Category: Crochet and crafting

any items related to crocheting or crafting

Projects – Writing and Crochet

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

So far, I have four spring scarf patterns and one shawl to publish.  I have probably two more scarves I’ll make up and then I’ll go into publish mode with them.  This will mean a couple of days of getting the files set up, covers made, and then publishing.  After I publish, I will post on Facebook, Twitter, here, Ravelry, and a few other places.  This all takes time.

I’m hoping to have the two scarves done shortly – maybe this week.  I meant to crochet last night but I had such a headache, I could not manage it.  Light was hurting my head.  I gave up and turned off the lights, put my chair back and watched Criminal Minds in the dark.  I couldn’t even text without the phone bothering my eyes.

Hopefully tonight I’ll be able to work on crocheting.  I’ve got three things I want to finish before the end of the week if my head will cooperate.

Once that is done, I’ll probably look at editing as I have the two novels done for the first draft.  I need to do the searches for all the words I overuse.  Then a spelling and grammar check before I print and do a read through edit.  At the same time, I want to work on writing and finishing two other projects I have going.

The craft room still needs finishing.  I need to make time to finish it soon.  I’ve got more things to go in there as I’ve finished some projects and need to put excess yarn away from it.

I spoke with someone who said they retired from their job years ago but within a year went back to work because they were essentially bored.  I really don’t understand this.  I’d like more non-work time to be able to try out more of the things I like to do.

I know everyone is different.  I’m fairly certain it would take me at least a year to run out of projects (probably two years).  At which time, my daughter would have more projects she’d like me to do.  I don’t have enough time to get all the things done I want to do.

Movies and Crocheting

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

Yesterday I watched four movies – Deadpool, Captain America Civil War, Mr. Holmes, and Jack Ryan Shadow Recruit.  I enjoyed all the movies.

Deadpool – not for children but as an R rated movie, hilarious filled with violence and sex (no innuendo here blatant sex).  I love the sarcasm in the movie.

Captain America – good fight scenes but overall the movie is a bit depressing.

Mr. Holmes – a thinking movie, Sherlock Holmes is in his 90s and starting to have dementia.  His housekeeper and her son live with him and help him.  He tries to remember his last case.  There are three stories going on in this movie and it is fascinating.

Jack Ryan – the typical action film.  I’d seen it before but opted to watch it again.  It was a good “crochet without having to watch the tv” movie.

For all of them, except Captain America, I crocheted during the movie.  I am a little over half done with the project.

At the movie theater, I was ticked when I got home.  My shirt and jacket were stuck to my pants.  Someone had left gum in the seat I sat in so I came home with gum smeared all over.  Ken has been trying to get it out.  He’s managed to get it out of the jacket and shirt and is trying one more thing for the pants.

Last night was a bad night.  I woke up several times unable to move my fingers, knees, ankles.  This means lots of pain today but I can’t let it stop me.  I have to finish this project.  I also have a few other projects to work on.  I’m hoping to get the first one done and see what time it is before I go back to tackling the other projects.

No Shortage of Tasks

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

The last two weeks have been rough for me with pain.  The weather is causing my arthritis to grumble (or scream).  Yet I don’t have time to wallow (well maybe a little).

May 2 I started a new novel.  I couldn’t get the words on the page fast enough.  By May 11, I’d finished the novel.  I love it when the inspiration hits hard and fast like this.  At the same time, I went back to add in a few more scenes for Wayfarer 11.  It’s on my need to be edited list.

I have a wedding shower to go to next Saturday and am working on the gift for that.  I have it about a third of the way done.  I’ll be spending some time this weekend watching movies and crocheting.  In addition to the shower gift, I finished off a gift for a friend.  I made her a bunch of dish towels, hand towels, and dish cloths.  Those went in the mail to her this week.

The day is gray and grumpy looking this morning but I have been at my computer since before 8 am working on different tasks.  I’ve paid bills, updated my spreadsheets, did a tiny bit of marketing, submitted three articles to paying publications.  I posted an preview for one of my books on Goodreads.  I need to figure out which scenes from each of my books and post them.

As is normal, my list is never ending for tasks I need to get done.  Shortly, I’ll be going to run errands.  Fortunately I only have a couple today.  I also need to clip coupons, check the apps for rebates, and write up the grocery list.  All so Ken will be able to do the grocery shopping tomorrow.

Last night I watched Age of Adeline which was quite good.  I also watched The Gambler which was depressing and annoying.  I got several inches done on the shower gift.  I’m hoping to finish this project this weekend.  I have several others I want to get done in a short period of time.  This means I’m letting my writing rest for a few days.

Having said that, I’ve gone back and added a prologue (possibly a new first chapter) to one story I’ve been working on.  I thought I had lost about 5000 words in the third Defenders novel.  I was cleaning my flashdrive and looked at a file I hadn’t looked at before.  It had the several scenes I thought I’d lost.  I was quite excited about this.  It saves me a lot of work in redoing.  Having found those scenes, I was able to write about another 1500 words in the story.

I’m hoping to finish both of these projects this summer.  With luck, I’ll have four books to publish over the next six months.  I also have several crochet patterns I’m going to work on publishing as well.  There is definitely no shortage of things for me to do.

Bad Sleep

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

Ken got the shopping done early this morning.  With my list, coupons, sales flyer shopping and rebates, he saved over $20!  This is about 20% of what he spent.

Last night I made a list of what I wanted to get done today.  I meant to get up early, get to work, and keep at it as long as possible.  I didn’t count on a bad night’s sleep.  I got up this morning – woken up by one of the daughters.  After talking to her, I did the rebates for the shopping.  Then I proceeded to do nothing more strenuous than play a couple of games on my phone.  I’m up and moving again.  After I’m done on the computer, I’ll head back to the kitchen to do some food prep for the week.

If I find any energy, I’ll go back to the craft room and work on organizing.  I have a few things Ken needs to carry out and put elsewhere – mostly empty rubbermaid containers.  There is some stuff which is going in a box to our daughters in Atlanta.  If my energy level stays, I’m hoping to make more of a dent in that room today.

Last night I worked on a skirt for a friend.  I LOVE how it is turning out.  I made the waistband using broomstick lace technique.  Then it’s a simple hdc for the rest but with a vertical stripe – which means I have seven strands of yarn hanging down.  This slows me down a bit but it is still coming along nicely. As I’m working, I’m writing the pattern.  I’m trying to write it in such a way it doesn’t need sizing.  However, I’ll have to see how successful I am at this.  I’ve never written a pattern for clothing before – one of the reasons is I don’t like to size things.

New experiences are good even if they are a little scary.  I’ll keep pushing forward and hope it works out.  Once I’m done with this size, I may have to try the pattern on a larger size to see if it works for the plus size person.

Unfortunately, with the bad night’s sleep I just want a nap but Sundays are a bad day to nap because I have to go back to work tomorrow.  I’ll have to find my energy and work on things which keep me moving forward and awake.  Hopefully that means I accomplish a lot but only time will tell on this.

Errands, Bookwork, Snow, and Organizing

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

This morning I got up much earlier than I wanted to but I paid bills, did budget, and placed an order with our butcher shop – Sorgs.  Ken and I ran out to Sorgs through snow and wind.  After Sorgs and bringing the stuff home, we went to Joann’s, Home Depot, and Wendy’s.  At Joann’s I bought material for gifts I’m making.  Of course I had coupons.  While I spent $29, I saved $32 in the process.

At Home Depot we priced out projects we want to do to the house.  I asked a lot of questions and the people were very helpful.  We picked up what we needed to finish my shelves for the craft room.  On our way home we picked up lunch.

Ken has since finished my shelves.  My next stop will be going to the craft room to organize and put away all my goodies.  For now, I’m working on catching up the checkbook and recording my sales for March.  I’ve also figured out how to automatically calculate a breakdown of my sales – so by month by vendor by book type – in January from Kindle I sold how many crochet patterns, or novels, etc.

Formulas and I in Excel don’t always work.  Stephanie helped me find the right one.  I got it set up, copied and now all I have to do is enter my sales by book and it figures out how to count it.  I can now easily tell which category of book is selling at what percent, percent of sales each month compared to the total annual sales.  I can tell you through which vendor I sell the most books.  Finally I’ve broken it down by category and vendor.  This should allegedly help me focus my marketing.  I might have to do some graphs to get a better handle on it.

In the last half hour, I’ve looked out my window and saw blue sky and driving sideways snow.  Welcome to Wisconsin’s spring!  Goofy weather.

On to organizing.  I am hoping to make my craft room look much more presentable by the end of the day.  I’m also hoping to have to ask for minimal help from Ken.  However, I shouldn’t be moving shelving units around so we shall see how things go.  

Weekend Work

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

After answering emails and doing a bit of work on the computer, I worked on organizing the craft room.  I got yarn put away, Vicki’s yarn condensed into fewer containers, and shelves cleared so we could get the organizer in the closet.

Ken helped by putting together the organizer.  Then we had to try different things in the closet for the left over space from the organizer.  Eventually we settled on custom shelves which I’m happy to say we aren’t going to pay anything for because Ken had all the material here he needed.

Our morning was all about getting the closet organized.  The afternoon we watched movies and I crocheted – sort of.  I napped a bit as well as crocheting.  After supper, I worked on the afghan I’ve been working on.  It took a while but I finished it.  Then I worked on sewing a coin purse to the clasp.  I remember how much I dislike doing this.  I quit at one point with frustration.  My hands hurt and I was struggling to get the needle through the holes.  Today I’ll probably work on finishing that.

I was up late watching the last of the Harry Potter movies.  This is what I’ve been watching while I crochet.  Friday night I got a whole skein done (large 1 pound skein) and yesterday I finished off the last skein.  Today I’ll be taking pictures and measurements to go with my pattern so I can publish.

If Ken gets my shelves done, I’m going to attempt to go through the craft room to work on the organizing part.  I’ll have to see how the day goes.

I woke up with about four scenes in my head for the next Wayfarer book.  After Ken goes to bed, I’m hoping to get those added in.  I’m trying to decide what I want where for craft and pagan supplies and where it will all go.  I may shift some stuff in my office to bring in some of the pagan stuff but I have to see how the space goes in the craft room first I think.

Only the best scenes…

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Yesterday I got another tentative acceptance.  I wrote a different take on the topic for an issue and the editor thought it was different and might fit in the issue.  She’s holding it until then.  

Last night I was tired.  My energy level was in the basement.  I wanted to write but my brain was not having it.  I sat and watched the Harry Potter movies.  Now I say that but I didn’t actually watch them all the way through.  I started the first one and watched my favorite scenes.  I did that for both the first and second one.  
While I was watching, I worked on a crochet project.  This is a graduation gift and I’m hoping to finish it soon.  This is a pattern of my own creation and a little different than I normally do.  At first I really doubted whether it was a good pattern but now as I’m about half done with it, I am really starting to like it.  It’s different making it unique.  I’m hoping she will like it.  
This weekend I’m trying to talk Ken into working on the craft room closet.  I’d really like to get it organized and settled.  I’d love to be able to walk in there and just grab what I need or put back what I’m done with.  I’m hoping he will be willing to work on it but I just never know.
I’ve got three or four scenes in my head for Wayfarer 11.  It’s a matter of getting them down on paper.  I had an “oh crap” moment yesterday when I realized I had one of my characters giving birth too early.  I tried breaking things up.  I tried rearranging.  I thought about rewriting but in the end I took the simple route and just added days to the contract day at the beginning of the chapter.  It solved the problem without causing major rewrites and had little effect on the story itself.
My plan is to do the closet and work on the crochet project this weekend.  If I can finish both, I’ll consider it an excellent weekend.  Now I’ve put this out in the world, let’s see what the universe throws back at me.

More Crochet Projects Published!

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Yesterday I worked on the computer for the morning – personal business, editing, and so on.  After spending a lot of time on the computer, I crashed on the couch only to be thrown out of the living room – sort of.  Ken wanted to rearrange.

This morning, Ken did the grocery shopping and saved over $14 in coupons and over $7 in rebates.  It may not seem like a lot but every little bit helps.

Today I worked on publishing crochet patterns.  Once I was back on my computer I realized I had more ready to go than I thought.  I got four of the five done.  The last one is going to take a little more refining before I can publish it.

While I was working on the computer, I updated some of the stuff on my web site as well.  In addition to adding these four patterns, I put in new pictures on the home page and changed the background color.

I posted these on Ravelry.com today and already have likes on the site.  I’m thrilled by that.  Hopefully it will translate into sales.

I was hoping to get more done but my legs are bugging me so shortly I’ll be hitting the recliner again.  The good thing is I got two sessions on the computer today and lots accomplished.

Tomorrow I’m off work and plan to be a bit mellow about the day.  I have a couple tasks I’d like to do but in addition I may take time out to read.  It depends on what I get accomplished.

I finished Stargate and Stargate Atlantis.  Now I have to look for a new show to watch.  Or I may just go back to writing every night.  I’ll have to see how the mood takes me.  I do need to finish three projects fairly soon.  I might need a show to watch while I finish those off.

Having said that, I need to get back to marketing – like posting on twitter blurb for  my books.  I’ve been thinking about setting up a nightly schedule but I’m so not good at adhering to a schedule.

I can’t decide if it would be better to say this night of the week, I’m doing marketing and this night I’m doing editing and so on.  Or if it would be better to do a little of each every night.  Marketing from 6:30 to 7:30, submissions from 7:30 to 8:00 and writing the rest of the night.  I’m not sure either technique will work for me but I need to figure out how to get more of this stuff done.

In the meanwhile, I keep plugging away.  These four patterns are proof of it.  They are available on Smashwords and Amazon.  You can find links on my web site http://eileentroemel.weebly.com/ 

End of the Week

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life, Writing

Spring break is next week.  The past two weeks at my day job have been rough with the hectic pace of summer registration and advising going on.  This week in particular has felt like it was two weeks rolled into one.  I work most of next week and it should be nice and quiet at work.

Our weekends have been jam packed with stuff too.  We’ve either been doing things or we’ve been running errands.  This means I don’t feel rested when I get back to work.  I’m hoping this weekend will be different.

I have a list – as always – of things I want to get done.  I’ve already crossed off the paying bills, submitting to publications, and a couple of other small things.  Next will be making a grocery list, doing coupons, and prepping for the grocery store.  I think I’ll ask Ken if he wants to do the shopping on his own.

If he does, I will take tomorrow to work on publishing three crochet projects and editing Wayfarer 10.  If I can get all that done and still have energy to work at the computer, I will try to do some more submissions.  There are a couple of projects I want to work on as well so I’ll see what Ken wants to do and how I can help.

I took Monday off work and I’ll be hanging out at home alone.  I’m looking forward to not setting an alarm for the next three days.  I’ll have to I suppose so I don’t sleep too late but in theory no alarms.  I’m glad it’s Friday and I have three days to do what I want to do with no commitments to anyone other than Ken.

Shopping on a Saturday

by eileentroemel, posted in Crochet and crafting, Life

What was I thinking?  I hate shopping at the best of times but shopping in Walmart on Saturday.  Ugh!!  It was busy with lots of crying kids.  My husband got crankier with every purchase.  I had three app rebates to coordinate, prices to compare, and coupons to organize.  I saved $3.75 in coupons and $10.80 in rebates for my apps and .55 cents in another app.

Then we moved on to Farm and Fleet.  Ken got new shoes because they were on sale.  He went in by himself while I talked to Vicki on the phone and took pictures of receipts.  Our last stop was the new Firehouse Subs.  Ken went in by himself and got our lunch.  It was quite good.

Next I have to organize our route for the pop up libraries and getting the books organized.  We are going to try to hit as many as possible today put one or two books in each one we stop at.

Then I’m coming home and crashing.  I’ve had enough of people, shopping, and noise.  I want the peace and quiet of my house.  Hopefully I will have the energy to work on hand towels.  I’m going to try to finish them this weekend but I’ll have to see how my energy level is tonight and tomorrow.

I’m trimming all the editing and publishing off my list for tomorrow because I need some down time with my feet up.  If my legs feel okay, I may have time to work on the computer but more likely, I’ll just work on crocheting.