stocking up

i was asked a couple of weeks ago if i wanted to join a group of ladies that get together a couple of times a year & do a booth of crafts & wares during their extravaganzas.  it's not like a trade or peddlers show, its just a group of ladies that either make specialty items like crochet items, tutus & bows and stuff like pampered chef, scentsy & other home party items.  i jumped at the chance!  i'm the only one that does the crochet stuff so there is no competition!  love that.  i don't really have my name out there but a few people locally know me & then i have my non-successful etsy shop.  not ready to shut it down yet just trying to see if maybe by next winter i can get it going some more.  i would love to be wildly successful & make crochet stuff all day long & eventually open a cute little shop where i can consign other friends stuff.  i have lots & lots of crafty friends!



so i have been trying to stock up on my cute little hats, my favorite one comes from my friend betsy from the dainty daisy.  her stuff is super cute & she is the one i donated a couple of my items to get her nephew adopted from ethiopia.  the fundraiser was wildy successful & they made over $2000, their original goal was just $500!  well, i usually make them in a solid color & then try to do a multi-color flower but i got to thinking & have seen some really cute striped hats & thought they would be so cute in alternating colors.  boy, i was totally right this time, they turned out super cute!  the only thing is they are time consuming because you have to tie up all the loose ends from cutting them off after each row but they are so cute & worth the extra effort!  i'm just not for sure on flower choices, i've been having this problem lately, as you will see with my newest try at a pattern i found, since they are two alternated colors do i make a single color of flower or does the two colored flower look best? are there two colors you would like to see together?


pattern courtesy of the dainty daisy
the flower is huge but they are so cute on teeny babies

then i found this really cute pattern for a another beanie from crafty woman creations by brittany.  i just had to try it out.  i had never done a bobble stitch before, it's almost like the popcorn stitch but they seem to more 'bubbly' than the popcorn stitch.  so after a i watched a couple of youtube videos on the bobble stitch i started on it.  it only took me about 3 hours to make the first one, well maybe a little longer, i forgot to keep track of time.  but it turned out really cute.  i like them but they seem plain other than the texture effect of the bobbles, i guess i'm use to making them even cuter in as many ways as possible.  so now my question is, do i add something to this cute little hat or leave it blank?  do i add a flower or a pom pom or maybe even a bow?  i'm scared of bows, i mean, i know how to make a bow, i have girls i have to know how to tie a bow but i just don't know about a pretty bow, like hair bows.  so what do you think?  what should i add if anything?

pattern courtesy of crafty woman creations by brittany

i would like to really thank betsy & brittany for sharing their beautiful patterns.  betsy's pattern has blessed many of my friend's babies heads & is my best seller next to my bear hat.  brittany's will get it's fair share of gift giving soon.  :o)



i hope all my wonderful friends had a great mother's day out there!




oh yeah, i forgot one more thing, i got finished this last week.  my husband's aunt works in a dr's office & she asked me to make another blanket & hat set for another dr that was getting a new grandbaby, i made one a couple of months ago for another one of her drs.  i snapped a pic of the blanket before i send it on it's way, i love it, it's a beautiful stitch, very intricate but man it's extremely time consuming.  again, it's all worth it in the end because it's stunning!  i couldn't get a pic of the whole thing because it was so big, 2½'x4', so i had to fold it twice to get a nice pic of it.


shell stitch baby blanket, so beautiful!