Lots of stuff happening!

I think I'll do this update point by point in order to make it easier to read. Those of you who only read from the feed on Crochet Pages, I apologize in advance that you'll be missing most of the info, unless you click through to the blog.

1) I've finally got the photo posted for the Mini Teddy Bear. I hope the shot properly shows it's scale.

2) I got the Envelope Clutch pattern posted. This was the winning pattern for the preview of my book.

3) With Ren Faire season now over, I'm hoping I might be able to wrangle a couple of new patterns from Jessy, but no promises.

4) The book is well under way at this point. The layout is falling together pretty well and I only need 2 more patterns before I'm willing to call it finished. I apologize if anyone was hoping to get it in their hands before Christmas, it's not likely to happen at this point.

5) I do not intend to take a Christmas break from the website at this point. For a few reasons:
a) I just got started on this regular monthly update thing, if I don't keep going, I don't know what might happen.
b) I honestly don't see any reason why I'd need to at this point. My boss isn't let me make any headway in my frameshop, so I doubt I'll get pulled to help others.
c) I need to start getting ready for the move to a new host. My Tripod account has served me well for roughly 10 years now, but I am quickly running out of space. Regular updates are going to make that happen sooner. I'm nearly 3/4 of the way to capacity.
d) I still haven't built the web-home I promised for Because We Care. I feel really bad about that, I really need to get in touch with Anita about it.

I think that covers everything. Any questions, let me know.

Pattern Requests

Wow, I can tell the site had a huge surge in visits recently, I'm starting to get requests for specific patterns again.  With that in mind, there's a couple of things I would like to say about pattern requests.

1) Please, please feel free to send them.  Sometimes you guys think of things that never occurred to me.

2) Please give me some time to work something up, the bigger the project, the more lenient I'll ask you to be with the deadline.

3) Understand that I am a stereotypical artist of the worst sort.  I could have all the ideas in the world and the pattern still may not come to me. 

If I can come up with something, I will email it to you as soon as I have it and post the pattern on Crochet Pages, with a nod to you, as soon as I have the pictures for it.

If I can't come up with anything in a timely manner, I ask that you please do not take it personally.  It way mean I'm struggling with it, it may mean I have family commitments, it could mean work got crazy.  

Many of you know, although some don't, that I work for a major Arts and Crafts chain.  This means a couple of things - I love my job, I get to be creative every day, but also, I work retail.  I'm the Framing Manager at my local Michaels.  Which means, a minimum of 42 hours a week (if you include travel) I have no access to yarn or a computer.

It also means that this time of year, work will only get more and more hectic until about January.  Last year, I spent almost a week in New Jersey (driving 50 miles each way, every day) before Christmas, and a little over a week going to the same stores just after Christmas.  I put almost 6oo miles on my car the one week and over 800 the other.  I got gas for cheaper than I could in PA and didn't have to get out of my car in the cold (Jersey's all full service).  I loved it.  I love meeting new framers, you never know when you'll learn something new.  I got reimbursed for gas mileage, and I got a ton of overtime.

Unfortunately, I was getting up, going to work, filing my paperwork on the way home (I had to drive past my store, anyway), saying goodnight to my husband and going to be early.  I didn't have time to think about crochet.  If I start to get into a situation like that, I'll make sure I let you all know, but I wanted to mention it now, just so it doesn't come as a surprise later.

On that note, I need to get on with my day.

Thanks for reading and happy hooking to all!!

Back to reality.

So, my vacation's over now. I don't work until 2pm today, but it is officially back to work starting today.

What does this mean to you? Well, now that I'm done getting a tattoo and visiting Maryland and taking my best friend to a concert for her birthday, life will be getting back to normal. Which means, site updates and patterns!

I finally got the pixie photos from the friend I borrowed the camera from, so that means I'll get those up, and I'll be trying to do at least one new pattern every month from here out.

I will also be putting some time into getting the studio put together and working on some more t-shirt designs. I need to look into where I'm gonna have them printed at a little more, but right now I'm looking at PrintFection. I have mixed feeling about CafePress, because of the limits that they put on free accounts, and I'm just not a good fit for Zyraxia, even though they do hand screenprint all their shirts, which makes the printing more durable.

The draw back to Zyraxia is that they don't just print stuff because you submitted it. They review they design, decide if it's sellable, then, if they like it, it becomes they're design to do with as they see fit, and they run off a batch of shirts. The only way to make sure that they print your design is to upload it and order a full printing batch. Since I'm looking for print on demand, so I don't have to store or ship the shirts, not really what I was looking for, Also, I'll consider my designs a hit even if only one person other than me buys them. Not an option with Zyraxia.

Which is where I come back to PrintFection. Print on demand. When you want a shirt, they print that one shirt and then ship it off. They take their share and I get what's left.

Also, I've been working, finally, on support badges for a local charity group called Because We Care. One of the reasons I'm putting a lot of effort into the stuff for Because We Care is that it's run by an older woman and at this point in time, the only web-presence the group will have is what I give it on my website.

I've been rearranging the homepage somewhat to start working all this new stuff in, so you will be seeing some changes coming up. Hopefully, they will all be minor, at least visually. I think all the changes are going to be for the better and I hope you feel the same.

As always, thanks for reading and if you have any ideas or concerns, please, please, let me know!

A test.

I'm going to try something here. I'm gonna see if it works to have my blog posts come through as a groups newsletter post. I'll keep an eye on my inbox to see what comes through, but I do ask that the rest of you please let me know if anything flakey happens.

Thanks all!

Another Pattern Book

So, yet another pattern book in the works. I guess that it might seem counter-productive to have so much on the table at once, but I've gotta do the patterns as they come to me and now there's a place to put them as they come up. I know I'll eventually do more dolls, doilies, and bags. There's certain things that I always come back to.

I love the idea that crochet is not just something for little old ladies and middle-aged housewives to do. I love the fact that more and more kids are getting into it. I pride myself on taking a somewhat wacky approach to an art with a centuries long history. I have said before that I don't 'get' freeform, but I do love to take something very traditional and give it a modern spin.

Doilies have been done for years, but rarely with repeats other than 2, 6 or 8. I've done 3, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, and 20. I plan to keep doing this.

People crochet flowers all the time, but outside of amigurumi, you don't often see cartoon-type flowers.

Lots of people crochet doll clothes, but again, outside of Japanese patterns, you don't see very many dolls that are entirely yarn.

I'm not saying all of this to brag, that's not the point. I'm genuinely proud of what I do, and the fact that I do it a little different from everybody else.

What this post is actually about, is a little bit of a preview of things to come. A modern spin on traditions.

In the coming months, here's some things I'm hoping you'll see on Crochet Pages:
- new patterns every month
- crochet related merchandise (t-shirts, buttons, etc.)
- more chances to participate in things
- possible revival of the weekly stitch along project
- revival, in some form, of the Newsletter
- pattern books for download
- if interest allows, some form of crochet exchange

Any thoughts, comments, suggestions of things you would like to see, gimme a shout! Drop a comment or send an email

what is wrong with people?(continued)

*sigh* So I checked my email this morning and there were a bunch of lesbian biker chick spam emails that had been sent through the Crochet Pages Yahoo!Group. My apologies again to all who received those.

I know the group is terribly inactive since I stopped writing newsletters and I feel really bad that the only that comes through is garbage.

Age

Age's Crochet Pages Update

I just finished uploading a huge update to the Crochet Pages Site, which among other things, includes (finally) a link to this blog.

Things to expect from this update:
- lots of new patterns
- a few new pictures
- the newsletters are all posted in an archive
- a new link bar at the top of the pages
- a link to this blog!
- error correction to the plain English granny square pattern (Thanks, Sam, for giving me the opportunity to find that!)

A few unfortunate things with this update:
- there may be some unavoidable bugs
- there are still tons of Tripod ads (sorry, can't afford to upgrade the membership right now)

I hope that this update goes over well and hopefully some of you will find your way here.

Thanks for reading,
Age

In the meantime

I've been waiting for the sun to go down a little so that I can plant the afforementioned little tomato plant and water my teeny backyard and garden. In the meantime however, I've started working on archiving the Age's Crochet Pages newsletter onto the website. As soon as I've gotten everything swapped over from Word documents to HTML (web) format, I will borrow the hubby's thumb drive and upload everything to the site.

No, I do not have any current plans to start up the newsletter again. Sorry. This doesn't mean I'll never consider it, it just means not right now.

Age