I did a little update to the church purse pattern. It’s been several years and it’s been tech edited to add lots of new ideas.
The updated pattern can be found here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/cradle-purse-church-purse
Thanks for stopping by!
I have 2 shows coming up and yet, I’m making stuff for myself. Again. That’s pretty much my SOP.
While I’m doing better at finishing one WiP at a time, I still have too much on the hooks & needles.
So, at the top we have an upcycle of a vintage camera strap, leftover yarn from another project, and also leftover fabric. Win! My ‘buy nothing’ year is in full swing and that was a useful project. The only purchase was a coordinating zipper. But I had to sew. I’m no seamstress for sure. No matter how many attempts I give it, I just don’t enjoy sewing. I love the results, don’t get me wrong, but sewing is not my jam. It’s still fabric wrestling to me. I’ve felt that way for 40+ years. I have made every effort to TRY to like it, but nah dawg. I have resigned myself to the fact that I should just sew when needed and put the machine away.
I thought about sharing the pattern instead of producing more for the popup show, but typing cuts into my yarn time. We can’t have that now can we?
As for the second picture of my lovely model Marie, I took a stab at designing a knit tank top. Now THAT was fun & useful. I measured out a random tank top that I wear often and waved my magic wands to conjure it out of 2 old hanks of hand-dyed that never sold when I was dyeing yarn for my now defunct Etsy shop. It’s comfy and I get compliments every time I wear it. I’m definitely making it again. That one has a better chance of getting the typing-worthy pattern release on Ravelry.
Righty then, I should get back to making more hats. I have 4 weeks to be ready for the shows and more hoarded yarn in my stash to bust.
Thanks for stopping by!
I make hats. Yes, lots of hats. I appreciate lots of hat styles, whether I wear them or not. Hats are often a vivid personality display, or a way to blend in. They are both unnecessary and absolutely needed depending on the weather, etcetera. Either way, hats are a wardrobe staple that have a very, very long history. When you look at the big scheme of things, they are currently making a bit of a comeback from their hiatus during the hairspray years. Not that they ever went away, but sometimes fashion changes in the blink of an eye and sometimes it does the slow roll over a couple of decades.
I’ve been making hats for 40+ years and I’m happy to see the resurgence. I’ve been checking out vintage shops and fashion blogs and professionally trained milliners. I’ve seen lovers of ALL THE HATS, and omg the haters sprinkled amongst them. Recent reading found me incredulous over a professional milliner who was basically screaming from the rooftops that knitted beanies are NOT HATS worthy of being called hats. I took it personally. Yes, I’m salty over it in fact. So I say, let’s hear a HUZZAH for those of us mere peasants that make crochet & knit headgear. BeeTeeDubs, we can adore milliner pieces of art while we use our magic wands to conjure our own designs in wool. We are also artists. ThankYouVeryMuch.
Some fashionistas predict that crochet & knit will firmly stay on top this fall/winter season in the form of newsboys, turbans & earwarmer/headband styles. Who knows? The one thing I have learned in life that predictions are all 50/50 odds. Wear what makes you happy! Enjoy ALL THE HATS. Make, wear, and share what makes your heart sing!
It’s marching towards autumn in the northern hemisphere, and regardless of style, the hat trend will amplify. Yay! I will wear the fun, and the funky, and the rustic, and the vintage, and fancy hats. I will wear & share the wool beanie.
I’m making a bicycle basket.
I live on a gravel road, so 22 years ago when I moved here I stopped riding and sold my 10-speed from 1983 at a garage sale. Somewhere along the way I had an electric scooter. Also, too difficult to ride on gravel and it met the same fate. Did I mention that I am a glutton for punishment? I really want to get back on a bike. I decided I will buy a bike rack for my Jeepster and haul to a suitable bike trail to diversify my exercise routine. I will probably regret this decision as well.
Recently, I was given a cute vintage bike to rehab. It’s a blue Schwinn and built for short people like me. Hey, I need to be able to reach the pedals and I’m definitely getting too old to crash & burn with these brittle bones. I’m still healing up from washing the damn floor and pulling a hamstring in October. Yeesh, getting old is not for sissies.
Anyway, it’s a super cute bike but I’ve literally done nothing to rehab it yet. I’ve washed it.
I’ve also purchased a basket for the handle bars. Gotta keep going with its cuteness factor there, right? Me and my awesome priorities. Now I am making a bouquet of forever flowers for said basket.
Eventually, I suppose I will need to relearn a thing or two about maintenance…and I suppose I should be finding some working tires. Yeah, that might help a ton. Oh, and maybe that bike rack for the transportation issues.
For now though, I’m gonna make it cute.
Have a ridiculously amazing day & thanks for stopping by!
☮️🖤&🚲
A few weeks ago, I made Salem his very own cat friend. His reaction was priceless.
It was checked out from all angles.
There was some contemplation.
Then I got the look.
WTF is this blasphemy mom?
Have a ridiculously amazing day & thanks for stopping by!
Just dropping in to wish you a Happy Star Wars Day!
I love fan art crochet🖤 There are oodles of free patterns out there for all ages & skill levels.
While licensing in the US requires jumping through hoops, it’s still fun to make things that pay homage to pop culture for friends or family.
I still haven’t made a Storm Trooper anything yet, but might look for a good blanket or hat idea.
Have a great day, and May the 4th Be With You!
I was a Sesame Street kid. I grew up loving that show, so when I saw that the aliens were getting some love as of recently, I wrote up a pattern.
You can find it here::
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/yip-yip-alien-car-hanger
Thanks for stopping by!
I had an acquaintance tell me with a giggle that when she retired, her house got very clean. She’s not wrong.
Ya know all of those things that are on your mental list of ‘someday I need to’? Those things start getting done when you have your real life stretched out in front of you. When you’re no longer treading water to survive the storm of work, family, home keeping, child raising, obligations, and how to keep enough groceries picked up on your lunch hour…your house starts getting clean. I mean like really clean.
Well, mine is anyway.
I used to joke that I was an organized packrat. I’ve tried to purge stuff regularly over the years, but seriously how much stuff could I really get rid of with only a few hours to devote to it on a weekend here & there over 30 years? Now I have the time to take deep, DEEP dives into the closets and boxes and totes and cupboards. Much to my chagrin, I really am an organized packrat. It was no joke.
There’s stuff squirreled away that should not continue to weigh me down. I started with a corner of my kitchen that is odd and was always stacked with crap. My little house was not designed by one of the great architects of the world. It’s a simple, cookie-cutter design with many flaws…kind of like me. I’ve decided to make the best of what I have to work with. I’m transforming it one little corner at a time. This week, I finally finished pulling together only the things that are useful and beautiful in that little corner. It finally looks and functions perfectly FOR ME.
I read a lot about minimalism design. I find it very…inspirational. I guess that’s the best term for it. Not for anyone else’s sake, not simply for the aesthetics, not to show how to do it, but for the way it gives me mental clarity. I’m doing it because physical clutter leads to mental clutter. I’m going all in on it.
My little corner of the kitchen is the first thing I see in the morning once my brain starts functioning for the day. Now I’m starting every day with a little inspiration that I can build on.
Here’s a little tidbit. I went viral once. Not 2024 & 20 million views viral, but like early in the century viral where the views were in the tens of thousands. It was not glamorous. It was someone making fun of a picture circa early social media days. I did not gain anything of substance out of it but embarrassment and a deleted post. Back then, that’s all it took. Delete the post & the negative attention POOF goes away.
It also happened to my son within months of turning 18. Basically the same ending. Delete, block, report, and it went away.
Enter THE HUSTLE CULTURE of this decade. It wasn’t really as big of a thing until much more recent times. It can also be called toxic productivity interchangeably. Because it really is toxic. To stay ahead of the curve you must PUT YOUR CONTENT OUT THERE. Like constantly. STAY RELEVANT. Like constantly. WORK THE ALGORITHM. Like constantly. Whine that I AM BEING AUTHENTIC. Like constantly. All of that is exhausting for both the creator and the audience. Like constantly. Me? I’m like nah dawg, not gonna do all that constantly.
Seriously, WHY would anyone want to keep up with that? Obviously dollar signs are involved, but for whom? Betcha a dollar the social media company is the one making bank while the influencer gets thrown some change to pay the rent. And in all of that posting of videos and pictures and memes, not to mention the time spent to create them, there will be gaffes. There will be oopsies. There will be trolls. Will they be the posts that go viral and ruin your hustle? Hustle culture is a house of cards y’all.
The other day, a friend shared a link to an interesting person and I proceeded to follow. The woman has good ideas and is pleasant to listen to. She does informative short video content, and I enjoyed what she had to say. Fast forward a couple of weeks and she has gone viral. Like hundreds of thousands of new followers viral. I watched her interesting content go from maybe 1 video per day…to 6, 8, 10 times each day. My feed was overrun. She was promoting and paying for ads. She looked like shit. She was exhausted, and it showed. Her content became forced and contrived and boring. I unfollowed. Did I mention she is about my age? Again my brain went nah dawg, not gonna do that. House. Of. Cards.
I have time to think about these things now that I am retired and out of the rat race. Yes, I want to expand what used to be my side-hustle. But not like that. Not at the expense that hustle culture has thrust upon us. Don’t get me started on newly emerging AI when it comes to helping creators. I will boil it down for you…it’s garbage. I said it…AI content creation is garbage. Why would I read something that no one bothered to take the time to write? I prefer ideas and information that came from a human who performed research…or one that is, at the very least, sentient. I’ve tried the AI models for visual art. Pretty to look at, fun to conceptualize sometimes, but for actual content? That’s a hell no from me. It’s all created by humans that were exploited by a computer that generated a mashup for profit. The joke is truly on us. This little blog was crawled upon mercilessly around the time that AI was let loose on society. Every photo, every word, every post was fed into some machine. It felt like a violation as I watched it happen. Had my viral gaffe still been here, it would be permanently archived on some server only to resurface and cause me more grief.
Don’t be timid about the close button, or the unfollow button my friends. Don’t be afraid of missing out by deleting an app that does not bring enrichment to your life. Use the tools. You do not have to sit through the ads, you do not have to slog through the onslaught of garbage that will waste your time. Your time is finite on this earth…all of ours is. You will not be on your deathbed wishing you had watched one more promotional AI video, thinly veiled as content.
Sometimes life is about learning what to do. Other times, life is about learning what not to do.
So yeah, that’s my food for thought about Hustle Culture. I refuse to hustle.
I told you last post that I have retired, and I have been working towards finding new & fun things to do. While yes I still am making stuff, I am trying my hand at the reseller game. My DiL loves her clothing & shoes reseller business (she is a fashion guru with great style!), and I am more of a jewelry obsessed girl. Like my mother, I have collected an obscene amount of jewelry over my lifetime. Neither one of us has parted with a single piece since we were teens. We put our collections together and WOW we have more than we can ever wear.
Sustainable fashion is having an impact for so many reasons. Between life being expensive, wage stagnation relative to corporate greed, climate impacts, shipping logistics, less manufacturing of quality goods…I could go on & on but you read the news. Enter the live sales trend on social media and we thought let’s do THAT!
Here’s what we did:: we made an Instagram account for jewelry sales. Like that’s it so far😂
C’mon, we’re retired and we move slowly at this point in life. But seriously, we are constantly doing research on our pieces. We are both spending days on end using every tool at our disposal to find the origins, dates, makers, metal & gem details, and all the information we can on each piece so that we offer fair market prices for our most stunning & glamorous jewelry.
We can’t really do live or static sales without creating a community of people who love jewelry like we do.
It will not be an in-your-face marketing blitz. It will show pieces we think are beautiful and occasionally we will do a live sale. It will be relaxed, welcoming, and a slow fashion endeavor. She is a horticultural scientist and I’m an accountant and we happen to adore shiny objects…we are not into the hard-sell personally, so we won’t try to project that atmosphere.
I’m beginning to add photo posts of what we have, with as much information as I can.
My ask is this:: If you love jewelry and want to join us in this journey please find us on Instagram @VintageVictoriaJewelry
Join us? Chat with us? Help us find like minded jewelry lovers?
Thanks 😊
♥️Have a lovely Valentine’s Day♥️
yarnchick 