Showing posts with label Knitting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Knitting. Show all posts

Friday, December 10, 2010

Knitting for the Craft Fair

Sorry about not posting last month. True I don't have a set schedule or anything for this but I feel as if I've been neglecting this blog.


So November was a month full of crafting for me. See I only do one formal craft fair a year (it was December 1st) and I've only done it a few years. I like the one I do because it's in a familiar environment and it's not too big but not tiny either. What I've done in the past has been mainly earrings but also some necklaces. I haven't sold a lot so most of my stock has been repeats from year to year though I always create at least a few new things every year (not earrings I already have way too many!). This year I made a few different color combos of a new necklace design I came up with while I was fiddling around with some pieces one night in November. My main addition this year was scarves.


Over the last 2 years a lot of interest has been expressed over my knitting. So after various things I decided to add them to my craft fair merchandise. I knitted two kinds of scarves. I kept my pattern simple (either knitting all stitches all rows or knitting whole row except last stitch I would slip) and used bulky or super bulky yarn that was machine washable and big needles. The first ones I did were all knitted out of Lion Brand Homespun yarn. I love the color variations in this yarn and the "painterly" effect they have! Each scarf is made with about half a skein of yarn including the fringe. They aren't that long and are skinny but they look great and can be worn in a variety of ways! I'm sure I'm going to be making more in the future! I finally managed to take a picture last night of the ones I have leftover from the craft fair:



There are 7 scarves in that picture. From Top to bottom there is 2 scarves in "Gothic", 1 scarf in "Painted Desert", 2 scarves in "Regency", and 2 scarves in "Barrington". I also had 1 scarf in "Waterfall" but it was sold at the craft fair (the only one I sold!) Here are some close ups so you can see the beautiful colors!


Then I knitted a few scarves using Loop & Threads Country Loom. For these I decided to to go ahead and knit the whole skein for each scarf (not including the fringe this time). Since the yarn was super bulky I used thicker needles. I love how these turned out and I'm getting lots of positive comments about them. The colors are lovely and I'm defiantly making more of these! 


Sorry these pictures are not as good but I couldn't fit the whole scarves when I tried to take pictures from above. I even stood on a chair. These scarves are longer than I am tall! From top to bottom the colors are: Merlot, Rich Blues, Snapdragon, Rich Granite, and Tapestry. Here is a closer look:


Now these scarves are for sale. All 5 of the long ones I currently have made are reserved though I'm not 100% about the order. It may be all 5 it may only be 1 or 2. If someone wants me to make one and orders in within the next week I can make them one in time for Christmas though I can only do a limited amount of these in total. Remember this is my hobby not my job so it doesn't have the highest priority for my attention and I insist on eating a few meals a day and sleeping at least a few hours a night. Most of my crafting is done after work, or on the weekends. The fastest I've knitted one of these is a 2-3 days but that's the shortest amount of time it has taken when I've had no other projects on my plate but with the Holidays I've already got a few projects in the works so my time is limited.  

Next I either will post more about craft fair stuff, pics of some of my jewelry creations, creating for the Holidays or my other knitting projects in the works. I'm not sure yet but I am determined!

****I still have a ton of jewelry in my stock that is ready to sell and because I still have such amount of stuff I'm reducing my prices!. Mainly earrings but some necklaces as well! Contact me if there is any interest (In person, FB, or one of my more frequently checked email addresses is preferred! To tell you the truth I don't check this email as often as my other ones, probably because it's the newest one). I'm completely open to art trades if there is any interest in that as well! ****

Saturday, September 11, 2010

HP House sets

Ok it's pretty well known among my friends that I am a Harry Potter fan. So of course when the first movie came out I noticed the house scarves and since I needed a project to do that wasn't school work I decided to try that. Now I've had some mixed results in my various efforts in creating house scarves. I never really followed a patten because it wasn't so much about making the perfect scarf. I'm not even really sure what it was about but I do know that I did need something to do that wasn't school related and I also needed something to do when I was watching TV or a movie. 


After a while I grew a bit more obsessed and decided got into costuming. I was determined to be Luna Lovegood for the book 6 release and decided that despite it being released in the summertime I was going to knit a Ravenclaw scarf. I started looking around online and I noticed a trend. People were making house sets consisting of a scarf, a hat, and a set of mittens or gloves. I also got into various color debates and the book colors vs movie colors for Ravenclaw. Eventually I found a wonderful pattern online at atypically.knit and I managed to get it finished in time but barely wore it and just carried it around in my bag because it just was much too hot to wear for more than a few minutes! 


After my success in knitting one house scarf I decided to knit one for each house. Each scarf has it's own little thing that is off about it but I love them all and I'm proud of the job I have done.
Gryffindor, Book Colors Ravenclaw, Slytherin, & Hufflepuff


While knitting my house scarves I thought why not knit my own house sets? Since I didn't wear a lot of knitted beanie hats I decided to knit ear warmer headbands and instead of mittens or gloves I decided on wrist warmers or fingerless gloves. 


I found  wonderful pattern via Ravelry for a double sided headband using double siding knitting. After a few bad attempts which were promptly taken apart I managed to get that finished as well. 




Then came the wrist warmers or fingerless gloves. I spent quite a while trying to find the right sort of pattern but the best designs that I found all required double pointed needles which have always seemed sort of intimidating to me. After asking the hp knitting LJ community I was greatly encouraged to try using DPNs and much to my delight and surprise I figure it out without too many problems. With that problem taken care of I decided on a pattern I found in Leaky Crafts and I think they turned out beautifully!
Now I finally had my own house sets!
Gryffindor:
Book Colors Ravenclaw:
Hufflepuff:


Slytherin:


And those are my HP house sets. If there are any questions about what type or color of yarn I used, links to the patterns I used, or any questions just leave me a comment!