W.I.P. - infinity scarfs and business cards

This week has been pretty productive, though it doesn't seem that way compared to how many products I made. This week there was only two, but I did work more on some of those coffee cozies this week! Everything is assigned a design, so all that is left is to get stitching! 

I actually bought myself a present this week :] Well, two really ! I've been eyeballing this multi-colored skein called fruit punch forever! Finally I just said, "Chelsea, you deserve that yarn!" , and I bought it :] I also bough the tiny circle loom set from Walmart that I have been eyeballing for a while as well! These two scarfs are my recent projects that have spawned from it! 

The first is from the red heart fruit punch skein that I love. I was terribly attached to this yarn, just like the super soft fuzzy grey yarn that I made the bubble cowl out of. I knew I couldn't use the yarn on just anything,  it would have to be the PERFECT item that showed off just how beautiful this yarn was, and this scarf does it! I adore it! Absolutely adore it! The way it is dyed works just perfectly to make these perfectly matching sized rings of color throughout the infinity scarf and I just can't help falling in love with it!

The second scarf this week is also an infinity scarf made from the loom. This one uses a much more chunky style of yarn that I purchased at Jo Anne's a while back. This one went a little quicker compared to the non stop 4 days worth of free time the fruit punch one took. 

In other exciting news, this week I finally printed some quick DIY business cards printed on card stock and used my paper cutter to slice them up too! I couldn't find the file I had wanted to use on the back of them since my computer crashed, but these will do for now :]

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W.I.P. - coffee cozies, and scarfs-galore!

This week was busy busy busy!! I designed my firs coffee cozy, as well as making lots of scarfs, even finishing a WIP I've had laying around since my freshman year of college....yikes!

I'll start off with the three year old WIP! its a really simple yet classy and elegant scarf :] I uploaded two looks on Instagram and had a vote for it since I couldn't decide myself which way I wanted to go. Even though I only had two participants in the vote it helped me make up my mind even though it was a 1:1 vote ratio. I decided on the look pictured to the left. I like the simplicity of a plain long rectangular scarf since most of the items I make these days are cowls. I can't help it, they're my favorite right now :] This little darling was crocheted in a pale yellow, using a repetitive double crochet stitch. I then decided to pair it with a jumbo sized white rose broach in the front. I really like the feminine touch the rose added.






The next scarf from this week was a plain cream classic cowl. This one had a very simple stitch as well but I didn't feel the need to dress it up as it was such a nice soft texture of a yarn I wanted it to speak for itself. I have the label at home so maybe later I'll update with a note as to what brand it was and the name of the color. For now, it was soft, cream, and purchased at  Jo Anne's fabrics. The whole thing was stitched in a half double crochet.


The next picture is of the first coffee cozy I designed and finished completely :] I have about 8 more just plain colored bases done with out details sewn on or appliques made. The colors are all different, and hopefully I'll have a good image of them completed on next week's WIP Wednesday. For now, this is the only one :]




The scarf in the next picture is to die for! I just think it is absolutely gorgeous and I adore it! I bought this skein at Jo Anne's as well. I might have the skein label for this one at home too. So I'll have to check, but this yarn was also very soft and cozy. The color of the skein was a elegant fade between pinks, greens, and brown and it just worked beautifully with the pattern I made for the cowl. It was worked length wise in a connected circle vs width. The picture to the left shows a close up of the pattern.

Geez! I bet you're all thinking, when she said scarf-galore, she meant SCARF-GALORE! Hahaha :] There's only two more I swear! The next one is a custom order made by my mum! She came to visit this week and while she was in town checking out all my goodies I've made recently she decided she needed one too! or a few really, lol, but we decided to start with just one for now and make our way through her list of requests! This skein was purchased at Walmart and is also a super lovely cozy soft skein. Its colors faded rather nicely as well. I have a pet peeve sometimes when it comes to multi-colored dyed yarn because I find that many times the yarn is NOT evenly distributed color wise, and that rather bothers me. I don't want to look at the outside of the skein and think, "oh i love that!" just to take it home and have a decent amount of time into a piece to find out, eww, this yarn is NOT at all how it looked!

Last, but not least, is the Halloween inspired infinity scarf I made using orange and black yarn. It is knitted using both threads at the same time. Not much else to say about this one, just that it is super cute and you can wear it all kinds of ways! 

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GRAND OPENING

YAY! It's official! Today is the day! chelseaMADE is officially open! 

www.zibbet.com/chelseamade

                  

The store is live and I'm terribly excited, but there's still a ton of work to be done. I took some time off work lately to just create create create! There's going to be a photo shoot soon and I wanted to have plenty of things done since I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to have Jenna photograph things again. So I want to make sure I have as much as possible ready to be shot on the 14th :]

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W.I.P. Wednesday! - two more cowls and update on blanket!

This week I have two more cowls and a little more work on the blanket from last week. 

The first cowl I finished this week was a bumble bee inspired cowl! Worked very similarly to the puff stitch cowl from last week. Both yarns were red heart brand, and the beginning and end were worked with both yarns, then the body was worked alternating the yarns for a striped bumble bee effect! Same as last week, the stitches were very simple, only chain, slip, single, and puff used for it. I used my favorite sized hook for this one, N-9.00 mm. I have a new one in a rose gold colored metal that I bought once when waiting for a prescription to be filled. Its now my favorite hook, even though I have the same one in a regular gold and a purple. I lose things a lot so it helps to have multiple :]



The second cowl I made this week was different then the others. This one used three strands simultaneously in white and yellow red heart brand, and cannon in Indian clay. I used the grey plastic hook I described last week for this cowl as well. Once again, really simple stitches, just chain, slip, and single crochet I believe...it might have been double crochet, I'm too lazy to dig it out and look. Sorry :]



Now for the actual work in progress, its still the blanket, but I have a more updated picture for you to enjoy!

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W.I.P Wednesday! - 2 cowls, and a blanket

okay, so this week I have a couple cute pictures for you!

I finished two new cowls this week, so I guess they aren't really works in progress technically. But they are not up in the store yet, so I'll put pictures here! :] My actual work in progress is a blanket! I don't usually make blankets unless I have a friend's baby in mind. They just are too time consuming for my attention span. This one was actually suppose to be a snood, but I didn't realize it was WAY too big till is was too late, and its gorgeous, so I can't rip it, it must be re-purposed! I feel like it will probably make a better baby blanket then a lap blanket because of the already established width.

The first cowl that was finished this week was crocheted in a yarn brand from Walmart, I tossed out the skein labels, so I'll have to check next time I'm there what it was, and what color name. I used my grey plastic hook for it, I don't know what size it is cause I bought it forever ago in a set, its the typical two jumbo plastic hook set that you can find at Joanne's or Walmart, I believe I bought mine at Joanne's though. Anyways, I used the smaller of the two hooks for this project. It was actually really simple, I don't use patterns and I only used chain stitch, single crochet, slip stitch, at the top and bottom, the majority of the cowl was done in a puff stitch.The whole thing was worked in the round versus flat and having to stitch up the sides at the end.



The second cowl was knitted using two yarns simultaneously. I used a multicolored green red heart yarn, as well as a red heart yarn in black. You actually can't tell the changing in green colors very well because of the mix with black, but it still looks pretty! I used my bright pink plastic knitting needles for this cowl in size US 35, or 19 mm. I guess this week my tool of choice was plastic. The whole cowl is just knit, no purl or anything else, just knit. Then I used a crochet hook to connect the two ends.




Now for the blanket! I just love it! Its absolutely gorgeous to me. The majority of the yarn used is red heart yarn bought at Walmart, but the orange used in it I have no idea what brand it is, I'm assuming not red heart since I've never seen this shade at the store. Awhile back my mother's co-worker gave me some yarn when she stopped crafting, and this tiny bit used is from the remains of an old skein of hers that was given to me. As far as stitches and patterns, I couldn't tell you. Well, I suppose I could, but I just worked out of random stitches from my head, all kinds of stuff was used. and I'm not even sure of the technical terms used for some of the stitches I used, so I think its better if I don't attempt to explain the madness :]

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YAY! for big things!

Today, I am overly excited for October to come! I hope opening my store is a huge success! I know it wont be at first, at that it will probably take awhile to get my first sale, but if I could sell like, 3 things a month, I would consider it a HUGE success! hahahah! Big dreams here guys ;] ! Of course it would be amazing if orders come pouring in, but I'm a realistic gal here, and I understand that is not reasonable with the beginnings of an online business. All I know is that I cannot wait to celebrate my first sale! I've sold other things to people before, and have had some requested as gifts, but I can't wait for my real first purchase through my store! It will just be so exciting!

After a lot of DIY trials, and a lot of problem solving, I finally came to the conclusion that have tags made for my brand would be more time and cost efficient. So yesterday I did just that! I ordered through an etsy vendor greenbeansnstrings and I cannot wait for them to come in the mail! They should be here before October second and I can start putting them on my products :]! yay!

In other exciting news, I have 26 items that have been listed in the store and are ready to go when things go live! Once again, I CAN'T WAIT! lol. I don't think I can say it enough about how excited I am! But thats enough for today! I will hopefully be back tomorrow with my W.I.P Wednesday!

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M.I.A

I know, I know, I've been M.I.A since May, that officially makes me the absolute worst blogger probably in the history of bloggers! For that, I sincerely apologize. It was very neglectful of me, but in my defense, I really truly just did not have the time. I don't know that I necessarily have the time right now either but it's easier to make time when my main job right now is class. I feel like I mentioned how busy I would be this summer before it hit, but even constantly reminding myself that I was busy did not prepare me for what I had gotten myself into. With 50+ hrs a week at work (some weeks 80+ but I mean who's counting..... I was.... every flipping half hour of it!) plus all my homework, and at least 10 hours a week for my internship I was averaging 5-6 hours of sleep a night for a long time. I literally woke up and drove into work before the sun came up, spent every minute of my breaks including lunch on my homework whether it was for my internship or my class, got home from work just in time for it to start getting dark, and spend the entire time, including dinner, on my laptop doing more homework and working for my internship till I went to sleep. With even my dreams preoccupied by work and nightmares about my internship, my only free time was while I showered. But let's be honest, my showers were either way to fast you wouldn't believe I actually suds up that quick (let's get real, I didn't shave my legs for almost 3 weeks at one point... Yeahh that's my life...and Vince's consequential punishment as having a gross hairy legged gf all summer! Lol!) or I was half a sleep during it. Either way, my whole summer was swallowed up by that thing adults call the real world and I didn't like it one bit! That's fair to say right? I mean how many adults wouldn't want the chance to regress back to being a teenager with no obligations somedays? If you say you wouldn't even I know your lying, and if you're reading my blog, unless your my sister holly, chances are I don't even know you! Lol. So let's cut the crap out, being an adult sucks.

Now that I'm done with my busy summer rant, let talk crochet! And DIY and my personal favorite topic, chelsesMADE ! Now that I'm back to school, even though I haven't settled into my new schedule quite yet, I've been managing to find time to crochet! I just downloaded the blogger iPhone app too so idk where the pictures I just took will end up on this post but bare with my while I try to learn my way around this app as it'll will allow me to start posting much more frequently from the convenience of it. (ps; IPhone users- I've been up and unplugged since 8 something this morning and right now at 11:35pm I have 62% of battery left....and I haven't recharged it at all today....it's a miracle! Lol!) Now that I'm done ADD-ing I will return to the crochet topic at hand 😄 , I bought three skeins of this super soft, amazingly beautiful grey and black yarn and have been crocheting it into things just to ribb it out when I'm done. I don't know why but nothing I make out of this heavenly yarn seems to do it any justice. Plenty of times I have set out with one vision in mind and by the time a piece is done its completely metamorphed into something else. But I have never before spent so much time with something and still not feel like it's making the yarn talk to me. I'm trying to not get frustrated, after all I haven't crocheted in a few months, so my hands and my creative juices are a little rusty. I just hope I can find a way to make a piece as equally as gorgeous as the yarn itself soon cause its killing me.

As far as chelseaMADE I feel some considerable changes of plans may be ahead of the brand yet, but be that as it may, I am bound and determined to have at least some of my products up on some kind of format by October. It'll be a kind of "happy birthday to me" situation by setting this deadline and sticking to it. So if I temporarily disappear, know that this time it is for a just cause, as I try to power through work, homework, classes, internship tennis, theatre rehearsals, household cleaning, while putting up an entire online store and finding time to hopefully create some new pieces and be a good girlfriend in the meantime. Just know that once the store is up you can guarantee I'll want to be posting all the time! Which is a win win for my readers :) ...or at least I hope you all see it that way :)!

For now I just want to say, thank you for baring with me through my not so successful start of this blog as my time management skills are horrible, and for taking the time to read through my rant of this post that is probably way too long. I would also like to request that if any reader knows of anyone else that you think might be interested in my work, or my blog in general, start spreading the word, or hold out till the store URL is posted. Which ever pleases you most! All I can say is I feel like some big things should of been happening right now, and Im not about to miss out on this feeling of urgency. It's time, and I think chelseaMADE is ready to be forced onto the world even if she's a little unprepared at the time being. Come October, big things are gonna happen, and I just can't wait!

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