Taking a break from craft fairs

Taking a break!

Over the past 2 yrs I've been doing a craft fair each month except to January, August and December, so as you can imagine this plus working full time has left me exhausted.

Taking stock 

After doing 20 craft fairs with virtually only weeks in between I was rapidly running out of stock, and so I took them momentous decision to take a year off from craft fairs, as I was rushing to make new items and really not enjoying knitting anymore.

So I've been looking for inspiration on the internet, and also I decided to  look at what were my best sellers and redesign a few items and look at designing some new knitwear.

Having a large stock of yarn I wanted to make more colourful knitwear, and I've been looking at updating some of my patterns adding stripes and motifs, and using different stitches, I rather like the double rib as this makes a super cuddly jumper without the bulk of chunky yarn on little babies, and it's also stretchy for longer wear. !!

I particularly like autumn  colours, golds, oranges, reds, greens, purple so I'm thinking of making this one of my jumpers, with think stripes on each colour, at #Woolwarehouse they have a large supply of beautiful yards as well as buttons.

Looking through my stash of yarns I found some rainbow yarns I'd forgotten I had, these are  #Paton, and I've also found yarn from #Stylecraft and #knitsirdar, and my imagination took off at a fair sped, I could see lovely dresses, tops and legging for when those dark winter days need cheering up.

I also have a large range of pastel yarns from #JamesCBrett, #knitsirdar and #stylecraft, which I'm going to use to make lovely summery knitwear to match with the dresses I want to make, and I want to try hand and machine smocking. So watch this space.

Great Garnetts farmers market 

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I always look forward to doing these markets, they are the 2nd Saturday each month except January, August and December.  Julie the owner rally does a good job with the advertising and lots of people attend there are two barns each side of the yard, one is for the crafts and the other is for food and drink.

This is my stall.  

The Christmas one which is in November is always busy with the extra added bonus of live music and carols.

Photography Lessons

Since I last posted, I've been giving a lot of thought to the way I photograph my items for sale.  It's really important to have excellent photos of clothes as the customer can't get to feel, or see the clothes before they are purchased with online selling.  I've got some software I've been playing with, but I don't think that will make up for a natural lack of talent!  Luckily, I have a very talented sister in law and Im going to ask for her advice tomorrow.  Hopefully, I will have some better photos to share next time around!

One picture I was pleased with was this one:

I thought it showed the actual colours of the jumper nicely - which Ive been really struggling with, with flash and shadows getting involved!

I also liked this one:

 I was trying to get creative, and think of different ways to show off the blanket!

Our First Craft Fair!

After an eventful Christmas, we are now back to usual.  We've received the details for the craft fair we will be attending, I've attached the flyer below.  We are very excited, though there is still a lot of work to do.  We had a practise run at our table display today, and we are pleased with what we have decided on so far.  We have also got some new items which we will be offering for sale for the first time at the fair, so if you are nearby, drop in and say hello!  We will be really pleased to meet you.

A Big Step!

Well, we've finally taken the plunge and applied for a craft fair.  And we've been accepted!  I'm sooo excited about it, but at the same time, a little apprehensive.  It will be great to get out there and meet customers, but have we got enough items to sell!  I'm sure we will be ready by Feb and we are planning to have a few practice runs at designing our table.  We are hoping to be able to show for the first time a few new designs and products too!  So all in all, there's much work to be done.  We've got so many things to do and decide on, I'd better get going!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

With all the Christmas adverts on the tv the thoughts of all at Sunshine Baby Crafts have turned rather festive. It has set us to looking at what little knitted toys we can make at this time of year- Debbie used to make us knitted dollies each Christmas and we both still have our Snowman dollies, although 20 years on and my Snowman has no fluff in his neck where I dragged him about! I am looking forward to seeing Louise's crochet dog when he is finished, he will be an excellent addition to our growing teddy and dolly selection.

As readers will know we recently went on holiday to Norfolk and purchased some pretty new materials for our new designs. A new project that we are trying to get off the ground is bandana bibs for toddlers, and we have some fun and bright Christmas designs that we hope to get on our website soon.

We are currently working on a number of orders for different customers and friends but have been able to complete a selection of beautiful snuggly cot blankets, perfect for the current weather. They are so pretty and warm that we just love them!

As ever please take a look at our website and our Facebook page in order see our newest products!

Winter product launch

I just wanted to blog to let everyone know that we are launching our winter collection in the next few days.  We’ve been busy over the last few weeks and months designing new items, and we are pleased with what we have to offer and hope you are too!

We have blankets, jumpers, hats, hoodies, vests, and cardigans – all for babies up to a year old.  We have also worked on a range for tiny babies, so please keep checking our shop for new items!

http://sunshinebabycrafts.folksy.com