Making Time

i just got a package of crewel wool from whizzme. it was a swap for some fabric.
i feel like it’s so precious, i want to be very careful before deciding what to do, and how to use it! pretty colors…
thank you, samantha!

I just want to take this moment to say i love my host.

in 2000, when i was searching for hosts, i made alot of phone calls. i spoke to people who seemed to talk to me like an idiot, and be dismissive of my questions…

and then i spoke with stephen mccarron from hosting365 in ireland. and he was very informative. and those things i didn’t understand, he explained, and helped me figure out what package would suit me. i didn’t know at the time it was a new business, and i was speaking to the owner.

since then, i’ve had great service! i mean, quick and responsive. i’d had crappy cheap-o hosts in the states previously and i knew what it was like to feel like a number.

recently, my domain of 6 years expired. i didn’t receive notification, because by some mad fault, my old email died and i thought i had updated the contact info. on sunday i watched as the whole thing disappeared off the face of the internet. i was horrified. i wrote heart-wrenching emails (even on a sunday) and quickly got a REPLY. i was so relieved. and on monday, they renewed the domain while i was sleeping. i was only charged a normal domain renewal fee.
AND to top it all off, they have increased all the storage limits on all accounts. when i joined it was a limit of 250MB for a basic linux account… and now, with no increase in charge they have competitively increased it to 2500MB! happy days.

i’ve converted, lemme see…. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 people to their services since i started. and i’d be glad to recommend it to anyone.

always very responsive. and always real people on the other end of the line. real, intelligent people! i just had to say that, and give them some linky love.

no pics…

i started a job last week (teaching 1-15 yr olds english!)… big learning curve for me. and so i have felt a bit wiped out for making anything. oh and teaching is so ‘creative’ (read: i have to make so many props and revamp a four year old tattered classroom so that students will actually like it and i can meet my ‘quota’ for getting in new students)… so i think it’s sapping my creative energy. even my boyfriend asked me why i wasn’t making anything tonight.

however, i managed to send out my first ever fabric swaps this week, and eagerly await their arrival. (i’m wondering if i did it right?) and i 95% completed a bag.. but i can’t top stitch it because the sewing machine has decided to break the thread and foul the bobbin.. oh… about *every* 5 inches. (what do you expect for a machine of 3000 円 - about 30 USD)… and i’ve promised to make 9 more of them.

plus, i wrote a post for whip-up this weekend… and i flipping clicked ‘publish’ when i meant to click ‘draft’… honestly! so it was not well-edited or considered. i had meant to let it simmer for a little while. and i regret that it was not rigorous enough, and considered enough… and the dialogue that came from it is good, but i feel like i said some stupid things. well, i did.

so feeling a little out-of-sorts.

and needlebook, who writes one of my most-often-visited blogs (meet her doll hatty) asked me to do a swap with her, and i was very pleased. … and she asked me what i wanted on my needlebook. at first i didn’t know what… but then i thought… a house. i want a house. and i suddenly realized how very homesick i am! and i don’t even know where home is anymore. can i go home now please? is this home? it doesn’t feel like it, and i don’t know if i’d even recognize it if i was there.

so i just wanted to link to this bit of craft comic relief.
you knit what? (found from a link via crafty minx).

…because i feel all kinds of awful lately.

i saw a quilt exhibition in oita (大分）recently. the designs were mainly pretty traditional western styles. i don’t know much about quilting at all, and i had never seen fine hand quilting up close. but it was beautiful. i noticed they left the pencil drawings on the quilts.

do they always leave the drawing on the quilts?

one white quilt had loads and loads of pencil sketching all over it- and some lines which were not sewn… it was a great combination of a sketching with pencil and needle. i had a tough time getting good pics!

i wanted to make a little friend for nina… with brown hair. but i made a mistake. the original pattern uses a yarn called “wool cute” sold apparently only in Hobbyra-Hoobyre stores. it’s a little expensive, but it’s very fine, and - now i can appreciate- it is very straight.

So I bought another kind of fine wool yarn, called Ski Yarn, which is great as it comes in alot of colours. What is not great is how wavy it is! I love my own wavy hair, but I don’t think it suits this dolll. It does not make for a nice fringe (bangs). And I was afraid of bald spots so I actually ironed her hair before I put it on! It was painstaking. This photo shows the left side which is part-way ironed and the right which is unironed.
Let this be a note to self: use the right stuff for the right job.

Let this be another note to self: If you have to iron yarn, please do it when it is still wrapped around the cardboard before cutting! It would have been alot easier!

She’ll be finished soon…

I needed a break from sewing, so the first item of clothing (after her red shoes) is this blue cardigan, it looks nice with her hair. This was not from the book, but then again, I hate following patterns, don’t I?

I tried making a wave design, but it’s so small it doesn’t really show! I think I should do some more open work next time.

I’m going to try and make another Nina doll before venturing out on my own design. There were a few things I’d like to try again, and see if I can improve the results.

This is Nina!

The B on her heart is for a special little girl who is going to get Nina as a gift. As soon as I make her some clothes!

I’d like to design my own dolls, so this is good practice. I think I should make one more for good measure. The design for her is pretty simple. She’s a great size too. I’ve posed her on the mac so you can see…

Shockingly, it was not until I started sewing that I noticed the eyes I copied from the pattern were lopsided. So I had to adjust them. I thought it was my error in tracing, but IN FACT the pattern is not symmetrical. I’m not sure if this is some wabi-sabi thing done on purpose, but it is clearly not symmetrical. Weird!

Since it is officially St. Paddy’s day, I am making this post in honour of my local. Dave, the landlord of PEI in Oita has been a great help to me since I have been here. He drove my boyfriend to pick my exhausted self up from the airport, and has been very helpful so many times. I said to Dave- what can I do in return?

He said, crochet me something- crochet me doilies. So I did!

I did these mostly when drinking in PEI and I didn’t have a pattern, so they are seriously wonky. I know it’s mildly anti-social to crochet in a pub, but I always get itchy fingers. I can completely talk, crochet and drink at the same time! And look, they are reusable- How eco-friendly is that?

This is the free beer I got when I presented them last night after the bi-weekly Pub Quiz. Happy St Paddy’s day !

These are pictures from the nina chan book. Isbn4072498866

She seems obviously inspired by Madeleine. Here she is at a metro station!

The clothes are sweet. And some are quite Japanese. Of course Nina needs slippers!
You can see I’ve started scribbling into the book! Terrible, I am! I will be making notes over in my japanese notebook, since it seems more appropriate. I’ll be learning Japanese as I make her.

I spoke with the organisers of Concert on the Rock today, got info on set-up and installation for the show in June. This is where my friends, Danny and Tom, and I will ply our wares this summer. OK, it’s only a short event, but we’re really excited about it.

Of what I’ve seen, this website has a good checklist of things to follow about preparing for a show.

The space has a tent over it, and a table that is 1.5 x 5 feet. Sounds narrow. But we can bring other tables and things to display with. Tom is well-experienced in boot sales (fleamarkets) and I grew up in an antique show. So we can plan some display options.

Pricing conundrum

Danny and I met and looked at things we are making. She’s making collaged postcards, and was considering selling her original paintings… but I’m not sure it’s such a great idea. It’s hard to know how to price things. I made two kitties, thinking that ‘yeah, i’ll amigurumi circles around this’… but they take alot longer than I expected. I need to be able to price things reasonably, since it’s not a craft-fair, it’s a market at a weekend long concert. People aren’t there to shop! But they will probably make impulse purchases when they see all of the lovely unique goodies.
The same site linked above has basic info about pricing your work.

Cost and value based pricing

Cost-based pricing means working out the exact cost of making something and adding a proportion or ‘mark-up’ to that. It is important for high-volume production and where buying decisions are made mostly on price.

Value-based pricing means setting prices according to the value of the product to the customer. It is useful in particular for low-volume, high value products, and where decisions are made on a number of factors, of which price is only one.

Posie gets cosy generously offers advice to would-be store sellers. I’m not capable of shop-selling yet, but it’s a great article to read, in terms of developing your work for sale.

I read somewhere a blog post about not pricing work too cheap, since it degrades the market, but I don’t know where this article is! Bah, in my delicious bookmarks hiding somewhere probably.

This isn’t it exactly, but this post from the SuperNaturale forum is helpful. The poster, Alisha, explains that craftspeople starting out (first couple of years), are buying materials at full cost. The wholesale prie includes “supplies, overhead (lighting, rent, etc), PAYING YOURSELF, and adding a profit cushion that goes back into growing your business. Your retail markup pays for shows, marketing and sales, and your time spent trying to retail your work (separate from creating the pieces)”

It’s complex, but a business afterall. I have ben keeping my receipts, but not very good notes.

I’m glad I’m starting small.