I’m busy working away on crochet patterns (and a few commission projects!) and developing the pattern store here at Chelle-Chelle.com. As busy as I may make myself be, sometimes even I like to take a little break. I ‘rediscovered’ a love for fused beads very recently (it was a combination of browsing awesome craft forums, impulsively buying the peg boards and then finding a huge tub of fusible beads at the thrift store that did it for me).

So that’s what I’ve been working on while also proofing crochet patterns and photographing projects. Things will get released, in their due time, and I have a lot of exciting and fun things to show all of you (things I’ve been working on, patterns that I’m perfecting). But it is nice to just do something relaxing from time to time, like putting beads on a board.

I was recently asked by someone that I know to make them something. Actually, this person pointed to a hat that was in the window of a store (it was a knitted hat) and asked me if I could make something like that, but for less than what the store was asking for. I politely told this person no and when pressed, I gave the following reasons why:

• The hat was knitted – I’m far more competent with crochet than knitting and therefore would be spending far longer on a knitted hat that I would ever want to (for someone else other than myself or a gift of my choice).
• The yarn was, after inspection, was really nice – this person wanted an exact replica. The yarn was nice, a blend of wool, merino, alpaca and yak.
• The hat had colour-work. I barely do colour work for my own stuff (lol). Not because I don’t know how, it’s that I hate weaving in ends (although lately I’ve killing two birds with one stone and just working over the ends – if I can)
• The hat was nothing like I’d seen before – I probably would have had to make up the pattern myself. Did I mention that I’m more competent with crochet than knit? This applies to winging my own patterns.
• The store was selling the hat for $30. Cost of yarn alone would probably be upwards of the same price at retail cost, if I wanted the exact colours and fibre content.
• As the yarn would cost about $30 (estimate), and I’d be spending at least 5-6 hours alone on this one hat at $15/hour, the hat would suddenly cost around $105-$120.

Of course, this completely turned this person off from getting me to make the hat. “At that price, I might as well buy it!” Well good, buy it. It’d be far easier than for me to a) track down the yarn and b) figure out how to make it. This same person told me that there were hats (knitted and crocheted) for far lower prices on sites like etsy and Artfire. I mentioned that people were clearly underselling themselves.

I don’t understand how someone can knit a set of 3 dish towels (with really nice, intricate cables) and price it at $12. I don’t understand how someone can crochet a scarf that is 9 feet long and set the price at $25. I don’t understand how someone can make a beautiful pair of earrings that clearly have detailed wire work and gorgeous beads and then price it at $5 of all things.

Handcrafted and handmade are words that are not synonymous with cheap or low quality. Handcrafted and handmade means that there was a real person making something, not a machine. It means that someone put their time, their effort, their talent and their skill into something.

Here’s a selection of crafts that I’ve done in 2009, most of them are on this website.

Not pictured are approximately 30 pairs of earrings that I have not gotten around to photographing, maybe ~5 Blythe hats and another sweater, 2 scarves and the hat that I’m currently working on.

I wish everyone a happy new year and well wishes for 2010.