Projects for Craft Shows and Markets, Part 1

I need to get photos of some of my work all in one place (besides Facebook), so I'm going to be putting them here in a series of posts.

Felted Wool Bowls/Baskets

Crab Amigurumi

A Little Chicken Insanity

So my daughter and I have been on this diet lately. It's a fad diet, so I won't go into the details, but I will say we've both lost a good amount of weight in a short time. And I'm all about the instant gratification of seeing scale numbers go down on a regular basis. The food choices are very limited, though, and we've been eating chicken quite often. A LOT of chicken. And since vegetable choices are also limited, I've been searching and searching for ways to prepare said chicken, so you might say I've had chicken on the brain these past five weeks.

And when I have one thing on my mind for a long amount of time, something like this invariably happens:

Front view

Side View

It's been rather gray and dreary here, too, as late March is apt to be, and I've been longing for the colors of summer. Thankfully the chicken we've been eating doesn't come in these colors, although I do wonder if it would taste more like cake if it did ...

Pattern available here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/226418189/funky-chicken-trio-crochet-amigurumi?ref=sr_gallery_1&ga_search_query=funky+chicken+trio&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery

or here:
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/crocheting/home-decor/funky-chicken-trio/136010

The End (hahahaha!)

Project vs. Process

I'm all about the process. I love to crochet, I love to knit. But I don't care whether or not I ever finish what I'm working on. I have many single socks that may or may not ever have a mate. It took me a very long time to understand why I'm that way, and part of the answer came after we participated in the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator years ago at the company where I worked at the time. I'm all INFP, baby - no answers in any other category except those, so I'm pretty extreme in my personality.

As an INFP, I'm extremely introverted. That doesn't mean shy, although I am a little on the shy side. It just means I'm exhausted after a morning of talking to people at market on Saturday. I enjoy talking to them, I just need a few hours to regroup and get my energy back afterwards. I'm also a "big-picture" person. I can see the end result, just not the steps to get there. Or I can see the steps, but I don't care about taking them. I want to get from Point A to Point B without having to go to points A.1, A.2, A.3, etc. I'm a feeler - I care about what other people are feeling. I want to know that people like what I'm making. I spent a good deal of time with my market customers asking how something makes them feel, and I'm very interested in their answers. And I'm never, ever on time, and if I am by some chance on time, I had to work very hard to get there, often managing to convince myself that I had to be where I was going a half hour early so that I managed to arrive somewhat on time. Time doesn't matter much to me, except that it passes much too quickly most of the time.

So all that leads back [somehow] to my original point of being a process crocheter/knitter rather than a project crocheter/knitter, which I really think ties into my personality. I love the feel of the yarn running through my fingers. I love counting my stitches. I love looking at the pattern the self-striping yarns make as I work with them. I love imagining how the finished project will look (because odds are not in the project's favor that it will ever actually be finished). I love making all the little pieces for the amigurumi I create. I don't like the stuffing part. I sometimes don't much like the sewing part, so sometimes the stuffed pieces sit for a while until I have so many finished that I have to put them together in self defense. I do love making their little faces, where the slightest variation of a stitch can change their whole expression. After they're [finally] finished, I like to imagine how my customers will feel about them. Will they smile when they see them? Will they give them as a gift, making someone else smile in the process?

Now these bowls? I love the whole stinking process, which means I actually get finished projects!

 
I love the crocheting. I love watching the colors shift or blend, and I love thinking about how they'll look when finished as I'm working on them. I love the felting process - I stand by the washer the entire time, taking them out every few minutes to see how much they've felted and how much they've changed. I love taking them out and rinsing them in cold water and feeling the fabric draw together and seeing how the colors emerge or recede and this happens. I love shaping them into the perfect bowl - big or little, deep or shallow depending on how the yarn felts. I love watching them dry in the sun and transform into fuzzy little vessels. I love the tedious process of trimming off the fuzz to see the beauty of the felted fabric beneath. I love everything, start to finish, about the felted bowls I make - maybe because each step of making them is so different than the step before that it seems like a totally separate project? Whatever the reason(s), I'm just glad they're something I can finish!

 Felted Bowls drying in the sun and awaiting defuzzing ...

After #1

Here's some of what I did with soap bases I received earlier this week:

They almost look good enough to eat! Soaps are 3" in diameter, about 1" thick and weigh between 4.5 and 5.5 ounces each. And they smell amazing - a rosemary/peppermint blend fragrance oil. Nice for an early-morning shower! They are covered in a layer of poppy seeds and sea salt to resemble a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper, and this layer is sealed in with clear honey soap for gentle exfoliation.

More photos to come - I've been busy soaping and will have lots to take to market this week.

Saturday Market Report

Today was a gorgeous day at market. The high temps and humidity blew through the past day or so, and today was sunny and much cooler, with a breeze that bordered on downright wind at times. I was glad I had my canopy bungie-corded to the car!

Here's a photo of my stand. I need to seriously rearrange next week to fit soap on this table! I didn't have as many felted bowls last summer, so I think I'll try to display them differently. Another table is maybe an option for later.

And here's my market neighbor - Eileen of Gigi's Sweets

And here's the guy who kept me company for most of the morning

That's about life-size. He was the largest fly I've ever seen, if that's what he was. He flew like a wasp, and he has wings with a pattern like a moth, or even a cicada. He wasn't aggressive, and he just sort of hung on the back of the tablecloth for most of the morning. He very calmly let me photograph him, and then flew away about an hour later.

I would have taken more pictures, but this is an Amish market, and they don't like their photos taken. About half the vendors there are "english," but all of the vegetable vendors are old-school Amish farmers. On a day when all the vendors are at market, there are about 15 businesses, ranging from me with crafts and soap, Eileen with her unique baked goods (think lavender/lemon scones and French bread - not something you see from our traditional Amish bakers), two barbeque vendors, the Amish flower vendor with gorgeous vegetable and flower plants and cut bouquets, Jeff with his brown eggs, Linda with floral arrangements and door wreaths, to soft pretzels and hotdogs on pretzel rolls, Amish baked goods, and several Amish vegetable vendors.

We're a pretty friendly group - if someone needs help setting up a canopy, someone else is always there to lend a hand. We all try to patronize each other, and we all care about the success of the market. We have more and more customers attending each week, and it's funny to hear a long-time resident of the area say that they never knew the market was there, which happens just about every weekend. There are signs all over town, but being an Amish market, there might not be any other publicity. We each have loyal customers that try to buy something from us on a regular basis.

Next week I'll have soap again, and I hope to see my sales increase. But even if they don't, I still enjoy being at market and miss setting up every week when it closes the end of October.

This little piggy is going to market ...

And so are these two little piggies ...

 And so are these three little piggies ...

And my fingers are crossed that none of them come home with me (as much as I love them)!

The End.

Great Market Day!

I have no photographic evidence, but today was a really good market day! The weather was cloudy and muggy when I started set-up at 8:00 this morning, but the wind freshened and the sun wasn't far behind. The day ended up sunny and hot, but I was in the shade under my canopy and there was a nice breeze for most of the day. The crowd was a little larger today than it was the past two Saturdays, and I sold enough that I could actually patronize the other vendors at the market. I brought home a boatload of fresh vegetables: lima beans, green beans, wax beans, beets, candy onions, zucchini and yellow squash, cucumbers, tomatoes (oh, the tomatoes!) and a handful of basil that one of my customers handed me because she had more than she needed. I'm thinking about putting it in a glass of water on my work table so that I can smell that wonderful aroma for the next few days! I also picked up lunch: barbequed chicken quarters and pulled pork sandwiches.

I'm ready for a nap now! LOL!

And also - lima beans! So excited about the lima beans!

So, I finally ...

... posted again. Yes, it's been well over a year. I'm sort of surprised blogs stay around that long when so many people start them and don't continue on with them. But maybe that's just me?

... listed some stuff in my Etsy store. Here are some examples:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/156950900/hand-dyed-sock-yarn-fruit-stripes?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/157093635/hand-dyed-sock-yarn-fruit-stripes-pink?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/157094235/hand-dyed-sock-yarn-fruit-stripes?

https://www.etsy.com/listing/154905823/baby-elephant-crocheted-stuffed-toy?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/154903398/soft-crab-redorangelime?
https://www.etsy.com/listing/155937319/felted-bowl-frosted-rainbow?

I don't know why these aren't coming up as links. Just copy/paste into your browser if you'd like to check these out in my Etsy shop.