Quick News reg Vinted

 I have moved all the 2nd hand clothing back to eBay, I just get more traffic over there and I refuse to pay to bump post back up to the top for people to see it.

Also I will reduce my t-shirt collection. I did get out of hand 😮😂😋 

It will include original Star Wars t-shirts I hardly wore if at all. I just need to figure out the best way to take the photos and where. At the moment it can be bright one minute and the next it goes dark again. I was thinking the bathroom because of the white tiles and the bright LED ceiling light. 

And the other thing is how to display them. Coat hanger? On a rod? Lying flat?

Seriously, it's driving me crazy

This way just looks sad if you ask me.

Now the question do I have a rod that's not a broom stick? 😬😄

Rain proofing shipping labels

 First of I am adding more and more of my knitting tools. Some of it is already listed so please check it out. I have shedloads and it will be new and vintage stuff I have collected or came from job lots I had bought. They are all going cheap.

Secondly I would make other eBay Sellers aware of an issue with shipping labels.

I had a buyer messaging me and asking me where her order was. So I checked and the tracking only had the pick up from my place. Now I never had anything like it happening before. I spoke to the regular postie and she said she will get back to me. The next day she said she spoke to the postie who picked it up that day that is was raining and the label got wet when transporting it from the van to the office.

I also had a message from the buyer again saying it had now finally arrived and she sent me a photo of the label. I blacked out the address but it looked about the same as the rest.

Address barely readable QR code and barcode unscannable. An absolute mess.

Postie told me that this is a pretty common occurrence and it makes their job really hard. If it was possible for me to waterproof at least the address, QR and barcode. I said no problem, I can do that.

So I bought this clear tape. It's wide enough to cover both.

LINK

I only just bought a new box of labels A4 with 4 and I didn't want to throw them away but use up and once I am done with those I will buy a thermal printer and waterproof thermal labels. I had a look around and I think I will consider this printer. If I am lucky the labels might last until Black Friday.

Printer

Labels

This will fix the issue forever, reduce the ink I have to purchase and the labels are about the same price.

Update on eBay yarn sale

 I have come to the conclusion to stop kidding myself. I decided to reduce my yarn to 2 boxes of sock yarn and that's that. And after sorting through the lot and even discovering another stash in my wooden box (completely forgot about that one) I am now to literally down 2 boxes of sock yarn. YAY!

I am sure after a couple more years of stuffing my face with collagen (I think it's already working) my joints might have recovered enough to be able to knit sock. At the moment all I'm doing is fixing the ones that got wholes in strange places.

Over the past few days I have already listed a lot of sock yarn and I have more to list. I still have Lang Yarn to list and a massive amount of Sirdar yarn. I really have my fingers crossed people will buy my yarn quickly because one corner of my bedroom is filled with storage boxes and shopping bag full of yarn.

After I have listed all the yarn I will turn to the gadgets and the pattern books. I have plenty of sets of interchangeable knitting needles. I will keep one set, the one's I like the most but the rest can go. Including some special knitting needles. I have also a bunch of cheap bamboo needles that can go cheaply. I have also a set of single pointed needles that need to go. I have hardly used those in the first place. Once you get used to interchangeable needles single pointed feel weird. Most of my sets aren't just the basic sizes they came with. I bought all the in between sizes too. I also have some vintage tool some collector might be interested and lots of buttons old and new.

Then the rest of the pattern books. After that I can finally take time to look at for how much I'm going to sell my beaded jewellery. I don't want to make money with them. Just to cover my costs and so I can finance my other hobbies, but I don't want to sell them too cheaply either.

Next months I will list the rest of my electronic stuff I still have lying around. Some of it I have already sold last week. And we really need to go through our storage locker. See what can be sold and what we can give away to charity.

So that's all the updates so far. Like I said I feel better since I have been taking Mobu's Bovine Collagen for about 3 months now. My nails look better and especially my knees have hardly ached recently. So I keep going and hope it will restore the connective tissue in my hands as well. I do feel a difference. Maybe not today because I was lifting boxes with fabric yesterday and believe me that stuff is heavy.

So I hope, despite the shit that's going on around the world, you all keep crafting, or reading/writing, listening or making music. Remember Earth without art is just Eh!

Happy Yule and a few Updates

 First of Happy Yule or whichever Festivities you are celebrating or not!

OK, to the updates.

I have closed the Folksy store again. Eight months and all I sold was one job lot of yarn, had two items wish listed and that was that. Not worth the hassle.

Everything handmade is back on eBay.

January I will list more yarn I still have kept in case my hand will improve. Well, it hasn't. Every time I do something or move my wrist, the pain is rather bad and I really don't want to make it any worse again by starting knitting again. 

It's going to be mainly Alpaca mix yarns, lots of Lang Yarn, including the knitting pattern books and some more sock yarn. I will still hold back with some of the sock yarn. I hope a couple of years more not knitting I might be able to knit socks again. But lots slower.

I wish you all peaceful festivities and a much better 2026

Yummy Yarn Cakes on eBay

I have listed all my yarn cakes I want to sell from Hobbii and Stylecraft.

From 100% cotton to mixed and sock yarn, in a wide range of colours from bright and summery to Halloween. Many are from discontinued ranges.

Please feel free to have a browse.

I will ship abroad on request but please be aware I only ship tracked.

Just send me a message through eBay. It will not be worth it for just one item unless you really want it and don't mind to pay more for P&P than the actual yarn is. But if you get as close to 2 kg as possible it might be worth it. Also be aware when you add up that you leave about 100g for packaging and the usual % that ball/cakes can weigh more.

Or just leave me a message before you consider buying and I can weigh it for you.

P&P Europe Zone 1-3 

£10 - £16.50 for a 2kg max (250g is between £8 - £11)

Rest of the world excluding USA

£18 - £33 for a 2kg max  (250g is between £11.50 - £14)

USA

I will not ship to the USA because of impending tariffs.

 

Quick update reg eBay

 Unsurprisingly eBay has made some adjustments to their buyer protection fee by dropping it drastically for anything less than a fiver. So there is me who was riding it out while others ran off and cried.

I knew this would happen because it was pretty clear they were shooting themselves in the foot. We private sellers are still important even if eBay thought we were just some ballast they could throw into the sea of indifference.

So the yarn I had moved to Folksy is no relisted on eBay. But handmade items will stay at Folksy because I think this is the best place for it for now. I will see what happens when people start buying xmas gifts. If nothing sells from my handmade items they go back to eBay as well.

That's all I wanted to say for now.

Oh, I forgot, I have added sock yarn and probably next week I will be adding yarn cakes if I don't procrastinate too much 😂 and then I have another shedload of knitting books to list.

Regarding my hands, there are days they don't hurt too much but it still feels the pain is just simmering in the background waiting for me to do something stupid like opening a jar and boom! 😬

Moving to Folksy and Vinted

 Unfortunately, I didn't have a choice but to leave eBay and move to Folksy.

eBays new private seller policies have hit me hard, because I sell mostly items below £2 the added 75p plus 4% buyer protection fee have almost doubled my prices. On top of it I was forced to switch to recorded shipping, because otherwise I wouldn't get paid for 2 weeks.

So my 2nd hand stuff will now be sold at Vinted. And you know why? Because Vinted is transparent about their buyer protection fees. They are not hidden in the price like eBay does. And they don't sting you twice. It's just the 75p and not 4% on top.

So now I am moving all the handmade stuff to Folksy. That was all I thought in the beginning but I have now included all the yarn and I will sell the books and all the future vintage patterns there too.

All I do is pay something monthly to be able to list without restriction and I will have to pay a small percentage in fees to PayPal or Stripe. 

I hope once people realise I have moved they will come and buy from me again.

My Folksy Store

and

My Vinted Store

Oh and eBay you suck!! 👎😡

That's not how you treat loyal members who supported you for over 23 years. I hope you suffer as badly as I have over the past couple of months.

Update on my hands and favour

 I wanted to talk about my hands and if they have become any better.

Well, no they haven't. Some days it's better and it doesn't hurt as much when I do nothing. But even pushing down the shift button on my keyboard with my thumb aggravates it and I get shooting pains.

Days after I have done stuff where I had to hold or grab things it just hurts. I can't do a whole evening of beading either because the pinching of thumb and pointy finger hurts in the joint.

So it very much looks like I have to give up knitting for good. I was afraid of that. It already caused me an endless grieving process listing yarn and knitting books on eBay. It's painful and I feel like crying a lot of times. 

So please can you do me a favour and head over to eBay (click on the logo) and help me to get rid of everything as quickly as possible so I don't get depressed every time I look at all the bags and boxes full of yarn?

Thank you so much!

Quick update

 I think I mentioned somewhere that I had to stop knitting for an extended time, maybe forever, that depends if my thumbs are recovering.

I started a lot of new hobbies to compensate and they seemed to have taken over here. Instead I started a new blog that is just about all the other hobbies I have. 

This space I will try and figure out how I can add a kind of a shop thing where you could purchase pdfs of my vintage patterns. I don't know yet how I will go about this, but I need a new space for it because I cancelled my personal website. It has become more and more expensive, now almost £110 a year but I don't get anything more for it. And claiming it's because they have upgraded to SSD drives just doesn't cut it with me anymore.

My new space is called

The AuDHDer Crafty Space

More yarn listed on eBay

 I have just listed a few discontinued yarns, like Patons Merino Extrafine 4ply and Aran, 2 packs with patterns for a sweet baby/toddler cardigan which includes the discontinued Stylecraft Eskimo. Some other King Cole, Patons and Stylecraft, as well as some Hobbii and Knit Pick and a shedload of Drops yarn.

In the coming weeks I will add even more. For now I have decided to keep just certain yarns, like most of the sock yarn, all of the Lang Yarn (not sure about the yarn I had planned for baby items), some other yarn and for definite the Hayfield Aran will stay.

I hope by the time I have finished my yarn stash will have halved.

So please have a nose around and help me recover some of the money, so I can invest in other hobbies.

eBay

Maybe I have to clarify why I am so drastically selling my stash. After knitting like there is no tomorrow, I severely damaged my thumb joints and I am suffering from the dreaded knitter's thumb. It had become so painful that I couldn't cast on anymore.

A few months ago I finally went to see my GP. Because I just had been vaccinated I had to wait a few weeks. So, a few weeks ago I received injections into the thumb joints. And my GP begged me to stop knitting, for at least a year. I didn't knit for a few months before I went and it didn't make a difference. I used about every cream there is and nothing would help against the inflammation.

Thankfully, the injections seem to work but I still have to be careful not to aggravate it with a strange twist.

So since then I have been beading, mainly bracelets, I started cross stitch again, I bought some nice fabric I will make into lovely things, I still enjoy diamond paintings a lot and I fill my colouring books with wonderful colours.

One day, I might knit again and that's why I want to keep at least some yarn and all the tools.

Free shipping just died

 I nearly fell off my chair when I read through the new Royal Mail postage costs.

Let me explain it in numbers.

I sell a vintage pattern for £2.25 that should include P&P. So for each sold pattern I receive £1.66. Yes, eBay charges me £0.59 in fees. If I list on those 80% fees reduced days of course I get more.

Postage use to be £1.15

cardboard backed envelope £0.25

A4 punched pockets £0.04

Total £1.44

I earn 22p per pattern. Yippee! (sarcasm)

If I carried on selling patterns for £2.25

It'll work out as a loss of £0.18

I will have no choice but to reduce the pattern price and charge P&P instead.

I'm sorry, but I want to make some money. I know I will not be a millionaire one day selling vintage patterns but I don't want to make a loss either.

Yarn Packs on eBay

 If you are in the UK and are looking for some Attic24 and other Stylectaft yarn packs then please head over to my eBay shop. Just use the link at the top.

The price is what you pay for at Wool Warehouse and you get free shipping as well.

I have atm 6 yarn packs listed, five are Stylecraft and one Bluprint.

Attic24 - Sweet Pea CAL (Stylecraft Yarn Pack) £31.50

Stylecraft 2016 CAL - Carousel Blanket (Yarn Pack) £36.99

Janie Crow - Eastern Jewels Blanket (Stylecraft Yarn Pack) £38.50

Attic24 - Dune Blanket (Stylecraft Yarn Pack)   £31.50

Attic24 - Woodland Blanket CAL (Stylecraft Yarn Pack)  £31.50

Bluprint Pulsing Prism Afghan Crochet Kit   £49.50

I am doing a massive stash reduction and will list more yarn, either as singles or as bulk.

So keep an eye out. It might take me a while to list everything but I have about 6 massive bags of yarn waiting to be listed and there will be even more.

Cable Raglan Sweater

 I saw this pattern during a Debbie Bliss promotion and I had the urge to knit it.

Thankfully I had suitable yarn lying around so I didn't have to splash out.

I knitted it with Paintbox Wool Blend Worsted.

Now, when I ready through the pattern and looked at the measurements and the amount of stitches I was supposed to cast on, I looked rather puzzled. Or flabbergasted. The first thing I said was bloody hell, this is a tent. 😱 I mean, I like my sweaters a little loose but not like that.

I cast on the size I first thought I was going to knit. I help up what I cast on and nope! Size down, nope, size down, still nope. Another size down and OK that looks about right. 2 weeks later I was finished and put it on the first time and it fits perfectly. Still a little loose but certainly not a tent.

Interlaken Pullover

 I had this pattern planned with a different yarn but it didn't work. The yarn was too slippery and the twisted stitches became all tiny and I had ladders on both sides. 

I still had some WYS Aire Valley Essential DK, funny enough grey as the pattern, so I tried that and it worked perfectly. I even had more left over than expected.

Big shout to Anne Hanson for creating this great sweater and the well written pattern. I really enjoyed making it. You can buy it from Ravelry.

PS: It looks a bit wonky because I haven't blocked it yet.

I am versus Arthritis Challenge

 In March I will start will my "I am versus Arthritis" Challenge.

I have never tried Brioche knitting. So this is my challenge. I found a "simple" scarf pattern. I hope I will get it. But my guess is there will be some swearing included. 😆

I bought some lovely Malabrigo Rios as suggested in the pattern.

If you would like to donate please go here

If you want to support my challenge please go here

For Hubby

 I've gone all vintage on this. I bought quite a while ago a bag of yarn from the charity shop. That was actually before I started with all the vintage knitting patterns. I stored it away in a box. I didn't forget it. When I bought a job lot of vintage knitting patterns, it included a few patterns that were made for the yarn I have. I have enough for two garments, a slipover and a pullover. The slip over is finished.

And then hubby asked for red socks. Who could deny such a request? Nobody! I added a simple pattern to make the look less boring and it helped me count.

Sock Intermission

 I knitted a few socks not because I needed them but more because I know I finish a pair in a short amount of time and that's rather a good feeling when you knitted something that took an annoying long time.

I mean the cowl. It's finished but somehow didn't make it on a photo. LOL

I actually made a pair with this yarn and when I wanted to wear them I realised the pattern made them impossible to get them on. So unravel and new plain socks.

These have been stored away in a cute bag for the past probably 12 month and now they finally made it. I bought this yarn and more shades on holiday a few years back.

This yarn I bought last year if I remember right. They are very soft. But in the beginning you can smell the vinegar. I don't know how long lasting they will be because they are just merino yarn.

And something bright. I love this Schoppel yarn. It knits up so well.

WIP Sirdar Cowl

 Not being a big fan of doing Fairisle work straight, but still thought it looked a nice and the some of the colours of the yarn was 50% off, I thought OK I'll got for it.

Oddly enough the colours work really well together. And I am getting better along as I was expecting. But I still prefer Fairisle work knitted in rounds.

Customer Gift

 I received a gift from a customer who was over the moon about a cardigan she bought of me. She was insistent to send me a gift. She is also a crafter. She make pottery.

I love it. I won't use it for tea or coffee, but it will work perfectly as stitch marker storage.

If you look for a gift why not visit her store. 😉