A big THANK YOU to everyone who has sent in their photographs and stories. I hope by sharing other people’s hobbies and stories here on One Hundred Dollars a Month we can all find unique ways to spend our down time in creative and enriching ways. Keep them coming!
Dear Mavis,
I was so excited to see ‘crocheting’ on your list of goals for 2017, and seriously mourned when you didn’t get hooked. Gone was the dream of lots of inspirational posts… As I love crocheting I would want to share a few of my thoughts and projects with your readers – showing that it’s so much more than just dish cloths!
I first picked up crocheting in 2011 when I was set to travel from Toronto to Seattle. My then supervisors had purchased the cheapest (i.e. longest) flight ticket possible and I was so upset that I decided that I wasn’t going to read papers for the flight but rather do something for ME. I can’t remember why I decided on crocheting, but I boarded the first of those many flights with a hook, some cheap yarn and a few downloaded instructions. 17 hours later, and numerous glasses of wine and curses, I arrived with a 7-cornered granny square. It was A MESS, but I was ecstatic because I felt like I almost had it!
A little more practice and crocheting has become my favourite way to keep my hands busy. I crochet on long drives, flights and while we’re watching TV. My first love will always be the basic granny squares; they’re just so versatile! I love to find a new beautiful pattern and to combine them in various ways. My go to ‘welcome to the world’ gift is a small stroller blanket with a lining (Photo 1), but I’ve also combined them to make clutches. Here’s an example of a small pencil clutch I made for my mum when she went back to school a few years ago.
Generally I don’t sell the things I make, because as soon as there’s a price tag involved I feel like it’s more of a chore than a hobby. However, I’ve made a few exceptions. I’ve sold a couple of these little lamb hats as I had a bunch of friends that wanted them for their friends and insisted on paying.
I’ve also crocheted lots of these little baby booties and sold in order to raise money for breast cancer research. But that’s it – everything else has either stayed in the family or been gifted.
Having a baby of my own also sent me into crocheting overdrive. I’ve never crocheted as much as I did when I was pregnant. When I was 8/9-months pregnant I essentially did nothing but mass-producing little elephants.
I guess it sort of echoed how I felt about myself at that point in time! 🙂
Now, when my little one is a little older, I’m making fun hats, essentials (because seriously, everyone needs an egg apron!) and gifts for all his little friends.
To sum it up: I love crocheting because it keeps my hands busy and it’s excellent if I have too many things buzzing around in my head – I can zone in on my project and shut everything else out. It also allows me to be creative, and I love that I can make a personal (non plastic!) gift in just a couple of hours/days!
~ Ida from Guelph, Canada
Bracelet by Kathy from Artful Accents
If you would like to have your Hobby featured on One Hundred Dollars a Month, here’s what I’m looking for:
- Your hobby has to be submitted as a well written post. A one sentence “I make homemade kites” will not do. Now, 4-5 paragraphs about how you got into kite making, how long you’ve been doing it and the different types of kites you make WILL DO. That’s what I’m looking for! How long have you been doing it? Do you make money off of it or is it just for fun? Can you teach me how to do it?
- Be sure to include a little information about yourself, like your hobby’s backstory and how you got into it. Also, please include your first name and what state or country you are from.
- Your submission MUST have 5 HIGH QUALITY photos attached. You do not have to be a professional photographer, but your photos do need to be clear and well lit or I won’t be able to use them.
- All photos must be original, and they must have been taken by YOU. All photos you submit may be used on One Hundred Dollars A Month once submitted.
- Sadly, I might not be able to use every submission if I am overwhelmed by responses. A $20 Amazon gift card will only be awarded if the submission is published.
- If you have a blog and would like me to link back to it, please let me know, I’d be happy too.
- Although you must submit at least 5 pictures per submission, you can always include more. The more the merrier just in case I do not select them all.
- One submission per person.
- Send submissions via email to onehundreddollarsamonth @ gmail.com {remove the spaces} and be sure and put Show Me Your Hobby in the subject line.
I can’t wait to see all of your fascinating hobbies! Might just encourage me to take up a few new ones.
Hobby on,
~Mavis
Diana says
Oh my gosh those elephants are AMAZING! Soooo cute and the little ear liners are such a fun addition! I love to crochet too, but never got the hang of piecing together the little arms on stuffies. I stick to hats and blankets 🙂
Kara says
I agree! All the pieces are beautiful but that elephant with the pink floral ears and blue bow is my favorite. <3
Ida says
Oh wow, so much love for my little elephants! I must admit that I’m not a huge fan of assembling stuffies either, it’s definitely the most boring step of the process. However, this little elephants isn’t too bad – so perhaps worth giving it a try?
Tracy says
All of the pieces are adorable, but that EGG APRON is killing me! How cute is that??
Ida says
So cute! I die a little every single time he uses it, but I have to be honest and admit that it’s not THAT practical. It’s still combining a toddler with eggs and a certain amount of poop… So I have to be quick and sneak out the dirty eggs before he gets to them. 😀
Emily E. says
Wonderful! You do a beautiful job! I also taught myself to crochet and agree that it’s so relaxing. Any tips on attaching the lining you did in your elephant’s ears? I haven’t tried anything that complex yet but would love some insight! The little lamb hat is beautiful too! Well done and thanks for sharing!
Ida says
Thank you! As for the ears, I didn’t follow the pattern on that part simply because I didn’t have enough yarn left for my first elephant (the one with the yellow ears) – so I had to brainstorm and came up with this solution. It’s basically just rounds of fabrics that I’ve stitched together and then lined with a blanket stitch. If you look closer at the little elephant with the yellow ears you can see that I finished it just like that (so tight on yarn I had to use scraps to attach them), but I had more yarn available for the white elephant so there I finished it off with stitching a boarder of sc in the blanket stitches. Difficult to explain… but I hope that makes sense!
Sandy says
So…elephant pattern? Where to we find that? Must have!
Ida says
Here’s a link to the original pattern!
http://thecrochetcrowd.com/free-red-heart-pattern-baby-elephant/
But as described above, I had to modify the ears on my first elephant as I was out of yarn and I liked it so much that I stuck to that model for all the subsequent elephants. I also decided on the little childproof “beads” for eyes – I just think that it makes them look a little more “alive”. But since these were all gifted to small kids I also put on a patch of iron on fabric on the inside of each eye to make sure they were really attached.
bren says
So much adorable! I really love these opportunities to check out everyone’s hobbies.
Ida says
Thank you! And yes, I love this series of posts too – so much inspiration!
PSU06VAL says
Agree with everyone, those elephants are awesome.
Ida says
After this elephant love storm I think I have to get back to making them! I took a break after my kid was born as I figured that parents would appreciate useful items (blankets, socks, hats…) more than a little stuffie. However, it seems like they’ve really hit a cord with the readers here so I think I’ll make one for the next “baby package” I make.
Deb A says
All of your work is lovely -truly lovely. But those elephants are adorable.
Ida says
Thank you! I really love crocheting, so all these kind comments have put the biggest smile on my face!
Jennifer Meyer says
Everything you have pictured is adorable, but I especially love the hat in the last picture! So fun! Making your mom the pencil pouch for going back to school, so sweet!
Ida says
Thank you! And yes, that was a fun project that I made one Christmas for my husband’s Secret Santa at work. And I made small clutches for my bridesmaids for our wedding and my mum loved them so much I really wanted her to have something similar – her going back to grad school seemed like the perfect excuse to make her a pencil case!
Aileen says
Ida, your elephant is the most beautiful soft toy I have seen in a very long time. I just love the expression on its face so caring. As someone with a hen flock & neighbourhood smallees who love to collect the eggs, the egg apron is the bomb 🙂 Those 2 designs would be big hits here in Ireland. You are a very talented lady.
Ida says
Thank you so much, and so much fun with a reader from Ireland (I love Ireland and have been there four times)! I’ve included a link for the elephant in another comment and here’s the pattern I used for the apron:
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/egg-cellent-apron
Just that this one was WAY too big for my little flock (I have 6 girls – two cream legbars and four ISA red), so I modified it to become a toddler apron with the space for 8 eggs.
Aileen says
Thank you so much Ida, I appreciate the link. Delighted to hear you enjoyed your 4 visits here. Lucky you are not visiting now, experiencing our first snow storm since 1982!!
Ida says
Haha! I’m born and raised in northern Sweden and I’ve lived in Canada for 10 years, snow storms are pretty norm as far as I’m concerned (we just spent two nights in Niagara Falls and while there was no snow when we went to bed on Thursday we woke up to 30cm this morning). 🙂 Hope you get enough to enjoy some good tobogganing!
AJ says
I crochet too, although I rarely have the patience for something as large as a blanket (even a crib blanket.) But I really enjoy designing amigurumi. Like you, I don’t really want to sell the items I make, but I figured I might as well try selling the patterns on Ravelry– at least then I’ll have an answer for everyone who keeps telling me “You should sell your stuff!” 😉
I only have a few patterns for sale at the moment, but my goal is to list 12 new ones this year, so I’ll be running a lot of tests through the Ravelry Testing Pool, if you’re interested! My projects page has some of the ones I plan to do next: https://www.ravelry.com/projects/ajterrill
Ida says
Hi AJ! I think you’re doing the right thing to focus on patterns. Between material costs, time and shipping I personally feel like it would difficult for me to feel like I was getting a reasonable amount back. Better for me to just gift them and be “repaid” in joy. 🙂
And OMG the PORG – I’m dying! It would make the most amazing little Christmas gift for a whole bunch of little kids I know (and yes, I work on my home made Christmas gifts pretty much all year except for a gardening break between June and August)! I’ve never heard about the testing pool before, but I’ll check it out to see if I can find your pattern there… otherwise I would be happy to buy it once you release it.
AJ says
The porg is being tested right now, but it should be done in the next week or so!
The testing pool is a forum where pattern designers can run tests before publishing– usually testers will crochet the item and give feedback in exchange for a copy of the pattern. 🙂
Ida says
Oh wonderful, I’ll keep an eye open for it!