Mondays seem so blah, maybe it is the combination of fun weekend rush + beginning of the week chores +left over work from the week before. Today, I am looking forward to getting to work on this little jewel. I am following a pattern that is in my queue on Ravelry. This is the pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/retro-circles-blanket and it is really pretty easy to follow if I pay attention. I am fairly far along on it and it is just flying.
The colors are cheerful and restful at the same time. I can’t wait to get it finished. I have been waiting on some yarn to come in for a custom project. I would really like to have this little baby blanket complete before I start on the other. The forest green yarn for the other custom project should be in any day now. So I am rushing to finish this one up!
Whew, I am so glad that I get to post this Ta dah! I loved the feel of the 100% cotton yarn.It was a fun custom order for my Etsy shop: ChocolateDogStudio and it has gorgeous colors in it. I can’t wait to ship it off this afternoon to it’s new home in Texas. Here are all the lovely photos. I am sure you remember it in its beginning stages.
I have not crocheted a 100% cotton blanket before. It was a bit of a challenge as cotton has that ability to grow or shrink depending on the humidity. Here it is:
It has the beautiful blue as a simple border to finish off the edges.
I have been taking this apart (frogging) and reworking it into a better blanket. I just didn’t like the cream border around all these intense bright colors. It was going to be a larger square granny square blanket using these squares.
It just didn’t look right. It is now a rectangular granny square blanket. Here is a photo of it in its beginnings.
Here it is in all its glorious beauty!
It is crocheted out of wool yarn and is the first rectangular Granny Square afghan I have
ever made. It is a lap blanket and perfect for a chilly day.
Then why do we keep doing the same things over and over in our business and expect different results. So my question to you is WHAT are YOU going to do DIFFERENTLY this year? How are you going to change the status quo? This has been the question that has occupied my mind the last five weeks. Yes, this question was going through my mind during the Christmas rush. It was a good Christmas season for the shop. Not as good as I had hoped for but quite good anyway. There were some things that I had done differently in the shop and it did pay off.
Since I have been mulling this thought over and over in my mind and the start of a new year is a time for reflection. I was getting frustrated with my inability to come to some decisions. It seemed like the year started with a huge rush of activity; getting kids back to school, kids getting sick, getting some appointments made, updating some paperwork, insurance paperwork, and house keeping stuff. All of it was keeping me from really working on the shop. I felt behind the curve already and we hadn’t even really started the year.
I even worked on this questionnaire  from Etsy and was going to do a great big blog article on it.  http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2013/reflect-on-2012-t/ It was a great place to start but it built in some frustrations as well. I may still do the blog article but really you have no desire to read about my goals unless it is a bullet list and you can scan it quickly.  I am not sure I can condense it down to a bullet list. I even tried to photograph the studio and motivate myself to clean it up because cleaning always has the ability to start a rush of ideas. I did indeed clean up the studio, but then we found some boxes downstairs that had studio items in them… and you can guess the rest.
It is a big year ahead of us with some pretty major changes. Like all families some big things and lots of little things are ahead of us. Some of them we have advance notice of and some we don’t. Â So here is…finally a short list of things I am going to do in 2013
Try and blog more consistently
Feature other artisans once a week….
Make 12 tutorials for my blog…that is roughly one a month… This is a huge hurdle and one I am rather frightened of.
Keep the studio more organized
Diversify the items in the Studio shop…same style of items just different kinds of things…
Read 4 good books about business… I have two titles that were reccomended by my husband. Since he usually only reads non-fiction he is a great resource.
Try to find 4 brick and mortar shops to consign my items here in my region.
Limit my work time to a more regular schedule which includes time off for family and other activities.
Build a link up spot once a week to help others market their shop items.
Then like everyone else I also have the goals to lose weight, exercise, eat right and save money that fit into the personal list along with
Do the budget thing
Continue working on home improvement projects
Get the veggie garden and flower gardens back looking good.
At least once a week do something fun with kids….
Teach DD to cook and sew…she is the last one to learn. I am on the down hill side of child rearing and she deserves to know learn as much as they did.
It has been a busy Holiday season. Things are moving so incredibly fast. The Chocolate Dog Studio shop has been over run with shoppers…which is GREAT, and I am very thankful. Â Here are some photos of the crochet beauties that rounded out the shop this year.
This is a grand total of 10 full size crochet blankets and 5 baby blankets, two with baby hats. This isn’t counting the boot cuffs and Christmas ornaments. I have been fighting burnout on the crocheting end of things and I think a little break is what is called for. So, if I can I will take a rest. I have a couple of special orders lined up to finish now and a couple for after the holidays. I won’t turn down any special orders that come my way but I think I will sort through the yarn, roll it into little balls and maybe put it up.
Chocolate Dog Studio has tons of items 45% off at http://www.chocolatedogstudio.etsy.shop
Please stop by and say hi or just browse the shop. I uploaded a bunch of photos to my ravelry page. There are a few more details about the blankets there. You can find that here: http://www.ravelry.com/people/chocolatedogyarns .
It is now almost December and I have been sadly missed posting. It has been the Thanksgiving and Christmas rush around here. I finally got my camera out and took a few snap shots of my newest favorite.
I am about three quarters of the way finished, at least I think I am. It is definitely over the halfway mark. It is a wonderful five feet long and of the softest yarn. When it is finished I will be adding it to the shop!
I have also been selling quite a bit at the Etsy shop and it has been keeping me busy. We had a wonderful visit with our oldest dear daughter (home from college) for Thanksgiving. She brought her room mate and we had a great time watching Dr. Who on netflix. Only a few more weeks and we will have her home for three weeks. I have done absolutely NO Christmas shopping. So I will have to get busy and get on with it!
Yes, I am excited! I finally got the photos done of the newest Chocolate Dog Studio items…Boot Cuffs. I can make them in wool, acrylic and blends. They can be any size from petite or teen to larger sizes.
Here are a few photos..
Thanks for looking. They will all be posted to the shop in the coming week!
I know this sounds like so many other Ta dahs that you read about in the crochet blogging world. Actually, there is no other way to celebrate a wonderful finished project, aside from a party, but who goes to a finished project party?
Here you go the newly finished Granny Stripe!
I love the chocolately richness of the zig zaggy border.
This was created with soft new yarns from England. Yes, I actually ordered in enough yarn to finish this crocheted blanket. The yarn is so incredibly soft that it puts our American yarns to shame and the colors are bright and cheerful.
I love the way the granny stripes vary from one section to the next, always with the same  seven colors bordered with the chocolate brown stripe. It is big, twin bed sized.
