Sometimes a little silence can't hurt

Especially when you don't have anything important to say.
So I'll just indulge in a little bit of self-promotion today.
I want to thank Gimla of the Mature Natural Blog for her special feature of a few Etsy hat stores showcasing our summer tams and snoods.
Thank you so much for including me!
The feature is here
Work in progress is the title of the picture below and following are a few new clothing items pictures. My materials and supplies are overwhelming and I need to create!
A pile of hats that is awaiting to be finished and listed.
A patchwork skirt that finally came to life after concentrated sewing.

I had already given boxes full of baby yarn to charity groups, but I need to put the rest of my light weight skeins to good use myself and I have decided to make these little summer halter apron tops for girls.
(Tops and skirt available in my Etsy shop.)

Mixing up my YARNS

Just a brief post today.
I have placed large orders for hemp yarn and other natural sustainable yarns and I feel the need to work with my overflowing yarn inventory. Justification is the magical word!
I mixed a few unusual yarns and worked the combinations into new tam hats:
Avocado green chenille, regular worsted weight brown yarn and an extra strand of novelty yarn held together with the main yarns.
Same here, ice-cream colored feminine tam: pink chenille, cream and brown acrylic and the fuzzy extra strand.
A custom order, hope my customer will like it. Dark brown 100% hemp, warm brown cotton and terra red cotton. 3 different textures and different thickness.
Another scrap patchwork tam. You can tell I can't throw out materials and will use every decent length strand of yarn. The fuzzy brown yarn ties the colors together into a more coherent weave.
For this longer sock tam I have used copper red and black acrylic, combined with a strand of
terra red cotton yarn. It adds to the touch of the material and makes it super sturdy, but yet soft.
This tam is earthy in mainly green and brown acrylic, but spruced up with a "ribbon" (synthetic) yarn which features several pretty pleasing colors like gold, rust red, purple in a beautiful tie-dye effect.
Some of these tams are already for sale on my website and in my Etsy store, some still need to be uploaded.
My computer works slowly these days (or the cable) and a lot of times I just walk away from it to do other things because it takes forever to upload pictures.
Planting seeds into starter plant pots, walking my dog...and crochet. Besides other things:)

An ordinary day -- that's the way I like it

Things are finally returning to a slower and less hectic pace. Sid is recovering from his nose surgery, not quite there yet, but he is doing pretty good.
It's gradually warming up, but still windy outside. The strong wind gives me a headache and I had been "headachy" for days now. Today I feel much better. I started to plant my first flower seeds. I am an awful gardener, but with big plans each spring season. Trial and error:)
So, what do you write about when there is not much to write about? I guess I just appreciate the fact that nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Leaving me enough space to just work on my hats, drive grocery and yarn shopping, organize the house, go outside and -- feel content. If only for a while.
Last night I was lucky to stumble on another re-run of the movie Crash on FX. The finale/conclusion always makes me sad though. But what a refreshing show considering all the other crap that is usually shown on TV.
Blogging for others or writing my own personal journal?
Probably the latter recently, but I have drifted away from the whole "blogging about Etsy thing", daily store features of other Etsy sellers, Etsy community talk and all the other social network sites where sellers hang out. Oh well, maybe someone will look and read anyway:)
But, I have not been idle, so, I show off some new tams today:
(Above picture) I call it the "Traveling the gravel road tam" because it reminds me of a gravel-covered path or walk way, the colors range from black to light-colored stones, with a bit of brown earth thrown in there.

And here is a longer totally unisex tam for guys and gals.
Available at PurpleSageDesignz.

Truly WEARABLE Art in Crochet -- AnnieBriggs, a personal favorite

AnnieBriggs
has been in the crochet clothing & accessories business for quite a while, but it has not been until recently that I stumbled upon her creations listed on Etsy.
When I spotted one of her jackets in her forum avatar I instantly clicked on the image of a, what I would call a Bohemian inspired crochet jacket, beautifully handmade in cotton crochet and accentuated with fabric ties. Besides jackets she also creates skirts, tunics, tops and hats and smaller accessories, mainly for women, but also some girl clothing.
Most appealing to me is that her sweaters are extremely wearable and versatile. I could imagine myself wearing them with jeans, casual skirts or any elegant attire (what I usually don't wear, but it all seems possible). Some high-end designers incorporate crochet into their lines, but at times I doubt the functionality of see-through dresses or tops unless you are super-skinny or 18 and coverage is no subject. AnnieBriggs' crochet on the other hand looks functional and runway-worthy.
When I conversed shortly with Annie she revealed that she may soon persue a different career outside of the craft world. And close her crafting business. If you like her crochet fashion you should act quickly and visit her website and Etsy shop. If I didn't have a huge sum of money invested in all my inventory (yarn) and if I couldn't crochet, I would order the jacket above. Most definitely! (But, since I have all my yarns and call myself professional crocheter, I guess I will just have to make a BoHo jacket for myself soon.) Hope it will turn out at least half as pretty as Annie's.

Another Crochet Success Story -- Written by Twinkie Chan

Twinkie Chan
showed the handcrafting scene that crochet scarves can be a most sought after item on Ebay and sell for prices that most of us only can dream of. (The scarf sold for $321 on Ebay)
Wow, this is all I can say. She also makes smaller crochet brooches for those with a tighter wallet.
Food themes are typical for her designs and she translates her ideas into wearables. I may be wrong, but I believe she was one of the first crocheters to create food inspired items and she has been copied a lot over the years (just my own subjective observation).
Crochet has come a long way ... doilies, afghans and homely designs were just the beginning.
I am convinced that a unique style in crochet, a feeling for color and "what's in" are components of crochet success stories, even though some crocheters do very well with conventional designs and products, too.
And there are always the crocheters/knitters who appeal to small niches. One thing that most of us especially crocheters have in common though are selling prices on the lower $ level. This little series is meant as inspiration and uplifting examples that our craft can do well in the retail world.
And, as my previously featured crochet designers have demonstrated, a pretty model and great pictures sure help selling as well.

Proud mama of new tams

Hi there, it has been a while since I had a bunch of new hats for sale. The above irie-inspired visor tam is already taken though because it was a custom order for a very nice repeat buyer.
So last night I sat up and finished them all. Unfinished projects bother me when they keep piling up.
We had to exchange our cable for the internet service all throughout the house and things seemed to take forever, but, just like a proud mama I can finally show off my new stuff.
Available at
my Etsy shop
and
my website

And the beat goes on...

This Sunny & Cher song was in my head when I rushed back from the accountant appointment, taxes are done . A milestone every time in March, to move on with life and just go back to the routine. I love my routine.
This warm brown and dark red tam is a hat design I have done very often over the years, and yet, it's still fun to crochet.
Available on my website Purple Sage Designz

Spring is on my mind! What is better to express my longings for a nice warm breeze then with a lavender doily cotton tam?
Available on Purple Sage Designz

Color...I am crocheting "out of the box" these days. I love unusual color combinations and a bit of boldness.
Rust and dark citrine tam...available at my Etsy shop

I still love the Irie color combo and have made this Jamaica inspired tam.
You can read more about it in my Etsy shop