Week 4 – what I learned

Here’s how this short week went.  

another batch felted

I felted 15 bars of soap – citrus spice.  I smells really good.  I’ve had the batch here for the final week of its curing time and it has filled the house with a yummy smell.   (If you counted – the 15th bar is in my shower!)

baby socks

I have 4 new pair of socks completed.  Along with the pink pair on the shelf, I have a pair for each blanket set.   Another pair of each color only needs to be sewn up.

baby hats

I have 9 (yeah, 9!) baby hats completed.  I have another on the needles to work on during the show, should there be time.   The brown one in front is for a customer order from my Etsy shop.   I’m nearly out of enough yarn of any color to make another hat.   I’ll probably try to make a few more with stripes like the lavender / mauve one on the right. 

felted mittens

And lastly, I have these 2 pair of felted teen / small adult mittens. 

What has this experiment taught me?  

   1) it really helps to have a schedule set over a long period of time, that kept me from becoming discouraged when one day didn’t go as planned

   2) it helped to share my schedule with people (in-person and on-line), that kept me accountable

   3) I was glad I scheduled in previous commitments.  I looked forward to my fiber meetings as mini vacations

   4) Discipline is not always fun – even when I like what I’m doing. 

   5) I had to adjust and cut myself some slack.  I didn’t hit all my goals to completion, but I’m happy with the accomplishments.

   6)  it helped having the schedule on paper on my desk.   I checked it many times each day – can I move this? do that? 

Will I try this again?   What changes will I make?   So far, I’ve started putting some goals on my calendar on my laptop for next week, next month, January.  I’m not convinced that is a good idea, as I don’t use my laptop daily.  But I really shouldn’t have such a crunch as this again.   I think I have enough inventory to get me through Christmas, then I have until farmer’s market / summer before things start moving.  

Today was the day for packing for the craft fair in Braham tomorrow.   I hope to see you there.

Advertisement

Week 3 – wrap up

Wow!  I got so much done last week.  I had a lot to finish – since Week 4 is going to be really short.   Here’s how it went:

Cat toys – I reduced my goal from 15 to 10 and finished those 10!  $5.

Ready for play

Toddler mittens – 5 pair complete – Yay!

Little mittens in a row

Ladies mittens – 4 pair complete, 1 pair to be felted!

Ladies mittens

Baby socks – 10 pair knit!  Look at this heap of little socks!  

Yikes! That's a mess of socks

 So far only 3 have their seam sewn.  I’m waiting on back ordered yarn to make 2 more pair of blue!

Socks complete!

Baby hats – I have finished one of each color.  I mis-calculated the yarn I would need to make 2 hats and 2 pair socks of each color, so my new goal is to use up all the yarn on hats.

Week Four’s Schedule:

Monday – felt more soap, 15 bars of Citrus Spice.  It’s been spreading its fragrance through the house as it finished it final curing.  Yum!

Tuesday – my spinning guild meets, so I’ll work on baby hats between shopping, eating and visiting!

Wednesday and Thursday – finish baby hats and baby socks! 

Friday – pack up the truck for the trip to Braham and wrap up all loose ends before the show.   I have an hour drive, so will have to leave about 6:30 AM.   I’ll be at the First Annual Fall Craft Fair in Braham.   If you are in the area – stop by the high school. 

And I should add, I picked up one more show.  It is a fundraiser on November 15  for the Zonta Minneapolis Club.

Week 3 – midweek update

There’s just not enough time in a day!   I’m doing pretty good on the tasks so far.  I made 10 (I reduced from the goal of 15) cat toys, but still need to stuff and sew them!   I have 4 pair of toddler mittens knit, but need to sew up the seams.  I have yarn dyed to knit another pair of ladies mittens, plus  I have 2 pair of ladies mittens completed, one pair to felt, and one pair to sew the seams.   Oh, and baby hats are coming along, too. 

As you can see, it is the sewing that drags me down.  But Darryl has meetings tonight, I don’t have to make supper, there are good TV shows, and I can sit and sew!   Pictures when I complete a task!  Hopefully, that will be soon!

Week 2 – wrap up

I think last week was pretty successful.   Here’s the breakdown:

Soap – 15 bars felted – success!   (7 bars sold!)

Ladies mittens – 4 pair knit, none complete – partial success

Baby hats – 4 complete, 2 partially complete – success!

Wristwarmers  – 24 pair on the shelf – success!

Wrist warmers all in a row

That was a good week! 

Week Three’s Schedule:

Monday – 15 felted cat toys  (these are now available in my Etsy shop!)

Tuesday – dedicated to baby hats

Wednesday – 5 pair of toddler sized mittens

Thursday – work on ladies mittens

Friday & Saturday – 11 pair of baby socks to match hats and blankets

Sunday – Finish the ladies mittens

That means that the cat toys, toddler mittens, baby socks and ladies mittens should all be done by week’s end.   The ladies mittens will be a challenge (as I need to dye yarn for them), but the others should be do-able!   This is the week of completion!

Week 2 – Midweek update

Things started out good.  Fifteen bars of felted soap were completed on Monday.

Piled up lavendar soap

Tuesday required some time on a couple of volunteer tasks, so not much was accomplished on the mittens.   I did get the yarn from the dyeing class ready to go. 

Suri yarn from my dyeing class

Lovely, isn’t it?  300 yards, nearly 3 ounces of beautiful Suri alpaca fingering weight.  $32. 

Yesterday I got the courage to knit a pair of mittens.  Why was I afraid?   Well, I needed to switch to a different yarn and I knew it would probably throw off my pattern.  The yarn is thicker than the previous, so I needed less tension and got bigger mittens.

Mittens for Papa Bear

They are supposed to be ladies size.  My hands are small, but they are a generous men’s size.  They will be felted and become ladies size.   As a bonus, I now know the pattern for felted ladies mittens! 

Today I tried my youth size pattern and got these.

Mittens for Baby Bear

If I curl my fingers, the hand and thumb fit fine.  They just need to be a little longer for the fingers.  And maybe a little more cuff.  I’m getting closer! 

And the baby hats just keep coming – slowly, but surely.  Two done, one in need of earflaps, one just started. 

Tomorrow I have 2 groups coming for visits.

Week 1 – wrap up

Week One’s goal was to have 25 pair of wrist warmers completed.  Did I make it?   Not quite.  I have 12 on the shelf.  I have another 11 pair knit and in various stages of completion.   Some only need the frilly edge and the seam done, some are on the blocking board, one is waiting for its turn to be blocked.    I will continue to work on these in the remaining weeks.   (Side note – I did dye on Wednesday and also on Saturday, so have a couple skeins of yarn to add to the inventory!)

Week Two’s Schedule:

Monday – Felt 15 bars of soap

Tuesday – Knit a pair of women’s mittens, weigh them and start winding skeins of the correct amount of yarn for dyeing.  Hand knit baby hats – at least one.  Each requires about 6 hours.

Wednesday – Dye a batch of mitten yarn and roving for a very cool (unannounced) project.  Knit a baby hat or two.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday – each day dye a batch of mitten yarn (it needs to cool overnight, so only one color a day), and knit a couple baby hats.   I’ve since had 2 groups schedule visits on Friday!

Final goal is to finish the wrist warmers, felt 15 bars of soap, knit one pair of mittens, dye yarn for mittens, and knit over half of the 11 baby hats.   I’ve already finished one baby hat, and am 3/4 done with a second.  These were done while reading the computer and riding in the vehicle! 

I went to the dyeing session at Little Gidding Suri farm on Saturday and learned about production dyeing – being able to repeat a color, calculating dye level, temperature, duration — LOTS of info.  And came home with skein and dye ready to use.    And I did dye that skein yesterday.  It is drying and I’ll show pictures when dry. 

And, of course, pictures of today’s beautiful, wet, sloppy snow must be shown.

From my doorway

Eating in the snow