Making, and spending, money

Very nice first-time outing at the NCAC Colors of Fall Craft Show this past Saturday. Beautiful fall day and my booth faced the duck pond. Pretty good but not great sales -- most of my proceeds went to food and crafts there and at the Southern Adirondack Fiber Festival the next day.

This was my favorite purchase, from Anna who had her booth next to me. She sews the beads together in an almost geodesic dome style. The chain just slips between the beads.

I could pick from every color imaginable. I chose the one that goes with the color I wear most -- black -- but also picks up the colors around it.

Got thrift?

Kids are back in school, including the youngest in preschool for a few hours a week, so I have been able to visit thrift stores and garage sales again.

Reclaimed heathered lilac

In the past, I have bought reclaimed yarn on Etsy. Now I'm going about doing it on my own. Time consuming but a really great way to get wool or cotton cheaply. And it keeps it out of the landfill.

While this was a very nicely made handknit vest, the shape was just a bit boxy. I fell in love with the heathered lilac color and had at one point planned on felting it. 

Instead, I set about unraveling the yarn to reuse in my own crochet projects. Some sections pulled apart easily while others were much more difficult. Definitely worth my time though. Now to decide what to make with it.

Getting back to business

It's officially fall. Kids are back in school and I have no excuse to not back to work.

Making slow progress around the house and with reorganizing my studio. Part of that involves getting more listed in my Etsy store (and subsequently marking things down there). It seems to be working -- I'm now at 500 sales. Woohoo!!! Move it all out ASAP.

I'm also getting ready to do a local craft show in a few weeks which has necessitated even more studio organizing and creating. I have quite a few new crochet pieces to share.

This scarf was my trip-to-Scotland project. I brought all the little bits of yarn leftover from other projects and made rows of bobbles and single crochet. I love how it turned out. Now to find a pin to use as a closure as it is to short to wrap around one's neck.

Did I tell you about the yarn I bought in Scotland? Half way into the trip I hadn't found any shops that sold yarn, so I plunked out quite a few pounds in a department store for natural yarns from a variety of UK sheep. (I'll share them at a later time, once I figure out what I want to do with them.)

The next day a chance and quick stop into a charity shop led to my best purchase of the week. (The deal made up for how much I spent on the first yarn purchase.) Nine skeins of this gray wool yarn for under $10. So far I've made 6 hats, given away 4 of them, and have more yarn left.

These two hats were created from direction I picked up a year ago. Even though it is called a beginner-friendly cap, I had real issues following the directions back then. Now that I know how to do it, I can get one done in a few hours -- without needing to follow the directions anymore.

Since then, I've made a few more little kiddo caps using up even more of my leftover yarn stash. Speaking of which, I have some really nice tapestry yarns vut they are cut into foot-long strips. I suppose I can start doing embroidery but does anyone have suggestions for anything else I can do with them?

The season ends

Labor Day weekend traditionally marks the end of summer. It also marks the end of the bagpipe season with the Capital District Scottish Games.

Flowers of Scotland

It was amazing how bright and full and colorful the flowers were in Scotland.

Must be all that rain -- and the money municipalities and businesses obviously spent on street-side containers and hanging baskets.

Just look at how many more photos I took this time over two years ago -- Flowers in Scotland.