craft market year 3

Saturday was the big day: the annual holiday craft market! The weather outside was frightful. By that I mean the fog was thick as peanut butter. ("You mean pea soup." "You eat what you like and I'll eat what I like!") It did end up affecting our foot traffic, I think. But I still feel like I did well for myself.

I didn't do the market last year, but in 2023 I did. Check out that table compared to this year's table! Aesthetically identical, yes -- I used the same shelves, signage, bunting -- but the table itself is longer, and my inventory freaking filled it.

In 2023 I had on offer crochet rainbow pillows, crochet mitts, crochet ear bands, barrettes with bear ears sewn on ("bear-ettes," if you will), beaded rings, and beaded bracelets. So I definitely had inventory! But I think I had maybe 25 pairs of mitts available, tops. This year, I had mitts on mitts on mitts on mitts! Over 70 pairs!

And this year, I had only crochet on offer! I didn't feel like doing other stuff. I didn't even feel like making a huge variety of crochet stuff, such as other mitt patterns, or ear bands, or charging cords -- or god forbid, scarves. (Did y'all know I'm a scarf hater?) I have plenty of rings and bracelets left over from 2023's inventory, but didn't feel like bothering with them. I could have made more "bear-ettes" but didn't feel like it. I just followed my crafting yens, basically.

I do think it would have behooved me to have ear bands or beanies in addition to just a scad of fingerless mitts. (I was asked about scarves too, but in all honesty, I don't really want to make scarves!!) At this moment in time I'm not super sure if I'll do the market again next year. But if I do, this is a note to self: maybe find a beanie pattern you don't mind making...

I also tend to forget men exist? 0:) But an old guy was like, "Oh! This stuff is perfect for this time of year. But it's all girly, huh." And I was like, "Well... yeah..." So it maybe wouldn't kill me to make some more masculine-leaning items.

ON THE OTHER HAND, I DON'T HAVE TO CATER TO BORING OLD MEN! THE WORLD ALREADY CATERS TO Y'ALL! This is for the girly-pops!!! The daughters and nieces!! The whimsical amongst us!

I want to share some more pics of some specific mitts, like I did in my last post!

I did a series of mitts with a trio of heart appliques on them. I really like these and so many people picked up the dark blue pair in particular to look at, but none of them sold! Wish I could go back in time and whisper, "Hey, don't spend so much time on these" in my ear. Because sewing on three separate appliques in a semi-neat row onto an unstable surface such as crochet was, for me, very time-consuming. I was so careful about the spacing of the hearts and sewed them on with a lot of deliberation and concentration. (But it's okay they didn't sell! No skin off my nose!)

I also did a series of frog/lily pad mitts that I am pretty pleased with! As with the apple series, each mitt in the pair had something different on them, which keeps it fun. I got the frog applique pattern from this YouTube video. I messed around with a couple of ways to do lily pads, giving some a bit of a scalloped edge.

I gotta say that the highlight of the market for me (besides speaking to a fellow lady who is also in a band -- a heavy metal band!! -- who was my biggest buyer) was selling the green pair of froggy mitts to a gal who had SEVERAL frog tattoos! A sleeve in progress of nothing but frogs! It felt like that pair went to the perfect person! Like kismet! So that made me happy.

Another thing that made me happy was that a couple of people said variations of sentiments like, "Oh, I have mitts I bought from you last time, and I get compliments on them all the time!" and "I was hoping you would be here this year!" The craft market is a small one, but it's been going on for a really long time, so we do have regulars who come to it every year to do Christmas shopping.

In all, I think I made about the same amount of money I made in 2023? Even though my inventory was much larger, and in my estimation we had less foot traffic due to the weather. It visually looked like I hadn't sold much just because my inventory was so large, but in fact, I did make lots of sales.

I can't remember the exact total I made in 2023, but it was enough to buy a Blythe!! Which I did, right when I got home from the market! I have been saving up for an instrument for the last six months, so I think this year's profits will go into that fund.

In all, I'm glad to have this year's market in the books, and to move out of the hardcore market prep mode I've been in. My room's still a crafting disaster, and all of my inventory and tabling supplies are in piles waiting to be stored away. I'm saving the chore of cleanup and the reassembly of my living space for a future day...

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craft market prep post

I have ONE WEEK to get all my craft market stuff done!!! Well, six days, in actuality! And one of those days is a band day so it's otherwise fully booked for me. So I have been really working my butt off on my mitts. Just been in a total crochet stupor. I thought I would post some things I've made for posterity. Although I can't get decent pics for the life of me. It's too overcast and I just don't have the chutzpah to set up my filming lights. Please know these look so cute in real life/decent lighting conditions!!!

Pictured above: I made some cute freakin' teddy bear mitts! I used this pattern from Raji's Craft Hobby for the bear base and added a simple circle of 12 dc on top, embroidered lightly with a nose. I had mini pony beads on hand and was able to fish out some black beads for eyes. And as if that wasn't enough, I added bow ties (just chain stitches). I have enough black beads left over that I could make a couple more pairs of these if I have the time.

Here's a series of apple mitts! I got the pattern for the apple appliques from Raffamusa Designs, and used the apple portion of their apple granny square for the halved apples. I kind of like these because they're not entirely matchy-matchy. I decided to put different things on either glove.

Strawberry mitts! I already had several strawberries on hand from when I crocheted some last year. (This design is also from Raffamusa Designs.) It's funny because I'll make these strawberries in any color other than red... But I'm trying to have at least a few mitts with classic red strawberries on 'em.

In all I have about 60 pairs of mitts in this sort of tube style, some totally unadorned, some with just a little ruffle stitch added around the top, some embellished. (I have some with bows and hearts on them but ran out of light totally so the pics didn't turn out. Maybe next post?) I also have several pairs of flower-inspired mitts that need cuffs crocheted on, so I have the next couple of days to get those done. I am pretty much running out of time to make the vine/flower charging cords I intended to make, but that's fully fine. I don't really care. I just have been having a really great time making mitts. And if I'm not having fun, what's the point?

I'm not sure whether I'll have time to post more before the market itself, but I'll definitely try to get some pics of my table!

Wish me luck!

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lofty ambitions part 2

Well, I question myself, I truly do, because I have decided to do the holiday craft fair again this year. This is an annual market put on by my mother's church, where artisans and crafters and the like can sell their wares. It's been going on for such a long time that I recall going several times as a child and looking around at all the tables full of various things! I participated in 2022 and again in 2023, but sat out in 2024. However, I had been intending to participate in 2024, so I had made some stuff for it in advance. Lots of crochet mitts, and of course, I have plenty of rainbow-shaped pillows on hand.

As I mentioned, my little sister has recently moved out of state. She always shared a table with my mother, both of them being fine artists in addition to crafty gals. This left my mother to table by herself, which is honestly pretty demanding a task. Not only are you interacting with people who have questions for you and want to chit-chat about this-n-that, but you have to do the checkout process (math, ugh!!!) and also, if the customer so desires, pack things up into gift bags. So I told her, "I'll help you. I'll bring those things I meant to sell last year and help out with all that."

So, I have been pouring my limited free time (the time not sapped by band stuff) into crocheting and market prep. I already had plenty of things either totally finished or 90% finished or 50% finished, so I have been working on finishing WIPs.

I have several pairs of these tulip-inspired mitts to crochet a cuff onto. In terms of the other mitts I want to applique or decorate about half of them, and leave the other half pretty plain. I want to add bows made with my french knitter, some strawberry and heart appliques I have crocheted, and maybe other stuff too.

As you can see, I have quite the pile already.

I have a couple of rainbow pillows where I have completed the fronts and backs but just not sewn them together or stuffed them, so I'll finish those. I am going to make a few vine/flower charging cords because those are pretty fun for me, and I'll see if those sell. And I'd like to make two or three of a different style of mitts, if I can find a pattern I like but also doesn't kill my wrists. More complicated mitts tend to be labors of love.

In years past I've sold beaded rings and bracelets, and one year it sold a ton and the next year it didn't sell much at all! Since I'm not super into doing that right now, I probably won't even take any of my leftover stuff to sell.

I am definitely filling my plate overly full. And to be honest, I am incredibly, incredibly sick to my stomach at the idea of having to check people out at my table without the help of my younger sister. I'm terrible at math and also terrible at personal interactions, haha. But I'll try not to think about any of that at all until December, at least.

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craft market year 2

As I recently mentioned in a blog post or two, I've been hardcore focused on prepping for a craft fair! It happened this weekend!

This was my second year manning my own table. Which is a big deal for me! As an intensely shy person/introvert, this is a whole freaking undertaking for me in a social battery sense, let alone in the sense that I've been making enough items to even warrant having my own table in the first place. A ton of work! Executing my plans has taken up a lot of time and energy for me in the last couple of months.

I also invested a little chunk of money ($50! Nothing drastic) into my display, since I felt like last year's wasn't the most effective for me. Let me show you what I had going on this year...

I blocked out the background a little because I feel like it's hard to see, up against this highly textured 70s brick wall with photos hanging on it. I'm in the same spot as I was last year, so the background's the exact same!

Some other things are the same, too: some of my offerings, plus my little craft paper bunting! But I feel like the wire shelf added considerable height and the ability to display more, and that was an upgrade. I also bought a bracelet display stand so I could better display the bracelets I've been throwing together since October.

I didn't take many pictures at all, but I did take a quick video, and I captured some screenshots for it to show you what's on the table...

I had a lot of crochet on offer: rainbow pillows (also a couple of mini rainbow pillows), fingerless mitts, and earbands. I also had some other wearables: bear-eared barrettes and beaded jewelry. The rings are ones I've been making as a hobby and the bracelets are inspired by Taylor Swift friendship bracelets, but with Christmas lyrics instead of TS lyrics. Actually, I had a whole mess of Swiftie bracelets too.

All the jewelry was a dollar. I just feel like that's fun and accessible for people who didn't come to the market prepared to spend 15, 20, 30+ dollars on an artisan piece. And for kids/teens, of course. Also, I was just working with plastic and cheap glass beads! Nothing that would encourage me to charge any more than a single dollar!

I drew all my signage in Procreate on my iPad, printed it, and put them all in secondhand frames. Some of the frames are one I've had for like a decade, and painted. Others were one my mom had on hand.

BTW, yes, the misspelling of "barrettes" drives me nuts, but I had no idea it was even misspelled till way too late!!! "Barettes" looks more correct to me, even if it's not...

Last year I sold far more in the way of beaded rings than anything else. I foolishly expected that again, but this year, it was the reverse! I sold only a few rings and bracelets, but sold 4/5ths of my crochet mitts and earbands -- plus a couple of rainbow pillows.

Pictured above: the bracelet display, which rotates (!!! my bestie told me it has a nice ASMR sound) and my favorite pair of mitts. I didn't manage to get any better photos of these mitts with the bows on them, but I was thinking of the coquette fashion trend when making them, and they sold really quickly, both to the same gal. I only have this screencap from the quick video I took of my table, so the quality's not good. But I love the bows; I made them with a little french knitter!

I'm genuinely shocked at the way the mitts in particular flew off the shelf. I have been making them quite a lot over the past few weeks. But due to not selling much crochet last year, I expected the same this year. In fact, I said to my sister, "If I just sell one pair of mitts, I'll be happy!" But mitts were my first sale, my last sale, and people bought many more of them than any other item. One woman bought three pairs towards the end of the day. Another woman got on FaceTime with someone (a sister? mother? bestie?) and showed her all of my stuff. I heard the woman on the other end enthuse over the white and pale blue coquette mitts, with the bow. The woman bought the two similar pairs for herself and whoever to whom she was speaking. It was such a fun yet bewildering moment for me.

I mean, I think the mitts are cute, but I'm me. I have specific taste!

A fellow vendor at the fair bought a pair of flower-inspired mitts and they looked incredibly cute on her. She wore them the entire afternoon!!

I also saw a guy who had bought a rainbow pillow last year. He came up to my table, picked out some mitts for his wife, and said, "Last year I bought a rainbow pillow from you, and I love it!!" His enthusiasm struck me as so genuine -- rather than a nicety, know what I mean? -- that it makes me really happy just thinking about this interaction. It was so nice of him to say that!

Some awkward social moments aside (because, you know, Unfortunately, People) overall the market went super well for me. I didn't sell out of any particular item, but I came startlingly close with the mitts. Since I've been working adamantly on them, this is super rewarding.

Also, I made enough money outright to buy a Blythe and have some left over. So, fair warning, I absolutely bought a new Blythe!

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crochet pic dump part two/market prep

Haha, well! I have been crocheting so much that I've effed up my left wrist. I've done this before, and sensed in these past couple of weeks it would happen again unless I was careful. I have been trying to be careful... but I was still shocked Pikachu when yesterday my wrist seized up while playing the guitar. Who could have seen this coming??

Waaah. All I want to do is crochet, so. It's a bummer!!

If you read my last post, you might have seen that I learned how to do the tulip stitch. With that knowledge I made the above pictured little cream-colored fingerless mitts, with pale pink tulips and dark green "stems." I love these and have been wearing them everywhere. They already look super beat up because I've been wearing them on an almost daily basis.

I've been crocheting so much in large part because I'm prepping for a small craft market -- the same one I did last year. It's T-minus one week out! I have until the 15th to finish stuff up.

I honestly do not anticipate a ton of interest in my wares, but did my hyperfocus get activated nevertheless? Yes. Yes. A thousand times yes. I'll have beaded jewelry again, in addition to crochet pillows and these mitts and earbands. No pics of the jewelry just yet, but I did get this wire shelf off Amazon on Black Friday and think it'll make a better display than the one I had last year.

I've just been piling stuff up here as I've made it. I'll only figure out how exactly I am going to arrange everything the night before or day of, I believe. But look at these cute blue mitts with the daisies appliqued on! I think they're super cute. I have a coral/gold/brown pair of tulip mitts finished, and a pair with purple tulips in the works currently. (I can only hope I'll finish them in time; it depends on my wrist.)

I also have some plain mitts with zero froof or frills, but most of the mitts have scalloped trim crocheted on, and some of them have crocheted bows at the wrist!

I feel like my eyes are bigger than my plate, so to speak. If my wrist was in good working condition I would be crocheting some appliques for both the earbands and the mitts, and I'd be making up some more miniature rainbow pillows. And besides that, I meant to make some clay ornaments and never got around to it!

There's always next year, and it's never too early to begin prep. Or so I've learned.

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baby's first craft fair

 

This weekend, I tabled for the first time at a little craft fair.

I've mentioned this in a couple of blog posts in the past, but my mom's church has an annual holiday marketplace -- it's a craft fair and a rummage sale and there's a little restaurant aspect, too, where food and desserts are sold from the church's kitchen.

My mom's excessively crafty on top of being a fine artist. My youngest sister's also an artist. They table every year at this craft fair, and between the two of them, they always have a lot of wares. I often also send along a few things for them to sell: felt ornaments, crochet stuff.

This year I asked if I could just have my own table.

Kiiiind of a big deal for me, because this sort of scenario (a crowded room, social interaction, answering questions, dealing with transactions) is full of anxiety pitfalls. I ended up sharing a table with my little sister, and she handled the money aspect, and that worked great.

But I had a lot of crochet rainbow pillows left over from last year, and this year I got really into beading rings as a hobby and I had like, a couple hundred on hand that I wasn't doing anything with. I decided it'd be great to just sell them for a dollar. I thought kids might like them, if any kids wandered through the fair. I thought the price would be kid-friendly too.

In addition to the pillows and rings, I had some felt and crochet ornaments and made some bear ear barettes -- also an item I've blogged about! I made a few sets for me, my sisters, and a couple of friends ~ten years ago. But I still had/have a bunch of fleece and fur fabric on hand, so I cranked out some more pairs at the last minute.

I'm glad I decided to make some, because although I got some looks and comments from well-meaning but bemused people, a couple of young moms bought a pair instantly for their daughters. That made me happy. And selfishly, I enjoyed packaging up the ears and lettering little labels for the packages.

I did sell a few ornaments and pillows, but mostly sold a heck of a lot of rings! About 40, I think. My favorite customers were a couple of young girls (I'd guess they were about 17 or 18), who stopped and pored for several minutes over the rings, picking out ones for themselves and their entire friend group, and also their moms! I was happy I had a ton of rings to choose from so they could pick out colors they thought their friends would like. They were both super sweet and seemed legitimately thrilled. Honestly I will remember these two girls for a long time!

Tabling was a demanding and kind of surreal experience for me overall. Also educational. I don't mean this in a cruel or judgy way, but people are so weird!! Some, anyway. At least if I do this again next year, I'll know in advance to expect the occasional odd comments and stares. And as great as it was to share a table with my little sister, I think we both needed more room to spread our things out.

One of the most fun aspects of it to me was that I got to hear people ooh and ahh over my little sister's art and hand-painted ornaments. She's so talented!!

Today I have a total craft fair hangover, but lots of ideas for wares and presentation! I currently suspect I'll do it again next year.

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warez

My family takes on a lot during the holidays! As if general prepping for Christmas with shopping and decor isn't enough already, we usually have a pile of projects at this time of year... sewing, baking, parties (I didn't ever blog about the ornament party for church kids we threw that took up a huge amount of time last year!), and almost always ornament-making. What kind of creativity masochism?

Every year my mom's church has a holiday marketplace where people sell things, and boyo, does my mom do a crazy amount of creative stuff. She wrangled my sisters and I on board, so one sister has made a big batch of apple butter and the other has meticulously hand-painted gift tags and distressed and painted leather for ornaments.

I personally donated some felt ornaments. 'Cause nothing says "Christmas!!!" like smiling clouds and pastel cupcakes.

I really can't bake, nor can I sew fabric, but if there's one thing I can do, it's blanket-stitch felt. Boy, after putting together hundreds of antlers for little Blythe hats, can I do that.

These will probably be priced insanely cheaply at the holiday market -- priced to sell, rather than priced by the time it took me to make all of them -- and I don't mind that. I just hope someone out there likes it cutesy. I think it's nice to have alternatives to your more traditional reds and greens.

I've definitely been in the mood to embroider, but now I've got to finish up my 2015 ripple!

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