Carl Boyd neck template available for purchase at: jan@guernseywool.co.uk

Cleaning up My Knitting Room

 

I've been working in my knitting room to get it straightened out. My long bed machine is under a stack of fabric. (How did that happen??) LOL I'm trying to get things organized again, as it is sooo confusing, even to me. I can't find a single thing. It is starting to look better now, & I'm making some progress. I want to get busy & knit some sweaters for the shelter before Dec., as that is when I usually take my donation up. I like to bring in a box of yarn from the garage & knit it all up into children's sweaters. I miss all the MK that I did before. I have a space cleared out by my SR 860 & want to start knitting. I'm selling so many small appliance covers that I haven't had the time to do anything else.

 

I used to sell my diaper covers on a site called Hyena Cart. I did a lot of business with Karen, & kept busy, but in the last few years the site has lost most of it's members, & that includes buyers. When I started selling there, there were 117 knitting & crocheting stores. Now there are 4. She is trying to get a fb site going but I'm not sure that will be a go. I think that HYC has had it's day in the sun, & probably won't attract a lot of moms. If she can attract some customers I will start selling on her site. I've sold a few diaper covers on fb through my BST store. They haven't caught on yet, like they did on eBay.

 

 

Resurrecting my Blog

I had a hard time getting back on my blog.  I couldn't get the right password & email address to get it back up & running again.

 

 

I haven't done much knitting for the last year. I've been busy sewing small appliance covers to sell on eBay. I have knit a couple of things for the shelter but that's about it. My diaper covers are not selling well. No one is buying diaper covers on there, mine or anyone else's. There is barely one page of them. I have opened a BST(buy sell trade) group on fb so maybe I can get that going. So far I only have 13 members but am hoping that will take off. I have sold a couple of them there.

 

 

China & other countries have taken over eBay & Amazon. They are able to sell the same product more cheaply than US based sellers. Most of the things they sell are not the cheap things that seemed to be the norm for so long. Now, their products are as good or better than what US sellers were making. I have a friend that sold on Amazon & she said that as soon as the bootleg site is taken down, they are back on selling again.

 

 

I don't like to get into politics, but am so worried for our country with the President creating havoc. Please write your representatives & get that madman out. :)   

 

 



GC Sweater for the Shelter

I finally have a picture of the

GC sweater that I started some weeks ago. I have had it finished for a while but haven't gotten around to posting it. I'm really happy with it. It turned out so cute!! You can't see the pattern very well. It's dark & rainy here so had to use the flash & it washes out. I have about 6 sweaters for the shelter. Usually I have double or more. I have neglected everything it seems like this year. Hoping for a better year in 2017.

 



 

GC Children's Sweaters

I'm still kind of ashamed of myself for the paltry box of children's sweaters that I took to the women's shelter last year. This year is going to be better but not by much. I decided to make some GC sweaters for the kids & this is the first one.                           

 

It's baby pink, drop shoulder with a cut & sew neck. I have the front back & sleeves finished & just need to knit the neckband. This is pattern #490 of the Stitch World Book. I am going to use small patterns so that it won't look too big for the child. This is a size 2. I didn't have much of it so the smaller size was necessary. Sometimes when I run out of yarn I will finish with a complimentary color but I wanted this one to be all the same color. Hopefully some little girl will love it.

 

I'm still having some problems with depression, but am trying to fight it off. I finally talked to my DR about it & he wanted to put me on meds but I declined. I wanted something more natural & he said to start exercising as that increases hormones that fight depression. I have my treadmill out now & am going for a 20 minute walk everyday while I watch TV or music on the stereo. Nothing better that taking a stroll listening to Queen rockin' on!!

 

 

Hats Finished

Hats are now finished & shipped to my friend. They are for her g'kids. I went to ravelry to get some info on size. Most were 14" x 9" so that is the size I made mine. It only took a couple of hours to knit each one up on the GC. I used some superwash DK wool that is nice & warm. The yarn is by King Cole & not available here in the US any more as the wholesale distributer no longer carries it although I did see it on Ebay a while back. I have maybe 20 cones left in my stash. I bought it to make sweaters for my son. He is outside a lot at work & needed some warm sweaters.

 

 

I had a lot  of fun making them & I hope that her g'kids like them. She said that they all have long hair including the boy & a couple of them are curly & bushy so they should work just fine.

 

While I was making the hats I had placed my GC Turn Around cams in the wrong place & they caused patterning problems at the end stitches. I went to the MK list & asked the members about the GC mis-patterning & received the info that the GC will mis-pattern if the cams are in the wrong place. I just hadn't use the GC for a while & forgot where the cams were supposed to be placed. Thought I would past that information on.

 

 

 

Wool Slouchy Hats

I'm busy making some slouchy hats for a friend. She has 2 high schoolers that want hats & also another one off to college. She wants them all one color, no stripes or fairisle but she did say I could add a little texture so am knitting them up on the GC. She wants one grey, one purple & one blue. I have some 100% Superwash DK Wool that is perfect for it. She said they all have long hair so they need to be roomy.  I might even try to sell one on eBay & see how that goes.