Holiday Craft Fair Preparations

I've been busy making a few last minute items for the Holiday Market at the Farmer's Market for BlackFriday and Saturday.......Friday looks like good weather so I have high hopes. Saturday looks like it'll be really cold. It's an outdoor market so folks don't always come out when it's in the 30's or below.

Anyway....I got out my Weave-It Loom and designed a couple pairs of Fingerless Mitts. I'm calling this design Misty Mountain Mitts.

I haven't named the red pair.....Red fingerless mitts???? No imagination this morning.

They are both made out of With Love Yarn by Red Heart....The yarn isn't too bad. It's softer than supersaver and the colors are pretty.  

I also made this pair in all crochet:

And, another Cotton Hat out of I Love This Cotton from Hobby Lobby:

The hat is on top of one of my table top displays at the Relay for Life Christmas Bazaar in Creton nc. That was one tough place to sell! But it was a fun Saturday and really I consider it a donation to a good cause. I sold one paper quilled snowflake, 3 crocheted flower pins, a crocheted coin purse and two sets of crocheted dishcloths....That's it....That's all.....Thankfully it was indoors. I enjoyed talking to the other vendors and the few shoppers who came around. 

I'm hoping for better luck tomorrow! Last year I had several requests for 100% cotton hats, so we'll see if people will actually like them enough to purchase them. And, to pay the slightly higher cost of 100% cotton versus acrylic.

I didn't sell any of the market bags I made last year ( or was it the year before, check my previous posts). I made them because I had had several folks request a market bag that they could use in the grocery store; rather than my tote bag design. So I made a bunch based on the demand... I didn't sell a one until this summer when I did a close out two for the price of one sale ($10 each)....I had priced them at $20 because they took 10 hours each to make.....

Well, what I learned is to look at what folks pick up and look. What color items they go to first, what shape, what size, what item.....and I ignore what they SAY they want.....Sometimes I wonder if folks really know what they want. I'm finding I can figure out what will sell if I watch what they do rather than listen to what they ask for....Which is why I'm a little nervous about the cotton hats...But, I  like them. So if nothing sells I have plenty of holiday gifts for the nieces and nephews this year!

I made a shrug a few years ago...for folks who don't know what that is it's sort of a small sweater or bolero. Whenever I put it out folks like it until they ask the price $20; then they walk away....It has two skeins of Lion Brand Homespun which I bought at about $6 per skien...so $12 in yarn and two hours of work......

I find it curious how folks will pay $17 for a hat but won't pay $20 for a sweater that's 3X bigger than the hat? I'm not complaining here, I just think folks are a HOOT!!!!  It's amazing to watch....there is something about hitting the $20 mark that folks here think is too high. Maybe i should ask $19.99.....LOL!!!!!!

Well, I gotta go and finish up a few more projects...I hope you all have a VERY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Last Farmer's Market of the Season!

Haven't posted in awhile as I switched to Google Chrome and could not figure out how to get in to edit my blog....so went back to internet explorer and her I am!!!!

It was a great day at the Farmer's Market...a bit chilly, but fun.

I bought some "I Love This Cotton" yarn at Hobby Lobby last week on my trip to Hickory. and made these two hats. The one with the star is tapestry crochet and the swirly one is just plain old swirly crochet....


I sold some of my acrylic hats, but no one even glanced at these...I thought they looked pretty cool. Not sure if I'll make more or not.


Here's some more pics of my booth and the other crafters.

 Sold 3 pairs of fingerless gloves today....I was thinking of not making anymore as I hadn't sold any all year....now sold 3 at once....Guess I'll make a few more pairs for the Holiday Market...Gotta Run, I'll try to post more in a few days!

 

Baby Afghan I made for my new great-neice Julia

I improvised the design on this one. Used the center flower from one of the Harmony Crochet guides; but wanted a more solid square. The purple and pink yarns are Loops & Threads Snuggly Wuggly Baby Sport and the green is Bernat Softee Baby. I used a size F hook.

I wanted to do something different for joining the squares and after joining and frogging apart several times I got the idea to do two single crochets in the first two stitches of one square and then 2 single crochets on the other square, etc.  all the way across to join them together. It made a pretty little cable like ridge between the squares.

The edging is a row of cross stitch (sk a stitch, hdc in next two st and go back across front of work and do a dc in the skipped space. followed by a DC row and another cross stitch row.

I sure hope my neice likes it!!!!

Here's a close up of the edging.

I just found out I have another great-neice on the way too!!! I've already made 5 new baby blankets in the past two years, the neices are keeping me busy; but I love it. Heck, any excuse to buy more yarn is O.K. by me!!!

I've been working on getting ready for the Ashe County Farmer's Market season starting in April....I've made several dish clothes and several water bottle holders. I'm aiming to finish 20 water bottle holders and 20 plarn tote bags or lunch bags before then....But have been getting sore and numb across the shoulder blades if I crochet for more than 30 minutes or so at a time. I've looked up several youtubes with shoulder exercises and hoping those will help.

Here's what I've been working on the past few weeks.  I haven't worked in the end yet or attached the handles to the water bottle carriers. 

BTW, Have Y'all seen the big jump in yarn prices the past month. Seems like everythings gone up a dollar a skein at least. I have all my items for sale in whole dollar amounts so I don't have to mess with change and included sales tax in the pricing. I may have to increase prices to make up for the yarn cost increases and the booth fee at the Farmer's Market has doubled so I'm not sure how to keep prices reasonable and still pay for my yarn and work. I might try increasing items by 50 cents or so and see how it goes; though I hate to have to deal with quarters/change.  Takes me an hour to make a dish cloth or an hour and a half to make a water bottle carrier. ....May not actually be worth it to make the dish cloths but so many people like them for gifts that I always like to have a few sets of 3 available. The cheapest I can get the cotton yarn is about $.75 to $1 an ounce and the dishrags take about 1.25 ounces and the water bottle carriers about 1.5 to 2 ounces.

We were visiting family in Milwaukee last week and I got to go to Super JoAnn's...found this beautiful Deborah Norville Collection Serenity Garden Yarn on sale and then had the 10% off coupon from the Sunday paper........It's so nice and soft...I don't often find a sock size yarn I can use as I'm allergic to wools. This one is 100% Dralon Microfiber. I don't know what that means but it doesn't make me sneeze to use it and that's a good thing. I haven't decided what to make with it yet. Maybe some little amulet bags or scarves?

Also stopped at the Tamarak Center in West Virginia on the way home:

http://www.tamarackwv.com/

Adventures in Avoiding Pastels: Baby Afghan out of Bernat Softee Baby

I find pastel baby afghans boring. And all the holes in the lacy ones worry me that little fingers and toes will get stuck in them...So here is my own design for a baby blanket/afghan that I gave to my neice for her new precious baby girl. Haven't heard back from her yet. I mailed it to her dad's house as I didn't have her address at the time. Hope she likes it!!! But I always worry. Especially since my idea of colors and what's pretty doesn't always seem to match up with other folks.  I can't tell you how many times I thought something I made looked awful with horrible colors and my hubby convinced me to put it out for sale at the Farmer's Market anyway...and wouldn't you know it...it's always the first thing to sell. Always leaves me wondering at my sense of color and style...

The edging on the blanket is based on an edging from a book on hankerchief edgings from the 1940's. I just skipped the first two rows and added single crochets over the exposed chains to give it more structure.
Got quite a surprise for Christmas. My son came home from college and brought a girlfriend with him. Gave me about 36 hours notice....so I had to come up with something quick for a gift. Gave her a blue hat I had made for the Farmer's Market and gave him a hat too.
Well that's all for now, gotta get some work done. I've signed up for a few free herbal classes on line. One at learningherbs.com and the other at Wise Woman University....I'll have to look up the URL later...computer is too darn slow today.

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