Struggling with my (Dis)Organisation Skills

I haven't blogged for nearly a week, not because I've forgotten - believe me, this blog is always on my mind - but trying to get traffic to my Etsy shop is very time consuming (although I'm sort of enjoying social media  - Sometimes at the expense of my knitting (Yes, I've known it for a while now: I'll go to hell when I die).

I would love to be this very efficient person who gets out of bed as soon as the alarm starts (I'm already failing there, I'm more like: there must be some mistake, I just fell asleep 7 hours ago!).

The kind of person who can function on 4 hour's sleep per night - Nope, not me! I'd fall asleep watching the 9 o' clock news if my hands weren't busy knitting, I don't get time to count to 10 after my head hits my pillow at 11 or 11.30pm and still feel tired waking up at 7am (well, more like 7.15am!)

The kind of person who efficiently multitasks preparing kids' lunches and breakfasts while drinking coffee, reading the newspaper and giving good advice to my daughters - I'm not sure: "stop whining and hurry up eating or we'll be late again" while scrolling through my Facebook/Twitter feeds qualifies as good strong values to teach my kids, especially when it's at the expense of the pre-baked rolls burning in the oven.

I'd love to be able to tornado through my house for 30 minutes each morning to sanitize it before starting work on my laptop - Reality check: sometimes I feel so tired I can't find the energy to bring the hoover back up the stairs after an hour yanking angrily at the cable that keeps getting snagged in the corners (there are way too many corners in my house, and stairs, and under beds, and dust...). And sometimes, I don't even get to mop the kitchen floor for a whole week. (Gasp!)

I'd be a liar if I said I quickly check my emails (I have to delete about 100 every day because I'm too lazy to unsubscribe - You never know, there might be a few that actually need to be read/replied to).

In my head, I know I shouldn't be spending more than 2 hours doing social media, blogging, updating my Ravelry account, listing new products on Etsy...so I can spend the rest of the time when I'm not cooking or picking up the kids from school knitting, but the sad truth is that I work slow, I always lose track of time and trying to do more than one thing at a time is never a good idea when you're not a multitasker - In my dreams I'd be networking with famous bloggers and knitwear designers, making plans to meet up at some craft fair while drinking coffee and laughing airily but really I feel lucky when I get the odd retweet and I'm starving for new blog comments and Facebook likes and it's often after 3pm when I get the chance to sit with my knitting for 2 hours and then it's time for dinner/cleaning and another 2 or 3 hours of knitting before bedtime.

So here we are, 1pm, I'm starving and for the 4th time this week I haven't had time for a mid-morning coffee. Once again I will rush having my lunch and that Tarte tatin I was planning to make for a treat for when the kids are back from school? I'd better get my skates on if I want it to be ready because even though I'll be using ready made pastry, peeling 6 apples may take me a good 20 minutes (don't ever believe those preparation times in the recipes, they are made up by people who have employees peeling their apples for them) and I can never be late picking up my kids from school.

I may not have time to blog some weeks, but I always have to make a little bit of time for my girlies!

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My Pink Hoodie Cowl

When I was a child (in the eighties, a time when what would be called child abuse nowadays was normal parenting behaviour),  my loving mother used to make me wear one of these in winter:

Photo from http://annees80-90.blogspot.ie/2012/11/la-cagoule.html

My one looked even worse, it was an ugly combination of dark green and orange (I would have been happy to get the red one above but I wasn't so lucky: living in a small town with only a couple of clothing stores and no Internet, we got to wear what was available at the time).

In theory, the balaclava (or cagoule) of the eighties was great: one accessory that would stay in place and protect us from the wind and the snow in the coldest of the winter, great for children as it was harder to lose than a hat and a scarf.

In practice however, I would describe it in one word: Cringe! not to mention the scratchy sweaty feeling of having an acrylic garment so tightly wrapped around your head on the walk to and from school.

I thought it would be nice to knit an accessory that functions like a balaclava, but that looks much better than the old-fashioned "cagoule".

This is why I started knitting my Hoodie Cowl (I'm not sure I like the name "Balaclava", I hope you can understand why).

Here is the finished item, which I listed on Etsy yesterday:

I added some lace detail as I think it suits this luxurious Rowan Alpaca Cotton yarn. It is loose enough around the head but not so much that it would get blown off with a gust of wind, and can be worn as a hood or a cowl (with the hood down), so no sweaty head, and I hope this accessory looks much more lady-like than the awful balaclava.

The writing of the pattern is another addition to my "To Do" list, along with my other Truck-load of other things that need to be done: I don't think I'll ever get bored in this life:-)

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Double Knit Reversible Christmas Coasters

This week-end, I started knitting these fun Christmas tree coasters:

Front side

Back side

This is the first reversible coaster I made. It is knit in one piece, using 2 strands of yarn simultaneously. This little coaster measuring 11cm (just over 4 inches) took me an insane 6 hours to make - between counting stitches, getting mixed up, undoing and re-doing a few rows.

Even though double-knitting is very slow, it is extremely fun to do, and that's beside the fact that the only bit of sewing there is to do, is the secure weaving in of the tails on the inside).

Once I had finished this one, I tried to find a way to make a neater edge and after a few trials, I successfully finished this one:

Front

Back

This little coloured edge is not only pretty, it's also functional, and if it wasn't there, both sides would split. I could have done 2 separate sides and sewed (ouch!) them together but the colour changes in double knitting are actually useful in keeping both sides together. It gives the coasters extra stability.

Thankfully I am picking up a bit more speed as I keep knitting these cute Christmas reversible coasters: I just knitted the bottom half of a new one in about 1 hour and a half this morning, so I am hoping to be able to make 4 or 5 sets of 4 double knit coasters and list these on Etsy in about 10 days (this may mean a bit less Facebooking and much, much more knitting than I've been doing lately;-)

I would love to hear your thoughts on these reversible double knit coasters or on double knitting in general. If you are interested in learning, you can head on to my Knitting Tutorials page, where I've just added the Very Pink Knits Double Knitting tutorial video.


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Come Into My Office.

Today I've been busy reorganising a corner of my bedroom and turning it into a little office space.

It all started with a need to organise my knitting yarns and to declutter a bookcase that had no more business being in my kitchen (I had it there since I Ikea'd my sitting room 2 years ago, and I knew it would come in handy one day).

I decided to take all the books and kid mess (you wouldn't believe the stuff they can shove in there when I'm not looking) out of that bookshelf and bring it upstairs (thank god for cheap DIY units from Woodies - there was more dragging than lifting but as this is cheap material and not heavy wood, only a little bit of sweating was involved and you can ask my kids: I didn't even swear this time!)

Then I emptied out all my wool from the toy bins (previously stolen from my kids - I'm such a bad mother!) and big shopping bags and I was able to fit most of it into the bookshelf, leaving one shelf free for books. I still have a box nearly full in my sitting room, but that's nice and tidy inside an Ikea bookshelf, and the yarns in there are left overs and small balls that the kids can use (even though they also have their own little stashes in their room), I would also use this myself as it's useful for learning new techniques (crochet, crochet!) and trying out new knitting stitches.

I also moved my wardrobe and computer desk, as I thought it would be a better idea to have the desk closer to a plug - I used to sit on my bed to use my computer but this is not a good idea if you care for your back. The computer desk I have is not ideal for a laptop, but it will do until I can afford something better.

If you're wondering why 2 desk lamps, I need them both to use with my light box, which you can see on the floor. It's not very fancy, but it will do for now.

Well, it's 6pm now and I haven't even done a bit of knitting today so I'd better throw the traditional Saturday pizza in the oven so I can get on with knitting some Christmas coasters after dinner.

Little Happy Dance To Celebrate Ravelry Pattern Sale

I uploaded my Slouchy Hat pattern both on Etsy and Ravelry on Thursday before driving to Dublin on Friday for the Knitting and Stitching Show.

As I spent the whole week-end in Dublin, I didn't do much work but when checking my emails on Friday, I realised that one copy of my pattern sold on Ravelry:)

Then, last night one of my knitted phone cases was featured on a blog and in an Etsy Treasury, which may not convert into sales but it should help getting a few extra page views.

Apart from my online activity, I have started knitting some of the yarn I bought at the Knitting and Stitching show. I got a few bargains including a pack of 10 balls of Rowan Alpaca Cotton for €35.00 - This yarn is listed at €8.49 per ball on Deramore's website so I think I didn't do too bad.

Here's what I'm making with it:

At the moment it looks like a cowl, but the practical side in me wants to make 2 uses out of this one item, so I am adding a hood (it rains a lot in Ireland). I will post a picture of it when it's finished. This Hoodie Cowl (not sure of the name for it yet) should only take 2 balls, so I'll be looking for ideas of what to make with the rest (I'm sure there's a pair of long wrist-warmers waiting to be knit as well;-). If you have any other ideas, you're welcome to share in the comments.

My News: Knitting Pattern for Slouchy Beanie Hat In Progress

This has been a bit of a slow week for me, as it's midterm and my daughters are off school, meaning that my working routine has to be a bit different: instead of starting work after being back from the school run after 9am, I still wake up at 7am, but I try and put in an hour or 2 of quiet work at my laptop before we have our breakfast together, then it's another hour or 2 of work until lunch needs to be cooked.

I've ignored Bank Holiday Monday and treated it as a working day (as I do most of my week-ends, except that my alarm is on a 8am on week-ends: I need my sleep!), but I took yesterday afternoon off so we could go to the cinema. I thought going to the cinema on a Tuesday afternoon, we would avoid much of the traffic (Wrong! There are no words strong enough to describe how ridiculous Galway traffic is at the moment!) and have a quiet time watching Turbo (Wrong again! those 5 teen girls that sat behind us, kept kicking our seats, talking and laughing noisily a la De Niro in The Hand That Rocked The Cradle probably get too much pocket money if they waste it ruining movies for other people).

I was hoping to be able to add my first slouchy beanie knitting pattern for sale on Monday, but I realized that, since I had used yarn from the snood that I had ripped in order to knit the slouchy hat I made for myself, I'm not sure of the exact quantity of yarn needed for this pattern (I am hoping it is just one, as my regular beanie hats each took about 3 quarters of one 100g skein).

I guess I could try and weigh my own hat in my kitchen scales, but being a bit of a perfectionist, I've decided to start making a new one, but this time I am starting a new skein. I am using King Cole Riot Chunky yarn again (I love this yarn, it's so soft and beautiful), and since the color stripes vary slightly from one skein to another, this still means this new hat is going to be one of a kind:

I started typing the pattern in English on Monday morning (I will also do one in French) and I started knitting the new slouch beanie hat on Monday evening. The reason why I haven't finished doing all this already is that, as well as my kids being on midterm, I also need to put on my Marketing Manager hat on for about half my working day in order to promote my Etsy shop.

I have nearly finished making another 4 phone cases apart from 2 embellishments and the toggle buttons: I ordered some yesterday from another Etsy seller, and I have another day to finish making that hat (I might even push it and list this one too before the week-end) and putting the finishing touches to the pattern, then I'm off to the Knitting and Stitching show on Friday (Yippee!) and to spend the rest of the week-end in Dublin.

I will try and schedule a blog post for Saturday and I can't wait to tell you all about the Knitting and Stitching show next week (I hope I get some goodies within my limited budget). In the meantime: Happy Knitting!


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Saturday Etsy Share: Random Halloween Stuff

This is the last Saturday before Halloween, so I thought I would share all kinds of Halloween things I found on Etsy.

You know the drill by now, so let's start with Halloween goodies from Irish Etsy shops:

Little Sofi has an original Exploding Pumpkin box card:

Stained Glass Fayre has a beautiful stained glass Pumpkin Suncatcher Halloween window decoration:

Barmbrack is a traditional Halloween food in Ireland. Thanks to Homespun Ireland, you can make some using their traditional recipe which comes in a muslim bag with 7 traditional charms and the obligatory accompanying teabag:

Rubys Ribbons and Bows is not afraid of giving little girls Hello Kitty nightmares with these spooky Pony O Streamers:

From International Etsy shops, here's some of what's on offer:

Sugar Tats has some odd Halloween Zipper Eyes temporary tattoos:

You can sweeten your tea with these sugar cube skulls from DemBones (even though it would be a pity to dissolve them):

Get scary with these Pumpkin Nail decals from NailsThins:

I have all these and more included in my Halloween Etsy Treasury, if you want to take a look.

Happy Halloween!