This might be the coolest sweater that I've ever made. I found the stich for this in The New Crochet Stitch Dictionary by Nele Braas and Eveline Hetty-Burkart. I found this book recently and there are a ton of new stitch patterns in here that I hadn't seen before.

I used Miss Babs Yowsa for the yarn which is a DK weight yarn, but has a massive 560 yards per skein. The main color of the sweater is Plum and the ropes alternate Orchid and Chances are. I used 3 full skeins of the Plum. It's hard to say exactly how much I used of the other two, it wasn't a full skein, but it feels like a bit more than a half. I used a 4.5 mm hook.




Stitches:
ch - chain
sk st - skip stitch
sc - single crochet
hdc - half double crochet
dc - double crochet
fhdc - foundation half double crochet

sp sc - sc inserting the hook in the diagonally located hdc underneath the front loop of the hdc with the hook from the bottom to the top. More succinctly - you're doing a sc but in the middle strand of the hdc. This will create a bit of a ridge. The stitch pattern is cast on in multiples of 7 + 3. I cast on 105 + 3 (108) for my panels.

Back Panel + 2 front panels:
Row 1: hdc in the 3rd loop from the hook and all the way across
Row 2: ch 1, sc, sc, *ch 5, sk 4 st, sc, sc, sc. Repeat from * across ending with the 3 sc.
Row 3: ch 2, hdc in each stitch or chain all the way across
Row 4: ch 5, sk 2 st, sp sc, sp sc, sp sc, *ch 4, sp sc, sp sc, sp sc. Repeat from * across until you get to the end. Finish by sk 3 st, ch 2, dc in the last stitch.
Row 5: ch 2, hdc in each stitch or chain all the way across
Repeat rows 2-5 until you get to your desired width. Note: in my first attempt I didn't notice that row 3 is chaining 5 and row 4 is chaining 4. Instead I did chain 5 for both - this will do an increase and not keep the rectangle. I did a total of 41 rows for all of my panels. Sew together the 3 panels leaving 7-8 inches for the arm holes. When you sew together the panels make note of which side has the ridges. It's personal preference which you want for your outside, but make sure all 3 are the same orientation. Across the top I decided to sew 4 sets of holes in or about 6 inches




Next you're going to add on the arms. Make sure that as you're doing this the ridges are the same orientation as the panels. For the sleeves you already have a row of hdc since that was the last row on your panel. I picked up 8 holes for mine and then made it work with the stitches. I know, not exact but that's me.

For the sleeves you need to work back and forth. Row 1: ch 1, sc, sc, *ch 5, sk 4 st, sc, sc, sc. Repeat from * across ending with a slip stitch from a chain.
Row 2: Turn your work and go the opposite way. ch 2, hdc in each stitch or chain all the way across. End with a slip stitch
Row 3: Turn your work and go the opposite way. ch 5, sk 2 st, sp sc, sp sc, sp sc, *ch 4, sp sc, sp sc, sp sc. Repeat from * end with a slip stitch
Row 4: Turn your work and go the opposite way. ch 2, hdc in each stitch or chain all the way across. End with a slip stitch


Make the sleeves your desired length. My sleeves are 24 rows long.




Next you're going to make the weaving ropes. The pattern says to do 10 fhdc for each pattern repeat plus 11. What I actually did was do the first one pretty long, weave it through, ripped out stitches until I got to the desired length and then used that as my measurement. Not at all exact, but it was easier than trying to count all those stitches. When you're weaving them in make sure to keep them as flat as you can. I think its impossible not to have some kinks, but you want as few kinks as possible. Sew both ends in once you have it looking the way you want.

I really like the alternating colors, but you could do the ropes all one color as well. You'll need a rope for every set of holes. I had an idea that I was going to use one long rope for the sleeves and it just didn't work well, the holes don't line up to neatly go from one row to the next.




I decided that it needed a collar. I did alternating rows of back loop only hdc. I made my collar 18 stitches high and it worked out to be 65 rows long. Sew it to the top of the 3 panels.

Last I decided I wanted buttons for when I wanted to wrap up tight. I had these amazing large hazelnut buttons from Favour Valley Woodworking. It took me a bit to place them because if they were too far down they looked a lot like headlights. I decided to put them both on the right front panel. One is just below the collar on the open side and the other is just below the collar on the sleeve side.

Having the 2 buttons means you can wear it completely open (first picture above), you can button just the inside panel (second picture above), or button both (picture just above)




This sweater was definitely a lot more work than most of my other sweaters, but I absolutely love how it turned out!

I finally did inventory last night. I had to unpack everything from my last show before I could do that. It's also just not a super fun task. The assumptions I made about what was or wasn't selling was directionally right so it didn't modeify my plan for 2025. The biggest modifications will be around what I start making in 2025 vs what I have some inventory on and can make a bit later.

I keep wondering if at some point there will be a saturation in the crab market. So far it has not slowed down so I'm going to continue to make with the assumption that it will continue. I'm going to start with mugs, small plates, bowls, and spoon rests. Despite the push at the end of the year, I have little to no stock in all of those categories.

Birch also continues to be really popular, although less popular with some things like spoon rests and platters.

I need to spend some time thinking about aliens and whether there are things beyond mugs I want to put aliens on given the popularity of the mugs. I don't know that it makes sense to do a wider line, but I'm still thinking about it. What's interesting about aliens and dragons is that they definitely appeal more to a male audience. Females buy them too, but there is a lot of my work that really only focuses on a female audience and I like that these hit a wider audience.

As I think about the evolution of what I'm doing in general I am thinking about whether I want to increase my selection of mugs as a decrease some of the other things that I have. I get a lot of feedback from those that love the variety in my booth, but as we've seen with my metrics what people end up buying is mugs.

An area I think I want to explore in 2025 is texture relief vs impression. What I'm thinking about specifically is having raised texture vs sunken texture. Some of the rolling pins I use do this, but I want to do that will leaves and flowers as well.

The idea of relief work ties to still wanting to be able to unify crochey and pottery more. I saw a video of how to create better impressions of yarn using a caulk mixture. I just now need to try it :)

I actually haven't touched clay since the week before my last show. I need to get back in the swing this weekend.

I made this shawl while I was traveling a lot for work and doing a lot of shows. It's a fingering weight yarn and it feels like it took forever. I had intended to write down the pattern, but got really busy and did not. The yarn is from Kim Dyes Yarn and is the Smoothie Fingering in Bunch of Zinnias. I have two tags on my desk, but I can't remember if it was 2 skeins or 3.

It's a lightweight shawl. When I started it, we were still having random 70 degree days where I totally could have worn it. I am writing this now in January while its frigid and there's a snowstorm so it will now have to wait for spring. I intentionally made it really large so that it will stay on my shoulders without having to wear a clasp. I call it a Butterfly Shawl because it has 5 points on the back and looks a bit like a butterfly.

I really had intended to do a year end wrap up before the year ended, but then time got away from me. Having 5 shows (6 if you include the Gallery of Gifts) between the end of November and December was really a race to the finish. I let a lot of other things go during that time, especially considering my day job was also keeping me super busy with a new client starting.

I spent the first few days just catching up on house things. Things like clearing off my dining room table so it wasn't covered in pottery paraphernalia. Carrying most (I still have 4 boxes) of the clay I just bought down to the basement. There was a fair amount of cleaning as well. Not normal cleaning, but the stuff that you know you should do but you don't until you're grossed out by something. Case in point, I had balanced my phone on the back of the couch and within 5 minutes River had managed to knock it with her nose in just the perfect way so it slid down behind the couch. I tried to reach under the couch to get it but realized quickly that it had landed on its side and was pinned between the couch and the wall. When I pulled the couch out from the wall to get it, I saw all the dust and hair that had accumulated behind it. So yeah, that needed to get cleaned.

My sister and I did our ritual post Christmas shopping on the 26th. Lots of good deals at the outlets. I was sooo close to Delta status for 2025 that I decided it was worth doing a mileage run - yes first world problems but when you fly as much as I do the immediate upgrades to comfort were absolutely worth it. I ended up spending an awesome day in Boston with my stepdaughter. We walked the whole freedom trail, and then some since we lost it a few times. Then we walked some more. At the end of the day her phone said 33k steps which equates to about 14 miles. At first we were like no way that's not possible, but knowing where we went, we definitely did over 10 so maybe 14 is not so far off. Sitting in the lounge waiting for our plane we were like 2 old ladies every time we moved.

This meant that Saturday I barely moved from the couch because I was so sore. We both finished off the year and started the year with hikes. River still remembered the word hike, but Willow (who's vocabulary isn't good anyway) did not remember what a hike was. Both of them had a blast.


Anyway, on to year end numbers. I actually did not manage to do inventory before the year ended so that is still on my to do list, but I have a rough idea of what I have left based on where I was at the end of the last show.

Unsurprisingly crabs were still the number one seller across all items. However, the alien mugs I made were not that far behind. I sold roughly 50 crab mugs this year and 28 alien mugs. However, at every show I had alien mugs - I never came home with one. That leads me to think I probably could have sold a few more if I had them in stock.

By % of sales:

• Mugs 38%
• Small Plates 8%
• Spoon Rests 7%
• Large Vases 6%
• Platters 4%
• Soup Mugs 4%

By count if items sold:

• Mugs 257
• Small Plates 118
• Spoon Rests 99
• Small Trinket Dishes 87
• Ornaments 44
• Large/Fancy Ornaments 30

Overall, it was a great year. My sales grew by about 20%. One big change I made this year was about what shows I participated in. Half of the shows I did this year were ones I hadn't done last year. I stopped doing any show that had a high fee to sales ratio (anything over 15%). This was actually a little risky since most of the shows that applied to were in the last 4 months of the year. It worked out and as I look at shows for next year, I am going to continue to apply this lens to the shows I did in 2024. Doing a show is a lot of work and I want to make sure that that work is worth the effort. If you are doing shows or thinking about doing shows I would urge you to have metrics and use them to make decisions.




Now that I have 2 years’ worth of data I'm also starting to look at what I'm making and deciding what I should stop making. These are things which I made some of and have found that I don't sell a lot of, are difficult to make, or are difficult to transport. An example of this are the gnomes that I've made which are bigger than about 2 inches tall. I've made gnomes in multiple sizes, and they are fun to make. The small ones are pretty easy to transport. The larger ones don't sell well and the very large ones are a pain to transport. I will likely continue to make gnomes for me (I like them to put them on stumps around the cabin), but I am going to stop selling them.

Some things that I'm just going to stop making because I just don't sell enough to make it worth it - coasters, egg holders, ring dishes, shot glasses, large trinket dishes, squiggle luminaries, and soap holders with holes. None of these are hard to make or hard to transport, but they take up space and I sell less than one on average at shows. Some things that just haven't sold at all - daffodil candle holders, ornament balls, and pillar candle holders.

I love my Calla Lily Candle holders, but they are difficult to make and awful to transport. I have a few pairs left, but I don't think I'm going to make any more once those are sold. I have a lot of jewelry left, but am going to stop making more for now. I don't sell a lot of jewelry. It's easy to make and transport, but depending on the piece can be time consuming to glaze. Jewelry is also time consuming to setup at shows. I haven't fully decided to stop making jewelry forever, but I have a good amount of inventory so I will stop for now.

I love my mushroom jewelry boxes and I get a lot of positive comments on them, but the ring worms (haha I just realized how that reads) are super fragile. I've broken them at all stages in the process. I don't sell a ton of them and I'm not sure they are worth the effort. The bird bath earring holders are much less prone to breaking, but I sell even fewer of those so I will probably stop these as well.

I'm on the fence on pitchers. I don't make a lot of them and they do eventually sell, but I do carry them to a lot of shows before they do. The question is - is it worth it in the long run?

The next thing I need to start looking at is what styles of things sells well. I have that fairly dialed in for mugs because I've almost cleared the shelves on what I made this year :) I also am finding that for my long rounded platters the big theme ones - crabs, birch and cardinal, and lavender sell well. However, some of the others like the holiday themed ones and grape leaves have not. I made a good number of these that are still on my shelves.

All in all a really good year. I've already started planning out my shows for 2025 and will start updating where I will be and when soon!

Whew! Mad dash to the holidays! I need a rest. This kiln finished just in time for my last show which was cutting it a little close for the customer order for the show. It all worked out though.

I do believe this is the most mugs I've ever had in the kiln at the same time - 33! They took up two shelves and then some.

I lost one of the two napkin holders I made in the bisque. I don't think my join on the bottom was good enough and it cracked. In the new year I think I'm going to try to see if I change the design some to not have it be 3 independent pieces. I really love how this one came out though, and the leaf weight is gorgeous.

This is the first time I've made a globe without any bark pieces. It's the same, but also really different. I don't know which version I like more.

As I was finishing making for the year I had some extra clay which I made a few more santa gnome plates because the two I made were the first two holiday plates I sold. I also took the opportunity to make more santa crab ornaments because those have been super popular.

This might be the most mugs I've ever glazed at once. In addition to the few on the top here, there are 2 full shelves of mugs inside. My kiln shelves are nearly cleared. I had a couple of extra blanks made in case I had an issue with a custom order and my mennorah that just didn't fit.