Back and just as anxious!

And here we are again!
Another attempt to make something out of nothing!
I don't have a lot of resources. My anxiety and social awkwardness are such that Craft Markets and such have never worked well for me. Unfortunately, I've developed such a good mask of quirky cheerfulness, people don't realize the agonies of anxiety and fear that churn away just underneath.

I like making things. Lovely things. Comforting things. Things that make people smile.
Unfortunately I really struggle with the kind of self belief one needs to promote myself and my products. I suck at selling!

Goodies on my Etsy Shop
www.etsy.com/shop/danie17

So here I am, again trying to put together a facebook page with my knitted toys and goodies in it. I still have my Etsy shop, which occassionally has many sales and I'm so happy but then long droughts where I think "I am never going to get enough momentum to keep this thing going."

Little Dolls
www.etsy.com/shop/danie17

But despite all that, I keep knitting. Because it makes me happy. I feel deep satisfaction with each beautifully turned out bunny or doll.

A lovely custom order for a lady's mother to hold while she has chemo.
A little friend to be there with her through it!

I don't get that sense of deep contentment with anything else in my life, although I am blessed with a loving family, children who are grown and building their own families and still get to see often. I have a wonderful life!
And a lot of mental health issues due to possible Aspergers. And type 1 Diabetes.

My lovely Mother. Dad died this February.
Mum is the loveliest person I know!
 

My wonderful Hubbie, who puts up with a lot!

So I'll keep plugging on, knitting and doing my best because after all is said and done, what else can you do?
I am thankful. The Lord has blessed me more than I can fully appreciate. And with his help and all those He's placed around me, I'm sure I will do much!

God Bless to All!
Dx

A Pleasant Time

I've been enjoying a bit of company lately while youngest son, Jordan (who looms over me alarmingly!) has been spending the week here with us. Saving some money and eating free food! I'm more than happy to have him. Hubbie's quite often pre-occupied with work or training and there's no-one else to talk to but the dogs and the cats. So I have been enjoying it greatly!

He even was good enough to join me working with polymer clay!

His water lily was so nice too but he discovered that if you roll the clay too thin it really does compromise the stability of the whole thing and sadly the middle petals fell apart. But I have pictures to prove it was beautiful!

I've also finally discovered a way to use the clay that I like. The pendants and the large disc have given me renewed hope that I might actually like using polymer clay. I've finally used up my pendant trays so now I'm wondering how to proceed...ordering more is NOT an option. 

I'm still making progress with the combo yarn beanies and the Monty Python cross stitch. 

I've finished up the last beanie using the blue combo yarn...

...And I finished the third line of characters on the cross stitch. Only one more line to go!

Still busy, still compulsively crafting!

I find it sometimes really discouraging to think of how many completed projects I have stored up, jewellery, tatting, knitting, various crafts that I have no use for. I will never wear all the things I make. If I were a bit more like everyone else I might. My mothers has hundreds of earrings and wears many of them because she likes social occasions and is both gregarious, cheerful and outgoing. 

I am not. I'm just an overly anxious introvert!

Social occasions fill me with an underlying wave of panic and anxiety that I can usually disguise adequately enough when I have to but invariably leave me washed out and exhausted afterwards. It's lovely when people compliment me about the things I make, but sometimes I question what point there is in me constantly churning out various crafts when all it does is cost me money. I feel a bit like a crazy crafting ant. Constantly creating things I have absolutely no aptitude to convert into anything useful. 

Obviously I'm still a bit blue at the moment. On Friday I'll be driving Jordan back to Perth. 

I think I'll even miss the continuous talk about movies and famous Directors...

Ah well.

See you all later

Dx

Today is another day

And more hours to put craft into to keep fidgety hands busy!

It does puzzle me why I can sit hunched over a cross stitch or drawing up a picture or nutting out a new technique I've  never tried knitting before for hours! But when I have to tidy a bathroom or hang out laundry...blimey! It suddenly takes on the proportions of some enormous, insurmountable chore, sucking all the fun out of my creativity and rudely breaking in to my own little world. It's so inconvenient!

So what have I achieved so far this week?

The Marvellous Vest is all done and put away. I dusted off the Monty Python and the Holy Grail cross stitch and have actually managed to progress to the next line of characters! The light issue still remains so I can only do it during the day, so at night I knit.

I'm knitting a pair of socks with a lace insert with some yarn I dyed about 2 years ago but I still don't have a pic of those so I'm keeping them as a surprise for later when they look more like socks.

Also I realized I had accumulated a large number of left over cone yarns with ridiculously thin yarns on them that I really couldn't use in their present state. So I dragged them all out and combined a lot of them to make useable yarn for beanies. I must say, so far I am very pleased with the results! Much better than I'd expected and since they're almost all acrylics, they should be easy to wash. I'm going to see how many I can make and then I'll donate them to my local charity.

So there you have it. Does anyone else suffer from excessive creativity and nil enthusiasm for useful accomplishments?

Maybe it's just me :)

See you later!
Dx

Compulsive...

Sometimes I have doubts that it's really a strong enough word to describe how I tend to do things to death when the fit takes me. But I now have quite a few needle books to give away as gifts...if I can think of anyone I know who'd actually use them!

This was the first one that set me off. I was sure I could do this better!

The first one was using fabric for the outer face and various off-cuts of felt for the inside. I used scraps of fabric to cover the press stud but when it was all folded up I didn't like the bump the press stud made. I was sure there must be a neater way. Also edging the fabric and felt with bias binding worked but it wasn't something I wanted to have to do every time!

This was my second attempt using only felt.

I like this one with just the felt as material much better. I only needed the sewing machine for attaching the felt sheets in the middle and to attach the inner and outer parts of the needle case together. After that it was all hand sewing. I really liked the back stitch I used for the heart motive on the face but I used blanket stitch on the outer edges and it worked really well. You'll notice the first test using a button closure? Yeah, I ended up removing it because it wouldn't sit straight and I covered a large press stud in felt and sewed it on instead. Again, still don't like the lump the covered press stud makes!

And the cheery Orange Needle Case AND first experiment with button closure!

I felt I was getting closer to what I wanted, so with this one I went ahead and hand sewed a button hole in the top flap. Discovered that it's a good idea to cut the buttonhole first since the chances are pretty good if you cut it after you've sewn around it you will snip the threads...no matter how hard you try not to!

This Needle Case looks pretty good considering how it got chopped and changed about!

With the Star Needle Case I thought I'd see if I could make a button loop closure out of the top flap instead of cutting a buttonhole into it...the quick answer is...No! It pulled the whole thing out of skew and didn't hold the side flaps in as well so I ended up having to cut the flap off and re-sew a new one in, for both sides! The outer one looks much nicer than the inner one since after doing the inner one by hand I realized even I couldn't pull that off as a design element on the outside of the case! So I used the sewing machine. Much better!

Pretty little Busy Bee Needle Case!

So I now had the design I was most happy with. I'd also finally addressed my issues with the inner flaps by adding a hook and eye to latch them together. It bothered me that the flaps may fall open. I cut a long buttonhole in the top flap and blanket stitched closely around it. I made a pretty little bee motif with scraps of felt and plain back stitch and sewed it in the centre of the face and then blanket stitched around the outer edges.

Tatted Motif Needle Case

Now the creative juices were really flowing so I wanted to explore a few different faces. This was one that turned out really nicely. I used one of my medium sized tatted motifs, sewed it onto a pink circle and then back stitched that onto the face. Lovely bold impression without being fussy. Love it!

And finally...Leaf Needle Case!

I could feel the ideas running down though so I knew this one would be the last...for a little while at least! I drew a pattern on the back of the outer cover and cut it out (which turned out to be a MUCH harder job than I ever imagined!) and then back stitched around the design with a piece of black felt behind it. It makes quite a bold impact, doesn't it? I'd do more like it if I can come up with a method of cutting out the design that doesn't drive me crazy! and if I could sew a consistent line around the design that doesn't look like it was sewn by a giddy drunk!

But over all, I really liked these needle cases! Yes, I may be a bit compulsive but at least I now have some lovely gifts to pass on when ever I may need to...so there!

I think my hands have finally recovered from the charity knitting I did so I may pack up the threads again and get out the knitting needles! 

See you all later!

Dx

And I continue to conquer!

Well, I'm pleased to announce that the house is now much more ordered! We've even managed to dig out the back verandah! Mind you, that was only possible with the addition of a small shed under the patio for all the boxes our children have left us and my cats night house.

So to prove it, I thought I'd show you the same rooms I showed before all cluttered up, more or less!

So this is the smallest spare room with the spare queen bed in it (yes, I know it's stupid that I put the biggest bed in the smallest room but that's where the removalists put it and there was NO WAY I was going to try and move it!) Actually it's pretty sparsely furnished. My hubbies childhood dresser is actually inside the built-in robe and my second-hand horn cabinet is at the end of the bed against the wall. I can't use it but at least it's out of the way! And my old upholstered armchair is there in the bottom right under a chenille bedspread. My free-standing embroidery frame is carrying the red blanket just above it.

And the room I'm most proud of, the craft room! Big change from the doorway blocked up with boxes! Again the built-in robe is a god-send! My photo light stands are in there not to mention the box with my wedding dress in it. The single bed lives here too, plus one of my spinning wheels.

See? There's the spinning wheel next to my bookcase. All my knitting magazines are there on the left and every single other shelf is stuffed with yarn! Which sadly isn't all of it. Multiples of more than 5 balls I've confined to bags stored under the bed or in the smaller spare room robes. In the bottom of the picture is my collection of cross-stitch magazines and threads and things.

So, now we've got some organisation I was able to get on with the vest. I've never done a cabled pattern like this before and it wasn't an unpleasant experience. 

To be honest I didn't really have any problem with the pattern until I got to the decreases at the V-neck when working the neckband. I couldn't seem to get my brain around the directions or they weren't correct. Anyway, I just kind of winged it in the end.

It doesn't quite look like it's supposed to but it's close.

I also sewed a couple of tags to put on it to make it look a little more professional (Because I'm an insecure basket case!)

One of a Kind - because it is! 

The yarn I used is totally reclaimed from an old jumper and so there are a lot of joins throughout the whole garment. I've carefully sewn them in though.

Warm Hand Wash

Just to give a bit of a hand to whoever. I don't know what the exact fibre content of the yarn is so I figured this instruction would be the most helpful.

I hand sewed these. Totally worth the effort!

And the finished Vest. So pleased with this I cannot even begin to express it! It's been washed, blocked, dried, folded and packaged up. It is now wending it's way via post back to Carnamah. 

I really hope they like it!

Bye now Dx

I have survived!!

Yes! I survived the move! It was tricky here and there but we seemed to have managed to take the contents of our 4 bedroom and 2 bathroom house and shoe-horn it into a 3 small bedrooms and 1 bathroom house.
Just.
Not that everything has a place yet, not by a long shot! But most of it is physically here on the property...except the caravan...and the dogs...
But everything else is here!
I thought I would include a pic of where the removalists put all my craft boxes...almost floor to ceiling!  Admittedly there are bed frames and such in there but even so!!

Country Craft Groups Rock!

They really do! Shortly after we came to Carnamah I started attending the Carnamah Craft Group because I knew if I didn't do something to meet people I would just hide at home. That being my natural tendency.
When I turned up, the wife of the new second man at the police station, the ladies were so welcoming and lovely that I felt comfortable immediately and hardly felt shy at all! It was such a pleasure to be able to relax in other women's company when you are new to town, especially when your a confirmed Southerner (south west Australian - Albany, about as far south as you can get without setting up in Antarctica!) and this was the first time I'd ever lived so far north!
They weren't all from Carnamah either. Farms were spread all over the place and there was one lady who travelled from Perenjori (about 56 kms from Carnamah!) to come every Wednesday, even though sometimes she was late because she'd had to move trucks, or silos or some other grain farming apparatus! And another lady who lived in Coorow, 27kms from Carnamah but she had so many stories to tell about farming when she was a young wife and they lived in Winchester, a township that now no longer exists but used to be somewhere between Coorow and Carnamah.
The stories and the histories of farming, mostly grain, were so interesting! I didn't know anything about it so it was all new! The price for wheat versus canola and how they fluctuated between seeding and harvest. The constant looking to the skies to see if the rain would come or if it would hold off, depending on which season it was. The combined hilarity at the misfortunes of one farmer who'd managed to seed 20 acres of nothing after forgetting to turn the fan on the air-seeder and having to go back and do the whole thing again into the night.
And then there was the craft! Such skilled hands and such patience! Most of the ladies did patchwork and the constant search for new fabric and techniques quite often sounded like a foreign language to me. I'm not nearly patient enough or precise enough to really enjoy patchwork but the quilts turned out by these ladies was really something to see! So detailed! So beautiful and such colours! All passed through the deep conversations in the cutting out room where those who were interested could gather around the bits and pieces of blocks and borders and help the quilter make the decisions about layout, whether this block would be better near this one and give advise when they'd managed to sew something on backwards again!
I could sit and knit or cross-stitch and listen to the easy flow of conversation and feel comfortable. It really was lovely.
But now I have to leave!

Yesterday was my last craft day and the ladies were so sweet and made up a morning tea for everyone and I brought my boxes of completed craft items, (knitted, cross-stitched, tatted necklace pendants, you name it! It was probably there!) I wanted everyone to have something to remember me by but I also wanted to get rid of some of my surplus! So the deal was, take one thing, but if you want anything else you have to pay. I hate doing that, I always feel so uncomfortable when I ask friends to pay for things but most of the items had prices on them from stalls I'd run before so it was a little easier. They brought so much stuff! I still have heaps left over but it all fits in the boxes better than when I brought them in and I have a nice little bit of cash in my pocket for our move!
And then Maxine brought me this square parcel and in an off-hand sort of way said "We wanted to give you a knitted blanket but you didn't really give us enough time to do one for you so we brought you the wool for one. We expect it done before you leave!" (tongue-in-cheek).
To me this seemed totally reasonable. I'd have enjoyed a gift of knitting yarn a lot more than some other things so I opened up the parcel, expecting balls of yarn...
...and instead was presented with the loveliest little knee quilt I've ever seen, with each of the blocks done by one of the ladies at craft. I was so touched!!

This just shows how preoccupied I can get when I'm knitting! They planned all this while I was at craft. Those conversations in the cutting room weren't all about their quilts but about the one they were making for me! I usually leave at 1pm while craft continues on till 3pm but last week I stayed till about 1.30pm and they needed me to go to finish the quilt!

I love it! I love the little bit of actual knitting in the middle with it's tiny needles and their smiley faces. I love the thought and care that's been put into the whole thing. I just love it!!

So, to everyone at craft, Ines, Yvonne, Elaine, Joan (who couldn't be there. She's got her own moving saga to go!) Chris, Jodi, Maxine, Rhonda Wellington and Rhonda Walsh, Helen who walks up from her exercise class and Sandie who owns the only fabric and haberdashery store in town, to you all! I salute you!!

You are all women whose worth is far above rubies! 

God Bless you all!

Dx

Have been SOOOooo slack!

I have pics. I have been knitting. I have NOT been keeping my blog up to date.I am so no good at this!

But the move here has been smooth. We are quite at home now. All the medical and dental facilities available here (well, not exactly here in Carnamah. In Three Springs, the town 23kms away.) are excellent and I'm probably getting better diabetic care here than I ever did in Albany!

The landscape around here is quite different to Walpole. I've been trying to get a good shot of how open the paddocks for wheat are but I'm not really a great photographer. It's not yet seeding season so everything is very brown!

Carnamah Main Drag

Road to Carnamah from Geralton Direction

Huge empty wheat paddocks

 But I have had visitors, my favourite kind! Family!! 

Easter Weekend my Mum and Dad came up with their winnebago and brought Jordan down with them since he had a break at Uni and Ben was going to Easter camp and he'd have been home alone for 4-5 days! Had a lovely time! Great conversation and time with parents. My Dad could withdraw to his van when all the interaction got too much for him (no real difficulty finguring out the genetic line for the Aspergers syndrome!) and my Mum and I enjoyed nights knitting together. Jordan played with our dogs and found pics of the most recent Avengers movie. Was especially great because Hubbie was doing Easter Cop Stuff at Cevantes and I'd have been by myself for 5 days. This was much better :)

Mum, Dad and Jordan

And at the moment I have my darling daughter for a visit! All the way from Canberra! Ben and Jordan came as well since Ben was the one driving and Aaron (Daughter's Army Partner) had to return to Duntroon. So we had to get a photo of this rare event when all of the children were in one spot at any one time :)

The whole family!

I miss them all, but by gosh! Is it noisy when they're all in the house at once!

So that's that. Haven't included any craft news because, well, surely this is long enough! Will soon have an empty house again when we've taken Brianna back to the airport so she can return home and look after poor Aaron who's just has three wisdom teeth extracted...a a bit of his gums...oh, and a small portion of jaw. But he's fine! Then I'll be able to write up what I've started (far too much!) and what I've finished (not nearly enough!)

I am very blessed, Thank the Lord!

Have fun :)

Updated Pages

I've just finished updating what was the Market Day page. Now it's Stuff to Sell. I'll be putting all my stuff to sell there while I'm also trying to place some of them in stores. So stuff will come and go at times. I just need to try and make this look professional.

This is the latest label I have on the pendant boxes.

My Shop is Open and with Stuff to Sell!!

Yes indeedy! I finally got brave and started putting just a few of my things on there at a time. Still getting really pretty pics of my pendants but so far I've got about 5 knitted items and 1 tatted pendant up on my shop site.

These are the knits. I've only shown 1 set of mitts because I've got three of the same design but different colourways. Very cosy and easy fit!

 

I've got heaps more to put up! Since I'm such a compulsive knitter I have to get rid of some of it before me and my family get smothered under it all! So please come and have a look. You might find just the perfect gift for someone this christmas, be it a cosy knit of a piece of unique jewellery!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/danie17

Look forward to see you :)

Still Slogging On...

...With the Vintage Jumper of course! I've now finished the back...

and am almost finished with the sleeves! Yahhh!!!

This is going much quicker than I feared it would but I'm still sceptical that I'm not going to hit problems when it comes to seaming everything up. And I'm really not liking the cream colour. I think I might have to dye it something else when it's all sewn up...outside somewhere...so I don't get dye on our rental house!

Also I finally got my parcel from Annie Howe on Etsy! Not Annie's fault, I might add, that it took so long. I stupidly forgot to change the address from my old one to the new one and so it had to first go to the wrong town before being diverted back to the right town! But now I have more goodies to play with!

I've already played with the Art Gel, a pendant tray, a tatted motif and a glass disc and it's looking pretty good so far. I just have to be patient and leave the whole thing to dry properly, then I wont have gel all over the face of the pendant! See, here's one I prepared earlier!

So, there you have it! Now, I better get off, pretend to do some house work and see if I can't finish these sleeves tonight...or at least before 12.30am :)

Happy Knitting :)

I Actually SOLD Stuff!

This is actually about three weeks late but here we go..
We were attending a farewell dinner at Hubbie's boss' place before they moved off on their transfer and there were a lot of other ladies and friends of the boss from Cranbrook where they used to work. I was knitting (as always!) and the subject came up about how much I knit and how I've never had much success at the markets and the ladies all said they'd buy stuff off me. So Jordan and I went back home, got my two large plastic boxes full of stuff and brought them back to the house. And did I have fun?!
The ladies went through all of them. I learnt a few things. If I want to sell slippers and mitts, or even gloves I have to stop sizing them to my bitty hands and feet! That men quite like the idea of warm hats and slippers. And that party plan selling is probably more beneficial than anything I've yet tried! By the end of the night I sold all these! It may have been more but I can't remember exactly.

I just stuffed the money in my pocket as the ladies chose things since I didn't think it was very polite to count it in front of them. After I'd packed everything up I took all the money out of my pocket and counted it all.

I had made $230!
And I still had $30 more coming for a pair of slippers commissioned by one of the men!
That's more money than I have EVER earned with my craft!!!

I invested the money in a tagging machine and more wool. I feel so encouraged! I also sent about 20 items with the Postie at Cranbrook to see if they would sell.
Ah...I am so happy :)
Joyous Knitting :)

Buttons, buttons everywhere!

I've been enjoying returning to cross stitch for a while and I got these self covering buttons with a cross stitch magazine I bought. Then I started thinking of the things I could put on them and I suddenly remembered the motifs I can make with tatting. A few pieces of calico, different colours of crochet cotton and a few shuttles and Viola! I have some of the cutest, most individual buttons you'll ever see !

Aren't they sweet? I wish I had heaps more but as you can see I've covered all the ones I have. Next time I'm in town I'm going to see if I can get more and some different sizes too. These are kind of big. With finer cotton I could cover quite small ones. So pretty, so unique! Sighhhh. I could just sit and look at them all day.
Anything that makes you smile should be encouraged, right?
Have fun :)