Inquisitive Felines and Fibers

It’s that time of year when the pollen swirls across the deck, flowers start blossoming, leaves are budding, and one of the fiber group mentions dyeing. We’ve already started throwing around dates for our first dyeing party of the year and it surprises me how much I’m looking forward to it. I think that this afternoon I shall go home, brew a cup of tea, and spend a bit of time with Hand Dyeing Yarn and Fleece by Gail Callahan.

This should be a good start for some inspiration and perhaps just enough to get me checking my dyeing supplies in advance although we never seem to be shy of resources. It’s a very resourceful group of women with whom I hang. Do you plan to do any dyeing this year?

One of my goals for my craft show and studio items is to become a “general store” of sorts for handmade useful items. I resisted the dish towels with crocheted tops for many years until it was pointed out to me that I could use a linen or cotton towel and not use acrylic yarn in beastly colors for the topper that I recall from my youth. That is a conversation that I wish I’d had sooner.

After making up towels and dish clothes for a few years and selling quite a decent number of them I realised one day, taking inventory, that I had dish clothes made up of the same cotton I’d used on some of the towel toppers. Hmmm, wouldn’t a set be a good idea? Again, I was a bit slow on the uptake, but they have been surprisingly popular. They really do make a nice hostess gift or shower gift.

Heavy duty crocheted kitchen towels are on my agenda now as well as some crocheted cotton edgings. I need to bump up my warm weather items so I thought that I would branch out into picture frames with crocheted bits on them, needle felted air fresheners, and crocheted baskets. What are some of your favorite warm weather craft show items?

I bought a hot water bottle. Living in northwest Connecticut for most of my 50+ years you would think that I would remember such a delightfully easy way to warm up the foot space in bed, but no, at some time over the years it slipped away from memory. In looking through some of my new-t0-me WWII pattern books I found several patterns for covers and I thought that they might make a good item for craft sales. Now being a conscientious soul, I ordered one to use as a model and to give me a basis to design my own, never giving a thought to its other practical uses…i.e warming my feet.

One dreary, rainy, raw January afternoon, just home from school and tidying up the house I picked up the hot water bottle yet again to place somewhere until I could sort out a pattern design when it finally occurred to me that my still slightly damp feet would probably welcome a tuck up with the hot water bottle on the couch under an afghan with a cup of tea. That is if the hot water bottle really did work as touted.

I read the directions, yes, it came with directions which mainly said not to use boiling water – personally I thought that a bit obvious, but then I find that a lot of obvious things aren’t always that obvious to others – and proceeded to fill it with hot tap water while the kettle sang on the stove top for my tea water. A short time later I tucked in on the couch with the bottle warming my feet, the tea warming my soul, and a book warming my brain. All in all a delightful experience. Now my only problem is how many  patterns will I choose for my cover/s and with what fibers should they be made? Do you use a hot water bottle?

I’ve rarely knitted or crocheted items for babies to sell and it’s not because I don’t want to do it’s  because in my experience it’s very difficult to determine the size of the item unless you have the baby in front of you for verification. Inevitably, someone will ask, “Will this fit a such-and-such aged child?” I just can’t tell. On several occasions I’ve ended up making more than one item because of size issues, but at least hats, mittens, and booties work up quickly. Then it occurred to me that I should just make up several different sizes and colors to have on hand.Then I would just have to work out an try-out/exchange/return plan.  Just wish I’d thought of it sooner. Now to come up with the time to implement this possible solution.

In the past, and as recently as this past weekend, I did crochet up some gowns for the NICU at Hartford Hospital. A dear friend, and truly lovely lady, sews the buttons on for me, washes them in the appropriate detergent and delivers them to the hospital. She also makes them from wedding gowns that have been donated for that purpose and they are lovely. I love to play with color on these gowns because if I can bring a small bit of comfort to a parent I will be more than content with the result. I fell a bit short last year and didn’t manage to make any Santa hats for preemies, but I hope to start those this week so I have a few come November.

Stuffed animals have crossed  my radar also, but my concerns about stuffing quality and suitability have outweighed my desire to make them for sale. I do have a couple of patterns of sheep and bunnies that I will make up to gift, but I just haven’t been comfortable enough to design and make my own. Do you make animals and am I being overly cautious?