Saturday, December 22, 2012

Are Craft Fairs and Online Stores in My Future?

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about selling some of my crochet items.  I've hesitated because I'm not a "professional" crocheter.  I'm self taught, and dabble around in following patterns and creating my own.  I love it, though.  So much that I've made several items these past few weeks and just given them away.  People have called me crazy.  They've told me over and over that I should be selling my stuff... but I don't know if I consider my stuff good enough to sell.

Last year, I made character hats.  They were my thing.  I noticed that all the kids were wearing them, and rather than going out and spending $20 per kid for my own children to have one, I decided to just try making them myself.

These are the first character hats I produced...




Definitely some room for improvement, but not bad at all for my first attempts - especially since I made up my own patterns.

This year, character hats are still "in" and I noticed that sock monkey hats had taken a lot of the limelight.  Butter wanted one, so I decided to try and pull one of those off.  Coming up with this...


The mouth is a little crocked, but an easy fix.  Butter seemed happy with it, anyway.  Jelly, not wanting to be left out, decided she wanted a monkey hat (her favorite animal) but gave me specific instructions.  The monkey had to be wearing a black hat with a pink flower on it.  I'd been making some hats with flowers, and she wanted me to combine both.  OK, no problem...


I think the thing looks terrifying... but Jelly loves it.  She says it looks like a monkey, it's wearing the hat she requested, another satisfied customer.

Because the hats are very time consuming and require lots of sewing and separate parts, I wanted to start making stuff that were a little easier to knock out.  That began my interest in headbands.  I knocked these out in less than an hour each...





Then, a friend mentioned to me that I should try and make some infinity scarves.  I had never heard of them - but after a quick online search I realized that they were in pretty high demand - with pretty darn high prices.  A few days and a couple balls of yarn later, I had these to add to my collection...





Please excuse my reluctant model.  The gray one should be worn a little more bunched up, but Peanut wanted to show off the pattern.  All three patterns are from my own creation, by the way.

And finally, yesterday afternoon, a friend asked me if I'd make him a slouchy hat.  Again, having no idea what that was, a quick search online gave me my answer...and so I made him this...


The back view shot isn't Peanut - I took that photo last night after I was all finished.  Once again, my own pattern, very simple to make, and quite the current trend from what I hear.

I don't think that's a bad lineup of items.  I've also made tons of regular beanies and scarfs and even fingerless gloves. 

So, what do you think?  Am I ready to start branching out and selling items?  Do I make items to order or do I make a bunch of stuff and sell what I've made?

Come on, I know there has to be a few people out there with some advice for this novice crocheter.

One thing I have decided on is that I refuse to charge exorbitant prices.  The price of the yarn plus a couple of bucks for my time should do it.  I'm definitely not going to charge the $20+ prices I've seen these items sell for.

Help a gal out...what should I do?  Any recommendations on how to sell, where to sell, etc. is greatly appreciated.  You don't have to be someone that sells stuff - just a person with an opinion.

Thanks!

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2 comments:

  1. I'm not crazy about the "character hats," but that's just me. Love the infinity scarves, but I'd want them in a "fuzzy" yarn, know what I mean? I love the slouchy hats!

    As far as marketing, I have no idea, except to start at craft fairs, like you said. I have a feeling you'd sell a lot of those at the craft fair in Prairie Grove -- Labor Day weekend, I think.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the feedback!! The infinity scarves would be great in the fuzzy yarn, I'll have to try that. ;)

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