A disjointed week and Jumbo Crochet Rope Cushion - Update

It's been a rather disjointed week this week.  A lot seems to have been going on but not much to show for it.

Of course, I finished my Jumbo rope cushion, sent it off to the shop and have been waiting for a reply but I don't seem to have been able to settle to anything else.  I got out my Kid Silk Haze project which has not been touched since January.  I started trying to unpick it (ha ha!)  The first two rows seemed to unravel relatively easily, but then ...... well lets say after many hours I gave up.

Plan B may have to be the addition of a bit of freeform crochet, in order to make a rectangle and then I can turn it into a shrug, but .... for now I've put it back in the bag! Does this sound a little familiar to some of you :)

Update
Unfortunately, as I suspected, the shop didn't want my Crochet Rope Cushion as the price was too much.  They did like it however and commented that they had seen similar at the London Design Show this week.  How I get it down in price though I shall never know!  Rope is rope and without buying 1000's of metres in order to get a substantial discount or knocking off my hourly rate (which would mean working for nothing!! and at £8 hour is only just above minimum wage) I am stumped!  How do you price products if you are serious about selling them?  Do you allow yourself an hourly rate and if so do you think £8 per hour is about right?  After all a shop is going to put a fair mark up on anything they sell and whilst I realise they have many overheads I would like to think I could make a little something too!!  This isn't really a moan, it's just despair!!  I have the skill to produce these things and it's obvious they are on trend but how to sell them for a fair price is beyond me!!!

Fine Cotton Crochet
I've been meaning to show you these for a while.  They have not been blocked yet so are a bit squiffy still!

A friend of mine is collecting bits and pieces for an heirloom quilt she is planning to make so I have been experimenting with fine crochet cotton squares.  Not sure which one to choose, may just send them all and let her make the decision!! I love doing these but once again ran out of inspiration this week and put it away for a while.  If anyone has any pretty afghan square patterns they wouldn't mind sharing I would love to do a couple more.

Jumbo Crochet Hooks
My OH has been making some jumbo crochet hooks ....

..... this week as I have a Jumbo Crochet Basket workshop coming up at Spin A Yarn this Friday.  The last one was great fun so keep your fingers crossed for me!!

Country Walk
And lastly we have been for a lovely walk today so I thought I would share a few of the beautiful examples of nature we noticed along the way :)

Have a lovely week everyone.  I'll let you know how the workshop goes next time.  See you over at
Handmade Monday

Bye 

x

Jumbo Crochet Rope Cushion

You may remember from my previous post (although it was a little while ago I admit) I was experimenting with different materials to crochet a cushion.  Well, I have finally finished my Jumbo Crochet experiments so thought I would share my efforts with you.

I chose to use cotton sash cord as it is soft and pliable and still gives a chunky effect.  You can see from the pictures below the size of the stitches in comparison with the 50p piece.  Having finished the crocheting I was then presented with the problem of how to join the two sides together.  The picture, bottom left, shows how I solved this problem.

My next dilemma took a lot of thought.  I wanted to make the cushion cover removable for cleaning so this meant finding some way of fastening an opening.  A zip would have been impossible to sew in and buttons would have added to the cost.  So I put it to one side for a while and kept returning to it hoping for a 'light bulb' moment!  I finally decided on toggles and the pictures below show the result.

And ta dah! Here is the finished product.

I hope you like the finished Cushion.

It is very difficult to do it justice in the photos.

I have sent it off now so keep your fingers crossed the shop like it too!

This is the first one as a sample, if it is accepted I will be able to crochet different sizes and colours.

I'll keep you posted!

I am off to grab myself a cup of tea and settle down with Handmade Monday.  

See you there.

Have a good week!