History of Crochet

I have just seen an fantastic article on Crochet.  It has some of the history of crochet and also many of the different types of crochet and references as to where you can find the instructions on how to do the many variations.  I found it because the author used one of my items in her article.  It was the Irish Hearts Doily made using the technique of Irish Crochet but with a thicker thread.  Here's the link to my item.
http://www.etsy.com/listing/67549072/crochet-cotton-doily-irish-lace-irish?ga_search_query=Irish&ga_search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5335297

This article is very well done and had a lot of thought put into.  The author has a booth on Etsy and is also a member of etsyhookers team and the wwwg team.  Here's a link to the article:
http://www.squidoo.com/crafty-creative-crochet

Here's a link to her shop on Etsy
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MountainsideCrochet

She has some very interesting items in her shop, but whether you crochet or not her article is very interesting because it displays so many of the different areas of crochet.

Miss the Promotion Thread on Etsy?

Do you miss the old forums on Etsy?  Well a web site known as "Unofficial Etsy Forums".  They have numerous topics to post under similiar to the old etsy forum topics.  I especially like that they have a Promotion thread where you can list new items, your blog, sales etc. 

I used to post in the Promotion thread whenever I added a new item.  Miss looking at  the sales and items being added all the time.  The nice thing about the promotion thread a buyer does not have to look under every team to find what they might be interested.  Not every buyer will check each team.  Posting a new item on your team probably will not generate a buyer (which is really the object) because they make the same things.

This new place to post has the old format promotion thread.  Here's the link
http://unofficialetsyforums.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=promotions

So whether you are a buyer or seller take a look at the unofficial Etsy Forums.  Hope it is very successful.

As you can see I don't usually have a lot of time, and haven't blogged in a long time but thought this might be helpful.

Also there is an Etsy Member that recently had a tragedy--Here's the link to the information

http://unofficialetsyforums.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=announcements&action=display&thread=1581

I have added both links to my tweeter, thank you to the people whom started this site.

Crochet Patterns, Then and now

Recently I have been working on a lot of vintage patterns along with some new designs.  What I find interesting is how much the designers have improved the way they write the patterns.  Some of the vintage patterns a very hard to determine exactly what you are suppose to do and takes a bit of trial and error.  Here are a couple of examples

Pot holder  http://www.etsy.com/listing/48422432/crochet-dog-pot-holder-or-trivet-white

Pot holders  http://www.etsy.com/listing/48213333/pair-of-pot-holders-panties-and-shorts

There are other examples of vintage in my shop.  The way they are written are more in paragraphs rather than rows.

The modern patterns are much easier to read and understand for the most part.  For years I have done patterns by a designer whom I think does excellent patterns with unique designs.  She doesn't do just the ordinary designs expecially in her doilies.  She has designed for many years, and no I do not work for her nor does she pay me.  I have just crochet a lot of her doily patterns.  I enjoy them because some of them are challenging with the way you stitch them.  Following are two of the patterns I recently worked on

Pineapple Halloween doily  http://www.etsy.com/listing/51760626/crochet-black-and-orange-pineapple-doily

Butterflies, roses, pineapples and hummingbirds  http://www.etsy.com/listing/52279162/butterflies-pineapples-roses-and

What is really nice about Ann White's patterns she includes photographs of exactly how the stitch is to be made and where it is to go.  She is a very talented designer and makes her patterns very easy to read and follow.  You can find her designs on this web site:

http://www.bellacrochet.com/

Just thought I would pass this along to all of you who love to crochet, and might be intimidated by some of the complicated designs, Ann makes them much easier to understand.

Christmas In July Sale

Well it is July again and many of the shops on Etsy are having "Christmas in July" Sales.  They can be easily found by going to http://www.etsy.com/ and then searching for Christmas in July http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=Christmas+in+July&search_type=handmade or CIJ. http://www.etsy.com/search_results.php?search_query=CIJ&search_type=handmade

My shop,  http://www.etsy.com/shop/mishap1165 has 20% off of every item in the shop.  You can convo me and I will relist the items for you or if you purchase it, I will refund the 20% through paypal. 

This Christmas in July sale in my shop includes all items, I have Halloween items like this dancing skeleton towels to numerous Christmas items.  There are also a lot of machine embroidered lace bookmarks http://www.etsy.com/shop/mishap1165?section_id=5573134 and other machine lace to use as appliques or scrapbooking.   http://www.etsy.com/shop/mishap1165?section_id=5571752

Christmas in July gives us all an opportunity to shop early while in the Northern Hemispere the weather is still nice and a head start.  With all the great sales going on both on Etsy and in Storefronts it is a good time especially in this economic time to start our Christmas Shopping.  This time of year are the best sales.

An E-bay Sob Story, I have a store on e-bay which I have had for a number of years. When e-bay started their dsr ratings awhile ago there were a lot of objections and buyer's posting wrong dsr ratings. Well nothing has changed.The first low rating I got was from a customer who didn't pay until I filed a non-payment. That person gave me a low dsr rating on the shipping. Now again one of the last 5 that posted gave me a low drs on shipping. Now I do not charge handling and the shipping usually costs me money. If you were to look at the items these people bought and the amount they were charged for shipping you would know they were not charged more than what it costs.The next item on the list is shipping time, now I have a 5 rating but I should. As soon as I receive payment, I ship the item and notify the buyer. The only time this does not occur is Sunday or a Holiday. If that is the case I contact the buyer and tell them it will be shipped the next day that the Post Office is open.On communication I always e-mail the buyers and notify them of shipping and if delayed because the post office is closed I e-mail them.I have contacted e-bay about the latest low rating and of course they will do nothing. Because I am a small seller this low rating really affects my standing.When is e-bay going to treat sellers with proper customer service. After all we are their customers not the buyers. When are they going to understand that buyers should not have the power over sellers. As far as shipping charges go, when I have purchased items from some sellers, sometimes their cheap price is made up for by high shipping charges. It is up to me as a customer if I want to pay it. I have never marked a seller down over shipping charges because I agreed to them when I purchased the item.I have read in numerous instances that unfair dsr's have caused many sellers to have their ratings reduced. E-bay needs to change this policy and eliminate them altogether and just go with the feedback they way they used to. DSR's are a flawed system.

Here are the shipping charges for the last five, one of them left the low score:
Plate, charged 5.65 actual shipping charge 8.10
Towel charged 2.00 actual 1.90
Doily charged 2.00 actual 1.55
Sweater charged 4.90 (issued $3.00 refund) cost 1.90
Towel charged 1.50 actual 1.73

Guess e-bay wants me to pay the total shipping charge and ship free. All those items included boxes and the plate a lot of bubble wrap to protect it. With the low selling prices I use I can't afford completely free shipping.
To visit my store just click anywhere on the article and you will be redirected to my e-bay store, from there you can look at the feedback and that no one has been overcharged for shipping.

Where oh where does the time go?

Well it has been a long time since I wrote anything, kept meaning to but just didn't get to it. Right now I am embroidering a Christmas towel that has a lot thread changes so I can't really do much else. I like to embroider the crochet hanging towels because then they are appropriate for either kitchen or bath, unlike the ones that have the scenes on them that are more for kitchens. This is a red hatted tweet towel http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32258942

Also have all of you seen the new pattern book from bella crochet, Butterflies and Roses Pineapple crochet doilies http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32288875

I have done one of the patterns, the cross, but changed the colors for Christmas, http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32214636

I have also created a hat that has an opening in the back for a ponytail so if you have long hair and wear a pony tail it doesn't get mashed into your head. I saw one that was knitted so I thought I would try a crochet one.
http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=32192774

I have done a lot of lace bookmarks on the embroidery machine, those are amazing how the stay together as free standing lace. http://www.etsy.com/search_results_shop.php?search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_6084057&search_query=Bookmarks

Lots of things to make with it, but where do we get the time?
Well I better get back to work, try to add things more often, maybe I can make that a new resolution.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and rewarding Holiday Season.

Free Applique

Well I succeeded in making a project on the embroidery machine and it worked fine. Guess it just took perseverance. It was probably operator error. Anyway here is a picture of it and now that it is done, I don't have a use for it. It is done on muslin with a stabilizer. If anyone has a use for it just leave your e-mail in the comments and I will contact you for your address and will send it at no charge. The pictures are the front and back, but the edges are a bit rough. It would probably work well with wonder under.