From The Sparrow House

  Yesterday I tidied up my work stuff. Not the most monumental achievement, but it means that I have finished knitting mittens and hand warmers until after the show I am attending on Saturday 1st December (see previous post and social media for details.)   I decided that I needed the rest of this week to sort out everything for the weekend - from labelling to planning my stall layout. Yesterday was my cutoff date for finishing mittens etc.   It was a pretty close run thing to finish that green pair (they have just finished blocking). I then talked myself into one more pair (rolls eyes) made a start on the rib, after faffing about picking out two lots of colours and a design. As I was knitting, whilst trying to eat lunch, I realised that I was just giving myself unnecessary stress. I ripped them out and immediately felt a lot better.   The rest of this week now feels much easier to deal with and I have a list - I do love a list! And I am working my way through it. Once this wee

It's been a busy few days. I've been catching up on mundane jobs like winding wool, making charts, updating my spread sheet and other very exciting things.......like watching paint dry. I took Wednesday as a 'me' day and did everything but knit on mittens - I didn't even think about mittens. I drew, I sewed, I wrote and I chilled. It was needed. Now it's Friday and I have so much to be getting on with, but I like that. I do enjoy being busy. I've been deciding what to work on next, as my most recent pair came off the needles last night, and are blocking as I type. They were quite muted and subtle - no orange - I feel now that I need to redress that. I want to make a smack in the gob bright pair. I glanced across at a bag last night and saw what I thought was the perfect combo - it was loud. I think I'll use one of my favourite simple repetitive patterns so it's all about the colours. As I mentioned last time, I  am trading at a local show on

Hello again. Back from taking a few days away from social media so I could be a bit more productive. It worked......kind of. I also decided last minute to take part in Nanowrimo this year - because I haven't enough to do already! I have been busy knitting some lovely new mittens and hand warmers using a different yarn. I like it but still prefer the texture Shetland gives to colour work. I have two pairs in Soak ready to block and there will be photos soon. Yesterday I laid my stock out  to see where I was at because I am doing my first event on 01/12/18. It's a lovely mix of daunting and exciting. Here is just a little corner of my work table yesterday as I laid all the lovely mittens out to just see how I felt about the quantity and also how the colours were lining up. I don't want to favour too many of one colour palette. For now I am not going to update  my Etsy shop -   Sparrow House Knits  - as I want to keep new stock just for the show I am doing, but I wil

Been a while since my last post - to which I got some really interesting replies . Thank you to everyone who took the time to give me their thoughts. I appreciate it. I've been quiet due to being busy. I have been making like mad as I had confirmation of getting a stall at a show I want to do. There will be more on that closer to the date.......it involves the dreaded 'C" word, and I think October is still too early! I also had another week with Mike at home on a weeks holiday which was lovely, and I always like to take the time to be with him, and that means less knitting time. Another reason for a bit less on line stuff was helping my Mum a bit after her operation, though to be fair, she is an amazingly strong woman, who coped with so much pain with so much strength and dignity. I am such a wuss that I think I might be a changeling. Last week I managed to complete three pairs of hand warmers and at the moment these have not gone onto Etsy as I am holding on to a c

This is such a tricky question to answer for many makers, myself included. How do you fairly price your labours to reflect what they cost you to make - materials and time? One of the fundamental problems encountered is that unless your items are purchased by someone who also makes, then a good majority of your customers may have absolutely no idea what goes in to something that is 'hand made', Here is a rough break down of what one of my 'hand made' items entails.  For this example I am going to use yarn I have hand dyed. 1) Preparation of yarn for dyeing - this includes winding, skeining and soaking the yarn. 2) Dyeing - including rinsing, washing and drying. 3) Choosing colours - getting the colour choices right often requires me to swatch the colours together to make sure that they work. 4) Choosing a design, then swatching again and finally  making a chart to use. 5) Knitting the mittens/hand warmers. Every single stitch in the picture below is knit by hand

I opened my Etsy shop on 13th September. It was exciting and kinda awful all at the same time. Lucky for me I made a sale and then another which helped me feel that I am doing the right thing. Small steps yes? For anyone who reads this and who like to take a look you can find my shop  Here  I hope you like it. Please favourite it and spread the word if you can - thank you. If you follow me on social media - I am running a giveaway of a pair of 100% Pure Shetland Wool hand knit hand-warmers all you have to do is like and comment to be in the random draw which will take place on 20/09/18. Find me as Sparrow House Knits on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Lastly on this vein the first few orders will get an extra goodie sent to them as a thank you for helping me on my way. I am still knitting up new designs and colours and have so many ideas my head might well burst. In other news it is a funny week as my Mum is going in for surgery today and it is a big thing for a lady of her