Business needs looking at

I delivered my two wrist warmers to In.cube8tr, including this beautiful pair. I'm enjoying making these and I hope they're successful.

Unfortunately, there have been no sales and I need to examine what might be happening. So I've come up with the following:

1. I'm competing with beautifully packaged items, especially the jewellery. Good packaging can encourage gift giving as well as highlighting the product.

2. I need to look at what has actually sold well. The silk scarves keep moving, the tri-scarf has sold quickly, the wrist warmers, despite few sales, have moved well. They're new and I've made only a few.

3. My art weaving needs to find its own home.

Obviously more thinking is required, but I'll work on that for the next change at In.cube8tr.

More wrist warmers

More wristies....these use a technique that I've just learnt (thanks Catherine) of casting on then casting off, which gives the little, or long, dangly thing a cute little twist.

It is all in the twist, as I keep telling people at the moment. Twist holds fibres together, makes them soft or strong and gives them purpose.

One interesting aspect of twist is whether, as you knit, you twist or untwist the yarn. This can be important. For instance, you probably want more twist in the cast-on, cast-off edge, as it will be stronger.

My investigations, so far, have also shown that twisting at the edges makes them neater. I don't know how much this depends on your knitting style. I knit continental, but even that I think I knit oddly. One thing I do know is that if I do a knit stitch, I twist a 'S' plyed yarn.

See, it's all in the twist.

Fingerless mittens

I thought I would make some fingerless mittens and wristies to go with my hats. It is interesting how fast I can turn these out now without having to think too much.

However, I am really happy with the third pair that I made. Well half made, I've only done one and haven't sewn on any buttons. Just giving you a look at the possibilities. These might be useful as you don't have to knit in the round, just make a square and sew on the buttons.

Cuffs for me

It's a weird week. I do seem to be pre-occupied by the idea that I might not sell anything on Sunday. This is stifling what should be a week of excited and productive frenzy!

Anyway, in such a state, I thought I'd make something for myself. So I made these cuffs, which are a bit cute and I edged my unfeltable scarf with some crochet, just to straighten it a bit, and I'm going to wear them Sunday.

This is the problem with having only one market, if you don't have much success, it's a whole month till the next one.....wish me luck!

More Wrist warmers

I'm feeling inspired again, so I've created a couple of more wristies. One's a little too Christmassy for my liking, but who knows.

The cuff uses a mixture of black commercial yarn from Littlewood fleece...so it's good, and, my handspun fibre sandwich yarn. It's basically all rib.

The only thing I'm concerned about is the price I need to charge. As I haven't sold any yet, this is still an unanswerable question. I guess, let's see what winter brings.

What's next?

Yesterdays market wasn't very good...plenty of people...spending at other peoples stalls. I sold one scarf which didn't cover the cost of the stall. Just feel like I must keep going, but right now I don't know what to do. Plenty of lovely comments, no money.

I did manage to do another cuff. Maybe I should do a whole series and get a box at Incube8r?

Another wrist warmer

I had a bit of play yesterday, using Bjork's own 'wrist warmer' as inspiration. Didn't quite reach her heights and wasn't quite what I was after, but a pleasing effect anyway.

I was using double crochet, and when I wanted a frill just did two in every one for a couple of rows. Having done this in such a way that I could still use the stitch, I went back and continued the base. Now I just have to do the other one!

I'm having my photo taken for the 'Banner' as a showcase artist for the 9x5 market. The Banner is the council produced newsletter that goes to every household. I hate having my photo taken, but it's in a good cause.

My beginner spinners are coming along nicely.

A lovely day for a playdate

Yesterday, with friends, food, books and textiles we spent yesterday lunch and afternoon, talking, laughing, eating, thinking and of course, there were plenty of textiles. What a great way to spend the day. Thanks Tammie, especially for the sheep!

Unfortunately, Sunday wasn't so successful. Again, I didn't sell anything. From an overall point of view, whilst not alot of people came to the market, it was enough to think that you could build on it. I tried my new line of 'wrist warmers'. I do need to find a more interesting way of displaying them, maybe another tube or two?

Having abandoned my double knitting scarf, I've started a black and grey scarf, inspired by 'Knitting New Scarves'. Using the idea of picking up stitches down the centre of garter stitch rectangles/squares as a starting point, I decided I didn't want to make different sizes and then link them together, and sewing in ends(!), so instead of casting off for each square, I left the last stitch, picked up the stitches from that rectangle and cast of extra stitches, knit that as before, then using the last stitch of the previous colour, used that as the first stitch in the pickup. I quite like the effect and there are many more possibilities in this technique.