang out with and craft with doesn’t hurt. I’m looking forward to it. Not only are my crochet WIPs going to grow in the very near future; my other crafty venues are going to get some attention as well.

Cute Stuff

Have you seen the really cute stuff over at Adorn Magazine on their web exclusives page? If you haven’t, skip on over there and take a look. There’s a couple of crochet patterns in the mix as well as a couple of knitted ones.

I really like the magazine, but admittedly, I haven’t always looked for it in the store. The only places I’ve ever been able to find it is Barnes & Noble and Joann’s, and last time I was at either place, I didn’t notice it on the magazine shelves. I think I’m going to search out the newest issue next time I’m out and about though. It seems to be geared towards that set of crafters that are younger than I am, but it still has a lot of great ideas.

Interesting Non-Crochet-Related Web Sites

Overbooked is a “resource for readers providing timely information about fiction (all genres) and readable nonfiction”.

What book got you hooked on reading? – Discover the top 50 books that got others hooked, as well as read about celebrity favorites. You can support the site in getting books to the people who need them.

Coupon Cabin has free coupons, coupon codes, online coupons, and promotional codes. (I’ve used this web site several times and have gotten free shipping from places like Joann’s & Fashion Bug. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you order things online often.)

The Free Dictionary is not only a definition source, but it is also an enclopedia and thesaurus. The homepage is customizable and has a couple of word-related games such as Hangman (one of my personal favorites), as well as your horoscope & weather, a word of the day, a quote of the day, and an article of the day.

Is Crochet Cheap?

It’s been said in a couple of places on the net that some people think crocheters are cheap (I don’t have the quotes offhand to elaborate), which is one reason why crochet gets such a bad rep.

In making a list of some yarns I’m going to order this weekend, I’ve noticed that the most expensive yarn I need for one of the projects I’m wanting to start is $4.99 a skein, making the overall cost of the project twenty bucks, not figuring in time. The least expensive is $1.99 x 2 and the middle one is $3.95 x 3. When I figure my total cost including tax and shipping & handling, my total comes to fifty-five dollars and some change. I have to wonder if this is actually considered cheap. I know I’m getting three projects from the yarn–a pair of socks, a plus-sized tank, and a baby gift–but still yarn is yarn, and I’m buying what I actually need for each of my projects. If I needed a more expensive and different yarn content, I’d purchase it, but since I don’t, the less expensive yarns are the pratical solution.

Funny. I don’t feel cheap at all. Giving of my time and putting a little love into every stitch of every project no matter who it is for or what yarn content it is made of is really the only way to truly judge what an item costs overall. You just can’t put a price tag on that.