Friday, July 25, 2008

The divine hat again

Well here are two more versions of it.
I got the idea for the pink one from ravelry.
And here is another made with 2 strands of 8ply acrylic yarn
This was made for a customer, it's lovely in the light blue.

And more hats

The one on the left is for an order, you can barely see the 2 medium sized gold buttons, set for a bit of extra style.

The one on the right is made of larger granny squares and the yarn used is lovely mohair.


Another mohair set in a dark pink shade.
And here I caved in and used the fluff type yarn that you see every body using.
Baby Blue Fluff

Addition: 3 beret's, I bought a bulk lot of yarn on Sunday 27.08.08, for $40.00 and I have so far made these 3 beret's and a divine hat in light blue, there is so much yarn it will keep me going for ages, not that I didn't have a stock pile already!

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Some more hat sets


 

 
Burnt Orange mohair, pop corn in a v shape

 

Burnt orange mohair v shell set

 

Bold gold buttons set this lovely green set off

 

Another softy in red with a bow to go

 

This is a request for a bright coloured childs set

Display stands

A simple yet effective way to display hats

A candle stand I was not using
The hats hung ok this way, but I wanted to fill them out a bit more.

So I cut cardboard circles out to achieve this.

Now they sit fuller.


I bought some stands that pull apart for transport and thought they would be perfect for my bags and ice-cream cones. But how do I hang them on then take them off easily for viewing or selling?

Oh, I can finger knit a length of cord that I can hook the items onto, A bit of heavy duty tape on the ends of the cord secured the cord for transport.
They are also attatch more securely in an anti theft way.
The stand cost $12.00 and it can be raised or lowered, the market table fit's perfectly in between the upright posts so it displays it's self with in all of my other products.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Cherished crochet prize

I received the coasters above as a first prize in a guessing competition from a fellow crochet enthusiast, who also collects trash and recycle's it. Not only was there great joy in receiving the prize, but just to hold and touch something, someone has put so much of their time and effort into was and is a great excitement for me, I also received as a surprise, the tiniest little flower.
Astrid, is the very first person to share their crocheted work with me.
Check out her blog it is a must see.
Thank you so much Astrid, I look forward to sharing more with you.
Oh, I hope you don't mind that I took the copy of your picture above.

Market Day week 3 and 4

Week 3 picture (my best week so far)

I write about my market for those of you who are considering to have a stall of your own.

There are alot of things to consider, presentation playing a very major role.

Transportation of your goods.

The weather plays another major role, unless you are selling indoors.

Plan ahead, windy conditions saw the purchase of occa straps and big clips to secure my goods (sort of look like this but plastic), wet weather saw the need for water proof covers.

Too many small stands can take up precious room in your transport vehicle and on your stall table.

Your timely arrival at the market is also important, arriving late may see you in a long cue of stall holders, wasting valuable time from the setting up of your stall.

A small float of coin and note's, clearly marked pricing, the wearing of your product if applicable, a companion, be prepared to answer all questions about your items, such as the materials used, "can you make more, how long will it take, will you be here next week?"
A nice bright table cover.

A thermos of hot coffee, food and drink.

Get to know the rules of the market you are selling in.

A positive and friendly approach.


Week 4 picture, and my daughter Casey, she was a great help. (Another good week, but it did rain. Week 3 still the best.)

Previous market post's.

Market day 1.

Market day 2.

A Week of crochet, with picture's

The granny square in hat and scarf from


Pretty in Pink





Blue Sparkles.




Left over yarn from these 2 set's.


Now with just one day to go until I went to the market to sell, I made all of these set's, in about 9 hours.

Burn't Orange Set.

Lovely Lilac


Creamy Dream


Mohair Mayhem

Bright and Soft Red

More than half of these sold. I had made 4 other set's too that I did not take picture's of that were made for an order.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Making Bape Monkey

My first time to upload a video clip.


It may be a bit dark, but it was a bit of fun for me.


It's putting together the pieces that make the Bape Monkey, what I haven't included is the sewing around the facial pieces to make them stand out better.






This is how I displayed them at the market. The sunlight hit the foil and they shone.

The first one I made.

What Makes Your Crochet Stand out In A Crowd?

Individual style and flair, would most probably be, what makes your hand made crochet items stand out.

I ask this as I once again return to the market tomorrow, Sunday 06.07.08.

A lady 3 stalls down from my stall last week, was selling scarves made with that fluffy type yarn you can buy for nick's. I didn't look to see if they were crochet or knit, it wouldn't make a difference any how.

But what I am getting to here is that her scarves were priced at $7.00 each and I am selling my neck warmers for $10.00 each, I originally wanted to sell them for $15.00 each, as they have buttons and use a 50 gm ball of yarn to complete.

So with the thinking cap on for idea's to keep on improving my stall from week to week, I realised that I had to be different and to stand out from other stalls. I feel I have already made myself unique, as I am a one of a kind stall where I am selling.

I did not want to make cheap fluffy scarves as every other stall can have those, I'd rather spend the same amount of time on a unique item with quality yarn.

What I have come up with can still be sold at the bargain price of $10.00, there is a little room for profit, but once a matching hat is sold along with my new scarves, the profit becomes larger.

Here are some pictures of my latest scarves with matching hats.



Thursday, July 3, 2008

Divine into Beret/Slouch

Referring back to the Divine free hat pattern, I thought it was more than possible to make a beret/slouch from this lovely st pattern. The first one I made is the light coloured grey one, I kept the increase (with out the repeat of the line before) going until I had 8 dc made in the space, then I continued the edge with the griddle st (up and down st) and slowly decreased as I reached the length desired, I thought that there was too much effort in making up to 8 dc, so the black one was done slightly different. I made one repeat of the 3 dc row and one repeat of the 5 dc, then I began the griddle st, omitting the fpdc in the first row, I made a few rounds of the griddle st before I began to decrease every 10th then 8th st. Decreasing with the griddle st and keeping the pattern correct, I decreased in a dc way, then made another dec in a sc way immediately after, hence decreasing every 10 th st then every 8th st.
Because it was mostly guess work with the decreasing, I finished the black one off with a row of sc to give it a slightly tighter finish.



I made a bow in the griddle st, which really set the grey one off.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Off The Top Of My Head and onto My Head

Some times I use a pattern and most of the times I don't.

Some times I get ideas from patterns and change their idea to suit me.

Below are a few examples with out patterns.

I will be taking these and more (gotta make more) to the market this week end.



Market Day 2

I believe that this week-end at the market was a better out come than last week, with triple the sales and no rain, how ever it was very windy! Regular stall holders said that numbers were down, so when I was asked if I wanted to book for next week-end, of course I said yes.
When I got home I looked up the fore cast for next week-end and it is going to be a fine winters day!
Keep reading for an eerie vision.

This was the first photo I took, I could not believe the eerie mist type shape I saw in the picture preview, so I took another straight after which is below. What do you think the mist is? I have no explanation for it, but the shape seems to me to be a giant skull. I usually crop and make my images smaller before posting them, but this time I didn't, just so I can't be accused of playing around with the image. I'm not into super natural stuff, but who knows?

As you can see by the picture, I have some novelty and apparell that I am selling at very cheap prices. I used to have a shop and still have contacts for cheap products.


This is a classic, the wind was blowing things away and over, one way to combat this was some old jumper leads that were in the van I borrowed, along with some big plastic clips and occa straps we bought on the day. I layed the occa straps across my goods on the table, you could still see the goods clearly, but they were held securely down onto the table.
I must thank my husband Terry for making up a wooden stand I can place my display heads onto. It's a simple horizontal flat board with cut down broom stick handle's, secured into a vertical position, I can take the head models off for transport and storage.