The Plan

I’m completely useless these days. I'm over my slump from earlier this month and am crocheting away, but I've lost my blogging focus and voice.

I've got myself tied in knots over what I want from my blog and what I want to give and share through it. Blogs are many things to many people and I've had to step back and work out what's important to me. Probably a good thing to do from time to time.

Anyway, the main conclusion I've come up with is that I need to be much better organised in both my crafting and my blogging in order to achieve my goals.

I would love to sell my patterns and toys and to put more time and effort in there. But, let’s face it, I just don’t have the time, and I need to remember that! I’ve always taken a laid back approach to both crafting and blogging. After all, I’m supposed to be doing this for pleasure. But if I want to actually achieve specific goals, I can’t go on like that.

The goals below relate to specific blog posts that I’m aiming to write, starting in March. You can see that they also dictate how I organise my crafting.

1. 1 post per month- Beyond the Square motifs with Barbara’s challenge (motifs to be crocheted the last weekend of each month)

2. 1 post per month – MTM update (aiming for around the 25th of the month as that’s when I blogged about it in January, but movable depending on how it fits in with everything else)

3. 1 post per month - new pattern/tutorial: most of the patterns below only need the final write-up, others are still wonderful ideas floating around my mind, but I need to get myself a bit more organised to do it all.

• Tassel
• Petal
• Cedric
• Pin cushion & craft caddy (an idea that’s been in my head for a very long time)
• Victor variant
• Mrs Tittlemouse?
• Owl Babies?
• Hippy monkey?

4. 1 post per week - other finishes and WIPs
5. 1 post per month – would like another group activity
6. 1 post per month – something around Pinterest? Yes, I am addicted, and yes I have read some of the many recent blog posts about appropriately crediting images etc. Not sure what I think, but maybe I'll look into watermarking (if that's the right term) my photos?

I’m still looking for suggestions for numbers 5 and 6!

I hope this list will also help me organise my blog writing in advance and to put aside some time every month to sort out photos and upload them to Flickr.

And my blog layout does need some attention too!

At least I have a new iPod to help me! Wish me luck!

Deserted

Over the latter part of last week, it seems like my inspiration has gradually deserted me. I had big plans for things to crochet, but suddenly none of it appeals to me at all.

Even MTM has lost its appeal for now, tho' I'm still trying to do my 12 stitches.

If anyone finds my inspiration floating around - would you please send it home? I'm really missing it.

Hi there!

I’ve been having a bit of a rough week at work, so I’ve been away from my blog for longer than I intended – why does it always work that way? See that real life – nothing but a distraction from the Internet! LOL!

Anyway, I’m in the mood to ramble today, as you might notice, and thought I’d share a few crochet odds and ends I’ve been doing recently.

Firstly I’ve joined Barbara’s challenge to crochet motifs from Beyond the Square by Edie Eckman. This is one of my fave crochet books – I do love motifs! I’ve randomly crocheted some of the motifs in the time I’ve had the book, but only odd ones here and there, for various reasons, so that I have no idea where they are now or what I used them for.

So I’ve joined Barbara’s challenge and am challenging myself to make 30 of them this year. That’s 6 months of 2 motifs, and 6 months of 3 motifs. I sat down last weekend to get started. I just started at the beginning of the book and crocheted the first motif that I liked the look of (number 2) and, having enjoyed that so much I couldn’t put my hook down, I then did number 3 too.

Later on that night, being unable to sleep, I then did number 4 too.

So that was January, and already I feel like I’m getting ahead of myself!


Most of my January was taken up with what you could call my first commission! A friend asked me to crochet something for her and her granddaughters, and even offered to pay me! WOW – imagine being paid to crochet! I’m not sharing pics at the moment until the parcel has arrived safely with her.

At the start of January, I was wondering whether to set up an etsy shop to sell patterns for some of my own designs, and the odd amigurumi toy too. I kind of like that idea, but the idea of having to treat it as a proper business and think about the tax implications scares the hell out of me! I just want to do something small scale and see what happens.

But I have no objections if anyone else wants to pay me to crochet …


A final discovery is something I did yesterday evening. Most of the crochet I did in January was probably done with a more ergonomic hook – I have a nice set of Prym hooks I treated myself to at one point, which are wonderfully comfortable – almost as comfortable as my one Clover soft touch hook.

But the point is, none of the January crochet bothered my sore elbow at all! Yay! I was even starting to think my elbow might be getting better. Except, of course, I hadn’t thought too deeply about the sort of hook I was using.

Forward to last night, and my 3.5mm Prym hook is snuggled away with my Beyond the Square motifs. Now, when I have a project on the go, I prefer to keep all the bits together, along with the hook, otherwise I’ll forget what size hook I’m using. So last night, I reverted to one of my old basic metal 3.5mm hooks for something else. Later, as I was going to bed, I was aware that my elbow was a bit more achy than it had been and this morning, it was even worse!

So was it the hook? It looks a real possibility, although it does puzzle me that I hold my hook in my right hand and it’s my left elbow that’s the problem! I was also aware yesterday, while crocheting, of the difference in the feel of the hook, but I was also aware that I was holding the hook fairly loosely.

Who knows … But it looks like a good excuse to invest in some more ergonomic hooks!