Tag: craft sale

Knitting

Procrastinating and Finally Getting Back To It

Iris Rose

I am so glad that Spring is finally here! I love the light later in the evening; it is still light at 8:45PM this week, yahoo! I guess that fills the exclamation mark quota for this post, so I will have to calm down and write about crafting.

I have been messing around with my new to me knitting machine (having a ton of fun) and have been neglecting my hand crafts. I have also procrastinated about pattern writing. I have two in the works but just keep gliding past them for the new machine. It is just so hard to resist!


I sorted out my stock after my last sale and found that, even though I have a lot of stuffed toys still, I am woefully short of knitted dollies. I am always surprised by the popularity of this little babies, I don’t know why. So, on the couch I have been perched this week and, so far, I have five babies and two little mermaids knit up and ready to assemble. I don’t have photos of these ones but have photos of some long sold to show you.

  

The mermaid is based on a pattern by Amy Gaines called Mermaid and the babies are based on a Jean Greenhowes’ pattern that is free on her website. I can’t ever knit a pattern as written, (why is that?) so both of these sweet dollies are modified to suit my purpose. Wendy Phillips’ patterns are in my Ravelry library and calling out to me as well. Maybe I will discipline myself enough to get to those next week.


Toy making is a really fun way to use up your odds and ends and there is always, always someone willing to adopt your work.

Knitting

Hat Display aka Pothead

Iris Rose

This weekend I am going to be a vendor at one of our local Christmas Markets.  If you happen to live in Calgary and want to see what I and other crafters have been making, drop by the Blessed Cardinal Newman High School at 16201 McKenzie Lake Blvd SE and browse the Christmas Market between 10AM and 3PM.  All of us appreciate the support.

I normally use a few of those styrofoam wig heads for displaying hats.  However, and this is a big however, they are smaller than an adult head, very easily damaged, and love to tip over unless they are perfectly balanced and/or taped (this is my preference) onto the table top.  I needed a solution to all of these problems.  There is a video circulating on facebook that shows a styrofoam ball wrapped in yarn with lips, crocheted and glued on, that is meant for hat display.  The “head” sits on a dowel and is based on a chunk of wood.  It is very cute but I anticipated a problem with the yarn sticking to the hat when someone pulls it off to try it on.  Plonk, over goes the display and likely the next one to it.

          

A very talented crafter, Lynn, came up with a brilliant solution by placing the dowel inside an overturned clay pot through the drainage hole.  She commented that the dowel was still a little unstable.  My DH came up with the really great idea of cutting rounds of wood just smaller than the pot opening and sitting the dowel in that.  It is really perfect blend of both ideas that works great for me!

The ball is drilled and then glued onto a dowel which is pushed through the drainage hole of the pot into the wood base but not glued so that I can dismantle the display for storage.  I made three different heights so that they can be grouped closer together than the wig heads and still be visible.  The styrofoam is quite slick so putting hats on and taking them off should be a breeze.  The finished product was dubbed a “pothead” and has been the topic of jokes all week.  I don’t have time to decorate the pots this year but have plans to get creative and sponge paint or paint flowers on them or knits or whatever.  I will let you know how that works out.

This is our second sale this fall.  The first was kind of a dud due to location but, you know, I always enjoy being at these sales just to meet people, so it really wasn’t a waste of time.

Have a crafty week and I will let you know next Thursday if our “potheads” worked out.

Knitting

Beat the Heat

Iris Rose

Okay, I know that it is hot but there is still time in the day to knit or crochet or both.  This time of the year, in the Northern Hemisphere at least, it is nice to have a list of simple small projects to work on.  I tend to make toys, hats and cowls or other small items this time of the year to keep the project from becoming a blanket on my lap.  Kids or baby sweaters are also good summer needle arts projects.

Are you like me and in a bit of a panic to have enough stock for craft sales this fall?  I have a few free and paid patterns on Ravelry here that are great for sale stock.  They are quick to make, don’t take a lot of yarn and sell really well.  They are also great for charity knitting which is another great way to spend your summer crafting time.  These items are always welcome, especially the toys, in the winter months.

I have being looking through project pages and other sites to see what other projects will fit into the it’s too hot to knit a blanket weather and still keep that I have to craft urge satisfied.  I found a surprising number of small things to work on.

Socks, socks and more socks seem to be the most popular item to make with hats, mittens, and cowls the next.  I did come across crocheted jewelry, an art that I always forget about.  I was given a crocheted pearl ring and choker set by my DH when we first started dating.  I knew right then that he was a keeper and still have that pretty jewelry.

There a number of patterns for crocheted bracelets that have beads or not and look really lovely.  I have a couple of them on the project list to try while I am sitting on the patio.  They will make pretty gifts for the granddaughters.

Crocheted or knitted squares are another great small project.  They can be all the same or a variety of stitch patterns.  I usually opt for a variety as I am easily bored with the style of the same pattern repeated.  I made this little lap blanket from a Bernat booklet some years ago to learn cable knitting.  I fell in love with the style of since progressed to Aran sweaters.

Learning a new style or skill is another great reason to work on small projects during the hot months.  I learned to make hairpin lace last May and still have the project sitting in a bag.  It will be placed front and centre in my UFO basket as it is light and airy enough to work on without discomfort.

Have a look through your patterns, pick a cool yarn and get busy!  There really is a way to beat the heat and keep on crafting.

Spoiler Alert: New Shawl Pattern Next Week!

Knitting

Designer Rant

Iris Rose

I have a need to rant this week.  I read from time to time about how some crafters will use a pattern and sell the finished goods.  For some reason, there are those who are outraged by the idea that the crafter is making money from someone else’s design.

I am not talking about a company mass producing and selling hundreds or thousands of the end product but a craftsperson maybe selling a couple or more at a craft sale or on the internet.  I am also not talking about reproducing the pattern itself (copyright) or selling the item as self designed; give credit where it is due.

I guess that I take exception to the outrage mostly because there are no truly new designs in the world.  There are only old ideas represented.  There are finite stitch combinations and colour choices.  There are only so many ways to calculate the number of stitches needed for any particular size on any particular needle or hook and there are so very many patterns that are exactly the same.

An example of the fact that two people do think alike is the cocoon shrug.  There are several patterns on the web, both paid and free, that, if you looked at them without seeing the attendant “designed by” would assume that the same person had written them all.  How can each of these be unique to the particular designer?  How could you ever say that this or that person had stolen your intellectual property and is now selling the finished product that they, not the designer, created, for a profit.  How could you ever claim that it was even your pattern that they used and not someone else’s or even their own?

Another example would be Aran or Irish knit sweaters.  The traditional cable patterns are repeated on many different knits that look similar if not the same.  Does this mean that all of the pattern writers that produce Aran knits are guilty of taking credit for a design that is not theirs?

I design and write patterns.  I know that there are many hours spent creating, writing, rewriting, editing and rewriting again only to proof read, test and rewrite once more.  You publish the pattern and, thank goodness, read and respond to the questions and suggestions, most of them really good, that follow.  You design to share your inspiration and vision with the world, not so that you can take possession of it and hold it close.  Being a designer and pattern writer means having an open mind and a thick skin.  It is just like in kindergarten, not everyone will play the game the same way that you think they should.

I rarely knit or crochet a pattern as written; I always change some part of it to make it more appealing or easier to work for me.  Does that mean that the design is now mine?  If I wrote the pattern with my revisions is it a new pattern?

I don’t write on my patterns that the finished items cannot be sold.  I am flattered that a crafts person thinks that my design is worthy of making and selling.  On those that I know from my own experience are good craft sale items, I will comment that this pattern is quick and easy and makes for great craft sale inventory.  How would you police this anyway?  The world is too big and time is too short to obsess over the uncontrollable.

I am not in any way condoning copyright infringement.  I think that credit should be given to those original thinkers among us.  I just want talented crafters to be given their due on their handiwork making items from our patterns and to turn away the protest and guilt ladled out to them for being industrious.