Getting Ready for a Craft Fair

I am trying to get ready to go to a craft show over the 4th of July weekend.  I am packaging and pricing items.  I am still trying to enter items into Etsy and update my website.

Fourth Of July Craft‑Flea Market

July 4 - 6, 2013

Train Depot - El Dorado, KS 67042    

I have made the art soaps and played with the fancy tops, etc.  I have changed the way I make soaps, and make a more triangular bar without fancy tops, but always swirls and twirls or a little something inside to give it a little pretty umph.  Obviously the main reason for making soap is to make it mostly natural with extra skin conditioning butters, (such as shea and cocoa) and oils, using lovely fragrances and making the bars pretty.   I also like to use raw milk or goats milk in my soaps.  Any herb, fruit, vegetable, or other additive is fun to use.  I enjoy using raw milk from an Amish dairy in my soaps.  Part of using the raw milk is the nice drive in the country to purchase the milk and that may influence my decision.  LOL  I have delicate skin and I don't like to itch or have a rash.  I bet you don't either. 

Due to the change in soap making style, I am discounting all of the soaps that are not newly made.

At the craft fair, I will be selling soaps, bath fizzies or bombs, pot holders of all kinds, hats, tea cozies, knitted wash cloths and dishcloths, etc.  Come by and take a peek.  I will be at the old train station.

New tags for the show.

Have you watched television or a movie and noticed a hand knitted item or a hand crocheted item?  I do.  I watch a lot of English shows and I see tea cozies on them.  Today I noticed a knitted shawl on the movie Coppers, season 2.

When I showed you photos of my trumpet vines, I failed to show you how it took over the side of my cottage home.  When you drive up to the cottage, it looks like one of those English cottages that have all of the vines and flowers growing all around.  I love English things, but the middle of Kansas is far from England!  It has been raining quite a lot which is like England, so my flowers have stayed green. 

Does anyone need any trumpet vines???

You are able to view my web store at: http://www.custercottage.com

And my Etsy shop at: https://www.etsy.com/shop/CusterCottage

Have a great weekend!  Dawnie

 

This Week at Custer Cottage's Urban Farm

These two are turning out beautiful with unique coloring on them.  They will probably be roosters and have to go to Larry's rural farm, with my luck.  We have an urban farm and we can only have hens.

 We had a pretty little visitor this afternoon.

 I moved the brooder outside.  It is time for them to be out in the fresh air and have some fun!

The little dark one on the left is who we call Mini Me.  It does not grow more than a mini amount.  The one next to it was in the same clutch and she is much larger.  There were 5 we purchased from a lady that hatched them.  I do not know where she got them.  They are the oddest chickens I have ever seen. 
One of them is tiny and one turned out to be a Silkie, but she does not have many feathers.

This is Lacy.  She is a Golden Laced Wyandotte.  You know the old saying that you always want what is on the other side of the fence.  Yes the grass is greener, but she actually she wants to join her friend.  One of the hens jumps over or flies out of the six foot fence and plays in the outer yard.  She is the only hen that can jump that high, so far.  Lacy is probably jealous. 

We had a respiratory infection with our hens this last 2 weeks.  We have not raised chickens for very long, so it was something new for us to experience.  I placed all of them on antibiotics and they are looking pretty good.   Some of the hens had no sign or obvious symptom of being ill.  Others were sneezing or had eye matting.  I threw out all of the food we had, just in case it caused any of the illness.  We did not have any problems with the girls until around the time we purchased the last batch of food.  We are not eating any of the eggs since the girls got ill.  I am just taking extra precaution.  I did try some natural remedies, but they did not help the girls.  I also cleaned the coop very well and disinfected it.  Obviously I prefer natural remedies and cleaners. 

I crocheted another shawl.  Most of them I knit, so I finally crocheted one.  It matches this shirt very well.  I wanted to crochet lace around the edge, but I ran out of yarn.  The lace is on hold at this time.

Another Shawl and a Visit to Mom's

I completed another shawl.  My family and I went to my mothers.   It snowed so we had snow days!  Mom cooked, I knitted, and we all watched videos.

New -To - Me Spinning Wheel and New Shawl

I ordered myself an early birthday present.  For a long time I have desired to own an old-fashioned looking spinning wheel, with dark wood, in the castle style, with a Lazy Kate, and with a yarn winder, all combined in one spinning wheel. The castle style takes up less floor space and it usually taller with the flier above the wheel. The Lazy Kate holds bobbins and when yarns are plied together, it holds the yarns on the bobbins.  Most of the yarn I make is two ply, so 2 bobbins on the a Lazy Kate is sufficient for me.

Well, here is the wheel with me spinning.  Little Yang is peeking out of the glass door.  This wheel was made in the mid seventies.

When I get a new wheel, one of the first things I do, after putting it together, is to place a  Velcro dot  on the front.  I use the rough end of the Velcro. It holds the yarn I am spinning so the yarn does not go back into the orifice and/or partially untwist.

I also completed another shawl.  This one is made with Merino lace weight yarn, but I used two strands together; one from each end of the skein.  The color changes a tiny bit, but you do not notice it in this light.  I increased stitches at the beginning, down the middle, and at the end on every other row.  When the piece was about 15 inches long, I knitted a pattern which increased the stitches over 8 rows and I also increased the needle size at this same time.  I increased the needle size one more time about an inch and one half before the end of the shawl.  I crocheted around the end twice, but I think I in the next shawl I make, I will knit 5 or more rows at the end to keep the ruffle from curling on the end.  I really like how the ruffle drapes in this shawl.  The tulips showing through the shawl are part of my porch rail.

Thank you for sharing with me.  Dawnie

3 Color Shawl

Sometimes it is so much easier to make knitted or crocheted items using one color of yarn or one which has multiple colors in the design of the yarn.  I hesitated to place an edging on the shawl I am making, but it added so much to the beauty with three colors.  First, I knitted a plain shawl with a mohair/cashmere/wool blend royal blue yarn.  Once that was completed, I crocheted around twice on two sides with a double crochet stitch.  On the first row I made three double crochet stitches in each stitch, so there would be a ruffle.  On the second row I only crocheted one stitch in each of the previous row's double crochet stitches.  I used a medium blue mohair and silk yarn for the third row and I double crocheted along the two sides.  Along the final row, I used a pale blue mohair and silk yarn and I single crocheted each stitch and followed it with three chain stitches, thus giving the edge tiny loops.   I am almost done with the shawl, but I wanted you to see the difference between the use of two edge colors and with the addition of the third edge color.  When the shawl is tied on, it gives the look of a flower.  What have you been working on?

Blessings to you and yours!  Dawnie