Craft 2.0 and Whoops!

Firstly the whoops - I was on a friends blog last night who has my blog on her front page and under it said '4 weeks' that means since the last post.  Ugh, I can't believe it was that long ago I posted so whoops!!

In the lead up to Craft 2.0 I do tend to go into this little bubble world where all I concentrate on is stock, what I still have to make and thoughts about how I'm going to display things this year.  Most other things tend to just go on the back burner!

I have to say that I was a lot more relaxed this time round.  I didn't want to overstock as I thought that being October and coming into Spring/Summer over here, knitwear probably wouldn't be on the top of everyone's list.  So I did do a few cotton and cotton/bamboo items - sunhats and Mary-Janes and I did a few vests which are good as they add a little warmth without being a full on jersey.

I have to say I was surprised - It still went very well (yay!) and what I sold isn't what I thought would.  For a start I sold 2 jersey's, (that was very surprising), and quite a few merino hats.  The Mary-Janes however sold out, I wasn't too surprised by that as I think they're great.

I can't say enough how much I love Craft 2.0.  Not only as I sell there but I always stock up on gifts and whatnot.  I love the fact that I'm buying handmade, I love that it's different and not everyone will have one and I love the fact that I'm supporting another cottage industry.  I know these items are made with love and that I love love love meeting all the stallholders and the ones at craft 2 are simply the best - they share ideas freely and there really isn't that feeling of 'you're the competition'.

I haven't applied for the December fair - for a start knitwear in December I really do think won't be wanted - and it's a bit close to Christmas for us, Christmas being such a hectic busy affair round here - but if you can get along it's on the 18th December and it's well worth it for gifts.

Here's a photo of my stall before we opened (yes I did handknit and the applique the bunting - it got SO many remarks I'm considering selling it as custom orders).  I kept it quite simple this time round.  I think my favorite items were the mice, so cute!!

                

Catch Up

Wow, seriously where does time go??  Lots have been happening around here so it's time for a quick catch up:

I now have two teenagers in the house.  B turned 13 a couple of weeks ago.  Luckily her personality hasn't yet turned.  I'm hoping we might cruise through these years ahead, I mean I was a pretty laid back teenager, hopefully she will be too :-)

Knitting - I've hit the craft fair market this year so have been quite involved with that and not so much on-line.  It's a hard call really which is better.  On-line is easier, done when you get the chance and fits in around you, craft fairs however give you the chance to interact with people and meet lots of lovely other crafters, but you have to fit around them.  I'm going to try hard to keep up with both though and have again been lucky enough to have a table at the next Craft 2.0 in October.  Really, really looking forward to that!

Organisation - well it's happening.  I admit slowly, but it is happening.  I tried to find a photo of my sewing studio at it's worst but I must have been so horrified I deleted it.  When I head up there later today I'm going to take a 'half way through' photo.

I promise there'll be posts more often.  I have lots of good things to blog about so I have no excuse really.

Bye for now

Craft 2.0

How did it come around so fast!?!

I'll be there, hope you will too :-)

Feedback

I only have time for a very short post today but I wanted to share part of a couple of e-mails I received in regards to my hats:

'Thanks for the beautiful packaging – only to be outdone by the hats themselves. They are a really good fit – some months left in them, just perfect for winter'

and

'the hat arrived on Saturday and it is so cute. I really love it and the fit is just right. She will get to wear it all winter and best of all she does not rub it off. I have already had comments on how cute it is.'

I really love getting this sort of feedback from people. I can talk up my knitting all I want but these comments are really what counts.

I have a banner!!

WOOHOO - it went up a couple of days ago and it's not perfect but it's there. It still needs a little tweaking - such as making the picture clearer, Mark had used a copy of my picture rather than the original, mainly cause he was playing around, but he assures me it can be changed.

I'm so pleased with it, it is basically what I asked for - a plain, simple banner that adds that extra touch to my store.

On the store note, while ETSY hasn't produced much, trade me has been going great guns. With Winter having hit I am really busy with orders, in fact, perhaps a little too busy, having to have a couple of late nights to catch up. It's a buzz though and I'm getting such nice comments and feedback from everyone.

I've also had 2 real life stores ask me if I would consider making items for them to sell . It's a hard one, I'm not sure I want to have that much commitment and to be honest at this point in time I'm just too busy. Something I will be thinking about though.

On the personal note, it's a freezing cold day here in Wellington so we're inside with the heaters blazing. The boys are upstairs and Britt is writing a story (one of her favorite passtimes - not only is she going to be a Doctor and cure asthma but she's also going to be a famous writer - she's really good and that's not just 'cause I'm her Mum that I say that, her English teacher also agrees :-) I'm about to go do some baking for lunches and then I'm sitting down to knit another hat. The housework's all done and I made a huge pot of chicken soup yesterday so tea's sorted and I don't have to worry about anything else but loosing myself in the knitting zone. I may even break out a Jane Austin DVD to make my afternoon complete!

My banner - how hard could it be???

So when I set up my ETSY store a month ago I asked my son if he thought he could do me a banner. Not a problem was the reply. Of course though his computer game came first but finally, after a little Mum nagging, he started. I drew him an outline of what I'd like it to look like, very simple, and using my photo:
He went away and started work. After a little more Mum nagging the image was ready and he asked for payment - payment??? After explaining that no, he wasn't getting paid for this, I went to upload it to find it had this superimposed over the top of it: 'this image has been deleted due to non-payment'. Funny lad!! That's fine I said, but I hope you have fun learning how to use the washing machine, cooking and shopping for yourself, paying your own bus fare to and from school etc. He pondered this and decided that yes, payment wasn't necessary so went to upload my banner.

This time he thought it would be funny to have the words 'Made by Gareth XXXX, I work for free' under it. Hmmmm, I'm begining to think it was a mistake asking him to do this!!!

However, once the words had been removed, it turned out the banner was the wrong dimensions. I'm stating to get a headache at this point. So back to the drawing board. New banner appears only this time he's been working on it at school (getting enthusiastic about it now he was!) and when he brings it home it not only is the right size, it fades in and out, the words come and go and to be honest, should ETSY have sound it would probably sing to you to!!

So, I am still without my plain simple banner and now Mark is working on it. I'm of the opinion that I should just pay someone from ETSY to design me one but no, he's dead keen to get it right for me (and yes, I'm very grateful that he is willing and wanting to do so :-)

Hopefully I'll have a banner soon.