Arts In Motion Crochet/Knit Booth

Hello all! I mentioned in my last blog post that I would be displaying my amigurumi at an event put on by my church last night. I wanted to tell you all about it today with pictures and even a short video!


This was the first crochet and knitting table at Bethel Church's Arts In Motion event! After contacting the coordinator and running it by the board it was a go! Myself and another crochet/knitter, Amanda, we were able to show off the beautiful world of our yarn craft! This was my very first event in displaying my amigurumi.

What did I display? Mostly things I had lying around the house and items that were my daughters. Particularly the amigurumi Totoro, Jiji, Little Miss Strawberry doll and Turtle with her babies were the most picked up and looked at. The most rewarding apart was seeing the same children return to the booth and gaze at the toys and play with them. The Turtle Mommy was definitely the most liked!

While sitting at the booth I talked with Amanda and learned some wonderful things from her. For example, she spins her own yarn from wool on a spinning wheel! Isn't that amazing? She likes to use the yarn for baby items not only because it's absorbent but also because it's organic. Here is a link to her etsy site! ShilohDesigns. She also mentioned a local handmade group on Facebook I should look into. Apparently they have a sort of craft fair in the park? It sounds very cool! After this event I am really excited to go to more.  Here you can see a short video of the booth I am at and the event.

While at the event a lot of people were asking about classes or hands on teaching. Unfortunately I do not have the time to do hands on classes, but it got me thinking. People want to learn how to crochet but also want instruction on how to do it. I asked myself, "How can I help and stay within my means of free time?" Well, I came up with an idea that isn't too out of my league. But don't get out of your seat or anything, it isn't a colossal monument. I was thinking it would be good to do short videos on the basics. Now I remember awhile back some of my readers asking for this, but I hadn't really thought about how I would go about doing these videos then. Now that I have a better idea, you'll be seeing these videos soon!

As far as a selling standpoint goes, here is what I have personally realized... Due to the fact that most of us live in a consumer world where everything is manufactured, especially toys, people are use to cheap prices. It's practically being integrated into a shoppers D.N.A. So when it comes to handmade items, it is quite a bit of work to stop and think about what goes into the item being made and why it costs so much.  Solution? Well, there are two things a seller can do. The first, stay true to the idea you pay what you get for and charge the reasonable price everyone else is charging for that handmade item, or, bite the bullet. What I mean by biting the bullet is if you aren't selling anything, it might be better to except $5 an hour for your work and make some money rather than none. 

Another idea I had was based on berrysprite's method of selling. The things she sells are small and can be made fast. She has been selling her things for awhile and is popular enough to ask for regular prices compared to dirt cheap. My suggestion (and I am going to take my own advice here on out) is to make things that are no bigger than 4-5 inches that have little detail work and take you about an hour to make. If you are a beginner and it takes you longer it is good to take into consideration it will go faster in the future and selling it by size rather than hourly wage is better. I would say most people would by things that are 4 inches big for $5. 

Depending on the quality and detail, items that are 5 inches or a little bigger could be sold for $8-15. So if it took you lets say 6 hours to make 6 little items and you sold them for $5 each, you'd earn $30 rather than making one sale for $10 or $15. I think it's always going to be tough in the beginning with selling crochet or knit items, but creating a business is hard work in the beginning. Once you get the hang of things and people recognize your work, things get easier. What's most important is why you are doing it. Your passion has to outweigh how much money you make in my opinion.

The Crochet/Knitting Booth. And yes, that is my crochet rug from my living room on the floor.

Thanks for reading!