Coo coo ka-choo, how do you do?
Ah! Forgot it was Monday! My internal clock is super messed up lately, I haven't gotten good sleep in a while. This past Saturday was spent consolidating my accessible stash of yarn and I have made great progress! A ton of dust and novelty boucle reconsidering later, all my containers are organized properly! No more awkward shuffling around and guessing where each yarn type is where. I should've done this years ago.
Back when I first started crocheting, and my mom considering knitting, we used to go out to A.C. Moore (RIP lol) or JoAnn and pick up whatever yarns looked nice without a project in mind. This left us with a ton of mismatched weights, colors, and most importantly, sizes of skeins thrown into whatever the latest container we bought. A few one pounds next to a handful of super saver stripes. Three mandalas and a bulky scarfie. Long forgotten projects and pattern books crushed by a flood of unused ombre buttons. It was a mess. Since I've been getting serious about starting my store, and thus needing access to the actually useful items in the stash, we sat down and got to work on fixing this jumbled heap.
And... we were done in like, three hours. Ha! I thought we would be there all of Saturday and into Sunday! Nope! It really was just a misuse of space within the containers. The majority of the containers themselves are more flat than they are tall, so not trying to cram something as large as a one pound inside is preferable. Instead, shoving 9 mandalas (and cupcakes RIP) into one is super convenient. The more collapsible skeins went in there while the taller containers can hold the more dense one pounds or jumbo cakes. Starting off with maybe ten containers, by the time we were done, we had three left over. That's how much unnecessary space was being taken!
I can never find them online, but I think these are, or at least very similar to, the containers. I was just handling them a bunch, but forgot to look at the labels! If that's the case, no wonder some of them got misshapen! These are scrapbooking containers we're using for yarn! They just happened to be really convenient when we would walk around the store dropping armfuls of yarn and my mom hates using carts. After getting one, we just always got the same type because they are also easy to stack on each other. The only times we deviated to larger ones were when I started getting one pounds, so really late into my crochet journey!
After that, on Sunday, I continued working on the collapsible shopping bag I had started a couple days prior. I mistakenly thought I messed up one of the sides, but had just skipped the final dc increase round. After tossing the side and redoing it, I messed up and skipped a stitch on the final round anyway! But in the end, I think it looks like how it's meant to. Besides me being a dummy and working a whole new pattern in black yarn. The only colors I had access to at the time of starting were black, white, or azure one pounds and super saver stripes. I didn't want it to look too cluttered so I chose black and favorite stripe! I think it looks really nice with the rainbow colors popping through! Regardless, the bag part itself took me from around noon to about 8pm, of course with breaks. I don't think that's one I'll set as a staple just for that reason. It also seems like a nice pattern to have on the go. I could see myself making a stack of pouches and then just taking a stripes yarn in my purse to work on it in public like a real crocheter! Whatever that means x)
So far I tested three patterns out this past week using favorite stripe (and still have a little left over!):
- Christmas Ornament: Quick and easy, seasonal, came out hot/cold sides
- Bunny Hat: Prefer hats that aren't worked in a rectangle, prefer less sewing, 5mm grommets got lost inside the ear lol
- Mesh Bag w Pouch: Useful and stylish, time-consuming, prefer not working into chains and slip stitches
Of the three, I'd probably choose the mesh bag over the others to add to my list of products. Ornaments are fun, but they are very holiday themed. When it's not December, I think the leftover ones would just take up space that I don't have. That didn't stop me from looking at wholesale packs of 100 blank baubles though! I have to reel myself in in times like that. I am not a machine, I am not a factory, I will not make 100 baubles worth of ornaments to sell. Especially within this holiday season, considering it's already only a week 'til Christmas.
Also of the three, I am most disappointed with the bunny hat! I've been buying a bunch of keychain charms and, of course, looking at buying packs of 100 even more charms! I figured I could go the route like some of the hats that are popular right now. The rabbit hats' ears were pierced and had chains hanging from them, right? So I figured if I make them in cute pastel colors, charms that are little mushrooms or gummy bears would look really nice on those ears. I got the charms, got the chains, and picked up a grommet set. After a while of careful tapping, afraid I'd disturb my neighbors, the test grommet was gone! I felt all over the ear, expecting to feel something hard within the yarn, but nope! It disappeared entirely! It's my fault for not measuring the size properly, but it's kinda spooky I still haven't found it.
So, yeah, I've got the rest of the month to keep testing out different patterns. I'm using favorite stripe since it's a nice set of colors and super accessible. I don't have to feel awful with a pattern I don't particularly like just because the yarn is one I don't want to part with. I also need to not beat myself up for messing up a pattern on my first time through! It's new stuff, I can't be perfect immediately. In fact, I might never be perfect! I have to remind myself that that's okay!
Also, huh?! Since when was next week Christmas?! Apologies if I'm late on the next update, since everything will be hectic and people will be visiting, but wow this month has flown by! I was joking with my mom that my Christmas list this year was just a bunch of drawers and containers, but it might actually be just drawers and containers! I haven't thought about any "fun" stuff in a while! The only thing other than craft supplies would probably be housing related, like a fancy high rise apartment. That's more of a months-long commitment than a Christmas present though. I'm pretty sure it'll be a long while before this store would make over $6k a month and that's just rent!
And if I don't end up updating: