Crochet Baby Sets Now In My Etsy Store

I busied myself over the last few week making these crochet baby sets in matching colours with my crochet baby blankets.

Blue and White Crochet Baby Hat and Booties Set

Pink and White Crochet Baby Hat and Booties Set

Green and Grey Crochet Baby Hat and Booties Set

Yellow and Purple Crochet Baby Hat and Booties Set

For those who wish to buy the full set of Hat + Booties with the matching blanket, I am offering a 10% discount when 2 items are bought together: use the coupon code BABY10 at checkout to avail of the discount.

The hats were easy enough to crochet but the booties were a bit trickier: I had an image in my mind and because I'm very stubborn, I made up my own design rather than using something I half liked.

As the booties were fiddly and tricky enough to crochet, I only made them in one size. I will make them in a different size if anyone requests it but I don't think I'll publish a pattern for it (I'm not really confident enough to make proper crochet patterns in different sizes and I need to focus on designing more knitting patterns anyway). The pattern for the hat is too easy to ask for payment (I also only made it in one size), so I don't feel I should ask for crocheters to pay for the pattern; I might try and write it up on here if I have an hour or 2 during the week (or next week, or next month...) so watch this space;)

During the week I also knitted 3 new headbands so I hope to have the 3 corresponding patterns soon; once again I only made them in one size so I'll have to spend a little longer knitting them in at least 2 other sizes and using different yarns before I can publish the patterns: designing is a very slow process for me.

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Knitting Patterns Back In My Etsy Shop

I forgot to mention that I have finally added my knitting patterns back in my Etsy shop.

Even though Etsy informed us a while ago that they were going to deal with the European VAT issue, it was still unclear how: I didn't get any communications from Etsy to let me know if the VAT was going to be added to the price of items sold at the checkout or deducted from the total price and then paid by Etsy to the corresponding European tax organisations.

Luckily I was in contact with a designer who sells crochet patterns on Etsy and she told me Etsy takes the VAT share (as well as its own commission) out of the price that the designers list at.

I then decided to update the price of all my knitting patterns: you may find these are a teeny bit higher than the Ravelry price, but that's to account for my listing costs and commission of sales on Etsy (there are none on Ravelry, as long as you stay under a certain amount - which doesn't apply to my very small volume of sales).

The moral of this story is, if you wish to purchase any of my knitting patterns, it's cheaper to do so through my Ravelry store;-)

Long wristed chain cable mittens on Ravelry

Lace alpaca hoodie cowl on Ravelry

Oh, and I nearly forgot to add, if you make any of my designs, please add it to your Ravelry projects as I love seeing how you get on with my designs (and don't hesitate to send me a message if you need help with your projects).

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More Cable Headbands On The Way

I sold a few of my cable headbands, mostly around Christmas, and I hadn't realised until last week that I had run out of the smallest size ear warmers so I picked up my knitting needles and whipped out a few more of these hand knit cable headbands:

Army Green Cable Headband

Cream Tweed Cable Headband

Denim Blue Cable Headband

Because these cable headbands seem to have become popular in my shop (Yay!), I hope to knit some more very soon, in other colours and using various cable stitches to add a bit more variety (maybe cotton for the summer?).

I am planning on writing the corresponding knitting patterns too. I'm not sure whether I should publish knitting patterns for these headbands one by one or by groups of maybe 3 different designs, so I may try both options and see what works best (I know that if I was to choose between 3 single patterns at €3.80 each and 3 patterns together at around €8.00 or €9.00, I'd probably go for the second option, but unfortunately (or fortunately?) I'm not in everyone's head.

For now I am working on knitting and relisting my original ear warmers in the original colours while also testing a new amiguri pattern for Peeko Crafts. I expect I'll have all this done by St Patrick's day and then I will start on my new designs.

Don't expect too much too quick, though, as I've also just taken up an online accountancy course: I can't expect knitting to feed my family but hopefully refreshing my accountancy training will help me get a decent paying job (and maybe less time for blogging and social media, but I'll make sure to keep a few hours for knitting in the evenings;-)

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Crochet Pattern Testing: Cute Bing Bunny Amiguri

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to be one of the testers for an amiguri crochet pattern, this was my first time testing a pattern for someone else and I must say this was an enjoyable experience.

I had never heard of Bing Bunny before, my daughters having passed the age for this type of cartoon, but when my 12 year old saw a picture of it online, guess what she said? "I want it!".

Luckily I had the same yarn in my stash that was recommended for the pattern (with some colours not exactly the same, but it doesn't really matter for an amiguri toy), so here is my result:

I made a mistake sewing one of the ear designs the wrong way and the mouth is a little crooked but these were my own errors, nothing to do with the amiguri pattern itself. I still think my Bing Bunny is pretty cute, if I say so myself;)

The Bing Bunny amiguri crochet pattern is now available to purchase from Peeko Crafts on Etsy and the designer is planning on publishing some more amiguri crochet patterns which is great news. I can only recommend the as it contains very clear and detailed instructions with links to photo tutorials. If you don't crochet, the finished items are also available to buy from the same shop (there is also a cute elephant amiguri and lots of other beautiful goodies in her Etsy shop).

It's back to work now for me, I'm working on a few sets of baby hats and bootees at the moment and then it will be time to take a little break from crochet and return to some knitting; I've also bought some cute fabric about a month ago to try and make my 10 year-old a tablet case but I'm a bit ashamed to say I haven't even started it yet as I was prioritising my crochet baby blankets and I work better when focusing on one thing at a time.

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