I had fallen in love with knitting, and when all of the Christmas gifts had been knit, I felt lost. I searched for a useful application for my new found craft, other than for a few personal home goods. I mean, really, how many towels and washcloths does one household need? Not to mention scarves. Along my search, I discovered change pouches. I made several, experimented a bit, and decided to put them up on etsy in an attempt to sell them. I figured that if they sold I would make some more. Well, they didn't sell and it had been nearly a month. And, I had only had one buyer inquiry. It was regarding the strawberry. The woman was wondering if the piece could pass for a radish and, if not, how could one make it look more like a radish. I promptly responded to her; I even offered to knit up a radish and post it just for her to purchase, but I never got any response. That person had a very specific item in mind; too bad I chose to knit a strawberry over a radish. I should have known. I just never would have guessed that someone would want a smelly, spicy veggie pouch over a sweet, juicy fruit pouch. Live and Learn.
I can't say that I was surprised about the lack of sales- there really is nothing noteworthy or original about any of the pieces. Yes, they are all handmade, yes they are handmade in the USA, but other than that, they are just your typical change purse....although, the buttons are vintage and the one change purse looks like a strawberry....but really, a person would have to be looking for something very specific in order to make any of these knit pieces to look more appealing than all the rest for sale out there in cyberspace. This brings me to the issue of cost. The materials themselves are very cheap, but the time it takes to knit up even a small piece, seam it up and put on the finishing touches is just not worth it. Time is money and I don't think people would be willing to pay what even a small hand knit piece would actually cost at $15 an hour plus materials. This also brings up the competition. I found out very quickly by doing some searches, that people are willing to stoop to unbelievable lows when it comes to pricing....I'm talking cheaper than its made-in-china twin. I refuse to sell something that I crafted with my own two hands for $5 when it took me 2-3 hours to complete. Notice I didn't even mention material costs as a factor-- that's because the cost to make that one small change pouch is probably not even one cent when you start to add up all of the other items you've made with the same set of materials. But, when you buy a handmade product, you are paying for the time and labor that went into making that piece, with the added bonus that the materials are probably of higher quality than the piece made by the machine or low-wage earning, probably maltreated/abused worker.
After I thought about all of this, I really decreased the amount of time I spent knitting altogether. I am thankful for that revelation, because my knitting habit was getting a bit out of hand. I would spend hours knitting, bringing the project everywhere. I would even knit in the car during the 10 minute ride from my home to my parent's. What the hell. I'll confess. I even once did it walking to the elevator, waiting for the elevator, and riding that elevator to the 18th floor, to where my mother-in-law lives. I'll admit, I may have had a problem. I wouldn't even watch our "TV". AJ would put on The Office or even a movie, and I would simply ignore it, knitting one row after another, even if I had told AJ "just one more row" 10 rows back. It got to the point where AJ would talk to me and get frustrated, because, although I was hearing him, I was too absorbed to respond in any coherent way...nor did I really want to at that moment in time-- it was like being on a drug. When I would knit, it felt as if nothing else had to exist if I didn't want it to. Time did not exist. Several minutes in knitting time would sometimes be an hour in real time and an hour would be six hours. It was insane.
I hopped off of the knitting train and right onto the cooking and party planning train. I am already a pretty avid cooker, but with knitting on the back burner, I decided to step it up a notch because cooking food for my family by itself just wasn't cutting it for my standards. I decided to start keeping a Log of the food I prepared. It is basically a journal about the inspiration or recipe, the ingredients, preparation, and finished meal or food creation, with photos accompanying many of the entries. That log-keeping business really sets the standards higher in the kitchen. Now, I prepare and cook the food, do some cleaning while the food is not wanting for my attention and photograph the food at various stages of the cooking process.
For the last 3 weeks of January, I was also busy planning for Le Foo's birthday celebration, which I already posted about. I printed invitations that I designed using pages (Mac's version of Word). That gave me the idea to design my own thank you cards as well. Those can be found in an earlier post. They turned out great, and inspired me to start card-making on a more serious level. I went out and stocked up on some supplies that I thought I would like to add to my supply of scrapbooking items (which can thankfully double as card-making items). Then I just dove right in; lost and happy, amidst all of the paper, embellishments, and planning. Although, I did have this lingering sense of guilt in regards to my abandoned knitting habit. But I confirmed to myself, and to AJ, that I would still knit, but only for personal use and for gifts. The other day I whipped up a batch of cards that included the use of yarn and paper flowers, held together with some shiny little brads.
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| This was the first of two sets. By the second set, I officially named them FLORAL POP CARDS. |
When I finished these, I worked on a second set that were collage based.
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| oh so country sheek |
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| Knit Flower Card by Jersey's Freshest |
So, now, whenever I'm feeling guilty about not knitting, I will just make up another knit flower card and all will be well in my world again.
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