Lincoln Winter Market 2012

Woohoo - I'm in! Time to get some serious knitting done!

Please join me and scads of other Olympia area makers and vendors for the 2nd annual Lincoln Winter Market, November 24th, 11-5 at Lincoln Elementary School.

For more info on this and other Make Olympia sponsored events, check out makeolympia.com. :)

Felted Kindle/Nook Cozy

I've been toying with the idea of trying felting for a while now, but I was intimidated, and so, put it off. Well, I finally got off my duff and did a felted project! This is an improvised pattern, using some lovely wool that I was given as a birthday gift.

Now that this has emerged a relative success, I can move forward with my original plan to make a slightly more masculine-looking one of these for a family member who is presently deployed overseas. My thought was that felted wool would be fairly impervious to assault by moisture and hopefully, sand.

This cozy is 9 1/2 by 6 inches, and may soon be growing a wristlet-type handle. ;)

Would you use something like this for your e-reader or tablet PC? What would you expect to pay for this baby?

Three cheers for the magical properties of wool!
Michelle

Building Inventory

This comprises about half of my "body of work" over the past 4 weeks.

I've kind of been in the dishcloth zone. ;) Last year, dishcloths and bike helmet earmuffs were my two best sellers, so my plan is to make as many as humanly possible in the run-up to the holiday season. Dishcloths are one of my very favorite things to knit, because they're short and sweet, and there is room for endless creativity and variety.

My family and friends can definitely expect a few of these in their stockings this year!

Patterna Non Grata

When I attempt a pattern twice, and end up frogging it twice, next stop is the round file.

Goodbye and good luck, Grey Loop Scarf. You were supposed to be so simple, but your creator's errata fixes were even more confusing than the original errors, and came out different and weird every time.

Alas, them's the breaks.

Onto a "Soft as a Cloud Cowl" from More Last-Minute Knitted Gifts. I'm using Cascade Yarn's Baby Alpaca Lace in Caribbean Heather. So yummy! :)

Hooked on the Hook!

I'm still a wee bit burned out on the knitting just now, and have instead decided to revisit my old friend crochet for a little while.

I've never really known how to do much more than chain, single crochet and double crochet - nothing fancy, no cool stitches. But, boy do I make a mean granny square... ;)

So many of my friends have been making really great crocheted pieces lately, I kinda wanted to pick it up again, just for a lark, and I'm having a ton of fun with it!

I'm really just goofing around, so there's nothing to show for my tinkering, but I'm enjoying the luxury of puttering around instead of stressing out about producing something. :)

Little Sold, Much Learned

Two bazaars in two weeks doesn't sound like much, but it seriously handed my butt to me.

This being my first year doing this and having so many up-front costs, I didn't really make anything. Between that and my tendency to fall in love with all of the great stuff that my fellow crafters are selling, I usually end up spending everything that I make and then some.

What I've learned that I will apply to next year's bazaars/fairs, if I do them -

*Focus on the small pieces, they are what moves.

*People will NOT pay Etsy prices at a craft fair, even if the quality, packaging, etc., are exactly the same. They want a bargain, even on the high-end stuff. :/

*You can never have too many $1 bills.

*Make double or triple the inventory that you expect to sell. A half-filled table looks sad.

*Get a buddy or two who sell similar or complimentary items to share your table with you if you don't have oodles of inventory (or even if you do). It's funner that way. :)

Stuff that I did that seemed to work well -

*Using my business cards as my price tags. They're purty and they were free!

*Network and chat with other vendors/crafters/artists - their experience and camaraderie make you a better seller.

*Encourage folks (kids too) to touch, try on, anything they want. Vendors who keep things locked up or don't let you try their stuff out make people feel suspicious or suspect, which is a crappy way to treat people.

*Offer to answer questions and show people how things work without pouncing on them like a lion at a watering hole. The hard sell creeps people out. (Not that that is my style, but being cornered and badgered by a few other vendors really reinforced this point for me.)

And that is that for this year's sales! I'll put more up on ye olde Etsy in the coming days and weeks. If it sells, yay! And if it doesn't, that's ok too. As much pressure as I put on myself to make a lot of stuff for these sales, it was also a lot of fun knitting things that made people happy to see, touch and use. I am taking an indefinite breather from knitting (which, knowing myself, probably won't last for more than a few days), and when I resume, I'm going to knit at a leisurely pace and only on projects that I thoroughly enjoy. No "production" knitting - for now. ;)

Thank you to everyone who offered me support in the form on mentoring, inspiration, encouragement, compliments and sales. I'd always fiddled with the idea of crafting for sale, and now I can cross this one off my bucket list. ;)

Thanks again and Happy Holidays!
Michelle

The "Studio"

AKA - The dining room. ;)