One Ball Crochet! Who Knew!

New items in My Little Crochet Shop on Etsy.com

Wow! I don't know how I didn't think of this before! Glad I realized it in time for gift-making frenzy late in the year! One ball crochet projects! It is amazing! No color-lot frustration, no "oh, I need one more ball of yarn for that" ... just "here you go!" I was the star of Christmas (again!) <sly grin>

Actually, my sister found a one-ball scarf pattern on the RedHeart Boutique yarn "Sashay" and decided to try it. If it was not too much trouble, she would make several for gifts. It must have been fairly simple, as she completed two within a week even with painting and packing in preparations to move! So, when I returned home, I decided to give it a go. Wow! Ok, this is technically a knitting project, but it is SOOOO simple! And, the resulting scarf is FAB-YOU-LUSH! One tip for you: different styles of "Sashay" have different ball lengths, so the scarves are different lengths if you finish to the end of the ball. For example: "Sashay sequins" (very fancy! has  sparkly sequins along the decorated edge) is only 20 yds per 100g, but the original Sashay (no special name) "Sashay metallic" are 30 yds per 100g!

 The "sequins" makes a scarf approximately 5 ft long (when I make it... depending on your stitch spacing, your scarf may be different). My finished teal scarf is shown above. The ivory scarf at left is 6 ft long from "Sashay Sparkle" (35 yds per 100g). 

If I had been paying attention to this, I could have stopped when I was at the length of the other scarves...but, I kept on to the end of the ball...

So... another is fingerless mittens (fingerless gloves)! I messed around with some previously used patterns. I didn't particularly like how the mittens fit. They were too short on my wrist, too open at the fingers (too much cold air gets in and they are floppy at the pinky), and the thumbs are not well insulated. Wow! That is a list of complaints! I had to devise my own pattern to make snug mittens that are long enough for tall people (with longer bones) and protects the thumb. Ta-Dah! I bring you... my one ball fingerless mittens!

New fingerless gloves

Well... usually one ball.. I honestly don't know what happens! I am using LionBrand HometownUSA yarn in solid colors (81 yds per 5 oz - multicolor are 64 yds per 4oz, so I know to use 2 balls there)... and I use the same J/10-hook (6.00mm).. and the same pattern, carefully counting stitches and rows.. and sometimes, I have a little yarn left over (less than 3 yds) and sometimes I am a couple yards short! I don't think changes in yarn tension can account for this much difference. I must be doing something that adds yarn.. maybe I slip to join rounds where I previously crocheted in the round? One mitten is 18 rows, so that doesn't quite add up to a few yards? I just don't know.
Not to worry, remember those extra yards from some mittens? I use them to put a stripe in the short ones. Now, that is smart! And the multicolor yarn that I need 2 balls give back enough to make cuffs for a new pair. All is well that ends well! - Happy New Year! May you enjoy good health, fabulous wealth, and great friends!

Past MidTerm... heading for the holidays!

It's late... again! I had a Structural Geology lab exam today. Gruesome. So this evening while it poured down rain, I crocheted a little, dabbled in my etsy.com shop (http://www.etsy.com/people/Andiroth) getting ready for holiday rush, and watched re-runs of The Big Bang Theory on TBS. Else, I'm still learning the ropes of internet marketing, getting my name out there, and attracting users to my site. Not brain surgery, you say, but without an advertising budget, I may need to put a homemade bumpersticker on my car! LOL.. actually, I shouldn't laugh! I actually saw a bumpersticker where the person was trying to get people to click "like" on (his) Facebook page!!

I just got home from Utah this past week! Uploading a few pictures for you! I especially like the 2.7billion year old rock at Antelope Island in Great Salt Lake (top photo)! Definitely worth the trip! Canyonlands (bottom photo) and Arches National Parks are nice, and Upheaval Dome. Discussed a LOT of geology on the trip. Well, it WAS a geology field trip! Camping, long van rides, snow, sun, rain, stars, waxing moon.... good times!

Ah, well... the guts and glory of being a late bloomer! If only I had the opportunities now that I had 20 years ago coupled with the wisdom I have since acquired! This would be a completely different blog! "Everything happens for a reason" (they) keep saying, and "all things work together for good for those who love the Lord (and are called according to His purpose)" ... I certainly hope so!

Love to all my readers!

Après la fête, la défaite!

Ah! Christmas holidays! The food, the family, the friends, the festivities.... and then it's over. All the presents have been opened, the kitchen is a horrendous mess, and the little ones are running amok on sugar highs!... and in one week, it will be NEW YEAR'S!!!   oh, happy happy, joy joy...

I had a geology centered Christmas. My friends and family are the best! I received a carved stone jewelry box. I haven't taken a good look at what stone yet, but the carving is of excellent lacy vines. I also received a calcite lamp, perfect to display with my rose quartz bookends. I got a locally made, beautiful hematite and semiprecious stones necklace and bracelet, plus two bloodstone spheres. I love rocks and minerals! :)

My gifts to others were primarily hand-crocheted items. I found free patterns online for fingerless gloves and lip-blam cozies. I also tried to design a few hats and make a matching scarf for one of them... I had to rip out the scarf and restart twice! Grrr! But, it's working out this time... I am more careful with the counting LOL.

Hey, this year global warming (heh heh) brought a snowstorm to the southeastern US! That never happens! A white Christmas in Atlanta, Charlotte, Raleigh?... Bing Crosby has been dreaming for a long time here! ... I'm not a fan of snow. It's "fluffy rain"... it's cold and makes the roads slick (slicker than just rainwater)... it gets in my boots and sleeves, soaks through my mittens, and if the wind is blowing, stings any centimeter of flesh not safely hidden beyond a pile of fluff and stuff. I look like the Michelin Man (TM) or the Sta-Puff Marshmallow(TM) guy except I don't wear white!

Sure, snow is pretty when it gently floats from the grisly grey clouds... and smooths the landscape with a soft white blanket... Then it reeks havoc on the bridges, and drivers forget how to drive. Next are the weakest tree branches that crash over power lines and utility sheds. THEN comes the melt., making everything all soggy for days! See, if it had just rained in the first place, the water would have run away to the streams and a half week later, there would be no remnants.

I'm the minority around here. Most folks I know are loving the snow. Children pray for it beginning the first day of school. Even the adults seem enchanted by a White Christmas... bah! Humbug! ... I think I must have stayed out too late a few times when I was younger; back when snow was "cool." Maybe I got too cold? Maybe I wrecked my sled, and never shook off the embarrassment? Maybe I was the target of a slush ball to the head? Maybe after I started driving I started dreading the "fluffy rain?"... Doesn't matter... I hear it never snows in Southern California?... and that definitely makes it one of the Top 10 Places I want to live!

Need Readers and Followers.. heh heh

Don't you love it? Everyday people going on and on about what they are doing, have done, and would like to do, in a public forum where no one interrupts? It is great, isn't it! You are right now reading the meddlings of a 40-something year old in North Carolina, USA.... let's see if I can entertain you:

So, today, I managed to stay asleep long enough to have two VERY strange dreams! I first dreamt I was in my room at my friends house, refusing to get out of bed (dark, comfy, depressed, and trying to have a wonderful dream about a certain man I happen to think is AWESOME!).. ok, in my dream, my friend comes into the room to bring a Christmas card that is ACTUALLY a flyer for a local barbecue. It is still dark in the room, she steps over stuff in the floor to turn on the TV. Then her daughter comes in and they lounge on the bed to watch a static-y black and white program on TV. Annoyed, I decide to get up and take a shower. I can't find my robe in the mess. I get to the bathroom. The light doesn't come on. I notice my friend has been working on replacing the switch. I decide to take a shower in the dark, but the tub is filled with water and has shredded cardboard looking stuff in it! I might have to use the daughter's bathroom. The toilet and a second bathtub are also filled with water, and when I pull the plug on the main tub, the second tub starts overflowing. I holler out, and my friend comes to see what the problem is. The water in both tubs is draining now, and my friend gestures to a 4inch pipe in the middle of the floor. She talks about "that's what happens when [you] don't get the styrofoam out." She doesn't mean me.

Okay, so if THAT dream was not enough to encourage me to abandon hopes of a romantic interlude, I then dream that I am with my older sister, her oldest son, and a fair-haired, good-looking man who (apparently) has known the family for a long time. We are at my grandmother's house (mom's mother). The well water has been running ruddy. The old iron pipes need replacing/repairing. The man and I are sitting at the kitchen table. My sis is on the phone and is standing by the kitchen sink. I poured Pepsi from a single-serving bottle into my plastic cup with ice. The man is talking about his disappointment or disapproval of my sister when, several years ago, he noticed that she was paying her phone [bill? new phone?] while I was "having to take money out of the bank." Apparently, his thoughts were that family should look after one another financially and if one was comfortable and another in need then the former should alleviate the burden of the latter. I was explaining how our family does not operate as a socialist group, and if one is financially burdened, that one needs to get off his bum and go to work.  I go to the freezer to get more ice for my cup. The icemaker is making dirty ice because the water is not clean. There IS clean ice in some icetrays. I look at the dirty chunk I just put in my cup and show it to the man and my nephew. There is a tablespoon sized chunk of soil with green moss on it frozen in the ice. I am thinking there must be a serious pipe burst not far from the well. I go to the living room to find a place to throw away the dirty ice cube [because there is a sink in there?] My sister motions for me to bring it to her and not throw it away. I ask why she wants it. "Why do I ever want anything?" came the reply as she sat on the floor and set the ice on top of three small nandina sprouts she had uprooted while still on the phone. (the answer to the question is: because Mom wants it). My sister then tells me that Mom told my nephew that the water would settle after a couple of hours (it has been a little longer than this already). I took a glass from the dish drainer by the sink and filled it with cold water from the tap. I set it on the soap dish that is attached over the faucet. Two larger glasses of water were already placed there. My addition caused the dish to tip, threatening to crash the dishes into the sink. I try to rebalance them as my sister talks.

SO NOW... I give up on dreaming and get up and take a shower in my well-lit, no plumbing problems bathroom. I watched a Christmas movie (A Miser Brothers' Christmas) with my goddaughter and went to Walmart for yarn (for her gift) and packing supplies (for eBay) ... oh, and batteries for my camera! ... If you want to, I would love love love to hear your ideas about what these crazy dreams mean... I did have a good one last week I didn't tell you about. Involved the awesome man I mentioned in the beginning... except for the "things not as they seem" theme running through it, it was all right....

Getting the hang of eBay...

Wow! in less than a month, I have rid myself of about 30 items for a total selling price of about $200!! Okay, so it's not a gold mine, but it got me out of a tight spot! I have learned a little something: the US Postal Service has it out for the "regular people"! LOL  hahahahaha... no, seriously. Check this out:
I do not have a postage scale at home so I have to guess what the weight of a package is. I set the shipping charges on my listing by what I think the item weighs. I am a poor guesser! BUT parcel rate on a package takes 3x as long to get there, but saves me only 25 cents over Priority Mail! That's right, one quarter of a dollar, twenty-five cents! Plus, since I am adding delivery confirmation/tracking on each package, the deliv. conf. with Priority Mail is 10 cents LESS than with any other option!... so, really, it's costing only 15 (fifteen!) cents to upgrade to Priority service!... Fifteen cents to get there in 2 to 3 days, versus 9 to 11 days. My clerk always asks if I want to send a package Priority, I think the postal service is pushing priority mail. Maybe one day ALL packages will go priority 2-3 day and none will be dragging around the system for two weeks until someone finally decides to deliver it. Why would you not opt for Priority?

Ok, that's not where they get me.... it's the graduated postage scale... If a package is under 13 oz. it can ride first-class (cheap). GREAT! If it is 13.1 oz, however the rates jump up considerably and I am wondering why the postal service eliminated some of the smaller flat rate box styles and increased the rates 25% (twenty-five PERCENT, not 25c). GRRRRR!

But I am getting better with estimating. In 22 mailed packages, my postage error is under $15. (yeah, I did a couple of free shippings! like a dummy!) My eBay fees (listing, if any, and final value fees (9%!!)  and PayPal fees (30c plus 2.9% of total amount received)) and my postage costs errors, and any tape/boxes I have purchased for the endeavors have all run me about $60. Then, 22 sold items put $140 in my account. Not too bad? Paid cell bill, car insurance and one credit card. So, put to good use....

Still need a steady source of income. Thank goodness I hadn't donated ALL my stuff to Goodwill and could eBay some of it. Applied at a local department store last week. Won't hear back until after Christmas. PartyLite and Avon are a little slow while people are looking for instant delivery/ cash-and-carry items and not wanting the stress of waiting for shipment hoping it arrives in time. I DO have hostesses lined up for January, just need to remind them of their commitments... and check my class schedule! Classes start up again after the First.

Okay, enough chit chat! My room is a chaotic mess again! Today it's because I set up my little 3 ft Christmas tree on my dresser. Now I need to stow all the stuff that WAS on the dresser! Cute tree, though. It was my grandmother's. She bought a new fiber-optic tree that turns around and gave me her old pre-lit tree. It's nice. I should take a picture for you. (Haven't learned how to add pics yet). TTFN! Ta Ta For Now!

Twas the week before the week before Christmas...

Oh, my! All the stuff to do before Christmas! Find my Christmas tree that my grandmother gave me last year (it's here in the closet somewhere!), finish the shopping, finish the crocheted gifts (might not happen) and ... oh my! there is just too much! I need to move stuff around to give room for visiting family, check the menu for changes (you laugh, but I might need more potato salad!)... hmmm party at friend's house, invitations to other gatherings, caroling (I can hide  my non-musical talent with talent of others) ... okay. Lunch time, then nap time! Making a to-do list makes me tired just thinking about it all! I am still pushing stuff on eBay, calling hostesses to commit to home parties (while they have their friends over)... must find Jaran Stratton's films/movies for my stocking!