It's that time of year when blog posts are full of subtle and hopefully misleading images of gifts. Well, I'm not really any better in that regard.
This year I knit a few gifts and sewed another one.
So, knitting. I have an empty Etsy store. It's been empty for a while, because crafting is still more of a me craft than a for others craft. There is nothing wrong with this, but it doesn't make for a full or an interesting store. Maybe someday this will change, but until then I will happily pay other makers for the awesome things they produce and pay their prices gladly.
If you follow a maker on Twitter or Instagram, then you will see this frenetic period when handmade sells best. The Season (it deserves the capitals) dictates hours, crazy hours, in their studios trying to create enough products in enough variety and enough colors so they can have both a successful show and still have stock for their Etsy stores, wholesale accounts, etc. When you or I are going out to a holiday party, they are home, nursing their sore hands, arms and back, or they are creating even more products, because while selling out of product is ideal, it is only ideal if the show is over. Selling out in the first hour or two of a top seller means you didn't make enough.
So, I have sold exactly one thing in my Etsy store. It's not enough to know if what I'm making has any value or is sellable at all. My gut feeling is that there is a level of simple that is too, well, simple, and that other people, especially makers, will just not buy. They will look at it and go, "I can make that" and not think the corresponding thought, "But I won't." Maybe 2013 will be the year I finally give up my crafting for myself ways and knit and sew (I'm getting better, so it is conceivable that I could sew and sell something that wouldn't make me think of cat barf) for the shop. Because it would be nice if my crafting at least paid for itself, even if it didn't pay the bills.
That said, there are a few things I can see making. The thing on the side is one. I obviously have to work on a few techniques, but it is cute and it is a gift thus the bizaaro land photo that shows nearly nothing.
In bizaaro land, how much pattern modification would you say you need before you can call it your own design? I changed edge treatments and gauge, adding some decoration. I want it to be enough, but my gut feeling is no.
Of course, there are some items, like socks, where the basic pattern is so universal that even if you make it from a book, you could have gotten the pattern from a dozen books, even more websites or from your grandmother. You can make alterations or change the pattern and make it your own, but it is still wonderful without those changes.
Obviously I've been doing more thinking than knitting lately. Hopefully that will change in the upcoming year. Or if I don't change that, hopefully I'll at least use more of the photos my husband takes for me and post them online.
While I am at it, I will miraculously lose 20 pounds and still be able to bake tons of delicious desserts and make extra tasty ice cream. All without needing to go to the gym. And if wishes were pies, I'd be a sphere!
Well, if I don't get the other round of teaser pony photos up before Crimbo, happy holidays!
